Open the door.

On Wednesday I drove up to the City, to buy a couple things at Best Buy (I bought a 512MB Flash Drive for $20!) and then I made a stop in to Borders.

I worked at Borders for 5 years, and I haven't set a foot in the store since I quit in early 2003. The biggest reason why I left was because, even though I had worked countless hours over the years, I was refused UNPAID time off for the birth of Ryan. I had already dropped down to part-time, and I had cleared it with the evil General Manager to take a couple weeks off, then a week before Ryan's due date, she says to me "Oh, I don't think we can do that. If you want time off, then we will need to do it as a resignation, and then you can reapply once you want to start working again." That incident left such a bad taste in my literary mouth that I have refused to go to that store ever since. But I broke down with an intense desire to browse the shelves that I steeled myself and pulled open the double doors.

It has long been held that smell is one of the most potent memory triggers, and that was certainly true for me. But as I walked around, and saw the shelves, and remembered the specific sections, and just settled in, it was like opening a door in my brain. The door led to memories that I haven't thought about since I finished my final shift on that January evening in '03.

I thought about the 4 months that I spent bleary-eyed, working the overnight shift while the store was being remodeled, and then just shelving books. Then I remember my time as Inventory Lead Clerk. I was so dopey back then, so serious, and hardly ever talking to anyone. Most people didn't even know I spoke, until we started having Tuesday night barbecues at The House. Then came my time as a Supervisor. Most notable in the fact that I didn't know I was becoming a supervisor until we had a store-wide staff meeting about corporate restructuring. We were all told that there would be no more lead clerks, and I raised my hand and asked, what happens to my job then, and Evil General Manager (EGM) looks at me in front of the whole staff and says "Didn't anyone meet with you? You are going to be the Shelving Supervisor."

That began over a year of getting up at 5:15 am, to be at the store at 6 freaking AM. During that time I busted my ass, worked my fingers to the bone, and so on and so forth. Often doing shelving, and fill-in Cash Reconciliation, and the on-site IT guy. I even completed a server changeout while I was there. But I was mostly talked through it by some idiot on the telephone.

Then I made The Mistake. I put family before the company. I took two weeks of FMLA time for Holly being born, and then came back as a part-time bookseller. Three nights a week of retail fun. The key thing is that my wage dropped to a bookseller's wage, but a bookseller who had been working there for 5 years. So I think I was making almost $9.00 an hour, if not more. And that is extremely significant. The EGM was going through at this time and purging anyone who had been there a long time, on the grounds of having to enforce the rules about lateness (Supposedly she had no control over that, the home office told her to fire the specific people, after their names went on reports to HQ, but being a supervisor I know that is a big fat lie. There are no reports that go to the home office about who is 5 minutes late to work.) It is all about payroll money. I was working 24 hours a week at $9.00/hour. If you chuck me out and then get some slob in to run the registers for $6.50/hour or whatever minimum wage is, then you can squeeze an extra 9 hours out of them for the same amount that you would pay me for 24 hours. The EGM did that to about 5 or 6 people that I recall, within the span of 6 months.

But you know what you get when you do that, a crappy store. You get a store full of people who don't know the bestsellers from 6 months ago. That leads to a loss of revenue (believe me, in the book business title awareness, and author recognition are really important), which leads to more payroll cuts, which leads to more loss of revenue. If the books aren't making it to the shelves where the customers can find them, they won't sell. For every one person that asks you for a book that wasn't on the shelf, 4 have walked out the door without bothering to ask.

When you fail to try to make your employees goal as close as you can to the business' goals, you will not succeed.

---

Oh, and this is a cool article.

Fond Memories.

Well, the time is upon us once again. The time when I take a few moments to gently remind people how frighteningly unexpected certain two and three and eleven year-olds can be.

1) No matter how many times I say "No wiping your nose on the garden hose", I am amazed that I need to tell them that, and that it rhymes.

2) The power flickering and going out may simply be an inconvenience for adults, for kids (and tweens up past their bedtimes) it can be wondrous, and a little unnerving. (Not to mention going around and resetting all the 8 clocks that we have.)

3) An hour isn't really that long to play with the hose (same one as I mentioned already) when you have some crazy kids running and squealing around the yard.

4) "Can you feel my butt?" This is Holly response whenever I ask her if she has to go potty, or whether Michelle has already changed her out of a diaper, into her undies.

5) Finding Nemo isn't quite as hilarious (it IS still funny, don't get me wrong) after the 38th time watching it. It is Holly's favorite movie, and she asks me (Please, Daddy?) to watch it at least 4 times a week.

6) I am just introducing Monsters, Inc. to them, in an effort to reduce the monster fear that has recently begun to plague certain underage members of my family. Ryan has taken to calling the movie: "Corporated."

Well, that's about it. Enjoy.

Warning: Science talk contained herein.

I think this post has a little in common with a concept that I wrote about a few months ago, the fact that there are people who are considered specialists, but I think there need to be people who are generalists. Connecting the similarities between different professions or disciplines. I wish I was one of those people.

I woke up this morning, following some very bizarre dreams (picture a mixture of Harry Potter and Star Trek: Voyager), with a rather striking thought. It came to me fully formed, but I'm having trouble verbalizing it. Eric, you better read this and help me refine the concept, or at least the description.

Here it is, and it has to do with the concept of time: First, some setting. The way that most theorists think of space as a stretched piece of trampoline-like material and gravity interacting with it like a heavy weight, stretching and distorting space into a dimpled or cratered type of surface. Well, my thought is that time exists in the same way. Time is like the surface of space, and all time exists right now simultaneously (at the "same time"?). Not sure of a different way to describe it, but I'm working on it.

There is a great book called "Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide". Contained in that book are various thought exercises, and well-described scenarios that are clearly laid out. There is a chapter that explains how gravity effects the passage of time. If you took twin atomic clocks that were perfectly synchronized and left one sitting alone on the equator, and then took the other and placed it on a plane and flew it around the Earth for a few years, and then brought it back down and compared the two times, then you would find that they weren't sychronized anymore. Gravity would have caused time to act slower on the clock farthest from earth's gravity well. That would also happen if you took the same twin atomic clocks and put them in different orbital distances around a black hole, or the sun. The tidal differences between the different gravities act upon time as if it is a surface that can be distorted, or caused to ripple.

I'll keep thinking about this and try to keep going on it.

Yeah, Yeah.

Even though I risk loosing perspective, and only posting links that I find from StumbleUpon, I found another one.

Pretty funny!

The latest.

Well, this is my latest discovery on StumbleUpon.

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Plenty to talk about.

I have a feeling that I will have plenty to talk about (as if I didn't already). Michelle told me about a little extension for Firefox called StumbleUpon. A little plug-in that randomly directs you to a website or blog that fits in to one of the categories that you tell it you are interested in. Anyway, I just clicked, and found a rather amusing one that I would have loved so share with my friends four or five years ago.

Check it out for a chuckle.

Potential band names.

I have always had a morbid fascination with stupid band names, and have always wanted to come up with my own, in my opinion, considerably more original or witty.

1) Lick the plunger
2) Mahgonany shine
3) Watery sunburn
4) Digital skin
5) Warped membranes
6) Abnormal display
7) Suicidal Maggots
8) Stale biscuits

Morality plays with who?

Over the last six months or so I have watched all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But within the last couple months I have been watching Star Trek: Voyager (I'm currently on season 4). I think I like the latter a bit better then the former. That fact actually surprised me because I hardly ever watched Voyager while it was on TV. But I had watched a great deal of The Next Generation (TNG), probably nearly every episode. I figured that I might like Voyager as well, but I'm rather surprised that I think the quality surpasses the show that it was spun-off from (Actually Star Trek: Deep Space Nine(DSN) was spun-off from TNG, then Voyager followed DSN).

The thing is, I don't consider myself a trekkie. I just think that they are such enjoyable, ethical creative shows that I can't wait till I can watch the next one.

Hey, remember that guy?

I had a really profound thought......then I forgot it. I get most of my good thoughts while I am driving......but I never remember them until I get back in the car. I think that is why conventional wisdom is that you should study in conditions that are as similar to the conditions that you will face in your test(s).

I'm reading this book now, to just get me through to Harry Potter Day (July 16th). I have read a lot of interesting tidbits, but I'm interested in finding a book with facts presented somewhere in between textbook and this one. I guess it doesn't need to be dumbed down quite so much. But I guess I am getting something out of it, since I never really considered the fact that there are theories behind everything that we do that I just take for granted.

There are a number of theories as to why we need to sleep. The most popular being adaptive theory, conserving energy theory and restorative function theory. But no one actually knows why we need to sleep. I heard that a few years ago, but I'm still a little bit amazed at that. I can type on a laptop that is 1000 times fast then desktop computers were 10 years ago, but we can't figure out why we sleep (My preference is the conserving energy theory, it seems to make sense from a animal-wide evolutionary standpoint).

I found it rather interesting that (knowing the care that J.K. Rowling put into choosing names for her characters, this was intentional) one of the names from the founders of memory theory (the acts of memory, encoding, storage and retrieval were basically documented by these researchers) was Robert Lockhart. Now, as we all remember Guilderoy Lockhart was the villain from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets who performed memory charms on unsuspecting heroes and claimed there deeds as his own.

Well, I'm off. Stay safe.

This is the Levee House where we had lunch. I had a Monte Cristo. The view was right out over the Ohio River. Near as I can tell on the bricks is written Whiskey, probably from the warehouse days. 

Not exactly Mr. Roger's trolley, but this was great. Notice Ryan taking a picture of Brenda who was taking a picture. And Michelle is holding Wyatt, not another baby. And the girls posing! 

Trains.

Considering the condition and location of Rochester's train station, is it any wonder why train useage is so low, and why people practically don't ever consider it as a means of travel?

The wrap up of our vacation.

Well, to summarize the rest of our vacation (my previous posts got only as far as the drive down....) we had a great time, with the exception of the long hours in the car. It was pretty tough on the kids to be confined like that when they aren't used to it. And trying to get them back into the car at rest areas was a feat.

So, lets see, we got to Brenda and Jay's in the late afternoon, had some pizza and wings, and then changed in to suits again and splashed in Wyatt's little wading pool and then got them in to bed. The funny part about putting them in bed (all three kids in the same room) was that Ryan started crying. I went back down the hall and asked him what the problem was. He was quite upset, and couldn't form a sentence. Finally he squeaked out: "Take the cow out to the living room." He wanted Jay's deer head trophy out of the room because he said "It's looking at me." That was pretty funny.

Each morning the kids were up very early, around 6am. It must have been the excitement of the vacation, or being in the same room, but they were so loud and naughty. Jay had to work mostly late evening and night shifts, because of the holiday weekend, so he was getting home at 3 or 4 in the morning, and then after Wyatt got up, he would go in his room and try to catch some more sleep. Sorry for the noise, Jay.

Brenda, Jay and Wyatt have a black lab (I think that what she is) named Sage. Sage is the most well-behaved, kind and quiet dog I've ever met. She and I took a lot of walks in the woods behind their house. Emma really proved some maturity by helping Brenda feed and take care of Sage every night.

Well, on Saturday morning we went out to Marietta. That is the oldest city in Ohio, and about an hour from their house. We had read in the AAA book about trolley tours of Marietta, so we decided to do that. It was a great experience, it was interesting, and the moving changing sites kept the kids in their seats looking out the windows. We went down this one street that had train tracks that go right down the length. It takes coal down the road once a day, and takes twenty minutes to get down the street. The oldest town in Marietta has quite a bit of history in it, but the most interesting thing I heard was at the beginning when it was just starting: The Ohio River is actually owned by West Virginia. They own it right up to the shoreline.

Then we ate lunch at The Levee House, a restaurant right on the river, that used to be a warehouse. Great view for great food. Then we checked out a couple of sites that we saw from the tour (two bookstores) and then stopped to take some pictures on the way back to naptime at Brenda's house.

The next day we took it easy (again, sorry that they were up at 6 am, Jay), we just went in to Brenda's classroom, did a craft, and played with the toys! Emma was a great helper, she assisted Brenda practically all morning cleaning and organizing everything.

Then we went back to the house, and got ready for the afternoon when Jay's Dad came over with his wife. That was a great night. They brought over their Ice Cream Maker. So we all made homemade ice cream, then had a little parade with shakers and flags.

On Monday we packed up and began the long trip back home. By the time that we made it to Erie, PA again, and checked in to Country Inn & Suites we were beat! The kids are so draining on such a long drive, and for them to be cooped up for two days, they are troopers for making it through, even though there was lots of crying and shouting. This hotel was much better, in the parent's opinion. We got two rooms this time, we learned from our previous mistake. The pool was ok, a little colder then the Econolodge's. The whirlpool was my favorite, although when I dared Emma to get out of the whirlpool and then jump into the ice cold water, I should have realized that I would have to do it too, after her. I indulged a bit in the whirlpool even after Emma went to bed, they almost had to kick me out when they had to lock up the pool area. But I was just leaving. There was wireless internet on the property, so it was very nice to be able to sort through all the email before getting home. And Holly and Ryan slept like they were dead. They were so tired from being up so early and taking no naps while we were driving. Ryan fell out of bed that night and got rather frightened, but he settled down when Michelle cuddled with him for a few minutes (I think I wrote about Holly falling out of bed during the first night at Brenda and Jay's, but she did, and got very disoriented). We went swimming a little bit again the next morning and then made it back home just in time for them to have a long nap. They were so tired, that's why the drive was so....perilous.

In all, the time that we spent in Ohio, and at the hotels was wonderful relaxing and everything that we could have hoped for from a vacation. But the driving nearly four hours one day, and then five and a half or so the next (we have to stop for potty breaks) was just extremely trying for the youngsters. The older they get the easier it will be, but it was not fun driving trying to ignore 45 minutes of shrieking and crying. The portable DVD player can only hold their attention so long.

That's about it, I'm still posting pictures. We got them onto a CD, so I'm still looking at them but definitely expect some more here.

I bought a book....

at "Barking Dog Books" in Marietta, OH. Treason, by Orson Scott Card. I guess it is out of print, and I'm quite happy to have found it in such a little shop. I have read a lot of Orson Scott Card, and almost everyone has at least heard of Ender's Game. But the book I found was one I had never seen before, and stand alone book of his. Most of his works are parts of a series. I was very excited, and I still am, as I read, with every page I turn.

As I was reading just now I read something that made me stop and pause. I thought about all the movies and all the real people that this might apply to, and I thought it a nice little profound statement hidden in a Science Fiction book.

"Heroes and victims are the product of the mood they were in when opportunity came or when circumstances were at their worst."

Diaper talk.

I have noticed that it is more difficult to get a diaper on Holly or Ryan's butts after they eat a nice big lunch. They need diapers because it is nap time, but their round tummies stick out a little more.

At a fountain overlooking the Ohio River in Marietta, OH. Looking away from the water gives you a view right up Front Street, with lots of little shops, and high up on the buildings are little flood stage markers for all the different floods they have had. 

In the window next to "Barking Dog Books". 

All the cousins ready for a little parade. Flags and shakers (rice in plastic cups) for everyone. 

Look at his little smile!!!!!! 

Wyatt is one of the cutest little boys I have ever seen. Ryan is too, don't worry. 

You can always find fun things to do at rest areas in Pennsylvania. 

Holly had a dream.

She told me so, when I was getting her brown sugar toast ready this morning. Here is the conversation.

"I dreamed about a cow that was protecting all the smoke."

"Really?"

"Yeah, so I could fly up in the sky like a bird."

We have been back more then 24 hours.......

and I still think that the best road sign that I have ever seen was on the way home through PA. We were driving along on I-79 through a country-side, when all the sudden we saw a sign that read (I kid you not!): "Correctional Facility Area - Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers"


Come on, seriously?????!!!!!!

Road Wisdom:

There has been a few things that I have had to say on this trip. Some I've never expected to say, some I knew were coming, and a few I only thought to myself. See if you can tell which is which?

1) "You don't have to shout to be heard."

2) "Don't put butter on your feet."

3) (Jay has four deer head trophies mounted in different rooms around their house) "Where is the rest of the moose?"

4) "Sharing isn't something that we only do when we want too. That's what makes it so important."

5) "Growing up means that sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to do. How much or how little you complain, that is a measure of your maturity."

6) "Can you please pull his pacifier out of his butt?"

7) "Crayons go on paper, not on the wall!"

8) "Listen to the map. It is trying to tell you how it wants to be folded."

9) "Love can make you do stupid things."

10) I was trying to make it to ten, but I can't think of anything else.

Oh, and Ryan fell out of bed last night, out of the hotel bed. He was so scared. Holly had fallen out of bed at Brenda and Jay's house, the first night we were there. I can't wait to be able to post a bunch of pictures!

From a couple days ago......while we were on the road!

On this day, we have been in Ohio for a few days. We haven't had internet connection since we left, but because we have the laptop, I'm using that and Word to write what's been happening so far. We left our house around 11am on Thursday, and managed to do a great chunk of driving. At this point the kids were just trying to get used to settling in to a car ride that was longer then to the grocery store and back. We taken out the middle seat in the van, so that there was just the front seats and the seats way in the back with a nice amount of leg and cargo room in the middle.

So we drove for about an hour, and stopped at the second rest area: Clarence. Us New Yorkers are pretty spoiled when it comes to rest areas. Such full service rest areas are definitely the exception on the road to Michelle's sister's house. After we had some lunch we got back on the road and made the long push to Erie, PA. The first day of driving was actually the lightest. It is only about 3 and a half hours from our house to Erie but it was closer to 5 hours to get from Erie to just south of Woodsfield, OH.

But we stopped in Erie for the night. We had made a reservation at an Econolodge. We checked in around 2:30 or 3. Another tough part of the trip was the complete (there is no better word for it) disruption in nap schedule. We had a quick snack in the car before we arrived, so we checked in and then just changed right in to bathing suits and explored all areas of the indoor pool! After an hour or so in the pool we were starting to get a little hungry. We nipped out to Applebee's, which was just down the road, and had a nice dinner. Once we got back to the hotel, and did some exploring and checked out all the stairwells and the location of the fitness room and elevators, it was practically bedtime. Now, after a brief discussion before we started the trip, we had decided to book one room with two double beds (for Michelle and I and the kids) and a rollaway for Emma. When we made the reservation it didn't sound like it would be that much of a big deal, but we were far from right. At half-past seven we got the kids changed and started getting them into bed (Michelle was sharing with Ryan and I shared with Holly). Now the flaw in the plan was that when you get the kids into bed and turn most of the lights out, everyone else just stands around by the door, looking at each other wondering what to do now. So Michelle took Emma up to the fitness area, and had what she felt was a great time up there. I stayed in the room with a book, sat on Emma's rollaway and tried to silently convince the kids that I wasn't actually there. It didn't work, Holly was tired, but Ryan (Mr. Over-tired) kept getting up out of bed, talking to Holly and me, and generally NOT SLEEPING. So I did the only thing I could think of, and climbed into bed too. That didn't turn out any better but, I imagine that it caused more impact on Michelle when she came back down to the room to see me in bed with my eyes closed, and Ryan running around a hotel room with no diaper on saying "Ah , much more comfortable." (He took it off all by himself, don't look at me!)

So that night, to spare you all the horror, was really that great. After we had a hearty breakfast (wow, it was crowded too, and the Econolodge didn't look that big), we packed up and hit the road. Between pit stops and lunch it took us a rather long time to reach our destination, in the southeastern part of Ohio. But, if Pennsylvania didn't illustrate the differences in terrain, then the differences between Upstate New York and Southeastern Ohio were pretty striking. In order to pass into Ohio you go through a mountain tunnel called The Wheeling Tunnel. We all enjoyed that little glimpse of something completely different. In the 700 miles it took to drive down there that was the only tunnel we saw. I thoughly enjoyed the drive down the Ohio river from Wheeling, about an hour of river views, and seeing sights I am still not sure what to think of. I saw several I had to write down to be sure to blog. Chief amoung these: "Chew. Mail Pouch Tobacco. Treat yourself to the best."

On the road to get to Brenda and Jay's house it was so twisty and turny that I don't think I got the speed of the van over 20 miles per hour much more then a few minutes out of the 20 minutes it took to drive up there.

Just a few of the other signs that I saw that I wanted to report on:
In Erie, where the fireworks trade is booming, because of the proximity to the NY border, there was a Fireworks Store where they had a sign out front : "Pepper spray, Stun Guns and Lord of the Rings Special Sale"
I never understood the books that the bookstore carried, about roadside church sign quotes, but after seeing them in person, I'm amazed. "The Wage of Sin is Death."
"Don't let the sun keep you from the Son this summer."

I'm sure that we will see some more on the way back, we might be going a different way to get back to I-70.