Bukkit Tour Day Two: Niagara Falls

It's 7:40 and I'm sitting in the common area of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Niagara Falls, NY. The girls are still sleeping so I thought I'd get up and write the account of day two really quick.

We didn't really get on the road yesterday until a little before 2:00PM so I had really written the day off. It turns out that our hotel is three blocks from the falls so we were able to walk there and have some activity for the day even though we really didn't get settled in until after 6:00PM. I thought that all we would end up doing was driving and eating dinner.

We started off using the google maps that I had printed out, but then I activated the GPS on my phone. WOW!! I didn't know what I was missing as far a directions and navigating. We were going to rent a GPS from the rental car agency, but at $12 a day, it seemed cheaper just to activate the one on my new phone. Aside from the massive battery suck it's fantastic.

It is really beautiful around in Niagara Falls, NY. The falls are an impressive sight to see. The park leading up to the falls is gorgeous too. Looking out over the edge and peering into the maelstrom created by the water sure has a way of making one's self to feel insignificant.

After chcking out the falls, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. It seems like our choices for vittles around here are all Indian food or the Hard Rock. I don't think I could get M to eat Indian food, so our choice was made for us.

Here is the most important lesson I learned yesterday. Natural beauty is ruined by makeup. At night they project colored light onto the falls. For me, it just kind of cheapens the experience. It is so alluring on it's own, I don't know why anyone felt the need to make it so gaudy.

The area around the New York side of the falls is really tacky. If someone took the area around Myrtle Beach and dropped it in downtown Columbus..boom..you've got Niagara Falls, NY. I kind of feel like I'm an extra in Neil Gaiman's "American Gods." Today we're going to go to the wax museum and do the boat tour of the falls and then we'll start making our way towards Boston.

We got back to the hotel around 10:30 last night. Laela booked a few more hotel rooms for later in the trip, and Miranda had her first PC access in two days. She was pretty hyped. I started working on my silly "art project" and then took a shower so I could go to sleep. All of the walking around really seems to get me tired quickly. Fortunately, I got a great night's sleep last night due (in no small part) to the super comfortable beds here. The hotel room is really nice but the hallways "smell like old people" according to Miranda.

Having a blast, missing my dog, and I hope everyone is doing well.

Bukkit Tour Day One

It's raining this morning and I'm sitting in the common area of the Hotel. It is the only part of the hotel that has Internet access. Hello, Cedar Point....welcome to the year 2010. Wireless access for the whole hotel wouldn't be a task of mammoth proportions. Connectivity complaining aside....

Wow, what an great day we had Sunday. Saturday's rental car debacle had me feeling a little dubious about the upcoming vacation. Finally arriving back in Columbus nine hours later, after what should have been a five hour trip, we set out to pack. What did not help was that we got our new telephones on Saturday so Laela and I spent a good portion of the evening setting those up and getting our contacts transferred. We finished packing and were in bed around 2:00am.

Sunday morning, we packed up the car, rolled through Tim Hortons and set off. We finally go up to Cedar Point around noon. We checked into Hotel Breakers and then went to the park. Guest services was extremely gracious to us and got the family a fast pass. It was nice to be able to sign up for a ride, go do some other stuff and come back at a scheduled time. Frequent rest breaks were required throughout the day.

Highlights: Maverick is without a doubt the best roller coaster I have ever ridden. It was the first and last coaster we rode yesterday (extra cool in the dark). We hit Mantis, Top Fuel Dragester, Magnum, Millennium Force, and a few others.

We also had dinner at Tomo, the Japanese Hibachi restaurant in the hotel lobby. It was a lot of fun and our chef was awesome. He had a old timey squeeze bottle full of sake and decided that it would be fun to continually squirt it into my mouth. He cooked with a little bit of it but for the most part I consumed about 2/3 of that bottle. I was feeling good by the time we got back into the park.

We got back to the hotel to unwind and then took a midnight stroll on the beach. In bed by 1:30 and now I'm up preparing for today's jaunt off to Niagara Falls.

Retirement, Unenjoyment, Funemployment...

Call it what you will, but I've not worked for a full week. It doesn't seem like it because I've been twice as busy since I've been out. Good thing it started off on a holiday weekend.

The Independence Day weekend was fantastic. I had lots to do and got to see a lot of people.

Thursday July 1, brought a new tattoo courtesy of Naomi Fuller at Thrill Vulture Tattoo. I got the date of my wedding anniversary inked on my ring finger, so my ring can't ever be taken away from me. It's that important.

Friday July 2, a big group of my friends got together at Bob's Bar in Clintonville. There were friends from the library, skateboarding friends, and old friends from back when I moved to Columbus. It was a really good time and I got to see some old faces that I hadn't seen in years. We closed the place down and didn't get home until 3:00am. Special shout-out to my homeboy Tim for taking one for the team and being the evening's designated driver.

Saturday July 3 found me doing the following: got up and walked 4 miles because I wasn't too hung over, too Miranda to All-Start softball practice, went to Plain City for lunch, went to the zoo, went and saw the movie "Kick-Ass." We even got an unexpected fireworks display by just stepping out into the back yard. Apparently, we can watch the Dublin fireworks without even leaving home. You'd think that I'd know that after living here almost seven years.

Sunday July 4 was an Independence Day spectacular. We woke up and went to the NCIL All-Star Game Pot Luck breakfast. The NCIL Girls Senior softball league hosts a pot luck on Independence day before the All-Star game. It's a good opportunity for the girls and parents from all of the teams to have a chance to get together and mingle. Miranda has been elected to represent the Athletics two years running by her peers. Unfortunately the Blue team fell to the Red team by one run in the bottom half of the last inning. On a brighter note, Miranda played one of the best games that she's played. She fielded and hit great. I was really proud of her. My parents and sister came to Columbus to watch the game too. Afterwards we went over to my mother-in-law's house for lunch. We came home after lunch and rested. For Independence Day fireworks, we went to see the Worthington fireworks which has become somewhat of a tradition in our house. The evening ended with Miranda being angry at me because I wouldn't let her use her cell phone while we were there. If you want to know the REAL reason she was angry, you'll have to ask her.

The next few days found me doing thing but not quite as busy. Monday evening I was honored to be able to chaperone a group of Worthington Library's finest librarians to see the vampire movie. I here it's the first time that a male has been privileged to witness the bookworm response to the cinematic rendition of a teenage boy without his shirt. I didn't realize that was such a huge event. Tuesday I had another biopsy performed, because not enough material was extracted the first time. I pretty much fatbacked around the house all day but I did get to see one of Miranda's classmates play baseball for his travel team in the evening and met Tim and Dan for dinner. Dan broke down Boston for us so we didn't waste time there. Other than that, we're just prepping for the Great Bukkit Tour of 2010. Coming soon to the East Coast.

Dirty Jobs

Well, here it is June 30, 2010. It's my official last day of work. I can't believe it's going down like this. I haven't been unenjoyed for more than two weeks ever since I was 14 years old. I've only been fired once the possible exception being the simultaneous fire/quit at Sal's deli. I contend that I quit before he fired me. I thought I'd take a quick minute and try to list all of the jobs that I've ever had and maybe a little note to go with it, so here goes:

High School Years 1985-1989
Shop Cleaner: L'il Angels and Devils Kid's clothing shop Ft. Myers, FL (Made $2/hour and worked 1.5 hours a day. Managed to save enough money to buy a Stratocaster which I never learned how to play other than a few Ramones songs)

Dish Washer: Italian American Club Cape Coral, FL (Smelled like ass every night when I left and the old ladies that tried to dress sexy were GROSS!)

Dish Washer/Shop Cleaner: Sal's Deli Ft. Myers, FL

Auto Wash/Detailer: Sunshine Auto Wash North Ft. Myers, FL (Got to drive a LOT of cool cars even if it was only for 50 yards or so.)

Dishwasher/Cook/Delivery: LaRosa's Pizza Cincinnati, OH (Too many stories)

Post High School/Pre-College 1989-1991
Attendant/Cashier: Sohio/BP Cincinnati, OH (Remember Full Service?)

Vacuum Cleaner Sales: Filter Queen Cincinnati, OH (Lasted less than three weeks and was where I figured out that I wasn't cut out for sales)

Line Cook/Delivery: LaRosa's Pizza Cincinnati, OH (Second Stint: Again, too many stories)

College Years 1991-1995
Cashier: Schottenstein's Department Store Columbus, OH

Lot Attendant/Equipment Maintenance: Action Rental Reynoldsburg, OH (most memorable day was knocking down an abandoned house on the property by myself and being attacked by a swarm of bees)

Delivery Driver: Pizza Hut Reynoldsburg, OH (I learned that it's hard to soar with the eagles when you're flying with Turkeys)

Telcom Cable Installer: DELVE Columbus, OH (Temporary job where I wired up a new telephone and video system at Thomas Worthington High School in the 92-93 timeframe. It was prevailing wage at about $16/hr and I thought "I'm rich, bitch!")

Arcade Attendent: Flamingo Video Arcade Columbus, OH (Maybe three weeks)

Temporary Employee: KB/Kaplan Columbus, OH (Columbus Credit Bureau, Highlights for Children warehouse)

Screen Printing Assistant: Teletrend Blacklick, OH (Hotter than balls, averaged 120 degrees in the summer)

Warehouse Picker: Hills Department Store Warehouse Columbus, OH (worked 60+ hours per week while going to school full time. Most physically demanding job I think I ever had)

PC Repair/Shipping: General Diagnostics Hilliard, OH (Learned valuable lessons about interpersonal relationships at work. ie, Don't pick fights with the lady that's blowing the boss. That's a career limiting move. Only job I was fired from.)

Remote Setup Tech: WBNS Radio B-97.1FM/1460 AM Columbus, OH (Set up remote transmitting tower, tents, and promotional items for WBNS Radio. The holiday parties were awesome, the OSU football Saturdays SUCKED. This is also where I learned to HATE the Ohio State Fair)

Transducer Tester: Sensotec Columbus, OH

Post College 1995-2010
PC Technician: Incredible Universe Columbus, OH (Very first job with PC tech being my only duty. Got hired 6 months before Windows 95 came out)

LAN Administrator/Remote Support: NextEra Medical Columbus, OH (first job as a parent. They ended up hiring Laela too and we were able to bring Miranda to work with us for the first two years of her life. Eternally grateful for the extra time I got to spend with my family)

Network Consultant: MicroAge Technology Services Columbus,OH

Network Consultant: Paros Business Partners Columbus, OH

Microsoft Technologies Consultant: nSystems, LLC Columbus, OH (Working at ODJFS)

Network Consultant: B.I.T.S. Columbus, OH (Working for various small business around town engineering and maintaining their networks)

Runaway Train

It's June 27, 2010 at 9:46 in the morning. My girls are upstairs asleep and I'm sitting in the dining room on the computer and quietly reflecting on the whole wacky situation that I find myself in. It's been 19 days since my condition was diagnosed. It's been 12 days since I was told how bad things actually are. It's three days before I have it verified by and independent third party.

Finding out was one of those moments when the whole world stops. It felt like it took forever to actually process what I was told before I really understood what the implications were. I feel like I'm on a runaway train. It doesn't have any brakes and just a few short miles up the track, the bridge is out. There's no way to stop it and no way to jump off. What do you do when faced with a situation like this? This isn't covered in the safety manual. Me?? I'm heading back to the dining car, pouring myself a stiff drink and raising a glass to my family and friends.

The easy thing to do would be to get angry, be upset and shut myself off and spend the rest of my time having a pity party. I'd like to think that is not how I've dealt with trials and tribulations up until now, so there is no reason to start.

The best spin that I can put on it is that I have been given a rare gift that most people don't get. I've been given an opportunity to say the things that I've always wanted to say to the people that I've always wanted to say them to. I have a chance to see the good in humanity. The outpouring of support for me and more importantly, my family has been absolutely overwhelming. There is no way to thank all of the people who have stepped up to help out and lend their support. The way all of the communities in my life have converged in a united front of charity doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. It's not just close friends and family either. It's Miranda's classmates, the school community, rock bands, co-workers, neighbors, and complete strangers. Of course it is friends and family too. What is amazing is the way that people who are on the periphery of our lives pull together and come a little closer which makes the world a little smaller. Sometimes you don't appreciate the good in others around you until something catastrophic occurs.

Life is full of uncertainty and that's what makes the journey fun. You never know what's coming around the bend next. So, I'm telling the engineer to throw some more coal on the fire. Let's throw open the window, lean your head out and feel the wind in your face. Take a deep breath and enjoy it. You're on one hell of a fun ride.