Closed in Eldersburg - Roma's

If you're like most people in Eldersburg, you're probably thinking, "what's Roma's?"  Roma's, as you can see from this picture, is in the Country Village Shopping Center with Shopper's and it occupied the highly successful Jerry's Subs site. If you're like most people in Eldersburg, you're probably thinking, "we had a Jerry's?"

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was walking from Panera to Shopper's to get something I probably didn't need and I noticed that Jerry's....err Roma's looked closed.  I peeked inside and noticed the menu board was down, but there were still chairs inside.  Additionally, the second door was open and had a mop leaning up against it like they had been cleaning up spilled water, but there were no indications that anyone was in there.

Hopefully this pad will be replaced with a dessert restaurant or a nail salon.  Or maybe a Super Wal-Mart.

Coming to Eldersburg - Tutti Frutti Yogurt Shop

I was walking from Panera Bread to Shopper's the other day at the Country Village Shopping Center in Eldersburg and noticed workers inside the former Wine Country store making renovations.  I then spotted the notice on the door indicating that a Tutti Frutti Yogurt Shop was opening.  The Wine Country has been closed for a while.  Three years to be exact. I blame the lack of occupancy on Obama's Bush Recession.

We certainly need more dessert stores as we only have Rita's, Lexie's, DQ, and Twin Kiss.  Hopefully someone will come to their senses and convert a couple of these into nail salons.

Lyme Disease Week 2

I just realized that my last post did not say whether or not I definitely have Lyme disease (not Lyme's disease as I thought it was).  Well, I definitely tested positive for Lyme.

For the past 2 weeks I've worked 1 full day.  I missed 3 full days of work because of the flu-like symptoms.  I felt totally out of it another.  I went to work one day this week, only to return home because of nauseousness.  I didn't work a full day today, but that was for other reasons.  However, I did experience most of the symptoms all day.

So what are the symptoms?  I haven't had the joint pain and arthritic symptoms like a lot of people.  However, I do seem to have a constant daze \ fog \ cloudiness \ confusion \ lack of focus \ buzz \ pressure in my head.  I also occasionally suddenly feel exhausted and fall asleep.  Fortunately those were on days that I was home.  The nauseousness seems to be a result of the medicine, which doesn't indicate that it must be taken with food, but clearly it does.

And the lack of focus?  I've been looking at this post for about an hour and I've written 3 paragraphs. Enough said?  Wait, what am I doing?  Yeah, I'm ready for this to be over.

2013 Dover 400 - A Recap

This past weekend was my family's annual trip to Dover to see the NASCAR race.  Like every year, it was a hoot. If you've never been to a NASCAR event and have a slight interest in it, you should try it once.

Television doesn't do racing justice.  Those cars are going a lot faster than they appear on the boob-tube. The problem with television is that the camera follows the cars, so you lose the point of reference.

The race had two points of significance.  First, due to heightened security from the damn terrorists, security was doing pat-downs and examining the contents of all bags.  At NASCAR events, you brings an average of six coolers of beer and 2 bags of Fritos, Twinkees, and Doritos.  Oh, and a bottle of water.  Some people even bring sunscreen.  With the more thorough inspections, the unintended consequence was that people stood in line for about a half an hour waiting to gain access to the stands.

Finally, at 1pm, the official start-time, I snagged a peak inside the stands and noticed that it was less than 25% full.  However, there were many thousands of people still standing outside waiting to get in.  Finally security decided to throw all available personnel at the gate inspections.  Then they stopped doing the pat-downs.  Then they stopped inspecting bags altogether.  As I passed the head security power-tripping jackass guy, I hollered to my dad, "I guess Fox television got on the horn with someone and said why the F**K are no people in the stands?  We paid a lot of money to show this!!!"  That drew some laughs from the yocals.  Dover later issued an official apology to fans for the absolute ridiculousness of the wait times.

Secondly, and unfortunately, 2013 will go down as the sequester year.  There was no fly-over by any military planes.  Instead, we were presented with the Delaware State Police Helicopter Trooper 4 flyover.  No disrespect to the hard working officers of the mighty Delaware State Police, but it's just not quite the same.

You've heard my normal babble on the race, so I'll just present you with some pictures and commentary. I don't really go there for the race. I go for the people.

I did manage to capture this short video of the cars racing by.  You get absolutely no sense as to how loud this really is. You can tell this is the first lap because everyone is still standing and a lot of people don't put on their headsets right away.  Admittedly, I don't either.  It's cool to hear the thundering roar as the cars pass and the vibrations pass through your chest like the bass and percussion at a rock concert.  But after that first lap, we're all cool with putting the headsets back on.

I used to work in a glass factory.  It was loud.  The older guys used to tell me that "after a while, you get used to the loud noise."  Yeah, that's called deafness.  "Ha???"  Exactly.  "What'd you say?"

I'm coining a new term: the NASCAR tan.

Attendance at Dover seems to be waning.  I think the stadium seating capacity is 135,000.  I recall more people at the previous 4 races. And to avoid embarrassments like this, and for other financial reasons, NASCAR no longer announces official attendance at events.

Everyone likes crashes in NASCAR.  I caught this close one in the pits.  One car pulls into his spot, the car behind him is pulling out, and three are going by.  They have to maintain 35 mph in pit row, but the drivers try to see who can be the first to 35 mph without looking where they're going.

One of my pet-peeves is that everyone is "going green".  Screw that. Aric Amirola's car runs on bacon, damn it!! 

Some NASCAR teams sweep their pit area after a pit stop.

Others are smart and use the blower.

The funny thing about some NASCAR fans is that the help their driver by telling them to go faster or to pass someone.  And they tell the other drivers they suck by showing them the #1 sign.

Tony Stewart ended up winning the race after leading only 3 laps.  But in NASCAR, the only lap that matters is the last one.

God bless America!

Lyme's Disease - It Is Real

Don't you hate it when I don't post anything for a long time?  I have a real good excuse this time.  I've been sick.

About 10 days ago I was taking a shower after working in the yard all day and I noticed a hard lump on my leg.  It was at an old angle, but as best as I could tell it was a purplish color and it felt a bit like marbles underneath.  I checked it out on the Internet and by my awesome self-diagnosis skills determined it to be a spider bite.  If I felt bad the next day, I was definitely going to the doctor.  My wife drew a black circle around the bite with a Sharpie to ensure that we knew if it got bigger.

It never got bigger.  I never felt worse.  The area softened to its normal state.  It was never hot.  It never itched.  It never hurt.  However, the odd coloring never went away.

On Monday, a full 9 days later, I started feeling like I was in a funk.  I attributed it to being in the sun all day while we were at the Dover 400.  I was basically in a stupor and was useless.  I think I even left work later.

That night I suddenly, and I'm not exaggerating, felt weird.  My body was getting achy and I wasn't able to sleep.  It felt like the onset of the flu.  I ended up watching 3 episodes of Fast & Loud between midnight and 3am, which is a really cool show.  Check it out.

The next day I called out from work and basically slept all day.  Achy body and everything.  I called out again the next day, but felt a little better - 42.6% better to be exact. However, I now had a low-grade fever.

This morning I woke up and my chest was really tight and it hurt.  I have a chronic cough.  And asthma.  And reflux.  What a wonderful combination!  The discharge is lovely.  Anyway, today's discharge was slightly bloody.  Doctor time.

I rattled off my symptoms to the doctor and she said it looks and sounds like Lyme's disease.  They're doing blood-work to confirm.  The chest sounded terrible, so they did an X-Ray to confirm pneumonia.  That came back negative, so I'm being treated for bronchitis.  Ever been on Prednisone?  That's like getting a blank check to act bat-shit crazy.  Side effects include irritability, nervousness, hyperactivity, dimmed cognitive abilities, frequent urination, and a strong desire to raise taxes and ignore the Constitution.  Hey, wait a minute......I might be on to something here.

So - in conclusion, self-diagnosis on the Internet is not always a good thing, if you get anything that looks like this on your leg, then go to the doctor RIGHT AWAY!!!!  It's a lot less colorful than it was, but still colorful enough.  Hopefully my Obamacare will pay for this.

Jonas Green Park Fishing Report

My son, his friend, and I decided to go fishing on Memorial Day.  We went to Jonas Green Park in Annapolis.  It's across the Severn River from the Naval Academy, so we could see members of our military in training.  There's also a World War II Memorial right at the intersection where we turn to go into the park.  So in our own subtle way, we were thinking about those that have served our country that day.

We got to the park at 6:50 am and there wasn't too much of a crowd.  It was chilly.  When we left our house at 5:50 am, it was 41°.  When we arrived in Annapolis, it was up to 51°.  There were a bunch of people fishing off of the bridge, so we decided to settle by the rocks on the northeast side of the bridge.  Unfortunately, there was someone else who was already fishing on the corner spot that we really like.

My son is an A.D.D. fisherman.  He can't stand still.  This is fine for bass fishing, but it doesn't work too well for bottom fishing.  He moved all around the park from the beach to the rocks to the bridge, back to the rocks, back to the beach.

I pretty much stayed at the rocks until the guy at the corner moved.  But as quickly as I set up my two rods, another guy and his son were right there with me.  Within in a hour or two, there was a big Hispanic family on the right of me and another on to the left of the guy and son next to me.  It was a tight squeeze.  I'd say that within 50 feet there were 12 fishing rods.

We were using razor clams, 20 lb test line, and Hurricane rigs with 2 snelled #4 hooks.  And we fished for several hours and caught.......nothing.  The guys next to us were using blood worms and they were consistently bringing in spot.  One guy caught a really small white perch.  Finally I caught a spot.  Near the end of the day I caught a cow nose stingray.  Actually, the guy to the right of me also snagged it by chance (or the cow nose stingray snagged us).  We both landed it and were able to remove one of the hooks, but cut the line on the second before we allowed him to flop back to the water and swim away.

And that was it.  The fishing is still fairly slow.  We saw no striped bass, no blues, no drum, no flounder.  The water was cold.  Is Memorial Day the unofficial first day of summer or spring?  Or winter?  I'm ready for the warmer water and the fish to start running again.  Anyway, we packed up about 4pm and drove home.  Between the three of us we caught 12 fish - 1 cow nose ray, 1 croaker, and 10 spot.  For 9 hours worth of fishing.

How has your fishing been this year?

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day.  Let's remember that before Memorial Day was a day to get drunk, play in the water, have a cookout, or have a huge car sale, it was a day to remember those that have served our country.

And Carroll County Commissioner Robin Frazier ought to be ashamed of herself and offer an apology to the citizens of Carroll County for her inappropriate sign on the car in the Westminster Memorial Day parade.  "No Liberals"?  Seriously?  Memorial Day is not the time for you play partisan politics.  Politicians like you are the ones intentionally dividing this country.

Piney Run Fishing Report

I haven't blogged in a while, so I have a bunch of ideas that I need to catch up on.  Unfortunately for the blog, the O'Malley posts require more thought, so I'm sticking to some of the easier ones right now.

Fishing.  What's up with fishing this year?  Is anyone else having trouble catching fish this year?  I have been to Piney Run Park to fish 8 times this year and have caught exactly one blue gill.  My son, whom I consider a superb fisherman, hasn't caught much.  One small large mouth bass, one yellow perch, one decent blue gill, and several smaller ones.

Fishing pier at Piney Run Park

I know it's been cold this spring.  Is the cold weather keeping the fish in the middle of the lake?  Do they not like to eat when it's chilly?  What's going on?

I will say that the old man that I see there all the time has not had any trouble catching fish.  Well, no trouble catching fish relative to me.  When I ask him how he's done, he always responds that he caught a couple.  Meanwhile, I see him catch crappie after crappie. I know he makes his own bait.  I've gone out and bought something that looks like his bait the last two times I've seen him use new bait.

I'm hoping to take my son to Jonas Green Park this Memorial Day weekend for some shore fishing on the Severn.  I'm hoping for nice weather, but at this point it looks like it will be getting cooler again.  Stupid global cooling.

What's your fishing experience this spring?

My Tips to a Successful Career

I recently passed my 16th anniversary working at American Amalgamated Corrugated Conglomerates of America.  For a company with such a big name, you'd be surprised how many people stay there so long.

During a staff meeting, one of the managers asked if I could provide any feedback on what the keys are to a successful career.  I was totally caught off-guard, but after a few moments of awkward silence, I was able to spout off a couple of items.  As the day wore on, I got to thinking - what have been the keys to being successful at work?

1) Show up on time.  You'd be amazed at how many people fail to show up when they are supposed to.  If you are supposed to be at work at 8am, you get there a little before 8am.  You start WORKING at 8am, not GET there at 8am.

2) Do your job as well as you can.  You may hate your job, but you're not doing yourself any favors by doing it poorly.  The way you perform your job determines your reputation.  If you're a garbage collector, be the best damn garbage collector.  If you're a rocket scientist, strive to be the best damn rocket scientist.

3) Have a positive attitude.  Everyone at work says that I always have a smile on my face.  Or if I don't have a smile, I can at least crack some jokes at whatever is troubling me at the moment.  When things get crazy, I just remind myself that this is just a job.  I still need to do it well, but it's a job and I cannot let it own me and make me miserable.  Settle down, figure out what needs to be done, and do it.

4) Set expectations.  This ties to #3.  No one wants to hear that you didn't deliver.  Do you have sales quota?  Or a deadline?  In my job, I determine tasks associated with projects and try to deliver the project within a stated time frame.  The trick is to properly set expectations.  Don't try to be a superhero.  You'll get more attention by wildly missing a target delivery date than you will coming in a couple of weeks early. If you know you're going to miss a deadline, let them know BEFORE you miss the deadline.  Determine why you are missing your deadline and make the changes to improve your process.  And when you inform your superiors that you are not going to meet their expectations, tell them why, tell them what you're doing to fix it, and tell them realistically what the new expectation is.  For example, if you just show up and tell boss man that you are going to miss the deadline, you're going to look like an incompetent fool.  If you say that you're going to miss the deadline, but you've identified the tasks that need to be completed and you'll assign more resources to it, and that you should be able to complete the task in another 5 weeks, you're giving the impression that you recognize the problem and you've proactively tried to come up with a plan to resolve it.

5) Treat people with respect.  I'll admit that I don't like everyone at work.  But I'm polite to everyone, I listen to what they have to say, and I try to negotiate or offer feedback when I disagree.  Don't ever say anything about someone at work that you don't want that person to hear - because they'll hear it somehow.

6) Put in the time when you need to get something done.  Sometimes we go through rough patches at work that require me to put in some overtime.  Generally I work 45 hours per week, which is standard in the amalgamating industry.  Sometimes I end up working 50.  Or 55 hours.  So be it.  It's not every week.  But if you put in the time when it was needed, it usually gets noticed.

7)  Keep in touch with former coworkers.  I have worked for several companies and several departments over my career.  I try to stay in touch with as many people as possible.  Have lunch with former coworkers from time-to-time.  Send a friendly email occasionally to check in on them.  There have been numerous times where my networking has been useful to my career.  Sometimes it's good just to bounce ideas off of someone impartial or to seek advise from them.  And sometimes you'll be without a job and need to find a new one.

8) Always try to look presentable.  There's an old saying: "Dress for the position that you want."  I have found that as I move up and am dressing a little more professionally that I used to dress.  Previously, khakis and any old polo shirt would do.  Now I try to only wear nicer pants or newer polo shirts or Oxford shirts.  Keep the shoes polished.  Avoid looking scruffy.  Totally avoid looking hung-over.  Carry yourself with poise.  Look confident.  Keep your head up when you walk the halls.  Don't stare at the floor.  Make eye contact with people and say 'hello'.  Don't ask them how they are.  Just say 'hello'.

9) Be thoughtful.  As I get older, I find that I am less spontaneous and more thoughtful about what I need to do.  Consider the implications of decisions.  Who would be impacted by this change?  What are possible unintended consequences?  What is the best strategic solution verses the quick tactical solution?  I want people to say, "Wow, I think he put a lot of thought into that."

10)   Say thank you and please.  This should probably be number one.  I'm continuously amazed how poor some people's manners are.  If I help you or give you something, then you say 'thank you'.  If you help me or give me something, I say, 'thank you.'. If I need something, I say, 'please'.  It's the simple things that matter.

What are the things that you think are important to a successful career?

No Sympathy for Baltimore City Water Rate Increase

Baltimore City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke is all in an uproar about the by the Baltimore City Department of Public Works request to increase the rate which city residents pay for water.  You are not going to get a lot of sympathy from the suburbs where we pay water rates that are exponentially higher than the residents of the city who use our water.

DPW spokesman Jeff Raymond said that the rate increases are required to invest in the aging water infrastructure in the city.  I think that's an outstanding idea.  In a city with a little over 600,000 residents, a city that closely resembles Louisville, Kentucky and Memphis, Tennessee in population, the city must invest in the pipes that keep it livable.  We too often see news of water main breaks the shut down the arteries of the city for days.  Remember the water main break that shut down Light Street in the heart of the business district for several weeks?  The crumbling infrastructure is not only unhealthy for the distribution of water in Baltimore, it's also destructive for the local economy.

The rate increase proposal that DPW has presented to the Board of Estimates are for a 15% rate increase this year and 11% increases in the following two years.  City officials estimate that the rate change will increase the average resident's annual bill to nearly $800.  As a resident of Carroll County,  I pay nearly $1,400 per year in water and sewer.  And I don't even have a pool.  I don't water my lawn.  And I don't take showers (I said I live in Carroll County, right?).

And another complaint - they take our water!  You'll recall this blog post about how Baltimore City acquired the water rights from Eastern Carroll County and Western Baltimore County with the construction of Liberty Reservoir.  You're going to take our water and then complain about how cheap you don't think it is?

So how sympathetic am I to someone who will pay a water bill that is 65% of mine?  Not much.  Or to parody the State Farm commercials - how sympathetic are Carroll County residents to the water rate increases in Baltimore City?  About as sympathetic as Abercrombie & Fitch when Rosie O'Donnell complains that she can't find anything that fits her in their store.

Money down the drain.