Three walking things

I’m a computer programmer (sorry, the current term is Software Engineer) and sit at a desk in front of a computer all day. In a big building full of high walled cubicles. It’s very quiet, few people talk to each other and nobody walks around to visit. To keep my legs from freezing up I try to get up every hour or so and go for a walk around the parking lot. It’s a big lot between buildings and takes around ten minutes to circle. It’s an OK walk, all I really see is asphalt, cars and buildings but there are trees in the distance. Here are three things for Clare
1. Enjoying the bright sunshine in my face while walking, feeling the cool air and looking forward to it warming up. Supposed to be over 90f tomorrow (30c) – a little early (90 in freekin’ March? What’s up?)
2. Hearing the sound of a train horn in the distance, announcing its trip along the freeway and across some local roads.
3. Rounding the corner and catching the smooth odor of the sweet acacia bushes in bloom – meter high balls of bright yellow flowers.

Three nice things Tuesday

Three nice things Tuesday (for Clare
1. To walk outside in the crisp spring air and enjoy the clear blue sky.
2. To hear the sound of planes, and look east to see that the Air Force Thunderbirds are practicing, and the sky is full of loopy contrails. Like a little girl practicing her fancy writing and filling the air with big Os and Ls and not making any real words.
3. To have the hard parts of my new kitchen done, and be able to cook and bake and make things with new appliances and have lots of countertops for prep. And to pull out all of those wonderful drawers trying to find where my wife has put everything.

Three early February things

1. It is a bright clear sunny day, and I can enjoy the sunrise behind the mountains as I drive towards the east on the way to work. It goes from black with all the valley lights twinkling ahead of me to a nice pink/orange coming from behind Sunrise Mountain. In a few weeks the sun will be peeking over during the morning drive, saying hello to me in its own way.
2. To be healthy and enjoy doing the work myself on my house. All of the heavy deconstruction is done and now it’s on to adding back and making a place where I can cook and bake and have fun.
3. To get a very nice letter from granddaughter, seeing how well she can write and how smart she is. Remembering her as I write back and answer her questions.

Three turkey things:
1. Mmm – turkey sandwiches.
2. To get Thanksgiving dinner with the kids and they do the cooking.
3. To come home safely and get to make our own turkey dinner, with the leftovers all for me. (B doesn’t like leftovers much, she would rather new).
4. Did I say how much I like the leftovers from Turkey day? Sandwiches, dressing with gravy, smashed potatoes with gravy, mmmm.

Morning drive

I leave my house to drive in to work each morning around 6:30; it takes about a half hour. The drive in to work is almost due East, so I get to watch the sunrise, then if I’m a few minutes late have it directly in my eyes for a while. Surprising how reflective the concrete roads are; I can drop the visor down and look under it at the roadway, but now the road is almost as bright as the direct sun.

1. One day last week there was a sheet of high clouds over half the eastern sky. It was interesting to watch them move from black to brilliant red to a beautiful buttery golden then to bright white as the sun came up.

2. Las Vegas is surrounded by mountains, so it is very bright in the morning before the sun peeks over the eastern mountain tops. Interesting to watch the western mountains in my rear view mirror as the sun lights them up, showing off the dark valleys and rock formations surrounded by the bright red hills.

3. If I drive in a little early it’s still dark. The freeway I drive on crosses the south end of the Strip, and all of the big hotels and casinos are glowing with bright neon colors. It’s interesting to think of the thousands of people over there in the casinos still gambling, as there are no clocks or windows inside and you can play all night then stumble outside into the bright sun of the new day. Most of the big ultra-lounges don’t open until midnight, so crowds are still dancing away and drinking until mid morning.

Outdoor weekend

Outdoors weekend! Even though the temperature will not be over 19c (66f) this weekend has several outdoor activities.

1. The annual Santa Run has moved from Freemont Street downtown to the south end of the Strip, at Town Square. I’ve been wanting to go but always seemed to have things lined up, but this Saturday we’ll (yes, I talked B into going) be down among 9,000 other people all dressed up as Santa Claus. I’m signing up and getting our outfits tonight! (pictures to come)
2. The annual Zappos Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon is this Sunday, with runners again starting at Mandalay Bay and running up the Strip. The route is a little different; in past years they came up close to our house, this year it’s up and down the Strip then a jog west along Hacienda to get in the full 26 miles. This one I will not be participating in, but at least our house will not be within the no drive zone again. 30,000 participants expected for the full and half marathons, with bands along the route and the get-married-on-the-run wedding chapel somewhere in there.
3. We made the big time: the Brookings Institute rated the Las Vegas economy among the five worst for big cities in the world! Only Dublin, Dubai, Barcelona and Thessaloniki were worse, but not by much. Next year we hope to move up! (at least I have a job (for now)).

After Thanksgiving

After Thanksgiving
1. Still have enough turkey for one more sandwich!! (not sure if that’s good or not)
2. We went through the apple pie rather quickly, but the store had a “buy one get one free” thing and there is a cherry pie soon to go into the oven.
3. Unfortunately we got our poor dog Buster hooked on real turkey and he refuses to eat anything canned now, so it looks like I’ll have to keep roasting turkeys for him. (well, I do have to do quality checks)

Here he is suffering with a stuffed tummy.

Three things turkey

Three things turkey:
1. How nice the house smells all day when roasting a turkey, and all the associated goodies.
2. Sitting at the table before things are served anticipating the meal.
3. Sitting at the table after eating enjoying that stuffed feeling, and realizing that there will be leftovers for days to come.

Three things - baking

Thoughts of Clare's TBT

1. At sunrise, looking at the full moon just above the mountains to the west. It’s above Red Rock Canyon, and in the morning side light the ridges jump out from the dark canyons, rocks bright red in the morning sunlight.
2. I spent the day yesterday baking, one of my favorite activities. The house smells like cinnamon and spices with a background of chocolate.
3. Sharing a box of goodies this morning, watching people eat the variety of things I made. And getting an official looking certificate for my "amazing baking contribution". I get to add this to my desktop display, next to the trophy for best chili I won last week (my first time making chili)

Three for spring

Thanks to Clare:
1. The smell of the sweet acacia blooming right outside our kitchen, after a few years here in Vegas that scent now signals spring.

2. Pink blossoms on the peach tree: no grand and glorious pink cloud this year, just a few scattered around with the out coming green leaves.

3. Looking at the weather forecast in the paper, and seeing the high temps going up by three degrees every day, from our cold yesterday up to 78f predicted for Monday. Warm! Yea! (our rosemary bushes are nice blue, filled with bees)

4. Planting the tomatoes and peppers, so that they will set and we’ll pick before it gets to 110f (43C+) (OK, 4)

Three February things

I wanted to do this more often, but thanks to Clare here are three beautiful things for today:
1. The sun is shining, and everything seems clean from the rain last week. The ground is still moist, and it smells like springtime. I bought several packs of flower bulbs yesterday and am working in the moist garden and anticipating colorful blooms in a few months.
2. Buster is out in the grass wandering around. Even almost blind and twenty one years old he still likes to sniff the grass and check things out. When he bumps into my leg he sniffs to make sure it’s me and just stands there waiting to be picked up.
3. Buster normally sleeps all day on our bed, but we can hear when he gets down and goes for a drink of water as the tags on his collar hit against the metal water bowl, and the distant clink clink echoes around the house.

OK, can’t do this without at least one picture, here he is just supervising us in the kitchen, that missing left eye doesn’t seem to bother him too much.

Three interesting things

In following the tradition of Clare we again try to come up with three interesting things. She finds three beautiful things every freekin' day and I have a hard time recognizing a few once in a while. Oh well, I guess it depends on your attitude.

1. Walking down the hall at work on Monday I found three women from food services standing around a cart talking and laughing. One of them appeared to be very embarrassed and the other two were doing most of the laughing. Getting closer I saw that they were leafing through a pamphlet pointing at pictures inside. That was when I realized that the adult expo show had closed the day before and they were looking at a product brochure from one of the vendors. I don’t know which one it was, and really didn’t want to ask them, but it was evident that at least two of them found some things in there very amusing.

2. In the southwest US we usually get a week or two of wonderful weather in the middle of January. When we lived in San Diego this gave B a chance to prune all of our roses when they were fairly dormant. Here in Vegas she is out trimming the wisteria out front and cutting the sage bushes that we have all over. Christmas week we had snow (snow! In Vegas!) and just last week the nighttime temps were down around 26f at our house. Next week it will be cold again, but this morning it was 32f, and will be warming up to 69f this afternoon, and it is scheduled to be in the mid sixties for the high all week.

3. Yesterday we walked around the canals of Venice at lunch, listening to the singing gondoliers. After work B and I went down to New York and wandered the back streets of Soho, then crossed the street to the MGM, watched one of the lions playing and had a bite to eat at a jungle café with singing birds and roaring elephants looking down at us. Where else can you visit so many different places in one day but Vegas?

4. OK, an email just came in while writing this and it just seemed to fit. From our head of housekeeping: "Front Lobby Entrance: The Custodial dept. will be buffing and waxing the sidewalk today. Starting from East to West, a walkway area will be available throughout the process." Do they wax and buff sidewalks anywhere else?

Three things

In following the tradition of Clare we return again to three things:

1. Leaving for work in the dark, with the temperature around 48f and the sun just starting to rise behind the big hotels on the Strip directly in front of me. The large video screens are bright, showing food and entertainment options on three corners at the intersection where I wait for the light to change.
2. Most of our halls at work are empty, with the bridal show taking up about half of one hall upstairs. Downstairs it is quiet except for the hum of the lights, but I can walk amongst the booths and look at dozens of young models wearing yards and yards of satin and lace and tulle and silk and organza standing around and smiling.
3. Coming home in bright light, with the temperature up to 81f and a clear blue sky, the feathery acacia is blooming bright yellow around the yard. The big clump right next to our kitchen door fills the air with a sweet fragrance as I sit and have my afternoon coffee and read the newspaper.
Downstairs:


And here is what the wedding show looked like. Lots of gowns, and shoes, and tiaras, and bridesmaid outfits and and and

Three Things

In following the tradition of Clare, I try to think of three nice things every day. Today:
1. I hope that our city motto ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ is really true. Every morning on the way to work I drive past Scores ‘Gentlemen’s’ Club. This is at 6:30 in the morning, and there is a long line of cabs our front just waiting to take guys back to their hotels. I sure hope the corresponding wives and girlfriends don’t find out what went on, or just how much money is spent (those places are not cheap)
2. It’s nice that there is always something new to see. With all the construction on the Strip and around town there is always a new building opening every six months or so, such as the big one in the hotel next door to where I work. I am still impressed with how nice that place is.
3. Sunshine! It might be cold outside (OK, for us a high of 55f in January is cold) but there are no clouds in the sky and the sun is shining. I can take the cold as long as I can see the sun.
4. (an extra today!) Back before the internets when people had computers set up that others dialed into there was a famous one that was just amusing. I had a machine set up full of programs and programming tips that was always busy. But this one was about the most popular around, and all that it had was a dumb little song and a poor quality cartoon. It was also one of the first sites on the internet that was relatively amusing. You can still find the web site, though updated at Hampster Dance. The song is still around, and the cartoon has been updated, but it’s as infective as It’s a Small World. Be sure to turn it up for the kids, they will always dance to this one.


For those of you that have never been to Disneyland (are there people like that?) there is a ride that is about ten minutes long. It was originally at the 1966 New York World’s Fair and made it back to California, becoming a must ride for everyone with kids. And leaving everyone with this stupid song stuck in their heads after ten minutes of it.

Three things in the Fall

Three things for Clare:
1. You can tell Fall is here by the sunlight – it’s too dark outside in the morning for me to sit and read my paper before work. I sit inside at the kitchen table with the doors open and can still enjoy the sound of the fountain outside and the birds waking up.
2. The change of seasons is also noted by the temperature changes. Just last week it was over 100 every day, and this week everything has dropped twenty degrees. It was only 60 when I awoke today, but it still will warm up to 85 or so in the afternoon. I had to roll up my car windows driving to work this morning as the wind was just a little too cool.
3. I drive in to work heading due east. Sitting at a traffic light the sun is hidden behind the new Trump tower, and I can look straight ahead without squinting. As the light changes and we drive through the curves over 15 the sun becomes visible and I have to hide behind the visor. Turning the corners to head to the ‘team member’ parking garage the sun is now reflected off of the big golden Wynn, again causing the visor to be dropped down.

PBS was using a quiet guitar background on one story and it took quite a while for me to remember the title, so that I could go off and find it. Reading through the notes referenced I was surprised to find that this song, well, the a capella version, was the first song every distributed on the Internet via MP3 encoding. The German engineer that was developing the MP3 software used Suzanne’s song to test the algorithms.

Three Fall things

I’ve been talking about our descent into Fall weather. Yesterday morning when I woke up it was only 20c, the coolest it has been in months. But when I got home from work it was back up to a more ‘normal’ 40c. I haven’t had the cover off of the pool for a week, and the water temp is up to 35c, which was like floating in a hot tub last night.

Thanks back to Clare.
1. Floating in the pool at sunset, with the water and air temps both at 95, feeling warm and comfortable while watching a beautiful orange sky with little blinking airplane lights high overhead. There is no wind or breeze, and the tall palm trees along the edge of the pool are not moving at all. Periodically a short burst of wind comes from somewhere making the palm fronds rustle and shake for a few seconds before going back to their motionless silhouettes.
2. Getting the paper this morning, again looking at an orange sunrise (unusual here in the normally dry desert) and listening to the birds wake up, talking to each other about where to go for breakfast.
3. Walking past the canal upstairs in the Big Hotel Next Door at lunch, seeing a new gondolier singing Volare in the style of Elvis: swinging his hips, dancing on the back of the boat and making the boat rock from side to side. The passengers seemed to enjoy it, and he was given a loud ovation from the surrounding crowd of tourists when he finished up.

Three things & the Monkees

Three things for Clare.

1. Driving in to work past an apartment complex with a long strip of grass running alongside the road. The sprinklers are turned on, and each of a dozen heads pop up in progression, the drops of water sparkling in the early morning sunlight.
2. Working with a group of people that enjoy their job, and can sit over coffee and laugh at things going on around them. Realizing of course that we will be the ones that have to fix things and keep them running.
3. Thinking of songs you haven’t heard in years and finding them on YouTube.



The US answer to the Beatles. Yes, it wasn't great music, but how much from the 60's was?

Three things

For Clare:

1. Fresh blueberries and raspberries both in hot Scotch cut oatmeal for breakfast – the tastes and texture all goes well together.
2. Sitting out on the patio eating breakfast oatmeal with coffee and fresh orange juice, watching the hummingbirds squabbling over the feeder, the loudest continually challenged and chasing the others away. But some sneak back for a quick drink while he is off chasing the next one, as if they planned the distractions together.
3. Thinking of Clare's camping trip, and imagining sleeping out in the old British woods among the ferns and fairies.

Three things

In honor of Clare:

1. Floating around in the pool at sunset after a hot day. Looking up at the big bright half moon dominating the sky as the sky darkens and the stars come out.
2. Watching the birds disappear as they go to bed to be replaced by the bats as they flit around overhead catching insects.
3. Enjoying the quiet time alone in the pool after a day spent with some noisy and ever talkative friends. Talk is nice, but quiet at times is also nice.

Three things

Three thilngs for Clare.

1. All of the activity when a show is going on. I work at an expo/convention center, which periodically hosts large activities. Today is a home furnishing expo; attendees are people with furniture shows or designers, here to see the latest and greatest offerings of suppliers. It takes up three halls upstairs, most of the show is in the Market Center downtown, but still we expect 60,000 people to wander over this way this week. This means the back halls are filled with food servers and housekeeping and electrical and hundreds of people that aren’t usually here pushing carts and food racks and riding little electrical carts around.
2. The difference between the upstairs hall, full of lights and booths and people and blinking signs and noise and the downstairs hall, which is not being used for this show, where it is dark and cool and quiet, with just footsteps echoing back from the concrete.
3. The quiet between shows, when the halls are empty and all the temp workers gone, and we can to background work instead of taking care of emergencies.