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Back to School time

08 Sep

No…I’m not going back to school…I’m only reminiscing a little bit. Every August for many years now I’ve taken a few moments to remember “the good ole days”. Going back to school for me started in early August. From the time I started 7th grade, I was in the high school band and summer band practice would start in early August. I generally enjoyed summer band practice as it was a way of getting to see my friends a few weeks early. The school I attended usually started the week or so before Labor Day. Students who participated in football, volleyball and band had already been back on campus for 2-3 weeks before the first day of school.

My typical summer generally consisted of a vacation. I had many memorable family vacations as I was growing up. I really can’t remember a summer where I didn’t go on some sort of family vacation. Each year our trip was bigger and better. The first big trip that I can remember was to Big Bend National Park. My parents had a Dodge van and we (my Dad, Mom, Grandfather, Grandmother and Uncle) all piled in and went down to the National park. It was a lot of fun but the trip was not without problems. The Dodge van had all sorts of mechanical issues. But despite these problems, we all had so much fun.

Another year we loaded up in the same van and headed out to Tennessee. We attended the Grand Ole Opera and visited Graceland. I believe this is also the year we toured the battleground of Vicksburg, MS. The one thing I remember about this vacation was the heat. It seemed to be really hot everywhere we went that summer.

As I got older (high school years) my Uncle and I would head out west each summer. The first year we went to New Mexico and then each summer after that we ventured further and further away. Our final trip (summer of 1985) we made it to California and then drove up the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) up into British Columbia and then back down through Colorado. It was these summer trips where I first saw the majestic Rocky Mountains. I now can see them from my office window. Pretty cool.

Back on track. For as much as I looked forward to the summer break, I think I also very much appreciated going back to school and seeing all my friends. I especially enjoyed summer band practice. While I have no musical interests now, high school band was a big part of my life and I’m thankful to have had that experience.

I’m not really sure who all reads my blog and especially don’t have any idea on age demographics. But if you’re reading this and are a young person still in school….especially if you are in Jr. High/High School….Please take one piece of advice from me. Please enjoy and savor this time you have and the age you’re in. I know many of you can’t wait to graduate from high school so you can escape (insert whatever you think you’re escaping from here). But when you get older (and you will get older) you will look back on those days and you will (regardless whether you admit it) wish you were back there walking the halls of your high school someday.

Until next time,

J

 
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Posted in Life

 

A more healthy outlook

20 Aug

In a few weeks I’ll celebrate my 44th birthday.  I’ll be honest I’ve never really been concerned with my health.  I come from a strong, healthy family.  But I know as I’ve grown older and become less active, I’ve put on some extra pounds.  This happens right?  My diet generally consists of what I want it to consist of.  I’ve never liked salads and there are only a few green things I’ll eat.  The subject of foods and my diet has always been on my terms.  I really don’t plan to change that.

However, over the years I’ve suffered from acid reflux and I have higher than normal cholesterol.  While I don’t eat as much fast food as I did in my younger days….I generally won’t pass up a nice, big juicy steak or a home grilled burger.  A few years ago I made the conscious decision that if I’m going to eat a burger, it’ll be a burger that comes off my grill and not the grill at Mickey D’s.   I do cheat every now and then, but it’s rare.  Plus I can grill a burger better than any fast food joint.

Over the past 7-8 years I’ve been on various acid reflux and cholesterol lowering drugs and I’ve had good success with both.  My acid reflux is in check and my primary care doctor is happy with my cholesterol levels.  However, he does seem to think that both can be controlled (or eliminated) by diet and more exercise.  This is probably true.  But we do disagree on where my target weight should be.  He is thinking of a number I haven’t seen in almost 20 years.  While I’m not opposed to losing a little weight, the number he has in mind is impossible.  More about all this in just a minute.

Now for the past 10+ years I’ve also suffered with seasonal allergies.  It usually hits in the Spring and in mid-summer I’m fine, but then flairs up again in the Fall.  Once the snow starts flying, I’m OK until the following Spring.  Thankfully my darling wife finally made me go see an allergist about 5 years ago. I was diagnosed with a whole collection of allergies from weeds, grasses and trees.  She prescribed me two different allergy pills and an inhaler for the really bad days.  For the first year or two these drugs worked great.  However, the past two years they seem to have lost their ability to give me 100% relief. 

Now before I go any further, please note….I’m not into fads.  I’ve never participated in a “fad” diet and I’ve never purchased anything from a barking moron on TV making promises on some new fangledproduct.  Back in the old days these guys were known as snake oil salesmen.  The covered wagon was replaced with their ability to broadcast their message through TV and now via the Internet…the product is the same.

However, I do have some experience with acupuncture.   A few years ago I suffered from pet allergies.  This was somewhere on the same level as the seasonal allergies I suffer from today.  If I visited family or friends who had indoor pets I really suffered.  Symptoms???  You name it…I would have it.  Everything from watery, itchy eyes to a runny nose then a stopped up nose.  Once I would return home I would be fine.  I needed relief.

A co-worker at the time told me about her acupuncture experience.  She was lactose intolerant and in a really bad way.  A few treatments of acupuncture and she was cured and I was convinced it could help me.  I was at least willing to give it a solid effort and went to my one and only appointment/treatment session with an open-mind.   I believe a percentage of what ails us is mind related.  After all, we all know that stress can lead to health issues.  Anyway….me and my open mind went to the acupuncturist and was cured with one treatment.  Yes….I said one treatment.  That one treatment was over 7 years ago and I’m still feeling great when it comes to pet allergies.  We have three cats and I’m not bothered at all. 

The time has come to deal with the other issues that make my nose twitch and my breathing labored.  I’ve started seeing an acupunctrist once a week to address my seasonal allergies as well as a few other things.  I’m honestly not sure how long this will take.  Thankfully insurance companies have become more agreeable with ancient Chinese medicine and their benefits.  So 80% is covered.  With regards to my  seasonal allergies, the plan is I’m still taking my prescription meds on a daily basis.  I will stop taking them sometime in October or early November once the leaves have fallen and the snow begins to fall.  The goal is when Spring 2011 arrives I will show no symptoms of seasonal allergies and will have no need to go back on the prescription meds. 

In addition to receiving treatments for seasonal allergies, I’m also receiving treatments for acid reflux and drinking a Chinese tea called PHatea.  PHatea has been proven to help naturally reduce cholesterol.  I’m drinking it over ice (how I believe all tea should be served) and truly love it.  I brew it the night before and it makes 32 ounces.  I take it to work and drink it throughout the day.  In the next few weeks I plan to visit with my primary care physican and discuss PHatea and have a cholesterol test done.  Since cholesterol is a serious matter, I want to approach reducing my need for statins carefully. 

Finally, in an effort to balance my vegetable intake without having to break my cardinal rule of never eating brocolli, I’m drinking a daily shake called GreensFirst.    Each drink is like getting over 10 servings of fruit and vegetables without having to eat them.  Trust me…the drink tastes great (has a minty taste) and I don’t have to change my opinion of brocolli, cauliflower, spinach and all that other horrible tasting stuff.   :-)

In closing, this is my 4th week of acupuncture and drinking/taking the supplements.  I feel better and I have a little more energy.  I look forward to each weekly session and each and every day I look forward to my tea and GreensFirst drink.  Now I know some who read this will say Jerry has fallen for a “Fad”.  You are certainly entitled to your opinion.  As I’ve discussed, I’ve experienced success with acupuncture in the past and I know many others who have as well.  I will be sure to re-visit these topics in later weeks and update my progress. 

Until then….Please vote in our new poll question titled “Have you had success with acupuncture”?

J

 
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Posted in Health, Life

 

AT&T Mobile Broadband

12 Aug

With the help of my little AT&T USBConnect card I can just about go anywhere, go everywhere and do anything. True, it’s not faster than my home connection…but when I’m not at home and there are no wi-fi hotspots, this truly is the next best thing. I’ll admit that life could be simplier if I could tether my laptop to my iPhone 4. But my company plan does not allow that solution and there are lots of times I need to have a internet connection.

The card (see picture to right) is a USB dongle (yes, dongle is a technical word) and when you need an internet connection just simply insert the card into an avaialble USB port and away you go. All the software required to make it work is pre-installed on the USB dongle and will prompt for install the first time.

The software (it’s called AT&T Communication Manager) is easy to use. Basically you just boot up your laptop, insert the USB dongle into an available USB port and start the AT&T Communication Manager. The AT&T Communication Manager software will initialize the hardware and all you need to do is click connect.

I’ve used my AT&T USB MobileConnect card to connect into my office network via VPN. Once connected I can do anything I would normally do from home or from the office….just a little bit slower. The AT&T Mobile Broadband service essentially uses the same data network as a PDA/Smartphone uses. With this in mind, I won’t necessarily fire up the laptop just to check email as I can do that from my iPhone. But there are tasks where I just really need my laptop.

The cost of the service is comparable to home, high speed internet. The last time I checked the service from AT&T was around $45.00 per month for unlimited access. The hardware (in most cases) is free with a 1-2 year contract.

Unless you are just strapped for cash and never at home, I wouldn’t substitute this service for home high speed internet. One reason might be if you have difficult receiving a cell signal inside your home, then you might have difficulty receiving the data signal. The other reason which I discussed earlier is speed differences. Speed may not be everything and if you are still on dial-up then YES, a mobile broadband card will be faster. But considering most home internet packages offer anywhere from 4-6 Mbps download, the AT&T Mobile Broadband service will be considerably slower peaking around 1.5 Mbps download. But hey…that’s 3x faster than dial-up and you don’t have to listen to those noisy tones.

Now having said all this. I believe the future is truly with wi-fi. There are many smaller cities which have enabled their entire town with public wi-fi. The city of Vail, Colorado was one of the first in the area to do this. While the system has some limitations explained here. I believe this could be the future of true mobile internet access. I guess we’ll just have to see about that.

In closing, technology has changed so much in the quarter century since I graduated from high school. I believed nothing could be better than connecting to Compuserve via a 300 baud modem on a Commodore 64 computer. Even just a little over 10 years ago I still had to hear those awful modem sounds when I connected using Netzero or my companies dial-up. I’ve lived with an always on, almost always available broadband connection for the past 10 years and enjoy the Internet in a way I never could have imagined 25 years ago.

Until next time,
J

 
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Posted in Technology

 

My Apple iPad

06 Aug

Yes I know I’m a little late to the party blogging about the Apple iPad.  I’ve had mine for about 2 months or so.  Unlike my previous three Apple iPhone purchases, I didn’t buy my iPad on the first day.  I believe I waited a month…perhaps longer.  Prior to the release of the Apple iPad, I had been looking at all the electronic book or ebook devices available.  The Kindle device was at the top of my list.  The functionality of the device and the availability of books and other periodicals from Amazon made it a “top-choice”. 

A little more info on the the Kindle.  First of all, size.  The Kindle device comes in two variations.  I’ll just refer to them as small and large.  What they essentially do is the same in the grand scheme of things.  The small Kindle screen size is 6″.  Remember most screen measurements are made on the diagonal (top left corner to bottom right corner).  The large Kindle (shown right) screen size is 9.7″.   Regarding size, one might compare small versus large as a paperback versus a magazine.  I was leaning towards the larger Kindle device.  Next let’s look at cost.  The small Kindle is available on Amazon for $189 and the large $379.  Let’s continue….

As I began to learn more about the iPad I began comparing it to the Kindle type devices and this is how my thought process lined up.  The Kindle is an ebook reader device.  One can read any book and/or periodical which has been made available in the ebook format.  These devices will literally hold hundreds, thousands of digital content.  In 2009, it was estimated there was over 2 million books available for download.  WOW.  In addition to those cool features, some of the devices would allow you to sync via a wireless connection all the content you needed without the need of tethering to a computer.  This is important if you want access to electronic newspapers and magazines on the go.  The Kindle device handles all of this functionality and from what I’ve heard….it does it very well.  But what if you want to do more?  Well if this is the case, unfortunately you must change trains at the next station.

As stated, the Kindle is perhaps the best e-reader in its class.  But outside of consuming digital content like books, magazines and newspaper content…that is really where the device stops.  If you want to be able to play games, connect to the internet to send/receive email, read blogs etc. then you have a decision to make.  The decision you must make is very similar to the one I was confronted with.  What do you want to do?

Before I provide any more detail regarding the Apple iPad, I do want to discuss a topic which I’ve read on many bloggers websites about why purchase an iPad.  The argument goes something like this.  “Why purchase an Apple iPad as it basically is a glorified tablet type device with much less functionality and consumers would be better off just purchasing a laptop/netbook”.  I will admit that this is a valid and very strong argument.    I will try to explain my take on this and how it measured up to my decision. 

First, I have access to several laptops.  Due to the nature of my job, I tend to replace my work laptop every year.  In addition, when even on vacation, my work laptop goes where I go.  I don’t do this because I can’t leave work behind.  I do this as insurance.  Think about all the people stranded in Europe during the Iceland Volcano erruption.  If this happened while I was on vacation in Europe, I could still work and earn money.  By the way, my wife and I travel to Belgium every 18-24 months to visit her family. 

If you do not have a laptop and really want a device which mimics that of a desktop computer, you should invest in a laptop, macbook or netbook type device.  These devices start in the range of $250 and up and for the most part will do anything you can do on a desktop pc.  You can also install the Kindle application on Mac or PC and download to your hearts desire. 

Now back to my Kindle versus iPad decision process.  Again, I really wanted more functionality than just the e-reader.  As I began exploring the iPad, I began to realize it truly was just a large version of the iPod Touch, which very closely resembles what I already have with my iPhone.   So did I really need it?  Well…since crossing North of my 40th birthday, my eyesight has been one of the signs I’m not getting any younger.  I pretty much need reading glasses or I need longer arms.  While I get by with reading glasses and my iPhone for email and such, trying to read something with a lot of detail can be somewhat difficult on the smaller screen.  But what would I really use an iPad for? 

As I began to answer the “But what would I really use an iPad for” question, I envisioned myself using it for all sorts of things.  When traveling, it would be smaller to use than dragging out my laptop.  The battery life of the iPad is also a “Pro” in my decision making process.  At best my laptop will give me 3+ hours of life, but this is not while watching a DVD.  The iPad battery is stated at over 10 hours and I’ve confirmed that fact.  In addition to traveling, I have hundreds of knowledge documents which help me do my job.  I could use the iPad in the office to reference this material.  I’m away from my desk over 50% of the day.  The iPad could be a useful tool in my day-to-day job tasks.  Finally, I figured it could be a quick and useful tool to checking email on the fly and even surfing the web.  It’s quicker to just grab and login to check email than waiting for Windows to boot up.  After I truly weighed all the pros and cons, the choice was clear.  The Apple iPad was for me.  In addition, one role in my day to day job is supporting our management team and their personal productivity devices.  90% of the management team already use the iPhone and many have expressed an interest in the iPad.  I can’t support a device unless I myself have knowledge of.     

Now the iPad (shown left) comes in essentially two types with each having three different storage capacity options.  The two types are broken down as wi-fi only and wi-fi + 3G.  The storage capacity options are 16, 32 or 64 GB.  First, let me address the wi-fi versus wi-fi +3G differences.  At the time of my purchase, the wi-fi +3G model had not shipped yet.  But even if it was available, I would have still selected the wi-fi only model.  While the 3G model allows you (with AT&T data plan) to connect to the internet across the AT&T data network, I felt this was overkill in what I truly needed and wanted from the device.  The other fact is wireless hotspots are everywhere.  Even when traveling last summer in Belgium and England, I found free wireless internet access in hotels, restaurants and even just walking down the street.  In my opinion the 3G option is something I would not need and it was a monthly cost I also didn’t want.  Finally to that point, it would do me no good when traveling outside the US.

What about the overall screen size?  Well…there is only one size available when referring to the screen size and overall dimensions of the iPad.  The screen size for all models is 9.7″.  Unlike the Kindles only black and white screen, the iPad screen is a full color screen.  The video quality of the screen is simply amazing.  Overall size when holding the iPad is much like holding a magazine.  It will easily fit in a bag or large purse.  The iPad weighs in at a mere 1.5 pounds and overall thickness is a 1/2 inch. 

Does size (storage capacity) matter?  Only you can decide this.  What works for me, may not work for you.  The larger the size just means you can have more content….but you can also manage the selection of content via iTunes and a computer.  Even at the lower end, 16GB is a lot of data…but you must weigh these options.  I opted for the 64GB model.  The price difference is what it is (and we’ll get to that in a minute), but I figured I wanted to go ahead and get the largest.  There is no upgrading capabilites at a later date.  But again…16GB will hold a lot of music, books, games and movies.

So how much does the iPad cost?  As previously mentioned, there are two types with each having three storage capacity options.  Let’s first break down the iPad wi-fi +3G.  Remember, this is NOT the model I selected.  16 GB – $629, 32GB – $729 & 64GB – $829.  Also, as an added reminder…an AT&T monthly data plan is required for the 3G service.  These plans come in two flavors.  For $14.99 per month you can transfer up to 250MB of data per month.  For $25.00 per month you can transfer up to 2GB of data per month.  Again, for reasons I already stated I didn’t feel I would benefit from the 3G service.

The iPad wi-fi model was the first released and again was the model I selected.  The pricing breakdown is as follows: 16GB $499, 32GB $599 and 64GB $699.  One other key decision maker in my Kindle versus iPad purchase was cost.  Remember the larger Kindle is available for $379 and is just an e-reader device with a non-color screen.  For $120 more, you can purchase the 16GB iPad wi-fi only model and gain so much more.

Apps?  Yep…if you can think of it…there’s an App for that.  With some 200,000 apps available for the iPad, the possibilites are endless.  Just a few of my favs include  The Weather Channel App, Netflix, iBooks, Amazon Kindle, WordPress, ReaddleDocs and an amazing new app called iBrainstorm.  These keep me busy and keep me productive and yes, even allow me to relax from time to time.  While I’ve found a way to use my iPad for both personal and for my work, the iPad may not be for everyone.  But I certainly like it and it has helped make me more productive at work and I’ll share some of the ways I use it in a future article.   

Until next time,

J

 
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Posted in Technology

 

Roof Woes – Not one….but two leaks

02 Aug

OK…so what is the best way to make it rain so you can test a leaky roof?  Blog about it.  Just a few days after releasing this blog post, it started raining.  WOW…did it rain.  According to my weather station, we received just a little over .075 inches in less than an hour.  I ran down to the basement and checked several times and it was dry.  I checked one more time on Saturday morning and DOH!!!  It was wet.  I couldn’t believe it. 

Now remember, we have a brand new roof, brand new gutters and brand new caulk around the chimney.  What is going on and where is the water coming in.  It was time to get to the bottom of it all. 

I will admit….I’m a darn good troubleshooter.  After all it’s what I do for a living.  But my wife is actually better at it than I am.  So together we put our heads together and began talking through the problem.  Since the interior wall in the formal living room still needs to be repaired, I started there.  I cut into that sheetrock to determine if that area and the insulation behind it was wet.  I just couldn’t believe the water was still coming in from that direction.  Armed with a knife I began cutting into the sheetrock to look behind the wall.  Knife is too slow, where is my hammer (just kidding).   About 10 minutes later I determined….dry as a bone.  The water in the basement didn’t come through the wall. 

Now this was somewhat comforting and troubling news.  It was good to know the new roof, new gutters and new caulk were working and doing their job.  But how is the water getting in? It was time to break out the water hose and check.

My wife had the great idea to make sure the basement floor was dry and lay down some newspaper.  I don’t think I would have thought of that.  We began with taking the water hose and sending water down the downspout.  My downspouts all tie into buried PVC pipe which terminates just about 3 feet from the house.  This system has always worked without issue but over time the flower bed and the yard has been built up and needless to say the drain was slightly lower than the ground where it left the flowerbed.  Water would pool up and while it drained….it just couldn’t drain fast enough.  I believed this was the fault.

When I woke up Saturday morning I had no intentions of digging a ditch, but plans change and a ditch I did dig.  The ground was easy digging as it was saturated with water.  Denver is not a damp climate like Southeast Texas and having soil that wet is not the norm.  I believe what was happening is the water primarly just went directly into the ground instead of running away from the house.  The concrete basement walls will only do so much to keep the water out. 

Long story short….I extended the drain out about 9 feet from where it terminated.  The water from the front side of the house will drain from the roof, down the downspouts and pour out into the storm drain.  Once the grass grows back, you’ll never notice it. 

So…is this the end of the story?  I’m not sure…time will tell.  We haven’t had rain since I extended the drain.  The weather forecasters say we’re in a pattern for afternoon thunderstoms all this week.  But then again…this is Colorado.  Wait 5 minutes and it will all change.

Until next time…..

J

 
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Roof woes

25 Jul

So my wife and I buy a house about 6 years ago.  We love it.  While the house is waaaaaay to big for just the two of us, oh wait…we do have two cats, still the house is too big for the four of us.  In any event, the house was built in the mid 1970′s and is located in the DTC portion of Denver.  We love living here.  While you might think the area would be noisey and busy…it’s actually very quiet.   We have everything from grocery stores, dry cleaners and about a half dozen Starbucks in the 2-3 mile radius.  What else could one want?

With older houses (and I know my house is not as old as some) there is an expectation that occassional work will be required to keep it all going.  The summer of 2010 will go down in my families history as the “Summer of the leak” or “Jerry’s gonna go crazy” until that darn leak is stopped.

It all started soon after the first of the year.  We noticed the sheetrock in our formal living room (it’s just what we call it), starting to crack and as days passed we noticed the cracks and chips in the plaster more and more.  I also noticed water in the basement area directly under the area.  Now, the basement has always been prone to leaking in this area and mainly I always felt it was due to poor drainage when we had heavy Spring rains.  But I’ve never noticed water in the basement in the winter time.

As far as I know the gutters and downspouts on our home are original.  They certainly looked original as typically just about as much rain poured through the gutters as went down the downspouts.  We knew this was a problem we would need to deal with and after careful inspection it looked like the leak damaging the sheetrock and getting into the basement was caused by the section of gutter directly above.  So we started down the path of having the gutters replaced.

Our gutters and downspouts were all replaced in late April.  Within days we had a nice rain to test things out.  Much to my surprise, shock and frustration….yep, water in the basement.  So if it wasn’t the gutters causing the water to come in….what could it be?   Perhaps the flashing around the chimney.

Our roof was cedar shake and possibly was also original to the house.  Our HOA (at the urging of insurance rates and overall safety) has denied any cedar shake replacements for the past 8 – 10 years.  The approved shingle is a heavy-duty asphalt composite shingle and I’d guess that more than 50% of the homes in our neighborhood have replaced their cedar shakes with this new standard.  We have been told by roofing companies that our roof had perhaps 2-3 years of life left on it, but certainly no more.  I agreed with this, but wanted to see what could be  done to defer this cost at least until next year. 

We hired a company to do a “repair” of the flashing and shingles around the rock fireplace.  The opinion of the roofing company was “This is what is causing the leak”.  We wrote them a check and they sent a man out.  However, when the guy arrives the work he does doesn’t match what we had agreed to.  This man was supposed to replace 1-2 widths of shingles and the flashing all the way around the chimney.  Instead, he replaced 7 shingles and said it was “good to go”.   Within the next day or two we had a long weekend of rain.  It rained and it rained and it rained.  Water poured into the basement and the wall in the formal living room was saturated once again.  Am I going crazy?  A few phone calls to this company to complain…they agreed with us and cut us a refund check. 

My wife and I talked it over and decided to delay the inevitable and go ahead and pull the trigger on the new roof purchase.  With the July 4th holiday coming up I didn’t want to take any chances of an illegal bottle rocket landing on my roof and burning my house down.  In addition, we figured where there is one leak…..there could be many and who truly knows where the leak is coming in.  Water can run down rafters for several inches or even feet.  Surely this will “seal” the deal.

Now remember, the roof needed replacing anyway so lets just go ahead and “git’er done”.  In 26 hours of work spread out over two days, the old roof was off along with the old felt etc. and brand new felt paper and brand new shingles were on the house.  It’s a beautiful roof and so much so I almost want to take my easy chair to the roof so I can truly appreciate this thing.  For about a week after the roof was on I did sleep so much better.  Regardless of where the water was coming in…it’s fixed.  My head, my wife’s head and our two cats heads will all stay dry. 

Well….one would think right?

Ok…so rain comes and guess what…yep…water in basement and water on wall.  I honestly felt like screaming….and perhaps I did, but I’ll never tell.  It was Monday, July 5th.  The good news is our house is still standing (no bottlerockets) but the bad news is it rained from July 3rd all the way through to the morning of July 5th.  I called the roofing company on Monday, July 5th but with that being a holiday it wasn’t until Tuesday before I received the call back.

I explained how water was still coming into the house.  The roofing company quickly responded and sent some guys out to inspect.  They took a water hose and poured water all along the roof line where it meets the chimney.  Nothing.  Not a drip.  Ok…so I must be crazy.  Then the foreman says…I think the water is coming in not around the chimney but through it.  Now I quickly said…”I don’t think so” as there was never any sign of water in the fireplace. 

After 5 minutes listening to him explain…it hit me.  Yep…at the very top of the chimney (you know…where Santa comes in) there is a steel or aluminum pan which is approx. 2 feet by 4 feet.  This pan sits on top of the rock chimney and extends over the sides.  In the very middle of this pan is a hole and out from this hole is the chimney smoke stack.  Do you see where I’m going?  Well between the pipe and the pan once (like 30 years ago) had either a seal or caulking or both which made this a weather tight connection. 

To make a long story short (or atleast try).  The roofers returned and were kind enough to (at no cost to us) send a man up on top to re-caulk the space beteen the pan and the pipe.  This must be it…I mean what else is left?

So we waited and we waited and well….we had to wait a little longer.  Summer in Colorado (like all the seasons) is somewhat unpredictable at best.   It’s July in Colorado.  We could have rain tonight, or it might be August before we have more rain to truly test this issue.  However, until it rains again and actually rains with enough force and volume to test all of this, I will just have to wait. 

Until next time….stay dry.

J

 
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Live Aid – 25 Years Later

15 Jul

While my Mom may disagree, I grew up during the greatest decade of music….The 80′s!  This decade saw a radical change to the way music was enjoyed and yes I’m talking about the Music Video.  MTV was truly the pioneer, it’s just so unfortunate they took the wrong path at some stage.  I like to tell people that I can remember when MTV actually played music videos.  But that is not what this blog post is about. 

The year was 1985 and this was a BIG, BIG year for me.  This was the year I graduated from high school, moved away from home and would start college.  Somewhere in the middle of all this excitement was July 13 and on July 13 the greatest concert of its time would take place.  This concert was to be a global concert with artists playing in venues all around the world.  Some artists would even play on multiple stages.  WOW….this was going to be awesome and it truly was.  MTV made it all possible for those of us here in the US to enjoy this global spectacle.

I was no stranger to MTV and the MTV VJs of the day.  Thankfully I’m still able listen to four of the five original five MTV VJs on Sirus Satellite Radio.  Martha Quinn, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood and Alan Hunter all are DJ’s on the 80′s channel.  JJ Jackson suffered a heart attack and passed away in 2004. 

Growing up I can remember when we only had one television station and that was channel 7, KLTV in Tyler, Texas.  We received channel 7 from an outside TV antenna.  Cable TV didn’t come to the little town where I grew up until 1982 or 83.  Before I had cable TV and MTV, I used to watch a program called Friday Night Videos.  Friday Night Videos was on NBC and would air around 11:30-midnight basically after The Tonight Show.  Speaking of The Tonight Show, this was when it was still hosted by none other than Mr. Johnny Carson.  Anyway….I digress.

Back to the topic at hand.  Live Aid was the big event of the summer 0f 1985.  I watched most of the concert live, but video taped it all as well.  I’m not sure just how many artists performed, but many were groups I was very familiar with and others I was just learning of.  My favorite would have to be the Queen performance.  Some say Queen’s Live Aid performance was their best outdoor concert performance and none of us could believe Freddie Mercury would be dead 6 years later.  Out of all the concerts I’ve attended in my lifetime (in the neighborhood of 20+), my one regret was not being able to attend a Queen concert. 

One band I really knew nothing about at the time of the Live Aid concert, has become one of my all-time favorite bands.  I’m talking about the band from Dublin, Ireland…U2.  I believe it was their unique and impressive sound that fascinated me about them the most.   While some (including my wife) say all their music sounds the same…I disagree and enjoy listening to their new stuff as well as their old. 

Of course the highlight of the Live Aid concert was the performances by Phil Collins.  Yes, I said performances (there were two) as he performed first at Wembley Stadium in London and then traveled to Philadelphia via the Concorde and played his on set along with sets with Eric Clapton, Led Zepplin and of course the “We Are The World” grand finale.

In retrospect, it is hard to believe it’s been 25 years since that awesome summer.   A lot has happened in my life since then and thankfully the majority has been good.   I still have the VHS video tapes I recorded the concert on.  The quality of the video was bad then and even worse now.  A few years ago (I think 2004 or 2005) a DVD was released which provides about 80% of the concert.  Many artists didn’t want their performances included in the DVD and some performances were lost.  However, the DVD provides a glimpse back to that awesome day in July, 1985.

Well….how’s that for a walk down memory lane? 

Until next time,

J

 
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Posted in Life

 

The BP Debacle

14 Jul

This might be the first post for this blog where my thought processes are in the minority.  Let me start off by saying that the Gulf Coast oil spill is a bad, bad thing.  While I live “land-locked” in Colorado, I have concerns about the toll this disaster will have on the environment and the economy.  I’m also not closed-minded in thinking this is only a US problem.  This is bigger than the US…this is a global disaster of epic proportion.  If you can’t see this as such, please get your eyes checked.

I also believe this problem IS BP’s problem to clean up.  Of course, because of the sheer size and volume of oil that has been gushing for over two months, the job is now much, much bigger than just BP.  Again, this is a global disaster and one we all need to pitch in and help to clean up.

Here’s where my thought process may start to differ with yours.  I don’t view the fact this well has been gushing oil out of control for over two months all BP’s responsibility.  WOW…did he really say that?  Yes I did and please allow me to continue. 

I see comments people have made on Twitter and Facebook about “Boycot” BP and all the hatred towards that one particular oil company.  I read blog postings bashing consumers who continue to purchase gasoline from BP branded stations and most of it is just hatred.   The hatred comments somewhat reference consumers supporting the greedy profit hungry oil company while oil continues to gush from the broken well.  The root cause of this disaster may be their cross to bear, but I believe that is where it stops. 

Please tell me any other oil company operating in the Gulf of Mexico or any other part of the world at the time of this disaster that could have done things differently?  I’m not sure who all the major players are currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico, but I believe one thing is clear…none of them had the processes and procedures in place to deal with something this big and make no mistake, this is a BIG, BIG deal.

Again, I believe whatever caused the explosion and leak is the responsibility of BP’s….but I don’t think you can fault BP alone for not having the technology in place to immediately deal with this disaster.  Having said that, I hope the lessons learned from this almost 3 month ordeal will change the way companies think about their disaster planning.  The change needs to take place at a global level and not just a US Gulf of Mexico change…global change.   I just hope it’s not too late.

Before I close this subject out.  I will just add that I don’t feel the US Gov. has handled this situation right from the get-go.  Oh the POTUS (President of the United States) has flown over the area a few times and made a few bold remarks in front of the cameras.   Neither of these actions made an immediate impact.  In my opinion this is  a much bigger overall problem than Hurricane Katrina was and look how President Bush was treated over that one.  Please understand I’m not accusing Obama of causing this disaster, but the rhetoric from his mouth regarding this situation has not helped one bit.  If anything, it has stirred up the emotions of all involved.    But….the US Gov. is in charge right?

I’ll leave you with a quote from the greatest President of my generation.  “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’  Ronald Reagan – 40th President of the US.

Until next time,

J

 
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Posted in General Stuff, Politics

 

Pharmacies – Here to help or cause you even more pain?

12 Jul

Earlier this morning my wife had some dental surgery performed in her mouth.  OK….where else would they perform it?  Anyway, it was done on an out-patient basis and on the way out of the doctors office we were handed three prescriptions for various meds she will be taking over the next several days.   These meds are to help with pain, one is an antibiotic and then a oral mouth rinse.  

We left the doctors office and took a 5 minute detour to drop off the prescription forms at our local grocery store pharmacy.  I figured I would run the scripts in and then return once I was able to get my wife home and resting in bed.  My goal was run in, drop off and return to the store in 30-45 minutes.  For the most part this is how it went.  I even received confirmation from the person who I handed the prescriptions to that 15-20 minutes all would be ready.  Great!

We then drove home and after making sure my wife was resting comfortably in bed, I decided to head back to the grocery store and the pharmacy inside.  About 45 minutes had passed.  Even though the lady behind the counter said 15-20, I know “stuff” happens and I pretty much allowed double the amount of time. 

I think in a perfect world, you should really be able to leave the doctors office, surgical center or hospital with all that you need.  Or at least a first day supply.  Who really feels like waiting around?  I’ll continue my story from today in just a moment.  First I want to talk about an experience I once had after foot surgery.

The time was early 1998 (possibly January).  I had been experiencing pain in my feet due to bunions which had developed on the side of my feet.   A doctor recommended surgery to correct the issue.  He explained he would make a tiny, one inch incision (remember this as this point is key) on the top of my foot.  He would cut some bone and insert a few screws and all would be great.  Believe it or not, he actually suggested he do both feet at the same time.  However, something told me NO and we decided the left foot would go first.

I woke up from surgery and the first thing I did was peek under the sheet to make sure BOTH of my feet were still securely attached and that only the left foot was bandaged up.   All appeared as it should be.  BUT….then the doctor stopped by and said there had been a small complication.  I think I quickly looked again under the sheet, but he explained that while cutting into my bone, he accidentally (Whoops) severed the tendon which runs along the top of the foot. 

So the best way I can describe a tendon is like a rubber band.  If you take a rubber band and stretch it a bit and then cut it in the middle what happens?  Yep, well that is what happened to my tendon.  So instead of a tiny, one inch incision….I now have an 8 inch scar running from my big toe to near my ankle.

But what does my story have to do with a pharmacy?  Plenty.  Thankfully my Mom had come up to stay with me for a few days.  We left the hospital and stopped at a Walgreens pharmacy.  I had to come inside since the insurance and everything else was in my name. 

Now…who made the decision to put the pharmacy counter at the very back of the store?  Even to this day (some 12 years later) all pharmacies like Walgreens, RiteAid etc. always places the pharmacy counter as far away from the front door as possible.  This means that everyone…regardless of how old they are or how sick they are, must manage to walk all the way through the store for a prescription.

Anyway…..back to my story of today.  Please tell me, how long does it really take to shove a few pills into a bottle?  Certainly more than 45 minutes.   I’m sure I’m not the only customer getting a prescription filled/re-filled.   But there should be a way to prioritize these things.  I think it was pretty clear the meds being provided were for a procedure which had just taken place.  Actually, the antibiotics prescribed state on the instructions “Take two tablets immediately after the procedure”. 

I’m not sure what the solution here is….perhaps there just isn’t one.  I need to get back to work now.  I feel better, thanks for reading.

Until next time,

J

 
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Posted in General Stuff

 

The religious insults…they gotta stop

11 Jul

First, please let me set the stage. For as long as I can remember I’ve always believed in God and instead of thinking of myself as Baptist, Methodist etc, I’ve just called myself a Christian. 

I’m currently on a journey which really started a long time ago, in a land far away.  :-)

In 2002, I visited Rome for the first time. What is a trip to Rome without visiting The Vatican? Anyway, for the first time in my entire life I felt the power of the Holy Spirit.  This power was experienced again last summer when visiting the Antwerp Cathedral, along with Oostende and Bruges. During those visits, I became acquainted with Saint John Vianney.  Now you’ll just have to wait to learn more about my acquaintance with Saint John Vianney in another writing. But just to get to the point, the journey I’m on is a journey to the Catholic Church.  I’m sure I’ll blog more about all this in future sessions.

But what are these religious insults I’m talking about? I’m glad you asked.  In recent news, many countries have banned the popular social networking site Facebook because of a Facebook page which encourages viewers to draw a picture of the Prophet Muhammad.  This page was created in response to Comedy Central’s decision last month to partially censor an episode of “South Park” which depicted the Prophet Muhammad in a bear costume.  These types of drawings are considered blasphemous throughout the Muslim world.

Now some will cry out “it’s freedom of speech” or “lighten up…it’s just a drawing”.  It is a drawing and yes most who create these drawings are protected under some form of freedom of speech.  But this is a completely different issue and here’s why.

As I stated at the beginning of this posting, I am and always have been a Christian.  I believe in God and I love God.  It upsets me that each and every year Christmas decorations are setup in stores earlier and earlier and earlier.  I predict in a few years we’ll begin to see Christmas decorations available for purchase in some stores shortly after July 4th.  It upsets me when someone says to me “Happy Holidays” when I say Merry Christmas.  It also upsets me to see someone abbreviate Christmas and write or print XMAS.   Finally, it upsets me when I see The Vatican blown to smithereens in a recent Hollywood epic.  Do you see where I’m going?

OH….Freedom of Speech.  Look people…Freedom of Speech comes with sacrifice and it comes with responsibility.    To the majority, YOU have not paid the price to stand and beat your chest and hide behind Freedom of Speech.  I know I haven’t.  I haven’t served my Country in the armed forces.  Thankfully, My Grandfathers made sure I didn’t have to.  In addition, there are many, many brave men and women who are making the sacrifice for all of us….again so we don’t have to. 

But it’s the responsibility which lies squarely on each of our shoulders who are fortunate to live in a land we call Free.  This responsibility is not only misunderstood but simply ignored by so many.  We must respect each other and respect each others beliefs.  Regardless if you call yourself a Christian, Muslim or Jew….We all have our beliefs and many of these beliefs are the same and some of them are different.

Yes…freedom of speech is a very fine line.  While I’ll always keep this blog PG-13 and never write anything here I wouldn’t want my Mom to read….I may blog about things I don’t agree with and this my friends is my freedom of speech.  But I won’t use this forum (or my freedom of speech) to hurt anyone.

Let’s all follow in the teachings of Jesus and love one another (John 13:34). 

Thank you for reading.

J

 
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Posted in Religion

 
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