One month closer to being a NON-SMOKER
I really can't believe it! I never expected to make it a full month without a single cigarette. I can tell you that I feel great about it! It's amazing how much deeper I can breath now. It almost makes me want to start running or something...well almost. Thankfully, most of the physical habit of smoking seems to be fading. I don't get strong urges in the car like I used to. Unfortunately, one of the main things people mention when they quit smoking, improved sense of taste, has yet to be enjoyed. Since I've been using mints and mint flavored Nicorette, food tends to taste a little off most of the time. I'm weaning myself off the gum slowly (I'm down to around 3-4 pieces a day), and the mints are next...I'm wondering if the menthol addiction isn't as strong as the nicotine addiction! I started begging for Wint-O-Green lifesavers from my Mom from an early age. I can remember T.R. and I with a roll of them in a closet, crunching one after the other, so we could watch the cool green sparks. Hey, we were easily entertained back then.

Anyway...thanks for all the support and encouragement while I've gone through the hardest part of quitting. Give me a few more months, and I think I'll actually start feeling like I'm a non-smoker.

 
Slow Week
This week has been dragging along pretty slowly. I've been working on some of the final paperwork for the completed McAlester project and doing a lot of job searching on the web. After a front came through Tuesday afternoon, we went from 73 degrees and sunny to cold and drizzling all day yesterday. It's even cooler today, but the rain has finally stopped...which is good, because I get tired of having to clean/dry 8 muddy dog feet everytime they come in from outside.

Amy's still doing well, although she's sleeping less and less these days. She just can't seem to find a comfortable position. I'm sure that things will get even more uncomfortable before the baby's born. She's been deeply involved in the Anne Rice "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" chronicles to help keep her mind off of such things. She's already made it through the 1000+ pages of The Witching Hour, and now is almost through with Lasher. The setting of these books has been mostly in New Orleans, which Amy has never visited. She's made me promise that I'll take her there sometime soon. Maybe next Spring, before it get's too hot and muggy to enjoy being outside.

 
Fun at the DPS
I went down to the Texas DPS today and applied for my TX drivers license. After all, that's what one does after the license they've been carrying from another state for nearly a year expires. First, I had to visit the Wichita County Courthouse to check on an old speeding ticket from 1995. Luckily, they had dismissed the ticket back in 1999, so no fines were owed.

Remembering to bring along my proof of insurance, auto registration and social security verification, everything was going pretty smoothly until it came time to take the eye exam. I could not for the life of me read the left-hand column of line 5 (on one of those stereoscopic testers they use). It was simply a blurry line. After failing miserably several times, the clerk asked me to rest my eyes for a minute, and try one last time. On my final attempt, I read the entire line perfectly. Whew!! That was a close one. I guess I'll be getting a real eye exam (and probably some new glasses) sometime soon.

 
Home again
It always feels good to be back home. Actually, I got back on Thursday night, but had to turn around and go to Sherman yesterday. The antenna installation at the Masonic Temple went quite well, despite the interruptions from thunderstorms.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday. With the exception of being apart from Amy, I had a very decent birthday. It's strange to be happy about working on your birthday...but I was just grateful to be working!

I have some things to get done today, but I'll be updating more over the weekend. Maybe I'll even pick out a few new pictures to post. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! Looks like it's going to be almost 70 degrees today and tomorrow...gotta love North Texas Winters...I'm going to enjoy it while I can!

 
Back Online!
It's good to be back online again. I'm working on the Masonic Temple project here in McAlester, OK this week. Last night, I chose my motel specifically because of its name, "Internet Inn Express". When I got to the room, there was no port other than the "DATA" jack on the phone. When I called downstairs about it, the cheerful, ditzy desk clerk said "There's a computer in the lobby next to the vending machines, if you need to get online." I went downstairs and tried to log into Blogger from the E-machine they have bolted down to a small desk, but the connection was dead. Wow...some Internet Inn! On top of that, my room could barely hold the queen-size bed that took up nearly every bit of floor space. It felt like I was sleeping in a RV. I grumbled to myself, but didn't make a big deal out of it, since they had quite decent cable programming (Cox Cable). So I channel-surfed until Midnight, then passed out.

This afternoon, we had a pretty good thunderstorm roll through town, so my tower guys had to stop work on the roof until it blows over. To kill some time, I figured I'd come back to the room and watch some Headline News for a bit. Just on a whim, I dropped by the front desk and asked a different clerk about the Internet access. She explained that the computer in the lobby is for the guests who don't have their own computer with them. Apparently, not all the rooms have high-speed connections, including my room from last night. With only a little hassle, they swapped me over to the room across the hall, which is about twice the size of my room from last night...and now I can actually get online!

Tonight is the premier of "That 80's Show" on Fox. Now, I actually watch "That 70's Show", and think it's pretty good...but I'm a little sceptical that Fox can pull this one off. I do, however love the clip they've been showing. A guy is talking to someone on this huge brick of a Motorola handheld saying "It's not a payphone, it's a portable phone!"..."The connection's great and it's only like $8 a minute!". Heheh..that's not too far from the way things really were in '87, when I first started working in the cellular industry.

Well, it sounds like the thunder and lightning has subsided...time to get back to the job site. I'm hoping that we can wrap this up by tomorrow afternoon, so I can head on back home to Wichita Falls.

 
New Photos!
I just posted up a few more pictures from this week. They include some shots of Amy's grandparents, her dented car, working on the nursery, and the old neon sign outside Gene's Tasty Burger (one of my favorite Wichita Falls hole-in-the-wall resturants). Click on link above to see newest gallery.

 
Oooops!!
While we were eating at Subway with Amy's grandparents yesterday, a very large man walked in and asked us if we owned a little Cavalier. When Amy said "Yes", he said that he had just hit it. Going out in the parking lot, we see his farm truck, a HUGE Dodge 2500 4x4 with tubular bumper (not pictured), and Amy's poor damaged car (click on thumbnail for larger image). The bumper of the farm truck wasn't even scratched. He apologized repeatedly, and we exchanged personal and insurance information. We will be talking with our insurance agents tomorrow. I thanked him for letting us know it happened, as no one heard or saw anything from inside the resturant, and he could have driven away without us knowing a thing. At least her driver's door still closes and locks while we wait to get this repair completed.

 
Tron 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD
Amy laughs at me for enjoying this movie so much. She think's it's cheesier than gouda. When I first saw it in 1982, PacMan was the hottest video game around, and my first computer (a Commodore Vic-20) was less than 6 months old. This was the first extensive use of computer generated graphics for a feature film, and I was absolutely amazed! The movie also went on to spawn two decent video arcade games, Tron and Discs of Tron which saw more of my quarters than they should have. On January 15th of this year, Disney re-released a newly remastered 2 disc version of the movie that started the whole CGI revolution. The light cycles, recognizers, solar sails, the MCP...they're all here, along with over 5 hours of extras. Amy's generous grandparents just got me this DVD yesterday for my birthday (which isn't until 1.22). Last night, I spent several hours digging through the 2nd disc, checking out the added goodies. Fantastic interviews with the director and animation studios. I had no idea that multiple animation companies teamed up to create different parts of the animation, as it's blended together quite well (much better than the multiple artists' styles in Heavy Metal). I also really enjoyed seeing how the early concept artwork was changed slowly to the final results, and how faithful to the original storyboards some sections ended up. I'm really happy to be adding this DVD to my library....Velveeta or not!

 
Kazaa Halts Download Distribution
Thanks a lot RIAA! First, they put on the pressure to shut down Napster, and succeeded. Now they are slowly moving in on Kazaa, the download service that I have been using since Napster closed. I've always had good luck with Kazaa. Every time I've used them, there are 400,000+ people online sharing files. With that many people, someone is bound to have what you're looking for. Now they have to discontinue future downloads of their desktop program while they prepare for multiple lawsuits in the Netherlands and the U.S. Of course, just because people can't download the desktop software doesn't mean that Kazaa won't continue to be an extremely popular way to download music, movies and software. Who else is going to help you find not only that obscure copy of "Forever Autumn" performed by Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues (War of the Worlds Soundtrack - 1978), but the 1995 techno remix of the same? For now, Kazaa can help...but maybe not for long.

 
Beats Renting a U-Haul
Spent the morning working with a new tower contractor. We were transferring all of our materials for McAlester to their truck and flatbed trailer. Luckily, they had a winch to pull all of the heavy stuff onto the trailer. Now they're on their way up to OK to drop everything off. That's much better than "Plan B", which was for me to rent a U-Haul, load up the truck and trailer, and haul everything up to McAlester myself! I'm going to give them Monday to get set up, and I'll be spending next Tues-Thurs. with them while they complete the antenna installation on the Masonic temple.

 
‘Roots’ miniseries retains strong hold on the imagination
It's been 25 years since Roots was originally aired. As a young boy growing up in Mississippi, this epic left a vivid imprint on my memory, and completely reshaped my thinking towards other races. Even though ABC originally aired the series, NBC is doing a hour-long anniversary special tonight. Hallmark, who bought the rights to the miniseries in 2000, is going to rerun Roots starting Sunday, with new interviews and commentary.

 
Road Trip to McAlester
8+ hours on the road for a reforming smoker is TOUGH!! But amazingly, I made it through the whole trip without cheating. I think at one point, I was chain-chewing my Nicorette. I know that I ate nearly an entire bag of those large wintergreen Lifesavers. Tonight marks WEEK 2 without a cigarette since I quit on New Years! Why does it still feel like I quit 2 days ago?!

I may have friends in broadcast radio who would hate me for saying this, but I would have given my eye teeth for a XM Satellite Radio today. For many hours of today's trip, I was reduced to nothing but country and Tejano music. I was so desperate, I was surfing for talk radio on AM.

I'm pretty beat after a long day on the road, and several hours post-processing pictures, notes and emails. Therefore, I'm not going to ramble...I'll simply leave you with this gallery of miscellaneous pictures from my visit to the Masonic Temple in McAlester, OK.

 
Handheld Friendly
I've changed my template to make this blog more Pocket Explorer friendly. How's this look, Bob?

Spent the day working on a logistics nightmare. I'm trying to get 1.5 tons of materials from Wichita Falls, Iowa Park and Sherman, TX onto a rooftop in McAlester, OK. I'm going up tomorrow morning to do an inspection, and figure out how we're going to crane everything up to the roof. This project is for a new cell site installed inside a Scottish Rite Masonic Temple. Stone building with gargoyles on the outside...Solomon's temple / Luxor-looking inside. Very interesting structure, indeed. I can't wait for you to see the access to the roof hatch. I'll take lots of pictures...or at least as many I can without getting in trouble. The Masons are kinda funny that way.

Picked up my rental car this afternoon. They were out of everything but a pretty new silver Intrepid. After the arm-twisting was done, I left in the Dodge. I'm actually looking forward to this road trip. Much better than my last rental (Ford Taurus). Of course, it makes me miss my old Intrepid. I can't wait to get her running again. She looks quite sad sitting at the back of my driveway. Soon, my friend...soon.

 
Decent Weekend
After some rather blustery weather last week, we finally had a couple of decent days in the 60s this weekend. We took advantage of it on Saturday to wander around downtown Wichita Falls, checking out a few thrift stores. I had to get some pictures of the Wichita Theater. I have wanted pictures of this circa 1909 opera house turned theater since I first saw it back in 1988. Back then, this downtown area of Wichita Falls was completely dead, and the theater was shut down and in very bad shape. Apparently, sometime while we were in CO, they renovated it and a lot of the other shops along Indiana Ave. I love the art deco architecture of the entrance, ticket box and sign. As a high school kid, I remember wanting to photograph a beautiful old theater on 11th Street in Tulsa. When I finally got around to it years later, I drove down to the theater with camera in hand...only to see a empty dirt lot, with bulldozers pushing the remaining trash into piles. I had missed my opportunity by only a couple of days. Here's some photos from my stroll on Saturday, preserved in case someone decides to level downtown Wichita Falls and start over.
Photo Gallery
There's also a shot of Amy's brother, John with Lucy the ferret. She decided that she wanted an old pacifier that was mixed in with some toys we received from a friend.
I'm getting ready for a project in McAlester, OK this week. Hopefully it will keep me busy for most of the week, but I'll try to update often. Day 12 of not smoking...and still going strong. It's going to be fun taking more long road trips this week. Luckily, I'll be well equipped with plenty of Nicorette!

 
Up, Up and Away in Your Toy Plane
The above link is to a recent Wired News article about indoor radio controlled airplanes. My friend Jason is fanatical about this relatively new hobby. "Park" or "Backyard" flyers are electric RC airplanes that can fly in the space of a basketball court. Jason is convinced that he will soon be able to fly an airplane inside my living room. Check him out in two different videos at the NIRAC Video Gallery. These things are just too cool! They are cleaner, safer and lot less expensive than the old RC airplanes. I'm not ready to pick up a new hobby...but it's fun being around someone who's into it.

 
And he will be called...
For those of you who don't already know, Amy and I plan to name our son Griffin Thomas Baddley. Acceptable nicknames will be GT, Fin or Griff...but not Finny T! Griffin will be the 4th generation of Baddleys to use the name Thomas, which began with William Thomas Baddley (my grandfather), William Thomas Baddley Jr. (Dad), and Thomas Ferrell Baddley (me).

 
Day 9 - I'm still having pretty bad cravings, mostly when sitting at the computer. I took a long road trip yesterday and made it with only 3 pieces of Nicorette. I can certainly vouch for Nicorette for those wanting to quit smoking. The ability to get a nicotine "fix" when you are craving it the most, as well as keeping your mouth busy seems to be working well for me. I'm trying to keep it to one piece every 2 hours, so I'm also using a lot of Eclipse gum and mint Lifesavers in between. Too many pieces, too close together gives me terrible indigestion. So far, so good!

 
Job Prospects

Got a nibble today from a Sprint PCS HR guy. He emailed to inform me that the RF Engineer position had minimum requirements that I didn't meet. I explained that I had not applied for a RF Engineer job, but rather a Switch Tech position. He said that the 2 ST positions already had candidates in process who will probably be hired before week end, but that they would keep my resume on file for future consideration.

This is good and bad news. The bad news is that he didn't currently have any positions open that I was qualified for. The good news is that this guy is the first person in months to respond to a submission of resume. I'm talking human response...not just some email robot letting me know they received my resume. Maybe things are starting to turn around, and hiring freezes are being lifted. If they are hiring RF Engineers, then surely new field work is soon to follow.

For anyone needing an updated copy of my resume, here's a copy in MS Word format (.DOC). Right click on link to save. Let me know if any of you have problems viewing this in Word. Thanks very much to all of you who have been helping me search for job opportunities.

 

It's a BOY!

I'm just starting out with this whole weblog (blog) thing. Please bear with me while I'm still learning. Soon, I hope to be using this log as a way to regularly update and communicate with family and friends.

Amy had her final ultrasound yesterday afternoon, and it appears that she is going to have a baby BOY! We eagerly anticipate his arrival around March 11.