These are rough times for the economy. Everyone realizes that, except perhaps for John McCain … and a couple of local businesses that incredibly decided they didn’t want my money last week. Let me tell you about them. But first, a little background.
Can you read the writing on the wall? What do you think it might mene?
No, that’s not a misspelling. In fact, the last word of the second sentence is directly related to the first sentence. When you’re a crossword puzzle fan, like Gary and I are, you learn many rarely-used words that puzzle constructors rely on to complete their grids. But when we came across mene last week, neither one of us had heard of it before. And, between us, I’m sure we’ve done thousands of puzzles. So, of course, we had to find out what this new word, um, means.
When our family first made the decision to move to Florida, almost nine years ago, we were warned that we should expect a steady stream of visitors from the north, especially in the winter months. Well, those potential visitors haven’t exactly overwhelmed us, but this summer, we’ve been impacted by and preparing for visits by some others: Fay, Gustav, Hanna, Ike, Josephine …
Let me start by saying, “Thank you” to anyone who might be reading this. Over these 30 blogs, I’ve covered a wide variety of topics, so if we can consider #30 to be a milestone, then it’s time to express some appreciation. And to discuss those magic words that we learn as children – not “more dessert” or “it wasn’t me,” but rather “Thank You” … “Gracias” … “Arigato” … “Danke” … “Grazie” … “Obrigado” … “Spasebo” … “Merci” … “Tak” … “Xie Xie” …
In these times, everyone seems to take technology for granted. As Joni Mitchell sang in Big Yellow Taxi, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” And so, when a tropical storm hits Florida, and people start losing electrical service, and phone service, and internet connectivity, and so on, well, it’s enough of a disaster that the governor starts asking for federal aid and the TV talking heads start reporting from our locale. Last week, we had a similar technology catastrophe to deal with on a personal level - our daughter’s cell phone stopped working.
I feel inspired to write something about the Olympics. However, while I am convinced that my words are suitable for this worldwide forum, I fear that my physical appearance could be, um, improved. Therefore, in true Olympic fashion, my image is going to be replaced by someone who is better looking and will appeal to a larger audience. I’m sure that will make the overall presentation much more effective.
After more than two dozen of these posts, it seems to me that my readers (both of them?) have been subjected to my opinions on a variety of subjects, but we really haven’t gotten to know each other that well. I’m not sure how I can learn more about you, but if you continue to read this post, you’ll find out a few more tidbits about me. I provided some general introductory info in my very first blog, so now, we’ll go into a few more mundane facts.
Sharing a name with someone else is not a unique experience. Certainly, those with common names must get used to it. I have friends named Scott Smith and Gary Williams and Dennis White, and long ago, they must have realized that there were others in the world with the same name. Some people bring it on themselves, giving their offspring the same label that their parents gave to them. These “Jr.’s” and ‘II’s” and “III’s” no doubt had to deal with confused phone callers throughout their youth, and I often wonder why any such person would perpetuate that. Of course, no one took it to a further extreme than George Foreman. In my case, however, I just happen to share a name with someone who is, to some degree, famous.
It was 107 degrees outside yesterday evening. That’s what I was told by the electronic time and temperature sign in front of a local real estate office. Seems like it would be hard enough to sell houses these days without telling people that they are in an oven, but this particular sign seems to always read several degrees higher than reality. Maybe the wiring is overheating, or the surface is absorbing the heat. But that wouldn’t explain why their clock function is an hour ahead, would it? “Buy or sell your house with us, because we don’t know what time it is or how hot it is!” Or maybe what they’re saying is, “We’ll exaggerate anything to have your business.” I wonder.
For many years, I was on the outside, looking in. Like several others in the APPX community, my first exposure to our products came more than 25 years ago, and I spent many years working as a reseller and providing software solutions to the customers of Speed II and APPX. But in 1999, my position and my perspective changed, when I came to work for APPX Software, Inc., and while I’m not directly involved in the R&D aspect of the business, I have found it interesting to view that process from inside the castle walls, and to gain an understanding of just what it takes to put out a major software release.