AFTER THE STORM...HERE COMES THE STORM

Ameren is the electricity provider for the st. louis region and parts of southern/southwestern illinois... so when i say Ameren you will know to whom i am referring...

with my power being out i have had a chance to think about a lot of things... nowhere can you turn in this city and not hear about the number of "customers" without power... these numbers are released by Ameren...

but what Ameren won't so quickly release, is their definition of a "customer"... when i hear 'customer' (and i am sure i am not alone on this) i think "person" - at least in this case... so when Ameren says it is failing to deliver power to 500,000 customers, i think 500,000 people without power... but with Ameren's definition of a customer, i am way off base and the magnitude of the problem becomes apparent and shocking when i translate an Ameren "customer" into a person...

Ameren defines a "customer" as a meter... so if you, billybob, aunt sue and uncle jeb all live under the same roof, you are all one Ameren "customer" because there is only one meter on the house... with this definition, it is easy to see how the numbers of affected can be easily down played...

here is a more accurate representation of the number of people affected:

according to the census of the metro area, there are approximately 1,013,341 household and 2,725,000 persons - an average of 2.69 people per household...

according to Ameren, during the peak of the storm, 341,000 household "customers" in the metro area were without electricity... when you apply the people per household factor you get 917,000 souls without electricity... 341,000 "Ameren 'customers'" vs 917,000 real people - that is a huge difference... basically one third of the metro's population was without electricity, but you would not have guessed that from Ameren's figures...

when the storms of July 2006 occured, Ameren had 700,000 "customers" without electricity - that's 1.88 million people without electricity... nearly 70% of the metro's population...

this is the second major outage in 6 months (and since i don't have the actual figures i won't include major outages from last year - i belive it is four over the last two years)... now, Ameren is asking people to be patient while it tries to restore power...

if you have ever experienced a st. louis summer, then you have sat in an oven waiting for your blood to boil... it is hot here in the summer...conversely, if you experience a true st. louis winter you will yearn for the blood boiling heat of summer (fall and spring usually miss us - we go from extreme to extreme)...

given this, how do you tell people who sweltered during the summer outage, and are now shivering in the cold, that they should be patient?... especially considering, that you are going to raise your rates, your weak infrastructure only exascerbate problems such as outages, you have cut back on the maintenance needed to temper the effects of a storm and you are the only provider of power in the area?...

i hope Ameren, your storm is yet to come....

WHERE I LAY MY HEAD, THAT'S MY HOME

the warmth, peace and tranquility of my home has been disturbed by mother nature... she has reminded me that i am at her mercy, and as such a mere pawn on her chess board...

on Thursday 11-30-06 she rained snow, ice and thunder on my home... she broke branches from the trees in my yard, tossing one on the roof of my outdoor shed causing it frown... the snow she brought piled up on my drive way and on top of my vehicles (as my luck would have it, my garage door is broken)...

i shoveled her frozen tears from the drive way and wiped away those that fell on my truck... she must have cried a lot because her tears froze into a two inch deep sheet of ice...

so far, i have been understanding of her pain, but she felt the need to further convince me... this time she took another branch and threw it onto the power line, thereby cutting off the power to several homes, including my own...

during the summer, St. Louis suffered a major power outage that lasted for several days (some people did not have their power restored for 2 weeks)... i escaped that hit and never lost power at all... this time i wasn't so lucky... i have been away from my house for the past three days and two nights, and there are no estimates on when power will be restored...

but i still count my blessings... i have migrated to the security of my office/lab... i have a cot on which to sleep, heat, and warm water... currently i am sharing this space with co-workers... we have opened the doors to those who are less fortunate and invited them to come inside... my brother who owns a restaurant has been feeding us... (being here has given me an opportunity to get caught up on a lot of paperwork - i can't remember ever getting to work this early)...

for those who are less fortunate and have no or limited choices, i cannot begin to feel their pain... my thoughts are with the elderly and those that are shut in... i have a list of elderly people who we will be supplying with food today... my thoughts go back to the days when i would get off work at 12:30 a.m., go to a nearby White Castles or Popeyes Chicken and purchase a family sized box of chicken or burgers... i would then trek to a nearby spot where i know of homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk and offer this food to them... some would take the offering, others would refuse it and others would want to know for which agency/shelter do i work...

my current situation has forced me to give more thoughts to things that i would normally put off for a later time, or things that i took very lightly... i expect for my room to be illuminated when i flip the light switch... i expect to find a cold pitcher of water in my refrigerator... i expect my Hagen Daaz rum and raisin ice cream to be sitting at the front of the freezer waiting for my greetings when i open the freezer door... now that ice cream has probably lost its ice and is now cream... but am i worried about it?... nope...

as i look outside, i am reminded of how tiny i am when compared to the rest of the world... i am elated that nature is truly a mother - the same hands that cradle, guide and protect me, are the same hands that slap me back to reality...

THE INCONVENIENCE OF CONVENIENCE

i generally keep things simple... i don't feel the need to dress up my cars in the latest outfits... i own a "simple" home - more cozy than it is fancy... i have one credit card... i don't accept subscription offers that are automatically renewed or extended beyond the "free" trial period if i don't call and cancel the offer... that is just too much hassle... keeping things simple makes my life so much easier and stress free, and i like it that way...

so after having had enough stress dealing with a corded/wired mouse and keyboard, i decided to go the wireless route... my thoughts when i bought this wireless mouse and keyboard was to simplify things - no wires/cords, less restrictions on the mouse movements, etc etc... if you use a corded mouse you are familiar with the several times you may have to position the cord (tugging and pulling) in an effort to maneuver the mouse... it gets annoying having to do that, and has on occasions, brought me close to cursing... especially if my legs get tangled and strangled by the cords...

i've had these wireless peripheral for a long time now, but it seems to frustrate me more than the old corded ones...why the frustration?... simple:

I NOW HAVE TO GO TO THE STORE, MORE THAN LIKELY JOIN A LINE, FORK OVER MY HARD EARNED CASH TO BUY BATTERIES FOR THIS MARVELOUS PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY TO WORK...

i find myself pressing the little red "connect" button on the bottom of the mouse repeatedly to squeeze more life out of the battery... when something goes awry with mouse, pressing the "connect button" on the bottom of the mouse, resends the mouse's signal to a receiver wired to the computer and resets the mouse... i have discovered that i can do this when the battery is weak (which cause the curser to freeze) and it will actually squeeze more life out of the battery... i do this until the battery becomes too weak to even respond to the "connect" button... then i open the battery compartment, spin the batteries and shake the mouse...sometimes i even hit the mouse against the palm of the opposite hand to "wake" up the battery... when all efforts fail, i am forced to get new batteries...

the first time i had to replace the batteries i realize that i will have to do this for as long as i am using this wireless CON-TRAP-tion... the first set of replacements were some little cheapy "dime for a dozen" batteries (since i am going to be buying a lot of them i may realize some savings if i buy the cheap ones... plus, you get more batteries at a lower price)... big mistake - they die so quickly the savings realized from their low price quickly vanishes with the high frequency of replacement... in other words, i have to buy a whole lot more of them... so, off to the store i go...

then i decided to feed this thing premium batteries... i figure they would last longer thereby eliminating the frequent trips to the store and i may actually save some money since i will not have to buy as much... but i still have to buy them... so, off to the store i go...

then i thought about stocking up on batteries to cut back on the frequent trips (i know, i know - i am a genius)... till i have to pay for them... have you ever bought premium duracells in bulk?... they are expensive... then i have to think about where to store them (bear in mind that battery life diminishes - it never increases)... i feel forced to use them up before they die...

then there is the issue of diposing of the dead batteries... i am a tree hugging environmentalist when i feel like it and when it helps to make my point (and for the purpose of this blog i am hugging a tree right now)... but i will put an axe, machete or chain saw to a tree if it bothers me too much (like constantly having to mow around it - if cutting it down will shave a few minutes off my mow time by allowing me to mow in a straight line versus having to deal with it as an obstacle, i will be mowing in a straight line)... now i have a grocery bag of dead alkaline batteries (not all from the mouse and keyboard) waiting to be disposed of... and that problem keeps growing, leading to another problem - that of poisoning and pollution...

in my desire to

**pardon the interruption**

THE BATTERY IN MY KEYBOARD IS ABOUT TO DIE...

*connect..connect*


see what i mean?

aw shucks... i am going back to my old mouse and keyboard... much simplier...

I DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT TO CONVENIENCE FEES AND AND ALL THAT STUFF...

HOW MUCH IS A PENNY WORTH?

i have been thinking about this recently...more specifically this weekend...

over the past few days, i have been monitoring my bank accounts 2-3 times a day waiting to see which debits cleared and which ones are yet to clear... all the while trying to guage how long it will be before other debits reach the bank... the race is on - who will reach the bank first: my debits or my deposits... not liking this position, i liquidated some stocks and channeled the funds into my checking account... i hated having to do that, but i needed immediate relief...

then i really sat and pondered about how people assign worth to money - when is a penny worth more or less than a penny?... i concluded they do so based on several factors...

there are times when a penny is less than a penny... examples

1. when pennies are abundant... during these times i will put it in the penny jar at the neighborhood store after a purchase... or don't pay a lot of attention to where i left it... i may even step off and leave it if it falls from my hand... on a larger scale, my trips to the cd/dvd store become more frequent... i still remain frugal by buying only used cds/dvds unless the new ones are really discounted, but the frequent spendings add up... in these cases, it seems i have assigned a lower worth to the penny... it's no big deal - there are more where those came from... i suspect there are others like me...

2. when you don't have to work for it... this holds true for some (i exempt myself from this category because rarely do i never have to work for my pennies)... this is the time when the tax refund, an inheritance or lottery or gambling winning goes to splurging... i have seen people spend their tax refund before they get it... they think that it is "free" or "extra" money... however, these same people are much more cautious with their paychecks...

what about when a penny is worth more than a penny?

1. when you are broke like i have been recently... you no longer leave your pennies behind and you double check your change to make sure you get every penny that is due... every penny you find laying around the house or elsewhere has an increased worth... it is during this time that you pull out the ashtray of your vehicle and lift the cushions of the sofa to find pennies... remember the ones that fell from your pocket in the laundry room?... go check to see if they are there... what about the ones at the laundromat?... if only you had picked up that quarter, you could now afford $2.00 worth of gas as opposed to only $1.75 (that $0.25 in extra gas is worth about a day's worth of driving - it would have gotten you much closer to pay day)...

2. when you have to work for it... how likely are you to reconsider that purchase if you are using "free/extra" money as opposed to using your paycheck?... barring financial irresponsibility, how likely are you to splurge and blow your paycheck versus blowing a lottery/gambling win?... if my thoughts are correct, i believe you are less likely to blow your paycheck... the pennies from your hard work and effort seem to be worth more than the ones "given" to you...

isn't it interesting how we tend to assign varying worth to money?...

being broke now, i started assigning worths to my pennies...they are worth a whole lot more than their face value... i started hunting for pennies and then i remembered a treasure chest of riches under my bed... this treasure chest is a plastic container that holds all kinds of "pennies" (quarters, dollar coins, nickels and dimes)... these are pennies i remove from my pockets daily (the ones that make it to my pockets - i hate coins in my pockets)... they normally sit on top of a furniture or the washing machine until i dump them in this chest... i decided to deposit these pennies and was surprised to find that they totaled $150.72 (this after being raided by my niece and mother, and me removing $45.00 in dollar coins and quarters - hey, i have to prepare for $45.00 of emergencies, okay)...

based on the worth i assigned to those pennies, my total deposit was $1507.20... yes, each penny was worth that much relief to me... after making the deposit, i smiled as i walked out the bank feeling better about my situation...

so what is a penny worth?... while it depends on how broke you are, it will never be worth less than it's face value... maybe more, but never less...

and a penny saved, can potentially become more than a penny earned...

p.s... the images are my actual container...but picture was not taken at home.... i have no carpet at home...

DID I MISS THANKSGIVING?

did i miss thanksgiving?... has it already come and gone and i didn't know?... i am very worried if that's the case...

see i'm supposed to work the night (11 pm - 6 am) shift at the hospital Thanksgiving night... being the only one that works in the micro-lab on my shift, makes me responsible for all the micro tests requests from all the floors and neighboring units... my absence would be very noticeable... i think some one would have pointed out that i was not at work if i was absent... but no one did or have done so yet... and that has me even more worried...

let me explain:

i am horrible at remembering dates... it takes me until Valentine's Day (the earliest) to get the year right, and quite often i don't even remember which day of the week is today... a lot of that may have to do with being a work-a-holic, so days doesn't matter much...Sundays won't stop me from going to work, neither will Saturdays or holidays... when duty calls i answer... but i still rely on these check marks for several reasons, including one that is work related...

so these holidays are of significant importance... they affect my disposable income and i also use them to nail down (within months or season) the time of the year.... New Year's Day is the start of a new year... Valentine's Day is February and winter... July 4th is, well July 4th and is summer... Labor Day is September and October has Halloween in its latter days... like wise, Thanksgiving is close to Christmas and Christmas is the ending of the old year... i have mastered this calendar system and it works for me...

now i am worried that my system is all screwed up... and this is leading me to wonder if i missed work... back in September (i know cause it was not too long after labor day) i started seeing Christmas ornaments popping up in the stores... then in October (i know because of the ghoulish adornments being sold) i saw Halloween and Christmas stuff all over the stores... so far i am not yet confused... but then Halloween is gone (i know because i had all kinds of little ghouls on my door steps wanting candies) and i haven't seen or heard any mention of Thanksgiving... all i am seeing is Christmas stuff... where did Thanksgiving go?... or is it still to come?...

i am not into the killing and eating of turkey and i hate stuffing... but this day is important as a marker... when i start seeing Christmas stuff, i think Thanksgiving is gone... now can you understand my worry?... you may think this would have been an issue back in September, but it wasn't then... i knew it was too early after Labor Day for Halloween and Thanksgiving to have gone by...

these "extended holiday" seasons are driving me nuts and messing up my system... i am nervous that i may miss the holiday nights i am scheduled to work and then lose my job on grounds of "no call - no show" for work... but more importantly, i cannot afford to lose the difference in pay i would get for working holidays (it's like a whole $16.00 before taxes and other expenses)... plus i get a $10.00 Thanksgiving grocery coupon (that's about what it was last year) from the hospital and a $4.00 lunch ticket usable in the hospital's cafe for working that night... i also get to park in the visitor's garage which is across the street from the hospital... there is no way i am going to let these perks pass me over and i not voice extreme disappointment... i am taking a stand...

to everyone especially the merchants who are trying so hard to get me to go holiday "spending"... understand this:

IF YOU MESS UP MY CALENDAR SYSTEM CAUSING ME TO MISS WORK AND LOSE MY PERKS BECAUSE YOU CANNOT WAIT UNTIL THE HOLIDAY'S ARRIVAL BEFORE CRAMMING IT DOWN MY THROAT... YOU WILL NOT SEE A DIME OF MY MONEY...

allow the holidays to come... extending the season is more annoying than anything else... those who are gung-ho on the holidays know it is coming and you cannot make it come any faster...

please let me breathe... and not confuse me or screw up my holiday check marks... i get great perks for working these days... these perks, which amount to savings, enable me to patronize your establishments and buy your products... so you too stand to benefit... let's work together to build more enjoyable holidays...

by the way... did i miss Thanksgiving?

FEAR DISGUISED AS CONFIDENCE...CAN BE SHATTERED BY TRUE CONFIDENCE

i am watching "Eye of the Leopard" on The Discovery Channel and learned that baboons and leopards are not best of friends... kinda like lions and hyenas...

in one segment of the show, a standoff was captured between a group of baboons and a leopard... apparently baboons usually get the upperhand in such show downs especially when the whole baboon troop is involved... but this time it was different... the leopard stepped with confidence and showed disdain for the baboons...

tired of being harassed, it turned and faced the baboons with its canines exposed and eyes fixed on the alpha male of the baboon troop... i started to laugh at this point... if the leopard feared the baboon, it was not obvious... its confidence was threatening beyond what the baboons could withstand, and eventually they scampered away... i laughed even harder - not at the baboons but at how confidence can defuse even the most aggressive threat...


FEAR MASKED AS CONFIDENCE...CAN BE EASILY SHATTERED BY TRUE CONFIDENCE...

the most interesting thing about this realization, is the many times i have employed this to internal threats - when i begin to feel fear or uncertainity, i find it easy to overcome such fear by being confident... even when i try to mask my internal fear by "psyching" up myself, i realize that it is only true confidence that counts...

if fear is a venom, then i have realized the antidote...

IS IT THE ACT OR THE PERSON COMMITTING THE ACT?

we are fixated on sensationalism... and in effort to get our fix, even things that in my opinion are not headline worthy make the front page in bold... all we need to do is find or make celebrities of whomever and we have a headline...

two cases in st. louis last week made the headlines because of who was involved... in our everyday lives, these cases would at most register a blip on the news radar... but since they involve the children of public figures, we have the celebrities and hence we can have a fix...

the cases are (to summarize):

1. the son of a police chief and his friend was arrested for allegedly taking his father's unmarked police cruiser and pulling over motorists... he got busted when one of the drivers he pulled over was an off duty law officer who became suspicious of their "undercover work"...

2. on Monday, the son of a County treasurer was arrested for allegedly punching a funeral home owner... apparently the funeral owner objected to the placement of a political campaign sign on his business' property and this son got upset about it...

why were these cases given such high profile treatment?.. because of the people who committed the crimes... people get punched in their faces all the times and cars get stolen all the time (including patrol cars)... motorists suffer inconveniences all the times... but these don't make headlines...

on one hand i am glad they plastered these culprits over the air waves... maybe they will be ashamed of their behavior... but on the other hand i know their "celebrity status" just magnified...while i am turned off by their raised "celebrity profiles" i am drawn to the headlines only to see what and how much favoritism will be given to these culprits...

in these cases... i would love to see the parents come forward and request that the books of law be thrown at their misbehaved kids... my granny calls it tough love... as she would say "if you refuse to lissen, the you will feel the pain"... sometimes i wish she was a judge..lol

i love to read the local news... it keeps me in touch with my neighbors... but can we focus on newsworthy items and not on who committed the act?... can i hear about the great deeds done for and in the community without even knowing who did it?...

it matters very little if any at all to me, who did what... i am very much interested in what was done...in those two highlighted cases, i couldn't care less who they are or to whom they are related... i am more interested in seeing them hauled off to serve the full punishment prescribed by the law...

let's get back to what was done...not who did it...

I hate soup ...hated it as a child and now that i am an adult (so i like to think) i refuse to drink it and no one can force it down my throat ...so why did i choose chicken-noodlesoup for a title and address? simple...

see, soup to me is an amalgamation of edible morsels ...that reflects what this blog is all about and how my mind operates ...a lot of wires transmitting info in all different directions and where they meet, they feed an opinion or idea ....the chicken part is yet to be explained ...maybe it has to do with my grandma's kitchen ...for her it wasn't soup unless it had chicken foot ...that was her cure all for all ...chicken foot soup with noodles ..

anyway ...here i am seated sharing my thoughts and experience ...those who truly know me would say that while me "going public" with my opinions is unlike me ...they will also say they are not surprised because being unpredictable is very much like me ...i laugh at that categorization because if you can say i am unpredictable, doesn't that make me predicatable? ...i am sure they too will get a laugh from this.

these thoughts and experiences come from the mind of a 30+ year old who spends his evening in a microbiology lab hunting bacteria ...and his days in a multi-physician practice doing a myriad of duties ...i have a personal investment in this practice so i do not limit myself with a title ...at this stage of the game i do what needs to be done to ensure the practice's survival ...

as of this writing i have no children (that i know of) ...i will say the desire to bear fruits is getting stronger as time goes by and very soon i will cave in and start a tribe of my own ...lol

it is now 1:14 a.m. (CST) and i am sleepy ...so i'll share my thoughts on another occasion ...i am looking forward to this being fun and interesting...

k