almost serendipity

So I applied for a job with a major retailer in the area, well, not so much in the area but near the area. I got a call from a friend of mine after I applied, and she asked me if I applied at the company. I asked her how she knew that, because as far as I knew she had no ties to the company. It turns out that her husband (who used to work at my last job before I got there) currently works at the company I applied for, in the same department even. The hiring manager knew that he used to work at my last job and asked him if he knew me. He said he didn't directly but that his wife did. My friend (the wife) sent the hiring manager a letter of recommendation.

THEN another friend of mine just moved into a new apartment with some roommates. I was over checking it out and met one of her roommates who used to work for a company that designs a lot of the specific packaging this company uses. She gave me the inside scoop from a different angle.

At the interview, I thought it went well. Apparently it did not, since I got a letter of rejection yesterday in the mail. Oh well.

Garage Sale

So my mom had a garage sale last weekend, but it was part of a huge neighborhood garage sale. A ton of people came by, and since we are the first house on the block, we got a lot of traffic. Also a lot of $20 dollar bills since we were the first stop.

So there were a number of crazies out for all the cheap crap other people are getting rid of. There was one woman who wanted a box of note cards I had on the table (which I bought in like 1986) for 50¢, she asked me if I would take 25¢ for them, how cheap can you get? (I took the quarter)

Another lady bought the box of rubber stamps I had for sale and then proceeded to tell me (totally unprovoked) all about the chicken farm she has, and that she sells the eggs to friends of hers that also sell eggs because her husband doesn't want people coming to their house. She really wanted me to watch out for them because they were laid by special hens that lay blue eggs.

We had some car stuff out and got a lot of car crazies, but since I am one of them I can't really say much...

Nerd Fest

So, I went to the "Makers Faire" in San Mateo on Saturday. It was the biggest nerd fest ever. They should just call it that "Nerd Fest 2006". The goal was supposed to be a do-it-yourselfer gathering, but it was just two things, sewing and Radio-shack style computers. No in-between the one thing that was interesting to me was this pool heater that a guy and his daughter built out of their barbeque. that was clever and interesting, and there was another guy who had an automatic pool filler. That was cool to, but I think the pool filler guy was just selling it, and not showing you how to make it.

It may get better over the next few years as long as they weed out the ren-faire aspect and add some more actual do it yourself informative stuff.

Networking

I went to a "Traveling Lounge" event with the design group I belong to. While I was there, I met someone with the same birthdate as mine! I've never met anyone in person who had my same birthdate. I don't remember her name though. Maybe I will see her at another event.

College Kids Are Idiots

So, our apartment complex is next to this house that has been converted into about 8 little tiny apartments. College kids live there. They have a large back yard which no one takes care of it looks like a jungle and in the very back of the yard right in front of our bedroom window, there is a fire pit surrounded by various seating an old metal two-seater glider, tree stumps, and various out door furniture. Occasionally they like to string a big long extension cord out to the yard and hook up a television so they can watch televised Cal football games in the great outdoors, and drink next to the fire. I personally think all of this is posing a great risk to our building and especially our apartment, since we are closest to the fire pit.

Last night, since there was no game, but it was the first warm night in a while, they apparently decided to have a fire and drink. We went to bed at midnight, but they were yelling and shit until 1:30am As much as I tried to block it out and sleep, it proved to be impossible. I did pick up on pieces of conversation though, which I would like to share with you now.

"I went to public school all 18 years." - guy sounding very defensive about having gone to public school all 18 years

"I'm not drunk." - yelling at the top of his lungs at 1 AM

"I can totally suck my own dick...no really I totally can. It must be those Irish genes." - guy trying to impress girl

Crazy Car Buyers

So, I was at my friend Jamie's house yesterday and she reminded me of a run in with a crazy guy that I had forgotten about...

I've been trying to sell one of my cars for a while now. It has a major problem that needs to be fixed, but other than that it is in excellent condition. So after I put a sign in the window and parked it on the street, I got a lot of calls on it. One guys actually wanted to work on it himself, and came out for a test drive. He said that he loved it, and that it was just what he was looking for, but that he would have to bring his son by to have him check it out. (I'm thinking a pre-teen or teenager at this point) Later on he tells me the kid is 3 years old and that he likes to ride up high in the minivan he's driving around now.

Apparently, the 3 year old did not approve the purchase, I never heard back from him… Who bases their car purchase on the opinion of a 3 year old?

Crazy Drivers

So, this weekend I went on a road trip to San Luis Obispo with some friends, and we went dune buggy riding at Oceana Beach. To rent Dune buggies, you get picked up by a van at the entrance of the state park, and are carted in the 2 miles or so across the beach to where the dune buggies actually are. So the driver who picked us up was funny and jabbed us a bit about never having gone before but he was cool. The driver on the way back though, was a different story...

We are all waiting in the van for the driver, he gets in and says "Do you all want to hear some gross stories?" We, of course, say yes...

he proceeds to tell us about a person who was renting a dune buggy and went crahing off a dune and broke a lot of bones and stuff, and then tells us a story about how he was telling that story to a cocky guy and his gilrfriend, the guy poo-poo'd the story, and went on his bravado way in the dune buggy until he crashed and wrecked his girlfriend (this was only their third date so maybe it wasn't quite a girlfriend). He ended up crushing her vertibrae, and her eye popped out of the socket. It was a pretty gross story. Jamie said to him, "I see why you are the guy who drives us back from the place and not to."

Things in common

It's funny how you have discussions with people you are meeting for the first time, and you talk about things until you find something you have in common that you can both talk about. And then you are both amazed at how many things you have in common when the conversation is over. But you never talk about the things you don't have in common.

more serendipity

So, this happened a couple weeks ago...

I have a list of cars that I want, it's a very specific list. One of these cars is a 1967 Cadillac Eldorado in Ember Firemist with a black interior. I looked at one like 5 years ago, but passed on it because there were some odd things that were wrong with it (ex: it has a toggle switch to operate the tail lights). I've been looking for another since then.

A few weeks ago, one came up on eBay that had been repainted with like 20 coats of clear coat, and the claim that it only had 66k miles on it. The one huge drawback was that it had forest green interior. It looked like a pumpkin. Plus the new paint looked just a little off in the photos (but it's hard to tell from photos). So I skipped on it.

Then there was an ad on Craigslist.

I called because there was a phone number listed, and waited. and was anxious and nervous for a day and a half until I heard from my brother that the guy had called(I left the guy a local number to call as well as mine and he went for that). So I arranged to look at the car.

When I went to see it, The kid who was selling it I had never seen before, but the car looked familiar, and low and behold, it had the same toggle switch on the floor by the seat. I asked " Does that switch operate the tail lights?" and he said that it did. I had re-found the same car I looked at so long ago!

It turned out that the guy I had looked at the car from so many years before had given the car to his grandson. He grandson drove it around, and now he was selling it. The unfortunate thing about it going through the grandson was that he had made a few changes to the car that weren't so great. He added an incredibly loud set of Flowmasters on the exhaust, and cut a hole in the dash to accommodate a stereo that was later stolen. He had also allowed a mouse to get into the car and eat up the seats. All unfortunate things, but still the car is in good shape and I love it! It's so crazy how things will come back around.

Serendipity

So this actually happened to me a few weeks ago, but I hadn't started this blog yet. So here it is.

First, a little history:
I have a Porsche 944 it has 156k miles on it and a relatively unknown history. Since I purchased it, it has been having problems stalling. The first time it happened, I was on the freeway going to a doctors appointment and it stopped running at 90MPH. I had to have it towed. It wasn't the fuel pump, but it turned out he fuel pump relay was bad. we replaced it and I thought all was good. But then I stalled on my way into SF on the Bay Bridge lukily there wasn't much traffic and it was stalling intermittently, so I managed to get it tucked into a little pull-out. I was towed off the bridge (they have their own tow service just for the bridge and they basically drop you at the end of it). and I limped the car to about a mile away from my apt, when it wouldn't go anymore. I got a ride home from a friend of mine who happened to be a block or so away. and I took the train down to los altos to pick up my cadillac, so I could go to Hayward where the porsche parts place left another relay outside their front door in a bush for me to pick up. I later wnet to the smae place to get a spare relay in case it happened again.

the story:
I was meeting a guy in San Rafael to buy a snow board from him. There was a ton of traffic, and I was winding my way through the town to the parking garage where I was supposed to meet this guy, and the car stalled. I was on a super-busy road. I let the car sit for a while and it started again (yeah!) then it stalled a block later again. I let it sit, because again there were a lot of people angry at me, and again it turned over again, not wanting to push my luck, I turned on the next side street and pulled into a parking space on the street one right at the front of the block (very convienient for tow-trucking) and in front of a macintosh supply/reapir shop. I got out of the car and called the guy I was supopsed to meet, and walked around a little before I realized that I had parked right across the street from the garage I was supposed to meet the guy at.

After buying the snowboard, I pulled the old relay out and put the spare I had in, and then I went into the Mac store. I was trying to find a specific case for my ipod. The guy behind the counter greeted me and immediatly asked me about my 944. He said that he used to have one and that he really liked it. and then talked to me about some of the problems, we exchnaged stories and I told him about my chronic relay problem and how I had just changed it out. we laughed about the unreliablitlty of our cars, and then I left to start her up and leave. but alas, the relay wasn't the problem. the car would not start.

I went back in and asked him if he had a good shop he could recommned. he suggested hi-tec auto which was not too far away, and a couple other places. I called hi-tec and they were still open, and said they wouldbe there for about another hour. I immediatly called AAA, and got a tow truck and then went down the street to get a pizza because I was starving. the towtruck was faster than the pizza, and while I was getting hooked up i ran back to get my pizza. (so good! - Amici's) We got the car to the shop and the guys who worked there were really cool. They ahd just bought a 944 too so we chatted about them for a while. then they left and Jim cam e and picked me up.

I was so lucky to have gone into that mac shop.

Cadillac people

I went to a Cadillac club meet this weekend, it was fun, I haven't been out with them for a very long time. I met a couple people there, this one guy has like 7 or 8 1959 convertible Cadillacs, all varying models. He inherited them from his dad, who has passed away. And none of his children like them. He was talking about selling off most of them. I guess they are all in storage in Wisconsin? I guess he also had a '36 Ford, and he was talking about how it would be fun to ship it to Europe and do one of these car tours over there. We were discussing how people here seem to have lost their interest in old cars. It's no longer special to drive around in your old car because no one seems to appreciate it.

I met another guy who has a 53 Cadillac that is also out of state, again in the Midwest and again he lives in both SF and there. I wonder if they knew each other...His name was Bob, he was an interesting guy.

Why do people want to share their life stories in a half hour?

Today I met with a sales rep for a vender who is wooing my company. I found out more about that guy in the 35 minutes I sat talking with him than I know about ANY of my co-workers (and I've been here for five months now). This is not so much a comment on the sales rep being crazy (though he was a bit), as it is a comment on my coworkers being crazy. They aren't crazy in that obvious way though, it's more like that scary way that makes you think one of them will someday blow up the building.

Anyway, the guy is from north NJ, has been in his industry all his life, lived in SJ and SF for brief periods of time while he hung around deadheads, his last Dead concert was in '79 in Berkeley at the R? He came out for the last time to get a job in Palo Alto, but decided it wasn't right and went home to NJ to marry the girl he was in love with, consciously making the decision between the deadhead lifestyle and the girl. He had four kids with her, and then got fixed, then they adopted two kids (11 and 9) from Romania, because the girl looked like his wife, and they wouldn't separate siblings. She does their finances because he always want to negotiate with the bill issuer on the amount. His wife came from a family of 8 and he came from a family of 7, he's of Irish decent, and she's of a darker complexion. When he was young, his buddies always talked about going to California when they were smoking out, and he though it was odd that they didn't think about going to NY which was just across the river. He has five cousins in San Diego but he's only met two of them, they live there because their dad was stationed there when he died in the services and they stayed there. He's worked at the compnay he represented for 18 years. and he told me to never pray about adopting a child (not that I asked) because it was useless, there is no reason to say no to tkaing someone into your home.