September 11 Remembrance

September 11 Remembrance

A short story on my site about today's local event.

Saturday, 11 September 2010 13:20 Written by John Schaenzer

Traveling east on Main Street in Anoka will bring one into the city of Coon Rapids and the bridge that passes over Highway 10 in Anoka County. The bridge is the site of today’s local remembrance of the tragedy of 09/11 when the attack occurred on the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center in New York, New York. Today local residents joined Marine enlistees, the Coon Rapids Fire Department and others as they flew flags and displayed banners reminding passersby of the anniversary.

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Working Roadtrip

Arriving at Racine, Wisconsin

I take road trips a small number of times each year for my job. A customer is really in a tight spot or needs special handling for the materials being shipped to call us and pay our rates for these multi-hundred mile treks.
Today the drive takes me to Racine, Wisconsin, which is just south of Milwaukee. I made the pick up at noon on Saturday and held it until today to deliver it at 10:00 PM. The factory was closed for Labor Day until the night shift came on duty.
The drive was rolling along smoothly until I got down around the Wisconsin Dells area at which point the traffic was pretty much stop and go through Madison. When I-90 and I-94 parted company, the traffic heading toward Milwaukee thinned out for awhile.
I was listening to the Brewers/Cardinals baseball game and began to realize that the timing of the game's end and my passing the stadium was going to be all to close to one another. The other factor I considered was that the people that were leaving the game may not be to happy as the Brewers had lost the game. A St. Louis 6 run 8th inning blew open a 2-2 game and included a grand slam. Milwaukee came back to make it 8-6, but they failed to get the win with the tieing run at the plate ending the 9th inning.

Knight's Inn - Racine, WI

I survived the traffic slowdowns and congestion to arrive at Racine after a 7-1/2 hour drive. Looking primarily at budget, I chose the Knight's Inn to stay at on Monday night. The legal length of shift and driving hours pretty much dictated the decision to spend the night. Had I driven back tonight, I would have been too fried to work tomorrow anyhow. I used a friend's site that to reserve the room and save approximately 24% on the room rate. Take a peek at Take-A-Peek Travel when you need to reserve a room on the fly.
If I make it back in time to handle a delivery or two tomorrow, it will be gravy. I just need to be back in time for our golf league championship.



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Logo Plaque

SG Woodcarving is the company of Jeff Houchins that takes digital photos and produces wood carvings from them. After seeing a number of carvings he did, in photos and in person, I decided to call him about producing a carving of my logo.

After a few contacts of correspondence between us, we reached agreement about what would be done. I had emailed a couple of digital jpeg files to Jeff and he let me know what would and wouldn't work. He gave me the pricing and I selected the size of the plaque with the corresponding price point.

I am very satisfied with the finished product that I received today. Of the 30 or so people to whom I showed the plaque today, there were many compliments and all smiles.

I sent my first contact to Jeff via email on August 28. 8 days later I have in hand a carved, stained, polyurethaned plaque of my company logo. The product quality, the service and the communications were all excellent.

If you are looking for an excellent product for yourself or as a gift, I encourage you to check out his work at http://home.comcast.net/~houchpotato/site/?/home/ or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107911319263614 . I encourage you to contact Jeff to see what he can do for you. The holidays aren't far away and memories make nice gifts.


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Breakfast In Bed

I sit in my bed surrounded by the chilly autumn air and wrapped in a cozy comforter while surfing the web and eating leftovers from last night's spaghetti dinner. This is the sort of morning that the wife and I, back in the day, would declare as a Ma and Pa Kettle day.

Back in the day, pre-kids, the night before the morning after could get fairly long. The wife and I could stay in bed almost as long as we wanted to. We had a TV in the bedroom and just hung out there. If anyone left the bedroom for any reason (bathroom, food, dogs, etc.), the person had to bring back food or refreshment for the other party.

We didn't have cable or satellite back then, so we had to settle for the local channels. About mid to late morning, one channel played old Ma and Pa Kettle movies which we usually watched before getting up for the activities we had planned that Saturday. Quite often those plans repeated Friday night's activities.

Since then, one of us will occasionally declare a Ma & Pa Kettle day upon waking up. No plans, no hurry, stay in bed, pop in a movie, eat and drink (usually junk), etc., etc. (babies? 4?)

This is where we get the term, Ma & Pa Kettle Day.

But alas, the wife is at work so I spend the morning with the mistress before heading out into the morning light to worship God with friends.

Back when I spent long, late nights on the PC, my wife nicknamed it "The Mistress". It was a fairly appropriate nickname.

Along came the laptop, which promptly became known as, "The Mistress's Daughter".

Later on I obtained a Blackberry, complete with browser and internet capabilities. Yes, the mistress has a granddaughter.

It's usually a good gag. The tone of voice during reference usually dictates the level of humor, or lack thereof.

After a couple hours of surfing, we, uh, I mean I, head to my YouTube page to see what's happening. Still no update from Seanie B. on the final episode of Lost, I guess it's time to give up on that one. But hey, there is a new vid from Improv Everywhere. I like a lot of their work and not always for their improv, but frequently for the looks and reactions of the onlooking, unsuspecting public such as in Star Wars on the subway or Ghostbusters in the library. The new effort put forth is Black Tie Beach. So grab your spaghetti, cozy up in that comforter and meander over to my YouTube page and scroll down to my subscriptions where you can click on Improv Everywhere. And don't dribble on the sheets.


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