Anti-Theft

I blame the dog completely. It's because of his early morning woods excursion that the need for a new collar cropped up and besides the fact that dogs look sorta naked without one. So I borrowed my mom's car (vinyl seats!) for a quick ride up to the store with the pooch to get him decent again...

It's a good thing that I only went up to the corner store as opposed to the pet store across town because when I got back in the car wouldn't budge... No lights, no start, but no alarm. And that's when I noticed the red blinking light on the dash exclaiming THEFT. The car thought I was attempting to steal it!

So mom came up with her keys... no luck. Thought maybe the battery was dead. Nope. So we headed home in defeat. After looking at the web for a clue.... apparently its a PATS system. So I headed back up in my truck to try to reset it. Well, luck was not on my side at all... I guess I don't use my vehicle enough because after leaving the lights on for like ten minutes without the engine running it was dead.

Ok, so the wife comes up with her car to jump me. No cables. So we head home. Bring the Jump-It. Won't start so I'm letting it sit on the battery for a sec and go back to explain to the wife about mom's car. Go back to my truck... Yep, locked my keys in it.

Ok, back home to the house to get the extra set, find the real battery cables, switched wife for mom in the assistant mechanic role and headed back up. Finally able to jump it around 10pm. Abandon mom's car at the store in the hopes that AAA will either determine the issue or tow it to the Ford dealer.

Moral of the story: Wash the dogs collar next time.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

Edited to add: The fix is gonna cost about 900 Simoleans.

It's a great day to work @ Wachovia

That's the text I just received from my buddy. The good thing is that being bought bought by Citi is a lot better than what happened to the folks over @ Lehman's. The worst part is the waiting game to see where you stand with your company. That's what happened to me last year and it royally sucks. I ended up making it thru but with reduced income and more responsibilities.... Ah, but no commute!

I still have my share of issues getting to work in the morning though. Take this morning for example: Groggy Monday morning shuffling.. battling some sort of sinus attack... I stumbled out to warm up the wife's car and take the dog out for his morning duty.... and the next thing I know the only sign of the beast is the trail across the wet grass into the woods.

When he finally did return he was soaking wet and smelled of something... let's just say "un-doglike". So off he went to an early morning bath and de-smelling treatment down in the big tub. He knew it was coming and even offered to jump into the tub on his own (which is good because I really had no desire to assist).

I'm ecstatic that my sinuses decided to unclog a bit but I would have preferred that they let go after the beast was clean and not prior. Wet beast stank is foul.

So, things are ok but mind you this all took place before 7:30 am...

Weekend Bust

We skipped the debate watch party on Friday... it's hard to socialize with boxes of tissues although I totally dig the new Puffs with Vicks kind.

Saturday we met up with one of the wife's co-workers and headed on down to the rally.... and waited in line... and waited.... and got rained on.......... bought ponchos........ and waited.......... and were like 150 feet from the gate when they announced they were only letting people in if folks left.....

So, anyway we ended up in one of my favorite places down in Old Town Fredericksburg and had a great meal. For those of you who enjoyed the novel 1776 you may find it interesting that Sammy T's is right down the road from where Hugh Mercer's place was...

So, my lack of posting any news is completely caused by the fact that one eye feels like it needs more room in my skull and that this bip made me feel like I composed War and Peace.

Friday Not So Funnies

I had a co-worker who used to send an email out every Friday with "Friday Funnies" in the subject line and it usually a was a pretty raunchy joke or something completely hilarious but totally not appropriate for a Fed Bank. Her last one was "Learn Chinese" and I 'm guessing that if the OTS hadn't been conducting their visit then she may have been able to retain her job for a bit longer.

We have visitors for the next few months down at the main branch and I would love to be able to ask them a few questions off the top of my head like:



"Last year you were concerned with the fact that the board missed a meeting because the Chairman had emergency quintuple bypass surgery... do you really give a shit about that kind of nonsense now?" or "Do you feel responsible that you kinda missed some big red flags that were waving in your face the last few years at some of the larger institutions?" or "If you all keep closing down banks don't you think they'll reduce the number of auditor / examiners needed?"



I wouldn't have access to them anyway... We are normally asked to walk around like Benedictine Monks when the Feds are in the house and basically have to divert our eyes if we were to encounter one in the hall. A couple of years ago I was working late and heard a little rap on my door. One of them needed something from me.... a "sleeve" of staples as she had run out... It was probably the most uncomfortable 30 seconds of my life as I slowly opened up my drawer and removed the needed supplies and silently handed them to her. 2 quick nods between us and whoosh she was gone.



WaMu getting snatched up by JP Morgan wasn't a shock at all. I had dealt with WaMu as an end investor for mortgages up to about 2 years ago when they announced that they were ceasing their correspondent lending channel and going solely Alt-A and Sub-Prime Bulk. I also was aware that they were the very end investor for other risky 125% mortgages and only stopped purchasing them late last year. The major question I have is does JP Morgan Chase also acquire those crappy loans in WaMu's portfolio or did they only purchase portions of the company's holdings?

Anyway... Tonight we're still going to a Debate Watch Party whether it's to see the 2 of them discuss some things or just to watch Obama get 2 hours of free advertising. Either way I guess it's a win-win for us, LOL.



And then tomorrow it's an Obama-Biden rally.

Day 2 of my Exile

What is John McCain thinking? I could swear he knew we had just accepted an invitation to a "Debate Watch Party" when he decided to cut and run. I am still trying to figure out what he thought he'd accomplish by his announcement but I'm having a hard time not seeing it solely as a political move.

Now, back to my exile. What to do with all the time I have on my hands now since I can no longer "Report Abuse to a Moderator" or bounce political content around? Here's an interesting tid-bit... Right after the President's address last night, instead of debating whether he explained the bail out well or if the sound of him rubbing his suit against the mic the entire time distracted from his message, my wife and I discussed the implications. It's not that she hasn't been interested in current events before it's just that she hasn't been the one I immediately turned to after "breaking news".

What does it mean? Who the hell knows? LOL, she's the psychologist, not me!

Banned again

Sometimes I think that things happen for a reason and then I remember that my luck just sucks. Not a big deal to most people but I've been put in time out by the moderators over at Comcast for trolling... LOL. Now why do I care?

I guess I care mostly because I have been cut off from my little band of cyber-friends and exiled out of the comfort of the comradery we established in our own little pasture...

Other than that I really don't give a rat's ass.

Who knew you could grow attached to people you've never met!