Creedence Clearwater “Revisited” at Wolf Trap Last Friday

Posted on by chappyshi

I saw Creedence Clearwater “Revisited” on Friday night at Wolf Trap.  They are a tribute band that includes two of the original members of Creedence Clearwater Revival.  We got there a little before 1800 which was plenty of time to get in line and get good lawn seats near the middle of the amphitheater.  I thought the gates opened at 1800 but they did not do so until 1830 so we had a bit of a wait at the gate and then a longer wait for the music which did not start until 2000.  There was no opening band.

CC Revisited sounded very good…much like the original and covered many of their most popular songs.  Unfortunately they only played for about 1.5 hours.  It seemed like an awful run around and wait for that much music.  Thankfully, Wolf Trap is a great venue where, if you are on the lawn, you can bring in food and drinks of any kind.  Plus it is like a festival atmosphere on  the lawn with people just hanging out, meeting new people, talking,  and dancing.

We also ran into some friends at the show who joined us at my sister’s house afterward for a beer and concert review.  All in all, it was a good time.

Coolest Rainbow I Ever Saw

Posted on by chappyshi

The pictures of this rainbow action  are terrible which speaks for carrying a camera with me other that the POS on my cell phone.  I was driving home from work the other morning at 0610 and was able to view this double rainbow for almost the whole drive.  The brightest of the two arcs was so clear I could clearly see at six different colors of the spectrum.

Sunday Morning Coffee…In the Afternoon

Posted on by chappyshi

The mid-watches are starting to catch up with me.  I work 0600 – 1800, two on, two off, two on, two off, three on, and three off which isn’t really a bad schedule but it does take its toll.  Life starts to revolve around just sleep and work.  I force myself to get up as early as I can on my off days to have some semblance of a life but it is not easy.

For example, I got home about 0625 this morning, did the Sunday LA Times crossword puzzle and read for a while to wind down.  I went to bed at about 0830 and tossed and turned for quite a bit before getting a mostly fitful sleep.  I intended to get up at 1300 but no later than 1400.  I got a “Restricted” call on my cell phone at 1303 that was a hang up so I decided to get up.

So here I am at 1345 on a Sunday afternoon with bacon in the pan, coffee in hand, George Thorogood on the stereo, and three days off in front of me.  Bonus!  On a side note, I am supposed to be promoted soon but it is not official.  Once that happens, I will return to a more normal Mon – Fri schedule but will be on call.  It is hard to decide if it is better to on the watch schedule where my off time is purely my own or on a normal schedule with on call duties….

Water Ya Thinking?

Posted on by chappyshi

To say that we have had plenty of rain this spring in Northern Virginia would be an understatement.  It is green, green here.  We are eco-green and green friendly.  Those of you in the desert Southwest are green with envy, eh.  But I digress…

Driving through the neighborhood this evening en route the grocery store, I noticed that someone had a rotary sprinkler out watering their lawn.  WTF you say?  Moi aussi!  To make matters worse, the sprinkler was placed right next to the driveway so half the water was landing on that and draining right into the sewer system.  Really, what are people thinking?

Briefly Back

Posted on by chappyshi

I have been bad about blogging which if you care about following me you already know.  I can’t say what the problem is but I am trying to get past it.  It has been a wacky seven or eight months what with starting work again as a contractor for a major corporation and then getting the opportunity to apply for the same job at the corporation as a full-time employee w/ benefits.

Forgive me if I don’t mention any company names.  A few years ago I would not have worried about doing so but,  even though I have never made good or bad comments about a company I have worked for or am working for and would never do so in my blog, I still feel it is risky to be too specific.  So much for free speech, eh?

The new job involved a major learning curve mostly for call center support but also for systems/desktop support.  I feel like  I have done quite well.  I may not be the star for the newly established support center but am certainly one of the stars.  Finally starting as a full time employee this week has been  the cap on the whole venture.

I finally have health benefits which is mucho beuno as you will see later in this entry.  Additional benefits besides health such as education and training  with the company are a big positive.  As I have mentioned to some of you who might read this, the pay is subpar, from my point of view, as much as  25% less than many of us in the group have earned, but the benefits help to make up for the direct loss in income.  I think the opportunities for the future with this company are very good.  I am already enrolled for a web server admin class in May which bodes well.

On the personal side, I have been laying kind of low.  Having been w/o health insurance since last June, I haven’t been riding my motorcyle or skiing much.  My last health insurance quote was for $450 a month due to pre-existing conditions.  Thanks “Obamacare!”

I did get up to Vermont for my good friend Linda’s 50th birthday in December.  I stopped in Avoca, PA, about halfway up, to see my friend  Terry and his boys.  I think that Linda was surprised when she saw me with the crowd at her house but who knows.  That was an 1100 mile road trip crammed into about three days but well worth it.  I did get about 2.5 hours in on the slopes at Killington on the way up which was nice.  Only time I have skiied since I tore my ACL at Seven Springs in 2008.

Turkey Day was spent with my sister Julie who lives  about a mile away from me.  Christmas was spent with my sister Kim in SE Virginia.  We went on Christmas morning to her husband’s parent’s house for breakfast and the ceremonial tearing apart of the Xmas presents for the kids and grandkids.  Madness I  say!

It took a longer than I expected drive to go camping at the northern part of the Chesapeake Bay a month or so ago.  And I didn’t have the cash I needed to get into the “unattended” gate at the park.  Of course, I saw 3 or 4 park staff members there including one who stopped by my campsite to give me the money I had overpaid for the site.  I figured it would just be a donation to the park system but…  I was at Elk Neck  State Park.

For those of you in the know, I am playing in a Cornhole league that friends of mine have sponsored  for a few years.  On Fridays, when the WX is good, we all get out and throw some bags.  Unfortunately, the WX has sucked  so my partner and I  have to  hook up w/ the teams that we missed games with and make them  up.

I mentioned that I was glad to have health benefits again through my employer, who wouldn’t’ be, eh?  Recently my blood pressure and cholesterol levels have skyrocketed despite my efforts to keep them down using natural supplements.  My blood pressure was so high the other day I almost went to the emergency room.  Being a man, that was of course out of the question.

I  did go to “Urgent Care” at my doctor’s office the next day.  My blood pressure was still high.  I got an EKG which was okay but had some possible  anomalies.  I got an immediate referral to the cardiologist at my “doctor’s office” and since I was paying out of pocket I had no insurance “people” to deal with, which was nice.  Unfortunately, the cardiologist scheduled me for a “Nuclear Stress Test” for which I had the insurance coverage but no documentation.

I have had to put the test on hold.  Hope I don’t die first….

Order Disorder

Posted on by chappyshi

I ordered concert tickets earlier this evening.  It costs less, for me, $2.75 vice $4.75, to have them snail mailed to me than to have them emailed…  What is up with that?  The seller has  to pay for the ink, paper, and postage for snail mail and for next to nothing to email.  Apparently most people  pay no attention and just have the tickets emailed to themselves at nearly twice the price of having them sent via the postal service.  Ticket sellers are…wait for it…winning!

Family and Friends Are the Best

Posted on by chappyshi

I took a three day weekend starting 11 March to see my sister Kim, who had had surgery, and my parents who were visiting Kim and her husband Don to help out post surgery.  It was really great to see everybody but a particular highlight was meeting up with Aunt Anita and Uncle Dean at the Trellis Restaurant in Williamsburg, VA.  Aunt Anita had had hip surgery two weeks prior and should have been resting for six weeks but as usual she was out and about active as ever.

We had a great and very extended lunch…about 3.5 hours.  The server and the restaurant accommodated us w/o complaint as they should have.  Business died down considerably after the lunch rush.  We relived old times  but mostly updated ourselves on recent times and Aunt Anita and Uncle Dene invited us, the Chase kids in the area, to get together with them in Richmond sometime in April.  I certainly hope that we can make that happen.

Here are a few pics from the luncheon:

Background Investigation Shenanigans

Posted on by chappyshi

In the process of getting a  contract job and hopefully getting hired on to the company I am sub-contracted to I have had to go through four background investigations including one for a Public Trust clearance.  The first investigation was to get the job offer from the contractor.  The second was for the clearance.  The clearance, even as low as it is, required 15+ pages of information to be filled out.  You would think by the time I had done that, they would have had enough information and done enough investigating.

Yet when I applied for the full-time position, I had to fill out more paperwork for background investigation three.  Then, after accepting the job offer, the company had to do another background investigation.  Who is paying for all this BI BS?  To cap it off, the fourth investigating agency today asked me to provide a W-2 for the staffing agency I am currently working for…wait for it…at the company that wants to hire me?  Apparently they cannot verify that I actually work for for the staffing agency….

I Thought I Had Recycling Issues….

Posted on by chappyshi

When I got home from work on Thursday, I noticed one of those huge tractor trailer sized dumpsters, one of those that they have on construction or demolition sites, in front of one of the adjacent apartment buildings.  The dumpster was overflowing with crap.  I noticed that both of the sliding glass doors were open in one of the second floor apartments.  I wondered if there had been a fire in an apartment.

Walking from my car to my building I saw a guy come out on the balcony of the apartment in a low-grade HAZMAT suit.  That freaked me  out so I popped into the management office to see if the would tell me what was going on.  Apparently, the apartment was trashed.

The apartment manager was freaked out.  He said it was the nastiest thing he had ever seen.  Apparently the renter was dink on his rent and the manager had been trying to get a hold of him for six weeks or so.  Residents of neighboring apartments had been complaining of bad smells.  The manager had to get a court order to enter the apartment.

Upon entry, they found a wasteland.  There were cats in the apartment unattended.  The renter had apparently left  plenty of food but the cats had run out of water and were nearly hysterical when the maintenance crew got water for them.  Of course the cats had to be taken away by Animal Services.  The maintenance crew then proceeded to haul 80 bags of garbage/trash out of the apartment the first day.

On day two, they called in a cleaning crew experienced in HAZMAT cleanup.  The cats had urinated and defecated all over the apartment.  There were flies and maggots all over including in the walls and floors.  They are having to tear everything out of the apartment including the walls, floors, cabinetry, appliances, etc.  And to cap it off, the bedroom was filled from ceiling to floor with bags of empty beer cans!  Recycling anyone?