Road Trippin'

I went to see Frank A yesterday. On some level Frank’s content. He gets to see life through his prism and no one really argues with him. Frank says there’s occasional harassment from the cops but otherwise he goes about his business as we all do.

Of course the big glitch is his unfulfilled desire to see Jon. In the years that Frank underwent the big change I remember asking him about job options and there were certain things that he would consider and others that he would not. His choices were guided by one over riding consideration and that was that he needed to spend as much time as possible with Jonathan. It’s a sad irony that that obsessive behavior has cost him the relationship.

When I left Epiphany House I drove south through Baltimore and the neighborhoods that I used to know. It’s changed. There are contemporary buildings among the row houses but the place still has the same feel. If I had to live in a city that wasn’t New York it would be Baltimore.

I got to Martha N’s around 5:00 and got the grand tour. She lives in beautiful place that’s two apartments combined. It’s a big space and she’s left so much of it open. You don’t feel like the “stuff” is going to take over like you do at my house. And the place is immaculate.

We drove to downtown Bethesda and decided to see Pursuit Of Happyness so we bought tickets and had a quick dinner next door. After the movie there was ice cream, a walk through town with a stop at a book store. The night just... continued. I am always game for the next thing and often my friends want to stop before me but last night I wasn’t pushing the agenda, she was. What a blast. Hope we can do it again soon.

Old Friends

Richard T started with Pfizer CIG on Monday. He had worked with Vladimir on the CCP project back in the days of Thirst. Richard is a friendly cerebral type. We had lunch once or twice before. Funny that he, Vladimir, and myself would go our separate ways only to re-converge a year or two later. It is a small world.

Had dinner with Randy F on Tuesday. We met at a restaurant called Taboon not far from Roosevelt Hospital. We sat at the bar for an hour but when we decided to eat there were no tables available so we moved on. I would like to try the food sometime - Mediterranean cuisine.
We ate at a new age burger joint and Randy told me that there is a new love named Elizabeth. It was great to hear positive forward looking talk of their relationship. The talk of Eileen was always so futile and frustrating for him.

It was back to the dentist on Wednesday. Unfortunately my mouth had not self adjusted to the protruding crown so he ground off some of the tooth above. I said that I hadn’t expected him to grind real tooth and he assured me that it was only filling but I’m still not OK with the idea. In the end, my mouth feels fine and everything works as expected.

Dr. Patlut ended the appointment by exploring for more work with probes and x-rays. He found a molar that was mostly amalgam and suggested that it be capped. I’m not ready for that and when more work becomes necessary will look for another dentist.

That afternoon Fred K took the Relational Concepts consultants to a holiday lunch at The Rio Grande. A very nice time and a box of chocolates!

A Sunrise Christmas

Gave C the iMac and the morning was consumed with reformatting the HD and getting the network connected.

It was very nice to be invited to the Sunrise Systems Christmas party. The whole family was invited not just consultants. I would guess there were 400 people there. Good food and even a gift for Christopher. Much more than I expected.

I spent most of the evening talking to my co-worker Naresh. I was glad he was there and it was nice to meet his family.

K’s Concert

I enjoyed the music at The GVS concert. Music that I’m familiar with has provided a place to plant a flag but age allows me to relax enough to really appreciate the music.

Back to the Dentist

Back to the doctor for another fitting and this time the crown meets with his approval. It feels just like a real tooth.

I'm anxious to get out of the chair and leave. Even though the crown protrudes enough to touch the tooth above I tell him that it's fine hoping that my mouth will self adjust.

The Nutcracker

Went to see The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center. This was the Balanchine production and it was very different than the ballet that we’ve seen at The Wang Center. It doesn’t open with the street scene and it features dancing with hoola hoops. None of this was bad per se, just different.

It was Christopher’s first time and I was surprised at how long it took before the “I’m bored” announcement. He made it through 75% of the show!

Bolton Resigns

Of course I thought the recess appointment of John Bolton to UN Ambassador was an example of George Bush’s failure to play nicely with others. It was bound to end in disgrace but The President must have thought that he could cope with bad press on the back end. The “go it alone” decisions have not had good outcomes but that doesn’t stop him from making the next one.

So, Mr. Bolton made enemies at the UN. I don’t think that surprised anyone familiar with his record. But, if his agenda was so close to the hearts and minds of conservatives, why couldn’t he be confirmed by a Republican controlled congress? Could it be that even his friends didn’t see the sense in appointing someone who thinks the entire organization should be dismantled?

Physical Labor for the Sedentary

Disappointed on Wednesday with 2 more hours at the dentist only to be told that the crown needs to be adjusted and that I must come back again in a couple of weeks! I’ll be so glad when this is over.

Kevie does much of the yard work. Mostly raking this time of year and she tells me about aches and shows blisters from where she man handled the leaf blower. I developed empathy this weekend after cutting and stacking some of the trees that have fallen in the backyard.

After reading an article in Nutrition Action I’ve started to take 1200 IU/day Vitamin D. According to this article the advantages are myriad. It builds bone and muscle mass, fights periodontal disease and, reduces cancer risk. I’ll let you know if any of these benefits become apparent. Admittedly vitamin regimens have gone by the wayside due to lack of resolve. Could this be different?

Investing

This week I finished Stephen Leeb’s audio book called The Coming Economic Collapse. His thesis is that oil production has peaked and that there will be less pumped next year than this. In the face of growing demand prices will rise and hardship will ensue.

The book is a plea for people and governments to face the problem and take action but failing that he has ideas about where to put money in order to benefit from what will be prevailing economic conditions over the next decade.

Interesting that several of his recommendations have done well over the last 12 months i.e. gold, alternative energy like fpl (wind generation), and oil companies. I have held some of these and will buy more because I think he makes a compelling case.

This weekend I embraced the MacBook Pro. The migration tool made it easy to transfer data and programs from the iMac to the MacBook.

After verifying that the applications work as expected I set about installing Boot Camp. This is the program that has received so much press lately. It allows booting Windows on a Mac. You use an Apple program called Boot Camp Assistant to create a disk partition that will store all things Windows. It then asks you to load a CD with the Windows O/S and proceeds to do a standard Windows install.

This process can go without a hitch but I wanted to install Windows Media Center Edition which complicates things because the O/S comes on 2 CDs. For me, getting around the 2 CD problem meant copying the CD to a flash drive and continuing the Windows install from the flash drive. The only thing that the HowTo's on the web leave out is that the MacBook will hang on reboot if the flash drive is left in the USB port. Wait until the installer asks for the 2nd CD before plugging in the flash drive!

It’s Here

What was going through my mind when I decided to spend money we didn't have on a MacBook Pro? Convergence. I have a G4 iMac that holds most of my personal effects like music, email, and pictures. And I have a Gateway Wintel laptop that has more than a decade of personal and business financial records. Even more importantly the Windows laptop runs the navigation system that keeps our boat off the rocks and helps avoid other hazards to navigation.

The idea that all these functions could fit onto one computer was too big a temptation to pass up. It has arrived and fulfills all expectations.

Nice

Last night we got a call from Kevie’s cousin Lia S. She had received a call from someone she never heard of, Allen in Newark, who said his wife had found a phone on the PATH train and her name was in the directory! It turned out to be my Treo.

What a break that it was recovered by such honest people. I made a date with Allen’s wife Zalina to pick up the phone the next day right here in the neighborhood. I thanked her profusely and tried to give her a reward but she would have none of it. Renews my faith in humanity.

Happy 8th Bradley and Stephanie

K went to Millville on Wednesday to check the damage. She found broken glass in the basement and the kitchen door that lets into the garage was open. Dresser drawers were open but nothing was missing as far as she could tell. I don't think there's anything of value in the house that could be carried out in someone's pocket.

Phone calls were made to glass contractors and for fence repair. K filed a police report Wednesday evening.

Friday was a visit to Mom who now talks about having taken trips to Indiana on almost a daily basis. This is a new symptom.

Saturday brought more work on the LR and a trip to Danbury Ice Arena for Bradley's 8th birthday party. I got out on the ice for a while and the kids were wild but contained. What a blast.

Reconnoitered back at the Johnson's to watch BJ open presents and relax with Gia and Ken. Got the tour of their back yard which is being prepped for the house addition. Much of the deck has been dismantled and trees have been cut down. The heavy machinery arrives Monday. Exciting!

Elections

Last Sunday was more work on home theater. We’re not talking the $200K renovation that some of my colleagues have done. This is way modest and it’s more of a re-think of how to use components that we’ve had for a while.

The DVR has been the centerpiece for seven years. All TV watching starts there and I’m afraid to admit how many hours are spent in front of the tube. I’ve concluded that making one out of an existing PC will be practical on the day that manufacturers start selling CableCard based tuner cards to the public but not until then. In the mean time the choices are slim if one wants to watch and record HDTV via digital cable. In light of this realization we’ve dumped Windows MCE and have started using the Comcast DVR.

We’ve had components that produce and accept digital signals (S/PDIF & DVI) for 2 years and haven’t used the digital connections. I thought there would be better fidelity using digital but didn’t know how much. K and I are really impressed. The clarity and crispness of both speech and music is noticeably better. The transitions from soft to loud are instantaneous. The video is really striking with deep colors and great contrast. The only changes made were the cables. Everything else stayed the same. S/PDIF good, analog audio cables bad. DVI good, component video bad.

K went to a GVS fund raiser on Sunday and won the raffle, a spa package.

K and C spent Mon and Tue in Millville. C has a week off school and K wanted to run Millville errands. The car went to the mechanic to diagnose brake warning lights and some calls were made for glass and fence repair but the last quarter of every year is always crunch time for K’s work. This was no vacation for her.

I voted the straight Democratic ticket on Tuesday and am very gratified by the outcome. If Dems can end domestic wiretapping and give science precedence over politics in stem cell research and global warming it will not be too soon. I do think that a quick exit from Iraq signals the bad guys that their tactics work but to win this war would take a commitment of dollars and troops for which there is no political will. It is so tragic that we went there in the first place and that international alliances were trampled in the process.

Today was more home theater work. Making it all work together is a job for the Harmony remote control. This thing does an amazing job, not just in ease of control but ease of programming. To program it you connect it to your computer and then walk through some very intuitive browser based screens to create “activities” that integrate components to do a task like “listen to music” or “watch TV.” The Harmony 680 is a great front-end that makes the back-end engineering work. I have no interest in home theater unless there are only 1 or 2 buttons that make it work. Anything more is inconvenient enough to relegate it to seldom/never used status kinda like Roomba.

Trick or Treat

The living room wall was dry Sunday and the first set of shelves for the electronics went up. It seems like there is more space in the room but things are still ugly. I promise a picture when everything is in its place.

Tuesday, Halloween brought trick or treat at the Milone’s once again. The evening was beautiful with temps close to 70. It was great to wander the neighborhood trailing after the kids with cigar in hand.

There was a less auspicious event that afternoon. Someone broke into the house in Millville. The alarm went off and the police were called. They found a broken pane in the window well under the master bedroom. Our thought is that the 3 trees that have fallen and broken through the fence are an invitation for people to cause mischief in the back yard.

Birthday Boy

Had my first root canal on Thursday. There was no pain associated with the procedure and I was wondering where the reputation comes from. I've since been told that there isn't necessarily pain with the procedure but that people are often motivated to go to the dentist by severe pain and the relief is root canal. Fortunately that was not my case.

Thursday afternoon I began to feel residual pain from the procedure and popped a Naprosin. That and some light drinking in the evening seemed to banish the pain.

Pfizer sponsored an after work team building party at Slate in the Flat Iron district to stem the rash of consultant resignations . It was fun but I doubt it will have the desired effect.

Went to Harbor View to visit my mom on Saturday. She didn't remember that it was my birthday and when K said that it was she didn't wish me happy birthday. This was not a good day for her mentally. She told me that she had taken trips that day and the day before. The Friday trip was to Fairmount. I did get a call later Saturday with birthday greetings.

Spent a good part of the day moving out the entertainment system in the living room and prepping the wall to be painted. We’ll be putting up wall shelves in an effort to open up space.
K and C created a great dinner - leg of lamb with an angel food cake chaser.

The Laptop

I’ve suffered angst for years because much of my computing is done on the weekend but my weekends are spent far from my beloved iMac G5. All the pictures and all that music gets left back at the ranch. A windows laptop has been my traveling companion because there are Wintel programs that I would be lost without.

Had my eye on a MacBook Pro but when I got serious it was obvious that the Core 2 Duo version was just around the corner. WELL, today Apple released the MacBook Pro with the new chip and I couldn’t get my order in fast enough. The only downside is that estimated delivery is 11/15. But the weekend is coming when I’ll be able to run OS X and, when push comes to shove the same machine will boot XP.

Yesterday Kumar K gave his resignation and today Pfizer showed him the door. Before his exit some of us took him to a nice going away lunch at Buchara’s on 57th St. I wish him luck.

Dinner at Nadeem’s

Many of the newly built stores in Millville opened this weekend. The town now has a Target, Circuit City, and Famous Footwear and is quickly becoming the shopping Mecca of South Jersey. I figure this is good from a convenience perspective and it might even have a positive effect on property values but I waited at least 3 cycles for the traffic light at Sharp and High. No fun on the motorcycle.

Saturday was gorgeous but windy. On the highway I resorted to ducking down behind the windshield to reduce drag. Being blown around on a Honda 750 is a thrill.

We met Eva The Canvas Lady at Spring Garden so she could line up the snaps on the canvas top she made for us a couple months ago. She agreed to sew velcro ears on some of the pieces to cover holes where the rain was coming in. She’ll also make a new bimini top for the deck forward of the radar arch and create velcro flaps that cover the zippers.

We had lunch at the newly opened Longhorn steak place just to check it out. It was good but we weren’t the only curious diners. The place was packed and service was slow.

I went to Nadeem’s for a cook out on Sunday. We sat and talked in the garage. He was concerned about the rain forecast so moved the festivities from the back yard. One of the neighbors came over and Victor M showed later in the evening. Roula brought the kids home in the early evening and Chrissy went inside but Eddie stayed outside with the guys.

My assignment was to look after Eddie while his dad set up the hubble bubble. We chased each other around the car and checked out the yard. There was much running and giggling. I think we both enjoyed the change of pace.

Good friends, good food.

Meeting an Old Friend?

Spoke to AR Engineering about radar and he recommended the 4.5' array. He said that discrimination was better with a larger array meaning that 2 objects close together would look like one using the smaller array but that they would be distinguishable as separate with the larger one. I told him that the literature called for a heading sensor to be installed and he was surprised but once I indicated that I was going to buy the sensor he offered the 4.5' array for the price of the 3.5'. That closed the deal and he estimates that Spring Garden will have the hardware within the week.

I met Vlad V, a Pfizer employee and one of the central characters in CCP, in the lobby. He said he had been laid off in August but recently found a new position back at Pfizer in CIG. I look forward to working together on ABR.

He was curious to know if I was still working with Thirst and when I told him no he made an oblique comment about Gary, the head of Sales, having sealed their fate. I'd like to find out one day where the bad blood came from.

Annapolis

At lunch on Friday one of the guys from Defined Logic said that he had been told not to develop project plans with tasks that extend beyond December. This due to Pfizer’s plan to consolidate app dev work with Infosys. Wonder how this will affect Dendrite.

Went to The 35th Annual Powerboat Show in Annapolis on Saturday. It took about 2.5 hours to get there from Millville and it was a beautiful day. On the way down we stopped at Grasonville/Kent Narrows to make a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express for that night. $250 for one night. Supply and demand!

My bigger purpose for going was to find discounted pricing on Nobeltec Radar but after talking to several of the vendors it was clear that there was better pricing on the web. It was helpful though to lay out my requirements and get recommendations from these guys. The consistent recommendation was for a 4KW unit with a 3.5 foot open array.

I am also interested in FreedomLift which is a hydraulic lift that would allow the Seadoo to be docked and transported on the stern of the boat BUT at $18,000 this is quite a stretch.

K is very interested in getting a hard top for The Voracious Curiosity to staunch the dripping water on the upper deck especially while navigating in the rain or high seas. We were quoted approximately $7,000 for purchase/install. After talking about this at length we decided to talk to Eva about creating canvas flaps to cover zippers and the holes created where the sections join.

We went to Cantler’s for the traditional post show dinner. Kevie had “six large” while C and I stuck with the crab cakes. The food is great and we got celebrity seating: Senator McCain was leaving the table as we sat down. As we were cracking crabs I told Christopher that they walk from side to side instead of forward. I know this was quickly filed under Dad: Useless Information but it got reinforced when we went down to the dock and chased live crabs around the holding tank.

After dinner it was great to drive only 15 minutes back to the Holiday Inn rather than all the way home. The hotel is in a beautiful setting on the marsh. In the back there’s a Lagoon with geese and swans.

Sunday morning we walked around Mears Point and then left. On the way out we hit the Outlet Mall in Queenstown. K bought a top and I got a couple of shirts and a jacket.

When we got to New Castle we stopped for lunch and Christopher scored a Halloween costume at the store next door. This year it’s a rubber mask and a long black robe. Very scary!

On the way home we stopped at Scarecrow Hollow in Quinton and did the corn maze. We got all ten clues in only 2 hours. I think it’s because we’ve got a winning strategy. When one comes to a fork in the path send out a scout to look down the trail you don’t intend to take.

My Visit with Frank

I met Frank at The Epiphany House on Saturday 10/7/06 where he’s been staying for some 3.5 years. I believe I was invited to Baltimore so that I could tell Jon that his dad was thriving encouraging him to visit.

He is very thin and his hair, including mustache and beard, is long. He has a hobbling walk which he says was due to a recent “ back event.” He stood for much of the time we were together with his right arm cocked and the other at his side. Both hands were clenched in fists. This posture is an affectation I remember from earlier years but it is more pronounced now.

He was dressed in shorts and a golf shirt on a 50 degree day.

First he showed me his room which is a 7x20 space with a kitchenette, bed, dresser, two chairs, and a table. He has an adjoining bathroom. It was dank and carpet was stained but the room was clean. There is a radio on the dresser which, I think, is on and tuned to talk radio all the time.

All of the walls and the table are covered with hand written index cards. Some have to do with a teaching method Frank has come up with which he is very excited about. Those cards contain a word and the phonetic spelling of the word i.e. sign = sine. Other cards contain reminders about how to live a healthy life which include proscriptions of umbrellas, mittens, and shampoo. He told me that the very worst thing was medication of any sort.

For the first hour I was there Frank occasionally slurred words. It got better the longer we talked so I think it happens when he’s excited. Our conversation was punctuated by him jumping out of the chair and rummaging through his dresser to show me memorabilia.

He told me that two years ago he had been in his room and suddenly there was blood everywhere. He used the panic button to call for the EMTs and lost consciousness as they were putting him on the gurney. The problem turned out to be a bleeding ulcer and he tells me that during his hospitalization he was transfused with 18 units of blood!

He blames the ulcer on taking Aleve for his back pain, I wonder if the condition could have been exacerbated by bulimia. He told me that he’s served 2 “gourmet meals” a day and that he purges after each.

There are glimmers of the man I knew but he is humorless. I would expect some introspection from someone who lost a family, a job, and ended up in jail but none is evident. There is unspoken sadness but if there is any understanding of what he’s done to land in this predicament it’s deeply buried. Frank’s attitude is that he’s the same old guy but everyone around him has abandoned him. After all, he tells me, he is the greatest homo sapien ever created by God