Traveling man

Please come visit me here:

http://lowandslow01.blogspot.com

Take this job….

Are you the same “you” to everyone, all the time?

K said something recently that got me to thinking.  She said most of us have multiple persona, acting one way around our parents, maybe another when we’re with our grandparents, and probably another way still at work.  You might not want to have an adult beverage in the presence of your teetotaler blue-haired great aunt, for example.  Some might call that hypocritical, but I prefer to think of it as just being sensitive to the various audiences you have to associate with.

I’m pretty much “what you see is what you get”…..except at work.  My extrovert-ism there is being sorely tested.  (Actually, I’m not an extrovert at all.)  At work I have to be all smiley to everyone, including management, when what I really want to do is tell ’em to go straight to ____.

Retirement can’t come soon enough.

S

What a farce!

They’re all in bed together, I tell ‘ya!  I’m talking about our elected officials, the regulations they write and the regulators they appoint, and Big Bidness.

So a big business does something of a questionable nature.  Warning signs are covered up, auditors look the other way, a defective product that can be fixed (at considerable expense) is left in place as-is.  They decide to just take their chances.  Then something blows up, there is public outrage, and investigations are launched.  Fines are assessed.

Except the fines paid are usually just a drop-in-the-bucket compared to the amount of additional profits realized in the first place.  Save a 100 million dollars, get fined 10 million dollars.  Sweeeeet!!!  Throw in another 20-40 million dollars for civil settlements, and they’re still WAY ahead.  They’re laughing all the way to the bank.

The incentive is definitely there to do wrong, not right.  They hold a perpetual “Get Out Of Jail Free” card.  How come you or I don’t get one?

S

Our anniversary dinner

What a spectacular evening!  We had reservations at Seasons 52, a new restaurant 2 blocks from our home.  The atmosphere was wonderful;  beautiful yet intimate, alive yet quiet enough for conversation, dim yet bright enough to see our surroundings.  Cocktails…great.  Appetizer…mushrooms stuffed with crab and shrimp…mmmm. Excellent pork tenderloin for her.  Perfect filet mignon for me.  (Note:  I’ve had steaks at all the best steak houses in Dallas…III Forks, Chamberlains, Del Friscos, etc, and my steak here could go toe-to-toe with any of them.)  Wine, complimentary anniversary champaign, dessert (key lime pie for S, carrot cake for K)…all top shelf.

Service…it was the sort of place where you would drop your napkin and another would instantly appear from out of nowhere.

Question:  As we were being seated our hostess asked if we would prefer black napkins.  (There were white ones at our place settings.)  I’ve never been asked that before.  Why would anyone care whether their napkin was black or white?

And the Piece de Resistance for your Mr. Car Guy:  While I was waiting for the valet to bring our car up I noticed a Ferrari 458 Italia, still extremely rare in my neighborhood, parked right in front…

A wonderful evening celebrating 4 years of marriage with a wonderful lady.  *huge smile*

S

“Slow” is good

Work is actually becoming a little more pleasant as Christmas approaches.  Our pace slows some, which is a welcome relief after the past few “hair-on-fire” months.

We’ve been watching some of the Travel Channel shows about Italy, and as K has tomorrow off of work she’s going to practice some of her Italian.  No, not her Italian language skills *chuckle*, but her desire to imitate their “sweetness of doing nothing” lifestyle.  No shopping, no chores, no cleaning.  Just an agenda of…doing nothing.  She deserves it.  I’ll get my turn later.  (Retirement grows closer by the day!)

Tomorrow night is K’s company Christmas party.  It’s actually a fun party, with a good band, multiple excellent buffets, a casino, and prizes.  LOTS and lots of BIG prizes.  Like HUGE big screen TV’s, major appliances, ca$h, and many smaller (but still much appreciated) door prizes.  Wish us luck!

Hope y’all have a fun Friday, or better yet, can make it a 3-day weekend like K.

S

Our wake has been postponed

It was a memorable anniversary evening we had.  K got home from work saying she didn’t feel well, and spent the rest of the evening in the bathroom with an intestinal virus.  In ALL it’s gory glory.  I tried to be a good “Lawrence Nightingale” and take care of her, but by 11 PM I was in the other bathroom doing the same thing.

Except for a kidney stone and the time I had my (adult) tonsils removed, I don’t think I’ve ever hurt more.  K said the same.  We both missed work Tuesday and today, but I seem to have bounced back faster than K.  Our biggest dilemma on Tuesday was who could stay out of the bathroom long enough to walk the dog.  And speaking of poor Emma Belle, she spent the first night going from the den chair where I was sleeping sitting up over to the couch where K was trying to relax. She knew we were both in trouble and wanted to help.  Man’s best friend indeed.  It was very touching.

But, alas, we survived.  I’ve put away the bottle of single malt scotch I had set aside for my/our wake.  The Good Lord apparently wants us to stick around a while longer.  Who are we to argue?

S

PS….daytime TV sucks

Exactly four years ago…

….my wonderful lover/best friend K and I were enjoying the beautiful scenery of California’s Monterrey peninsula.  The purpose of our journey to The Granola State wasn’t just to see the sun setting on the Pacific horizon, or to drive down the scenic Pacific Coast Highway, or even to take in the eccentricities of quaint Carmel By The Sea, California.  No, we were there to get married on the 14th of December.  Why Carmel?  Why not?  It was just the two of us (and the preacher, of course).  No big hoopla, all very low-key.  Like us.

Our temporary home there was the Tickle Pink Inn.  (Don’t laugh…it’s a REAL place, and it was FANTASTIC.  Look it up!)  Our balcony was high up on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  We cracked our window at night just to hear the surf crashing on the rocks below.  Breakfast was via room service, and we set aside a few minutes in the evening to have wine and cheese and conversation with our fellow guests in one of the lounges.  Several restaurants were within walking distance, but we rather enjoyed the drive a few miles back in to the heart of Carmel where we ate, walked down Main Street, and enjoyed the uniqueness of it all. During the day we took short trips to San Simeon, Big Sur, and Pebble Beach.  It was wonderful.

It’s only gotten better since.

S

A month long event

The older I get the crazier Christmas becomes.  Remember when the young un’s would get up at first light on Christmas Day and look under the tree to see what Santa brought them?  Then we would all feast, unbutton our pants afterwards so we could breath, and talk about the upcoming New Year’s Day bowl games.  (Church was dutifully attended on Christmas Eve in our household.)  Simple.

Today, December 12th, we’re going to my daughter’s house along with my other daughter and her family and my brother and SIL to have our Christmas.  This early because they have to go out-of-town later to have Christmas with their spouse’s families, and to go see daughter #1 and her family in San Antonio, too.  We won’t get to see San Antonio daughter/family until after the New Year.  Crazy.

Nothing is simple anymore, is it?

S

My new toy

In her typical ADD style, K has decided she is no longer in love with her iPad, so she gave it to me.  It’s proven to be a “love-hate” thing for me.  I love that I can sit in my comfy overstuffed leather chair and with my feet propped up surf the internet and my favorite thing of all, read my favorite news sites.  (I’m a real news junkie.)

The “hate” part?  It’s almost impossible, or at least impossibly slow, to type a blog entry, compose an email, etc, as the keyboard is TINY!  All I can do is “hunt ‘n peck”….there is NO WAY my fairly large man-hands can manuever on that little keyboard.  Remember how you were taught in typing class to keep your fingers on the “home keys”…a s d f j k l ;?  Not gonna happen on an iPad!

Which got me to thinking….do kids take typing in school any more, or do they just come out of the womb computer literate, tickling the keys at 100 wpm?

S

You know what sucks?

Having to be polite and civil to clients who are total a-holes.  Back in the day when I worked for myself I could tell someone to take their business somewhere else if they were acting belligerently.  (I did that once and the person hung up and called back asking to speak to ‘the Boss’.  My brother handed me the phone and I told him to %$#$%^ again.  Heehee!)  Now that I’m working for Big Giant Company I have to bite my tongue and just smile.

That’s what sucks.

The old way worked much better for me.

S