Nancy Drew & The Case of the Missing Sign

DaTechGuy and I have been doing a little back and forth regarding the amount of each candidate’s signs in the city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts for the seat in the House of Representatives. 

For those who are unfamiliar with the contest, Bill Gunn (R) is challenging Congressman John Olver (D) for the 1st District in Massachusetts.

Last week DaTechGuy posted on his blog about my observations. http://datechguy.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/if-you-judge-by-signs-for-sale-would-be-winning-hands-down/ I especially like that he used my one-liner for the title.

Anyways, I was driving around town today and noticed something about a certain area.  I’ll post two pictures.  One from October 8 and one from October 16.  Lets see if you can find the difference in it.

Photo taken morning of October 8. 

Location intersection of Franklin Road & Depot St.

Photo taken October 16.

Franklin Road & Depot St.

Do you see the difference?

What happened to the Olver sign? 

Yesterday it was very windy.  Perhaps it blew over.   I checked it out and did not see any Olver sign in the immediate area.  Also if that was the case wouldn’t the other signs have fallen over too?  There must be some other explanation.

What about dare I say witchcraft?  DaTechGuy noticed a few weeks ago that an Olver sign would appear one day then it would transport to a new location. http://datechguy.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/the-end-of-the-saga-of-the-wandering-olver-sign/.  So I ask, is John Olver a warlock?  Does he cast magic spells to move his signs all along town?  I checked his website, olver.house.gov, and it says nothing to the fact of him being a warlock.  He doesn’t deny it either like in this campaign ad from Deleware . 

I turned to Google to provide me an answer.  I asked google to search for “John Olver is a Warlock”.  It produced no results.  To be fair I also searched “Christine O’Donnell is a Witch” and got 29 Pages of Results!  So according to Google  John Olver is no warlock.  So it cannot possibly be witchcraft.

Is someone going around town and taking down and moving Olver signs?  A sign was moving around on John Fitch Highway as discovered by DaTechGuy.

This could be confirmed if in each sign was inserted a tiny microchip and tracked by a Political Scientist.  (Isn’t that was a political science degree is for?)  Until a politicologist conducts such research it cannot be confirmed and can only be classified as plausible.

We’ll have to wait and see if it shows up again.

My four year old daughter called me today!

Of course I answered the phone.  ‘Hi daddy, I love you’, she said right away.  She was in the car in the way back and was telling me all about pre-school, and swimming, and Finding Nemo, and ice skating, and water slides and she wants me around.

All I could think about at first was ‘are they recording me? am i being set up?  What’s the catch?’

Then I didn’t fucking care about that shit anymore.  I was having a beautiful conversation with my beautiful daughter!

It was the happiest moment I’ve had in the last year.

Well that didn’t last too long…

yup.  Got the call.  Don’t bother coming in tomorrow.

Oh well, what can ya do?

Go figure!

My unemployment payments ended back in February and I was able to finally get a temp/contractor job that I started last week.  The job isn’t that bad and I see it as something to at leasts get me back on my feet until a job in my field opens up.

But here is the rub.  I ran out of gas twice last week commuting to and from work.  I have already paid for gas in rolled coins and now have nothing left.  This job pays weekly, but it is at least 3-4 days until I get my 1st check.  And I hear this place is a pain at paying you on time.

I had to call out today with the reason, I have no gas to get to and from work until I get paid. 

Hopefully they are understanding of the situation.

“We the People”

You know what is a pet peeve of mine?  Its when a politico pulls out his little constitution pamplet to use as a prop and says the first three words of the constitution are ‘We the People’ the follow up with a statement referring to the countries founders principles.

Well, I think immediately about that same document and what it said in 1787 , and ratified in 1788, Article I, Clause II, Section III the words ‘three fifths of all other Persons’ referring to the counting of slaves.

Yup, that politico wants us to return to slavery, a time before the suffrage of women, & a time to fight the indians,

I chuckle.

What was the best thing about the Twin City Tea Party meeting Monday night?

Answer:  The Border Wings & Margaritas!  Close 2nd: Being in the company of Roxanne.  Last: Sitting beside DaTechGuy.

That last was a joke.

To be as blunt as possible.  Any blog post I write about it would do far less damage to the conservative movement in central Massachusetts than  Kenneth Mandile, the organizer and speaker from the Worcester Tea Party did for the Twin City Tea Party movement in North Central Massachusetts and its members in attendance.

He made such a ridiculous statement, “Sarah Palin is not the Tea Party” that prompted me to get up and walk out!

This same individual when opening his speech earlier in the night told the Twin City Tea Party members to “avoid social issues…and focus on fiscal responsibility”  This same leader who later stated that the same members attend a ‘activist training course’ in Danvers, Massachusetts so that they can learn how to protest from such ‘grassroots organizations’  like Americans For Prosperity, Sam Adams Alliance, and American Liberty Alliance.

When a member asked why they would need to have ‘activist training’, he avoided the question.  She asked again.  I prompted raised my hand and stated ‘I watch a lot on MSNBC.  I have heard these organization names before.  Don’t you believe that the reason why grassroots organizations are being called ‘astroturf’ by the left is because you promote ‘activist training’  by these specific corporations?

He defended his opinion, by avoiding my question and claiming that since they don’t support republican candidates (even though my question was about corporations) that the training is warranted.

There were plenty of good questions asked.  Some local candidates spoke and took questions.  Most made the jabs at the current administration in Washington & Massachusetts about health care, spending, etc.  I, of course, asked questions such as who were the state Governors over that same period of time for the study and they answered Weld (R), Romney (R), & Swift (R), Patrick (D).  I then asked under which Governor is credited with the current Massachusetts Health Care System and the audience answered Romney as the speaker answered Romney as well.

Prior to the Mr Mandile, the meeting was spot on.  I was enjoying myself.  I agreed with some points, disagreed with most, I stayed open-minded and wanted to hear the other side I can form my own opinions.

Be sure to check Datechguy’s page, http://datechguy.wordpress.com/,  for his impression of the meeting and that of Roxanne as well. I’m sure it’s linked.

Oh , and as I always say, form your own opinions.  Here’s the website for Kenneth Mandile’s Worcester Tea Party http://www.worcesterteaparty.com/.  There’s a tax day event in Worcester on April 15th you can check out if that’s your cup of tea.  I just can’t understand how a group can be motivated by such a monotone, unenthusiastic, extremely boring public speaker who rambles on and on.  We even clapped when he finished talking so that he could take the hint and get off the stage.  He didn’t get the hint and assumed we wanted more.  UGH.

Oh also, if you speak in such a boring monotone voice DON’T quote Teddy Roosevelt from your BlackBerry!

If he we’re the head football /basketball coach giving the pregame speech to motivate his adult players to win the big game against a team of children, I would bet all my $$ on the children!

After the interview

The interview in Boston I thought went well.  If all goes well next week will be the 2nd interviews. 

A few thoughts regarding the day:

I had a full tank of gas Friday morning,  by Saturday night I was on E.

Parking at the Alewife Subway Station is now $7, it used to be $4.  Had I known that I could have taken the commuter rail train & subway for under $20 round trip.  I’d still have a full tank of gas.

I wore a fedora with my suit.  If it works for Datechguy perhaps it works for me.

A light at the end of the unemployment tunnel?

I spent 8 hours the other day on craigslist, monster.com, careerbuilder, and many other job search websites filling out applications, emailing resumes, and completing online assessments.

Well yesterday I got a call back.  I spoke briefly about my experience and was asked to come in Friday afternoon at their location in Boston.

I’ve got my suit at the cleaners, my car is full of gas, and I’m ready to go!

This place does things the right way.

Yesterday was the SABLE Baseball League draft.  We play our games in Fitchburg/Leominster but we held our draft a a small pizza restaurant in Orange.

Villa Pizza located at 435 East Main St (route 2A) in Orange, Massachusetts was a wonderful place to hold our get together.  The normal dining area has 8 booths and 2 small tables and there is a private function room in the back.

The owners are very friendly, the staff is friendly and helpful and that would be more then enough of a reason to become a regular customer.  I would go back for the service alone…but they have EXCELLENT food and that clearly puts this place over the top.

Every customer I”ve talked to has said that they have the best steak subs around.  I agree.  Their menu says their food is “best within 50 miles” I would agree.

My favorite menu item is the steak special pizza.  It has chopped steak, mushrooms, pepper, and onions.  Delicious.  The meat pizza is very good too.

Our baseball league ordered tons of food; 6 orders of wings, 1 steak pizza, 2 meat pizzas, a mushroom pizza, a cheese,& a pepperoni, 6 2 liters of soda, 1 steak sub, and an order of fries and the total came to only $140.

So if you are ever in the Athol/Orange area of Massachusetts on RT 2A stop by and get something to eat.  You will not regret it.

Finally a call

Its been a while since I got a phone call for a job.  I had responded to job postings on craigslist yesterday and got one call back this morning.

I talked with the person regarding the position for a few minutes and he asked me to email him my resume.  I did so and he said he’d call me again tomorrow to discuss the position further.

So we wait…