RonnMcCarrick.com

Yesterday was a bad day.

Today is a good day.

Yesterday was full of doubts and frustrations about the future and the job. Nothing of note, just the usual new job doubts… was this the right decision, what am I doing, etc… I blame it on a lack of productivity.

Today was a much better day. I made it to three banks in three different cities. I was in Muskegon this morning walking around the lot in the warm sunshine, picking up litter, and thinking to myself, I can’t believe they’re paying me 50-grand a year to do this. I used to get paid five bucks an hour for the same shit doing apartment maintenance when I was a kid. Then I went to lunch and went down to Holland where I was going to start the sprinkler system. But the new signs had done some damage to the lines and there was some sort of train-wreck on the corner by the fire hydrant and I thought to myself, If I start this it’s going to be a muddy mess. Expecting this, I decided to just have the irrigation vendor come out and handle it. Easy as pie. Then I went and installed the new flat-screen TV that the branch just got for the break room. More driving and singing along with Jimmy Buffett and I was in Grandville where I did actually start the sprinklers. No problems. More sunshine.

When I got home I called my lady, popped a top and made some of my spicy spaghetti, started some laundry, and watched them build a sweet-ass Cuda on Rides. Now I want a hotrod. I know, I want to much. Fold that laundry, pop another top, and here I am working on the blog. I moved things over to Blogger in Draft, which is just a bunch of beta toys for Blogger. You’ll notice the changes in the sidebar, just some new widgets. I also cleaned up the blogroll and removed anybody that hasn’t posted in a year. And now I’m writing to you.

Not sure what the plan is this weekend. Tasha’s not going to come out here but I’m not sure I want to go out her way either. I’ve got stuff that I need to do (hair cut, grocery shop, that sort of exciting stuff). Kevin invited me over for our usual gaming stuff. Really what it comes right down to is that this is probably the last quiet weekend for me for a bit. My oldest is graduating high school on the 7th, his 18th birthday is on the 12th, and I’m sure there’s going to be a graduation party in there some time. Next thing you know it’ll be Independence Day. Tasha will be moving in after that. Then my folks will be here for my 40th birthday. And it’ll all wind down with Labor day and summer will be over….. Whoa! Whoa, there buddy! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Summer just started and I’ve already brought it to a close. No more of that. Let’s just say that I see my weekends as being booked up pretty solid this summer.

I’m going to go finish reading Up In Honey’s Room. I’ll talk to you later.

I’ll talk about my weekend in a minute.

Today, I got a call from Lance with some very sad news. Seems that one of the office ladies at Nichols lost her husband on Saturday. He was involved in a motorcycle accident, where a car pulled out in front of him and another bike. It’s a horrible shame. I feel bad for his kids and his wife and the rest of their family. My sympathy goes out to them. And I’m reminded that when I’m riding I need to be on the defensive and keep my eyes constantly open for the dangers of the road.

Here’s a link to the news paper article with the details.

Well, that was sobering. Anyway, how was your weekend? Mine was good. I went to Tasha’s on Friday night, but first I stopped to get my bike. It was a perfect weekend for riding it. I got to my ladies a little later than I’d like, but we still had time to go to Chili’s for some dinner and drinks…. we were in her car, not on the bike. I don’t mix the drinking and the riding.

Saturday I picked up a helmet for Tasha and we went riding for a couple hours. A first for me. I’ve never done the passenger thing on my bike. Once she settled down and stopped wiggling things went quite well. I drove around the apartment complex a bit to get the feel of it before we hit the road. Then we went through downtown Rochester, out Orion rd, and made our way to Cook’s Dairy for some ice cream. It was a beautiful day for a ride and everybody had their toys on the road, bikes, hot rods, and classic cars everywhere we went. Along the way I had another first, I dragged the footpeg on the pavement coming off Baldwin… I think we were both a little surprised when that happened. But nobody panicked and it was all good fun. Afterward we grabbed the car, picked up the dog, and grabbed a pizza in time to watch the Redwings game.

Sunday we were invited out on Dawn and Mark’s new boat. Nice boat. Big. I like it. Not for living on mind you, but a very nice boat to cruise the lake in. I think Mark said it’s a 30-footer. We spent the day on the lake in the company of friends and I think that a good time was had by all.

Monday we went to Tasha’s mom’s and had a little Memorial day party. I had to leave early, what with the ride back to the condo and then the drive back here to Grand Rapids. But it was a good way to spend the day. I didn’t think about it until I was headed home, but I wish I would have taken the bike out to visit my dad’s grave. Maybe next time I’m out that way.

Holiday weekends are never long enough and I for one am very happy that this one is followed by a short week. I’m already looking forward to Friday. Although, Tasha is making noises about not coming out this weekend. Not sure what that means for my plans. Not that I really had any plans to speak of. But, you know, I might have had some. Maybe.

Well, that’s it for me tonight. I’ve got to get back to doing this budget thing. I’m trying to come up with a plan to restore my credit in the shortest amount of time possible and maybe get my car paid off before I have to start repaying my student loan. I’ll chat at you later. Peace.

During the couple of weeks when I had no television and no internet I had a chance to catch up on some of my reading, which is always good. And of course reading always gets me itching to write, also a good thing. Anyway, I’m reading UP IN HONEY’S ROOM by Elmore Leonard right now and I think I’m liking it, but I haven’t made up my mind yet. Right before I moved out I finished APOCOLYPSE 2012 and since getting the apartment I’ve worked my way through THE HAWK ETERNAL by David Gemmell, THE WATCHMAN by Robert Crais, SOMETIMES THE MAGIC WORKS: LESSONS FROM A WRITING LIFE by Terry Brooks, FREE FALL by Robert Crais, and found time to listen to the 20-discs that make up the audio book version of THE THREE MUSKETEERS by Alexandre Dumas. I didn’t get what I wanted out of Terry Brooks writing book, but otherwise I’ve enjoyed everything that I’ve read of late.

As promised, I’ve put together a little photo album of my apartment. Don’t worry, there’s some pictures of the ducks in there as well. It’s not much, yet. I’m still going with hand-me-down furniture and stuff that I’ve held onto through the last couple years, which isn’t much. If you check back on the album from time to time I’m hoping that you’ll see my place go from a blank apartment to something resembling a home.

Did I mention what was going on with my Mechanical License test? No, I don’t think I did. I recieved a letter asking me to provide work experience info in order to get approved for the test. Um… I did that on the original form, had it notarized and everything. So I called and to make a long story short, he didn’t like what I put down, wants me to rewrite it, gave me some guidelines on that, and then get the whole thing signed again by Randy and renotarized and send it back to him. What a pain in the ass. Anyway, to get into the June test I have to have that done by some time last week. Needless to say, I’ll be waiting until August to take the test. Oh well, I’ll just look at it as more time to study.

I mentioned it on MySpace last night, but I’ll give a little more detail here. The folks that are sitting on my old domain, ronnmccarrick.com, have a little “buy this domain” link at the bottom of the page. So I followed it and put in an offer of $10.00, that’s more than it’d cost me to register an new domain, but hey, I’d get my name back. Well, they sent me back an email telling me… you know what, I’ll just let you read it.

Ronn

We have received your email regarding the domain ronnmccarrick.com

The owner of the domain has listed the sales price of $1245 for this domain.

If your next offer is reasonable for this domain, an AcquireThisName.com (ATN) representative will contact the owner on your behalf. Upon hearing from the domain owner, we will notify you.

Please note: Owners of valuable domains will often receive several offers per week. You offer should be great enough to motivate the domain owner to reply.

Regards,

Blake
AcquireThisName.com
Blake@AcquireThisName.com

Apparently, ten bucks wasn’t a reasonable offer. But then I think twelve hundred dollars for a domain that at it’s best brought in just shy of 1,800 unique visitors a month is a little unreasonable. I was tempted to reply to them with a great big fuck you and your horse email, but I decided that I’ll just ignore them and see what happens in August when the domain is due for renewal. Probably they’ll renew it now that they think there’s some interest in it, but I’m hoping that whatever traffic they were getting from my name has long since gone away and they’ll let it lapse. Stay tuned for more on that later this summer.

That’s it for tonight. Later.

Tasha came out on Saturday morning and we hung-out ’til she left Sunday afternoon. We ate, we walked the dog, we fooled around, we watched the hockey game and we saw a movie at the theater. Ironman. Which was actually quite good. I’m impressed with the way Marvel has been handling their characters in the movies. I think Ironman was probably the second best of the bunch, right behind Spiderman.

We did more talking about her moving out here when her job goes away at Chrysler. There’s just a lot to it, what with her daughter, our history, all the baggage that comes along with being in a couple, and the lack of potential job prospects. Plus, the crazy woman thinks that she’d be a burden on me!? Whatever. I say, NOT. I think it’ll happen, but who knows, things have gone in directions I haven’t expected in the past.

In other news, I decided to send a MySpace friend request to Lance today. I’ve had him as one of my favorites for a while now, you know, so I can check up on him. But I’d avoided actually inviting him to be my friend while I still worked at Nichols because of the whole thing with Gelleen. I just didn’t want anybody to know about it, but now, well, who cares I don’t work there any more and she doesn’t talk to any of those folks… or does she!? I’m just joshin’ you, she doesn’t. At least as far as I know, which isn’t far cause she doesn’t talk to me either. So rest at peace at night, you’re in the clear, she’s all yours. And yes, I know you still read this. But it seems to me it’s not making things better for you.

What is it about me? With Heidi it was Rob keeping an eye on me. With Gelleen it’s Royce keeping tabs on my blog (btw, as best I can tell with the tools I have, your wife doesn’t come around anymore). And with Tasha first it was Barry and now it’s Tim freaking out about my presence in my wifes life. Am I really that interesting to these guys? I mean I’m glad to have the readers, I’d hate to think I was talking to myself. I guess in their defense, I check up on all them too. Perhaps it’s just the way of things. I hope that if nothing else I’m keeping it interesting for everybody.

I still haven’t gotten my bike out here yet, which is too bad because I just went to Muskegon again and found some roads I’d really like to cruise down. Another cold/rainy Sunday afternoon kept me from riding back with Tasha to get it. I’m thinking maybe I’ll take the bus to Pontiac next weekend so I can bring it back on Monday. Are you all looking forward to the long weekend? I am. Three days with my baby. I did find a Triumph dealer in Kalamazoo, though. That’s a plus.

I think that’s enough for tonight. I had a bunch of other stuff I was thinking about last night and today, but as usual, I’ve forgotten what it was. Later.

Have you been missing me? I’ve been missing you. But then, I’ve been missing pretty much everything since I moved out here to the west side of the state. No cable, no internet, no money, no friends, no answers, ah… how I love changing jobs and relocating. Nothing like mixing two of lifes major stressors to make a guy feel like a million bucks.

But that’s all changing now. I got a full paycheck this pay period plus the government helped me out with a little tax credit. Did you get yours? Spend it. Buy me something. Take a trip. Hell, take me on a trip. Let’s go to the coast and frolic in the ice-cold waters of Lake Michigan. Sorry, got side tracked there. Anyway. So now I’ve got my bills caught up, some are even paid ahead, I’ve got some pocket money, and most important of all; I’m back on the inter nets talking to you.

Come on, I know you missed me. Hell, who else can make you feel this good while your clothes are still on… your clothes are still on, right! Good. I was scared there for a minute. So you probably want to know all about what’s been happening, what’s going on, what I’ve been up to, how the new job is, the new place, and of course you want to know about the ducks. The ducks are great. Gotta love them ducks. More on the ducks a bit later.

Let’s start with the job. I’m a mobile engineer for all the Bank of America’s in and around Grand Rapids, Holland, and Muskegon. At this point I’m responsible for 19-properties. Responsible in what way, I hear you asking. Well, I do it all. So far I’ve started and repaired sprinklers, done AC check ups on HVAC systems, changed light bulbs, worked with the new sign guys, chased down a short in the new signs, fixed bathroom fixtures, hung closet doors, replaced ceiling tiles, picked up trash, and built shelves. So now you know, I do it all. Plumber, electrician, hvac, carpenter, flag replacer, that’s me. They call I go.

The biggest issue I have with this job is that it’s very much dependent on me to create my work. I’m not a great self-starter, so I’m having to keep on top of myself to avoid falling into bad habits. Plus, my boss is an hour away so there is no supervision. It’s really all about me. I like that. It scares me. I wish I had more work coming in from my banks. But I like it. There’s still some issues that are getting worked out; what is and isn’t my responsiblity, where the hell my Grainger card is, how much do I have to listen to the Property Managers, but all in all I like it and I think it’s going to be a good job. Plus the pay is good and the hours are great.

Grand Rapids (Kentwood, whatever) and the new apartment. I can’t really tell you much about Grand Rapids, because up until today I’ve been pretty much broke so I’ve not been able to get out and about much. It seems considerably smaller than the Detroit metro area, probably because it is. Everything is so close, doesn’t seem like it takes any time at all to get anywhere. I’ve been to Muskegon once and Holland twice, but same story there, straight to the bank and then gone. Not really any time to make a real judgment on the place. I will say this, the whole area is more run down than I pictured it. But then I think that’s a statewide thing. There just isn’t anyplace in Michigan that’s been spared this economic downturn. I’m not saying that it’s horrible here, I just had this image of a vacation town and it just isn’t so much that way.

I wish I would have looked around a bit more before getting my apartment. Turns out that I’m on the south-eastern side of the city and at the fringes of my territory. I should have moved to a more central location. Maybe Walker or the northern parts of Wyoming, but I didn’t really have the time to look around. Ah well, I’ll move come next May. My place is a small two bedroom apartment, I think they actually call the second bedroom a den. Whatever. The complex is built around two small lakes and is situated inside a subdivision, so it’s very nice. I can sit on my back patio and watch the ducks, geese, and even a heron or two. Folks fish on the lake and I guess they catch stuff, but I haven’t tried it yet. There’s an old railroad track turned hiking/biking trail that runs just outside my front door and while I haven’t been down it very far, it’s nice and convenient. I think it’ll do nicely for the first year, after that maybe I’ll try and get a condo or house, we’ll see.

I still haven’t managed to get the bike here yet, but Tasha is coming up again this weekend and maybe, if the weather holds, I’ll ride back with her and bring it back on Sunday.

Tasha and I have been splitting the weekends, one weekend she comes here and the next I go there. That way no one gets stuck doing all the driving. Maybe, soon, there won’t be anybody doing any driving. I’m just sayin’.

I’m sure there was more I wanted to tell you, but I think that’s enough for now. Thanks for coming by, I hope you got what you wanted from me. If not, let me know, I’m eager to please.

Peace.

Comcast.

May 16th.

Prepare yourself.