Tralfaz

Month: December 2014

  • Apartment Living – The Final Straw

    Apartment Living – The Final Straw

    In case you have been living under a rock and not read my award winning blog posts (ha ha ha), we relocated to San Jose from Phoenix, and slipped into an apartment as a temporary landing spot. We have tried to make the best of it, and my prior posts have highlighted some of the challenges we have experienced. It isn’t all bad, but…

    Last night, around 8:15 PM, we suited up the boys in their cold weather gear (it was about 45F outside, and Greyhounds have no body fat or fur) for their evening walk.

    As we stepped out the door, the building down the way had some kids lighting and fanning fires near the entrance-way for the building. Fuck.

    Barb of course confronts them, and the security guard swings by. We call 911, and the police come out. Barb and the security guard were following the punks, so the Cops got to scare them good.

    Later, since my wife was the one who called the police, the dispatcher called her on her cell, to alert us that multiple cars in the complex had been broken into.

    Great.

    Fortunately, we had begun the process to crank up the house search. This is “lighting the fire” so to speak.

  • 2014 in Review – The Job

    2014 in Review – The Job

    2014 was a chaotic year for many reasons, not the least of which was career related. With the move, it turned out that a promotion was in the works as well.

    The move itself was traumatic. Sadly, the timing couldn’t have been worse. The market in Phoenix was hitting the brakes, while the market in Santa Clara County was putting the pedal to the metal.

    Of course, a pay adjustment was part of the move. Cost of living is much higher in Santa Clara than in Arizona, so that was welcome (and my first pay raise in almost 8 years). The increase wasn’t really enough to absorb the increased costs of the region, but it is a welcome thing.

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  • 2014 in Reflection – the Move

    2014 in Reflection – the Move

    A lot has happened in 2014. Much chaos and drama, both work and personal related.

    Actually, before the beginning of 2014, we were informed of the decision to close the plant where we worked in Chandler Arizona, and the offer to relocate from the Phoenix area to the San Jose area was offered.

    Gulp.

    Not really a great choice to have to make. Sell our house in Chandler that we owned for less than 2 years, and move back to the Santa Clara Valley, or stay, get a 2 months severance, and have to find a job.

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  • Apartment Living – Laundry part deus

    Apartment Living – Laundry part deus

    Among all the joys of apartment living, not much ranks up there with the friendly competition for the laundry units. At 9:00AM you can practically see the residents lining up to steal the machines as soon as the time locks on the doors open. Hoo BOY!

    Today though, we will talk about the machines themselves. The washers are all HE (high efficiency) units. That means that you really don’t need much detergent to run a load.  Really, about 2 & 1/2 tablespoons of Tide or your detergent of choice is all that is needed for a large load. (in the photo above, the cup on the left is all you need for a full load, on the right is the “usual” detergent scoop)

    How wonderful is that?  Detergent lasts a long time, clothes get clean, and all is happy, right?

    Well, not so fast. It seems that the HE revolution is lost on all our neighbors, so continue to dump a cup or a cup and a half of detergent in each load.

    Not only is this a waste (and believe me, most of my neighbors would enjoy spending less on their detergent), but it leads to a nasty side effect.

    Namely, our clothes will smell like the perfume in the detergent last used. Ugh, heavy scent in all our loads, and worse yet, it seems to change.

  • An old friend

    An old friend

    My iPad that I bought in 2011, is nearing the end. Not that it isn’t still functional, but at near 4 years old, it is finally showing its age.

    I shouldn’t complain, nearly 4 years out of any tech gadget is a remarkable feat, and a testament to Apple’s quality and standards. My iPad, a generation 2 unit, is showing its age. When iOS 7 came out I dithered about upgrading, knowing that some of the features wouldn’t work and be disabled, but it was a worthy upgrade.

    Until early in 2014, Apple kept the core hardware in the generation 2 iPad alive, as it was the entry level iPad. It still had a strong use in educational and corporate markets. And to be quite frank, for applications that are written to its spec hardware, it is still a good performer.

    The battery life is quite good still, easily allowing a full day of heavy use (video watching, surfing, and email) without straining a charge, and the 3G cellular connection, while not as snappy as the newer 4G LTE connection, is just fine for email and casual on the go surfing.

    But with the release of iOS 8, and all the groovy integrations with the iPhone, and the new Mac OS X, the recommendation is to not upgrade the well aged iPad 2. iOS 8 is just too taxing on this hardware. The responsiveness suffers, and it is just painful.

    But time goes on. I will continue to use it, but alas, it will not get updates for security issues. And more and more of the applications that get updated will begin to run more poorly on this tablet.

    It has been a faithful friend, a road warrior, a great e-reader, and still a fun platform to play games like Plants versus Zombies. I am sure I will replace it in the coming year, but for now, it will be a companion.

  • Apartment Living – Deliveries

    Apartment Living – Deliveries

    Ah, the holiday season, where UPS and FedEx work overtime to deliver packages to people filled with joy and gifts. Alas, it is too tempting of a target for many people.

    I speak of the theft of parcels from front doors. I appreciate Amazon in their interest to not inconvenience people by demanding a signature, and to just deposit parcels on the stoop. I am sure this reduces the cost of their shipping (as often a delivery service will need to return to an address more than once to catch the resident for a signature.)

    But the allure of an Amazon box, perched on the door stoop in plain sight is too tempting for otherwise honest people. What delight may be in the box? A computer? An iPad? or some DVD/BluRay movies? It is like easter and christmas all over.

    So, the box gets stolen.

    Last Friday, the delivery service for Amazon dropped a medium sized box on the stoop at 11:30. I had a half day at work, so I got home about 12:30. In that hour, someone decided they needed our parcel more than us.

    What bountiful booty did the perpetrators get?

    • Cosequin glucosamine supplement for our greyhounds. Tablets to help their arthritis.
    • Wellactin – a fish oil (omega-3 fish oil) supplement for our greyhounds’ coat and skin.
    • An inexpensive metronome. My wife bought it to help her and her mother play violin/viola duets.

    I hope the thieves are satisfied with their ill gotten gains.

    Amazon will replace the goods (they are good about that), and the shipping company will no longer leave things at our stoop.

    Thanks assholes.

  • Apartment Living: TMI edition

    In the continuing saga that is apartment life in South San Jose, we are surrounded by neighbors who all have interesting stories, sometimes too interesting.

    We have always tried to be friendly with our neighbors, in the spirit of you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. But this can go too far.

    Our neighborhood is predominantly hispanic. Households of hard workers, lots of kids, and relatively constant turnover (parts of families leave, to be replaced with other relatives). This leads to the appearance of new kids and adults pretty frequently. I say hello (or hola as the case may warrant).

    The other day, a new kid was out in the courtyard, so Barbara asked this cute kid if she was new. The answer…

    We just moved here. My daddy pushed my mommy into some clothes hangars, and hurt her, so we can't live with him anymore.

    Not to make light of domestic violence, and the wide web of chaos it invokes, but it is sad that to hear it come from a child of no more than 6 years old.

    Sometimes, the less you know, the better off you are.

  • Quick test post

    New verision of WordPress, and the ability to create posts from the WP.com site. Need to test this out.

    Nothing exciting here, so just move along.

  • Apartment Living: The Rainy Season

    People tell me that California has been in a drought. Bullpuckey. It has rained constantly for almost three weeks. The ground is saturated, my car is waterlogged, and I am tired of getting soaked walking our dogs.

    At the risk of being heretical, I would like the rain to stop. Living in an apartment is not easy (I am unsure how people do it long term, I am hoping that we won't be here any longer than we must), add in 2 80 – 90# dogs, and heavy rain, and it is a chore.

    Have a house, with a back yard, and the regular potty walks are just tossing them out of the house, and you are done. Now we have to suit up in rain gear, put the dogs in rain gear, and practically drag them out. So painful.

    Here's to hoping to be able to buy even a tiny house next year.

  • Wicked Tired this Weekend

    The last two weeks have been wild at work.  Starting with a quick trip to Boston, then the WW Sales meeting this week, I have been on the ragged edge.

    Monday December 1 I had to wake up at an ungodly hour to catch a 7:00AM flight to Boston. Long crappy day of travel on an airline I have no status on, to arrive in the evening.

    Tuesday the 2nd, I spent the day on the floor of the conference, meeting with peers, and vendors. A good day for me (but the exhibit hall was empty).

    Fly back on the 3rd. Again, woke up at 4:00AM to catch a flight back to San Jose on an airline without status. It was an excruciatingly shitty flight for a variety of reasons.

    Back in the office for 2 days, I begin to get that back of the throat tickle. Fook, I picked up some bug somewhere that was going to hammer me. By Saturday, I was descending into yearly cold hell. Sore throat, moving to nasal congestion, then finally on Sunday, it dropped into my chest. Yep, a full on chest cold has settled in. Just in time for the WW Sales meeting that kicked off on Monday.

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