Ed Icionsub

Address Conceit

Ed — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:48:46 +0000

Last night I read a post on Jerry’s blog about how many businesses do not have their street address prominently displayed. I think he makes a really good point. There have been several times that I had to go downtown and search for an unfamiliar address. That is so very frustrating, especially when you are trying to get to an appointment on time.

I call this situation a Nashville conceit. The merchants and professionals seem to have an attitude of “if they want me they will know where I am.” That is SO wrong!

Family Movie Night

Ed — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:12:21 +0000

Friday night TV is never any good on the networks. But this is the one night of the week that most of the family is usually at home and hoping for entertainment. Thank goodness there are 100 cable channels to surf through and find something worth watching. Unfortunately we did not have a lot to pick from tonight. We ended up watching a Disney movie, called The Game Plan. It was a cute comedy starring Dwayne Johnson, the former pro wrestler called, The Rock.

Responsible Drinking

Ed — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:49:11 +0000

Part of the adventure of growing up has to do with learning your limits and boundaries. Hopefully this will be accomplished in a controlled environment, surrounded by responsible people who care about you and your welfare. My parents taught me to drink alcohol while I was in my teens. We began by having a glass of wine with dinner every once in a while – special occasions like my parent’s anniversary, and certain holidays, like Thanksgiving. Then, we I turned 18, we would have a cold beer at baseball games or other sporting events.

I learned that I could handle one or two drinks without getting stupid drunk, and I learned from their example to never drive if I am drinking. In fact, I rarely drink alcohol in public, and any drinking that I do is always in moderation and never before driving. I feel blessed that my parents took this important life lessons so seriously and didn’t leave me to learn at the hands of my peers.

Prayers Go Out to Chile

Ed — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:56:28 +0000

A large portion of Chile has been devastated by a series of major earthquakes. My heart goes out to the survivors and my prayers go out to those who have lost family members or their homes. The earthquakes were scattered along the west coast of South America, and Chile’s second largest city was particularly hard hit. We are waiting to hear news reports of the damages and I’m sure the United States will send humanitarian aid right away.

Happy Birthday, Honey

Ed — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:57:18 +0000

Today is my wife’s birthday. Although it is not a “big one” in reference to those birthdays that indicate a decade of history, as far as I am concerned, every birthday that she celebrates is a big one. We almost lost her to Cancer several years ago – it was a very dark period in our marriage and our lives. But thanks to wonderful doctors and modern medicine, she was able to beat the Cancer and we are blessed to have her still with us.

Love you honey – we are looking forward to taking you out to dinner to your favorite restaurant tonight! Happy Birthday!

Clueless

Ed — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:00:53 +0000

The political race for governor has begun. The commercials started with the Super Bowl, and now they are on every night. None of the candidates are worth a hoot, but this is a very powerful position in the state, with a chance for presidential nod one day. I have to find one worth supporting, from a field of post turtles.

Shopping for Ticket Deals

Ed — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:46:03 +0000

There was an article in the paper that say over 60% of workers in the U. S. did not take their earned vacation time last year. That might be a good thing if you can can accumulate unlimited hours or days that carry over each year. But at my company we have to used the days earned within a year or we lose that time. So you can believe that I use my vacation time,

This year I have plans to go to the biggest and best golf tournament in the the world, held every year in Augusta, Georgia. I have a friend who lives in nearby Aiken, SC, so the deal is that I buy the The Masters Tickets for both of us and I get to stay at his house for a week during the tournament.

Last year I did not get to attend any baseball games all year, so this year I have to make up for that. I will get both Fenway Park Tickets for a game in July, and then Wrigley Field Tickets for the Cubs against the Cardinals. This game has been an annual tradition for us for 15 years, with the exception of last year and the passing of a brother in law. Obviously, we had to cancel our plans and attend the funeral. But this year, we are back to our yearly trek to Chicago in the heat of summer to cheer for the Cardinals.

More Love Songs

Ed — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:55:10 +0000

The love song I just posted by Whitney Houston is my wife’s favorite song. But mine is this one, by Bryan Adams:

Love Songs

Ed — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:50:52 +0000

This song by Whitney Houston was rated by Yahoo users as one of the top favorite love songs:

I probably should have posted this on Valentine’s Day, but I got busy . . .

International Business

Ed — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:44:01 +0000

One of the most interesting aspects of using the internet is that it is truly an international medium. I have been able to access newspapers all over the world, and participate in bulletin boards and discussions with people from a variety of different countries.

One of the most interesting bulletin boards that I found recently is based in India and helps the people having issues with various businesses as a public consumer forum.

One of my company’s franchisees is from India and he still has a lot of family there. He was in a meeting with me this morning and during a break he went online to check his emails and surf a few web sites. He showed me the consumer court India website and shared some of the recent posts with me. It was truly fascinating.

There are a variety of topics available for comments and discussions. I read the laptop computer forum and was very surprised to see how many complaints were lodged against all the major laptop manufacturers. It was a real eye opener and worth considering when shopping for a new laptop.

Our Presidents

Ed — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:57:14 +0000

Our holiday this month is to honor the American presidents, a combination holiday that includes the dates of birth of both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. This is a good day to reflect back on all of our presidents, and consider the contributions that all of these men made to our country. Some of them had to deal with very tough and stressful times, others enjoyed a brief period of national prosperity, growth and change.

I know that I did learn about each of the presidents while in school, many years ago. But to be honest, I don’t think I retained enough of that information to be able to name each president, much less in order of their service to our country. So I intend to make a visit to the public library tomorrow and find a book that will refresh my rusty memory and give me a better insight into the real history of our country and its elected leaders.

Day for Love

Ed — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:32:20 +0000

Valentine’s Day sometimes sneaks up on me. If I am not in the stores buying groceries or household supplies, I don’t notice the aisles and aisles of displays of chocolates and large red cardboard hearts. I always try to buy a nice box of Godiva chocolates for my wife. She is not a big fan of chocolates, and especially forgoes cheap chocolates. But once a year I know she does appreciate a gold ballatin with a red ribbon from the Godiva store. And, of course, a Hallmark card that poetically says I love her.

Busy Days

Ed — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:24:20 +0000

Ssturdays are my busiest days. Its the day that all the errands need to be run and all the work at the house needs to be tackled. We wake up early, hit the ground running, and don’t stop until the late night news comes on at 10:00 pm.

Some nights, I am so exhausted that i cannot stay awake long enough to enjoy watching Saturday Night Live. I still love that show – I love a good comedy and the writers at SNL are always topical and hysterically funny. The bands that they feature are almost always the top tier or fast rising acts, and the guest host is always someone that is newsworthy and fun to see if they have a sense of humor as they participate in outrageous skits for an hour.

Snow Snow Snow

Ed — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:57:51 +0000

My sympathies naturally go out to the people in Washington DC and the surrounding states for the problems they are encountering as a result of two record setting snowstorms this past week. They are dealing with 3, 4 and even 5 feet of snow in an area that normally only sees 1 or 2 inches at a time.

I have family and friends scattered throughout the region and all of them are sharing stories of having lost their electricity, missing work, not being able to get their cars out of their driveways or garages, and many more nuisances and inconveniences. Thankfully, no one has suffered a life threatening emergency and no one was without electricity for longer than 36 hours.

In fact, my immediate family members are so resourceful and so well prepared for emergencies, that they all have generators, fireplaces and well stocked pantries and could ride out a storm for over a week, if needed. Most have utility vehicles with tires chains, bumper mounted winches and a trunk load of tools and equipment to make sure they can safely arrive at any destination once they get out on the roads.

My heart goes out to the people who are not able to be as well prepared. Some of them are due to complete denial and naivety, others are financially unable to prepare, and many just have no real experience with this type of weather and road conditions. They are just going to have to experience the problems for themselves and learn the hard way, which is why we have insurance and major regional hospital systems to take care of the fools and the unfortunates.

Fine Wines

Ed — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:33:39 +0000

One of the benefits of living in Northern California was the close proximity to dozens of highly rated California vineyards. So I made the most of the six months out there by visiting a different vineyard every month. Every time I went to a vineyard I bought at least 3 or 4 bottles of their wines, and brought back a nice collection of wines when I came back to Tennessee.

Of course, I did not have any wine glass racks here, nor any storage system for the bottles of wine. So I had to research the different types of glass racks and figure out what would be the best solution for this house.

I looked at under cabinet mounts, wall mounts, ceiling mounts, and even free standing furniture. I decided on a wooden stemware rackthat mounts under a cabinet, and I modified the shelving in the kitchen pantry to store the wine bottles.