Familiar things...letting go and moving on

Familiar things and letting go…

Tonight I rolled over on my glasses and the one lens squirted out like a watermelon seed at a 4th of July barbecue. I had stolen a modest nap on the couch and upon my arrival back into the world, this is the little bit of happiness which I wrought upon myself.

Off to the junk drawer to find an eyeglass screwdriver kit I trundle. Suitably geared up, I sit down in front of the kitchen table, which is often used for a desk, and attempt to change the screw, reinsert the lens, and cease slamming into walls, coffee tables and large people who are sleeping. (I might be exaggerating, but not by much. I can’t see too well without my glasses. )

40 minutes later I am realizing that my sense of economy may just be stretched a bit. As I become more and more frustrated, I wonder, as I often do in these circumstances, just how long I am to struggle before conceding gracefully (an oxymoron if there ever was one) and purchasing a new pair of glasses?

The reason I do not have glasses circa – anywhere-newer-than-1998 really comes down to this Associate (and I use this term very loosely) at the Wal-Mart eyeglass shop in the front of the store.

After taking a brief, distasteful look at my frames several years ago (frames I was very happy with and wanted simply to replace), he advised me that the last time these frames had been sold to a customer was just after Moses came down from the Mountain with the Commandments, and they were not available any longer. No, he could not fix them. (for one thing, his arms were the size of my body, and I could definitely miss a few meals without anyone worrying) and he didn’t know anyone who could.
Thanks a bunch, Slim. Placing my ancient, decrepit frames back upon my nose, I slithered away, thinking about what a butthead he was…:):).

Anyway, I think it is time. None of the 15 tiny little screws worked and I finally threaded a garbage bag twist tie through the frame and secured the lens…I only have 4 appointments tomorrow, 2 with bankers…but at least I stripped off the white plastic on the twisty tie…:):)

My primary car is a similar situation…there are the odd dozen or hundred people who firmly believe that I should be in a slightly more recent vintage automobile…my thoughts are that I would rather not drive a frou-frou car around on construction sites where everyone is looking at you and thinking not-nice thoughts. With my car, often someone will start passing around an empty spackle bucket for a change collection for me…(that’s always nice…lol)…other nice things are that no one will ever steal it, and policemen often look on me with a compassionate eye…:)

On to matters of substance instead of chatter (for the thousands who read this epistle regularly) …Foxmoor has had six – 6 !!!! closings this week!! Great job by Jimmie, who runs the Galloway operations and April, who works in Galloway and Egg Harbor. Super job pulling everything together…!!

This weekend we have a big event at both our Foxmoor at Galloway location on Jimmie Leeds road and our Visions at the Shore development on Pitney Road in Absecon…This weekend, we will have a custom motorcycle display, a radio station broadcasting, and plenty of food and drink. It’s always a lot of fun, and I am convinced that people come and buy houses just to get the excellent sandwiches and those fluffy little cream puffs from Acme…

It may just be that Michelle Morris and the Century-21 Glencove Realty team do a great job. Or maybe because we build an excellent home. Or any number of other reasons.

But I think it’s the cream puffs that push people over the edge…:):):)

Be well and look for my next post over the weekend, most probably after the first day with new clients.

Regards,

V

Perspective and reflection…

Perspective and reflection…

“I complained that I had no shoes, until I met a man with no feet.”

Interesting, isn’t it? In my humble opinion, if you have an issue that can be fixed with money, it truly isn’t a problem, right?

This does relate, so hang in there….through the circuitous, labyrinthine workings of my brain, there is an analogy coming eventually, so if you need a pee break or a glass of wine, go get it. I’ll wait.

Back? Good.

So, after I sat here trying to configure my wireless print server for the third time (I have about an hour in each time) I broke down and called customer support.

A very lovely female child in New Delhi answered after 28 minutes on hold (we should all buy Cisco, who bought LinkSys, who bought etc, you get the idea – since 14% of the 6 billion people on the planet were calling in on a Monday evening for tech-support…)

All of the other people calling in were much smarter than me, or female, or both. Women, in my experience, pick up the damn phone and call tech support and yell at them when things don’t work. Men generally continue plowing ahead until they are in the wrong country. They don’t invest so much time, only to be told by Sahib Patel that the wireless print server I was struggling to connect, was not compatible with a printer/fax/copier, but only a plain printer.

Thanks Linksys. Ever think of putting that info anywhere where it can be found???

Anyway, thanks to the dear friend (who shall remain anonymous so all gloating shall not be heard by the world) who advised me to get over losing my last significant blog post in the ether and compose in Word, save and post. Duh, right.

I am so ridiculously paranoid about saving that I don’t get 10 words done without saving. Alt-F-S. I do it unconsciously, I am so worried about losing data…Anyway, I am over my snit (due to my own ineptitude) and will continue to spew out pleasant nonsense for my nonexistent, or certainly miniscule, audience…

Back to perspective…like my Grampa used to say, ”Better to be looking down at the grass, than up at it…”. Good point.

I talked to Karl the other day and told him the same thing. He told me all the things we could be doing better at Foxmoor. I asked him if one could ever be too rich, too thin, too smart, have too many good clients, or for that matter have too much of that great vodka he bought me for my birthday last year?

Of course we could be doing better, as is usually the case in civilization since the time of Cro-Magnon man. We continually get better in many ways – better quality construction, better building management systems, better information.

How about we start telling the people we care about all around us, how well they are doing the things they are doing well…(and maybe suggest nicely the things that can be improved) instead of just bringing up what is not perfect? The glass is half full and there is no earthly reason to sit around and think otherwise – and those around you benefiting from your kind words will work that much harder to make things better with a bit of encouragement.

It’s easier with sugar than with vinegar. Words from Mom.

Anyway, some kudos to the team….Thanks to Bill and Shari for signing a new contract each since last Thursday…!!!! Great job and great job training your people Michelle from Glen Cove Realty. No one else I know other than the national builders trains so hard and regularly.

Thanks to Jimmie who runs our Foxmoor Estates at Galloway developments, along with April, who works with him. Jimmie was able to navigate the bizarre corridors of reality in Galloway Township and procure a CO for a closing this Wednesday…Yeahh!!!!

Good job today April on another walk-thru with less than 5 items (we aim for 0 defects, and I think we had 3 minor items today).

Thanks to Ray for setting up the Absecon construction office and keeping Karl and John connected to the digital universe...and being a successful new member of our team. Welcome, Ray. I'm glad you made it and didn't pout or complain when all the women from the sales team ganged up on you and beat you up in the beginning...lolol

Foxmoor had a closing today in Egg Harbor, and another is scheduled for midweek. Also, last Friday, we closed on the purchase of 16 single-family lots in Buena, which is western Atlantic county for those who have no clue where it is…

Now I’m going to walk my killer attack Chihuaha, Spike, and then go to bed. I’ve had enough fun for one day…

Regards,

V

Another Blog Annoyance

Well, I just typed for a half hour, and essentially composed the Illiad, and just lost the entire thing. I am quite disgusted right now.

It was actually a really good post too.

If I could figure out how to edit my posts, I would save them, but I haven't yet...what an idiot. So aggravated right now.

Just figured out how to edit...maybe I will retype all that drivel I wrote before, but probably not...:(:( an annoying end to a really good day...

Some other time, stupid blog - stealer of carefully crafted words...

Another Day in the Life...

Did your day count today? An interesting thought, and I wonder how many people ever ponder that point...if you were to pass from this veil of tears, would anyone notice and have you spent your every moment in the way you would wish??

Serious enough? Ok, everyone, step back from the ledge...just thinking that in one sense, it should all count, every moment, and in another sense, very little matters except your every waking moment, the specialness of it and precious times with loved ones...

If you read those little books they have at the register at Waldenbooks, B.Dalton and Atlantic Books, you become in-fucking-scrutable, like a tri-state, frustrated Confucious....you lose a lot of friends, because no one has a clue what you're talking about, but at least you can hear the sound of one hand clapping...lolol

There. I said "fuck" in the blog. Hopefully that will not irrevecably mar the Company Image....

Forgive me, I was digressing...

Anyway, today we started plumbing in the slab of the clubhouse at Visions at the Shore in Absecon. I got the call from Karl at about 7:45 this morning with the good news. I didn't really believe him at first...

"Hello".

"Hello".

"Well I have some good news. There's plumbing going in the clubhouse at Visions."

Silence.

"No, I mean it."

"Karl, you're lying. Is it our job, or a KHov job? They build things on time, we're generally a bit tardy."

"Vince, we are late - about 6 months, so I am thinking it's our job. Don't be a smartass, this is great news."

Thump. Crash. Phone dropping.

So Karl started getting annoyed with me. "Cut it out. It's going well. You have a bad attititude lately...blah, blah, blah..."

It is good news and he is right. I am a hopelessly optomistic, jaded cynic...

Wait 'till you see that clubhouse...it'll be amazing....

Good night and be well.

Wish I Was There...

Hello All...

So, I am writing once again, for the second time this evening, stymied by the vagaries of Google/Blogger/ whatever amorphous construct it currently is, since I am unable to edit my draft postings, for some obtuse reason.

Odd for a Google product, (or associate, or acquisition, or computer submissive, or whatever) which at last check had 94.33% of all the brilliant people in the free world, and owned 57.98% of North and South America, with various countries throughout southern Europe and southeast Asia...

But you can't edit your X%$#%*!* blog, without a small Act of Congress...oh well...go ahead and try it...I was middlin' smart until today when I tried to pick up where I left off...from now on, pure, straight prose....lololol

Anyway, for the noteworthy (if I may presume) thought of the day, we have the Wish I Was There thing...(we all do that at times) the grass is always greener, etc...

Earlier, I was listening to someone in our organization today who was going on vacation for the second time in a month, and I was irrationally jealous. Didn't she realize how much I would love to be on vacation?? lol...unfair of her to make us suffer...

It was Lauderdale, and not New Zealand, but still...of course, she's a 20 year old college student and why shouldn't she go ?

Still, I wished I was her for a while (ok, I am still having the occasional errant longing)...I could get on a plane, like anyone else, but am consumed right now by any number of mundane, nonsensical, recurring/random issues (like everyone else living in civilization), and would find it a mite dificile to exeunt stage left at this moment...lolol...still it is a nice thought....

After further thought, I am enjoying the wonderful spring NJ weather...so maybe sometimes what we think we want, we may already have....:):)

(I am almost certain, someone smarter than I has said that before)

Truly, nothing of monumental import have I shared with you this eve, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and I am still getting the hang of this talking to myself on my computer...so hang in there and the content may improve...lolol...but it may not...

Life should always be somewhat humorous, because when you stop laughing, they may as well stick a fork in you, 'cause you are done....lolol

On to more ramblings...

We had our weekly sales meeting today, as well as our construction meeting.

It's been a few hours now, and I am over the social shock of the meeting, and can speak of it without shaking...lol...I am kidding, of course...

I really like everyone, and they tolerate me, but everyone looks pained in meetings....haven't you noticed? Like they just sat in a wet spot on patio furniture...it's just an uncomfortable feeling...:):)

Since it is important to be serious and studious, it is my choice to throw paper airplanes and groan loudly at times. Everyone treats me like an adolescent, which is often appropriate, but if I didn't behave like that, I would jump off a bridge (In southern jersey, that really means nothing. The highest elevation is about 10' above sea level. At most you're talking about a broken leg or something minor- not worth the drama, or the dry cleaning bill.)

Author's note: After fighting the whole meeting thing for a while, I have come to the reluctant, forced, coerced conclusion, that a regular, focused, purposeful, concise meeting can be a positive event, and not on par with a proctological exam. According to Karl, I should not always act as if I am secretly 9 years old, and lately I have been trying...lololol

Back to the meeting. We discussed many things , but primarily the regulatory environment in which we are currently building, which is markedly similar to Alice in Wonderland. (anyone needing the reference can email me).

In real life it should take about 60 days to build a house completely from the ground up.
In NJ, it takes 4-5 months, is excruciating for everyone involved, and adds about $40,000 to the cost of each home (tragic but true...note: this includes regulatory delays at the state and county levels. Approval time in NJ averages 3 years.)

After griping and bitching for a while , we finished and adjourned.

Sounds pretty classy, but there were no more sandwiches, and only 2 of those really little Heinekens, and everyone is on some kind of stupid diet, and wouldn't eat the cheesecake in front of anyone else, so we all left.

Me home to blog (ok I snuck back in and had a piece of cheesecake), and everyone else back to their respective lives.

(Can I have comments about cursing? I find my expressive style to be quite hampered by politeness and courtesy...and I am wondering if anyone really gives a damn, or is it like a tree falling in the forest...??? lolol)

Wishing all health and prosperity...

Regards,

V