Around My World In 180 Days
With the passing of the six month anniversary of "The Great Escape" from the festering armpit known as the DFW Metromess, I thought I'd give ya'll and update.
I've recently started to feel more settled and adjusted here in Amarillo. Like a new pair of jeans or sneakers, it is starting to fit me pretty well. It takes awhile to decompress from living in a hellish pressure cooker of stress, crime, pollution, insane amounts of traffic, rude/considerate/hateful people, the lunacy of working in large corporate environments, etc for over 20 years. I'm still decompressing and I believe that by the horizon of the next chase season (by March), I'll be in excellent shape. :-)
Part of my more recent feeling of getting settled down is getting used to a new job as well as working for a much smaller company than I have ever worked for in my life. As a result, they do ALOT of things quite differently and for the most part far better than what I've been accustomed to. One thing I don't miss are the endless and pointless meetings, mission statements, and managers that don't know shit about programming or development and never coded a program in their life. It's like Beethoven having a boss that can barely play "Chopsticks" on a piano. LOL!!!
Through today, I've added some skills to my developer toolbox. Spring and Spring MVC, Freemarker tags, DWR Ajax/javascript toolkit, advanced ANT, Google Web Toolkit, re-learn the Eclipse IDE, MySQL, and JBoss. It's been quite a ride the past six months to be sure.
At the six-month mark, I always evaluate a new job. I can say with certainty that it is far better than the past few gigs I've had. So, I feel like my decision to make a radical move was a good one. It also validates my self-evaluation that I'm really not cut out to be a corporate drone. Of course, not spending 3-4 hours per day crawling 24 miles each way helps alot too. :-)
Okay...enough with work. The apartment here has actually worked out quite well despite the one-time big wild college party by my new upstairs neighbors a few months ago. They have since been very respectful and courteous as well as very quiet. That fits quite well with the very peaceful and quiet part of the complex I live in. It's all a very nice and quiet neighborhood. Did I mention how quiet it is? ;-) I'll be renewing my lease this weekend.
Speaking of which, the house STILL hasn't sold back in McKinney. Come September, I'll be looking at making some hard decisions to get rid of that thing. My timing could not have been worse in putting that thing on the market. A couple of months sooner and it would have sold quickly like everything else around there. Now, there is a tremendous glut of new homes on the market in that area as well as more existing homes for sale. With the sub-prime mortgage industray taking a serious nose dive this year, the number of qualified buyers has really dried up. So, the law of supply and demand makes it a buyers market right now...big time. Wish me luck in getting rid of it.
Once I get the house thing settled, I'll be looking at getting a new vehicle! I have absolutely no idea yet on what I want. I'm torn between a 4WD SUV (for the ice, snow and flooding we get up here as well as all of the famous "muddy quagmire" bobs roads in the PH) and something very gas efficient as gas prices are certainly never going to get better. I'd like to be able to do some storm chasing. Then there is the fact that I want to get a decent bass boat too and I'll need a good tow vehicle. So, my choices right now range between a Moped and a Humvee. LOL!!
Speaking of fishing, I've really been eyeing Lake Alan Henry alot as well as Lake Meridith and Greenbelt Lake. Thus the desire to get a bass boat again. I used to be quite the fish-a-holic back in my day including bass clubs, a few tournaments and I even guided part-time on Lake Ray Roberts and Lake Fork. I'd really love to start doing a little fishing again...but not so serious as I did then. A boat may be off a ways in a couple of years though.
I also have the fever to start playing drums again. There is a decent music scene in Amarillo and I'm really getting the itch to start jamming with other musicians. The problem with that is 1) finding others that you get along with, 2) don't want to go on the road or play gigs several nights per week, 3) have the same musical tastes, 4) close to your musical abilities, 5) have their own vehicle and a job to pay the bills, 6) don't do drugs or major alcoholics and 7) likes to have fun!!. So, you may wonder if it is even possible to find musicians out there like that. ;-) I'll probably start inquiring around and doing some sit-ins and open mic or open jam sessions.
Whew!! That's alot. I hope I didn't bore you too bad. But hey, there really isn't any weather to talk about other than we are finally flirting with 100F for the first time this summer. September is on the horizon, so the weather should start getting active before too long. It is also interesting to point out that the state of Texas set an all-time record for the wettest first 7 months of the year. July was to coolest month since 1976 and the fourth coolest in 113 years.
In the mean time, I'll start posting some of my favorite weather pics I've taken over the years beginning sometime this week. That should be pretty easy to update on a regular basis. :-)
Ya'll stay cool out there.
I've recently started to feel more settled and adjusted here in Amarillo. Like a new pair of jeans or sneakers, it is starting to fit me pretty well. It takes awhile to decompress from living in a hellish pressure cooker of stress, crime, pollution, insane amounts of traffic, rude/considerate/hateful people, the lunacy of working in large corporate environments, etc for over 20 years. I'm still decompressing and I believe that by the horizon of the next chase season (by March), I'll be in excellent shape. :-)
Part of my more recent feeling of getting settled down is getting used to a new job as well as working for a much smaller company than I have ever worked for in my life. As a result, they do ALOT of things quite differently and for the most part far better than what I've been accustomed to. One thing I don't miss are the endless and pointless meetings, mission statements, and managers that don't know shit about programming or development and never coded a program in their life. It's like Beethoven having a boss that can barely play "Chopsticks" on a piano. LOL!!!
Through today, I've added some skills to my developer toolbox. Spring and Spring MVC, Freemarker tags, DWR Ajax/javascript toolkit, advanced ANT, Google Web Toolkit, re-learn the Eclipse IDE, MySQL, and JBoss. It's been quite a ride the past six months to be sure.
At the six-month mark, I always evaluate a new job. I can say with certainty that it is far better than the past few gigs I've had. So, I feel like my decision to make a radical move was a good one. It also validates my self-evaluation that I'm really not cut out to be a corporate drone. Of course, not spending 3-4 hours per day crawling 24 miles each way helps alot too. :-)
Okay...enough with work. The apartment here has actually worked out quite well despite the one-time big wild college party by my new upstairs neighbors a few months ago. They have since been very respectful and courteous as well as very quiet. That fits quite well with the very peaceful and quiet part of the complex I live in. It's all a very nice and quiet neighborhood. Did I mention how quiet it is? ;-) I'll be renewing my lease this weekend.
Speaking of which, the house STILL hasn't sold back in McKinney. Come September, I'll be looking at making some hard decisions to get rid of that thing. My timing could not have been worse in putting that thing on the market. A couple of months sooner and it would have sold quickly like everything else around there. Now, there is a tremendous glut of new homes on the market in that area as well as more existing homes for sale. With the sub-prime mortgage industray taking a serious nose dive this year, the number of qualified buyers has really dried up. So, the law of supply and demand makes it a buyers market right now...big time. Wish me luck in getting rid of it.
Once I get the house thing settled, I'll be looking at getting a new vehicle! I have absolutely no idea yet on what I want. I'm torn between a 4WD SUV (for the ice, snow and flooding we get up here as well as all of the famous "muddy quagmire" bobs roads in the PH) and something very gas efficient as gas prices are certainly never going to get better. I'd like to be able to do some storm chasing. Then there is the fact that I want to get a decent bass boat too and I'll need a good tow vehicle. So, my choices right now range between a Moped and a Humvee. LOL!!
Speaking of fishing, I've really been eyeing Lake Alan Henry alot as well as Lake Meridith and Greenbelt Lake. Thus the desire to get a bass boat again. I used to be quite the fish-a-holic back in my day including bass clubs, a few tournaments and I even guided part-time on Lake Ray Roberts and Lake Fork. I'd really love to start doing a little fishing again...but not so serious as I did then. A boat may be off a ways in a couple of years though.
I also have the fever to start playing drums again. There is a decent music scene in Amarillo and I'm really getting the itch to start jamming with other musicians. The problem with that is 1) finding others that you get along with, 2) don't want to go on the road or play gigs several nights per week, 3) have the same musical tastes, 4) close to your musical abilities, 5) have their own vehicle and a job to pay the bills, 6) don't do drugs or major alcoholics and 7) likes to have fun!!. So, you may wonder if it is even possible to find musicians out there like that. ;-) I'll probably start inquiring around and doing some sit-ins and open mic or open jam sessions.
Whew!! That's alot. I hope I didn't bore you too bad. But hey, there really isn't any weather to talk about other than we are finally flirting with 100F for the first time this summer. September is on the horizon, so the weather should start getting active before too long. It is also interesting to point out that the state of Texas set an all-time record for the wettest first 7 months of the year. July was to coolest month since 1976 and the fourth coolest in 113 years.
In the mean time, I'll start posting some of my favorite weather pics I've taken over the years beginning sometime this week. That should be pretty easy to update on a regular basis. :-)
Ya'll stay cool out there.
posted by Steve Miller TX at 8/07/2007 11:46:00 PM
5 Comments:
You sound well adjusted... sucks that the house going on the market was so poorly timed. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it'll sell for you, and soon... so you can get that storm chasing Humvee (you know, to match the one you're getting for me, when you strike it rich ;-). Have you considered diggin' for oil?
Fishin', drummin' and chasin'... sounds like a great life. I'll just stick to mud slidin'... and mowin'. Watch out for that... SWING!
Are you saying that you plan to NOT miss another March Mayhem??? Acceptance is the first step. Hope your 2008 turns out better than this year was for you.
DXidnt know you liked fishing. We are gonna have to hook up. I will say Meredith mostly sux. Strong currents and very salty water. A few good channel cats but sux for bass. I wont get on that lake with 2 vests!! dangerous and very rough lake. always has white caps. Greenbelt is my favorite choice. A few good spots for bass and they also are the king of Northern Pike. Great conditions and not much traffic. Also great for camping.
WE need so set aside a saturday to watch some more video and maybe go to the dirt track for some good ole southern dirt trackin'.
By the way have you ever been to Palo Duro Canyon to see the drama "Texas"?
It was good to get an update... I'm going out of my mind with boredom here. I have to live thru someone else right now. Hopefully only a week or two before the newest chaser joins our ranks. I am so ready. And you should try picking up a phone every once in awhile!! :o) Have a good one.
like fishing? You're talking about the North Texas champeen boat salesman here! (at least in Gainesville).
:o)
Hey Steve - divorcee, drummer, Amarillo - you're not the only one! An old high school buddy of mine has lived in Amarillo for several years now - need to hook you two up (but no gay stuff).
Jay, I've been trying to get him down here to Alan Henry all summer. LOL Even off the dock they have been pulling up some whoopers! I haven't actually been to A.H. yet, so it would be a new experience for both of us.
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