Got Dad???

Allow me to preface this post by 1st saying that my Pops is a great dude. In a world where fathers are attacked & slammed daily by abandoned children, mis-stresses, wives, ex-wives & the ever-so-popular: baby mother - it's only right that I take the time to combat the trending twitter topics & various Facebook posts by announcing the fact that my father is indeed the exception to what most certainly seems to have become the rule.

Not only did he beat my ass when appropriately ordered to do so by Ma (lol), he praised each of my individual triumphs, while also managing to support (financially & emotionally) a great number of my unique ventures into the great unknown, which he commonly referred to as - the real world. Recalling my memories of him as a child, I can remember he was an early-riser, I myself, now wake between 5 & 6am daily.

He always left for work while it was still dark outside & very rarely did he ever take leave from work. He always took his lunch with him (a practice Mom & I had long since given up in school, lol) & was home daily by 4:15pm. I swear, you could set your clocks to this guy's daily routine. He handled all the typical maintenance & upkeep any house requires over time. As a former used car salesman, he understood the maintenance required to keep a car running - he was just handy.

As a kid, I just thought he was my personal Mr. Wizard (80s tv reference, lol) - he was a computer specialist at the Pentagon, so I was fascinated by his work early on. Around the house, he could fix/build just about anything it seemed. The day I took over grass-cutting duty was SUCH a big deal - I was finally old enough to start doing man-stuff too, lmao. At age 10 or 11, he & I would come to learn we both shared something in common - the love of football. I think it was then, he knew his blood coursed through my veins, lol.

From that point forward, our campaign to convince Ma to allow me to play was on! Eventually she conceded & the rest is history. I guess it turns out, he was my 1st coach in life & on the field of play as well. I remember he was a tough coach & an even tougher parent, but at the end of each scolding, the life lesson was evident to me & I always walked away a better athlete/person as a result of his taking the time. He didn't try to raise me just as he raised my brother, but instead judged us both on our own individual merit. 

Though he's never been a man of many words, he ALWAYS knew the right time to sit-my-ass-down & put a lil' sumthin in my ear right quick. I'm forever gratetful for the many lessons he taught by way of the example he lead. He showed me exactly what being a devoted husband & loving father entailed, something I've yet to come across in any book, so I certainly recognize the blessing it's been to have him around.

Pops is getting up there in age nowadays, so I find myself spending more time with him, while at the house doing yard work, at family gatherings over holidays, birthdays, or whatever. Guess I just wanna soak up what I can, while I can. Throughout history, the sacrifice of the mother who is forced to be both Mom & Dad has been well-chronicled. But on this day, let it be known that MY father was also my Dad, & you know what? He was fuckin' good at it too...

Casual Wednesdays...

So tomorrow is the 1st day of an experiment I'm conducting. I'll be telecommuting from home tomorrow & will continue to do so for the next couple of Wednesdays as well. 


If I'm able to stay disciplined & actually complete a day's worth of work from the couch, I'll commit to telecommuting 1 day a week for the foreseeable future. I've got quite a few buddies who love the traditional alternative work schedules they've got at their jobs, but honestly, I'm not really willing to work the 9+ hours per shift required to earn the day-off every-other week. I barely manage to stomach my current 8-hour shift as it is, so I'm positive I'd be ducking-out early, each day, if I was expected to be there for 9 or more, lol.

So we'll see how this works out for me. Kinda reminds me of being back in high school when teacher's would give us those open-book tests. I always felt nervous about 'em, some things are just too good to be true, lol. I'm supposed to document what I've accomplished from home - that ought to be... interesting.

If this new wrinkle does become a regular part of my work schedule, it'd be pretty helpful. I normally ride the subway to work Tuesday thru Thursday, while I drive on Mondays & Fridays. So if I can save subway fare & parking fees each Wednesday simply by drafting documents & responding to emails between loads of laundry, while frying bacon in my underwear, then I'm ALL for it!

Not to mention the freedom it would give me to run many midday errands that might normally be inconvenient or bothersome during rush-hour or weekends. Doctor/dentist appointments, appliance repair service, runs to the cleaners, oil changes, so on & so forth.. could ALL be done on Wednesdays. Then there's the ultimate prize, the extra sleep I'd get :-D

Sure, some supervisors or management might feel like telecommuting would be less productive for worker-bees, but there's actually been a lot of research showing how the quality of work actually improves when employees have alternative work schedules - then there's the money saved on the employer's end, so... why not? 

I guess only the application of said theory remains. At any rate, I've got my secured VPN access squared away, emails & calendar items from the work computer seem to be syncing flawlessly with the home computer & mobile devices - plus, the Sup is very much on-board with everything. I've even installed Microsoft Word on my Mac (forgive me Steve, unfortunately Word remains a necessary evil in the workplace, lol).

Fuck...

~ 7:13p ~ Admittedly, I haven't gotten a whole lotta use out of the DVD player since having this car, but it sure comes in handy when your waiting for roadside assistance, smh. I'm currently watching 'Hustle & Flow' as I wait on these peoples to come change this tire. Last weekend I cleaned out the trunk, but neglected to put my tool bag (the 1 with the all important tire-iron in it) back into the trunk - so of course, I 'd catch a flat in less than a week of driving without my tools, smh.

It's still pretty much the heart of rush-hour, so who knows how long I'll be here. Talk about God having his own ways of slowing you down, lol. Glad I'm not hungry... I was actually on my way to a function I consider rather important though. I figure I'll still make the tail-end of it, but damn - I really did want to be there for the entirety of the program.

Couple of kats in a wrecker just pulled up & tried to see if they could get some coins outta the kid, actually woulda taken 'em up on their offer if I had some real cash on me - so it turns out fate just screwed me again, lmao. $45 bucks would've gladly been surrendered to get to this event sooner. Oh & guess how much emergency cash I used to keep stashed in my previous ride? Yup, $50... think I'd like to scream right about now, lol. I'll certainly be getting back to that practice very soon to avoid this again.

I'll say 1 thing about my roadside assistance provider, they keep callin back w/ status reports & shit, so at least somebody's actually awake on the other end, I guess. I really hate having to wait on help for something I can absolutely fix myself :-/ But it beats having no power, gas, or climate control - so I'll stop my bitchin' right here, lol. I'm approaching my favorite part of the movie anyway so I'm really not all that conscious of how time has passed. "Whoop that trick!"

A good samaritan pulled-over not long ago. So... good people still exist, eh? Maybe anyway... he kinda had violent, sexual deviant written all over him, so perhaps he was just hoping he'd rolled-up on some possible action, lmao. Needless to say, I sent him on his way. Shit... now I've gotta piss. I'll give it another 20 mins, then I'll be pissin off the side of this highway (it's okay, I'm a stranded motorist, lls).

~ 8:03p ~ okay, just got the call. Supposedly, the guy is about to pull-up on me in as sec...

~ hol-up, there dem peoples go ~

~ currently posted safely on the other side of the car, holdin lugs, while dude braves the rush-hour traffic whipping by us, along side Interstate 495 ~

~ yea, let him earn that bread, while I continue to blog, lol ~

~ it appears dude has his girl ridin' along with him, she's posted in the passenger seat of the truck, guess she's literally a ride or die chick ~

~ dude has got like 4-5 different hustles currently goin-on, think I'll definitely be taking advantage of this highly unorthodox networking session, lol. I meet the most helpful folk, in the strangest of circumstances ~

~ he's just about done, I'll edit & post later tonight ~ 


~ *Update*/ 11:11p ~ so the event ended at 9, I got there at 8:50, lmao. But it's cool, still somehow managed to accomplish what I set out to do this evening, even tho I missed the entire event itself. As a bonus, turns out I didn't even scrape any part of my rim (during the quarter-mile or so I had to drive on a completely flat tire to find a safe place to pull-over). Looking back, I think it's pretty hilarious that my biggest fear through-out the entire ordeal was a scraped rim (lol). All & all, no complaints - another day in the life... now I'm home, watchin' Person of Interest, just can't get enough of Ms. Taraji P. Henson :-D