Gadget’s Airstream Chronicles

Well, I knew I’d come up with some type of western title for myself eventually. Not the fastest gun in the west…..fastest typist in the west…..shiniest trailer in the west……. Nope. None of that. Instead I seem to currently be the quietest blogger in the west.

Hey, it happens. I looked at my blog entries from last year in November and December and noticed that there was a significant fall off in blogging back then too. Wonder if there’s a pattern developing….Ah well, who knows?

The point is, I’m here today. And it’s nice to have something to type about again. No work related stuff, although I’ve got a doozie that I’m debating writing about. We’ll see where that goes.

But, on to recent events…….

With some available time in hand I decided to take a long ride out and see what I could find interesting today. Morning errands and the rest were taken care of, and I felt like a guy with time once again. Nice feeling. So, what to do, what to do?

Given that I enjoy this area so much I decided to do a little house hunting today. See, I’ve been watching a piece of property for quite a while. It’s a wonderful spot, gorgeous views, etc. The place is definitely a “fixer-uper”, but I think I can manage it. The best part, motivated sellers.

The current owners smartly decided to get a second mortgage the other year in order to finance some home improvements. Unfortunately, instead of using the “equity” they’d cashed out they decided to invest their funds in an Emu farm. There was a speculative bubble in Emus not too long ago you know…..

Anyhow, these motivated sellers blew through their first refinance rapidly, so they also got an equity line on the home and on their Emu farm. Nothing like the equity ATM machine you know….

In the end, these poor souls have found themselves in something of a bind. A home they’d bought only 6 years prior for $30,000 had ballooned in value to $500,000. And of course, being wise investors they cashed out all of the “equity” in the form of loans. However, with the real estate market now correcting, the Emus relocated to their home country, and the family dog now in charge of their finances due to it’s prudent nature, these motivated sellers are ready to head out.

And fortunately for me, they’re willing to sell the place for only $400K! Wow, lucky me…..maybe the market will go back up and I can get on the Equity ATM band wagon!

I’m now wondering, has anyone reading this gone pale?

Seriously, step back, deep breath.

Feel better? Yes? Good.

All of that was tongue and cheek gang. First off, not house hunting yet. Secondly, the photos you’re seeing are of a run down cabin in the middle of nowhere. Lovely scenery, spooky broken windows and wrecked cabin. Just a place I saw on a nice ride today…….

And oh yes, I am picking on the home equity loans, adjustable rate mortgages, etc. Also, I got wiped out in the Emu market the other year……

See, here’s the bottom line. The only way to truly get the built up equity out of a place is to sell it. Taking a loan based on rising equity is the same as gambling. Markets don’t always go up. That’s why economists use words like “cyclical”. Too bad even economists suspended the use of cyclical during the 90’s and this decade as well….. Ok, enough with the housing vent….listening to too much news lately I suppose.

Today’s ride took me way out past Perkinsville.  Yes, I’m still looking for the cliff dwellings in that area.  And Sadira was kind enough to come along for 6 hours of trolling around the back roads of Arizona.  We also picked up the book, “Backcountry Adventures Arizona.”  It’s got tons of cool off road adventures.  This area is full of them.

We did get to see some amazing views today as we headed toward Sycamore Canyon via the washboard (and sometimes washed out) roads of Northern Arizona.  Many redrocks, a coy dog dashing out in front of the slow moving truck, and too many cows to count.

In the end, we arrived at a trail head in the middle of nowhere.  Stunning views, camp sites everywhere, and it was already 3 pm.  So we had to turn right around.  Next time I’ll plan to head out earlier, as I’d like to hike up to the redrocks.  The area was my own private Sedona.  Pretty cool.

Here’s the latest gallery of what we came across today……

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Oh, and sorry about the tongue and cheek treatment on the housing bubble.  I keep hearing about plans to step in and freeze rates for folks with adjustable rate mortgages, bad lending practices, etc.  The news is full of stuff on people saying they didn’t know what they were signing.  I’ve got to say, if you make $40K per year and you hear you’re qualified for an $800K loan, look very close……oh, and don’t do it!  Otherwise you might look to your own dog as the most prudent investor in your household.

Oh, and stay away from the Emu market, please!

This morning I woke up to water flow once more.  No frozen line.  Nice!

Getting home last night I immediately went to the water line.  With 15 minutes of very creative work I managed to get the short unprotected section of hose into the heated water box.  It did take some effort, and it sure doesn’t look right.  But the results are hard to argue with.

Water!

So now I’m off to a hot shower!  Then I’ve got to get out of here.  Another busy day ahead of me.  Long days too….I need more naps! 

The other week I wrapped my water feed with heat tape and insulated wrapping.  It’s a pain to do, let me tell you.  Big roll of stuff going around a little hose.

In the end I was pretty proud of the job.  There was one problem.

A half foot of hose didn’t get wrapped.  I couldn’t tuck it into the heated water box either.  It was exposed.  But I didn’t think too much of it.  The box where the city water comes in is heated.  The rest of the hose is heated.  Surely that little section won’t freeze as it’s surrounded by warm sections.

It’s at this point we all realize that it’s good I’m not a physicist.

Sure enough, no water this morning.  I checked the hose, connections, etc.  All warm, all unfrozen.  Only one little stretch of exposed hose is frozen.  Solid.  I’ve had no problems up until now…..but last night we went down to 18 degrees.  Yup, cold!

So, I hope that segment thaws out today.  Maybe when I get home I’ll hitch up the trailer and move it one foot forward, then wrap that little section of hose in the box.  Seems like a plan to me.  Well, it is a plan, and maybe it’s a good one.

This morning I got up to yet another chilly start. No, the heat was fine. Just stepping out the door let me know another cool one was in store. Like yesterday…..ice on my windshield.

I’ve been winding down the past two days, catching up on errands, and doing a little shopping. The usual activities.

Once I finished up yesterday I popped through downtown Prescott. I’d heard there was a skating rink on the main square. Unfortunately I was too late. It was up for a short period of time. I did find something else going on though. Ton’s of little kids on the courthouse steps singing carols! Yup, they gave quite a performance.

Of course parents and grandparents were gathered round listening to their little ones sing. Nice scene. Cold though, we were all shivering away. I should have dressed in layers.

The rest of the day was quiet, and that was good. You need quiet days.

Today has been a busy one. A few more errands, a trip to the bank, and then a long (and cold) walk through the Dells. I haven’t been out there in a bit, and that needed to be corrected! A set of gloves would have helped though.

You know, I own some gloves…..just left them behind in the Airstream. Perfect sense, right?

I ran into Bob this afternoon, and he’d mentioned an eagle hanging out in the Dells. I brought every lens, but no luck. The eagle was probably smarter than I was, and it decided to stay inside and have a hot mug of tea (probably keeps its gloves handy too).

Oh, and by the way……haven’t said anything about gear in a while. Today’s favorite item? SMART WOOL SOCKS AND LONG UNDERWEAR! My hands were chilly, but the rest of me was roasty toasty.

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So, I’m trying to avoid saying too much about work here.  But that’s what I’ve been doing a lot of lately….spending time at work.  Yesterday I had a fun interaction that I just have to write about, so sorry, a work post.

While helping a couple with some digital imagining equipment I had all the usual questions.  What cameras work best, how easy are they to use, what software works well with your photos, etc.  Nothing unusual.

Like many folks, they wanted the best imaging for the lowest cost.  Actually I’ve often heard, “What’s the best cheapest camera out there?  You know, for under $100.”  Gee, I’ve got no answer for that one.  Hasn’t anyone ever heard that you get what you pay for?  Often, that rule applies.

Yesterday’s big question really made me chuckle though.  After talking cameras for a while the husband decided on what he thought would work well.  I was pretty happy with his decision too.  Middle of the road, good camera, they’d enjoy using it.

Before a final decision was made the husband asked me to help figure something out……

“We’re from Ontario Canada.  Could you tell me what the price of this camera works out to with the current exchange rate in Canada.  I want to be sure that I couldn’t get it cheaper in Canada.”

I paused.  See, I read the financials every day.   The exchange rate is actually something I know.  Normally folks can’t find someone to make appropriate change, let along figure out a currency exchange.  But I did it in my head and told him the cost in Canadian dollars.

“Well, can we check a Canadian store online to see if that’s what they’re selling it for, and to look into the relevant taxes as well?”

Uh, are you kidding me?  You just found a guy that makes up 2% of Prescott’s population that can in fact convert between currencies.  Now you need to see if I can work out what Canadian stores list cameras for?  Wow, demanding.

Unfortunately I didn’t have web access to do the comparison.  The guy was more than disappointed, he seemed shocked that I wouldn’t do this.  Clearly he hasn’t had many people in the U.S. make change for him on his visit here.  If he had he should have already been impressed with the currency conversion.  Ah well, there are truly those moments when you just can’t please someone. 

Now, for all of my readers, where does the Loonie (Canada’s currency) currently trade versus the dollar.  No fair looking it up…… 

I’ve been really beat lately.  Extra tired.  I was last night too.

Well, this morning it’s all confirmed.  Cramps from head to toe (the super achy muscles), clogged from here to next week, sneezing my brains out, and running a fever.  Just hit the Tylenol.  Tonight I’ll round up some Alkaseltzer Cold Plus (that stuff works well).

Getting ready to head into another busy day at work (shame I work weekends) and I’ll see how it goes.  I know I’ve been exposed to dozens of sick people the past few weeks, but I thought I’d been dodging what they have well…….. until now.

Who knows, maybe with a sick day home I’ll get so bored all I’ll do is blog (unlikely, but still possible). 

No sick day today though.  All set to head out.  Wish me luck.

Oh, and by the way….to those folks having some issues with the site.  I’ve removed the Flickr Badge (the cute little rotating photos) and the MyBlogLog badge.  They’re the only two scripts that run on the site.  If you continue to have issues I strongly suggest using FireFox, as I’ve had no issues with it on Windows or Mac.  :)  Thanks for letting me know you’d had troubles.

Ah, the past two days have been free.  Well, not exactly free.  Had to spend some time with a database contract again yesterday.  Other than that, I was mostly free….oh, well wait…not so much.

• Got some big grocery shopping done.  I was out of everything.
• Tires were all low due to the evening freezing.  Took care of that.
• Database consulting.
• Laundry (hanging in an RV park laundry room….oh joy).
• Hit New Frontiers for a few things including probiotics I ran out of (great stuff).
• Popped by Snap Snap to say hi to Sadira.  Found her shivering in the shop (she doesn’t control the heat, another business does).  Brrrr.
• Watched Bourne #2 & #3.  Pretty good.  I wonder, if a fourth Bourne movie comes out will it be titled, “Bourne Again”?  Just asking.
• Slept a lot on Thursday.  The day was 50% napping.
• No photos, no photos, no photos, no photos…….sorry.  Maybe I should shoot my laundry on spin cycle.  What do you say?

Now that I’m all caught up on rest, and caught up around the Airstream it’s time to get exhausted again.  Working Sat - Wednesday.  Hmmm….no longer part time, is it?  Ah well.  The whole experience is giving me major fodder for a fun yet serious book.  We’ll see how it all gells.  Rich Luhr has offered to take up a financial collection to subsidize me in order to remain at the part time job, just so he can hear the stories.  Guess they’re that good.

The Winter Airstream

Winter has set upon Prescott.  Really, it has.  Freezing each night, mild warm up each day.  My little forecast widget claims the following:

Current Temperature:  18 degrees (no, not Celcius).

20’s for the entire week.  40’s - 50’s for highs.  Brrrrr.

What’s living in an Airstream over winter like?  Well, Prescott is a better place to do it than Jefferson New Hampshire, that’s for sure.  But it’s still chilly.  Cold radiates from the single pane windows.  The floors radiate some cold too.

In order to keep water flowing I’ve wrapped the inbound water hose with heat tape.  It’s working!  Hooray.  I do think I screwed up with the sewage hose.  Left the gray water open to keep it from freezing.  Well, the sewage hose is half full of ice right now.  I’ll let it thaw today and dump it when I get home.

Everything else is working fine.  The heater is up and running.  The electric heater supplements.  And it’s toasty enough in here.

Oh, and I forgot to mention…..I’d love to take a little trip somewhere…maybe Anza Borrego.  Not in the near future, but it’s really on my mind.  We’ll see. 

Sure has been.  Longer without any new fun photos.  Sorry about that.

The past few days have been extremely busy, and lacking much to write about.  Ah, well, maybe that’s not accurate.  I’m jotting down notes regarding my busy days, and recording some audio about them as well.  But nothing to share here yet on the blog……why?

I think there’s a really great book in my recent experiences.  Mostly the observations are funny, sometimes they’re a little dismal.  But it’s something I’m working on, and that distracts from blogging as well.

Fortunately Thursday and Friday are open.  So I’m hoping to have some more photos, and some time outside enjoying the area.  Who knows, maybe Andy & Brooke will have an open day.  We’ll just have to see.

Alright, that’s all for now.  Time to get ready to head out, hit the bank, pay a visit to a friend, and then more work.  So much for a part time job, we’ve gone well into full time.  Oh, exhausted too!

With all the traveling I’ve done there’s been a small worry in the back of my mind.  Well, there was a small worry, but it isn’t there any longer.

Identity fraud.

I’ve traveled all over the US.  Receipts at gas stations, using strange 3rd party ATMs, etc.  Somebody  somewhere could have gotten my information through my travels.  Fortunately that hasn’t happened.  And I signed up to “LifeLock” for some extra protection.  That’s why I don’t worry so much.

So why write about protecting your identity?  I’m not worrying personally.  But it is an issue, and it was brought up in a big way for me on Thursday.

One of the local organizations that I’ve applied to repeatedly got in touch on Thursday.  I was thrilled to see an e-mail from an HR person at this business, but I was quickly stunned by what they had sent me.

What was sent were multiple resumes and multiple applications of candidates for another position currently open with the business.  They were sent for “my review”.  Clearly HR had mistakenly sent me this information.  But how did they have my address………..?  They must have been looking at my resume recently and had the address out.  That’s my best guess.

So yesterday I gave them a call to let them know about the error.  And I wanted to ask if they meant to get in touch with me for an interview.  The person who took my call was not helpful on either count.  “Please delete the message.  I’ll look into your situation.”

Ummmm, you didn’t ask for my name or phone number, so how do you know who to contact regarding my situation?  Clearly the woman was rattled.  She was also pretty rude.  And you know what, not my fault.  They made the mistake, I just identified it and reported it like any honest person would.

Putting candidate information out to people who shouldn’t see it is a big no-no.  We’ve all heard about security breaches at large companies, millions of customers’ data stolen or just given away.  It’s bad press, bad for the clients or candidates, and speaks to the issue of poor information management.   Sounds like they might need some help in that department…..too bad they never called me back.

After waiting all day for a response I got fed up.  Another friend in town knows some “higher ups” in the organization, so I forwarded the e-mail to them.  They need to be made aware that their staff is not taking care of candidates’ information.  Heck, they could be accidentally sending my resume and confidential information out too!  I don’t want that, and I don’t want it happening to anyone else.

So, just because you’ve covered yourself as best as possible when it comes to identity theft, don’t be totally comfortable.  Your next employer could easily send all of your relevant data out accidentally.  We’ve read about it, watched it on TV, and now I’ve seen it first hand.

Oh, and no call back for an interview either…..it’s a shame, I think they could really use my help!

This morning I was thinking more about my comments yesterday regarding the growing disconnects between people.  I thought I’d say a little more about it today, as it’s an interesting topic.

In 94′ I’d gotten involved in my research on the economics of digital networks.  The internet was just becoming “the Internet” at the time.  The first web browsers were popping up, only a few web sites, and a lot of text based sites existed.  At the time the net was my best research tool.  Lots of people sharing all information, and it was extremely “open source” oriented.

I walked away from the initial research extremely enthused.  My thought was, “the net, used the right way, could connect us all like never before.”  More than a decade later I’m not so sure.  We’ve got so many ways to connect, and I think our usage of the latest tech has actually disconnected real moments.

It initially struck me that communications technology might not be the great connector while building a CDMA network for Sprint.  I spent two years with Sprint (then the laid us all off) building their first digital PCS network.  The engineering was a ton of fun.  The staff I dealt with was great.  But as I got into what we were doing I began asking about the implications of communication from anywhere to anyone who would listen to me.  None of my co-workers were interested.

See, when I started out I’d never owned a cell phone, never had a pager.  And while our network was still being built my cell phone rang infrequently, my pager never went off.  Once the network went live it was completely a different story.

Getting home from work I’d usually be on the cell phone working out more issues and problems.  At dinner I’d get paged, and have to call in immediately.  Late night calls on the cell phone were more frequent from techs with questions.  My home life became fractured.  I wasn’t really there, I was still at work.

Over time this phenomena increased.  Off time was never off time.  I’d be out with my ex, but on the phone with work.  Our direct connection (in person) was constantly interrupted with communications technology.  And that’s been increasing for everyone.

At this point I’d say more than 30% of the people I encounter out and about are on a cell phone or texting at the time I see them.  A little nod, a gesture that they’re tied up and will be with me shortly.  They’re not connecting with those in person, just a digital voice representation of somebody elsewhere.  I don’t know if it’s ok, or it’s going to be trouble down the road.

I can tell you, those deploying and using this stuff the most don’t think about it at all.  My old boss Tony said it best when I asked him a decade ago about the sociological implications of the digital revolution.  “I don’t think about that stuff Rich.  This is a job, I get a check, and then I do what I really want to.”

For me, I’m going to re-connect with myself today.  A gray wet day, some laundry to do, and then some relaxation time on the couch.  Staying away from the cell phone, as I would like some quiet time.