Chronicles: Alan B. Rowley II - Success Warrior - ECoach - P90X

Pics from Yellowstone

Still no time to post but I uploaded pics to Facebook.

Isn't it Ironic?

Don't you think?

I'm doing stuff that's blogworthy but I don't have any time to post to my blog.

I'm hoping to have some pics (actually tons) uploaded to my Facebook page this weekend.

My Yard, Amazon, UPS, and a Memory

It has rained here for 2 to 2 1/2 weeks straight.  Every day some rain.  May is historically the rainiest month but that hasn't held true this year.  Global warming isn't all about heat, it's very much about a change in patterns.  It's supposed to be in the 80s and dry in June in West Wendover.  Instead it has been in the 60's, windy as hell, and wet.  It's been very unusual.

Tuesday, that pattern broke and it was warmer so I spent most of the day working in my yard.  I mowed the lawn, smoothed out some dirt around my palm tree (that's what I call it) that's been on the back of my mind all year, did some weeding, trimmed all but 2 of my roses and ran the weed eater around my back yard and around most of my front yard.

The spool ran dry when I had about 10 feet to go.

I went to the local hardware store to see if they had a replacement.  No luck.  They said that if I could give them the make and model of my weed eater, they might be able to get a replacement by Thursday.  I went to lunch with Tia and the sargent for the county on the Utah side.  The sargent said that if I couldn't find the part, he would get one for me when he was in town and get it out to me on Friday.

On the way back from lunch, I stopped at the hardware store and gave them the make and model.  The make is actually a Weed Eater.  I thought that was good but they can't get a replacement through their distributor.  I gave the make and model to the sargent.

Then I decided to check Amazon.com.  I have prepaid 2-day shipping so I thought it was worth a check.  Bingo, they have the part.  I did the 1-click order and had it on the way.  I called Tia and told her to pass the word on to the sargent to 10-22 (cancel).

That all happened yesterday.

Today, around 5:15, Jeff (my UPS guy) stopped outside.  I was installing new lights in my garage and heard the truck.  I went around to the front door in time to see him running up to the door.  I opened the door.  He handed me the package with a "Here you go" and ran back to his brown truck.

What has brown done for me lately?  Between Amazon and Jeff (my super UPS guy), they delivered my new spool of weed eater twine the day after I ordered it.

How absolutely cool is that?  I told me wife and we just smiled in amazement.

We live in such a wonderful time, as far as technology goes, and it reminds me of my favorite story when this technology was sinking in.  It was back before the time of text messaging, where much of the technology was fairly new.

I was sitting in my cop car on a completely quiet week night running radar and IMing Rick on my in-car laptop in between the occasional car.  A song came on the radio that I thought he would like.  It just sounded like something that he would enjoy.  I asked him if he had heard of it.  Nope.

A quick search of the net and I found the video.  I sent him the link.  He said that I was right and that he did like the song. 

Another search and I found the CD on a site that accepted PayPal.  I didn't have a debit card back then.  They weren't as common as they are now.  I ordered the CD and had it sent to his house.

All from my cop car, while watching for speeders. 

It totally blew my mind where technology had taken us.  Now, we are 10 years past that point and it still just amazes me when you can run out of twine, go online, and have it on your doorstep the very next afternoon.

I love the time that we live in and look forward to what life has in store for us in the future.

***

FaceBook has made it easier to find people.  If you want to link to me on FaceBook, click HERE.

A Double Serving of FedEx and UPS

We spent the weekend in Mesquite Nevada and had a great time.  I uploaded a bunch of pics to FaceBook and have absolutely no idea if this link will actually work but here it is: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/album.php?aid=81309&id=776044816

The second day there we decided to get some ice cream.  Trey and Tia ordered baby scoops in waffle cones.  I haven't had any ice cream since Trey's birthday and decided to splurge with two scoops of orange sherbet.

"A double," the girl helping me asked.

"Yeah, a double," I answered thinking that a double is the same things as two scoops.  You know what they say about assuming.

This is a "double", which has enough ice cream in it to build an igloo.  An orange igloo, mind you, but an igloo nonetheless.

I actually ate it all and eaten my yearly allotment of ice cream now.

This was just the tip of the huge orange ice cream cone as far as food went for this weekend.  We completely just went with the flow eating what ever we wanted when ever we wanted.  If it counts though, this ice cream cone was lunch.  I can't imagine eating it for dessert.

The story about FedEx and UPS actually has nothing to do with ice cream.  It has to do with my medicine ball.  You may recall that I was headed into town a couple of weeks ago and I was going to pick up a medicine ball during that trip.  No luck.  I couldn't find what I wanted.

So I ordered it online.  We order tons of stuff online and have paid the yearly fee to Amazon.com for prepaid 2-day shipping because we order enough stuff to cover that.  That even covers a 15 pound medicine ball.  How cool is that? 

Well, it didn't show up after a couple of days.  I checked the tracking and it said that the wrong address had been put on the box. 

No chance.

My address is on file with Amazon and between my wife and I, we get at least one package a week (not all from Amazon) and most of them make it here (except for one from UPS, which I'll get to).  When they put down that my address is wrong, it means their driver couldn't find my house.

I called them to tell them that and give instructions on how to find my house.  Drive down the main road.  When you get to my road, turn left.  Second house on the right.  It really is that easy.  You can see my house from the major artery.  I'm amazed when I hear that they can't find my house.

The FedEx people were much nicer than the UPS people that I had to deal with a couple of weeks ago.  Nicer but I still don't have a medicine ball.  It's supposed to be here today.  We'll see.  I have taken some extra steps to help the poor guy out.

This is a picture of the numbers on my house.  They are probably medium sized letters and match the light fixture nicely.  The gold on white doesn't seem to subtle to escape the attention of someone whose job it is to drive around and find addresses.

Apparently it is for a couple of people.

A couple of weeks ago, UPS called me to say that the address on the box was wrong.

Side note: At least UPS called me to let me know.  FedEx didn't do anything.  After a few days, I called them to see about getting my package.

** We interrupt this blog to announce that the medicine ball has arrived.  The FedEx driver said that it was a relief driver on the initial delivery and was shocked to find out that FedEx threw my package into the warehouse and didn't bother to call me.

When UPS called me, I verified that they did indeed have the correct address and gave them instructions on how to find my house.  A couple of hours later, some guy from UPS calls and essentially calls me a liar and says that my address can't be right.  Yes, well, I've been here for 5 years, at the very same house with the very same numbers and every one except your relief driver (they had a relief driver as well that day) can find my house.

I told rude-guy to just put the package in Jeff's hands and it would get to me.  Jeff is the not-relief driver.  Jeff waves to me whenever he sees me out and about.  Jeff has delivered packages to me at my house, at my wife's work, and even gave packages for my dad when he saw me at the grocery store.  Jeff knows me, my family, where we all work, and can even find my house. 

They gave the package to Jeff and Jeff gave the package to me and he couldn't understand why they had marked on my package that it was the wrong address.  I explained that the guy couldn't find it.  Jeff didn't understand that either.  It's easy for him as often as he comes here.

I don't know the name of the regular FedEx guy.  He's part ninja, I'm sure.  He hits my house very early in his route, by 8:15 am.  I don't know if he knocks or anything.  Just slips in, drops off the package, and he's gone.  I step out the door to go to work and there's a package.

Today's FedEx driver wasn't the local guy but he knew where my house was and said that the numbering system is different on this side of the main artery.  I did not know that.  Still, he knew where my house was.

To help out relief drivers in the future, today I put up some much bigger, not so subtle, black numbers on my white house, up high so that bushes can''t conceal it from the main road, dead center on the garage.  If this doesn't work, the next step will be to get some neon from the casino and go that route.

Or they can just give the packages to Jeff and the FedEx Ninja and I won't have to worry about it.

Our Trip to Saturn

Trey and I took a trip to Saturn yesterday. 

The Hummingbird needed some work done on him to keep him humming along nicely.  I like this car and want to keep it running for another couple hundred thousand miles (because I think it might take that long for car companies to pull their head out - more on that later).  Rick brought up a concern that I also had.  How do you drive a car 150 miles that needs mechanical care?  You don't let things get too bad.  Maintenance and catching things quickly becomes very, very important.

Trey and I dropped the car off and caught light-rail to go someplace for lunch.  Riding the train is the highlight of the trip if you ask Trey.  Observe:

 

Then he tried to see how cute he could be.  How do you think he did?

 

We went to a place called the Gateway.  One of the entrances is through an old train station.

 

A painting inside, in memory of the meeting of the east and west railroads:

 

A stained glass window:

 

We walked along checking out all the different stores, trying to find some place to eat.  They had a couple Mexican places, Italian, Brazilian, pizza, Japanese, and some thing called Island food, which I'm not sure what that's about.  I let Trey pick so we went to a sandwich shop.  He really wanted Mac & Cheese so I tried to guide him toward Italian.  He picked the sandwich shop though and he was guided true because not only did they have Mac & Cheese, they also had free ice cream cones.  Score.

We did some shopping.  What do two guys shop for when surrounded by a hundred different stores? 

Shoelaces.

I broke one of my shoelaces on my cross-trainers that morning so we spent a whole $2.50 during our shopping.

The whole trip took us a couple of hours.  Trey was pretty much burned out on the shopping so we went back to Saturn.  On the way, we walked by this building and Trey wanted a picture:

 

When we got back, the car was no where ready so we had to kill some time.  We did it by taking a bunch of pictures.  I took a couple but Trey took a bunch.  Gotta love digital.  He could just take pictures of anything that he wanted.

 

 

Here's a picture of me pointing out to him that this new hybrid gets 34 mpg.

 

And here's the sticker on the most prominently displayed vehicle at the main doors.  It's also a hybrid with the word "Hybrid" done up in large letters along the doors on each side along with some kind of green symbol, which is probably supposed to symbolize that this is a green car:

 

32 on their most prominent vehicle?  34 on the other one?

The Hummingbird gets 35 mpg.  It's a 2002 with no extra cool technology. 

7 years later, technology that is supposed to be better is actually worse, and they charge you more to buy this technology.  You can pay hybrid prices for worse mileage than plain old gas. 

Is it any wonder at all that car companies are going bankrupt?  Their whole marketing plan for the last couple of decades has been, "This car is new, yours is old, come buy this shiny new one."  By old, we're talking 3 years old.  People were rolling the existing loans over from their "old" cars onto their new cars, putting themselves seriously upside down just so they can have a new car.

Seriously, since anti-lock brakes and airbags, has anything been added to vehicles to make them better?  New body types (over similar or worse engines), creating the SUV as a status symbol, throwing in iPod docking station.  Do any of these things count for much?  Can car companies honestly say they have added any quality to the vehicles they've been pawning off on the TV programmed consumers? 

Now that people have to watch their money more closely, is the "it's new" marketing scheme going to work?  For your TV commercial, can you do donuts on the Salt Flats in a car that gets 25 mpg and convince people that it's going to be fun to drive?  If the economy ever shows signs of actual recovery, gas prices are going to head back up over $4.00 a gallon.  Is your 25 mpg car going to be fun then?  I can tell you that my 35 mpg car was an absolute treat when gas was over 4 bucks. 

I feel bad for all the employees of car companies.  It's not their fault that the people in charge have made their own product nearly obsolete.  Sure, we need cars as a replacement but people are going to hang on to their cars longer when there is no actual reason to buy a new one.  If this one works fine and that one's not any better, why buy it.  Cuz it's new?  Not anymore.

I own the Hummingbird free and clear, don't pay much in gas (I have a 3 mile commute), don't pay much in insurance, and I won't be replacing him until there is something much better that's worth the price.  I looked at a year old Prius when I bought the Hummingbird.  With the difference in price, I figured I could drive the Hummingbird for a couple hundred thousand miles before the cost of gas would be more than the cost of a used Prius.  Puh-lease.  So, that's my plan.  Drive my car until the break even point or until car companies figure out how to add affordable value to their vehicles.  Right now, it looks like the Hummingbird and I are going to be long-time friends.

Oddly Enough

I find myself with time for a blog post but no words come to mind.

Interesting, because it seems that I am forever composing blog posts in my head but now, here, sitting at the computer . . . silence.

I'm not going to fight it either.  I'm just going to go read someone else's words.

Enjoy your day.

Trey is 5

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, observe exhibit 1.

The prosecution rests.

We had a bunch of kids over for a barbeque and some games in the front yard last Saturday to celebrate the life of this incredible boy who has blessed our life.

 

He got some super cool Spiderman shades for his birthday, which went right along with his chosen theme.

The next two pictures were requested by him, one the day before the birthday party and one the day after.

 

He asked his mom to spike his hair and thought it was so cool that he asked her to take a picture of it.  He loves having his picture taken.  Vain-much?

 

Someone gave him a little Nerf football with a soft arrow shaft coming out the back of the football, making it incredibly easy for even a four five year old to throw a nice spiral (right at the camera man).  This shot went over my left shoulder. 

He thanked us several times for having such a fun birthday and tonight we'll be writing thank-you cards to all of his friends that showed up to help make it such a special day.

My Roses This Year

A visitor at Trey's birthday party Saturday has this to say: "Tia, your roses look great!"

Whoa, whoa, whoa.  Back the truck up.

Tia set our visitor right, which I would not have done if our places were reversed.  I would have totally taken credit for the roses, but I'm like that.

Anyway, I'm still in blog-lazy mode so I'll upload some pics of how *my* roses are doing this year and call it good for the day.

 

 

 

 

Hang in there one more day . . .

. . . while I do my blog sloth thing.

Today is a complete "do nothing" day.  A break between what has been so far this year and what the summer will be.

Crossing the Finish Line

Here's a bit of news for those of you that aren't on my friends list on Facebook. 

By the way, why aren't you on my friends list on Facebook?  I know it's so yesterday now that everyone has gone batty over Twitter, which I can see absolutely no use for personally. 

I read an interesting article about mobile taco trucks that Twitter their where-abouts to people.  I suppose that would be a valid use but I know exactly where the local taco truck is (and I've never eaten anything from said truck).

I just can't imagine doing anything intentionally to make my phone ring more.  That's crazy talk.

Speaking of texting on phones, the cashier last night at the buffet had to finish typing in her text message before she could help the customer in line ahead of me.  This texting thing has gone over the top.  People can't hold face to face conversations now without texting at the same time.  For rude.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be short and to the point and not about Twitter or texting because I have karate practice in a few minutes.

I took my last test last night.  The college semester is over.  My associates degree should be arriving in the mail in a week or two. 

I'm going to be working on a personal trainer certification but I'm taking the rest of the week off from any kind of studying. 

I'm going to kick back and just enjoy the break for a few days.