Hi folks. Hello friends. Hello fans. Hello family. Hello readers.
Maybe I could stand to give you folks an account of why I've been off "FUBAR" for the past few weeks.
Three weeks ago, I had just turned on my old computer and found it stalling and crawling instead of starting up like it was supposed to do.
Then I took in to "Geek Squad" inside "Best Buy" and they let me know about a week later that there was nothing left for them to do with that unit.
So I had to wait for a couple of weeks till I gotpaid again...and now I have finally gotten a newer unit with an AMD Athlon 1.6GHz processor and finally gotten it to work. It will be a while before I get it to where it feels familiar but that will be taken care of in good time.
And then there is the matter of why I'm offline almost more than I am online. As an inventory auditor,
click here for my employer, my job has taken me on the road quite a lot lately. Working on a detail auditing Home Depot stores throughout the Midwest and Mid-South has given me lots of opportunity to see other interesting areas.
Most recently I worked a one-day detail in the Kansas City area; I have so far travelled as far as Illinois, Arkansas, Little Rock, and the Lake Of The Ozarks area. Earlier this year I travelled to Nebraska for a couple of store inventories, but at a Tractor Supply and at a Kmart in Kearney, not a Home Depot.
I have found a few interesting places to eat on the road as well. In Fort Smith I found an old-fashioned drive-in THAT SERVES BEER! If you find yourself along Business US71 near Downtown Fort Smith, check for a place called Ed Walker's Drive In. One of their specialties is the "Razorback Burger", their take on a bacon cheeseburger honouring the University of Arkansas' mascot.
If you're from the West Coast chances are you've heard of the Jack In The Box fast food restaurant chain, maybe you even eat at those places. I was impressed to find Jack In The Boxes all over the St Louis area and even ate lunch at an Alton IL Jack In The Box one day. I was pleased to find some of the old standards, like tacos, Breakfast Jacks (ham, egg, cheese), and Jumbo Jacks still on the menu. I hadn't eaten in a Jack In The Box since leaving California during the Clinton Anointistration...and was pleased to see that even with their addition of burgers and sandwiches on Ciabatta bread some of the basics were still on the menu.
One thing I have learnt to do is start shopping at Walmart for food and drink and relying on that more whilst on the road for meals. This is because most of the places where I have stayed have had at least a refrigerator in the rooms, and even microwaves as well. As a result there have been days I have taken home as much as one day's worth of per diem the district manager gives out for staying in the hotel/inn/motel and put that in the tank of my car.
When we counted stores in Little Rock and Conway we stayed at a hotel that was not far from a cluster of restaurants, nor far from a Walmart Supercentre. Pretty much everything was a short walk but you need to get something to drink in that intensive heat and humidity...Water, juice, 7UP, Sprite, Sierra Mist...anything will do.
Last week after leaving Fort Smith we found our accomodations altered so that we had to drive about 50 minutes one way to the second store in Oklahoma...due to a PGA tournament. I was immediately reminded of a rant, routine, or interview, or whatever, where comedian George Carlin called for abolishing golf courses and building housing projects on them. I mentioned that to a corner market cashier and policeman and they both laughed, recalling his days as the "Hippy Dippy Weatherman".
I must admit that there have been a few challenges with regard to getting this new machine to work but in the end I will get back up to speed...
