Anticipation

I have long maintained that anticipating an event is often times better than the event itself. Think about when you were young and single (if you're still young and single, bear with me) and you actually got a date, or just the phone number of someone who you were crazy about. The interim between the time of that potential future rendevous (or phone call) and the occasion itself was excruciating in a sweet, anticipatory way. Well, I've been in an extended period of that sort of anticipation for the past three weeks.

While I'm no longer young, or single (thankfully) , my soul has always been stirred at the sight of a well-designed sailboat. On the water with its spinnaker full or on a trailer in an overgrown boatyard, some vessels just elicit a sense of wonder and appreciation, even though I've only sailed a handful of times.

When I was visiting Mom's house a few weeks ago, we were heading to church and saw a boat on someone's front lawn with a for-sale sign on it. The boat caught my eye before I saw the sign. Its sheer was perfectly aligned with its bow. The port lights looked to be the right proportion for the size of the cabin. The lines, angles and scale conspired to form that rare beauty which goes beyond the eye of the beholder.

I've wanted to sail for as long as I can remember, but the prospect has always been daunting. It is a thing not to be taken lightly. Hell, just learning how to tie a sheet bend was off-putting. But this boat, somehow, made it seem accessible. Sitting there on the lawn on Chapman Avenue, I knew that I could take her out into the cold, blue, vast ocean; sail all day or longer, and then return to Rye Harbor safe-and-sound.

I slowed the car and looked at her for a long second. Mom must have noticed my interest, but she didn't say much of anything. Then, when we were coming back from mass, and I slowed to a crawl again, she made me write down the phone number. No sooner had we gotten in her front door and I was dialing the phone.

I went over and it was raining. The guy showed me around the trailer. I hopped up on deck and took a look at the cabin which was dirty and wet. But DAMN - I was hooked! I wanted to get that boat out onto Bigelow Bight that very day.

The guy who showed me the boat said that it belonged to his son. I called the owner, and before I knew it, we had agreed on a price. That was three weeks ago and I'm heading back down to pick the boat up this Saturday. I can't describe the anticipation. I am on the verge of fulfilling a life-long ambition. I hope that the reality is as good, or better than the anticipation.

Springtime, The Masters, and all is well

This is the first weekend that we haven't had snow anywhere in the yard. In fact, it was 67 degrees earlier today and Lori and I spent the day working outside. Raking out the gardens, cleaning up limbs and sticks that fell over the winter, fixing torn screens in the pergola, putting away the firewood that we didn't burn and a million other small jobs that can only be done once winter has relented. Lori has clothes hanging on the line and I took my car out of winter storage. I actually have a sunburn - it feels great!

I'm watching the final round of the Masters and Tiger is in first place by three strokes. He came from a 4 stroke deficit at the close of yesterday's play. It's great golf and I'm looking forward to getting out there myself. John R. and I hit a bucket of balls yesterday and the first local course opened this weekend. It feels SOOOO good at this time of year. Can summer be far behind?

One month on the new job

I've been working at Loftware now for approximately one month and I thought I'd post an update on my progress there.

The company is small, but growing. There are currently about 60 people including sales, marketing and the other supporting departments that make up a self-contained software development house. In this respect, it reminds me of Trinzic and Edge - both small software companies that I've worked for in Portsmouth that were bought-out by large corporations. (Platinum and Lotus/IBM, respectively.)

The Loftware culture is very much to my liking. It's a community of like-minded people working toward a common end. And because it's small, there is no room for slackers. The engineers all seem to have a lot on-the-ball. Everyone contributes and, as far as I can tell, there are no monster egos, no one is unapproachable and, people seem willing to help each other when necessary.

Management appears to have a firm grasp of the projects, problems, schedules and all of the details that make up a development effort. Because the owners of the company are right there every day making decisions and guiding the product development, they are very much aware of the challenges, efforts and contributions of each individual. I contrast this with IBM where the decision makers were isolated and had no sense as to the amount of work an individual did or did not do. Even local management was so out-of-touch that some developers would get completely overwhelmed with work while others had little to do.

I'm enjoying working with C#. There are many similarities to Java in the syntax and its object-oriented nature. It is, however, more advanced and offers some new and interesting approaches to common development problems. And, in contrast to Java, the development sandbox is much more self-contained. It is strictly a Windows environment. Thus there are fewer configuration issues, deployment complexities, multi-platform problems, etc.

To sum up, I'm thrilled to be at the new place. I like the people, I'm sufficiently challenged, the technology is very cool and the culture agrees with me. God willing, I'll be here for quite a-while.

How I left IBM

Okay, the checks have cleared and I can talk about my separation from IBM.

Let me say at the outset that I reached some career pinnacles in my six years at IBM. I co-authored 4 software patents, was regularly published in the industry press, presented at technical trade-shows in Germany, The Netherlands and Miami and I achieved my long-term personal goal of becoming a software developer. It was, by all counts, a successful run for me.

But at the end, like most of the engineers on my project, I was pretty miserable, and I had been for months. For a variety of reasons, work had become a nightmare, and the future looked even bleaker.

In my last three years there, I worked on several projects that were associated with the product called Lotus Workplace, and each one was worse than the last. Long hours, frequent trips to Westford and Cambridge, Mass., poorly defined deliverables, bad management and clunky technology conspired to make life hell as a Workplace software developer.

About a month ago, I started looking for another job outside of the company because I was fed up with being treated like chattel. You can only get kicked so many times before you get up and leave. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of responses I got to my resume. I interviewed at three companies within two weeks of starting my search; all of them within 15 miles of my house. (One of my primary criteria was a manageable commute.) Within a month, I had a great offer from a very interesting software company. (We'll call them xWare.) Cool technology, great opportunity to learn, small company - all of the things that I really wanted, and it's 20 minutes from home.

I was mulling it over when my IBM manager informed me that I would be required to spend three days every week in Westford. That sealed the deal for me and I knew then and there that I'd accept the xWare offer. I asked my boss what it would mean if I declined to drive down there that frequently and she responded that I would be eligible for a severance package if I wanted to leave. Cha-Ching! Once she got the paper-work together, I drove down to the Westford office for the last time to sign on the dotted line accepting the package.

I had last week and this week off before I start the new job on Monday. I'm really excited and I'm spending a good deal of my time-off reading up on C#, the programming language I'll be using. I received the IBM severance checks and cashed them Tuesday. It feels great to be on this new course. Wish me luck!

It's been a while

Hello. Sorry I've been remiss in posting. We've had a whirlwind couple of months and I'll try to summarize our activities here.

Christmas was fantastic. The best in recent memory. Not sure exactly why, but everything fell into place and the holiday was perfect. I think it had something to do with Jude's Christmas-Eve dinner. Man, that was good beef!

Shortly before the new year, we heard that our tenants were moving out of the Rye house. (Good luck in your new home Marcia and Michael!) That meant that we'd be stretched pretty thin until we found tenants for that house and the new one that we are just finishing renovating. On top of that, my job at IBM became very tenuous and it was clear that I'd have to find other work. Things were looking grim.

Well, last week we found a great tenant for the Rye house. A nice couple coming back East from California. They are moving in on February 1. And just tonight we rented out the Portsmouth house to a lovely professional couple who really liked it as soon as they saw it. We feel blessed to have had such fine people find us.

My last day at IBM was this past Monday - two days ago. (Details omitted pending my severance check arriving in my account. More info will be forthcoming.)

So we're starting the new year off well. It began a bit shaky, but we are cautiously optimistic.

Snow

Yesterday morning we woke up to the first snow of the season. The ground was covered with about two inches and it had stuck to the roads so the highway crews were out salting and sanding. It's awfully early in the season and I hope we don't have one of those years where snow is on the ground from November through April. Makes for a l-o-n-g winter.

Since they put salt on the road, I had to put my car away for the season. Luckily, I had the oil changed the day before yesterday, and I topped off the gas tank as well. All I had left to do was clean the interior and put the cover on it.

I would like to say that Lori and I are settling in for the winter. Usually at this time of year we start to prepare for Thanksgiving and Christmas. But now we're doing nothing but working on the other house in our spare time. I'm not complaining - I know it will be worth the effort. I'm just looking forward to having some time to relax again.

We bought a house

We bought a house today in Portsmouth, about three miles from our house. It's fairly run-down, but we plan on fixing it up and renting it out.

It's exciting getting started on a new project. It needs a new roof, new siding, new windows, a new bathroom, a new furnace and water heater, a new garage door and new paint throughout. But it's a cute house and has good bones. We'll hire out the exterior work and do the inside ourselves. We're hoping to start showing in about 6 weeks. If you know of anyone looking for a nice house to rent in southern New Hampshire, please give them our number.

I'll post some pictures in the next couple of days.

Trying a new investment strategy

Lori and I both have moderate 401K savings accounts which have grown and shrunk and started to grow again in the past couple of years. These accounts will certainly not be enough to sustain us after we retire and we've begun investing in more real estate rather than in the stock market. This, of course, is a risky proposition. I think of friends who bought houses in the mid-to-late '80's who are just now getting out from under their negative equity. If the market goes bust, or even flattens out, our real estate holdings could well put us under.

On the advice of our accountant, I opened a Roth IRA a couple of years ago. It's a retirement investment account, but it's funded completely by me with after-tax dollars. But the money that the account earns is completely tax-free FOREVER. (401K earnings are taxable once you start to withdraw funds.) Not having to worry about how much I'll owe in taxes is a great liberator and I think I figured out a way to capitalize on that principal. (If you'll pardon the double pun.)

I am going to start by selling most of the stocks that are currently in the Roth IRA. Then I'm going to use that money to buy stocks on which options trade. The stocks will also have to pay a dividend and have to be fairly stable.

As soon as I own the stock, I will sell short-term call options with strike price higher than the price I paid for the stock. This will immediately give me back part of the money I spent to buy the stock, but I will still own the stock itself. If the options are exercised and I have to sell the stock, I will have locked in a profit - the increase in the price of the share and the premium I was paid when I sold the option. If the options aren't exercised, I will hold the stock and sell new calls when the original ones expire. If the stock pays a dividend during the time I hold it, that money will also be part of the return.

This may sound complicated, but it is relatively straight-forward and I didn't invent the strategy. But what makes it so appealing to me is that I won't ever have to pay taxes on, what I hope will be, a healthy cash flow.

I plan to post messages here when I start next week. I won't say what stocks I'm trading, just my starting dollar amount, the cost of each stock, the and how much money each one makes or loses for me. If it turns out well and you're interested in the specifics, let me know and I can help you implement a similar strategy. (That offer is for friends and family. Anyone else I would be glad to advise as a consultant.)

The guitar is nice, but...

When I got home from work yesterday there was a large box standing outside the door to our kitchen. I was a little unnerved that UPS just set the damn thing on the doorstep and left it there. I would think they'd need a signature.

I was glad to see it, though. As soon as I got it in the house, I opened the box, emptied the popcorn, opened the bubble-wrap and laid the guitar case out on the floor next to my amp. Without opening it, I turned the amp on to let it warm up. Then I went down to the kitchen and got a cold beverage. I cleaned up the loose popcorn from the floor and went back upstairs. I had savored the anticipation for as long as I could and it was time to open the case.

The ES-137 is very nice looking. Its top is 'tri-colored sunburst' maple which means the edges are dark, dark red - almost brown and the color fades to a yellowish gold in the center. Very pretty.

When I picked it up out of the case, I was immediately impressed with its weight. According to my bathroon scale, it weighs about 10 lbs. Very heavy compared to my Fender Stratocaster which weighs about 7 lbs.

The body, neck and fingerboard are larger than those on the Strat and it's taking some getting used-to. It does feel natural to me, though.

It plays very differently than the Start. I put a set of .010 gauge strings on. They are heavier than are on the Strat, but I think this guitar needs heavier strings. It plays very nicely, but not as effortlessly as the maple-necked Strat. (This one has an ebony fingerboard.) The word I would use to describe the action is 'substantial'. It isn't by any means hard to play, but it requires more grip than I'm used-to.

The tone is interesting. It has a LOT of bite. Hotter, brighter and more aggressive than I prefer, since I'm concentrating on jazz and sight-reading. I'm thinking of replacing the pickups, but I'm going to play it for a while before I make any changes. The sustain is incredible. A note plyed on the B-string will hold for 8 to 10 seconds without using any vibrato or distortion. The wound strings sustain longer. Very solid.

All-in-all, I would not have bought this guitar if I came across it in a music store. I got a good deal on it, and I DO enjoy playing it, but I was crazy to place a bid on an instrument sight-unseen (and unplayed.) I won't do it again.

My ES-137 Custom

I just bought this guitar ES-137 Custom
on eBay. I feel foolish having done so since I NEVER buy a guitar without playing it first. Every instrument is different and I have no way of knowing if I will like the way it plays or sounds. I bid on this one on a whim and didn't expect to win it. It will be here tomorrow. I'll let you know what I think

Lori's birthday is this Friday!

Joseph's Web Log has Begun

I'm starting this web log with the hope that family and friends will read my ramblings, and post their responses here. I plan on monitoring it actively and keeping it up-to-date. I invite you to post comments on any of my entries, or start a topic of your own.

I'm excited to see how this goes!

Closing the pool

So yesterday was Sunday, September 19. It was cool, sunny and windy. Lori and I finally closed the pool after a long, enjoyable summer. It was kind of melencholy stowing the lounge chairs, deflating the rafts and putting the cover over the pool.

But I also cut, split and stacked the firewood we'll use this winter. It's on a pallette outside the family room door where my favorite pool chair was just the day before. Fall is definitley in the air and we're looking forward to our first fire. Perhaps you'll be here for it!