My friend "Charles"

I have a friend, who we'll call "Charles". He has a story to tell, but no blog, so I'm going to tell it. I don't think "Charles" will mind at all, but just in case I need to put in a disclaimer.

Disclaimer:

The opinions, events, and stories posted in epicorstupid are the express opinions and perspective of the epicorstupid owner and do not reflect the opinions or thoughts, or actual events or stories of persons who may or may not be named in said blog. Names and places have been changed to muddy the waters of actual happenings. Or maybe they haven't. Either way it's not "Charles's" fault.

Ok, on we go.

So I have a friend, "Charles." I met him at work. He does the same sort of work that I do. We'll call it helping people, who help other people, who use tools. "Charles" and I are tool engineers. Well anyway, "Charles" happens to have come to the company where I work after many years in academia. He loved it, and left it because of circumstances beyond his control. I think he made the right decision, but I won't get into that because it's not what I want to blog about. Anyway I met "Charles" at work and last May after 5 or so years with the company "Charles" and I got to spend some quality time together testing tools in another city, we'll call "Atlanta". We went running a few times per week and once we went to a superhero movie. Mostly we just tested tools and looked at data and plots of data. It was magical. Sometimes I can't believe they pay me to look at the numbers every day.

"Charles" and I spent 5 weeks in Atlanta and I feel like I got to know him pretty well. We talked a lot about his old life teaching at the Tool Technology U, and to me it sounded like a pretty good gig. He loved being there, and he was very good at what he did. It was unfortunate that he was stuck in Tucson helping people to help people to use tools. He is good at Tool engineering, but like many other people in Tucson, especially single people, I think his heart was elsewhere. In fact for many people who are in Tucson, their heart is pretty much anywhere else.

Anyway after many years of internal debate, "Charles" was ready to do something EPIC! He had to sort of wait till the last minute to tell us other tool engineers, but "Charles" decided to do what all of us non-PhD's have considered at one time or another. After 10 years in the work force, he decided to go back to school.

Just let that sink in for a minute.

I don't know what it is like in other non-tool engineer professions, but in ours there is always the nagging thought in the back of our heads of, "What if I'd stayed in school?" I think I speak for everyone here (see disclaimer) when I say that College was the most fun I've ever had. I have never had a happier or more stress free time in my life, and I majored in tool engineering. My wife says I'm crazy and that I was a basket case of stress even in the summer time, but I have no recollection of that at all. I can only remember the times in the math lab when I put the latex glove over my head and inflated it with my nose, or the stories the Kyle who lived in the engine lab used to tell about trying not to get caught by the janitors. I remember the ballroom dance classes and the women always asking me to take tests with them. It was awesome!

Anyway "Charles" decided to actually do what many if not all of us have thought of doing. He packed up his house full of furniture and moved it to his dad's house in "New Mexico", he put his house up for sale or rent, he packed his car, and he started driving across the country. His ultimate goal was to get back to the Tool Tech U. He had to have a doctorate to do this, so that's what he did.

So you have to understand "Charles" situation. He was making tool engineer money. That's not doctor money, but it's good money. He went from a nice house with lots of disposable income to a dingy apartment with a random roommate, and no disposable income. He thought it was worth it, until he started classes.

Now I'm not saying that "Charles" couldn't handle the classes, but they were tough. Then there was his advisor. It turned out that she was the bane of a couple of PhD students existence, and "Charles" had no idea till he got there. He saw is future in those poor student's eyes. That look of "I'm going to die here and still not have my doctorate because of that advisor." He was doing pde's again, and that's enough to make any non-mathematician start to consider crying alone in the bathroom. But the worst of it was that they were not going to count "Charles's" previous credits from his Master's Degree at "Berkley".

"Charles" started having second thoughts, to say the least. I called him on the phone a week after he left and he said "I think I made a big mistake." The next think I knew he was calling our tool engineering department manager and asking for his job back. Well our manager promptly told "Charles" to come on back, which he did, with his tail between his legs. Not that he needed to have the tail between his legs, that is just how he felt.

This time though "Charles" was going to embrace life in Tucson, which he did. He started dating someone, and he brought his furniture and dogs back from "New Mexico", and I think he was determined to make a good go of life in the very southwest. It was good for me and the other non-Phd tool engineers, because without doing it ourselves we got to see that life was not always greener back at the universities that we left. "Charles" took one for the team, and I believe that dozens of us are thankful for it. "Charles" was having a good life... until his girlfriend dumped him and now he's going to Australia for a year to teach at a tool university there for a year... or longer.

I think that what "Charles" did took courage, daring and a total disregard for my feelings. But the best thing about what he did was of course show me that I don't need to do that same thing. Going back to school for a Phd, for me would be stupid. But selling his house and going across the country to school for a couple of weeks and then coming back, for "Charles" was EPIC!

In my book he is officially a legend. I will miss him when he is in Australia for a year. I don't think it will be a year. I give him either 2 weeks, or I'll never see him again. At least he knows how to pack his furniture and dogs to take to "New Mexico" already. He's been down that road before.

Thanks "Charles", sorry you got dumped.

Mr. Jimmy goes to Washington

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Washington D.C. This is a trip report.
The first picture above is a picture of the national treasury. I was wondering why Alexander Hamilton has no memorial, then I saw this building. He was instrumental in holding the states together in the beginning. Actually I think maybe the way to say that is that he was instrumental in making a powerful federal government in the beginning, which I would concede eventually held the union together. But he was the first person politician to do loan consolidation on a national government scale. This is his memorial.


If you look closely you can see a statue of Hamilton right in front of the building. Trust me it's him.












That was The White House. Really it was you can see it can't you?
bob





George Washington wanted many of the streets to be canals. This is a waterway caretakers house. It's about all that's left. Of the Canals. Apparently not much stuff ever traveled by canal into D.C.








A lot of americans paid dearly in Vietnam.










This is another statue for Vietnam. Honestly I never get tired of seeing Soldiers or statues honoring them. They are why we live in a country as free as it is.









Abraham Lincoln kept our Country together. He was a great president. It's too bad slavery couldn't have ended without such a high price. It seems that is the way of things. The worst things are always the most difficult to correct.



I saw a picture from space once on a poster. It was compiled from photos taken at night. It is interesting to see the bright spots at major cities in modern countries. But more interesting is where it is still Dark. This is the Korean War memorial.

When I read JFK's stuff I think he would be a conservative

Tomb of the unknown soldier. Probably my favorite thing I saw.

This is a video of arlington. I'm not sure if it is going to work, but it is humbling to see how many have fought for our freedom.

This should be Cherry Blossoms.
FDR's Memorial. Do we really need this? The guy was practically a king. He was elected 4 times. I feel like his intentions were good, but all wrong. Government is not the solution, it's the problem, and he made it a lot bigger. The founding fathers and people were afraid that George Washington was going to make himself a king, and he could have. He was that popular, but he retired after 2 terms. I just think that anyone who stays in government for life is not someone we want in government.

George Mason is honored here for not signing The Constitution because it allowed slavery. Good job George!

Thomas Jefferson. Trust me it's him. He was a small government guy in the beginning. I guess what he was was anti-federalist. Very popular guy. Very pro democracy.

The Washington Monument.

I am amazed at what the founding fathers did. We have the greatest country in the world. I was talking with someone who works for the UN in the new republic of congo. The corruption there makes for some difficult living situations. I am grateful for the morals that were such an important part of our founding. I hope that our country can get back to them. Otherwise I fear that we will have something more like countries that I am glad to visit, but glad to return from. Here.

America is truly exceptional.

A Pile of Money

I have been extremely blessed in my marriage. I am really surprised when I think about how fortunate I am when it comes to marital harmony. I have heard that people have an adjustment period when they get married at first. There is I guess often some difficulty with living with a person all the time, and there are difficulties to resolve about things. Honestly I am grasping at words because I don't know what those initial marriage things are.

My wife and I dated for about eight months before I asked her to marry me, and we got married 4 months after that. During this entire time I think we had one disagreement, but I don't remember what it was about. We were both undergraduates at BYU at the time, I was 23, she was 19, strike that she was 20. We got married, and went on a very cheap honeymoon and proceed to live a blissful life with only the stress of college to deal with. It was great!

We literally only had 1 disagreement in the first year of marriage and that was about starting a family. We had discussed waiting a year before we thought seriously about it, but God had other plans. He told my wife that we should not wait. I could not swallow this and things got a little rough until I was able to determine why they were rough, and it was my fault for not trusting God. From then on we had about 10 years of bliss. I'm telling you it was bliss! At least for me. Melissa and I agreed on almost everything excepting a few tiffs every now and then about whether the kids should be allowed to eat cheese.

Well the kids got older and we had progressively more disagreements about various forms of cheese that the kids were eating or not eating, or maybe it wasn't about eating cheese at all, maybe it was about whether they were allowed to make cheese before making their bed, or maybe it was that they were treating us like cheese, or maybe they weren't doing their chores and they were melting cheese for crackers instead. The point is there have been a lot of cheese disagreements between us about the kids in the last 5 or so years. Although we have had some serious difficulties because of our thoughts on the relationship between kids and cheese, on the whole I blame the children for that, and myself really. But that's beside the point, a diversion not necessary for this post, but it came out.

The point is that because Melissa and I agree on most everything I had the opportunity withdraw $11,500 dollars cash from the bank in February. Here's the photo of 11 piles of money.

Ten piles of 10 and 1 pile of 5 $100 bills.

You may ask yourself, "Why would Jimmy need so much cash?" The answer is that I was going to Las Vegas. You see my wife and I both woke up one morning and thought, "We should get some cash and book a flight to Las Vegas today for Jimmy." So that's what we did. It turns out that at some banks you can only withdraw $5000 at a time. Who knew? I had to go to two banks to get that much money. After getting the money Melissa and I struggled with how it should be carried through the airport and what I would say if I were asked by security about it. But then I figured lots of people going to Vegas probably take that much cash with them right?

We decided to make a money belt out of an old tote bag. She got the sewing machine out and sewed the bills into a rectangular pouch, which I then tied around my waist under my shirt and tucked into the front of my pants. Then I went to Vegas.

I know what you are thinking. Jimmy you didn't really do all of this, but it's true I did. I went to Vegas with $11,500 cash under my shirt tucked into my pants on a same day flight. That all really happened. And I came back with no cash.

So now you're thinking it would be better if you and your wife disagreed more often about things besides cheese and children and you might be right. But I will give you the whole story and it will be a lot less exciting.

Our first car we bought together we paid $6,100 cash for. I still drive it it has 219,000 miles on it. Our second car is a mini-van that we got a loan for and paid about $15,000 for. It took about a year to pay it off, but neither of us liked getting that loan. Well that car is a Plymouth Grand Voyager and it has 222,000 miles on it.

That second car is breaking down slowly. It still drives great, but it needs more work and the windows don't roll down anymore. It's been a great car, don't get me wrong, but we have to drive across the country in May of this year, and neither of us wants to be stranded in West Tennessee with a broken car and be forced to buy a new one that day.

So we had been looking for a newer car and found a 2006 Toyota Sienna with 78,000 miles on it. The van was in Vegas and they wanted $11,500 for it. Well we called them and moved the money over from our savings account and it ended up being Saturday when it got there. We called the seller and asked if he wanted cash or a cashier's check, and he said cash. I think that was the right decision since I was not going to get there in time to make it to a bank to verify the funds. Cash was really the only way. So I flew to Vegas and came back with a "new to us" van.

It's nice. We have 3 vehicles now and the new van stays in the garage. We think it was the right decision, but if the '99 Plymouth goes to 300,000 miles with out any major problems, then I'd say we should have saved the money. We'll see. In a few years our oldest son will be 16, and he will hopefully be driving an old car with a lot of miles on it. Actually in 3 years I hope I will be driving an old car with a lot of miles on it. It's much cheaper that way, which is why I am so lucky.

My wife loves saving money as much as I do. We didn't ever even talk about this stuff before we got married, but it is one of the many areas where we have no disagreements. Now if we could just agree on the cheese.

Riding in the Rain with a purpose

I think the videos sort of speak for themselves this time. So enjoy

I put that solidly in the "It seemed like a good idea at the time" category.

But then later...

By the time I got close to home I was on a part of the ride that has no cars on it. It is up hill, which is kind of a bummer after 13 miles, but it is a nice road now. The filming is a little bit wobbly, I think it is because I am not using my hands on the bike. I'm not really sure, but it looks like I'm sitting up. I'll be sure to keep a hand on the bike next time I film while riding.

Originally I was planning on riding all the way to my wife's car, but I was soaking wet, so I took my vehicle, which was literally at the junk yard's door. It worked fine that day, but I spent a grand fixing it a few weeks later.

So in the end I did get my wife's car fixed. The belt had slipped off in the rain again, and I replaced the tensioner for good measure. Not a big deal, but I haven't ridden my bike since that day. That's kind of pathetic.

Polka

It has been a while...

So as probably all who read this know already my wife and I met on the BYU ballroom dance team. It was really a good decision for me to take up ballroom dance as it landed me a great wife. It all started out as me doing something for the sole reason that "The Chicks Dig It." I used title case there because, well I just feel like it's the right thing to do.

So I was pretty good at ballroom dance and girls in the classes liked to take tests with me because I was a good leader on the dance floor. By the way that is not a good metaphor for life in my case as I am a terrible leader of anything else. But anyway in my case, and I think in the case of any guy who is willing to dance it is true that the girls do like it. In any case that is why I did it, and it is why I still do.

It has been more than a decade since I have performed in a situation where I felt ready for it. I don't mind performing if I feel ready, but my wife loves performing period. So this has been a bit of a difficulty as when people have asked us to perform and then she says yes I end up annoyed because our life is difficult to find time to practice in. So the last little while the answer has just been no.

Well at least that's what I thought it was. Luckily for Melissa someone asked her not to perform on a stage, but to just come to a band performance and dance around so that others would be encouraged to dance. The agreement was that we would not be on stage or in costume, we would just have to act like we were having fun. So she said yes.

Well as it turned out, I ended up on the stage again. It wasn't bad this time as we were never up there alone. The band was always up there, but I got to thinking, "Is this whole dancing on the stage thing as a late 30's man who only started dancing for the chicks epic or stupid?"

I mean on the one hand it's obviously stupid because as you will see in the purposely low-def video I am doing polka on a stage in a costume. No question right? That is stupid and something no guy would ever choose to do. But on the other hand maybe it is Epic because no other guy would ever choose to do it!

I am hoping that in the long term I can figure out a way to parlay these experiences in to some serious marriage benefits. I am guessing that it isn't going to work. The problem is that I don't like doing it and she knows it.

Oh well. Attitude is everything.