It's been a while since I've written one of these, so we have quite a bit of catching up to do! If I haven't seen you in a while, then I apologize. I do miss you and hope to hear from you soon.
To start off with we are still awaiting the arrival of Kevin and Kristi Slaughter's first child! The, as yet to be born, addition to the family is believed to be a little girl. I'll be interested in hearing the response when the little lady ask the questions: "Daddy, why do they call you 'Hammer'?" and "Why does Uncle Ugly wear dresses?" I can only hope that these moments are caught on video. In all seriousness, I'm super happy for the parents and I can't wait to spoil the hell out of the kid!
Well, for the time being, I'm still employed at Aerus (formerly Electrolux). Not a whole lot to say there. Who knows how long it will last, but it's hard leave when I've built up 11 years there. It would be nice if it lasted.
I finally did it. After years and years of building up credit card debt, I've gone to one of those credit counseler services and they have put me on a plan. I'm going to be really, really poor for 52 months and then I'll be out of debt. Hopefully, I'll be able to make some extra cash on the side. I've been helping Debbie Whited with some of her photo restorations and I hope to try my hand at doing wedding videos. Another possiblility that I'm exploring, is writing custom programs for small businesses. We'll see how that progresses. If any of you guys have any ideas, by all means, drop me a line.
I got a call from the insurance company yesterday. Recently I bumped a lady, when she started pulling out from a stop sign and changed her mind after she had gone halfway through. I started pulling up and turned to check traffic when it happened. No damage to my car, but my metal tag scratched her bumper. Total estimate was under $300 to paint it and I offered to pay for it myself, but they went through the insurance instead. The officer who responded to the call didn't even give me a ticket, because it was such a minor incident. Now the insurance company is calling to say that they are watching me closely and if I screw up one more time, I'll probably be dropped. Isn't that a comforting thought? Considering that my last speeding ticket was a crock of B.S., I'm even more enthused at being in this position. What's one more totally life screwing thing to worry about?
As many of you guys know, I greatly enjoy listening to a band called the Floating Men. Over the years, they have allowed me to video tape many of their shows and I've built up quite a collection. Well, earlier this year, they asked me to make copies of my tapes for them and I sent something like 22 VHS tapes. Turns out that later this year, they are releasing a DVD which will include live performance video and I'm one of only three people who will have their footage used. I'm pretty excited about it, but there is a down side. They want me to video myself talking about the shows and stuff. Some kind of 'Meet the cameraman' deal. I'm not real comfortable with this. I am totally content with staying behind the scenes. Every idea I've come up with has pretty much failed the little criteria I've set up to measure against. When I think of an idea, I then think "Will this make me look like a total dork?" Now, I may very well be a total dork, but I don't particularly want to broadcast that fact to a large group of people that I don't know. Contrary to popular belief, I do have some tiny grain of pride. I guess I'll just have to do it and get it over with.
Over the past few months, I've had loads of fun hanging out with my friends. From catching movies and checking out haunted houses and parking garages in JC with Vanessa to clubbing and outlet mall shopping with Marti, Leeann and Debbie, it's been a strange pleathora of fun. I caught Anita Armbrister's senior photography exhibit at V.I. college with Debbie and I caught Monet LaClair's seinor art exhibit at ETSU with her sister Lori. Pat and Jan came to visit and go to a Jeff Holmes show, I went to visit them and go to a Jeff Black show! Big fun both times! Hiking with Vanessa and watching her band perform for the Little Chicago Blues at the Down Home with my friend Carla. Hanging out with Kim when she came to visit for a weekend, getting a bit of a sunburn at Merlefest and teasing Jennifer's kids with the big navel orange I brought to snack on. Shooting hoops with Kevin and getting our butts ran into the ground by a couple of kids! Throwing frisbee for his dog to play with, as his dog laid in the grass and looked at me like I was an idiot. Having old friends over to the apartment to just hang out and chat or running out to one of the local establishments and meeting new people then watching Leeann make off with their fur coats is just one of many highlights! As long as Todd gets his coat back by Halloween, he says it'll be ok. Watching kids play t-ball, going to the playground at midnight to swing, sitting under a bridge watching the river go by, skipping rocks across the lake, dining at the Rainforest Cafe. All things considered... I can't deny that I've got a great life.
Here's a funny little example on how small the world
is. All the names in bold are Rambling Recipients.
I've been friends with Leeann Kirby since 1991. Leeann has
a brother Richard. Richard had a friend Brad Ward who dated Jennifer
Saint John. Jennifer dated John Crain who was friends with Chris
and Kevin Slaughter. Jennifer was also friends with Debbie
Whited who was friends with Angela Snodgrass. Angela worked as a
teacher and had Lori LaClair's daughter as a student. Angela is
also friends with Chris and Kevin Slaughter. Kevin
married Kristi, who has a cousin named Cindy. Chris
Slaughter went to college in Memphis and became good friends with John
Owens. John Owens attended high school with Fawn Ashley and
myself. Chris Slaughter played in a band with Mark, who later
played drums for Lightnin' Charlie. Lightnin' Charlie had a
bass player named Keith who was friends with Gary. Gary played bass in a
band with Vanessa. Vanessa was in a band that opened up a show
for the Floating Men. The Floating Men are friends with Lisa Milburn.
Is that stretching it far enough? As I find out more, I'll keep you
informed.
Well, well, well, guess who called me today! Evil Keith! Do you remember Evil Keith? Here's a condensed version of the story. About a year ago, I received an invoice from the Topeka House of Nails or some company like that. It seems that a Mr. Keith Fields had ordered $800 worth of nails and one thing led to another, he didn't pay for the nails, some lady got on the internet looking for his home address and I get sent an invoice. I contacted the lady, got his home phone, did some research and reported my findings back to her. Wham bam, I'm out of it. Then I proceed to tell all of my wonderful Rambling recipients about the situation in my newsletter and I post it on my web site. Guess who read the site.... and was not at all pleased about my references to him as 'Evil' Keith, let along the fact that I included his phone number! He's left messages on my home phone as well as at my work number. I removed his phone number from my website and rewrote the story to make it more generalized. Check out Rambling number 16 for the full story. Anyway, he tried to throw a little intimidation my way by mentioning how he was able to come up with my home and work phone numbers and all that. Well la-di-da gee whiz, Sherlock! I've only mentioned working at Electrolux in my newsletter a couple hundred times and if finding my home phone number was any big feat, then Suzy Q Internet at the Topeka Nail Palace never would have found it in the first place! Pardon me, if I'm not awed and terrified into a stupor. You wanna impress me with your detective skills? Send flowers to my maternal grandmother. That would impress me. One of his messages said that it wasn't fair that I put that stuff on my web page and what if his children had read it? Well, I don't mean to be callous, but in all honesty, I could care less if your children read it or not. As far as being fair goes.... What? You want me to buy you a box of tissue? Sure, I'll even buy the ones with aloe, so your nose won't be as chaffed as your ass is over the whole incident. Newsflash buddy, I'm the one who received the invoice. I'm the one Suzy Q Internet threatened with a lawsuit. I'm the one who had to call Suzy Q long distance and then spent 45 minutes on the phone trying to straighten the whole thing out. Why? Because my name was Keith Fields? I don't care if it was all a bad joke played on you by some idiot. I don't care if you ordered the nails and changed your mind. But I'm the bad guy because I put your phone number (a matter of public record) on my website and said that you were evil. Since I am the bad guy here, maybe I need to set up appointments to come kick your dog, smack your mother, have sex with your wife and pee on your children's heads! Leave no stone unturned, I say. Just want to make sure I've covered all my bad guy bases. Hopefully, that's all I'll ever hear from Evil Keith, but if not, I'll be sure to let you all know about it! If you want to check out the email he sent me and my reply to it, then click here.
It's been quite some time since the police have come to my place over a noise complaint. I thought that maybe, just maybe, the lady below me had come to her senses or mellowed out a little or something. No such luck. The young lady across the hall from me stopped by the other day to let me know that the old hag was still calling in complaints on me. A pretty friendly gesture on her part, I thought. Turns out the old lady stopped her in the hallway and complained about me for 45 minutes. I apologized to my neighbor, for having to deal with that and she told me that the old woman was nuts and scared her. She also said that she had seen the cop cars come up to our building, but that they always just turned around and left.
I need some sunshine... and rest.... and relaxation... and some beer... and shrimp... and people with funny accents to bring me stuff...
I am sad to inform you all that my fish, Bleu Feesh, has passed away. Just as I thought he was doing better.
I hope you enjoyed it and remember, calling people evil makes their children cry!
As always, certain portions will be edited from the version archived to my website, which is located at http://www.kefields.com/randramb.html
Now THIS is Random! The last Random Rambling was sent out on June 4th of 2002! 2002?!?! That’s like almost 3 YEARS ago! What can I say, I’ve been busy! I did start writing a new Rambling a while back during the build-up to the invasion of Iraq, but things changed so quickly day to day, that I wasn’t able to finish one before everything I rambled about had changed.
Like David Bowie said, “Cha cha cha changes”. And I’ve been through a few. First I FINALLY received a layoff notice from Aerus back in October of 2003, stating that December 31st would be my last day. Ouch! I had been job-hunting for over a year, but now I really started to hunt in earnest. I got a couple of interviews, but December 31st came, and I still hadn’t received any offers. Aerus extended me through the end of January and eventually through February. In that time, I did get an offer and I accepted. I was laid off on February 29th, had one week free and began my new job as a contract employee with a contracting company, placed BlueCross BlueShield of TN. In that week, I traveled to Chattanooga, found an apartment and moved. I arrived in Chattanooga with my final load of belongings on Sunday night at 10:30pm and started my new job the next day at 8:00am.
What a whirlwind of activity! The contract position at BlueCross was basically a trial period to see if they wanted to hire me directly and was for 3 months, so if they didn’t hire me, I’d be on the street again before the end of May. Luckily, by my second week there, I had proven that my skills were valuable to them and it was made clear to me that they did intend to hire me on as a regular employee.
On May 10th, I officially became an employee of BlueCross BlueShield of TN. So here I am! After 33 years living in the Tri-cities, 12 of those years spent working for Electrolux/Aerus, a resident of Chattanooga, TN. Certainly not a huge move at only 3 and half hours away, but a drastic change in my surroundings. But the changes haven’t been solely in location. I’ve found that the change in jobs has given me more confidence and a realization that I had no idea how much stress I was under and how that stress was affecting me. And by extension, affecting those around me. I can never tell those people who gave me moral support through all that time, how much I appreciate them.
Also since the last Rambling, I’ve taken up band booking! Rob Russell contacted me to see if I knew anyone interested in taking on the job of booking his band in various venues. I figured, what the heck, I’ll give it a shot. Next thing you know, I’m booking Rob Russell And The Sore Losers and Blue Rapture. After the move to Chattanooga, I have continued booking Rob’s band and I really enjoy working with those guys. Along the way, I’ve met a number of artists and bands through them and it’s been a ton of fun!
Speaking of people who have met people, there is an amazing diversity of people receiving this message. Many of you know someone who deals with this kind of thing. So cough up some names and numbers! I'm looking for clubs, festivals or any event featuring live music. Also, if you have ideas, let's here them! Do you know someone who writes music reviews for the paper? Get me in contact with them or vice versa!
An innocent
question was asked of me the other day. "Are you
satisfied?" It hit a lot deeper than the single intended subject I
had been discussing. Are any of us ever satisfied? I don't think
so, but there are numerous reasons why. Some would blame it on greed and
the way society tells us that we need more and more. Bigger house with a 4-car
garage and a view. New car with heated leather seats, stereo, 4-wheel
drive and a turbo-charged engine. Another guitar with a bigsby whammy bar
and a Marshall stack to play it through. Is it really greed?
The saying is
that money can't buy happiness, but I say that it makes things more
bearable! Would you rather be depressed, sitting at home watching TV or
depressed in your BMW convertible, cruising across the state on your way to the
beach for a weekend? Some people will say that it doesn't matter.
Being depressed is being depressed no matter where you are and what you are
doing. I say they are full of crap. I know, because I've done it
both ways. Sitting at home with no money only makes you sit and
think. The more you think about being depressed, the more depressed you
get. It’s called wallowing and it sucks. Just $20 in gas and you can get out and find something to do
to distract you. Even if it is temporary, it still works. But
the depression subject can be covered more thoroughly at another time.
Is it greedy to
want things or is it greedy to try to get things in improper ways? Is it
bad to want that convertible BMW or is it bad to try to take it from someone else?
Is it selfish to try to better your station in life? Is it selfish to
enjoy life? Not always. This
country was partially founded on that very principle. Life, liberty
and... you got it, the pursuit of happiness. I guess it is all in how you go about it. Not being
satisfied only means that you have goals to achieve. You've set your
sights on something and intend on getting it. Once you've reached that
goal, then you focus on the next goal.
So, am I satisfied? No. I have goals that I intend to see fulfilled. There are things I want, want to do and relationships to foster. Am I selfish? Sometimes. I never claimed to be perfect.
Well, I’m going to close this off and start working on the next one now! Maybe I’ll have it done before the end of the decade! Until then, be greedy, unsatisfied and ever changing!
As always, certain portions will be edited from the version archived to my website, which is located at http://www.kefields.com/randramb.html