Miller Valley pic of the day

The Miller Valley pic of the day is pretty straightforward. There's a light snow here today so I just wanted to take a picture that adequately captured that . This seemed like a good one, it shows the wet pavement, and off in the background you can see snow on the grass next to the olden Plank Road Brewery attraction.

Miller Valley Pic of the Day

Miller Valley pic of the was chosen based on lighting. I love that sunrise over the brewhouse! I had tried a shot from just below yesterday's location on the Wisconsin Ave bridge, and it was just too dark.

Miller Valley picture of the day

Miller Valley pic of the day – I got a lot of good shots today but I really like this one the most, even though the brewery was so far off in the distance. It really gives a rural feel to a place that's so deep inside the city. I also like the way those three tracks are splitting off in two directions.

Brewery Pic of the Day

Today's Miller Valley pic of the day was a challenge to get. I didn't have gloves or an adequate coat to be out in the cold long enough to agonize over getting a good shot. Which makes me wonder, should I include the weather with my post? That way we can look back at the pic and also know that details behind that cloudy day we're looking at?

High / Low: 34°/25°

Wind: 15 mph

Humidity: 57%

Dew Point: 17°

Pressure: 30.06 in

UV Index: 0 of 10

Visibility: 10 mi

Brewery Pic of the Day

Beautiful sunrise for my brewery pic of the day. (I say pic of the day, but I mean that loosely, this is something I've been meaning to do for a while but it always seems to get pushed aside. I'm going to start trying to get a picture more regularly of Miller Valley)

Finance Essentials for Small Business and a Personal Experience

 

I enjoy volunteering for a variety of organizations. In the past, I've volunteered time to the East Troy Railroad Museum, Helenville Fire Department, Milwaukee Astronomical Society, Milwaukee Makerspace, Beer Baron's of Milwaukee, and other related organizations. Often times, there is a call for people to volunteer as treasurer at these organizations. I've wanted to step up and fill this need, but I'm apprehensive about my accounting skills.

In the past, I attempted to start my own business. It was a failure. It's demise was a combination of poor planning and a total lack of bookkeeping. With this failure always in the back of my mind, how can I step forward and volunteer to be a treasurer? Although I'm good at math, I suck at accounting.  It's time to do something about this gap in my skills. I'm taking the Become a Bookkeeper series on LinkedIn Learning. I just completed the course on "Finance Essentials for Small Business" and passed the test earning me a certification from the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy  How valuable this certification is, I don't know. But I do know that I learned a lot from this course and I'm looking forward to the next one entitled "Running a Profitable Business: Understanding Cash Flow."  

On a personal note, this course has made me feel a lot better about my previous failure as a roofing contractor. The mistakes I made, are quite common to new businesses. 

Back to work and an interview!

Going back to work today for my regular 4 day rotation. I have to go to work early for an interview at 14:00 with a panel of 5 for a Software Specialist working with GE Proficy Systems. Looking forward to the interview and potentially doing something new.


I wanted to take the Dart to work with the new wireless charger installed, but I was low on petrol and I didn't want to risk being late for my interview jimmy jackin around at the gas and sip! So I took the truck to work.


I think the interview went well and I'm eager to hear who got the job. There are two spots available.


On my break I ordered a second wireless charger for the truck and a short micro USB charging cable. Now I don't have to feel like I'm missing something driving the truck instead of the car. Below is a link to the wireless charger I'm buying. This is the second one I've purchased and I think it's worth it.

Ray Albarelli - Sorin| Carbomedics Reduced Mechanical Bileaflet Heart Va...

Here is the sound of my mechanical heart valves. They are pretty loud when I'm alone in my room, often times keeping me awake at night. I didn't use any special equipment to record this, just my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and the voice recorder app.

Bicycle ride

I rode 7 kilometers.

Bear and I looking down on the beehives.

 Barak and I went for a bike ride today. We rode out to Palm Mushroom Cellar because they are hiring and Bear is thinking about working there. I kind of wanted to see how far of a ride it was to see how viable it would be for him to ride there if he got hired.

Beehives down on the south side of HWY 18

While we were riding, I spotted a bunch of beehives we never noticed before. I had to stop and take a picture of them.

The Fallen Kingdom

Didn't get outside as much as I would have liked. As I said in an earlier post, it was slow start to the day. That may have been because of the temperature, it started out hot, hitting a high of 80 yesterday, but then go a lot cooler in the afternoon, later hitting a low of 47.

I played some Neverwinter on the Xbox One and then later I purchased Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom on Vudu for the sale price of $14.99. See my full review of the Fallen Kingdom here.

Slow start to the day.

Woke up about 8 am and paid bills. Exciting morning! Took some time to sleeve and inventory my new Planeswalkers cards.  I had a yummy sandwich made with Cajun spiced turkey deli meat and horseradish.

My last short term disability check, lunch at the Rock Bottom Eatery, and games at Planet Chaos.

My short term disability checks from Prudential, are small, and don't seem to arrive at a consistent time every week. So I was happy to see my last check arrive today. The Bear and I drove to Jefferson, deposited my check and ate at the Rock Bottom Eatery.

 Bear has a Pepsi and I enjoyed a Badger Club Amber during my meal and a Happy Glamper afterwards. The keg gave up the last of it's contents during my pour, so the Lakefront Brew was a bonus freebie for me!! Yay!

After lunch we went to WalMart, picked up some milk, lunch meat, bread, a chocolate cake, and a Planeswalker Deck.  I couldn't resist a deck called the Pirate Minotaur!

I came home, ate some chocolate cake, played Neverwinter on the PS4, started a Neverwinter character on the PC, and took a nap.

At 5pm, Bear and I drove to Fort Atkinson to play some Dungeons & Dragons at Planet Chaos.

Still in the hospital, ICU!

Well, I stopped at the Emergency room and they were perplexed. I did have elevated cardiac troponin levels, but it didn't appear that I had a heart attack. So that's good. The bad news is, it looks like I had two micro strokes. These strokes don't seem to have given me any sort of impairment, just a numbness. But the showed up on the X-Ray's. So I get to stay in the ICU and be examined, and tested on some more.

Not feeling the best!

I've been feeling crappy for a while now. I regularly get really bad chills, and I have to pile on the covers to get warm. I also find, after a short walk, I'm out of breath, which I thought was because of my weight, which is why I've been on an 1800 calorie diet since December. But tonight, I feel even crappier than usual. I'm at work, out of breath, with my heart racing, feeling like I drank to much Rockstar, and I only had one. I'm also having a numbness in lips on the left side, and in my left hand, mostly the thumb.

I called my boss and told him I'd like to be seen by first responders. The responders showed up and took my vitals. Heart rate is normal for me, around 90, but my blood pressure, taken with an automatic wrist cuff, was 210/140!! That's CRAZY high, and I've never had blood pressure that high.

The Milwaukee fire department showed up and they also took my blood pressure, and it was a more normal 140/80. Still high, but a lot better then it was take with the wrist cuff. But I'm still feeling crappy, so the EMTs lay out my options. Get transported to West Allis hospital, or keep working. I refuse transport. I'm feeling pretty crappy and I suspect it may turn into a stay. I don't want to be stuck this far from home and leave my car on campus. So I decide to stick it out till 1 am, then when I leave, I only get half an attendance point, rather than a full one. I'll then stop at emergency room at Aurora Summit on my way home. 

A nice walk to try out my new Canon EOS Rebel camera.

I got myself a new camera and I haven't really tried it out. So I took a walk today to get some photos.

Been awhile..........

It's been a long time since I posted anything to this blog. I'd like to be a more avid blogger, even if it's just about mundane things. At least give some evidence that I've done something, even if was boring. Sometimes writing a journal is more about the act of writing and less about the subject, at least it is for me. It's an opportunity for me to improve my writing skills.


I've always wanted to be a writer, but never really followed through on that goal, so I guess it's really just a dream. It's sad when life gets in the way of dreams. But this is the blog of a "lucid daydreamer" and there never seems to be enough hours in the day. On that note, onto my day.


Today, I stayed an additional four hours at work and got off at eleven. I worked the additional hours with another guy named Ray monitoring the flow of Redd's Apple Ale to packaging and sanitizing empty tanks.


On my ride home, it was really windy. My right eye started tearing up really badly just before the Moorland Rd exit. I thought it would clear up, but by the time I hit Waukesha, it was severely affecting my vision. I got off the expressway and thought I'd sit in the parking lot at the Farm and Fleet until my vision cleared. But then I remembered that Sonic is just up the road and they have picnic tables. While I'm there, I might as well enjoy a chili cheese dog. As if I need an excuse to enjoy a chili cheese dog, but this is my story, so bear with it and save your criticism for your own blog!


I find the chili chees dogs at Sonic are good, but the buns on them get a little soggy. I think that's because of the foil wrapper they put them in. I wish they would just use a plain brown bag to put them it, similar to the ones Burger King uses. They absorb moisture and therefore the bun doesn't soak up as much. I also ordered the boneless hot wings. That was a mistake. I'm not a fan of anything boneless. I can tolerate them, but the flavor and mouth feel isn't the same as traditional wings. Another disappointing thing about Sonic's boneless buffalo wings, is that they're basically just breaded chicken nuggets dipped in buffalo sauce. I think that's nasty. I won't order those again. I really think the only good thing at Sonic, are it's drinks.


I went to bed about two in the afternoon and slept until eight. Woke up once after having a terrible dream. I was driving behind a motorcyclist who was adjacent to a truck, lost control and slid under and got mangled by the truck. That must be my subconscious dealing with my fears of loosing control on the expressway earlier today in that wind and subsequent vision issue. Still, scary dream.

Unhappy with Popeyes

Service at Popeyes is usually slow and somewhat disappointing, but the food usually makes up for it. Tonight, was particularly bad at the new location on Greenfield Ave in Milwaukee. The service was slow! Before us a customer was told that if he wanted a mild chicken leg he would have to wait longer than he already had and when I got my order, I got mild instead of spicy, but I didn't want to wait around any longer to exchange my order. So I ate the mild chicken.

Every table in the place was dirty, my wife had to use a wet nap to clean our table off.

Overflowing and stacked garbage.

The garbage was over flowing, and discarding our trays full of refuse was like playing Jenga.


Overall, it was a disappointing experience. The worst I've had at Popeyes. Which says a lot, since Popeyes has never had great service.

Velocity

Had a great time tonight. Some of us from the Makerspace got invited to bring our families to a new exhibit at the Children's Museum and beta test it.  It was an awesome exhibit and the kids loved it!

Snow and Layoffs

I heard it snowed for about 15 minutes today while I slept. Sorry I missed it. Looking forward to winter and the most beautiful time of the year.

Went to work early for an all employee meeting about the layoffs that's been in the news lately. It's always sad to see someone lose their job in these critical times.

http://m.jsonline.com/more/business/millercoors-cuts-27-salaried-workers-in-milwaukee-b99124743z1-228636031.html

Back to work

I'm heading back to work tonight after a week off. It was a good week and I got a lot accomplished . I got a new exhaust system on the Dodge, and I got the Kia Sedona into the garage to have fixed. I wish I'd gotten my office a little bit more organized. But that's something I can work on a weekend, assuming I take one off.