21st Day of December, 2009

Alex & Leah drove up from G'ville, FL this past Friday evening. They left at around 2:30 PM EST and, although they caught some of Atlanta's rush hour on a Friday evening, they were able to make it to Hawks Bluff at around 9 PM CST; they went directly to Pat Ross' place were we had a cookie exchange... It's been snowing on a off since then, with snow staying on the ground for days!

Saturday early afternoon we went to a 'country wedding' and then, in the evening, had a small gathering in the house, for Christmas (as if we needed an excuse!).

Took in some football yesterday with mixed emotions... The Dolphins flopped against the Titans, but the Bucs dismantled the Seahawks for their 2nd win of the year!

Right now it is snowing again and it is gray and cold and wet... Intend to go shopping today to Cookeville!

That's all for now...

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

The VW experience did not pan out... I had received an e-mail of "Thanks but no, thanks" and then another invitation to yet another interview which eventually got cancelled. I've moved on to some other interests...

The Venezuelan Leadership Development initiative continues to progress... I have involved Cesar Lopez, my brother-in-law as an expert on foreign exchange processes in Venezuela to ensure the financial viability of the initiative...

To close the business side, I continue to work on developing a PeopleTek practice focused only on the leadership journey that IT people travel through... Still shaping up...

On the personal side, today marks the 179th anniversary of Simon Bolivar death, and also three years since I last saw my second daughter, Valentina. I guess there came a point in time at which I ceased to add value to her life...

Had planned to make a trip to South Florida t retrieve Christmas Decorations, fix up the house in preparation for sale and to bring more 'stuff'. Decided the effort and risk did not match the potential benefits and rewards... Cancelled it!

We finally contracted for a front entrance to our house... It is being built as I write this; expected to be ready to go right before Christmas!

That's all for now...

6th day of December, 2009

More veried information...

First, after receiving the 'rejection' email from VW, they called on Thursday to aske me to come over for the next level of interviews... Mixed feelings; on one hand, my self worth is reassured by having gone to the 3rd round of eliminations (being rejected on the 2nd round wasn't good to my self esteem), and on the other hand, there seems to be organizational and communications gaps within VW... Oh well, there may be an opportunity tio fix that....

Second, it snowed yesterday morning; Jan and I woke up to about 3" on the ground and still fallinfg (here is a pic)... It did not melt as fast as we expected; the tepperatures have been low and, as I write this - 8:43 AM CST - it is 21° F outside....

And third, it was Hank Douglas' birthday yesterday and we celebrated in our house. Since Terri's mom has been seriously ill, Terri has been spending most of her time away from home and we decided ho have Hank and his dad (Mr. D) here... I cooked a leg of wild pig and made a cake... Danny & Donna came over and Terri showed up later, as a big surprise for Hank...! Here are some pics...

3rd day of December, 2009

Several items of information...

First, I spent most of the morning (and part of the afternoon) yesterday quartering and deboning the hog... In all I got three big hams (one of the front legs had been too damaged to harvest by the shot that killed the animal), loins, ribs, bacon and the neck. I froze almost everything except the neck, which I put in the oven at 275° for about 6 hours... What a delicious meat!

Second, I had applied for some IT-related jobs at VW and had a set of interviews last week; well, I received a 'Dean John' e-mail from them today declining me; oh well, already moving to plan "C"...

2nd day of December, 2009

Last night, at about 5:30 PM, got a call from Sammy... "What cha doin?" was the usual sound on the phone... "Hey, I got two hogs; do y'all want one?" Faster than I could tkink, I said "Yes! How much is it?" Sammy responded "It don't cost nothing. Me and Doug are gonna get 'em now; you can take yours to the processor if you want..." "OK", I said, "Which one?"

Sammy did not know where I could take the hog; he said he would hang it for me in his barn for the night and I could take it in the morning...

Since Sammy was going to 'process' his himself, I called back and ask if he could give me a hand with mine, instead of taking it to the processor... I went there and Doug (Darryl's brother) and Sammy had already started to gut out the first one... There were two females, pregnant both, killed by the Mnenonites at their farm, no more than 20 miles from here... That means that, withing two to five years, we will have feral hogs around here, the worst pest ever!

Doug and Sammy gutted and skinned the first one and gave it to me; unfortunately, one of the front quarters had beed shattered beyonf repair by the bullet; but I satil got over 80 lbs of hog in a cooler in the garage that I have to quarter and 'process' today!

OK. So, I haven't reported anything here for the last 11 months... I intend to change that today, now!

It is about 32 degrees up here in the Plateau and there i a frost, not quite snow, in the ground... Jan and I will be running some errands in Sparta today and working the rest of the day... Yes, working I said... I will be calling down to Venezuela, again; I will be calling an expert on foreigh exchange processes to consult with them on that particular subject (how do you get paid in USD when you do work in Vzla?)

The girls made it safely to FLL; Alex drove a good part of the way and then Leah took over and brought them home; they made it in about 13 hours keeping a healthy pace and driving on the safe side of the speed limits. Very proud of them!

On Monday, Alex took off for Gainesville at about 7 AM, and Leah went to school. Alex was able to mail me my medicines via UPS from Gainesville (I had only brought supplies for two weeks), and they made it here on Tuesday at about midday. Good job Alex! Leah discovered that her credit card was missing and then, to complicate matters, her car started acting up. She took the car in Tuesday to a mechanic who’s been looking after it for the last few months. She picked it up on Wednesday night and the mechanic could not find anything wrong; and so, he charged nothing. Very proud of her handling of all her responsibilities under adverse circumstances!

Jan and I have been working full time, while trying to get small projects done in between calls; doing them after work is a challenge since it starts getting dark at about 4 Pm and by 5:30 it is pitch black! At any rate, we had DirectTV installed late last Sunday, late enough not to see the Dolphins debacle, but early enough to see the Eagles send the Vikings packing… Additionally, progress has been made in the wood trimming, electrical trimmings (relocating or changing plugs/suckets), installing the mirrors in the kitchen bar, building the stairs rails and banisters (what a big job that is!), finishing the installation of the elevator, etc.

Yesterday, and for the first time since we’ve been here, it snowed (well, that could be an overstatement); in the middle of the afternoon the sky went gray and the white flakes started to fly. It lasted for about 15 minutes and then it stopped suddenly; the sun came back out and all the flakes melted. But it was terrific while it lasted!

Also yesterday we had another first: the first ever flat tire on the Escalade; holy Toledo, what a process that is to lower the spare tire (mounted underneath the trunk), shake it lose (from the hoisting wire), and then place the jack underneath the carriage; at any rate, live and learn…

Jan and I (and the pups) are driving back on Saturday, providing the local tire dealership receives the new tires we ordered on time tomorrow; otherwise, we will drive Sunday…