Automatic for the People

I forgot to post this earlier, but ISU did a nice simple memorial for all the people who were murdered by the hijackers on 9/11:

In other news, it was announced last week that REM was disbanding.  While I haven't been a huge fan of their later stuff, nothing can beat their 1992 album, Automatic for the People.  Everybody Hurts, Man on the Moon and (my favorite) Nightswimming are a few songs that take me back to those high school years (I'm getting old!).  When ever people people hear that I'm from Athens, GA, it is typically associated with REM or the B52's.

Not much else is going on, I'm still taking welding classes on Saturdays and we had our third golf class last night.  I am amazed at how much effort and thought goes into a good swing.  You have to get in the right position, hold the club properly, the list goes on and on.  Each night, we get a bucket of around 100 balls and we practice and practice.  Next week is going to focus on putting.

We have another guest coming to visit this weekend.  She and Karen both have birthdays in October and they have adopted the concept of the "birthday month."  Instead of just celebrating on the day of your birth, they say you should celebrate the entire month.  The theory hasn't caught on for others, but Karen definitely tries to exploit it around the house as much as she can.  "It's my birthday month" becomes the universal excuse to avoid doing dishes and other household tasks.  Of course, I don't typically give in on these things, but she gives it a good effort anyway.

A quick update

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a nice weekend.  Not a lot going on here this weekend, between having a 4 hour class on Saturday morning and the college football season being in full swing, it is hard to do much else.  Not that I'm complaining, it sounds like a good way to spend a day to me.

Last weekend, we had a weekend guest from Virginia.  After my  welding class, we piled into the car and drove east to Bloomington, Indiana. Yes, we went from one Bloomington to the other in order to go to the University of Virginia vs. University of Indiana football game.  Considering the fact that Indiana is a basketball school, they had a nice football facility.  Too bad they couldn't fill it!  UVA took an early lead, only to blow it in the second half.  Then, out of no where, they drove back and tied it up with 1:30 left.  We thought we were headed to overtime when a UVA play stripped the ball from the IU quarterback and UVA kicked the winning field goal as the clock hit 00.  It was a great ending and made the long trip worthwhile.  We got there a little early, this was the pregame warm up for UVA:

Karen and I had our first golf class last Monday night.  It was pretty interesting, I had no idea so much went into a good swing.  I guess that is why everyone isn't playing on the PGA tour...  Our second class is tomorrow night, I hope we both see some improvements in our technique afterwards.  I could see myself getting hooked on this sport, just what I need, another expensive hobby.

Speaking of hobbies, the welding class is going well. I was nervous the first week because we were doing oxy-acetylene gas welding. Basically using a flaming torch to heat the steel to 2000 degrees and melting it together. Very cool. This week, we did MIG welding, which uses electrical current to instantly melt the filler wire and the metal you are welding together. The process produces a very bright arc of light that you can't look at with unprotected eyes, you have to wear a welding helmet. Here is a picture of the classroom that the welding class is in:

And here are some pieces of steel that I welded together using the torch, insert your best Tim Allen grunt here:

Where were you when?

Everyone is probably tired of stories about this event, but what the heck.  As the 10 year anniversary of September 11th was closing in, I have been watching documentaries on the events from that day.  Watching those shows has got me thinking about where I was that day and I  I also decided to pull out some images that I saved from back in 2001. 

Considering the fact that I have a bad memory when it comes to most things, I remember exactly where I was that morning.  I was living in Dunwoody and working at Reece, Hoopes & Fincher at the time.  For some reason I was working on a residential landscape design in one of the Principal's office instead of at my desk.  A coworker stuck his head in the door and said that a plane had crashed into one of the WTC towers.  We walked up to the conference room, where the live video was playing on a small 13" tv.  Soon the room was full of co-workers, and we watched with disbelief when the second plane hit.  None of us could believe what we were seeing.  We just sat there watching in silence, then suddenly the first one fell, and then the second.  It was mind boggling.

I went home and sat in front of the tv all evening.  The next day we all tried to go back to work, but I am sure everyone was having trouble focusing on work.  That night, I spent the evening glued to the tv again.  That pattern seemed to go on for days, until all hope of finding survivors passed.

I look at all the political bickering that is going on right now and I wish the United States could get back to the way the country was right after 911 happened. Everyone put aside their party loyalties aside for a while and focused on rebuilding the country and finding the people responsible for the attack.

I could continue on the political track that I just got on, but I might offend some people, so I will stop myself now.

Where were you that day?

First week of the College Football Season

I was very excited for the start of the college football season, and very disappointed with the outcomes.  Out of the four teams that we follow, only one won.  Illinois State, James Madison AND Georgia all lost.  The University of Virginia was our only shining light, and they were playing a team that that they were pretty much guaranteed to beat.  Not a good start, it could be a long fall, especially if Georgia doesn't get their act together.

We didn't do much over the holiday, just took care of some errands and misc. projects around the house.  One of Karen's friends is flying in this Friday night for a weekend visit.  (In case the rest of you didn't know, we're always happy to have visitors!)  We are going to drive to Bloomington, IN  on Saturday for the University of Virginia vs University of Indiana football game.  At least one of our teams is playing within a reasonable distance, hopefully they will give su something to cheer about.  The bad news is that I will miss the UGA/SC game.  However, if they play like they did last week, I might be better off not watching it!

Welding class starts this coming Saturday and golf on Monday.  I'm sure I'll have some stories to share... 

Never too old to learn?

Now that I'm not slaving away at the car dealership on nights and weekends, I (and Karen) have signed up for some classes through the local community college. Class #1: Intro to welding. Ever since I started tinkering with cars and trucks, I have wanted to learn how to weld. For one reason or another, that has never happened. A lot of people say, "just go buy the equipment and teach yourself." Since my ultimate goal would be to build parts for my vehicles, and either restore an old car or build a kit car, I would rather have someone teach me the proper way to do it. Plus, I will be able to play around with someoneelse's equipment before I have to get permission from the Chief Financial Officer to buy equipment. I've also always been interested in metal yard art that people make, but (of course) I'd rather make my own. This should be interesting.

Class #2: Intro to golf. This is the class that Karen is taking as well, which will add another twist to learning. Will one of us be better than the other, possibly. Will it get competitive between us? Probably will. Surprisingly, she can get pretty competitive when it comes to games, so I foresee this being that way too. In case we decide that we really like it, I have already identified locations in the backyard for a putting green and chipping pads to hit from. I know I'm jumping the gun on that, but hey, we have a big back yard with lots of room to fill up.

As my previous post stated, Karen's parentes were in town for the weekend. Lots of good food (restaurants and cooked up by yours truly) and many rounds of Karen's current favorite game, Marble Pursuit. Here is a link for those of you who might be interested: We were introduced to it by one of Karen's friends and we've spread that interest on to others. You can often find the couple who makes the game selling boards with "defects" at discounted prices on ebay. That is what I bought and the board just had some minor scratches on it. Well worth the savings.

To top off their visit, her parents brought me frozen Chick-fil-a chicken biscuits! I know, it sounds sad and somewhat twisted, but I really miss Chick-fil-a! We learned this trick from one of my college friends who lives in Boston and misses the food as well. Her parents developed the frozen chicken-n-biscuit trick and we have passed it along to Karen's parents. Sure, it is thawed and re-heated, but it is better than waiting until our next trip south and 10x better than what micky d's can do fresh.

The Change Up

We just went to see the new movie, the Change Up. It was a funny movie, but the content wasn't ideal for sitting next to my mother in law. AWKWARD!

Sorry for the short post, just had to get that off my chest. I will have to see the movie again just so I can fully enjoy it.

Do bike rides attract storms?

Since I had the afternoon to myself (Karen returns tonight), I decided
to ride my bike to the office to check out the route. It is sometimes
hard to judge how bike friendly a route is going to be by car, so I
thought Saturday would have less traffic, so it would be a good test.
We don't have a shower at work (like I did in Athens) so I am not 100%
sold on the idea of riding to work.

They were calling for a 30% chance of rain and it looked pretty clear
at the house, so I hopped on the bike and headed towards the office.
About halfway through the ride to the office, I noticed that the wind
was picking up and it was starting to get dark. The closer I got to
the office, the darker it got. Ah, crap. I beat the storm to the
office by about 5 minutes, so I am sitting here typing at my desk in
the office. It is now thundering, lightning, raining and (just to
make it more interesting) hailing. Great, frozen precipitation in the
middle of August. The good news is that It looks like it is going to
pass through as quickly as it blew in... if it doesn't, I guess I'll
just take my company truck home.

I was about to hit send when it started to seriously hail outside.
The sirens haven't gone off, so I guess there isn't a twister near by,
but it is coming down hard... Seriously? If I had known that me
riding my bike would create a storm, I would have done it weeks ago.
The yard really needed some water, I hope it rained (but no hail) at
our house.

Check out the hail coming down outside the front door: