Halfway Back To New Orleans

I'm just about there, almost back to New Orleans. I'm in a hotel in Daphne, AL tonight (anyone heard of Daphne?). My time away lasted longer than I thought it would. I left on January 9, I think. I'm anxious to get back.
I have a plan, which is good. I just have to stick to it. I'll probably write more on that soon, just not now.
I don't have a plan for this blog. I still want to write, but I'm not about writing in 2008 like I did in 2007.
Honestly, part of me really wants to go back to just putting my thoughts about sports and the sports world on paper. I used to do No Load with my brothers. Maybe I'll just do that now on this.
I don't know yet, but I'm seriously thinking about it. I'll know this week. I have to find a new place to live, get settled in, and by then, I'll know what I'm doing with this blog.
2008 equates to lots of change for me again. Good change. There is no more SBRC. But there's going to be a better SBRC. Soon. I'll be back to work soon, earning money again. But doing it in a job that I believe in, and that will be something new. And I'll be living somewhere new, again (

all while staying involved in New Orleans).
So why not change the blog up. I could just stop doing it. Maybe that's what will happen. But probably not. I always have something to say or think about something, like this absolutely rambling thought that I wrote in my journal as soon as I checked into my hotel tonight......

it really is a shame what's happened with hotels.   like so many other things in
this country, they "appear" to be so nice, to have gotten so better.   and yes,
on the surface, they're nice.   but perception is one thing, and reality is
another, and they're all RIPOFFS.
no longer can a non-business traveler just hit the road, go somewhere, and stop and find a reasonable, normal, comfortable and "AFFORDABLE" hotel.

all these chains, and new chains, have done nothing but undergone
makeovers that cater to the business traveler.  and, it's fine if you're a
business traveler, and you're not paying for your hotel.  or your meal.  or your
breakfast.  but when you're pulling of a highway in east bumble, Alabama, and
all you can find are $139, $149 and $159 dollar Hilton Garden Suites and Hampton
Innes, and Comfort Suites that are made over from normal $89 hotels to $139
RIPOFFS, well it's a joke.
like everything else in this country, just a fraud.  a perception of niceness
masking another way to steal money from people.
i mean, unless you want to stay in an absolute rats nest, you can no longer
drive anywhere and find a respectable, pretty nice $89 or even $99 hotel.
they're all snazzy now, trying to bend over backwards for the business travelers
with their fancy business centers, and fancy soaps (which they throw out after
one use and waste money and then pass the cost onto the customer anyway) and
appear all nice, like mini Las Vegas hotels.   but it's done with zero regard
for cost-conscious, common traveler.   it's a joke!
and to be staying at a place that is $149, and it's not even a free continental
breakfast??   makes me sick!!! 

Maybe some things never change.

Halfway Done In AZ

One week in, one week to go in Arizona. Not forever. I'll be back here. Often, I hope. But after a few days of taking in the FBR Open and Super Bowl festivities, this is fast becoming a very productive second week.

I wasn't going to blog today, or even this week, but I just got home from running around all day and just had a real urge to write a few things. One thing I knew wouldn't be the most pleasant of tasks for this trip was trying to take care of my taxes. I spent half the afternoon visiting four different CPA offices, trying to find a good accountant who can help me this year. I've always used HR Block. It's quick, easy, pretty painless and relatively inexpensive (so long as you're getting a refund, which I usually have). But with having spent 11 out of 12 months in 2007 doing volunteer and charity work, I need someone who is creative and knows what they're doing so that I can get the most deductions possible. Well, after talking to a few of them, it doesn't sound like it's going to be all that complicated. It's something I would never likely do (not my personality), but oh how I wish I had been keeping a spreadsheet of all the money I spent. I know what I've spent in my head (ballpark, of course), and I have a handful of receipts. But having more data already on paper would help. Nonetheless, I should be able to piece together a good estimate in about an hour. Not that I don't have anything else to do this week.

My only beef with the people I sat down with today, all of whom were pretty nice, is that I wish just one of them had said affirmatively that, "yes, this can be deducted", or "no that cannot". I got a little too much, "I think that ...... can be deducted". Oh well. One of them will get the greenlight from me by Thursday. So long as they get done. I had five weeks of income in '07, and so long as I get what I paid in federal taxes during that time back, I guess I'll be happy.

Another stop I had was at my Primary Care Physician's office. This one was more pleasant. I went in to see if I can get in this week, to at least get a check up since it's been over a year, and lord knows what the mold, muck and critters that I've slept with in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans might have put into my body in that time (nothing, I'm sure, but it's ok to be dramatic once in awhile). Anyway, I don't have health insurance and was hopeful that if I told the office manager my situation (that I've been volunteering for the past year in New Orleans), that they'd hold the cost down on me since I'd be paying out of pocket. I had a few run ins with her before, unfortunately. She's my PCP's wife actually. He's a great guy, and talks golf non-stop (imagine being a Family Doctor in Scottsdale, AZ...talk about a recipe for golf courses and easy Wednesdays), but she's pretty tough. I disputed a charge with her one time -- you know, one of those 20 minutes and you're out and nothing was done yet you're still charged $120 buck -- and we didn't end up best of friends after that.

So I go into the office today, it was pretty busy, and this rather large guy, about 20 years my senior, with a breathing apparatus in his nose, was leaning on the counter filling out paperwork. I asked Mrs. PCP if I could get in to see him this week, and if so, what would it cost out of pocket. Not surprisingly, he has no openings, but I can see one of the Nurse Practitioners, and, it would cost me $80 bucks. I was hoping for the $55 range. Whatever, health is important, so I said ok, and she got me in the books, gave me my little appointment reminder, and off I went. By this time, the guy with the oxygen tank had sat down, and right as I was about to exit, he yelled out, "hey buddy, come here". I went over, and after shaking my hand, he leaned up and almost in a whisper he apologized for overhearing my conversation, gave me the name and address of a walk-in clinic in downtown Scottsdale and said that they would probably take me for free. Pretty impressed, I thanked him, and without further prodding from me at all, he said, "an upstanding guy like you, you should get a free check up. And seriously, thanks for what you're doing down there".

No one can ever tell me there aren't a lot of good people out there.

One last stop. The local middle school so that I could vote in the Arizona Primary. I'm still registered here, I have a preferred candidate, so why not. Unfortunately, after waiting in line for 20 minutes, I came to find out that as a registered Independent, I could not vote. I had to have a party affiliation. Interesting, I said to the guy working the check-in table. Because I'm an Independent and don't want a particular party affiliation (I judge issues and political candidates on their own merit, and not at all on party affiliation. There are some Dems I like, some I dislike. There are some Republicans I like, some I loathe), I cannot have any say in who may win a nomination to run for President. That doesn't seem right. I was then told that I could, but I would have had to change my affiliation to Rep or Democrat by January 4 in order to have been able to vote for someone today. As much as I love politics, all I have to say to that is, What a bunch of crap! I liked my visit to the Dr's office better.

Things are good, though. I just sold my washer/dryer set, which had been sitting in storage for a year, to a very nice woman who came over in a truck with her son, with cash, ready to take them away. After having my phone ring all day with people inquiring about them thanks to my ad on Craigslist, I was thrilled to have them go, and to a very nice family at that.

Time to eat dinner.

Thoughts From The Air

It’s been so long since I’ve done this. At least it feels that way. I’m at about 38,000 feet, on a Southwest flight heading from Florida to Phoenix, AZ, and I have my laptop propped open and in my laptop. This used to be such a regular occurrence for me, going back to my days working for a software company. I’d fly all over the place, almost weekly, and rarely go a flight without propping open my Dell and doing an hour or two of work on my laptop. Of course, I’m not working right now, I’m writing, which is something I’ve never considered work, even when I was a kid in school.

Today, I have an HP, my own HP, not company-owned, and I’m writing and thinking about me, about New Orleans, and about SBRC, not about my boss or a client. And I’m certainly not thinking about how many hours my team might be over budget on our latest project. Today, all days as of late, I’m thinking about my next steps, the future of SBRC, and I couldn’t be more excited. I have my anxiety points – money being one. But believe me, after a year now of not drawing a paycheck, I’m almost numb to it. At this point, what are a few more withdrawals from the savings account? I’m way beyond the point of letting things like that worry me or dictate what I do. These days, I’m following my gut, and my heart.

I left New Orleans a couple of weeks ago. Not for good. I’ll be back there in February. I carved out time to pro-actively get out and work on and plan the next steps for my program of helping families in need get furniture and household goods as they moved back into homes more than two years after Hurricane Katrina became famous. I’ve already been to Florida, Boston, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland and back to Florida. Along the way, I made a number of new contacts and met a handful of very gracious and generous and encouraging people -- Katrina Shaw in Boston, Ira Smith and Mark Sigman in Acton, Mass., Anne Leyh and Tony Pitale and their wonderful family in New Jersey, Scott Walchak in Maryland and several others. My brother Chris and his wife Kristan were a huge help in Maryland in helping me gather a load of donated furniture that we’ll be getting down to New Orleans soon, as well as to meet some very talented and gracious people.

It’s amazing, too, because when I left New Orleans to take these four weeks or so to garner more support and raise more awareness and clear my head a bit, I knew I had to take some sort of action, and go out and find help, find contributions (of all sorts). And already, just a couple of weeks in, my plans have crystallized. Not materialized, that will come as I execute and act on it. But I feel like I have the plan now, and I have all those people mentioned above to thank for helping me to get to this point.

Now I’m in mid-flight to Arizona, where I’ll spend the next 9 or 10 days taking another big step in my life. I remember in the spring of 2004, when I took my parents to dinner in Jacksonville, FL, and told them I was going to move from Boston to Scottsdale, AZ. They just gave me this look, asked me if I was sure and if that was what I wanted. At the time, I sure was, and it turned out to be the right move, for several reasons. I had a great few years there, made some great friends, and will always go back to vacation and visit. But it’s definitely time for me to pack up that apartment I’ve been keeping, close things down there, and say goodbye to Arizona being the place I call home.

I don’t have many of the 5 and 10-year from now goals (I’m very much a day to day, week to week person), but one that I do have is that I want to own a condo one day in Scottsdale, so I can go visit a couple times a year. But that’s for my 40s. Today is for New Orleans, St. Bernard, re-building SBRC into an even better organization, and getting back into the working world, all at the same time.

For most of this flight, when I look out the window, I see nothing but cloud cover. I can’t see any of the landscape or ground, as if I can’t see where I’m going. Fortunately, that view is not a metaphor for my life, as on this day, I feel as if I know exactly where I’m going.

A few not-so-serious random thoughts….

Airports are great places to just watch people and observe so many interesting and unusual things. Sometimes it’s stuff I just don’t get. For instance, what possesses anyone, save an elderly or disabled person, to get on one of those moving walkways, and not keep walking? Are you that lazy that you’re content to coast along at 1.5 mph as people who are slumbering along on foot breeze by you? It blows my mind that people do that. Just walk, you’ll get there faster, and not look like such ___ . (you can fill in the blank).

Speaking of laziness, going back to Massachusetts brought back some memories. Nothing like seeing convenience stores with drive-thru Dunkin’ Donuts. My brother and I went into one of these stores to get some water and a snack, breezed in and out, yet there were 4, 5 and 6 cars sitting in line to get a Dunkin’ coffee, at about 1 p.m. no less. Some things in this country scare me.

Lastly, if you’re ever driving on Hwy 295 in the Baltimore area (it heads west out of BWI Airport), make sure you do NOT get off the exit marked, “NSA – Restricted Access Only”. Yours truly made that mistake as I was trying to turn around and go back the other way after missing my exit. Let’s just say that the 5 armed security personnel who immediately surrounded my car weren’t helped by the fact that I had an Arizona Driver’s License and was driving a rental car. Trust me, steer clear of that place, especially if you’re running late for a meeting.