That Was The Week That Was!

Posted on January 22, 2011 by RegenAxe

OK fans, Marquis is charging down the field. He fakes left, then right and then left again. And he Scores! I don’t believe it! Marquis has managed to hook-slide his way into the weekend. Simply unbelievable!

At times this week, work certainly seemed like an Olympic event. There were lows, snows and highs this week, but by Friday, things had ended up on a high note, in no small part to the help from friends and co-workers, Mike and Don. The grief that I gave you guys this week was only respect, clumsily shown.

The title for this post is an allusion to the television series, That Was The Week That Was, a satirical television comedy program shown on NBC in 1964 and 1965. Derived from the BBC series by the same name it was a big hit with both my parents and my brothers and I. A real family values TV show, Democratic family values that is. The show was hosted by David Frost and featured Henry Morgan, Buck Henry, Alan Alda and Nancy Ames. Contributors included Gloria Steinem, Tom Lehrer and Calvin Trillin. We have Bubs and Horsey’s copy of the Tom Lehrer album from the show. It still plays in high fidelity and we are happily enjoying it. So to Anne’s sisters, “Come and get us, coppers!”

It was Friday night of the weekend, and the parents were nestled all snug in their beds, while sinuses full of snot danced in their heads. Mamma with her Kleenexes, and I with my night-cap, had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap. When out on the lawn there aroused such a clatter, it turns out what the boys were doing is what really mattered.

I spoke with Dan and he said that his art show(s) went well. “It was a night.” In addition to the public opening on Thursday night, he also showed his art to the CalArts faculty in a series of private showings. Annie bused in a contingent from Claremont, plus Cousin Liz and company descended from the Bay Area. Friday night he did another showing and on Saturday he does the teardown.

Dave has been invited by Purdue to make a campus visit as part of his application process for graduate school and at their expense too. Last year he applied to over ten different schools and Purdue is the first to bite. He has to book his travel yet, but look forward to more news. [Story Developing]

Feeling Under the Weather

Posted on January 12, 2011 by RegenAxe

I’ve been feeling under the weather lately, not sick mind you, just feeling oppressed by winter. Anne has a twinge of the crud, but that’s what she gets for hanging-out with all of those runny-nosed guttersnipes. Besides she got a snow day on Tuesday. I had to go to work.

I called my employee hotline, hoping against hope, and I was somewhat rewarded. Instead of the usual recorded message, “All facilities are open and operating normally and Marquis get your lazy butt into work.” Caller-ID, I hate you! On Tuesday, the hotline message strung me along for a while, before dashing all hope. A couple of locales in the southeast US were closed, but nothing about Saint Louis except the usual, “All facilities are open and operating normally … blah, blah, blah.”

Even Anne’s good tidings came with a bit of grief. Most Sundays Anne gets the framework of her substitute teaching schedule for the week. She worked all day Monday, but was only scheduled for a half-day on Tuesday afternoon. She just loves half-day afternoons. Fast-forward to Monday night. The snowstorm is already upon us, but is performing below expectations. The forecast called for 3” to 6” and by then the storm was running behind schedule. Monday night her half-day was moved to the morning, not near as good as an afternoon one.

Tuesday morning, the phone rang for a third time. As per usual this early morning telephone call elicited the desired Pavlovian response: 1) “Oh, [something]!”, 2) The un-ceremonial flinging of covers, 3) The tromp, tromp, tromp of feet to answer the phone. Normally, I only hear this sequenced response, but on Tuesday, I was already up and was sitting at the computer. So I had a ringside seat to this little drama. I also know better than to come between a substitute and her scheduler. Fortunately, this time it had a happy ending. The call came to announce the snow day.

I still had to go to work though. On my drive north I toyed with the idea of taking a sick day, but before I could formulate a concrete strategy, I found myself already at work. There is a certain bravado about showing up at work in inclement weather. One can walk around the office and sneer at the empty cubicles, holes for lesser men, but the bravado quickly passes and one is left with a particularly quiet and rather boring workday.

No-Pocalypse

Posted on December 28, 2010 by RegenAxe

Dave returned to Washington, DC on Monday. We were concerned, because seemingly the entire eastern seaboard had been pelted with a foot or more of snow on Sunday. Washington was spared though. On the NOAA snowfall map it is neatly nestled in a dry little donut-hole around which there was only blizzard. The District got only a half-inch of snow, but even so, his flight was still delayed a half-hour. Oh well, it could have worse. Right?

I copped the title for this post from some pundit at the Washington Post. A No-Pocalypse is sort of the antonym for last year’s way too cool snowstorm related buzzword, Snow-Pocalypse. A No-Pocalypse has all the hype and buildup of the apocalyptic Snow-Pocalypse, but without the snow.

While he was visiting us, Dave tried to explain what it is that he actually does as an intern at the National Institute of Health. This is my understanding of what he said. (Dave, feel free to correct me.) Previously, Dave has described his work as, “performing brain surgery on live-ish mice.” This is true, as far as it goes, but doesn’t really explain his work and is a bit flippant to boot.

These so-called, live-ish mice, are picked up at the vivarium, where they are raised. What makes them “live-ish” is that through a birth defect, they have no upper brain, just the brain stem. Effectively, they are born brain-dead. The benefit of using these mice is that you can perform surgery on them without an anesthetic. Dave cuts open their skulls and with microscopic electrodes, actually very small pipits that are hooked to an oscilloscope, he can measure individual nerve cell’s electrical responses to auditory stimuli. Using an anesthetic, as would be required with any normal mouse, would only mess-up the nerve cell’s electrical responses.

So that sort of answers the mail on what Dave does at NIH, but doesn’t explain why he does it. This is where I get a little fuzzy on the subject, so bear with me. (Dave, feel free to chime in anytime.) From the microscopic point of view, scientists have begun to categorize different kinds of nerve cells, but they don’t know yet what they do. Conversely, other scientists have shown that different nerve cells perform different auditory functions. In a nutshell, the goal of Dave’s research is to connect-the-dots, between what has been observed at the macroscopic level and what can be measured on the microscopic level. It is hoped that by correlating these two viewpoints a deeper understanding of how we hear can be gleamed and eventually with that knowledge, ways to reverse hearing loss learned.

This may sound all rather science fictional to you, I know that it does to me. But science fiction has always been a great harbinger of things to come. Yesterday’s science fiction becomes today’s science fact. While writing this post, I recalled an old Star Trek episode, called ‘Spock’s Brain’. While generally considered to be the worst episode of that sixties series, it still seemed somehow apropos. Here is the back-story for that show:

A beautiful woman beams aboard the Enterprise, incapacitates the crew and then steals away with Spock’s brain. Captain Kirk and his enterprising crew trail her to her planet only to find Spock’s brain installed as the planet’s central computer. Dr. McCoy using this alien civilization’s advanced technology reconnects Spock’s brain to his animatronicly controlled body, which the good doctor just happened to bring along with him.

The YouTube clip is from the show’s finale, so is a bit jocular in tone. Star Trek always believed that science and technology would pave the way to a brighter future. I too shared that belief; even when it wasn’t always warranted, but I never thought that I would live to see the day that so much that was once only fiction, become fact or at least began to become true.

First In Go Toes! FIGT!

Posted on December 18, 2010 by RegenAxe

Every workday morning (almost), I cruise in to my local neighborhood Starbucks. I’ve performed this ritual with such repeatability that I have been able to formulate fanciful economic theories centered on coffee, Starbucks coffee to be specific. I’ve blogged on this topic before, as recently as yesterday, but this post has nothing to do with that. Because I do perform this ritual almost daily, all of the baristas know my name. Unfortunately I do not know theirs. Starbucks does not use nametags, which is probably a good thing. Anyway, there is this guy that started working there earlier this year, so he has been around for a while. He has always been rather loud and talkative and this Friday morning was no different. When I walked up to the register he greeted me, “Hi ya, Mark! How is your morning going so far?” After some thought, the mists finally cleared enough for me to respond to his question, “You know, most of your customers have not been awake for as long as you have been.” “Oh believe me, we know”, he responded with a big grin on his face, all the while deepening his voice for the word know, “Last week, I had a lady try to pay for her latté with her library card.” “Maybe she was just trying to checkout a latté, instead of purchasing one”, I lamely responded and then moved on as did he. This little vignette began my day.

I walked with Barbara before lunch. Dan and I spoke with Don, who had been on a two-week travelogue and then managed to get some work in too. Those were probably the main highlights of my day. This last week has been a long work week, but thankfully it is also the last full week of the year. We had customers visiting us this last week, so things were a bit more hectic than usual. I still have four more workdays next week, but they should be relatively quiet. I might actually get some work done. Friday, was Anne’s and her kid’s last school day of the year, so she is now in full Christmas mode.

Friday night, I was only able to coax Anne away from her sewing machine for a dinner, but not dinner and a movie like I had hoped. We went to Mai Lee, a Vietnamese restaurant that has recently moved nearby us. It is off of Hanley and I-64. We inadvertently ordered the same dish, just with different meats (chicken and pork), so it wasn’t the best introduction that we could have had. Our favorite Vietnamese restaurants have been Little Saigon in the Central West End and Lemon Grass on South Grand. Little Saigon is more Paris Vietnamese cuisine, so it is not all that comparable. Lemon Grass and Mai Lee have much more in common. For years now, Lemon Grass has been the go to guy for sesame tofu balls. This has been a staple on our holiday table since Dan gave up eating most meats. Mai Lee claims they can make this dish too, even though it is not on the menu. I think that we’ll give them a test run first.

I’ll come quietly, Mr. Work Police

Posted on December 10, 2010 by RegenAxe

This week I was invited to sit in as a member of the studio audience, when the company president web-casted his end of the year all-hands meeting. This is a business ritual that I have witnessed over thirty times. The sole novelty of this week’s edition was the addition of all the television paraphernalia. I was cautioned by my manager that if I was going to attend, then I needed to be prepared to ask a question, just in case I was called upon. I polled my co-workers for suggestions and received suggested questions that ranged from the erudite, but way beyond me to ask, to the confrontational and sure to get me fired variety. Finally Anne, my muse, gave me a question that I could ask, “Have you ever heard of the reality TV show, Undercover Boss and if so, what would you expect to learn about your organization by appearing in such a role?” The guys at work thought that this was an acceptable question, but a softball one too. Fortunately, my Plan A, sitting in the back row and keeping my mouth shut worked flawlessly, so I never had to exercise Plan B and ask a question.

I am at the point in my career that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is not the headlight of an oncoming train. No it is the Holy Grail of the workingman, retirement. It is a long tunnel, so the light is still a good way off. This is a good thing, because I am still too young to retire. I know that I will want to eat these words come the next snow or ice storm, but how else am I to find the plethora of daily social interactions that I enjoy today. I work with men and women of all ages, mainly men though and mainly old men at that, but not entirely. Come retirement, I will have to work to fill this social void. There will be that usual flurry of travel come retirement, but that quickly subsides. Then I will have to volunteer. This sounds a lot like working, but at a much reduced pay rate. I do not plan on double dipping. Just like with high school, after my last class, my last test, I will walk out that door and never return.

How did I become the old man who I use to make fun of, all those many years ago? My friend, Chris C. and I use to commiserate about these old men, last millennium, when we were still young men. The old men that we were commiserating about seemed obsolesced about their jobs, but they were also our bosses. This is Chris’ story, so he should be telling it, but this is also my blog, so I’ll tell it for him. Chris worked for Climax Molybdenum, which is now defunct, but once operated in Ann Arbor. Back in the eighties, Japan’s sun was rising and a delegation from Japan paid a visit to Climax. Because of the intense heat and bright light involved in the process, welder’s masks were required to see what was going on. With young men, even in a business environment, a certain amount of grab-ass humor pervades. The Japanese representative was inadvertently given a welder’s helmet that had had its vision slit taped over with black paper. Chris’ boss explained to the Japanese representative what he was “seeing” and afterwards this representative thanked him. It was only later that the mistake was found.

Engineering is not a science. I feel adept at saying this since my job title is Engineer/Scientist and I freely move between both disciplines. I have made more wrong turns in my career than I care to admit. Still, I am happy and feel successful for who I am. Like engineering, life is a series of approximations. Like science, life is also a series of absolutes. I’m just glad that I have balanced this dichotomy so well, so far.

Sliding Into Retirement

Posted on October 29, 2010 by RegenAxe

I was at work the other day, using one of the public terminals, the ones that are actually connected to the internet. Most of my time at work is spent using computers that are on closed networks, but that is another story. I was doing my regular housekeeping chores of checking my email and updating my timecard, when I decided to check on my savings accounts. The first account that I decided to survey was my vacation time balance, it was looking a little peaked. It still hasn’t really recovered from summer vacation yet. I prescribe more work and less fun that ought to improve the health of that account.

I moved on to my 401k account. A couple of years ago, I had become afraid to even look at this account’s balance. The economy was in turmoil and the markets were in freefall. Regularly checking on this account then was like watching a dear friend waste away. Each return visit only confirmed ones worst fears. Eventually, it took an act of fortitude to simply summon up the strength for another visit; such was my dread in the fall of 2008.

But that was then and this is now. Two years later and after regular transfusions, I mean contributions; the old 401k is looking as healthy as ever. So it was with some measure of expectation and no longer trepidation that I visited this account again. I was pleased with the balances, they had fattened a little more, but what caught my eye was a new widget that had been added to the website, a retirement income calculator with a slider bar to adjust my age of retirement.

When the widget first came up, the slider bar was set at 65, the normal age of retirement. Above the slider bar was a bar chart that stacked Social Security, my pension and my 401k. Above the bar chart was a pleasing number. As I slid the slider bar all the way to the right, to 75, the already pleasing number doubled in size. That was nice to see, but 75 years of age is too far away. Come to think of it, 65 years is too far away also. So, I started to slide the slider bar to the left. I passed 65 and kept on sliding it closer to the present. The slider stopped at next year. The number was not so pleasing though. At this point, I turned to the guy sitting at the public terminal next to mine and asked him if it was a sign of a bad day that I was checking to see if I could retire next year? He laughed and said, “That’s not a bad day, that’s every day for me.”

The French have been rioting over a planned increase in their nation’s retirement age. The British also face similar austerity measures, but at least so far, they are only grumbling. Americans seemingly have not given this subject much thought, but after next week’s election austerity ought to be front and center. I am planning on Social Security being part of my retirement income. I’ve worked for over thirty years, so I am fully vested in the plan and I expect to collect. Woe be to the politician of whatever political stripe that attempts to mess with my retirement income. I have a good memory and I vote.

Burning Daylight

Posted on October 23, 2010 by RegenAxe

The northern hemisphere marching in its annual dive downward towards winter’s solstice, with its long nights of darkness, took a break this week and blessed Saint Louis with a full week of Indian Summer. I got out on my bicycle just once this week and rode in the Park. I got 15 miles. At this time of year every hour of sunshine that can be enjoyed outside, should be treasured.

On Friday, I had two encounters with the law. The first one occurred in the morning, on the way into work. I had parked on Wydown, for my morning Starbucks ritual. I didn’t even have to parallel park, because there were four parking places in a row. There was a police car there, but I paid it no attention, there are frequently police cars parked there, cops drink coffee too. An officer appeared at my passenger window before I could open my driver side door. He was seemingly having trouble hearing my questions, so he asked me if he could open the door. I said yes, he opened the door and explained that Clayton had instituted street cleaning on even-numbered Fridays, but not before he scoped out the interior of my vehicle. I pulled out and parked on the other side of the block. Exiting Starbucks, I noticed tickets on the windshields of two less fortunate cars. I also noticed that the street cleaning sign was visibly new.

My second encounter occurred on the way home from work. I was in the grocery store, leaning over the self-serve food bar, spooning pasta into a plastic container. A woman’s voice spoke into my ear, “I’m leaning over you to get a sample of that pasta.” There was something practiced in that voice that alerted me, such that I wasn’t too surprised to see a Brentwood officer standing beside me. She didn’t like it, while I had already committed to buying the pasta, so there was little in the way of further conversation.

My first law encounter, left me feeling good about law officers. The Clayton officer had taken the time to speak with me rather than just issuing another parking ticket. The second encounter in Brentwood left me wondering. The Brentwood officer appeared out of nowhere and disappeared almost as fast. I’m left with the question in my mind, was she just sniffing about? I was left with a less favorable opinion about her. Anne and I both liked the pasta that she didn’t. There is no accounting for some people’s maners or taste.

RegenAxe