1st Cottage Visit 2011

These are some pictures that I took while spending my first summer afternoon this year at the lake cottage.  I took more than 50 shots.  These are the best of the bunch.

I'm really enjoying my new Nikon D7000 camera. 

I also really  like the metering in the D7000.  I'd owned only a Nikon D80 prior to my purchase of the D7000 and the metering in that camera is awful.  Quite often the camera will tell me that the shot is totally under exposed, but upon review after I've taken the shot, the picture is fine. 

The fps speed of the Nikon D80 is also extremely lacking.  At best I was only able to take shots at a rate of 3 - 4 fps.  The D7000 is easily double that rate.  The shutter button is so sensitive that I often take 2 - 3 shots before I even realize that I'd depressed the button.

The Beach of Hilton Head

End of An Era

Hi Family,

An era in my life came to its conclusion this morning. There was no fan fare, no pat on the back, no one saying, “job well done”. This era came to an end with no notice of its significance at all.

I started working for Paratransit way back in November of 1994. I was hired in as a CSR. While an entry level position, doing the job properly is paramount to both company and driver profitability. Because of my accuracy, speed, and work ethic, I was promoted to midnight CSR within a few months. Many would not see this as a promotion, but I enjoyed the challenge of working alone. Also, the fact that I was paid more than any other CSR made me feel good as well.

By 1998 I was named Assistant Manager of Yellow Cab. Yellow Cab was but one division of Paratransit. Things were looking up as far as I was concerned. Though only an Assistant Manager, because I worked midnights there was no higher “authority” on duty than myself. All answered to me. This was the case until this morning.

The owner of Paratransit did not name me Yellow Cab manager when my supervisor resigned so at that time I decided that my future with the company had hit a dead end. Though I still continued to drive taxi part time, I sought full time employment elsewhere.

I worked at a number of jobs full time between 1998 and 2000. In April of 2000 I was finally able to convince my wife that I could earn as much driving a cab full time as I was working at some BS job. After many “discussions” she allowed me to show her what I knew to be true. I drove cab full time from April 2000 until October of 2002.

During the summer of 2002 one of the current owners of Selectride, Inc., formerly Paratransit, asked if I'd be interested in working in the call center from time to time. I agreed and this arrangement quickly turned into a full time job opportunity. By October of 2002 I rehired full time at the company and named Assistant Call Center Manager. I was rehired into my old midnight time slot. The owners of the company again wanted someone with my level of professionalism, experience, and business acumen manning the fort in their absence.

In May of 2005 I was promoted to Call Center Manger. Was I up to the challenge? It was all fully my responsibility now. Unlike before when I'd call my boss with a “major” problem, I was now charged with solving said problem on my own. I also had the responsibility of being in charge of and responsible for more than 2 dozen staff.

I remained Call Center Manager from May of 2005 until today 02/25/11. Last night was the last time that I'll be in charge. Last night was the last time that my word was law. Last night was the last time that I'll go to work when the sun sets and go to bed when it rises.

Last night was the end of an era...

Enough is Enough

How long are we as a people going to sit idly by while our government continues to spend money it doesn't have? How long before we as a people have the courage to stand up to the politicians and say, “enough is enough”?

The way our government spends money is no different than our own family budget. We are not able to spend money we don't have. Creditors who loan us money expect to be repaid. While we have the last resort of filing for bankruptcy, the US government does not have that option. How then can our government spend money it doesn't have? It doesn't matter whether it's the federal, state, or local government. The problem is still the same. Money going out must be less than money coming in. Income has to be more than expenditures. When the opposite is the case said government operates at a deficit. A little debt is not a bad thing, but the current debt of the federal government is more than $14 TRILLION!!! Call me crazy but I think this is just a little insane.

It would be real easy to blame the politicians for getting us in the mess, but the bottom line is we are all responsible. We elected the self-indulgent, cowards and at no point attempted to stop them from frivolously wasting our tax dollars. We stood by and allowed them to dig us into this hole and at no point questioned how we were paying for it all.

Politicians spend other people's money. So it's easy to understand why they don't bother considering where the money will come from to pay for the expenditure. We keep electing and re-electing them term after term. They pit you versus me each claiming that the other is the enemy when in fact they themselves are our true enemy. There's an old adage that says, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Politicians don't have absolute power unless we give it to them. Through the election process we have the power to retake control of our government. The only question that remains is do we have the courage to do what is necessary?

1st Meat Smoking Attempt

This happens to be my first blog entry. I'm writing not only about my first attempt at smoking corned beef. Cooking is one of three things that I'm very passionate about. Another is photography.

I'd been thinking of buying a meat smoker for several months. Each time I talked myself out of the idea almost as quickly as I'd talked myself into it. For whatever reason, Tuesday morning I took the plunge. I work midnights as a manager in the transportation industry. Last Tuesday was an unusually slow night at work so I took advantage of the down time by reading up on various smokers and smoking techniques.

Anyone that knows me knows I am a meat freak!!! I'll eat just about anything that walks, crawls, or flies. However, I won't eat meat that is not prepared properly. This has meant me learning to cook, bake, and grill to my own unique taste. While I've mastered cooking, baking, and grilling, I've never tried my hand at smoking. Every web page I read talked of how smoked meat took grilled meat to the next level. Page after page extolled the process of smoking versus any other mode of meat preparation.

Add to this the fact that I'd like to impress my in-laws during their upcoming holiday visit with a greater display of my mastery of culinary arts and one can now see how my purchasing a smoke was inevitable.

After making the decision the purchase the smoke I then had to decide what type of smoker I wanted. My options were electric, gas, or charcoal. This one was a no-brainer. I chose charcoal for the same reason I have a charcoal grill instead of a gas one. Charcoal provides better flavor than gas no matter what is being grilled. The only benefit of gas is the ability to start cooking (I used that term because I cook with gas in my kitchen I grill with charcoal outside.) Now before you decide to send me a bunch of hate mail refuting my assertion, please recall that this is my blog and I'm cooking for me!!! My tastes and opinions are all that matter here.

Having thought about the type of smoker for a second or two, now I had to decide what brand of smoker to purchase. This was a real tough decision. After about 30min I narrowed my choices down to two, the Brinkmann Gourmet Smoker & Grill and the Weber Smokey Mountain. The Brinkmann was 1/3 the cost of the Weber. Weber has a sterling reputation of a quality product and I'd read several sites that suggested that the Brinkmann was great after it was modified. I've owned 4 Weber grills, 3 I still own and one was stolen, and can personally attest to them being of a better design than most grills and built better grills. After vacillating for about 15min on the Weber vs. the Brinkmann I finally decided that the bottom line was money. Cost was the only benefit to buying the Brinkmann. That being the case I decided to go with the Weber.

Next came the decision of where to purchase my unit. What I usually do in situations like this is type of the product name in Google search and allow the engine to return to me a list of the cheapest sellers. I did this and was not at all happy with the results. Through Google the prices varied from $269 to $349 for the 18” Smokey Mountain. The MSRP is $299 so one would think that I'd have been happy finding a site selling it for $269. I wasn't. I thought I could do better and I was right.

I remembered a website I used to go to long ago. I hadn't used them for quite some time (not since Google introduced the Froogle website) and did not know if they were still operational. I typed pricegrabber.com into the address bar and was somewhat surprised to find that they were still in business. I then typed Weber Smokey Mountain in the search bar and found a site that was selling the unit for $239!!! The only problem was the seller was someone I'd never dealt with before and had never heard either. However, I did a little research and was happy enough with the few reviews to give them a try.

I ordered my Smokey Mountain late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning. It was delivered Friday afternoon. I can't say enough nice things about aimtofind.com. Promised delivery within 10 days and I got it in 2. Add to that the fact that I didn't pay a dime for shipping and I found my item $30 cheaper than I did anywhere else and you can see why I'm such a happy camper.

Now that I've given you an introduction to my situation, let's discuss the actual smoking process and results.

I can sum up my first smoking experience in one word...disaster. I made the mistake of falling asleep during the smoking process and neglected to set an alarm. By the time I'd awaken my meat was a dried out lump of charcoal, I'd managed to allow the drippings from the meat to burn into the water pan (doubt I'll be able to get that out), and my ego was so deflated I needed to spatula to scrape it off the patio.

They say we learn better from our mistake than from our successes. I truly hope this is true. This mistake just cost me $15 for the meat, $10 for the charcoal, and $4 for the wood chunks. As lessons go, I got off cheap. Only cost me $30. (Hoping I don't have to buy a new water pan for my Weber. I've yet to look up the price of the replacement part but am guessing it is somewhere in the neighborhood of $30.)

I plan to try again day after tomorrow. Wednesday morning I plan to smoke my first turkey. This morning I will begin the brine process.

I'll post my results upon completion.

Wish me luck...

Just The Beginning 2010/07/31

I started this blog as a way for me to get my thoughts on paper, albeit "cyber paper".  I'll be writing my thoughts and posting pictures from time to time.