The Home of Public Net Xchange

I had planned to have the July post up before now but I hit a mental block.  I kept going through my mind and trying out different subjects to write about and nothing appealed to me.  I even emailed WingNet and told Craig I was a little behind schedule this month and told him why.  He suggested I use this month to write about the 4th of July and offer my thoughts on what the holiday means to me.  Well, I had already considered that topic but I just couldn’t fit all the pieces together to make any sense of it.  That is until I went to church Sunday, July 5.  There I realized I didn’t really have to write anything this month, I only had to listen.

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Friday evening, May 29, Elaine and I attended two different high school graduation ceremonies.  The first one (Graduation 1) was at 6:00 PM.  We were there for our niece.  The second one (Graduation 2) was at 8:00 PM.  That one was for our nephew.  The contrast between these two schools was significant and that’s what I want to climb on my soapbox about this month.  Both ceremonies, as you would expect, were packed.  And both ceremonies suffered the same expected flaw, namely each had a very poor public address system.  Both ceremonies were held on the school’s football field.  I never noticed a problem at either of these schools with the PA system during a football game… I wonder why there’s a problem at graduation? [Read the rest of this entry...]

May 1, 2009 will find me in the land of cheese and beer; Milwaukee, WI.  It also might be my last chance to enjoy some cool weather until next fall as temperatures are predicted to be in the 40’s and 50’s.  The purpose of my trip, why business of course.  I’ll be attending a national conference for my “other job” as an Assistant Director for BNI, Business Network International.  In a nutshell, the purpose of BNI is to pass business to other chapter members through word of mouth referrals.  Though BNI is an international organization with over 5200 chapters worldwide it is fairly new to Southeast Texas. [Read the rest of this entry...]

I’ve heard from several of you and I had no idea so many were checking the site to see if a new post was up yet. Thanks for all your kind words.

I have mixed emotions about writing this post. Not so much for myself as for some of you who will read it. My Mom has told me how much she enjoys reading my posts even when they make her cry. And I’m sure a few days after this is published I’ll hear from her…

Saturday, April 4 is our son Michael’s 26^th birthday. For those of you who don’t know, we lost Michael on May 25, 2004 in an automobile accident. But this isn’t about his death; I want to celebrate the memories of his life.

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Ground Zero plus 6 months

I don’t know about you but I find it hard to believe it’s already March!  Last October I posted a story comparing Hurricane Rita from September 25, 2005 and Hurricane Ike from September 13, 2008.  These were two different storms with two different types of destruction.  Likewise, the clean up and recovery are also very different.  I can now see that.

March 13 will be 6 months since Hurricane Ike came to town and in many places, it still looks as if it were only yesterday.  Nearly 4000 homes were damaged in Bridge City, Texas alone.  Work is well underway in many of those homes to rebuild while many others remain untouched.  Still others have been cleaned out and gutted down to bare studs and stand empty either waiting for the next available work crew or with a “For Sale” sign out in the front yard.  The “For Sale” signs are everywhere but every now and then you see a “Sold” sign as well.  There are also lots of signs that read: “We Pay Cash For Damaged Homes.” [Read the rest of this entry...]