Weekend Update
Non-Deconstruction Status
It was Day 30 for the building next door and Day 5 for the hallway walls on Friday.
I saw a sign up in our building lobby on my way to my office on Friday. It said the building renovation would be completed by Winter 2005.
When is Winter 2005 and when does it end? Since the operative time line is 2005, that means we only have another four months and a couple of days until the project is completed unless there is an act of God or other catastrophe.
I think I can last that long.
Gasoline Price Update
This is a tale of two cities, sort of. I drove by the Chevron refinery in El Segundo over the weekend. Mid-grade gasoline was $3.01 a gallon at the station right on the refinery grounds. At the Chevron station at the foot of the hill that I live on, mid-grade was $2.93 a gallon even though it is five or six miles – eight to nine kilometers from the refinery.
I never realized how expensive it must be to send the gasoline through a pipeline directly to the station when compared to trucking to the station.
Now back to the regularly scheduled Weekend Update.
Blond Asian Female
In my building, they have an access control in place in the early morning and late evening hours. You need to use a coded pass to trigger the elevator to go to your floor. It is not a difficult process or complicated. You wave your coded device by the sensor and then push your floor button. The doors close and the elevator goes to your floor. Simple.
I got in the elevator and waved my device by the sensor and push my floor. Before the doors closed, a rather tallish and attractive Asian woman got into the car. She was deeply engrossed in her Blackberry and what looked like emails or her schedule. She didn’t bother to swipe her access device.
I was going to say something but I didn’t want to intrude on her mental space. I knew she did not work on my floor. The elevator car stopped on my floor since it was the only stop called for. I started to get out when she came to her senses. She said something an Asian language that I can only guess was something that you do not repeat in polite company. She swiped her device and pushed her floor button as the doors closed.
She was clearly attractive and I had considered speaking to her for a moment or two. But, after her outburst, I was turned off. I was more turned off by her breath which was heavily laden with garlic.
The Blonde Asian would have been a perfect companion if you were planning to hunt vampires. I don’t think she could fit into any of my plans. I am sure she has other admirable qualities; I don’t want to get that close to discover what they might.
She is probably a great cook who uses excessive amounts of garlic in everything she prepares. I wonder if she likes garlic ice cream?
[Editorial note: I decided to add captions so that you, my gentle readers, can find the comments that interest you the most.]
Customer Call
I had scheduled a customer call for Friday afternoon. A customer call is when a banker visits a borrower or prospective borrower at his or her place of business. We get a tour of the source of our loan repayment and an explanation of how it all comes together. Bankers do not know everything and the visit helps put some solidity to the loan proposal.
Friday was a good day for a call since it was business casual dress on Friday. It is always good to be comfortable. Borrowers do not care how a banker dresses so long as the loan request is approved and funded quickly.
Unfortunately for me, Friday was one of the hottest days of the year so far. It was about 101F or 37 - 38C on Friday. The drive from my office to the business was fine because I had the air conditioning on in the car.
After spending a very informative 90 minutes with the potential borrower, I just knew my drive home was going to be terrible. I didn’t even try to put the air conditioning on because the outside air was so hot and the car metal was well heated. I drove with the windows down and the sunroof open.
I could feel the air cool off dramatically as I started down to the coastal plain from the Santa Monica Mountains [really high hills]. By the time I reached my exit, the clouds were rolling in over the beach and it was getting almost chilly. I said almost chilly.
It was nice to be home. The hot shower felt even better.
Potential Darwin Award
I was reading the online news posts from my ISP at lunch or Friday. There was an article about a Florida family of five that had set sail in a 25 foot – 7 meter long boat in the face of Hurricane Katrina.
Hello! There’s a big hurricane out there and you don’t know where it is for certain.
Now I will admit that I have never sailed in a hurricane in my life. I have sailed in two typhoons when I served on the good ship USS Leonard F. Mason in the great Pacific fleet. The waves were running over the top of the ship and the winds were well in excess of 65 miles – 105 kilometers an hour. The winds were probably higher but the top of the mast was carried in the storm and it had the wind sensor on it. The waves cracked the inch thick steel plate on the front of the forward gun shield.
A typhoon or hurricane is just plain dangerous.
Fortunately for the innocent family members and unfortunately for the rest of the human gene pool, the Coast Guard managed to save them. Their boat was a total loss and maybe that will keep them off the high seas.
The Darwin Award is a prize that recognizes the least use of common intelligence in the human species. This family may qualify for the award.
They do have some strong competition from the late gun store robber. The robber decided to rob a gun store. He walked around a police cruiser to get to the store door. The robber fired a gun and said, “This is a hold up.” The store clerk, the policeman, and most of the customers were armed and they fired back. The robber died at the scene with thirty entry wounds. The coroner counted over seventy empty shell casings.
This robber was not thinking clearly when he selected the gun store.
Saturday and Sunday activities
I managed to sleep in on Saturday. After I had finished reading the newspaper, I ran some errands.
I went to a computer store to see if I could find the Linksys power cord adapters for the Big Guy’s home networking project. There were none in stock, only wireless. Wireless, while convenient and easy to install, seems like too much of a risk since you can’t control the size of your wireless access bubble.
It was an unnecessary trip since our ISP requires us to purchase the product from them.
I picked up a new phone and renewed my contract with Verizon for another two years. I would have changed it over to the other carrier except for the fact the Princess uses Verizon and she can call her father and not use any of her minutes or pay any roaming or long distance charges.
The one nice thing about the new phone is that is made by Samsung. It is similar to the other new cell phones so I only have one phone operator navigation system to learn.
I had only two other activities of any consequence. I did read and smoke a cigar while reading out on the balcony. I finished off a Star Trek novel and two magazines. It was very relaxing and comfortable to read like that. It was cool and breezy. Nice Southern California weather.
The only other thing that I did was watch The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin. Things are looking bleak right now for him. The King has relieved him of duty and had him arrested for treason. The replacement admiral is not qualified for command. The Japanese, of course, are elated since the only Korean leader to regularly beat them has been relieved of command.
I suspect that the new Korean admiral will launch a battle against numerically stronger Japanese forces. He will not fit the battle using the proven tactics of Yi Soon-Shin. He will fight the battle in a manner that is the Japanese style because he thinks it is better to kill an enemy with the sword instead of standing off and blowing him up with a cannon ball. Personally, I favor the cannon ball because the result is the same and there is much less of a risk to your own sailors. In nineteen battles, Yi only had 150 combat related casualties; Japanese losses were in the tens of thousands.
One more prediction, the new admiral will lose the battle as well.
I was wrong for Sunday’s episode. It was all about a couple of days of torture. In the end, the King broke the man but not this spirit. The king has yet to deal with the depleted officer ranks of his navy, the new admiral got rid of most Yi’s officers. Now the new admiral will face a superior Japanese force under better leadership than his own and have to fight with a fleet that does not trust or support him.
Not what I would call a winning combination.
The King decided to spare Yi’s life because of his past service. But, he has ordered him to serve as a common soldier in the war against the Japanese. One way to get rid of your enemies is to send them off to a battle that they can not win.
Of course, none of the cowards and shirkers in the royal court stood up for Yi. That would have been so out of character for them; to think of the country before thinking of themselves.
Rather than rant on about injustice, I will just let it go for now. I will look forward to next week’s shows as it appears that the Japanese fleet is at sea.
One final scheduling note, there will be no blog for the 29th. I am having dinner with the Younger Brother after work. It will be a late night for me. That means that Tuesday will be a bit fuller then.
Be well and stay happy.
It was Day 30 for the building next door and Day 5 for the hallway walls on Friday.
I saw a sign up in our building lobby on my way to my office on Friday. It said the building renovation would be completed by Winter 2005.
When is Winter 2005 and when does it end? Since the operative time line is 2005, that means we only have another four months and a couple of days until the project is completed unless there is an act of God or other catastrophe.
I think I can last that long.
Gasoline Price Update
This is a tale of two cities, sort of. I drove by the Chevron refinery in El Segundo over the weekend. Mid-grade gasoline was $3.01 a gallon at the station right on the refinery grounds. At the Chevron station at the foot of the hill that I live on, mid-grade was $2.93 a gallon even though it is five or six miles – eight to nine kilometers from the refinery.
I never realized how expensive it must be to send the gasoline through a pipeline directly to the station when compared to trucking to the station.
Now back to the regularly scheduled Weekend Update.
Blond Asian Female
In my building, they have an access control in place in the early morning and late evening hours. You need to use a coded pass to trigger the elevator to go to your floor. It is not a difficult process or complicated. You wave your coded device by the sensor and then push your floor button. The doors close and the elevator goes to your floor. Simple.
I got in the elevator and waved my device by the sensor and push my floor. Before the doors closed, a rather tallish and attractive Asian woman got into the car. She was deeply engrossed in her Blackberry and what looked like emails or her schedule. She didn’t bother to swipe her access device.
I was going to say something but I didn’t want to intrude on her mental space. I knew she did not work on my floor. The elevator car stopped on my floor since it was the only stop called for. I started to get out when she came to her senses. She said something an Asian language that I can only guess was something that you do not repeat in polite company. She swiped her device and pushed her floor button as the doors closed.
She was clearly attractive and I had considered speaking to her for a moment or two. But, after her outburst, I was turned off. I was more turned off by her breath which was heavily laden with garlic.
The Blonde Asian would have been a perfect companion if you were planning to hunt vampires. I don’t think she could fit into any of my plans. I am sure she has other admirable qualities; I don’t want to get that close to discover what they might.
She is probably a great cook who uses excessive amounts of garlic in everything she prepares. I wonder if she likes garlic ice cream?
[Editorial note: I decided to add captions so that you, my gentle readers, can find the comments that interest you the most.]
Customer Call
I had scheduled a customer call for Friday afternoon. A customer call is when a banker visits a borrower or prospective borrower at his or her place of business. We get a tour of the source of our loan repayment and an explanation of how it all comes together. Bankers do not know everything and the visit helps put some solidity to the loan proposal.
Friday was a good day for a call since it was business casual dress on Friday. It is always good to be comfortable. Borrowers do not care how a banker dresses so long as the loan request is approved and funded quickly.
Unfortunately for me, Friday was one of the hottest days of the year so far. It was about 101F or 37 - 38C on Friday. The drive from my office to the business was fine because I had the air conditioning on in the car.
After spending a very informative 90 minutes with the potential borrower, I just knew my drive home was going to be terrible. I didn’t even try to put the air conditioning on because the outside air was so hot and the car metal was well heated. I drove with the windows down and the sunroof open.
I could feel the air cool off dramatically as I started down to the coastal plain from the Santa Monica Mountains [really high hills]. By the time I reached my exit, the clouds were rolling in over the beach and it was getting almost chilly. I said almost chilly.
It was nice to be home. The hot shower felt even better.
Potential Darwin Award
I was reading the online news posts from my ISP at lunch or Friday. There was an article about a Florida family of five that had set sail in a 25 foot – 7 meter long boat in the face of Hurricane Katrina.
Hello! There’s a big hurricane out there and you don’t know where it is for certain.
Now I will admit that I have never sailed in a hurricane in my life. I have sailed in two typhoons when I served on the good ship USS Leonard F. Mason in the great Pacific fleet. The waves were running over the top of the ship and the winds were well in excess of 65 miles – 105 kilometers an hour. The winds were probably higher but the top of the mast was carried in the storm and it had the wind sensor on it. The waves cracked the inch thick steel plate on the front of the forward gun shield.
A typhoon or hurricane is just plain dangerous.
Fortunately for the innocent family members and unfortunately for the rest of the human gene pool, the Coast Guard managed to save them. Their boat was a total loss and maybe that will keep them off the high seas.
The Darwin Award is a prize that recognizes the least use of common intelligence in the human species. This family may qualify for the award.
They do have some strong competition from the late gun store robber. The robber decided to rob a gun store. He walked around a police cruiser to get to the store door. The robber fired a gun and said, “This is a hold up.” The store clerk, the policeman, and most of the customers were armed and they fired back. The robber died at the scene with thirty entry wounds. The coroner counted over seventy empty shell casings.
This robber was not thinking clearly when he selected the gun store.
Saturday and Sunday activities
I managed to sleep in on Saturday. After I had finished reading the newspaper, I ran some errands.
I went to a computer store to see if I could find the Linksys power cord adapters for the Big Guy’s home networking project. There were none in stock, only wireless. Wireless, while convenient and easy to install, seems like too much of a risk since you can’t control the size of your wireless access bubble.
It was an unnecessary trip since our ISP requires us to purchase the product from them.
I picked up a new phone and renewed my contract with Verizon for another two years. I would have changed it over to the other carrier except for the fact the Princess uses Verizon and she can call her father and not use any of her minutes or pay any roaming or long distance charges.
The one nice thing about the new phone is that is made by Samsung. It is similar to the other new cell phones so I only have one phone operator navigation system to learn.
I had only two other activities of any consequence. I did read and smoke a cigar while reading out on the balcony. I finished off a Star Trek novel and two magazines. It was very relaxing and comfortable to read like that. It was cool and breezy. Nice Southern California weather.
The only other thing that I did was watch The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin. Things are looking bleak right now for him. The King has relieved him of duty and had him arrested for treason. The replacement admiral is not qualified for command. The Japanese, of course, are elated since the only Korean leader to regularly beat them has been relieved of command.
I suspect that the new Korean admiral will launch a battle against numerically stronger Japanese forces. He will not fit the battle using the proven tactics of Yi Soon-Shin. He will fight the battle in a manner that is the Japanese style because he thinks it is better to kill an enemy with the sword instead of standing off and blowing him up with a cannon ball. Personally, I favor the cannon ball because the result is the same and there is much less of a risk to your own sailors. In nineteen battles, Yi only had 150 combat related casualties; Japanese losses were in the tens of thousands.
One more prediction, the new admiral will lose the battle as well.
I was wrong for Sunday’s episode. It was all about a couple of days of torture. In the end, the King broke the man but not this spirit. The king has yet to deal with the depleted officer ranks of his navy, the new admiral got rid of most Yi’s officers. Now the new admiral will face a superior Japanese force under better leadership than his own and have to fight with a fleet that does not trust or support him.
Not what I would call a winning combination.
The King decided to spare Yi’s life because of his past service. But, he has ordered him to serve as a common soldier in the war against the Japanese. One way to get rid of your enemies is to send them off to a battle that they can not win.
Of course, none of the cowards and shirkers in the royal court stood up for Yi. That would have been so out of character for them; to think of the country before thinking of themselves.
Rather than rant on about injustice, I will just let it go for now. I will look forward to next week’s shows as it appears that the Japanese fleet is at sea.
One final scheduling note, there will be no blog for the 29th. I am having dinner with the Younger Brother after work. It will be a late night for me. That means that Tuesday will be a bit fuller then.
Be well and stay happy.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 9:07 PM
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