Rather than leave you without a picture, here is a scan of the “Handball Court” at Chichen Itza. How can I print this without copyright violation? Easy, I own it, like 100% of all the pictures seen here*, I am the owner, and may publish anytime I please. Nor, as long as they represent fact, can I be prevented from publishing them, Freedom of the Press, and all that Amendment stuff. I took this photo in the mid-1980s. I was standing on the top of the famous “step” pyramid and looking northwest over the terrain.
The acoustics between the ruins are incredible. You could clap your hands and listens to the decay of sound. I returned there in the later 80s. There were so many tourists that no silent periods remained to try this again. The government has erected bleachers and floodlights. There is a recording (Charlton Heston, no less) that chants a meaningless “Were they there or did they come?”
Another thing to watch for in Florida is items on sale. It goes beyond buyer beware, because many times it is impossible to see that it is always defective merchandise. I have seen no exceptions yet. Among my favorites are fruit going bad from the inside out, cameras with nearly dead internal batteries and remember that I classify goods with “missing” (but required) parts as also defective. Who recalls the trailer on sale with no tires, axle, or hitch? That is what I mean. Defective.
Now, I discover that the grocery chains (Publix and Winn/Dixie) are making their house brands of evaporated milk from stock that is just about to go sour. Yes, this is partially due to my fridge giving out, but it still works as a cooler. A can of said evaporated will go bad within a day of being opened. A can of good of Carnation stays fresh for a week. You been told.
Then into the doggie wig shop, to be reminded that the entire DSL Internet system is no more reliable than the telephone company upon which it is based. (The modem lost synch, which I immediately conclude is a signal strength problem.) While I met a super-sharp lady in South Carolina while troubleshooting this issue, I left early because without the Internet, there is not much I can do. Or anybody else can do, for that matter.
During the inevitable delays of the process, I got to chatting with this lady. I hope she is single and likes older men, but you know how a few bad examples can make that scene very antsy. I was very interested in her interpretations of what goes on with the employees. The staff is union, but that union only gets $18 per hour, where as Ford and GM seem to get nearly half again as much. The “test desk” (my old job) is in South Carolina, and the rest are “help desks”. I told her my age and could only strongly hint that she call me if in the area.
There was even a small altercation to liven things up. My position over there has never been defined, so I’m often non-plussed to learn something is considered “my job”. To me, there is no natural progression toward more responsibility as time passes. Each molecule of responsibility is painstakingly negotiated. The hard way.
I did, realizing the importance of same, design (back in September ’06) a small relational database to track the growing numbers of different versions of the hairpieces and extensions. No database was ever designed to track the orders for those items. In fact, I was told last that the ordering was not my concern, that it would be handled by others. (Others without a database.) So guess what is now becoming very important? You see, Ruth has learned that the wig database can produce results, and now expects that of the order system. No, there is no order system, it was never my job to begin with.
While we’re at it, didn’t I warn about the overseas factory using the letter “M” to mean something other than “Medium”? I am the first to realize that in the short run, it is cheaper to hire three people to deal with the paperwork, so who needs a database? Actually, the process is already too advanced to handle economically without a database, which creates the spectre of Ruth wanting immediate results without allowing for the huge amounts of solitary hours needed to create and effective set of tables. I doubt she would ever tolerate paying me to apparently stare at a computer screen doing nothing for hours on end.
Fortunately, I have my little band project to distract me. Luis was on time, though on the tired-looking side. We ran through band and music theory, two different animals. He has obviously chorded along to himself and makes many of the same errors as Brian. However, he responds very rapidly to instruction. That is not possible when you already know it all, especially others who know it by “osmosis” rather than by actually doing the job. We had some teething problems on this point at first, but once he learned the rules, we were playing great version of songs he’s never heard. Took just over an hour.
Luis is shakey, but he certainly does not view doing things my way at first as a threat to his manhood and position in the universe, like some people I know. I think he will keep up the pace, so I’ll plan ahead that he will be the rhythm player. First practices tend to go well because you play tunes you already know in common. This one went well despite us not knowing even one tune, although he was familiar with “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”.
ADDENDUM
Want to hear what is gross? Okay, Luis and I came over here to practice. The cat, the now over-fed, over-patted and over-spoiled cat decided to squeeze out a big steamy turd. Not even the expensive baking soda litter could keep that in check. This was five minutes after we started, and if you think you don’t need all this information, you should have been in my place for the next hour. I set the tray outside, only to discover later she had kicked the turd out of the tray and behind my tool box. Gag!
The accomplishment was that Luis now sees that as long as we together form a tight and disciplined group, the singers and guitarist will follow. I supplied him with all the material to get going, and scheduled a Friday practice. This is so I can find out if the guy has other weekend commitments and to see how tired he is after a week’s work. Luis is aware of this.
His biggest plus is that he picks up quickly when to stop playing, for effect. He also noticed the double whammy that while my bass riffs tip off almost every chord change, yet you cannot rely on my bass to “watch your way” through a song. Do that, and I’ll fire you. My sets have a lot of stops, probably three times what other bands do.
*the early blog used only original pictures, since little else of interest was available.
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