Down On Ferry Farm

Have you ever sat in the silence of your house? I must admit I don't do it a lot. The only time silence comes over my house is when I'm not here. There was a quote I heard some years ago that went something like this: If you're not making noise, how do you know you're alive? I'm paraphrasing, of course but the basic sentiment is there. Let's say there was silence between the sound. I was listening to some music, searching through a long list of songs, and between the songs was a silence. I was listening to my house. It's been rather windy around here lately and today is no different. I hear the wind. I heard the birds chirping and singing. I hear the house settling (which is rather unsettling). I hear the distant scream of a siren... a car drive by. Then a song to repeat the cycle. I hear it in my head. You know that's what reading is, right? It's talking in your head. It's reading the words and saying them aloud inside your head. Silence is some

You know, I’m sitting down to write this thing and I don’t know where to begin. Let me try and recap the week that was: I started my new job on Tuesday. It’s a small to medium sized food manufacturing company. I met most of the people that worked there – quite a few were on vacation. I got a tour of the office, warehouse and production plant. The building and company are fairly old so making our way through the production area was interesting. The HR Manager was taking me on this tour – first, we had to wear hairnets through the entire production facility. Nobody likes hair in their food. So we go through the door to the stairwell (no elevators here) and walk up these dicey set of stairs to the second floor. When we walked through the door I noticed that the wall was on a 5 percent grade. The stairs themselves looked like they were built by Dr. Seuss. Of course, I did all the normal things you do on your first day of a job… fill out all the requisite paperwork, find out where to park,

You have NO idea how relieved I am to tell you that I’m working again. Yes, I finally found a job so I can shut up and stop whining about it. I live in the suburbs and my job is working ‘in the city’ – well, one city over, that is. My only concern is traffic congestion but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. My big issue – why I had to keep silent – is because there were 2 companies vying for my services and I didn’t want to jinx anything. I was waiting for an ‘official’ invitation from a government contractor but got a formal offer from a privately-held company instead. Which is okay, I was a little hinky about working for a government contactor anyway. I felt I had to do the professional thing and hear them both out as clearly as possible. I made a quick call to Superman once I had all the information and he helped me see the wisdom in choosing the private company, even though there was less money involved. It’s okay, I always look for an opportunity to advance anyway. I can breathe again.

There are 2 reasons I've been so quiet lately. The first reason will have to wait until Monday -- perhaps Tuesday. The second reason is because I've been sick... just your run of the mill cold. I'll explain it all as early as I can next week.

Today I had the distinct pleasure of watching “The St. Patrick’s Day Parade” from New York City. The coverage was by the WNBC crew on New York’s channel 4 but was being broadcast by the Travel Channel (darn nice of them, don’t you think?). Usually I’m working on St. Patrick’s Day so I always miss the live coverage of the bands and other paraders making their way down 5th Avenue. It’s not the same seeing the replays later on in the news coverage. The Grand Marshall was Tommy Smyth, who is usually up in the booth commenting on the parade but it was his turn this year to lead the revelry. After he had made his way down 5th Ave, he joined the team that was calling the parade. Up to that point the coverage was solid, but when he joined the crew it really livened up the tone of the whole parade. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen so many men in kilts. There were cable-knit sweaters, red haired lasses, and green, green, green as far as the eye could see. The funniest moment, in my estim

I had the rare chance to compare Irish music this weekend. I caught performances by both “The High Kings” and “Celtic Thunder”. First up was HK: The show was filmed in front of an audience somewhere in Ireland. The set appeared to be a simple wooden stage that was reminiscent of a boat dock – simple and effective. There were drums on the left and a small supporting band on the right. While they played, a large video wall displayed images behind them – mostly water – setting the mood for the song they were singing at the time. The vocalists were excellent. You could tell they were really Irish by their brogues, which were honest and uncluttered. The harmonies were good and you could tell they were really singing. In the beginning of the show they made it clear that everyone should know all the words to the songs they were singing and the audience was asked to “sing up”. They started with a rousing version of “The Rocky Road To Dublin” which drew everyone in and they never let the audien

I left Panera and got home around 4pm to find my internet connection had been restored. Woo hoo! I checked my e-mail to find that a company I thought was long gone still has some interest in me. They want to do a phone interview with me to gauge my technical skills. Fine. The e-mail says to give them a call on Wednesday so we can set up a time to do this. Wednesday morning I call and get voicemail. I leave my name, number and the reason I’m calling at around 9:30am. I literally wait by the phone… I take it with me everywhere I go in the house. It doesn’t ring once. By 3:30pm I’m a little curious so I call the guy back. The guy is totally disorganized and I’m wondering if he really remembers who has called him. Long story short: we reschedule the appointment. Do these people not realize that lives are hanging in the balance here? This is a person’s life we’re talking about. This is the same company where the first guy to call me was almost unintelligible. At least I could understand thi

Well, this is a first. I’m not blogging from home today. I am currently sitting in a Panera Bread using their free Wi-Fi connection (it is NOT pronounced ‘wiffy’) to post this entry. Why? Good question. I have been having internet connection issues lately and when I got up this morning it was completely out. I called my ISP and found that they were having outage issues in Maryland, DC and Virginia (though I couldn’t find word of this on the internet – having finally gotten a connection). Anyhow, I travelled up to my nearest Panera and plopped myself down with my laptop. A couple years ago, before I had my laptop, I remember there were electrical outlets that were reachable in the main dining area. They are apparently gone. I really ‘dig’ this place. It has warm earth tones, sultry jazz music, a fireplace burning (even though it’s nowhere NEAR cold enough for one), and the smell of baking bread. How can you go wrong? So, I just continued my job search at this remote site. Still haven’t

Here’s the answer you’ve been looking for – there will be no job offered. There will be no meeting on Friday. While I was out gallivanting with Superman, I got a message from “John” (the guy who would have been my boss) that said they didn’t have the financial means to pay me at this time. I’m sorry… what? Shouldn’t you have thought about that BEFORE looking to hire someone. He did seem genuinely apologetic for taking up my time. He mentioned that I was more than qualified and that if the company’s finances allowed (and I was still available) that they would be calling me back in the future. While that last sentiment did make me feel pretty good, sentiments don’t feed the bulldog. I need a J-O-B to make some of the green stuff. A few hours after digesting that news, I got a call from one of the women I used to work with (she’s not with ‘that’ company anymore either) asking if I could help her out doing what I used to do – basically crunching numbers. I don’t know why but when I think o

Okay, after I drew black pictures with broad strokes, it turns out reality is not quite so grim. I still don’t have an offer for a job (more on that later) but I want to update you on my other issues. I tried the Virginia Employment Commission website on Sunday and it let me enter my information (whew!), so I didn’t have to make an angry call to them. Next, I called my mortgage company and explained about the double payment. “I’m sorry, we can’t –“ is all I heard. “Let me talk to your supervisor” I demanded. I got this very nice woman on the phone and explained my situation (again) and she took my information. She put me on hold for about 2 minutes. She came back to get my banking information. Another 2 minute hold. She came back and said they could put the request in but it wouldn’t take effect until tomorrow because of the time I called – banking rules will only update today’s information up to a certain time. No problem, tomorrow is fine. I was as tight as a drum as I left for my fo

I don’t know if I was telling you this so I’ll give you the back story (quickly) before I tell you why I am starting to freak out now. Several weeks ago I called my mortgage company and asked if I could just stop paying my mortgage until I got on my feet again. They had a plan that allowed me to skip one payment but I could only do this once a year. Okay, some help is better than none so I signed up. I went to my bank’s website so that I could adjust the date of the next payment by a month. I checked my statement yesterday and they took out 2 mortgage payments. Huh? I call said mortgage company because I was sweating having to pay the regular mortgage payment and now my balance has dropped by more than I care for. So I call the mortgage company. I won’t say they didn’t care but their level of feeling in this situation hovered somewhere around zero. They suggested I call the bank. I got the bank on the phone. I tell them about the mix-up. Their basic stance is “you were going to pay it