3167 A wandering mind

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

"All meetings last longer than they should."
-- Scott Adams --

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An oddity: When I was young, the islands of the Caribbean were often referred to as the West Indies. You never hear that anymore.

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When Daughter was in school, I would get very annoyed because when the allotted snow days were used up, in order to meet the mandated minimum, the school board would extend the school year into middle to late June, despite the fact that Spring Break was supposed to be used. The reason? Because teachers had scheduled vacations during Spring Break and were angry that they might have to eat plane tickets. The teachers were stupid to count on having those days.

Something has changed in the past twenty years. The school district at the old house has announced that they have already used up the snow allotment, and if there are any more snow days, they will use the Spring Break. Cool.

What I don't understand is the way they have chosen to use it - guaranteed to piss off a lot of people.

"If school needs to be closed for emergency reasons, weather-related or otherwise, and additional “make-up” days are needed, classes will then be in session first on Wednesday, April 20, and thereafter on Thursday, April 21, and then on Tuesday, April 19th, in that order. If additional “make-up” days are needed beyond that, April 18 and April 22 will then be under consideration."

This says that if one more snow day is needed, they're taking it out of the middle of the break.

I don't understand.

I guess maybe they're thinking that they'll at least preserve two long weekends?

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There's a lot of talk about raising the Social Security retirement age again. There's something they're not taking into consideration.

Not so very long ago, if you got a good job, and kept your nose clean and your manager happy (which was often a contradiction, if you know what I mean), and kept your skills up, you pretty much had a job for life.

Nowadays, the only people with that much security are folks in strong unions. High tech companies have pretty much been able to avoid unionization. The technology, however, changes so quickly these days that those companies find it efficient to get rid of older folks (who are higher on the salary ladder) and replace them with new college graduates, at a lower starting salary, who will impact company-sponsored health plans less, and who already know the new stuff.

This means that people over 50 are finding it increasingly difficult to find permanent jobs. They end up working temporary contracts, with minimal benefits, no vacations, and no retirement plan. (The benefits of contracting at different companies in various industries are that you end up with a robust and varied resume, which makes it easier to get the next contracting job. The down side is that it still doesn't help you to get a permanent job with all the benefits.) Periods of unemployment between contracts make it difficult to maintain your own retirement plans.

The saddest cases are the folks who worked for the same company for 24 years and then were replaced by a kid. They are 50 years old and have experience specific to that industry and, worse, skills possibly specific only to that company.

It isn't going to get any better. The days of the lifetime job are over. It's only going to get worse.

These folks who want to raise S.S. eligibility to 70, what do they think people will be doing for the last 25 years (or more, the way things are going) of their working life? Nobody is guaranteeing that they'll have a job until then.

Of course, the people who are proposing, considering, and will be voting on this plan have lifetime benefits and a generous retirement, regardless of how long they are in office. They have no idea what others have to contend with.

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I've been checking around for a hair salon. Becs has even offered her adored Herschel. I'm sort of keeping that in reserve (thanks Becs), but closer would be better.

I want someone who will cut my hair DRY. Not just will cut it dry, but fully understands why I want it cut dry.

There are places online where one can read customer reviews, but I'm suspicious of them. How do I know those reviews are not plants - employees or family and friends of employees?

So, I did something dangerous.

I bought a fine-tooth rattail comb. I already have hair shears. I trimmed it myself. I didn't change the style. I just parted it every which way and smoothed the choppiness, trimmed wherever chunks of hair were sticking out beyond the other hairs around them. It's still a little chunky because in some spots chunks were so short it would have been pretty drastic to cut the longer stuff around them down to that length, so I had to leave it uneven. And the right side is still slightly longer than the left. But it does blend a lot nicer now, and it looks less like a wig at the back of my neck.

I like it now.
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3258 Despair

Saturday, February 12, 2011

T-shirt: “If I’m mean it’s because you’re stupid.”

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I am very discouraged. if anyone should be aware of the power of words and the importance of using the correct word, it's journalists. I can be forgiven errors. Journalists cannot.

I read the following statement in a "U.S. News & World Reports" article credited to Rick Newman, about Mubarak's wealth:

Other Mubarak funds are reportedly sitting in British banks, and Mubarak was no doubt wily enough to squire away some cash in unlikely places.

I read that and my brain froze. The mental picture didn't work. "Squire"? Did he really escort the money to the unlikely places? Perhaps he also gave it a corsage? Or maybe he carried the money's shield? Perhaps the word should be "squirrel"? He squirreled the money away? (Mental picture is now one of a squirrel burying nuts. Yeah. That works.)

I guess Mr. Newman has heard the expression, misheard the word, and used what he thought the expression was without wondering where it came from or what it meant.

I've almost given up reading comments on articles. The average "U.S. News & World Reports" reader isn't exactly in the same league as "Wall Street Journal" readers, but should be at least a few notches above tabloid readers. But the comments on this article had me searching the pantry for peanut butter cups.
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3256 Its time

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

A ship is safe in port, but that’s not what ships are made for.
-- Admiral Grace Hopper --

______________________________________

I get annoyed when people say things like, "Jazz was the top music of its time", referring to The Jazz Era.

Duh. Anything is the top whatsis of its time. Otherwise it wouldn't have been its time, right?

(I am the most famous femme fatale of my time. My time just hasn't arrived yet.)
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3254 Short trip north

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

We kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong.

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I used to watch Antiques Roadshow a lot. Now I catch it occasionally, accidentally. I think the British version is more interesting. I noticed a telling difference between the "tone" of the American and the British versions: the American appraisers tell the people what they could get for the item if they sold it; the British appraisers tell the people what they'd have to pay to buy a replacement, therefore what they should insure it for.

Actually, that's a cultural difference. It's a subtle difference in the way we define value.

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The only prescription I take is Synthroid, 50 MCG. Under my prescription plan, I have to get them through the mail. I get a three-month prescription with three refills. When I get down to the last 10 pills, I go online and tell MedCo to send the next three-month batch.

Early last month, I went to the website to order more, and discovered there were no more refills. I need a new prescription.

I don't have a doctor here yet.

So I called my old doctor and asked if they could please send me one month's prescription, and that would give me time to find a doctor here.

No go.

She said I hadn't had a physical exam in two years, and I'd have to come in. Period.

I was a little confused, because I remember a LOT of blood drawn last year about this time, lots of visits, but she said yes, but that didn't include a physical. The next appointment I could get was February 7th. That meant no Synthroid for at least three to four weeks. My other choice would be to attempt to find a doctor here who is not only taking new patients, but would accept a new Medicare patient, and then I'd still have to get a physical and wait for the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) blood level results, blah blah.

So, yesterday I drove the 2.5 hours north for a physical.

My appointment was at 1 PM. I got to the village at 12:25, so I stopped in to see Piper and his daughter. I figured I'd get to the doctor's office at 12:50, since I wouldn't have to fill out any papers or anything.

Surprise. Sometime in the past several months, my doctor's group merged with another group, and they have a new computer system. I had to fill out the 10 pages of "past surgeries, dates, all vitamins and supplements you take, insurance numbers, emergency family members, family medical history" - all that crap detail that I don't carry around in my head and hadn't brought with me.

Hey, folks. All that stuff is in your old database, AND in that paper folder you keep looking in. Couldn't you find some nerd to write a simple program to transfer data from the old to the new database? Couldn't youse guys input from the paper folder when you knew I was coming? At the very least, will you let me look at the paper folder, and just copy the crap onto this new form, instead of wracking my brain trying to remember?

No, no, and no.

I've got strong pulses in my hands and feet, good reflexes, nothing weird about my skin (except that it doesn't fit very well any more), no chest noise, no lumpiness anywhere, etc., got a PAP, and paper to take somewhere (where?) for a bone density scan and a mammogram. Blood was taken for I don't know what besides the TSH level, and they gave me a prescription for another year's Synthroid. I mentioned that my morning urine has been smelling very bad, so they're going to culture it. Pending the blood, urine, PAP, bone density, and mammogram results, I was declared in marvelous condition for such a decrepit old bat.

Then I went to the old house. I had the little BMW, not the van, because freezing rain was predicted for overnight, so I couldn't bring much back, but I picked up a few things I had been missing, like more dishes, my moisturizer which I haven't been able to find around here, measuring cups, some books, etc. I turned the well pump off, just in case. And I set some mouse traps. That may have been a mistake. If I don't get back there soon, everything might smell of dead mouse. Well, that's not an odor I haven't dealt with before.

Then I went back to Piper's office to finish the earlier conversations. They had a meeting at 4:30, so I left at 4:15, and that's when I realized that if I headed south then, I'd be getting to The Oranges at about 5:45 - a very bad time, traffic-wise. So I decided to go to the diner for something to eat.

I hadn't ordered yet when my phone rang. It was The Hairless Hunk. He said he'd seen a little black convertible go by, and figured it had to be me. "Who else but you would drive a beautiful little car like that on this sloppy salty road?" The phone conversation was getting long, and I was uncomfortable talking in the diner, so I invited him to the diner for coffee.

As usual, we talked. And talked. I don't know if he's starved for conversation, or if he's always like that. It's amazing how much time we can talk, and never seem to run out of topics. We were still at the table three and a half hours later. Yeah, I kind of miss him. I don't want anything beyond a mild flirtation, but I really do like talking with him. Plus, he's pretty. Plus it's a boost to my ego to know that he finds me .... interesting. My daughter finds me boring.

It did rain on the drive back south, but it didn't freeze.

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When I was standing at the window in the doctor's office, a woman was talking to the other receptionist, and was annoyed to discover that her 1 o'clock appointment was at the other office, not this office. The two offices are about 5 miles apart. The receptionist said, "Well, if you just go there, you'll be only 5 minutes late. They won't mind." The woman snapped, "Oh, I don't care about their time. It's MY gas!"

I'm sorry, but I couldn't help saying to my receptionist, "I just drove 2 and a half hours for this appointment, and all I want is a refill of my prescription."

I'm unsympathetic.

Mainly because I don't believe their insistence on my coming in was for my health. I suspect they held my prescription hostage for their bottom line.
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3168 TV Freakout

Sunday, November 21, 2010

“Men are so blind that they even take pride in their blindness.”
-- Augustine of Hippo --

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I checked out cable TV for the new house online this morning. Apparently, there is only one company that services this area, Optimum.

According to their website, they do have a basic service for $17.29 per month plus $1.50 for each additional TV set, which has a whole slew of channels, including ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, FOX, and CNN, which is pretty much all I want. I don't need all those fancy cable-only channels; it's dangerous for me to have too much choice. I'd never get anything done. (And if someone who visits often wants more, like sports and comedy, he's welcome to pay the extra for it.)

The price for basic was right, the selection was adequate, so I tried to order it online. And hit a snag. Basic isn't an option to order. I can order all kinds of fancy packages, but not basic.

So I finally gave up (their website is impossible to navigate, I went around in circles) and called the phone number to order service.

I got an entirely different story from what the website says, and then the conversation with the Optimum rep went even farther off the rails.

Me: "I just tried to order service on your website, and went around in circles."

Brittany: "You don't want to do it on the website anyway. They don't even look at those orders for two weeks. On the telephone, we put it right in."

Me: "Ok. I want to get Basic service." ((I have already lost confidence in this bunch.))

Brittany: "For Basic you get 10 channels for $29 dollars."

Me: "That's not what the website said. It says Basic gets a rather large set of non-premium channels for $17.29."

Brittany: "No. Just ten. $29."

Me: "Do those 10 channels include ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and PBS? If so, that's enough for me."

Brittany: "No. To get those channels you need the IO Family package. That's $44.95 a month."

Me: "That seems like a lot for channels I'm currently pulling in off the air with rabbit ears."

Brittany: "Well, you won't be able to do that much longer. Those channels are going digital pretty soon, so you won't be able to get them with an antenna. Not without a digital box, anyway."

Me: ((Huh? Long pause. What the hell is she talking about?)) "Uh, the channels I'm getting ARE digital, and I've got digital TV sets. I'm watching them in digital. Off the air. With the antenna on the set."

Brittany: "Well, you won't be able to much longer."

Me: ((This woman is nuts. Or she's been in cold storage for more than a year.)) "Are you folks the only cable company serving this area?"

Brittany: "Yes. Very few people in your area have satellite because of the weather."

Me: "So, what do I need to get the channels I want, for how much?"

Brittany: "You'll need the Family package. That's $44.95 per month. How many sets will you have?"

Me: "Three or four." ((One in my bedroom, one in the workroom, one in the kitchen, maybe one in the living room.))

Brittany: "Well for three boxes, that's $65.86, and for four it's $75.75."

Me: "That's almost $10 extra for each box. Your website says less than $2 for each additional." (($10? For WHAT?))

Brittany: ((Silence.))

Me: "This is ridiculous. I'm going to have to speak to some of the neighbors."

Brittany: ((Silence.))

Me: "Bye." ((Click.))

Now, am I nuts or badly informed? Is she nuts? Is this normally what basic cable service, including local broadcast channels, goes for? Especially when it's the only service and therefore there's no competition, and therefore they should be regulated?

None of the numbers she quoted have any relation to the numbers on the website, neither price nor channels available. Can I report them to someone for false advertising, or bait and switch, or something? And to whom?

Something is very wrong here.
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3166 We are living in 1984

Friday, November 19, 2010

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.

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I've been reading a lot about the new TSA "scan or pat" controversy. Of course it's security theater, not real security at all, having much to do with past failed attempts and doing nothing to thwart future attempts, and a whole lot to do with someone profiting from sale of the machines.

It's also unconstitutional under the fourth amendment. To quote a comment from 'Mela' on an interview of TSA agents here:

"This policy allows TSOs to “pat down” (which is an absurd bastardization of the term in this case) American citizens, assumed under the law to be innocent of any crime, in ways that a police officer is not allowed to touch a suspect in the face of probable cause of evidence of a crime. That is blatantly unconstitutional and every citizen should protest if they believe in the tenets of rights this country was founded upon."

But then, we've been giving up rights over the past ten years. What's one more (shrug).

Many non-Americans have said that they will no longer enter the US, for business or pleasure, because the American "security" measures insult them.

I have flown El Al. Their security measures make sense and are supremely successful, especially considering that they are target #1. Please do read this: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199---israelification-high-security-little-bother. They take the problem seriously, and attack it intelligently with training and psychology. No fuss, no feathers flying, nobody profiting, no insulting intrusion or harassment.

Then ask yourself why Americans are generally considered lacking in intelligence (and yeah, that's a sort of a sad pun).
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3164 Duh?

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe themselves to be free.”

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The FDA has banned alcoholic "energy drinks" - those with both caffeine and alcohol.

Everybody talking about it seems to home in on the combination. One of the companies intends to keep selling the stuff, without the caffeine.

I don't think it's the combination that's bad - it's the concentration. One can of that stuff is equal to four beers, one can of Red Bull, and a cup of espresso.

If it's the combination, then what about rum and coke?

Duh.
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3162 Do Jeeps get hung up?

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other.
Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."
-- Katherine Hepburn --

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Oh, green Katherine, I so agree!

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I just watched a commercial for Jeep where they say that putting the wheels very close to the front and rear allows the Jeep to climb over bigger obstacles. Then they show it clambering over some huge rocks.

I noticed that the front wheel went over the big rock, but then it bounced off to the side.

Yuh. Uh huh. Because if you really climb up over a big rock like that and keep going straight on over it, especially if there's a dip after it, you'll get hung up on it in the middle.

If you want to really clamber over big rocks, with wheels spread way apart like that, you'll need a third pair of wheels in the middle. Otherwise you just make a very expensive teeter-totter.
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3011 Inadequate A/C; Inconsiderate a-holes

Monday, July 5, 2010

“Wise men talk because they have something to say;
fools, because they have to say something.”
-- Plato --

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When it hit 87 degrees inside the house last night, I gave up and turned the air conditioning on.

I'd been resisting turning on the A/C as long as possible because the heat pump A/C runs off the well water, so while it's on, I have miserable water pressure, and it stirs up the well so there's silt in the water and I have to change the filter in the basement more often. But last night when it hit 87 degrees in the house, and temperatures are supposed to approach 100 degrees over the next three to five days, I gave in.

There are several steps involved:

1. Turn off the living room thermostat that controls the oil furnace.
2. Change the water filter at the tank in the basement, a very dirty job.
3. Fight through the spider webs and throw the circuit breakers: furnace off, heat pump on.
4. Remove the damper from the heat pump, so the cool air can enter the ducts. This involves standing on a chair and pounding with a hammer.
5. Insert the damper in the furnace ductwork to keep the cool air from dumping through the furnace into the basement.
6. Turn on the water to the heat pump, which involves a tall stepladder and wrist strength.
7. Check for water leaks.
   
8. Turn on the hall thermostat, that controls the heat pump A/C and electric backup heat.

I did all the steps, and when the temperature continued to rise, and there was no air blowing from the ducts, I got very upset. I could hear water flowing through the coils, so I thought the fan had died. There are no parts available for the heat pump. Jay had got a good deal on it when the house was built in 1982, but what they didn't tell him is that the model was discontinued that year. Parts and service were available for only seven more years. Nobody wants to work on it now. I keep planning to replace it with a REAL a/c system, but every year there's another huge unexpected expense (like when I discovered the roof was going to cost $10,000, not the $4,000 or so I'd planned for, that wiped out two years), or I let it go until too late in the year, so, anyway, it hasn't happened.

When I finished freaking out and was able to think logically, I went through all the possibilities, and then realized I'd screwed up step 8. I had turned on the wrong thermostat. The furnace thermostat has a "Cool" setting, but it's not hooked up to anything, and I had forgotten all about the hall thermostat and had flipped the living room thermostat to "cool". Sheesh.

The shutoff valve on the heat pump hasn't worked in years, so water runs through the system constantly. I paid about $5,000 last year (or the year before?) to have the well pipes, pump, and pressure tank replaced, so I hope this doesn't kill them. Plumbers tell me that well pumps like to run, it's going off and on that kills them, so I'm hoping it's ok - as long as I don't pump the well dry.

It's now 11 am, and even with the system having run flat out all night, the inside temperature is already 80 and rising. It's only 84 outside.

I am really starting to hate this house.

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I'm in a very bad mood partly because my mail box and paper tube have been hit again. It gets hit every few months by people backing out of the driveway across the street. No one EVER stops and apologizes, and that alone pisses me off. And I know how it happens because I have seen the tracks in snow, or in the lawn. Once I was actually in the side yard and saw it.

Three bashes ago, the post for the newspaper tube got bent, so it is no longer in line with the mailbox, making it difficult to reach it from the car. Two bashes ago, the mailbox body got twisted enough that the door no longer closes. There's about a two inch gap at the top. Rain and snow get in. The last previous bash twisted the post far to the left, so the mailbox is not lined up with the street.

Somebody hit it yesterday, twisting the mailbox to the other direction, and destroying the tube. Here's what I have now:


It's impossible now to reach the newspaper from the car. I have to get out of the car, no matter what the weather, no matter how hard it's pouring or hailing. The paper delivery person must be throwing it in or something.

The a-hole must have hit it very hard, because although the mailbox post was designed to twist rather than break when hit by the town snowplow, it's got 25 years of rust and corrosion on it, and when the Hunk straightens it for me, he needs to use a winch on his truck.

And as usual, no one so much as left a note, let alone offered to fix it. I am royally pissed off.

I bought a new mailbox a few months ago, but I want to install it on the other side of the driveway, hoping a-holes will be less likely to hit it, and I haven't decided yet what kind of post I want. I'd prefer something flexible, like a huge spring, but haven't found the right thing yet.

I am really starting to hate people.

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The kicker? The "Service engine soon" light is back on steady in Hal. He's going in tomorrow for the bumper replacement, so I'll mention it then.

I'm really starting to hate this car.
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3007 But wait, that's not all....

Thursday, July 1, 2010

“If women are expected to do the same work as men,
we must teach them the same things.”
-- Plato --

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A little excitement on Tuesday, on route 9w in Esopus. A dump truck driver towing a trailer carrying construction equipment (a paver and a Bobcat) missed his turn and decided to make a U-turn. He pulled over to the right shoulder and started the turn (how! Route 9w at that point is not particularly wide. I'd hesitate to try to turn Suzie there!). He didn't notice a truck coming up behind him, and got clobbered broadside.

But wait, that's not all. The truck that hit him was a fuel oil truck, carrying 3,000 gallons of fuel oil. The oil tank ruptured, spewing oil on the road, and the oil caught fire.

But wait, that's not all. Both trucks and the trailer were engulfed in the burning oil (the drivers did get out and away in time) and the heat melted them (I heard the Bobcat became an unrecognizable lump). The fire was so hot it melted the propane gas line under the road. Which proceeded to leak gas.

But wait, that's not all. A warehouse next to the road, the building served by the gas line, caught fire and burned to the ground.

But wait, that's not all. The warehouse stored fireworks (possibly illegal, since private fireworks are illegal in NY), which of course caught fire.

A little excitement.

The Hairless Hunk told me about it yesterday. He works with a volunteer fireman who had been there. Then Vic the mechanic told me about it, too. It was just up the road from Captain Vantastic's shop, and almost across the road from Vic's house.

Local newspaper article here: http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/07/01/blotter/doc4c2c1e12f1f6d769584005.txt

Very short video here (turn the sound down):

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6hxzy5XwUk&feature=player_embedded]
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2977 Ramdom Thoughts #459 or so, with indignation

Friday, June 4, 2010

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words.
If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.
--Philip K. Dick--

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There's a story on the news now about a young man who was driving on the Taconic Parkway when his car "went airborne" into the woods, rolled four times, and ended up hidden from the road. He suffered back and internal injuries, tried to crawl to the road, and was out there unfound for 4.5 days. He was located by his cell phone signal, and taken to Albany Med, where he is expected to recover. Altogether unthinkable. Horrible experience.

But, here's what bothers me: He was driving a BMW. Those things grab the road and hold it. The speed limit on the Taconic is 55 mph even though it's four lane divided because it's actually a localish road with many crossing roads and no traffic lights. It is NOT a limited access road, not a throughway. Local folks get very angry at fools who whip down the Taconic like it's some kind of freeway - it's not! Not one news report over the past two days, and there have been many, have mentioned what caused the one-car accident. It could have been a deer, I suppose, which is another reason the speed limit is 55. (Rolled four times, in the woods, after losing control at 55?)

I have my suspicions, and I suspect he may have reaped what he sowed.

---------------------------------

I guess I'm into blaming people for their own screwups today.

I read an article a few days ago about education loan debt. The author of the article seemed to think that it was the fault of the college financial offices that graduates were leaving school saddled with enormous debt, that the schools are not advising them correctly. The example used was a young woman who, with her widowed mother, and no savings for college, and no big academic scholarships, decided that even so she needed to get degrees from the most prestigious of schools to assure her future. The best of the NY state schools (and there are some good ones, including a very good FREE school in NYC) would not do.

She kept borrowing money, and ended up with a masters' degree and $97,000 debt - and she can't find a job that offers more than a hair over minimum wage. Since the loans were from several sources, the payments are concurrent, and she can't afford to pay them. Declaring bankruptcy won't work, because educational loans cannot be discharged by bankruptcy. She's in a bad place.

Now, we're supposed to feel sorry for her, and agree that she got some bad advice, and the fault lies with the school financial office.

Sorry. I don't think so. She made some very bad decisions, and I suspect she ignored some very good advice that wasn't what she and her mother wanted to hear.

The absolute kicker came finally in the last paragraph. It was so bad it made me swear out loud. Can you guess what her super expensive degrees, the degrees that absolutely had to come from prestigious schools and were to assure her a comfortable future in her choice of assured high-paying jobs, are in? Some technical, financial, professional, or scientific discipline, right?

Nope.

The answer is at the butt end of this post. Wait for it. Don't jump ahead. It'll spoil your mood for an hour. You'll want to kick her, and the author of the article, around the block.

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NYS's budget is in deep do-do. The governor wants to add a new tax on sugared carbonated drinks, "juices" with less than something like 10% real juice, and other crap in a bottle.

This proposal has been countered by a barrage of commercials with a young mother unloading grocery bags, and pointing out that the tax will raise her monthly grocery bill by some outrageous amount, and in this economy, she can barely feed her family, so please Governor Patterson, don't take money out of my family's mouths.

The commercials piss me off. Look, lady, if you need money to feed your family, why are you spending so much of that budget on crap in a bottle anyway? The people putting out those commercials don't care about you, your budget, or your kids. They're just worried that you might buy less of their crap.

I guess I really am in a bad mood today....

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Ok. Change of pace. Here's a video. It's 6.5 minutes long, and one of the scariest things I've ever seen. If you have a serious problem with heights or edges, don't watch it. If you do watch it, think about what it must have taken to build that path. (I do, and I did, and I lived. Didn't even throw up once, although I did discover that I can still hold my breath for 2 full minutes.)

From http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/scariest_path.html:

"This walkway now serves as an approach to Makinodromo, the famous climbing sector of El Chorro in Spain's Andalucia. And it is the hairiest path. The area of El Chorro situated in the south of Spain is renowned amongst travelers and mountain hikers for its stunning scenery and climbs, yet this is not the main attraction on offer, El Chorro is host to one of the most dangerous walkways in the world, built by workers to transport materials between the Chorro and Gaitanejo Falls."

I always thought climbers had to be a little crazy.

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The answer: The young woman's degrees are in religious and women's studies. Even typing that now, especially when she and the journalist are trying to assign the blame anywhere but on the poor decisions made by her and her mother, pisses me off.
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2294 Progression and other bits

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Still sick, but it's different now. My throat isn't sore, and my muscles feel a little better, but the coughing has kicked up to where I can't talk without coughing, and when I cough I wet my pants. Add a mild diarrhea and a strange weakness in my legs (I'm walking like I'm drunk), and I'm still miserable.

People have asked "What are you taking for it?" and offer me Z-Packs and decongestants, and recommend aspirin. I believe this is a virus, so antibiotics are counter-productive. There is no congestion. I'm coughing because the back of my throat is super dry. I'm not taking aspirin for the fever, because I believe fever (as long as it's not out of control) is the body's way of fighting invaders - a way to make the body inhospitable to colonization. So I'm doing hot soaks, gargling with mouthwash, sucking on honey-lemon drops, and resting. I slept 13 hours last night. I figure I've got two more days of miserable, followed by two weeks of coughing, and then it will be over.

--------------------------

I assume by now everyone has heard about the woman who was ticketed for breastfeeding her baby and talking on the cell phone at the same time, while driving her other children to school. The baby's head was resting on the steering wheel (think "air bag"). She says that when she gets out of jail, she'll probably do it again, because when the baby's hungry, he needs to be fed.

She's an idiot.

--------------------------

In other news, there's the saga of the the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition family in Atlanta whose deteriorating one-story ranch was replaced by a $450,000+ castle.

I always wondered about that show - when a modest house is replaced by a mini-mansion, the taxes have got to go up, utilities have to be much higher, and how do the families manage the taxes and general upkeep? Well, it turns out that the show gives them enough money to pay the taxes for 25 years (around here, for a house that size, that's over $200,000). Plus this family in Atlanta was given college tuition money, and a car, and I don't know what else.

So, they've got a brand new $450,000+ 5,000+ sq ft house with no mortgage, 25 years worth of taxes, and tuition money.

What did they do? They went to the bank and got a $450,000 equity loan on the house, ostensibly to start a business, which apparently was never started.

So, let's see. They have $450,000 from the bank, cash for 25 years worth of taxes, and who knows what else. They never made any payment on the loan, and are giving the house to the bank, and walking away with the money.

Ya gotta admire the gall. They can buy another reasonably-sized house and still have a half a million left over. Neighbors and the community volunteers who worked on the house are justifiably pissed.

Apparently it's not a rare problem. Other recipients of the show's largess have done the same thing - used the house for collateral for loans they can't repay.

So, now, how do I apply for the show? I could use a quick half-million....
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2193 Another "News Story" from those blithering idiots at AOL

Friday, January 2, 2009

I use AOL for my main email id. That's all I use it for. It's the one thing they get right, and it's free. When you bring up AOL you get a welcome screen that has "news stories". I should know better by now, but sometimes I get suckered into clicking on one.

One that suckered me yesterday was about a study showing that heavier women report more and better sex than thin women. Well, I'm a heavier woman trying to get thinner, and I certainly want to continue enjoying sex, and I wondered if I might end up missing out on something, maybe it has something to do with estrogen being stored in fat, and if there's anything I need now it's to preserve the little estrogen I've got left ... so I clicked on it.

There were so many things wrong with that "study" that I was literally yelling at the screen.

I should define where I'm coming from before I go commenting on "heavier women". I am 4' 10" tall, and I weigh 140 pounds. My measurements are 42, 33, 39. My legs are short and thick, and my thighs jiggle side-to-side when I walk. I am by no means thin. My goal is 125 pounds, that's where I'd like to be, and even there I'd still be pretty, uh, lush, because I'm so short. Actually, the only thing that distresses me about my body right now is that I have a thick pad on my belly (it's a loose pad on TOP of very good abs, by the way, so don't make crunch noises at me). If I could get rid of just that pad I'd be satisfied with all the rest as it is, jiggle and all. Anyway, the point is, I am considered "heavier", no matter how any study defines it.

And that was the first thing that bugged me about the story - they defined "heavier" as being a size 12 (American) and up.

First off, you can't define anything by dress size! If I pay less than $30 for a dress or blouse, I wear a 10 or 12, or a medium, maybe even a large if it's tight across the bust. If I pay more than $100 for the same thing, I wear a 6 or 8, or a small. I'm not exaggerating. I buy about half my clothes at Wal-Mart, and half at boutiques, so I have a lot of experience with the difference in size measurements. I wear a Coldwater Creek small, 6/8. Coldwater Creek caters to older women with large budgets, and wants to make them feel good about their sizes, so they put small numbers on big items. If I tried on a $2,000 sundress on Rodeo Drive, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find I wear a 4. Less expensive clothing skimps on fabric. More expensive clothing plays to egos. Simple fact.

So is that a cheap 12 or an expensive 12? And how do they get "heavier" when 12 (however defined) is supposedly the average woman's size? Heavier than what?

So ok, got past that. Next, the "study" is based on women "self reporting". Bad methodology. Self reports means self selected, often come from people who want to brag and/or have an agenda, and often have nothing to do with facts.

Last, the "researcher's" "conclusions" are that men (they're saying in general, note, not specific) prefer heavier women, find heavier women sexier.

This is not a valid conclusion.

[It may or may not be true. I'm certainly not saying that large women aren't sexy, ALL intelligent strong loving confident women are sexy!, but the conclusion simply isn't supported by the "study", and that's what I'm objecting to. I'm heavy, and I'm sexy. So there.]

It's possible that men find heavier women simply more approachable, and more available. Wolves and players all know that it's easier to get into a woman's pants if she has low self esteem, and all men dislike rejection, so if a guy is looking for a one-night stand, who's he more likely to approach? Most likely one that he thinks DOESN'T get approached a lot.

Getting approached and invited has a lot to do with how much you get.

If you watch Maury or Jerry, you see 300 pound toothless illiterate women who are sleeping with five men at the same time. Some men will take anything they can get. Some women are easy to get. At least Jerry Springer doesn't attempt to conclude that 300 pound toothless illiterate women are sexier and more in demand than other women.

Give me a break, AOL.

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Yes, there are lots of men who do prefer full-bodied women. I'm dating one right now. By his standards, I'm skinny. He likes 'em BIG. I think that's why I'm having so much trouble losing that last 15 pounds. I don't feel a strong internal or external urge.
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2043 Thud

Sunday, September 28, 2008

A pro-Palin woman on a discussion panel on TV this morning insisted that Sarah Palin is still enormously popular - after all, she was at a rally in Florida the other day, and 60,000 people showed up to see her.

The evidence offered does not support the conclusion.

You can bet your last dollar that if Sarah Palin showed up anywhere around here, I'd show up, too! It might be more fun than a demolition derby. I might even cheer at something she said, just to encourage her to say more like it.

Everybody loves a good safe wreck.
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1971 Visibility, Part 7 - the arbitration, Part 2

Monday, August 25, 2008

[Continued from Part 1] So the battle is on.

The problem of externals exposure existed not only in the particular product that had been copied, but throughout The Company's products.

A group was pulled together in White Plains to act as the coordinators and first level interface between the legal eagles and the software labs. They did most of the prep work for the attorneys. Four "Litigation Labs" were set up, northeast (us), southeast, west coast, and the other side of the world. Our jobs were many.

We received code from the competitor, and tore it apart to identify the copied portions. That, actually, was the reason for the high building security. We reviewed every manual for every product, to identify exposed internals and direct the publication departments in removing those references. We reviewed all new design documents to ensure that proper user exits were provided, and no new internals were exposed. We translated "legalese" into terms the lab programmers and design folks could understand, and translated lab concerns into terms the attorneys could understand. We educated pubs people and programmers in the whys and wherefores of the new rules. We had final approval on all new releases, and were very strict - schedules be damned. (I was finally in my element!)

I, personally, had responsibility for compliance of 35 products in 5 programming labs: 3 large operating systems and 32 major applications.

Now, the saying is that if you have a hammer for a tool, everything looks like a nail. The first claim of the competitors was that it was the manuals, the publications, that exposed the internals. So when corporate set up the departments to contain and correct the problem, they recruited pubs people. That whole top layer in White Plains were pubs people. They wanted the manuals cleaned up. All presentations and lab education was aimed toward what should be documented, and what should not. We in the Litigation Labs were not allowed to put together our own presentations or classes - we had to use foils developed by them and approved by the attorneys. At first, the only people we were to work with were the pubs people.

Fine. I agree we had to start sensitizing the publications departments. BUT - the folks in White Plains seemed to think that when the pubs were clean, the job was done.

I was shocked. The problem was not simply in the publications, it was in the design! Internal control blocks were exposed to the customer because no other means for debugging or plugging in had been provided. A few of us in our litigation lab had come from programming and design, and I was able to convince them that unless the design area in particular was sensitized to the issue, the concept of "black box", they were going to continue to design transparent functions. This would put the pubs people in a tough spot - design is going to continue to hand them transparent customer interfaces, which the pubs people would then not be allowed to document.

We HAD to get to design, too.

Well, surprise. Everyone who had come from design understood the problem, but none of them were willing to take it on as an issue. Do the assigned job and get out.

I fought it, all the way. Eventually everyone in White Plains also understood that the problem was larger than initially thought. We still had customers out there plugging right into the code. We had to identify them, and provide proper exits, otherwise we were still exposed to the argument that all that code was an external interface. We had to teach the design departments to provide proper "plugs", and hide everything else.

Everybody understood, that is, but Sue. Sue was one of those people who somehow found herself in rarefied air, and knew deep down that she didn't belong there. She seemed to be deathly afraid of being found out. She constantly "ran scared", freaked out daily. I heard, but don't know as a fact, that her previous department wanted to get rid of her, but she wouldn't accept transfers, so when White Plains was looking for pubs people, they figured that was one job she wouldn't turn down. I also heard, but don't know for fact, that she was hired in because she was Asian, and they needed someone who could read Japanese, and then after she got there, they discovered she could neither read nor speak Japanese. It could be both.

Sue was, of course, my interface in White Plains. I'm lucky that way. She was a complete ass. I had called a meeting with design in Endicott one time, and she decided to attend. The topic was the design for some function whereby they required that the customer know how certain algorithms worked and what bits were set in certain control blocks in order to use the function. This was an obvious violation. I was sitting down with the designers to explain what was wrong with it, and to figure out with them how we could redesign the function so that the internal operation would be hidden. All it required was a front-end, and we were talking about what the front-end could expose.

Well, Sue objected. She insisted that the design was fine as is. All they had to do was NOT document the customer interface. "Just don't say this, and don't say that...." She didn't understand that that would make it completely unusable, and force the customer to reverse engineer the code to use it, which is the worst scenario imaginable.

Because her desk was in White Plains, she decided she outranked me (she didn't), and she thought this meant she could interrupt me and "correct" me at will.

In short, I finally lost it. She and I ended up both standing on opposite sides of the conference room table, leaning on the table with our faces about a foot apart, screaming at each other. The lead designer called a break, and during the break, he said that I'm right, anyone can see that, and, um, how 'bout we end the meeting now, and resume in two hours without telling Sue. Which we did.

I spent four years fighting with her. My coworkers had occasional dealings with her, and they asked me how I could stand it.

In the third year, my manager put me in for promotion. It had to be approved by the director. The director asked the person in White Plains who worked most closely with me whether I deserved promotion. Of course, Sue said no.

In the fourth year, my manager put me in for promotion. It had to be approved by the director. The director asked the person in White Plains who worked most closely with me whether I deserved promotion. Of course, Sue said no. (Sue wasn't getting promotions either. Had I been promoted, I'd have been a higher grade than she.)

And then The Company, who under previous CEOs rarely fired anyone - they'd shift people around until they found the right spot - warned the world that there would be major cuts in personnel. "RIF"s. Reduction in force. The Mid-Hudson Valley was going to lose several thousand jobs. Transfer somewhere else now, or die.

They offered packages to people who were willing to quit or retire. The "easy out" retirement package included lifetime medical, and five years added to your time, and a very healthy severance check (for me, it was a year's salary), and assistance finding another job. If you didn't volunteer and were RIF'd, you got next to nothing. Just fired.

Our litigation lab headcount was under White Plains, not the Mid-Hudson valley labs, so no one in our group was going to lose a job (although I understand two people were strongly advised to take the offer since it would probably be the best they'd ever see). However, since our payroll paperwork was handled in Poughkeepsie, we were eligible for the package anyway. The cuts would be announced on April 1, 1993. Jay and I were planning to get married, so we waited until the end of the day on April 1. If he was RIF'd, I'd keep my job. If he still had a job, I'd volunteer for the retirement package.

More than nine thousand local people lost their jobs that day, but Jay wasn't one of them.** On April 2, I went in to my manager, and told him I was taking the easy out, and he freaked. Six of the ten** in the department planned to take it, including him. He said that he was afraid that if Martha and I left, they wouldn't let him leave.

We all kind of figured that the spotlight was going to turn on headquarters sometime, and since we were under their headcount, we'd all be sacrificed before any of them, and there'd never again be a package as good as this one.

And that's why and when I left the company. In constantly pissing off Sue, I broke rule #10.

------------------------

** The next year, 1994, they did it again - RIF'd a few thousand more people, including Jay and the remainder of the Litigation Lab. From April 1993 to April 1994, about 13,000 local folks were out of work. The real estate market tanked. Job losses rippled throughout the surrounding communities. Thirteen thousand computer professionals were turned loose on a depressed job market, and even if they did manage to find another job, they couldn't sell their house to move.

The second severance package was much much MUCH less attractive. I did really well taking the first one when I did.

Remember Peter, from Visibility Part 4? Uh huh. And Sue? Disappeared. I don't feel at all guilty gloating. For once, I got something good at the right time.
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1967 Visibility, Part 4 - Peter and the foils

Friday, August 22, 2008

The Company had two big-iron operating systems that were very similar, the older one supported in Endicott, NY, and the newer, which took advantage of newer hardware technology, in Kingston, NY. The Company decided to combine them on a base generated from the newer system, and to "transition" all customers to the new combined system. (Partly because they wanted to retire the old hardware.)

It was a major effort. Functions that existed on one system and not the other would have to be combined on the new system, so there were a lot of new line items.

Externals - messages, responses, return codes, command syntax, etc. - would be hit hard. Although I owned the externals, another design department was in charge of identifying what would have to be done, writing the specs, making the projections, planning, etc. There was a team of five, with Peter C. as the team leader.

I went to Peter, and asked what it looked like so far. He confessed that he had no idea how big it was. He was looking at just comparison of text of commands and messages. I pointed out that there are differences in function, too. The same command didn't necessarily work the same on both systems, because they are based on different hardware, and that there are user applications that capture return codes and responses "under the covers" and perform different actions based on those return codes.

He turned green. He didn't know where to start.

The problem interested me. On my own time, I wrote a super-generator that allowed me to execute every variation of every command in both systems, and then it automatically compared the results. It was a super-human effort. In total, going after all options on all commands, and all responses, messages, and return codes, there were over 30,000 variations. Then I obtained some examples of user applications, and scanned them to identify which externals were heavily used, and which had less impact. Major, major effort. No sleep for weeks.

When I had the results, I asked Peter to call a meeting of his team, where I presented foils of my results, identifying all differences between the systems, sorted as to impact, including a recommendation as to which were mainly used by the old-system applications, and which the new, plus an estimate of the man-hours required to consolidate and test them. Peter's manager attended the presentation.

A few months later, Peter got a HUGE monetary award, one of those corporate-level things, PLUS a huge promotion, for his work in identifying and prioritizing the external differences.

It turns out that he had made presentations to the management chain, all the way up to the product owner level.

Although none of us "grunts" had been invited to, or even knew about, the presentations, my friend Edith had somehow seen a copy of his foils. She came to me and asked if I had seen them. I said no, why. She said I should ask Peter for a copy. That's all she said.

I asked him, and he kept putting me off. He'd get them. He'd make a copy. It was a long time ago, he didn't have it anymore. So I found me someone, a manager, who had been at one of the meetings, and whom I was able to bamboozle into locating a copy for me.

It was my foils. Exactly. My name had been removed and replaced by his, and my name was not mentioned anywhere as so much as a contributor. Not a whisper.

I immediately marched straight over to Peter's office. I stood in his doorway until he looked up and noticed me, and I said, "You don't have to keep looking for those foils for me. I got a copy." He turned white and actually literally shook. "They're very interesting," I said, and I turned around and left.

I was furious. Not simply at what Peter had done, but his manager had been at the meeting where I had presented those foils, and she had to have known what Peter had done. His team and department knew what he had done. Within days of the award announcement, most of the several hundred people working on the operating system knew what he had done. Edith was the only person who actually said anything to me. Everybody else just looked at me funny.

That was MY work, and should have been MY award, MY acclaim, MY promotion, and everyone knew it.

I waited a while to see if he would confess. He didn't. I knew there would be no benefit to me in raising a stink. But for the next year and a half, every time he saw me in the hall, or in a conference room, he shook. He couldn't follow a thought if I was around. He stuttered. He dropped things.

Me? I smiled at him. I was pleasant. I looked him straight in the eye, as his eyes shifted off. And because I owned those externals, I had a natural interest in the activities of his team, so I made it a point to attend every meeting he called, every presentation he gave, for the rest of my time in that lab.

You know, it would not have occurred to me to have taken the presentation up the line. It wasn't necessary. No management approval was necessary to act on that material. They didn't even need to know about it, and I'd have seen it as wasting their time. There was no other reason for Peter to do those presentations except to draw attention to what a wonderful job he'd done. Too bad he didn't do it. I did. And it wasn't even my job - it was his job, but he was incapable. Of everything but taking the credit, I guess.

Heh heh - he lives near me. Twenty years later I still run into him in the pharmacy or grocery store, and he still quakes when he sees me, and I am still pleasant. I'm almost (but not fully) content with that. He knows what he did and he's suffering his own hell.

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Phooey - I'm gonna put his name here. It's all true, and I've got witnesses who will back me up so I can't get in trouble for it. Hi, Peter Chenevert! Yeah, I'm still pissed.
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1877 Gloom and Doom

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

[Rant on]

I'm reading a lot about how people can't afford the necessities and how it's going to get worse. About how families have to decide between filling the gas tank or filling the grocery cart. Mostly, it ticks me off.

Ok, yeah, there are families that are living hand-to-mouth, day-to-day, and they're not the ones that bug me. It's the ones that make bad financial decisions to start with that really get me going.

The ones with the huge cars, and iPods, and Sirius, and fancy cell phones with expensive phone plans and who don't pay attention to how much they use them, and "name" athletic shoes, and rotating wardrobes. Like the recently seen couple who "cannot afford health insurance", with the kids on Wii on a 5-foot-wide TV in the background of the interview.

People might say, "Well, you're financially comfortable. You don't understand."

These are usually people whose grocery carts are full of snacks and expensive ready-prepared foods, at $7 per person per meal, instead of the fresh vegetables and meats that will run $2-3 per meal. The same folks who will pay $6 for a cup of fancy coffee, and pay for it out of a designer purse. Please! You can afford groceries. You just can't afford YOUR groceries, and you certainly can't afford that purse.

Some people seem to think that they need everything new that comes along. If something is advertised as "better", faster, bigger, they think they need it. Who really needs an SUV?! A Hummer?! Come on! Sheep led by corporate advertising, that's who.

All bull poopy. How do you GET comfortable, and BE comfortable with what you have? You understand the difference between "want" and "need". That's how.

I don't need cable. I don't need an iPod, or a phone that takes pictures, or texting on my cell phone. In fact, I don't need the cell phone. The only time I turn it on is when I travel, and it's more for the convenience of others than my own.

My car is five years old. I bought it used two years ago for $9,000. My thinking included not only the cost of the car, but the ongoing cost to insure it. It works just fine - more than meets my needs.

I have a lot of clothes and shoes, I'll admit. But what most people don't notice is that a large portion of my closet is ten, twenty, or even thirty years old, because I don't buy "fashion", I buy classic. And I see no need to pay retail.

My house is furnished in antiques, purchased at local estate auctions for less than I'd pay for new furniture of equivalent quality and craftsmanship. It's sturdy, strong, and never goes out of fashion.

When Jay was job-hunting around the country, we looked at houses hither and yon. He'd point to McMansions, and say, "We can afford that." My response was always, "That's more space than we need, and I'd have to clean it all! No way!" I cannot understand why people buy more house than they need. And don't tell me it's an investment. It's an investment only if you pay cash. If you've got a mortgage, you'll spend more than you'll ever make on it - unless you pay the mortgage off early, which I have always done, and Daughter and Hercules are doing now (I've taught her well).

Yes, I have four television sets, but I didn't pay more than $200 for any of them.

Yes, I do treat myself well. I do buy some things I merely want, like my Pleo Clyde, and the recent Waterford lamp. (Note that in neither case did it cost more than half retail.) And one of these days I will present myself with a swoopy sportscar, just 'cause I want it.

That's the one argument I have over and over with Piper. He chides me for never spending principal, only income. He says I could afford almost anything I want. I respond that I have everything I need, precisely because I don't buy everything I want.

[Rant off]
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1820 I Win

Monday, May 19, 2008

I'd been fussing about something off and on for two weeks.

I'd been on a committee working on a document. The committee chairman, with whom I'd had some minor run-ins in the past, had been keeping multiple successive drafts of the document on his hard disk. I did the final revisions, made some major changes with his approval, and sent him a copy of the final document. I also put a copy on the local chapter's website's document disk, and that was the version reviewed and approved by the governing board and other members. The next step is to send it to the national board for approval, and when it comes back from them, it is official and no further changes can be made without going through the whole process again.

The last time this document was updated, this same guy was the committee chairman, and what was sent to national was a mess, full of typos, inconsistencies, and flat-out impossibilities. He hasn't admitted it, and I haven't asked, but it looks like a down-level draft had been sent.

Now, this guy likes to think of himself as the one who knows all about what's going on at the national level. He likes to be the interface, possibly to be known at that level, and he gossips and name-drops like he's an insider. So when it came time to send the new document to national, of course he's the one to do it. I don't care.

Then I get an email from him. He hasn't emailed the doc to national yet because he has a virus on his laptop, his hard disk is corrupted, and he can't get to the file on his hard disk, but it should be recoverable.

Ack? I wrote back that he shouldn't use the copy on his hard disk, he should use the copy on the group site, since we are absolutely sure that's the copy that was reviewed and approved, and since he can get to the site from his office computer, he can send it right now.

I didn't hear from him again for a week or so, then I get another email that his hard disk was partitioned, and one partition was destroyed, but the other was fine. So he has lost all his email folders, but the document was on the other partition, and he should be able to recover it in a few days.

Note three things here: 1) without the emails, he'll be guessing on the date of the draft; 2) I had sent him the final copy as an email attachment, and it used a different editor than the one he had been using so it could have been stored differently; and 3) he has pointedly ignored my strong recommendation to use the copy on the group disk, while still sending me progress reports.

I sent another strongly worded email saying that he should ensure that the correct level is sent ! by sending the group disk ! copy, since we are certain ! that is the approved ! version.

No response.

I just know he's going to send a downlevel draft, probably the latest one with his editor's file type, forgetting that I used a more commonly available editor on the last revision. I was ready to drive to his house and beat some sense into him. I am absolutely thoroughly pissed that he has made no reference to my strong recommendation. Hey, fella, at least tell me why you are so determined to send the copy on your hard disk? Send national the LINK to the group disk! That's all they need!

And then I talked to My Man, and in telling him about the problem, and his laughing at me, I realized something.

If the guy happens to send the approved version, then there's no problem.

If he sends the wrong version, then I have the enormous satisfaction of telling him, and the governing board, and anyone else who will listen, what a complete and utter ass he is.

Either way, for me, it's a win-win situation.
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1734 I Don't Understand People

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

I'm going to write about a friend here. I said I wasn't going to do that any more, but this thing has me reeling. I don't understand her logic. I don't understand why she is reacting the way she is, and I don't care if this gets back to her somehow, because maybe then she'll understand why I had to pull away from her a few months ago, and am resisting getting involved with her again.

Background facts: She's on disability, and works part time jobs, which means money is always an issue. About a year ago she almost lost her house because she was without housemate and couldn't make the mortgage payments. She rents the second bedroom, sharing the kitchen and bathroom, and has had some miserable tenants over the past few years.

Last spring, George, a newly-divorced construction worker, moved in, saving her from foreclosure, and George has proven to be an asset. He volunteers handyman work on the house, is quiet and sober, is a gourmet cook, often treating her to dinners, and always pays the rent on time. He's a nice and accommodating guy, and she needs the rent money. He even arranges to be out of the house when her boyfriend visits, without complaint. Perfection, right?

Over the past few weeks, an odor has appeared and grown, emanating from his bedroom, and spreading to her bedroom. She says he doesn't smell it, and isn't bothered by it, but it bothers her so much she has been sleeping on the couch downstairs. She said it smells "sort of like old gym socks". She accused him of being unclean, and freaked when she discovered that his comforter hadn't been laundered since he'd moved in. She took it to a commercial washer and washed it herself, but the odor didn't go away. In fact, it got worse.

She has been after George to figure it out and fix it. I know her well enough to feel sorry for George. She says that he is now avoiding her, and refuses to discuss the problem further. They have stopped speaking. She's furious about having to sleep on the couch because she can't stand the odor upstairs.

I suggested that it may not be George. It's an old house, and she's had some serious roof gutter problems. Perhaps melting ice had gotten into the walls and it was mold. From her description of the odor, it sounded to me like mold.

So, I got a call from her last night. She went into George's room after our last discussion, lifted the rug in one corner, and found mold, on the floor and on the underside of the carpet. She thinks George had left a pile of wet towels there. (I am not convinced it was George's fault - it could still be coming from the wall, but I didn't say anything.) She found some stuff in the hardware store to fix mold problems. She thinks she can get rid of the mold and the odor.

However, here's the part that has my head spinning. She is going to kick George out, give him his two month's notice, on Easter Sunday.

I asked why, and she said because she can't continue sleeping on the couch any longer. I asked why not just clean George's room, and let him stay. "You're between jobs, you need the rent, he's been a great housemate, it's not like he did anything on purpose, if it was towels, he'll never do that again, and if it turns out to be a problem in the wall and you can't get rid of the odor, you'll have great difficulty renting the room to anyone else, and the odor doesn't bother him, so why throw him out?"

Her answer, "Because I can't sleep on the couch any longer."

????

There's some kind of logical disconnect there.

I pointed out that to get her back into her bedroom, she'll have to treat his room. She says she can't do that while he's living there.
"Why not?"
"Because everything he owns is in that room. He's got so much stuff."
"Why can't you just move his stuff out into the hall or whatever?"
"There's too much. He has to be out."
"But if you wait until he's out, and he'll be there for two more months, you'll be on the couch for two more months, at least. And then there's no assurance that you'll be able to re-rent the room, depending on whether the treatment works. If you move his stuff out temporarily and treat the room, you'll be better off."
Her response? "He has to get out. I can't sleep on the couch any longer."

I do not understand. I just don't get it.

-------------------------------

Maybe her paranoia is rubbing off on me. I told her last December that I didn't want to "be pals" with her any more because I was tired of her going off on me and mistreating me, and taking advantage of me. I told her I was not going to put myself in her line of fire any more. And so far, I've stuck with that. We are pleasant when we meet, and that's it.

Now, she KNOWS if she kicks George out, she's going to have big financial problems.

She also knows I have money.

Last Sunday, at Green Eggs and Ham, she mentioned to me that as she's job hunting with little success, she's currently living on her tiny savings. She's three years younger than I, and has no family. Her house is her retirement plan.

I have a feeling that in a month or two, I'm going to have to be very strong. Yes, I do donate to charities, and I can be very generous with my friends, but if she insists on digging this hole on purpose, I have to let her fall in it, even if she loses her house. It's her fate, and her lesson to learn.
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1443 Bylaws Rant

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Don't bother reading this. I'm just blowing off steam.

Just thinking about the bylaws is making me angry.

This guy who has appointed himself chair of the bylaws revision committee was in charge of the previous revision of the bylaws, about ten years ago. The usual process is that revisions are proposed, and published in the newsletter. Comments are gathered, decisions are made by the committee, then it is sent to the national office for approval, and the final version is again published for an approval vote of the membership.

The way the A55hole did it ten years ago, the general membership didn't see it at all until time for the vote. This "guy who knows best" didn't feel he needed any other input. I don't know how the hell it got approved (probably nobody actually read it), because it was full of errors. Stupid errors.

Like the head of the board has traditionally been called the "Local Secretary (a.k.a LocSec)", a British term. This guy happened to be the LocSec at the time, and he thought it didn't sound important enough, so he decided he wanted to be the President. So references to the LocSec were changed to President. EXCEPT, not in ALL places! So up front where the officers are defined, we have a President. There is no LocSec. But later, where responsibilities are assigned, the President apparently has none, and the LocSec (who doesn't exist) has many. The A55hole didn't even ask anyone else to proofread it!

In the section on the timing of elections, there is a nominating committee, and an option for petition nominations. However, when you lay out the election schedule (which is defined by specific month and day in the Bylaws) next to the newsletter cutoff and mailing dates (which are not in the bylaws, and change on the whim of the editor), there are perhaps THREE DAYS for the membership to see the recommendations of the nominating committee, decide to run as a petition candidate, get the signatures, and get the petition to the Board and to the editor.

There are only five elected officers, and if the nominating committee comes up with only five candidates and there are no petition candidates, then the five are declared elected. No voting.

The Board appoints the nominating committee. The nominating committee selects the candidates. There's no requirement to ask in the newsletter for candidates to volunteer, and not enough time anyway. There's no time for petition candidates. If the nominating committee selects only five candidates, they are declared elected. This looks like the previous board SELECTS the succeeding board. And that's exactly what happens. There has been no real election since this guy single-handedly revised the bylaws ten years or so ago.

How convenient.

There were other problems.

When I saw all the errors, I wrote them all up and submitted the corrections and recommendations, and was horrified when I was told that "There isn't enough time to make the changes. We have to submit it to National as is, because that's what they approved." (National makes you jump through hoops so you understand that it's not something you want to do often.) I was shocked when National didn't disapprove, but this is a small group, and I'll bet A55hole said in the application that we simply followed the skeleton from National, so they didn't bother reading it.

So, ok, A55hole has decided it's time to revise again. He asked me if I wanted to be involved, because he knew he damn well better. He also asked another member, probably randomly, I've never heard of her, and from the email discussions far, I gather she has no idea what bylaws ARE.

But, of course, neither does A55hole.

I'm also pissed because there was NO copy of the bylaws locally available (it is supposed to be distributed to new members, and to any member who asks. I've been asking for years, and have been rebuffed), so A55hole had to get HARDCOPY from National. He gave it to Roman, Roman scanned it, and ran it through a program that converted the scan to text, and emailed the cleaned-up script file to A55hole.

Now, it seems like we OTHER members of the bylaws revision committee should have received a copy, huh? Pretty soon, huh? So we could, like, maybe, review it? And think about what we'd like to see fixed?

He sat on it for weeks. Probably more than a month - I didn't mark the calendar. And it was pretty obvious that when he finally sent me and the other woman a copy, he'd already figured out what he wanted.

When I say he doesn't know what bylaws are supposed to do, here's an example. The Bylaws require that the board meets a minimum of once a quarter. All board meetings are open to the membership and announced in the newsletter. He wants to have an "Annual Business Meeting" required in the Bylaws.

I asked how is that different from other board meetings. He said it's open to the membership, and there's a pot-luck dinner, and a speaker. Is the business discussed any different? No. I pointed out that all meetings are open, and any one of them could include dinner and/or a speaker. He wants to REQUIRE dinner and a speaker at a board meeting once a year.

I pointed out that we used to have speakers several times a year, after board meetings, and it died for lack of interest, and a dearth of free but interesting speakers who will show up for five or six people. The general membership simply isn't interested. So if you put this requirement in the bylaws, once a year someone will have to find and schedule a speaker and coordinate a pot-luck dinner, and the only attendees will be the board members. And when they decide it isn't worth doing any more, they have to revise the Bylaws to get rid of it! If the Board wants to do this fancy meeting, all they have to do is decide to do it, then do it. You DON'T require it in the Bylaws! Bylaws should require only the absolute minimum for the proper functioning of the group.

A55!

I'm really angry, and I'm working myself up to do battle. He's VERY difficult to disagree with. He is always so positive he's right that he doesn't listen to reason. I'm going to have to use Authority, National guidelines and recommendations, against him - it's the only thing he might listen to.

Judging from his emails, he seems to think we're going to just fix typos, add a statement that President=LocSec, and rubber stamp some fancy requirements he wants to add.

Yeah. Sure. Little does he know....

Now pardon me while I go draw up an elections timeline, and find some authority for requiring that the nominating committee should come up with at least one more candidate than positions to be filled.

Snarl!
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