Mountains to climb

I took the weekend off from blogging. Did not do a whole bunch as we had crappy weather for most of the weekend. I did work on breaking my couch in. It has a ways too go. I'll work on it again tonight.

It seems odd to me that when a disaster strikes that the nations of the world rise up together to help the nation that has been stricken yet on a daily basis we ignore the daily human tragedy that those same people have to endure. It would seem to me that if we would put our collective hearts and minds together like this all the time the world would be a much better place.

We need to climb the mountain to achieve some greatness as a human race.

Today is MLK Day. Have we made the mountain that African Americans are trying to climb any easier.

I did go to the farmers market Saturday. I was rather small since it is the off season. I did buy some fresh bread. Some was baked right at the market. All natural and organic. It is very good. I went for a short ride after that to look for something to shoot. I did find a John 3:16 sign on a telephone pole. It is by a person who has many of those down in the Franklin, NC area. I have some of these on my Flickr stream. My buddy Jacob K has many on his Flickr stream. He has actually been able to find the person who puts these signs up.

I wanted to go downtown yesterday to the arts district. I was checking things out online and discovered that most of the gallery's and antique shops there are closed on Sunday. Give me a break. If you want to make that a destination for your city how do you close on a Sunday. Since everything else is open on Sunday these shops being closed makes no sense. This does not happen in Asheville. Maybe these people need to look in that direction.

Hopefully the weather will be better next weekend. I need to get out and do a photo road trip. I want to head north of here. Maybe I'll go to Mt. Airy, NC. It is also known as Mayberry from the Andy Griffith show. Sounds like a good plan.

I have some goods ideas for improving this at work. I am going to suggest those today. They are simple things but they will make a big difference for everyone.

I want to see the new Jeff Bridges movie Crazy Heart.

I am working on a blog about Monsanto.

Have a good Monday.

All is quiet

So RTG called me yesterday and my couch will be delivered between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. tomorrow. Nice way to screw up the afternoon. Will go to the market early in the morning then.

I loved handmade soap. Since I have some money in paypal I decided to look on Etsy and see what I could find. I ended up buying Chocolate-Mint soap. You get two bars, a basket and a little knitted towel for ten bucks. Seems like a good deal. There are a lot of neat things on Etsy. I should try and sell some pictures there.

Not much else going on and not much too say for now.

Have a good day.

Ummm

So I have made it halfway through week 1 at the new job and all is well except the crappy computer system they have for ordering. Otherwise the people as nice and all is good.

Once the sofa gets here Saturday I am going to head out the farmers market and see what that is all about. It is pretty big, around 21,000 square feet. After that I am not sure. It all depends when Rooms To Go get the sofa here. The apt. is coming all fine.

There are a couple odd things here. In the kitchen they have the hot and cold water reversed.
The also have the outlets that are the main outlets for the tv and so hooked up to a switch that is right next to the switch for the kitchen light. They are right inside the door. So on a few occasions I have hit that switch and turned the tv, cable and such off. It is a poor design. Need to come up with some kind of cover for the switch. I do not want to just put tape over the thing.

Time for breakfast.

Young at Heart Chorus

So I was going to write a post tonight bitching about Monsanto and their evil ways of controlling agriculture through seed patents and such but I decided to post these videos instead.

While flipping around the channels i came across a show on PBS called "Independent Lens". They show some very interesting and compelling documentaires and this one was very touching and heart felt.

The Young at Heart Chorus is made up of senior citizens. The ages are currently 73 to 89. They go out and perform all over the world. I think these videos may bring a tear to your eye and a smile to your face.

The first one here is them singing the Bob Dylan song "Forever Young". The second song is Coldplay's "I Will Trey to Fix You". For the Coldplay song it was supposed to be a duet however the gentleman who was to be the other singer is one of the gentleman that had passed away.

Enjoy these. You will need to copy and paste these. Take the time at your heart will be filled with sadness and joy. They are beautiful.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4kqfYsOe4M&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gosIuO1HqEg&feature=related

Obervations

Well I have been here for a few days now and yesterday I started work.
The apartment complex I live in seems pretty nice. Quiet for the most part. I do not not the neighbors at all. The place is new so it is very clean, except for the frozen dog shit that seems to be all little excessive. We did have the fire department here Sunday night. I saw the cute girl who works in the office when I was getting gas t last night and asked here what happened. She said some woman was cooking and had a small grease fire that she tried to put out with water. That made matters worse, of course. Thankfully she only did minor damage to her kitchen.
I also asked her about a decent grocery close to here. Since where I live is somewhat close to the hood the closest grocery has a rather "iffy" customer base. I went into that store my first night here and the people in the store where looking at me like I was in the wrong store. I most likely will be going there when the sun is shining and only if I have too.

Yesterday I started work and it went well. I assumed the hours for work were 8 to 5 so I left at about 7:20 so I could gauge traffic. It took me 20 minutes. When I arrived there was one person there. It seems for the most part they work 9 to 6 which seems odd since most of the customers we work with work 8 yo 5. So I had nothing to do for a little while. Anyhow when Wanda, my boss and one of the bosses in the company, came in we talked for a bit, My hours will be 8:30 to 5:30. I think down the road I came get them back to 8 to 5. I did all the paperwork and usual crap you do the first day. Then back to real work. Pretty much jumped right in where I left off. Need to get used to their computer system for ordering and all that. It seems like an old program for the most part. Not all that user friendly. But getting used to that will come quickly.
The one thing I do not like it that they use Mozilla Thunderbird for their email and I find it to be annoying.

However they are happy to have me and I have have a job. Now I just need to get me a southern belle and I might be all set for a while.

Off to the shower..........

My nippless are hard...........

Damm it all to hell. I move out of Florida and some places near where I live get snow flurries.
What is that all about? The weather is just plain odd. I live in Florida for 20 years and nothing. The day I leave, flurries. Now that sucks. I hope the garden Jim and I worked on is ok.
It was 13 here on Saturday morning. Thank you Mike for the jacket and gloves.

I have been in Greensboro since 5:15 p.m. on Friday night and I am in the process of getting settled in. My cable and internet are hooked up. The movers delivered my goods this morning.
I bought a couch from Rooms To Go yesterday, to be delivered on Saturday. I been to the store and bought some food, printer paper, coffee maker, tea pot and a few other things for the apt.

I built the coffee table I bought from Ikea and have my chair parked in front of it for the football game. I can not wait for the sofa. I need a sofa to nap on.

Will slowly begin to unpack my boxes. No real hurry there to be honest.

Depending on the weather next weekend, and it looks iffy for Saturday, I will start to get out and roam around a bit.

I am exhausted right now. Way too much for me to process in such a short period of time.

Work at 8 tomorrow. Back to the real world. Damm, I was hoping for a big lottery win.

Goodbye Florida

I was go to get all philosophical about moving and all that but have decided to save it for a future date. For now all I am going to say is "Goodbye" Florida.

The computer is now going to be turned off. The next time I turn you on I will be in the state of North Carolina.

Peace my friends.

Mr. Mover I am waiting

So I am pretty much set with packing. I need to pack my clothing, the few hundred cd's, the silverware and sheets and that should be it. Oh yeah, the tv, stereo and computer will be the very last things to be packed. The computer is going with me, along with some clothing, the air mattress, the cds with all my pictures on them and a couple other things I would rather trust to myself.

I am listening Steely Dan right now and I made me think of when I went camping at Rocky Neck State Park with my parents and "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" was playing in the car one day while we were out on a family drive. For some reason there are a few Steely Dan songs from that time that remind me of camping with my parents. Kinds of odd. At the time 66 WNBC was most likely the most powerful radio station in the United States. They were of course an am station.

They played most what would now be considered "AOR" or adult oriented rock and pop tunes and disco tunes. Until I truly discovered rock n roll this was the station I grew up on. At one time they had both Dom Imus and Howard Stern as disc jockeys. That gives you an idea of the kind of influence they had on the radio world. Anyhow 66 WNBC and Steely Dan bring back memories of being a kid.

So yesterday I decided I would put my couch, with the broken spring in the center section, some odd ball housewares out to the curb. I also put out a microwave that I got from Tammy and Mike in exchange for a gas grill. The grill is many many years old and the touch pad finally started having issues the other day. Well everything but the couch was gone in about 20 minutes. I left to go the the bar and watch the Bucs and when I arrived home the couch was gone. Thank you Mr. Scavenger.

Picture is from Daytona Beach, Florida. This is a real double rainbow. This is next to the track looking out at the Daytona Airport.

Where is my remote?

What the hell? I think I packed the remote for my tv somehow or maybe it is in the trash. What a fool. The house was such a darn mess I am not sure. I really do not want to dig in the trash since there is glass in there along with something that smells really darn awful. Oh well at least it is not the remote that gets used the most.

I think for the most part that the packing will be done today. There are a couple things I want to do today so I may stay up late tonight to get it all done. There are a few things I will need to do this week before I move so packing needs to be done ASAP.

I started a Shelfari bookshelf on the blog today. I always look at Kens and decided that I needed to have one since I read all the time. The first book I put on was "The World According to Garp" by John Irving. I had already been a pretty good reader by high school but this was the book that did it for me. I had to read a book for an english class as a freshman in high school and for some reason I picked this one. It was the first book that I had ever read that really had an impact on me as a reader. The characters that John Irving creates are some amazing, fantastical and filled with thoughts and emotions that strike a chord with me. My favorite books by him are of course "Garp", "Cider House Rules, and " A Widow for One Year". Read those books and you will see what I mean.

I'll go over the other books as time goes along.

Moving on up

Well I have an apartment. I rented a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with a dishwasher, brand new washer, brand new dryer and brand new microwave and a what they call they call a deck. The massive deck is about 3 feet wide and 7 1/2 feet long. I rented it for 15 months at the bargain price of $735.00 a month. The normal price for this is $810.00 a month. So right off the bat I am saving $140.00 a month on rent. It is at a place called the Gardens at Anthony House.
It is on the south eastern part of the city. When I head out of the complex I can be in downtown Greensboro in 10 minutes or so or I can head the the other way and am in the country in two minutes. It really is on the outside of the city. The place is only about two years old or so and they are actually still building. It will do until I get some cash saved and get the area figured out then I will rent a house. You can get some great deals outside of town by just driving 20 or 30 minutes from the city.

I need to find a mover in a hurry. They want me to start on the 11th. They are shorthanded due to some people being sick and business has been good. Looks like I will jumping right into the fire. Hopefully I can get a mover on such quick notice.

Will need to get an oil change in the truck, have the small tire leak patched, and have it given the once over before I move. Not sure how it will like the cold weather.

Should be done with most packing today or tomorrow. Will leave the computer and tv till the end. The computer is one of the things going with me along with my camera and all the cd's with my picture.

More to follow soon.

Happy New Year.