Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars

Skype Phone... My Computer is a Phone

One of my clients wanted me to teleconference with her team via Skype, so I installed it on my new iMac. My computer is now a phone!

Pretty cool. I've used Skype phone in the past on one of my Windows computers. If you've got a microphone and some sort of speaker phone system, you're in businesses. If you've got a camera, you're ready for videoconferencing.

Skype is cheap. It cost me $18 to obtain a phone number and $10 to acquire an initial stash of minutes. Skype bills 2.4 cents per minute, so that $10 bought me almost 7 hours of talking time. That will last me for a long time.

You can even download an app for an iPhone that enables it to receive Skype calls.

I'd like to have only one phone and one phone number. Unfortunately, I have a cell phone, a landline phone and a Skype phone, each with a different number. This is just all wrong. But, for the moment, that's the best I can do.

More Blizzard of 2010 Pictures

I'm growing fond of my iPhone camera. It produces surprising clarity, color saturation and depth. Below, another picture of the amazing avalanche of snow in the Catskill Mountains.

The snow has that soft, cake type of consistency. It's pretty.

As I drive up the mountain from Woodstock, I reach a line where the snow accumulation is probably twice that of the accumulation in town. That's the elevation where all the precipitation was snow. In town, much of the precipitation was rain.

I'd expected that the storm would produce an avalanche of Rescue Squad calls, but that has not been the case. I'm on 24 hour call today and... so far... nothing.

The Great Blizzard of 2010... Let It Snow!

We're expecting a foot of snow or more throughout the Hudson Valley today. If that happens, I'm likely to lose my electricity. The lights have been flickering for the past couple days.

The snow plow guy has just about run out of room in my driveway. I don't know where he will push the next pile of snow. I'd estimate the crest of the pile at about 5 feet. Guess this must be the result of global warming. Oops! Climate change is the new, correct, name.

Huge snow storms are not uncommon in this region. The Hudson Valley has an odd weather pattern that cycles through a 7-10 year wet to dry cycle. We've been in the dry cycle for some time, so it's not surprising that we're heading back in the other direction. I can recall winters when I had two feet of snow on my roof for months.

The heaviest blizzards tend to blow in as spring approaches.  We've had a few in late April or early May. Two feet of snow in one day and the whole mess melts away a few days later.

What in the hell am I going to do if the electricity goes out? I live at the end of the grid, and my area is sparsely populated. That means the electric company restores power to this area after it services more populated areas. The worst I can remember is a storm that took out power for two days.

I could pull out the generator, go to a motel, or throw in the towel and take off for the Karaoke Queen's place. Big Joe's supposed to come over to play today. I'm on EMT duty tonight.  

A little excitement, huh? One of these days, I'm going to drag my arthritic bones out of the Northeast and head for a tropical clime. Maybe Florida. Maybe the Philippines.

For now, I'm watching the snow fall outside my window. The weather outside is frightful.

Shouting Thomas... Woodstock EMT!

Got the news a couple of days ago. I passed my New York state boards, and I'm officially an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician).

I've been riding with the rescue squad on calls for a couple of months as a Member in Training. I'll still be a Member in Training for a few more months. Can't really do much except take vital signs and help push the gurney.

Next month, I'll be taking a one day ambulance driving course.

This morning, the Karaoke Queen and I attended the Fire Department Co. #2 pancake breakfast. Full house. I'm meeting lots of good old boys and girls, neighbors I hadn't met living in Woodstock for 20 years.

The state boards were tough... much more difficult than I expected. But, I'm now a EMT, CNA and CPR... still working on the LPN.

Yeah! Cubs Open Spring Training!

Now that I'm an old fart, I look forward to the first day of spring training for an entirely different reason than when I was a kid:  Warm weather can't be far off, and that promises relief from arthritis pain.

Sorry, but you've got a watch a commercial before you can watch Jim Hendry and Sweet Lou Piniella discuss this year's Cub team. All is sweetness and light! We haven't lost a game yet! Thank God, that son-of-a-bitch Milton Bradley is gone. Can you imagine what an asshole you have to be to complain about pulling down $10 million a year to play for the Cubs?

This is our year! 102 years without a championship and counting. The odds have to be in our favor.

Carlos Zambrano and Geovani Soto lost weight and they're ready to go! Apparently, making tens of millions of dollars last year wasn't motivation enough for them to keep in shape. But, that's all forgiven.

We've got a new center fielder, Marlon Byrd. This is the year that Fukodome will finally learn to hit American pitching.

When I'm finally put out to pasture, I might spend the spring in Mesa, Arizona, watching the Cubs plod through spring training.

Well, there are some other things I could be doing. STDs are running rampant through the senior population in The Villages, a retirement community in Florida. The seniors are partying like it's 1975!

Here's the problem. Senior men outnumber senior ladies by something like 10 to 1. That's on account of men croaking about 7 years earlier than women. So, senior men have to work overtime to service the senior ladies. In the process, the bugs are getting passed around.

As Big Joe says: “So they go to the doctor and find out they've got syphilis. What's the big deal! They're gonna die anyway.”

Play ball!

V-Twins Photo Session with 47 Roosters

Big Joe and I sat for PR photos yesterday. The Karaoke Queen served as photographer. We drank a magnum bottle of Giant 47 Rooster Cabernet Sauvignon to prepare ourselves. Picture 1 I'd call kinda neutral.

Picture 2, and Joe's hamming it up.
By Picture 3, the wine's really kicking in. I like this one, but I don't know whether it's the best PR photo for our duo gig.
This is Picture 4. What's with sticking out your tongue, Joe?
Picture 5 ain't bad. Pair of upright, sober granddads. Only problem here is the reflection of the light off Joe's glasses.
I like Picture 6. We're both laughing. Still got a problem with that light reflection. Maybe I can paint it out in Photoshop.
I wore my Woodstock Rescue Squad sweatshirt for the shoot. Well, I brought some other shirts, but after all the drinking, I forgot I had them with me. Thus, Picture 7.
Picture 8, I think, displays a little more dignity. Should we go for dignity or laughs?
Picture 9 is just about the same as Picture 8, except I've got my eyes open.
And, this final picture is Joe going solo, and clowning around.

The Global Warming Hoax Collapses

The great Global Warming hysteria is dead.  Read this and weep. That's Professor Phil Jones, head of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit below.  

President Obama wants to tax and regulate every business in the U.S. to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.

The Global Warming crusade is a joke. Well, it may actually be a criminal conspiracy.

How Crazy Can You Get? Obama Calls for Fiscal Responsibility

President Obama has been spending like a drunken sailor on leave for the past year. So, now this:

Craziest damned thing I've heard in a while.

So, how does Obama plan to stop himself from spending? Ground Control to President Obama: The politician who won't stop spending, and who we are tired of, is you.

Work at Home... Reduce Gasoline Consumption

I've been working at home for several years. When my contract at the pharmaceutical company ended, I thought I might have to go back to commuting to a job. But, I've found new clients who will allow me to work at home, and I may even have found a full time work at home job with benefits and vacation.

The environmental movement, and those who seem determined to reduce gas and oil consumption, seem to be missing a huge political opportunity. A large percentage of people who make their living beating on a computer keyboard have absolutely no reason to continue commuting into their offices.

What percentage of people could work at home? I'd bet at least a third of the workforce. Working at home doesn't mean being out of touch. Video conferencing makes it possible to speak face to face with co-workers and managers. Documents can easily be distributed through e-mail, and shared via whiteboards.

In fact, I wonder why the work at home movement isn't more widespread. I suspect that many managers are concerned that employees won't be as productive at home. And, managers probably don't like having employees out from under their thumb.

Gasoline consumption could be dramatically reduced by allowing the vast cadre of cube dwellers to pound on their computer keyboards at home. I wonder why environmentalists aren't focusing on this issue, an issue that is easily understood and lends itself to practical implementation?

An Old Warrior Retires from the Battle

Talked with my mom yesterday. She waited until the end of our conversation to tell me the news. She finally retired!

This is astounding news. Mom is 83 years old! She's an LPN who worked primarily with Alzheimer's patients.

The news really got to me. The woman is not just a rock... she's a mountain. She's lived through the death of 8 brothers and sisters and her husband. If you're still young, you don't know yet how devastating this can be. Many people fold up and quit living in the face of the constant harvest by the Grim Reaper.

Mom was a factory worker until she was in her mid-50s. When the factory closed down, she enrolled in nursing school and struggled to earn her LPN. It took her three tries to pass clinical, but she finally made it.

She was intensely proud of her new professional status. She'd worked every kind of dirty, tough job you can imagine throughout her life. Finally, she was working in a clean, professional environment. The pay was good. And, she could dictate her own terms.

My mother is not the cuddly Teddy bear that we all want in a mommy. But, God provided for me in other ways. My father was the softest, most caring and loveable guy I ever met. Mom was a street fighter, and a German street fighter at that. When life was tough for me, I could count on her to chide me:

“Where's that old German fight in you? Where's that Mabbitt (her family name) meanness? You're not gonna just give up and die, are you?”

In the long, bitter winter after Myrna's death, Mom pushed and argued and provoked me in every way you could imagine. Her primal, survivor side kicked in. Damned if she was going to let me fall apart and die. She enraged me at times. All I wanted was only to crawl into the grave beside my wife.

Children have a difficult time understanding their parents. The young cannot comprehend the outlook of the old. Mom never gave much of a damn about anything except that her children and her grandchildren succeed in this world.

I'm proud to be her son. What a tough old buzzard! She set an example that I'll struggle to emulate. I hope she finds something useful to do in retirement. And, I wouldn't be surprised at all if she finds a way to continue to work a bit.

It's the passing of an era. I'll stop now for a moment of silent prayer of respect for a woman who has led an exemplary life.