Post  #2441.   An auspicious day coming up.      A survey from a company that I do business with came today, and the cozy letter which accompanied it was from their "Executive Vice President, Engagement." Isn't that precious? I say a little prayer each day that I am out of the workforce, hopefully forever. Why do I think that when this particular job title proliferates across industry, and it will, the position will always be filled by very high-energy women in their mid- to late thirties and never by crusty old men coasting out the last few years before retirement?

This is his second bout with testicular cancer. This isn't funny, of course. Cancer is Not Funny. But I don't think he'll have to worry about a third bout with testicular cancer, will he?

More about soccer. I watched a sports news segment tonight - our very, very longstanding sports director was doing the piece. Nothing much going on actually: we have no NBA team anymore, of course; it's a bye week for our football team; as for the Mariners - they've been playing golf for weeks, and what is there to say about Philadelphia vs New York? So, that left soccer. He should get an award for his spirited coverage of our Very First professional soccer playoff match. Qwest Field was filled to capacity, all lime green. It was about a two-minute segment, with clips of people bumping into one another, balls sailing into the stands, lots of running, lots and lots of running. Kind of the way my little brother used to run madly about with his eyes closed. Finally he revealed the score: 0-0. Zero-Zero, or naught-naught as they say. Sixty-seven thousand people filed out, shouting, singing soccer songs, yelling soccer things, clearly thrilled by the experience. As for me, I've typed about six sentences describing my feelings about it and backspaced each one of them out. (Have you ever seen Night of the Living Dead?)

As if that wasn't enough ... Rick Macherat


posted by Rick at 11:00 PM

Post  #2440.   The STR Rate.      Remember back when the rate for a hotel room was posted on the back of the door? Later, they took that off and replaced it with the floor evacuation map. These days the rate can change by the hour. It's crazy, and we put up with it. I do have a confession to make on that, like the one about office cubicles. See, I invented made-up room rates. Back when I was desk-clerking, people would come in and ask how much a room was. "Nineteen dollars plus tax," I would reply. After a number of people walked away, I started asking if they were traveling on business or pleasure. There is no wrong answer! I would then set them up with our "STR Rate" for which they were qualified via any demographic they came up with. Sometimes it was $14.00, but late at night when I could see they had a honey waiting out in the car, I would go to $10.00. I called that my "Have a heart, guy!" rate.

Our auditor did not care for my doing this, though I've lived long enough to see that it eventually caught on. Rick Macherat


posted by Rick at 11:37 PM

Post  #2439.   Rubble.     The most memorable present from my 14th birthday was a subscription to National Geographic, and I have every single issue published since then plus about six years of earlier issues given me by a friend. A few weeks ago I finally finished the shelving of these hundreds and hundreds ..


and the photograph doesn't begin to capture the extent of wreckage. I'm probably going to be hard to live with until this one is fixed. No idea when that might be.Rick Macherat


posted by Rick at 1:09 AM

Post  #2438.   Bulls and rain.      Watching it rain. What does it say about you if you like rain more than sun? Nothing good, I suspect. Anyway, about the bulls - I was watching bull riding for awhile. Early conclusion: the bulls are totally in on it. The camera zoomed in on one bull as his rider was doing that thing where they bang their hand to make sure the rope is secure, or whatever, and danged if that bull didn't have a knowing look in his eye. When the gate popped open, BOOM, he shifted into high gear and starting doing his stuff, bucking like crazy. No sooner did the rider jump off, the bull feigned a very brief "angry" charge then headed purposely for the showers. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Back to the rain. There is a new Foundation in Seattle (one of MANY because we don't have a clue in this town about what to do with all that money) which is building the ultimate Green headquarters. It will collect all the rainwater which falls on it as well as recycle everything deposited in toilets and sinks. This will be used to irrigate the gardens, for water fountains, etc. Want to bet not too many people take a drink from the water fountains? They'll have to stealthily backpack their bottled water in and consume it in the john or copy room and then smuggle the empties back out. As for anyone who gets caught .. I don't even want to think about it. Rick Macherat

posted by Rick at 10:42 PM

Post  #2437.   Google poked me.      After an unprecedented length of time without a post, there was a hit from the googlebot. That sort of answered the question for me about what happens when you die virtually. Evidently, Google checks on you periodically for awhile, then it erases you. I would imagine without any ceremony.

Sometimes I wonder about those supposedly bright people back east in the government. Seems they plan to squeeze a couple hundred billion dollars worth of waste and fraud out of Medicare, for starters. I wonder if they've thought about the people, many many thousands of people, who are making good livings off that waste and fraud, not to mention the multiplier effect. Classes in How to Start a Medicare Durable Medical Device Business are taught all over the developing world, and the industry itself is likely one of the largest in the country, after marijuana cultivation of course. Putting a sudden stop to it could throw us right back into a recession. Fortunately, they will never put a stop to it because the folks at Medicare would have far less work to do without all the phantom claims to process.

Sister-in-law is on another cruise. She has emailed friends and family to watch when the ship transits the Panama Canal. There's a website with streaming video. We've all assured her that we'll set our alarms for 4:30 am to be sure we're up, computers running, in time to watch her wave, along with the other 2,500 pax. And she will be waving frantically, I know, completely thrilled that everyone back home is watching. zzzzzzzzzzz

Saw an ad for this ..


much more my speed.Rick Macherat
posted by Rick at 12:00 AM