Apples

Today was a fine damp fall Rochester day with the requisite concrete sky and drizzle. But feeling quite out of shape and wishing to forestall a cold I finally got off my butt and went for a good walk. Now I feel twice as out of shape, but while walking around the suburban neighborhood below us I noticed a funny phenomenon.

Passing one house I noticed a man picking up apples from his lawn and putting them to the curb. These were not your crab apple variety, but big red standard apples. And some that were going to the curb looked pretty good and the tree was full of more good looking fruit. A few houses away there was another tree (and lawn) covered with what appeared to be Granny Smith apples.

It just strikes me as funny to have people going out of their way to maintain lawns and ignore food ironically growing on trees. We seem to have misplaced a value or two.

Relearning

The glass business, now if I could find an employer. I have mixed feelings about in, yes it did contribute to my stroke. But I love and miss it.

This internet is an amazing tool. I have learned all kinds of things in the last few days. Between that and project management I may be a good employee soon or a maybe a better consultant. So much to learn but so much I have learned. And the industry has changed a lot too. If I keep learning the job may come.

A few emails sent to old friends and contacts has yielded a lot of response. It is pretty cool. I still sleep too late and need to bring my bike back and ride to get in shape. But it will all come together.

I Guess I Miss....

This shit. Searching glass sites and amazed that Oldcastle has bought Moduline windows, Fulton Windows and the rest of the Vistawall group. Wondering how my friend Eldon Pagel made out and may have to call him. Pella had purchased EFCO sometime before my stroke so no suprises there except they do have a unitized wall system. And it offers 4 side silicone glaze, very cool. Traco is now part of Alcoa, Graham has a curtain wall system and just lots of fun news.

Then there is the Arch story, but I see Max Perilstein has landed okay. I wonder about his cousin, only because he treated me to a dinner in Vegas that was worth about a grand a head.

Yes I miss this. And yes I will be back. Its just a matter of time.

To Rep or Not to Rep....

The past week or so has found me wiped out, though not like before. I recover a little quicker, though the effects of age seem to be catching up too. But today found me sleeping late, getting up to do my project management course and being interrupted.

The first call was a friend about a job I would love, but won't move for. It's located in Jamestown, and I don't have the stamina to commute for weekends and we don't really want to relocate there.

The second call was from a curtain wall fabricator in Canada who's ad I clicked on regarding a sales rep position. And this is while an ad for a project engineer for Gilbane stares at me on Craigslist. So where does one begin?

Well, the Gilbane position sits there, waiting for my resume, while I hem and haw and question whether I want to work for a company like Gilbane and if I am qualified and... And then the guy in charge of developing sales in the states is waiting for my input. But do I want to go into sales? The sales guy who can't talk, though that is in my head, so of.

And there is the status quo, draw the disability check and study project management and hem and haw. It is not so bad either, but it is. Sure this project management shit drives me crazy, partially because it throws how bad a project manager I was right in my face. But I want to learn, even if every third principle ends in the BS. Slogging on and going nuts doing so, our hero faces new challenges which he can decide upon before they have been decided upon for him. I guess it is time to shit or get off the pot, or it's getting closer to time.

Life does have a way of progressing around here though. A week or more ago I took Ned back to Oswego to start classes. Today Maddy started her Junior year, with her mother's car. Meg starts sometime. New books have to be added to the reading list. It is very obsolete. I finished the first Patrick O'Brian book, as opposed to the second I finished last week. I am reading Napoleon on Project Management, by Jerry Manas to keep a sense of humor about this project management. Two books that have been finished I would recommend, sadly with no authors tonight: Holy Water and Model Home, both good funky modern novels.

Tomorrow brings more thought and agonizing. Something will change soon, its back to school time.

Becoming My Father....NOT!!

I am reeling slightly, having finished my first Patrick O'Brian book and enjoying it. Edward S. swore by the merits of O'Brian and loved him. He condemned my brothers and myself for liking the movie version of Master and Commander, telling us it missed so much. Yes, father but Russell Crowe is a mans man and it was a good movie.

Strangely, while visiting the homestead last week I could not find a copy of Master and Commander, O'Brian's first Aubrey/Maturin novel. Yes, there were two or more copies of most others, but no first book. So I read the second, Post Commander. And I liked it of all things. And having enjoyed it I went to the library tonight and found the first but not the third. But it is okay, since there are at least three copies in Barneveld. So with another novel I found I am set for the week for reading material.

That in itself is no small task. Since The Art of Racing in the Rain was suggested, I have been devouring novels, good, bad, ugly and indifferent. I can't say all I have read. At the same time I am going right through a course on Project Management. I have been a project manager for years and often a bad one. Now I realize I am both a bad project manager and I have had been in situations where project management was not done correctly. I say that with tongue in cheek. It is not rationally applied to construction. He who is further up on the food chain wins.

Enough, but I promise not to be so lax in writing. I continue to search for a job though it terrifies me. I need to start riding my bike again and want to start doing Tai Chi. I want my knees to feel better so I can run again. Maybe I am not becoming my father...