POTW Week 44

We had one of those time warp dinner parties at Dave and Debby Clarke's beautifully detailed home last Friday night.  The evening just flew by.

After a wonderful dinner of roast lamb and some nice conversation, we noticed that they were starting to fall asleep right in the middle of some of our favorite stories.  But when we checked the time it was 12:20AM so it's a 50% chance that it was fatique rather than boredom that was causing the sleeping onset.

Although as I recall, Joanne was telling a rather boring tale.

ANNOUNCING....
Nanepashemet Peeps of the Week for the 44th week of 2011.

Nathaniel Clarke
Ethan Nestor
Tommy O' Shea`
Dale Johnson
Peter Crawford
Emily Angardia

Next time, I'll do most of the talking.

Visit from the Twilight Zone

I had a weird dream last night that Dale and Gail Johnson randomly dropped over, that we started pounding down wine and cocktails and that I was explaining to Dale about the pitfalls of corporate jets while he was mindlessly ranting about Obama.... with Joanne and Gail flashing disgusted looks to us though it all.
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But then I woke up and Dale's car was in our driveway!  Freaking Twilight Zone.

TommyO Ticket

Gearing up to go down to Foxboro on Sunday with the O'Shea brothers... Jimmy, Bobby, and TommyO.  Sounds like a line from Good Will Hunting, doesn't it?
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Tommy had a spare ticket to the tout between the struggling New England Patriots and the surging New York Giants, and he certainly came up with a classy call by giving it to me.
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Naturally there will be ritual tailgating and the consumption of copious amount of Coors Light Beer.  Brother Jimmy is also an award winning chef at Bobby Brynes restaurant on the cape, so the chowder and steak tips will undoubtedly be in abundance.
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We'll leaving Marblehead at 10:00 AM for the 4:15 PM kickoff.

Fix is Safe

Thanks for all of the well-wishing emails I've gotten from all of you concerned Peeps after the previous post.
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I appreciate your concern.... but make no bones about it.... I can see through to your ulterior motive.
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You're just afraid that in my diminished condition, I'll be lax in my posting to this pathetic blog, and you'll be cast adrift to fend for yourself in an uncaring, chaotic world.
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I certainly don't blame you for having this fear. 
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Sometimes, being a Mountain of a Man means that you cater to the pathetic needs of lesser beings even if you don't feel like it.
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So lay off of the irritatin emails and VM's that pretend to care.  Your fix is safe for now.

TommyO said...

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Hopefully Sunday you are 100%. Tailgating with the OShea boys requires you be at the top of your game.

Freaking Impressive

Today I reminded myself of what a Mountain of a Man I truly am.
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Last night I was tossing and turning with the chills and stomach cramps that would have immobilized a lesser person. And I had bowel movements with a consistency that even I don't feel comfortable telling you about.
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This miserable condition has prevailed until the present time.
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Yet, I churned through all of the high end responsibilities of Nanepashemet Telecom with nary a whimper... just as if I really wasn't a hurting puppy.  I'm talking pitching major new accounts, depositing the numerous huge receipts that we get in the mail everyday, high finance negotiations with the bank, and keeping lease negotiations  in play.
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The average pathetic Peep couldn't do this shit on their best day on Earth....yet here I am... powering though at a greatly reduced capacity and getting it DONE.  And on top of it all, I've maintained an extraordinarily high level of humility.
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Freaking Impressive.

Say What?

Say Again?
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For the past couple of years, we have been enduring ads by Eric H. Schultz, President & Chief Executive Officer at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc.
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I think that the agitation that he causes me in his ads is a health hazard in and of itself.

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This guy has corporate speak down to a science. He could describe wiping your ass and make it sound like its the latest procedure in modern medicine. Guys like that make a living in corporate Amerca, wafting away in corporate doublespeak, making the normal and mundane appear all complicated and sophisticated.
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It seems to me to be a contrived phonyness designed to hide basic incompetence.
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I don't know this asshole personally .... I'm sure he is a decent person who is kind to children and animals... but I endured his type for the dozen years of corporate life purgatory that I spent rubbing elbows with dipshits who would starve if they didn't have a corporate suite to hide in.
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Ok... I'm calm now... my skin has stopped crawling. Now I can watch George Stephanopoulos on ABC News.

Racist Politico

It should be the Republican Presidential Challengers who are digging up old sexual harrassment allegations against Herman Cain, however it is the liberal blog, Politico , that "broke" the story.  Sex in politics among consenting adults shouldn't be an issue, unless you are diddling an intern or giving your gay partner a big public payroll job.
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Surely the Dems don't want to raise the specter of Bill Clinton, Barney Frank, or the Obama affair with Vera Baker.  It makes no sense coming from the party that gave us the sexual habits of John Kennedy and FDR.
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Although the Democrats can never be accused of logical thinking.  They are probably panicky to get Cain out of the way, so they can play the race card with BO if they have to.... the Chris Matthews / Dan Rather style finger pointing intimations  that you must be racist if you are against the present lightweight.
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So it is important for the Dems to sink Cain.  Which is racist at its core... trying to discredit someone just because he is a Black Man.

Find Your Lot in Life

I've been thinking about something deep and moving to blog about but nothing is stirring things up.  Although I did see an episode of NH Chronicle about some guy whose passion in life is fixing old fountain pens.  He said he is doing what he loves and people from all over send him fountain pens to make operable again.  He looked truly happy but I found myself feeling lucky that fixing fountain pens was not the thing on earth that I loved doing.
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http://www.nanepashemetboats.blogspot.com/

We've all heard the credo... Do what you love and the money will follow.  And there are plenty of examples of wealthy people who apparently are doing what they love.  But there does seem to be some sizable loopholes.

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As in...... how long does it take for the money to catch up with you while you are engrossed  in working at what makes you so happy.  I've made no bones about the fact that  I'd be thrilled to go through life buildng finely detailed cedar stripped wooden boats.  
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There is absolutely no doubt that these boats, which turn so many heads when I row through Marblehead Harbor, could reach a willing market.  But it would take a huge investment in marketing and production techniques to get these boats built at a price that the public would find desirable to purchase.  My one off boats that I have made would be wildly prohibitive in price because of the manhours involved.
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Unless I found an Angel who wanted to fund the venture at a loss for five years or so, there could be no real Nanepashemet Boat Company.  And you don't find these Angels hanging out at the Gerry Bar.  So while my love would be boatbuilding, my life for five years or so would be finding  investors, then keeping them happy.... a far cry from planing and sanding cedar hull planks.
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I guess I'm not willing to make the sacrifice to truly do what I love.
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Sometimes, though, what you love is right there in front of you and you don't even see it.
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I really love negotiating business deals, and Nanepashemet Telecom Site Acquisition  lets me do two or three lease agreements per month.  I love to build stuff from the ground up, and even though it is cold steel, Nanepashemet Telecom General Contracting gives me plenty of satisfaction in that regard.  I love being on the cutting edge of technology, and wireless is where it's at.
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So maybe I'm already doing what I love.  And the money has been following along as needed all along.  Although if a deep pockets Angel who wants to fund a startup classic boatbuilding buiness is reading this... please give me a call.

Wasted Water Season

The WhaleEye is coming out of the water this week.  Ryan Marine will be pulling it and I have to get out and clean out anything that shouldn't be left on it before it is shrink wrapped for the winter.  Like boat beers and that bottle of Lagavulin that Bobby Brown so thoughtfully brought on our last "fishing" trip.
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I didn't run into any bluefish blitzes this year, and never got the lobster traps out.  The one time we made it to Stellwagen, even the whales failed to show.   I never spent the time to revarnish the Herreshoff Columbia Tender, and that remained on the trailer in the driveway.   It was the most unproductive boating season ever.
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We got in a couple of cruises in that ended happily at the Boston Yacht Club bar,  however.  So my bar tab would indicate that the season isn't a total bust at least.
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With the work at the Sundance house and other priorities, we never got our act together on the water.  Significant amounts of fish and lobsters got a stay of execution. 
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We'll be ready for them next year.

Goober Holes and Cooties

We rented out our condo in North Conway for the ski season.  What with the FreshAyer countdown, Nanepashemet Telecom and some other stuff, we knew we wouldn't be up there too often in the next five months, and we also had some of our favorite Peeps who were looking for a place to rent and not stay in hotels all season.  Seemed like a win-win.
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I don't mind renting it to frends, because you know they don't have cooties.... or at least their cooties don't gross you out.... and vice versa.
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So Joanne and I went up there over the last few days and cleaned out all of the closets and goober holes that accumulate useless crap over  a dozen years or so.  Since we are always in a recreational mode when we go up there, we have never really spent time organizing, cleaning and throwing stuff out.  Stuff like broken computers, clothes that we never wear, and TV sets that sit in a corner out of the way for a couple of years while we come and go.
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We didn't even go out to eat.  Bought a couple of $5 Foot Long Italian Subs from Subway and powered through.
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I always like the way that condo looks, but by the time we left it was freaking spiffy.  Home to Marblehead in plenty of time to watch the Pats.

Airam Newor said...

No worries for the MoaM and his Madame. The Cootie-Catchers(C-C)are in control and will corner and contain all contaminants. C-C cautions don't fill holes with goobers.

Pisc said...
Sounds like someone needs a refresher in his Project Management Institute principles.

Snow Watch

So the storm wasn't a dud.  We even lost power for a couple of hours last night.  But the temps are above freezing and this will melt fairly fast.  I wouldn't get too ambitious with a shovel because this won't freeze and stay.
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Course if Joanne wants to shovel, I won't get in her way.
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By 4:15 when the Pats play the Steelers, this one will be in the books.

Gearing up for Spring

I'm betting that this October snowstorm is going to be a dud.
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All of the meteorologists are saying it could be a record breaking 10 inches or so.  That always puts the whammy on a storm.... when the weathermen get all hyped up about it.
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I figured that I had the month of November at the very least to fix my snowblower, having broken the shear pins last year, and then ordering two sets on Amazon that didn't fit.  There has to be one dealer around here who has the right freaking shear pin size!
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Course... a shovel and a little manual labor should do the trick in this non-event.  I can't imagine that this stuff will accumulate and stick to the ground this early in the year.  Which is a reason to believe that this might be the real thing.
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Actually, I could care less whether we get hit or not.   I have four wheel drive, winter boots and my ski jacket close by.  And Joanne still can wield a mean snow shovel.
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Whatever happens.... spring is right around the corner.  Happy Halloween.