How Hard To Get Back Into The Swing Of Things

After a two week vacation from work it is now time for me to get back into the swing of things, to get back into my regular routine.

Waking up again at 6:30 for work instead of sleeping in until 8 – 8:30, packing lunches instead of reading the news and casually drinking my tea, slowly starting my day instead of rushing to get all I need to get done into the day, I mean yikes! 

It is amazing how quickly one can all out of a regular routine and yet it will take longer to get back into the regular routine again. 

But what did I really do during the holidays?  Well, besides Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, visiting families and friends, New Years Eve and New Years Day there was my kids school holiday events, my daughter’s birthday, Eagles games, putting together the kids toys they got from Christmas, and taking down the Christmas decorations. 

What did I really want to do while off?  Catch up on my Video Game playing!  I did not get time to do much of that.

It’s a new year but the same old life.  Only the date has changed.  Time to climb back onto that horse and ride into the routine that is my life.

Happy New Year Everyone.  I hope you all a merry and prosperous year.

Hats Off!

I remember, while I was growing up, getting a lot of life’s lessons from my parents and grandparents.  They made it known that it was the small but important stuff that matters greatly in the world.  And now I am in a stage where I am trying to instill the same things into my kids and I am beginning to wonder if they even matter or relevant any more.

It was always drilled into me that I should hold the door open for people.  Whether I am coming or going, hold the door for the person behind you or in front of you.  With the automatic doors that are in place at most public places today does this even matter?  Or is it because of these doors is this why so many people have forgotten this small but important rule of manners?

In the waiting rooms, or on buses, or just waiting in general and a sick, elderly or pregnant person comes in I was always instructed to get up and offer my seat to them.  Today, it seems like we live in a first come first serve world.  Rare is it that I see anyone offer their seat.  Often times I see families sitting in seats and someone that clearly needs to sit enters and no one gets up, the parents don’t instruct the kids to get up, nothing.

Hats!  When did hats become acceptable to wear indoors?  I was always told that hats came off when you enter a building.  Now I see them being worn all the time.  In malls, in movie theaters, in restaurants.  In Restaurants!  At The Table!!!!!  My dad or grandfather would knock my hat off my body, with my head still in it, if I sat at the table to eat with my hat on.  They would knock my head and hat off my body and throw it across the room and into the trash can!  They would never let me near the table to begin with.

Now it seems that all these simple forms of ediqutte are no longer practiced.  It makes it hard as a parent to raise kids to mind these rules when no one else practices.  But, damnit, I am going to anyway.  I am going to make sure that these manners don’t die or disappear.  Because it is the little things that affect us all.

People are Stranger When You’re a Stranger

I have been doing a lot of traveling into New York City for work again lately.  I have been taking the train because my work does not want to spend the money on hotel stays.  I am not complaining.  I am glad to have a job.  But it has given me time to spend in train terminals and people watch.

You can people watch in bus terminals, airports, or anywhere else there is a gathering of people.  But with traveling people I have noticed that nearly everyone falls into one of the classes of people I will list below. 

• The Napper – The napper will close their eyes and fall asleep while they are waiting.  Sometimes I envy the Napper because they can fall asleep in all the noise, hustle and bustle that is around them.  And if you are really lucky, you can have a napper that is a loud snorer. 
• The Pacer – These folks will just keep moving and can not sit still.  They will just pace in a circle or around the terminal.  Sure, they will stop and read advertisements hanging on the wall or read the arrivals and departures but they don’t stay rooted for long.  They just have to keep moving.
• Social Butterfly – They travel alone usually and have a strong need to talk to anyone that will give them the time and listen.  They will scan a room and hone in on one or two people and strike up a conversation about anything.  “Crazy weather we’re having” “How about those (insert favorite sports team here)”.
• Loud Phone Talkers – This type likes to sound important because they are on the phone.  They will talk loudly so that we can all hear their end of the conversation because they have a need to feel special.  Basically, they are telling everyone “Look at me!!! I’m on the phone!”  Big fracking whoop-de-doo!
• The Bible Reader – I guess that they are looking for  “The Lord will not kill you riding the train/plane or bus if you read me” passage.  There is always a Bible reader around.  This makes me feel safe. 
• The Always Working Worker – This person is always on his laptop, always reading and sending email, scanning spreadsheets, and working nonstop.  They just work and work and work.  All work and no play.
• The Paper Reader – All they do is read the paper.  Cover to cover.  Page by Page.  Completely reading every column, every article and every word.  Hell, if they are waiting long enough they will read each and every classified.  These people are devoted to the paper.
• The Disgusted  – Disgusted at everything.  Disgusted at waiting, disgusted because they can’t find a spot to sit, disgusted at the loud phone talker and the napper that is snoring loudly, just disgusted.  Nothing could make them happy.
• Lost Soul – They are just lost.  No clue what to do or where to go.  They just walk in a circle looking lost.  They are not to be confused with the Pacer.

So there you have it.  The different types of people you will find in a busy terminal waiting for their ride to show up.  Which one are you?

And Then Suddenly, Out of the Blue, He Reappears

Ramblings is back.  He is posting.  He is alive.

I have taken a break and have not done any posting or writings in a while and when I checked in on this blog I discovered in my stats that there are still some folks that are checking in. 

I was surprised to see that I am steadily getting or averaging 30 views a day.  I am sure that my regular readers, all 5 of them, left this blog a while ago.  So who is left looking?

I have been feeling a little guilty that I have not posted.  Life and other obligations have taken me away from this blog.  I am hoping to get back into a regular posting habit.  I am not going to promise everyday but at least twice a week.

So what have I been doing?  My forums, TalkPa.net, TalkDelaware.com and TalkPhillySports.com are all growing and at the same time they are very time consuming.  It takes a lot to grow forums.  If you get a chance, stop by and check them out.  I am on there as Green Lantern.

I finished my kitchen.  I mentioned back in the summer that I was taking on the project and it is finally over.  It has taken months to complete but I am very pleased at how it turned out.   

Phillies win the World Series!  Holy Cow!  This city celebrated this event in fine Philly style.  Estimates of the crowd, at the parade, was at 3 million and I was one of them. 

I’ve been in New York City and Long Island every few weeks for the past few months.  I kind of thought that I would have put that work behind me but it seems that I am still needed there. 

I have not had any Donnaisms lately.  I have not had a chance to really be around here.  But holidays are coming and I am sure we will have a few gems of wisdom from her soon. 

I will be posting.  I will be writing and getting my blogging feet under me.  

I’ve been Idle too long.  It is time to get Rambling going again.

 

 

She’s A Thinker! And A Stinker

I was driving in the car with my family on Sunday morning and Elvis was on the radio. 

For the record, my wife hates any music that was not released before 1980 so to even have Elvis playing was a torture for her and one that I relished in giving.  There is a local oldies station that plays Elvis on Sunday mornings that I will sometimes tune into just because I know the wife hates it. 

We, my wife and I, also agreed to a rule back when we were dating called Drivers Rule.  The rule is that the driver gets to pick the music because the last thing you need is a distracted driver because of bad music playing.

Sunday morning I wanted to listen to Elvis.  This lead to a discussion with my 9 year old daughter about who Elvis was and how he impacted music.  I told her that in the old days, dancing on stage to music was not allowed and Elvis liked to dance, to sway his hips and gyrate to the music as he played and sang his hits.  Basically, he broke the rules to change the rules.

As soon as I said that I knew that with my daughter it was the wrong thing to say. 

My daughter said nothing for the longest time.  I could tell she was thinking and processing what I just said.  I was hoping, that maybe she didn’t get what I had said and it didn’t impact her like I thought it would. 

I was wrong.

“So, if I chew gum at school all the time when we are not supposed to I might be able to get the rules changed so that we can chew gum?” 

Driving Rules or not, I think I just lost my chances to listen to Elvis on Sunday Mornings.

Lots to do

Folks,

I appreciate you all checking in and wondering about where I have been. 

I have been so nuts lately.  I am still working on remodeling my kitchen.  I am working very hard on growing my forum on TalkPa.net  and I am on staff at 2 others.  My daughter now volunteers twice a week at the local Petsmart store helping with Forgotten Kittens, kids have started back school, my work travel has increased, my workload has increased, I’ve been exercising more, been going to NASCAR races like Richmond, Dover, Bristol and quite frankly I just have not had much time to blog. 

If you are on my blogroll, I am checking in on your blogs even though I might not comment. 

I am sorry that I let you all down.  It is just that I am in a stretch of being overwhelmed with a lot of other things. 

I’ll be back.  I have a lot of scraps of papers with notes on them with things to write about.  I just have not had the time to do it.

Don’t Mess With The Bull Son! You’ll Get The Horns!

When I am not traveling for work I am working in my office in the suburbs of Philly.  Where I work, because of my travel, I was never really part of the “group”.  But lately that has been changing.  I have been starting to be drug into the pranks and practical jokes that the others have been involved in.

The pranks are somewhat tame, for example, buying instant lottery tickets that claim you won huge sums of cash, jumping out of closets to scare someone, locking someone in the bathroom with bungee cords, etc….

But when you mess with me I will take it to the next level. 

They have now messed with me.  Yesterday they covered my car, which I park on the lot and close to the main road, with for sale signs and my phone number.  Not a bad prank but now it is my turn.

I have had tons of time to plot and plan on my pranks back before they even messed with me.  Yesterday I put plan one into play.  The main person involved with the for sale prank came out to find her car also covered in for sale signs and wrapped up in shrink wrap.  Lots of shrink wrap.  A whole roll of shrink wrap.

For those that don’t know what shrink wrap is, it is like large industrial sized clear plastic wrap.  We use it to wrap up pallets of merchandise to be shipped on trucks so that it does not shift on the pallet during shipping.

Other employees and a few customers saw the wrapped car and found it very funny but the real laughter began when she went out to the parking lot and found her car completely wrapped up and encapsulated in the shrink wrap.  Even she laughed.

Going through my head was that ditty that goes “What ever you can do I can do better!!!!”

You betchya @$$ I can!

As I was leaving work she says – It’s on now!

I certainly hope so.

What ever you can do I can do better!

Thanks For The Ride!

I know I promised a post everyday this week and I blew it.  I got so absorbed in my regular life that I forgot to post.  Sorry about that. 

So now on to the continuing saga of the Mad Man in Chincoteague…..

In Chincoteague, you can easily walk to almost anywhere.  Main Street and Maddox Blvd are the main streets in town and are for the most part walker friendly. 

I say most part because I almost got run over.

I was walking from the carnival grounds to the closest ATM and on the way back a guy was pulling out of a side street without looking.  I was, at this point, in front of his car and he never stopped.  He kept pulling out even as I was clinging on to his hood. 

So there I was facing the car, leaning over his hood, yelling YO!  YO!  YOooooo!!!!!! and the guy keeps pulling out into the street and never slows, stops or looks at me. 

It was not until I pounded down hard with my fist into the hood of his car before he even acknowledged my presence.  He had the nerve to ask what I was doing.  Oh, nothing, just wanted to get a closer look at the bird shit on the hood of your car in this darkness of night you big dope. 

He then had the nerve to complain about the dent I put into his hood.  Actually, I was proud of the dent.  I was proud that I could dent the hood of the car with such force while trying to hold myself up on his hood and not get run over at the same time.

Anyway, after the gentleman was kind enough to drop me off into the street and allow me to move out of the way of his motor vehicle, I proceeded to let him know what I thought of him and wished him a good night.  He also wished me a most pleasant evening and exchanged hand gestures. 

If that was the only bad experience that I had on vacation I can live with that.  And in reality, this is outside of the norm on the island.  The island is a very quiet and peaceful place.  Incidents like the one I mentioned above are rare, at least from my experience.

Where To Begin?!?

I am back from my vacation in Chincoteague Virginia and I am trying hard to get back into the swing of things.  I am back at work, checking my emails, checking my forums and looking at the few new projects that I have to begin. 

I am proud of myself for I have not checked my work emails at all while on vacation.  I usually check once or twice on vacation but I resisted the urge to check email.  Do I rock or what?

The weather was excellent, the water of the ocean was a little colder than normal for this time of year but it was tolerable, the kids were behaved, and it was one of the best vacations I have had in a long while. 

Chincoteague has to be my favorite vacation spot.  It is not fancy or built up which is why I like it so much.  Even at it’s busiest, Pony Penning, it is still much more quiet than the Jersey Shore or Ocean City Maryland.  One day I will have a house down there.  One day I will spend more than 2 weeks a year down there.  One day, one day…..

I have a lot of interesting stories to blog about but at this moment I have so much work to get to.  I will post every day this week to relate the interesting and funny events that happened.  From the pony swim to the beach, to my sister in law to actually having a Big Mac.  I will report on it all this week.

In the meantime, I have work and personal emails to catch up on, work to do, forums to catch up on, a kitchen to finish, etc……… 

Sometimes it does not pay to go away!

I’ve Busted The Conspiracy

I know why I was forced to buy a hew hairbrush.

It has become the community brush.  My wife uses it, my daughter uses it and the boy is using it.

My old one was small and could fit in the medicine cabinet over the sink and the new one that I was forced to buy was large and not suitable to store anywhere but on the side of the sink or on the tank of the toilet.

I knew it was a conspiracy!  I knew that there was something more than just my wife wanting me to “update” my hairbrush.  They don’t go out of style.  It’s a hairbrush!!!!!

There are a few things that skive me.  Things that no matter what – I am just not going to share with anyone!  They include my toothbrush, underwear, bathing suit, and my hair brush! 

So you know what?  I kept my old brush.  That’s right!  I saved it!  Hid it so that others could not find it and when I discovered this nefarious little plot the family had going I pulled it back out.  I pulled it out and used it.  Yeah, so you all can go on with your bad selfs and keep using that new brush and I’ll have mine safely tuckered away. 

Momma didn’t raise no fool!