My daughter is in a mixed relationship.
I understand your flustration, Sir.
The weather has gone from gorgeous to dark, windy, cold and foreboding. I was having a petty manic day, couldn’t stop smiling over the fact that I’m taking the career leap and won’t have to show up at cubeville after Wednesday. I attributed my high energy level to that but maybe it was just a sugar rush. I came home, the house was cold, I was feeling sneezy and suddenly bone tired, the hypochondriac in me concluded I was coming down with sHw1iNn1e flu. I decided that the thing to do would be contemplate the insides of my eyelids for awhile. The couch beckoned. I was just drifting off when Rebecca came downstairs with her laptop and some questions.
So you might understand why I was feeling a twinge of crabbiness. First question was an easy one, can we survive on the Blockbuster 2 movie plan as opposed to our current 3 movie plan. No brainer! After all we have to cut back now that I’m retired unemployed between jobs exploring entrepreneurial opportunities. The next one is the kind of question I hate the most. “What’s this $12.83 charge on the credit card for “Credit Defense?”
I knew exactly what it was. Wells Fargo calls me about once a week to try to sell me dumb ass enhancements to my accounts and this is one of the faves. I NEVER sign up for it. But apparently some asshole decided to make their quota by signing me up anyway. Now I my ass was really chapped.
Continue reading I understand your flustration, Sir.
Exploring other opportunities
It’s been awhile since I’ve floated in the blogosphere. I used to be on Xanga, Bkeller49, but I’ve opted to come over to WordPress for the flexibility, and I suppose the bigger audience. I’ve had a site at this address for years, I had big plans for a money making concern based on writing about my myriad hobbies and selling stuff along with it. It was WAY too ambitious and scattered. So I’m resurrecting this site with a couple of intentions.
I want to chronicle the big life change I’m making. Wednesday is my last day working for Dex. I’ve spent the last 18 years working in the Yellow Page industry. The last 14 or so were as a supervisor, which should earn me some kind of “square peg in a round hole” award. More about that later. My sweet wife, Rebecca, won’t let me use the “r” word, and I’m certainly not ready to retire, financially or emotionally. I’m going back to trying to earn a living with my wits and my creative skills. One of the things that I’m going to try to do is web design. So another reason I’ve rekindled this site is to learn WordPess. And finally there’s the faint hope of making a few bucks off my efforts here. After all if Dooce can get rich talking about her constipation, I should be able to make a few bucks with my opposing digestive complaints.
Why “Horizontal Ambition?” Check out the Manifesto.
So wish me luck in my not-retirement as I explore other opportunities! Oh, and those banner images? Not much related to anything, they’re just holding a place until I come up with an appropriately cool and hip graphic.
I just published a new portfolio website: robertckeller.com
My wife is in Mexico, but I’m not lonely.
I have a very talkative cat and the ghost of some rock station
that’s haunting my computer speakers.
April Fool
I thought it was supposed to be spring. Instead nature played a joke to the tune of 9.5 inches of snow overnight. Blah.
March Madness
Snow that is. March gives us hope and then smacks us down. Shows us who’s boss. March also brings the high school tournaments, which have become synonymous with “blizzard,” as in “State Tournament Blizzard. Last night a pal of mine and I went down to the Target Center to watch a class 3A boys quarterfinal. Patrick Henry an inner city school with a big basketball tradition versus St. Michael-Albertville near in rural town that’s one of the fastest growing in the state. Pretty much all white against all black. The head coach of the Patrick Henry (what else) Patriots, was Jerry Williams Jr. known far and wide as Buggy. I guess he doesn’t go by Buggy anymore, but that’s what everyone called him when he was about 10 years old and shooting hoops in my driveway when I lived in the city. That makes me feel kind of old. It was a great game to watch, both teams were very good and the score was up and down. SMA got up by twelve early on, Henry fought back, closing in at halftime, took the lead early in the second and then went down by 5 with about six minutes left. But I think SMA was exhausted from playing as hard as they did all game, faded at the end and the Pats won by 12, dominating the last 5 minutes of the game.
And the snowstorm predicted for last night and today never happened!
Oregon
During the last week of February I had a business meeting in Denver and decided to fly from Denver to Portland to visit my old college pal Bill Benson and his wife Laurey. Empty nesters like us, they’ve settled in Bend in central Oregon where she works for a small ad agency and Bill works with ESL kids at the local high schools.
The route from Portland to Bend took us right past Mt. Hood and it was a clear day, so the view was spectacular. Bend is in the high desert, just east of the Cascades, you have very interesting diversity in climate and landscape.
They got lots of snow this year and access to some of the steams was just about impossible for a gimp like me.
I saw gorgeous gorges and amazing vistas. As well as some dangerous terrain, can you find the bike in the picture below?
And some not very good places to play frisbee with fido. This gorge is amazing, photos don’t do justice to the sense of space you get when you’re standing above it. Although the bike does give you a little perspective. I’ve been pretty much a flatlander all my life except for the summer I spent in Idaho, right after college, where I fell in love with the west and the mountains. Looking back, I wish I’d spent more time in the mountains when I was younger. It makes it a little harder to enjoy when you’re as lame as I am. I’m determined to get back my legs so I can get out in the woods again, Something I really miss. I’ll be posting a few more pics over the next few days. If you want to see more of my Oregon pics go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eisengrim/sets/72157604159343435
Brief Update.
And I’m not talking about a breakthrough in underwear science.
I’m just checking in quickly now, but there’s a lot going on and I think I want to write about it. So there will be more to come.
But Quinn is home, and Lucia will be home tomorrow. Quinn will soon be 20 and has declared herself an Art Major. She wants to make pottery. I say good for her. Someone has to carry on the culture. Lucia is graduating with honors this year from Iowa State University with a degree in Graphic Design and is about to throw herself on the job market. Nice timing. Actually I read an article recently where there is a growing demand for designers right now, I guess design is hot. So my lovely talented daughters are home for the weekend and I’m looking forward to hearing their stories.
But I also need to backtrack to my trip to Oregon and my birthday weekend. So more to come.
ccccccooooollddddd!
It was one of those perfectly clear winter days. Shadows were crisp and blue and perfectly focused on the snow. Clear and windy, flags were flapping straight out. It was -17 when I woke up. By mid morning it had warmed up to -11. At two when I went to the basketball game at the the U of M, it was -7 and still windy. Steam was billowing horizontally out of industrial chimneys, the snow making that brittle crunching sound when you walked. I parked on the far side of Mariucci Arena where the hockey team plays and went between it and the Tennis Center, across Fourth Street and down half the Length of the Barn to the nearest entrance. By the time I got inside I had an ice cream headache.