Yeah, But Will It Fit In A Yukon?

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

So we are trying to sell a lot of things.  Remarkably, it is cheaper to sell items and buy new in Texas than it is to keep them and pay to move them.  I am not sure why I am so surprised at this but I am.  Since I have access to an electronic bulletin board at work, it was my job to post what we had for sale and what we were asking for it.  I consulted the wife on some things but for the most part I set the prices.  This was a mistake and based on the wife's reaction ("You sold WHAT for HOW MUCH?") I think I should have consulted more.  Suffice to say some people got some deals, but hey at least we don't have to move it!  This argument did not work on the wife by the way.

I posted pictures of everything I had to sell but pictures really don't tell you how big something is.  I was repeatedly asked what the dimensions were on various items (bed, computer table, entertainment center, etc.).  I guesstimated as best I could but one guy did not ask for dimensions, he asked me if my grill would fit in a Yukon.  Now I have never ridden in a Yukon, or even seen the inside of one so I really have no idea.  So I said, "Sure, you bet!"  Not really, I IM'ed the wife and had her go out and measure it (gotta love technology) and gave him the exact dimensions of the grill.

So this got me to thinking (queue thematic music), wouldn't it be cool if there was a website like www.will_it_fit.com that would tell you these kind of things.  Just two pieces of info really to punch in, 1) what you are wanting to fit and 2) what you are wanting to fit it into.  Your result is just a simple Yes or No.

I think that just for fun I would code the site so that no matter what you picked, as long as you had a Yukon the answer would be, "Sure, you bet!"

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Where Did All This Junk Come From?

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well, we are really in "move" mode now.  We are eating up what is left in the cabinets (this may be a blog for another day, but when in this mode, you combine things you never would have considered before), packing what we can (stuff we will not need this week), and really trying to assess what we want to take with us and what needs to be given away or hauled off.

It is strange to me that things I thought were so important to me a few weeks ago, I am so eager to put them out at the end of the driveway for the garbage man now.  When it all comes down to it, what is really so valuable to me that I want to throw it on a U-Haul and drive it with me for 900 miles?  Instead of one man's junk being another man's treasure, my treasures are becoming my junk.

For those of you keeping score at home, so far I have filled four boxes with stuff I am moving and hauled the equivalent of five boxes of stuff to the end of the driveway.  Deep down the question seems to be, "Which is worse, wishing I had kept something or wishing I had not?"  Time will only tell if I made the right choices.  I suppose the only sure fire way would be to give everything away to friends and family with the condition that we could take it back whenever we wanted.

But if I had friends moving, I would not take anything from them on those conditions.  So for those of you who know me and have ever liked anything you saw at my house, ask me real nice on Friday and you can probably have it.  Just be warned that I might want it back someday.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Where Are All the Pretty People?

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

My wife and daughter were out with the mother-in-law today.  They were trying to introduce her to Thai food.  That left the son and I to hang out (and start packing for the "move").  After we packed one whole box, we were getting hungry for lunch.  We decided on one of our favorite places, Taco Bell.

Now, I am a people watcher.  I pay attention to the clothes they are wearing, the shoes, hats, tattoos, etc. (you never know when a blog inspiration will hit).  The parade of people that visited the Taco Bell today between 1:00 and 1:45 reminded me a lot of the shoppers I see at Wal*Mart.

How can I put this nicely...OK, well I can't.  As I look at shoppers I wonder, "Where are all the pretty people?"  I sat on a bench in front of the optical center at our local Wal*Mart one afternoon and looked at everyone checking out.  As far as the eye could see (and since I just got out of the optical center, my eyes could see pretty far), not one pretty person (male or female).  After about twenty minutes, I realized that these people were not really "not pretty", they just made no effort to look pretty.  I saw torn and stained t-shirts, ladies with rollers in their hair, people that made no effort to comb their hair, little children with dirty faces, and of course, every kind of NASCAR t-shirt imaginable (I think the only car number that I did not see was -1).  It is as if these people were saying to themselves, "I am going to Wal*Mart, why bother even attempting to make myself or my family remotely presentable?  And I think then I will go to Taco Bell."

So please, the next time you go to Wal*Mart, take a few minutes to clean up a little.  Trust me, you will really stand out in the crowd.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

The Back Yard Is Alive

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

We are getting ready to move to Allen, TX.  According to the brochure, Allen has doubled in size in the last five years, from forty thousand people to near eighty thousand.  News travels fast about a great town I guess.

One of the "sacrifices" of our moving to Texas was that we gave up our dog.  This was not a sacrifice for me but rather (almost) a joy.  I was never really a fan of the dog.  Hey, if you can't be honest on your own blog, when can you be?

The dog in question was a Cocker Spaniel named Pongo.  We have had him since he was a puppy and he turned three this year.  Our son named him Pongo after the daddy dog in 101 Dalmations.  The brochure said that the Cocker Spaniel was "A happy little tail-wagger of average intelligence" and I fear Pongo brought down the average.

Since our back yard is fenced in, we would let Pongo loose to enjoy the backyard.  It turns out that Pongo was the field line of Cockers.  Among other things, this means he likes to run and chase / kill any wildlife in the near vicinity.  Once you let him out the back door, all you saw was a yellow streak flying across the yard and a trail of dust and grass.  So, for the last 2 years or so we have had no wildlife in our backyard.  And I mean none.  Pongo could sneak up and kill a bird that was on the ground.  Word traveled fast in the wildlife community (the birds told the chipmunks, then chipmunks told the squirrels, and so on).  The wife and I would sit in the kitchen and drink coffee in the morning and not hear any birds chirping.  And I mean none.

Fast forward to about six weeks ago when we took Pongo back to the Cocker rescue.  Did I mention that word travels fast in the wildlife community?  We have seen four rabbits, six chipmunks, and even had a nest with three baby birds in it.  The nest was only four feet off the ground too!  Amazing!

Our backyard is like the Allen, TX of our neighborhood.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Slower Traffic, Keep Right

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

In driving back from Texas to Indiana, we traveled through Missouri.  There were several sections of highway 44 that were quite hilly.  On the steepest hills there was typically an extra lane to the right for semi trucks and other slow moving vehicles.  Along with the extra lane were signs telling the slower traffic to keep right.  This worked great except for the time or two that there was road construction going on and we were down to one lane.

Now that I am back at work after five days of "vacation" I remembered a feature that annoys me about some of my co-workers.  They walk slow.  Now this is MY definition of slow but slow IS a relative term.

The main corridor that runs the length of the building (dividing the north cubes from the south cubes) is about five foot wide.  This would equate to two "lanes" of traffic.  Most people stick to the right side of the corridor as you would if you were driving on a two lane road.  However, there are those who (along with walking slow) walk in the middle of the "road."  Going around these people is a little difficult given the amount of room of clearance you have on each side.  There is not really any room for an extra lane for the slower traffic, but at least there should be a sign telling slower traffic to keep right.

There is a traffic law in our state stating that if you are driving below the minimum speed limit and there are three or more vehicles behind you, then you must pull over and let the faster vehicles past.  I actually saw someone get pulled over for having four vehicles behind them and driving 25 on a 55 mph zone.  I cheered.

Now if we only had such a law for the slow walkers in my building.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

More Coffee? and the Math Involved

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

As I have mentioned in the last few entries, the wife and I were in Texas.  We drove as far as Springfield, MO yesterday and then the rest of the way home today.  Last night we went to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."  Wow, what an awesome movie!  I can't wait to see the next one due out in 2007.

This morning we drove about a block and had breakfast.  We ordered our food and some coffee.  Now I am a two sugar man myself and the wife is more of a one sugar woman.  Since we are an hour ahead of Missouri, we were up and at the restaurant by 6:30 local time.  The restaurant was not very busy at that time so we received a lot of attention from our waitress.  This meant that our coffee mugs did not get even close to empty at any time during our breakfast.

This was actually a problem as I had to keep a running math problem in my head as to the "sugar-ness" of my coffee.  The problem went a little like this...

1. Cup is filled and put in 2 sugars.  Perfect sugar-ness.
2. Cup is 2/3 full and waitress fills to top, add 1 sugar, cup is now about 1/3 sugar pack too much
3. Cup is 2/5 full and waitress fills to close to the top, add 1 sugar since the 2/5 coffee in cup was slightly over-sugared
4. Ad Nausea

I thought about asking the waitress if I could borrow her pen.  I also tried drinking only 1/2 the cup or all of it if I saw her coming with a pot of coffee.  The whole thing reminded me of one of those 2 faucets, 1 drain math problems I had in school.  Though not the exact same kind of mathematical problem, you can see where I can make the comparison (assuming she was the faucet and I was the drain).

I kept the coffee sweet enough but not too sweet for the most part.  The wife actually had it a little harder as she had to keep track of the amount of creamer too, talk about hard math!  Jeesh!

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

The Joys of House Hunting

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

The wife and I are in Texas looking for a place to live.  We allowed ourselves a grand total of 2 days to find a place so we are under a little pressure.  We (OK, mostly the wife) have researched as much as possible on the internet over the last several months in preparation of our trip down here but now we are in crunch time.

Yesterday morning we met with a realtor to look at homes for rent and we reserved the afternoon to look at a few apartments.  Going in I was leaning toward an apartment and the wife was leaning toward a house.

We met with our realtor at 9 AM and started the day.  Our day could not have started any worse really.  The realtor punched in the key code for the first house and we went inside to discover twenty empty beer bottles on the kitchen counter.  As we moved throughout the house we were a little shocked that the first bedroom door was locked from the inside.  The second bedroom contained someone who appeared to be sleeping off the effects of the empty beer bottles and the third bedroom also contained a young lady that the realtor actually knew!  Most the houses after that were about the same quality only unoccupied.

I have had a day to think about this and I tried real hard to put a positive spin on this.  So here is my conclusion.  The first house is a staged house and the realtor always goes there first, no matter the price range of the persons looking to rent.  The locked door, the persons in the bedrooms, the recognition of one of the occupants, it is all staged so that no matter what homes you look at next, they all seem great compared to the first house.

I tried all night to convince myself of this.  I am about as convinced as you are!  We are signing the paperwork for an apartment today.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon