I’ve been thinking all along that Washington is going about the “bailouts” of the banking industries and the auto industries completely unfair. Whether you are for or against the bailouts of either sector, I think that should be one thing you can agree with. Banks have received money numerous times, CEOs still intact, wasting millions of taxpayer money in bogus bonuses, etc., while the auto industries are being treated in a completely different manner.
Today Rick Wagoner (CEO of GM) was asked to step down, a man that worked his way from the bottom to the top, working for $1/yr salary, and obviously wanting to see General Motors succeed. He sat in front of Congress for hours getting grilled when he could have easily stepped down. That is a man that wasn’t there just for the pay, but one that wanted to see a turnaround in his company to become a viable company once again. While the CEOs of Citi, and others, are still being paid their handsome salaries and are no where near being profitable businesses. This doesn’t set well with me.
I’ve said a few times before that I “feel like I haven’t slept at all,” but after doing my first all-nighter and operating for about 36 hours, most of which was working, with absolutely no sleep at all, I know exactly what that expression is supposed to feel like.
Tuesday I worked my regular 8:30-5:00, and had already agreed to take the night and do a job for my brother that was nearing it’s deadline. We’ve done this a few times before, and while it isn’t ideal, you have to do what you have to do. We had about a 2 hour drive to the job in Newnan, Georgia and got started right away. Everything went smooth and we were packed back up and ready to head home at 4:00AM. Before leaving, we went into a convienient store to get a drink, and the casheir said “have a good morning…or night.” And there all that time I thought it was just me that was confused what you say at that time of night..or morning.
I’m giving my parents a hand and am going to start doing the book-keeping for my dad’s work. For the past 20+ years, they’ve always done everything on paper, and since I’m going to be doing them, I’m making the transition over to doing it all electronically in QuickBooks. The plan is to finish this first quarter on paper while entering everything from Jan 1st up until that point in QuickBooks to get caught up, and then start doing it from there on out solely in the program. I already have a good understanding of doing the book-keeping, and am actually looking forward to the completed transition and doing it all myself.
On our way back from Decatur, Alabama yesterday evening, we came across a Chevrolet dealership that had numerous Corvettes. Among them, this beauty, a Velocity Yellow Z06 and a red one just like it sitting beside it. It’s a 2009 model, and is the first one I’ve seen in person with the new wheel style. In my opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful cars out today. Our local dealership hardly ever has a Corvette, much less a Z06. I’d love to test drive one just for the fun of it; it’d be a blast!
Yesterday was officially the first day of Spring, and the trees are wasting no time. Here’s a closeup of the Bradford Pear tree in our yard. I wanted to take a shot of one of the ones up in Loudon, Tennessee while we were up there, but didn’t have a chance. Things up there are a little bit behind, so their trees had just the blooms and no leaves yet. It’s so nice to see things become more colorful and lively out, not to mention nice and warm.
I’m out of town working for my brother again this week, and spending a majority of it up in Loudon, Tennessee. As soon as we get a job done there, we’ll probably be doing a bit of work in Knoxville, and then head towards middle Georgia.
Anyways back to the point of this post, to show how foggy it was this morning when we left the hotel. This was even after the sun had burnt some of it off. And what you don’t get to experience through the picture, the nasty thick smell of the mushroom plant a mile or so down the road, ugh!
Today at work, my brother and I were asked to go and GPS some new bike trails that are open to the public. My supervisor is a mountain biker, and wants us to create some maps showing the different trails that are in Raisin Woods, which currently contains 4 different trails that total about 5 miles.
This really brought back the feeling of a project that we did back in the summer of 2003. We had the task of hiking and GPSing all of the hiking trails in our area, most of which were in the National Forest.
Back in 2003, I was taking some classes at the local college, so I only worked a few hours a day except for friday, which was a full day. A coworker of ours, Ben, who is now retired, would do all of the legwork of locating the trails, calling and finding out about them, pretty much doing all of the planning on topographic maps to get us out there and going. He would drive us to the trailhead, help us get everything hooked up and working, and see that we were off to a good start. Usually he would even hike with us for a while because he enjoyed it as well and his added company was nice, but would have to turn back at some point to get the car so that he could pick us up at the end of the planned hike. So hiking was the friday thing for a few months, and we totalled ~93 miles worth of trails. We had a blast doing that project and really saw alot of neat things out there.
The past few days here have been wonderful outside — mid 70s and mostly sunny. I usually like it hot outside, but I must say that the mid 70s range is the most comfortable. Having these nice warm days, especially over the weekend, allowed me to get my bike out for the first real enjoyable ride of the year. I parked it nearing an oil change, so it took just a few days of riding to hit that milestone.
I’ve had it for right around 2 years now, and have clocked 8k miles on it. That seems like quite a bit for a bike, but I also ride it pointlessly around for the fun of it, and when weather permits, it’s my main transportation to work when it’s warm out. I bought it used with a little over 900 miles on it. My maintenance schedule is a little off from what the manual calls for, because I was told that it had the break in service already done before I got it, but I didn’t really want to take their word on it.
How cool is this! I saw one at someone’s house today and thought it was awesome.
A slow friday at work makes me really wish that I at least had an office with a window. Below is a shot of what I see if I look out of my office door. Not much of a view at all, is it? I see only a tiny glimpse of the outside through another office’s window, but it’s enough to at least give me an idea of what the weather is like.
If you wait long enough people will surprise and impress you. When you’re frustrated with people, when you’re angry, it may be because you haven’t given them enough time. In the end, people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting. It will come out.
— , My Last Lecture
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