Not writing tonight. It’s not you, it’s me.

Peace y’all.

Principles. Values. Morality. Integrity.

I haven’t always had the coziest of relationships with these adjectives. I’m a sinner. I’m an idealist. I talk about a number of dreams I have, but I recognize that I’m not the best person to lead the pursuit of the ideals that I hold.

It’s just part of my reality. I do a good job talking the talk, and today, I make an effort to live by my ideals, but at the same time I would be a fraud if I never acknowledged the mistakes of my youth. When I was young, I probably convinced people every day that I had a lot of growing up to do.

Hell, I probably still do.

I think about the joke about…. (see, now I have to laugh at myself, because I started writing that sentence, my weird brain kicked in and I had to write a different post… now I have to sit here and try to remember what I meant to right).

I think about jokes all the time, and now I’m going… hmmmm. I shouldn’t dwell on it too much.

For the person who has never read my blog before, my stuff is straight stream of thought. Sometimes I follow a plan, and sometimes it’s “Bob Night at the Improv”.

Actually, I think I would have fun doing improvisational comedy. I should look into that.

I’m going to hit the sack.

Peace y’all.

Yeah, I missed another day yesterday. Sorry kids. It wasn’t my intent. Yesterday was a travel day for me, and I just let things get away from me a bit.

Today I am in Austin, Texas, the capitol of this great state. Great class, great students, wonderful discussion, and afterwards, some of the most aggressive homeless people on the streets that I have ever encountered. It was sad, really, but part of my reality is that I don’t keep a lot of cash on hand for handouts. I give to charities, and when I run into Lawrence to grab a pizza or some India Palace takeout, I try to prepare for some of the inevitable interaction I have with folks that are displaced, often discarded, and, in some very obvious cases, mentally ill. I saw one young man on the street tonight that was in a bad place, He was walking around fists clenched and he took a wild non-connecting swing at a coworker of mine. My coworker had his back to it and didn’t see it, but I had to pause and assess the situation. The young, disturbed man was just not right, and after I finished my discussion with my coworker, I went back to my hotel, and he was ahead of me. He was angry. He was half-naked. And, he was quite obviously, a danger to himself and to others. I was not overwhelmed by confidence in any system that thinks it’s a good idea to have folks like this unsupervised in public.

Don’t get me wrong. Given a choice, I would love to see mentally ill people living on the streets cared for and given the comfort and treatment that they need for their conditions. The problem is the money. It’s just not there. It may have been in the past, when care for the mentally ill was considered a higher priority, but these days, we have other wolves to feed. That “mental illness” wolf and that “homeless” wolf aren’t going to get much of a spot at the buffet.

But if you’re a billionaire concerned about the money going to taxes… well, that wolf is getting a spot in the front of the queue.

I probably ought to stop, I might be getting myself into trouble.

The mentally ill aren’t going to read this and stalk me on the internet. Some other folks, on the other hand, have a little more expendable income to give me grief.

Peace y’all.

Okay. I got home about one o’clock in the morning, and hit the sack pretty quick after getting home. I slept OK, and Lisa let me sleep in a little bit this morning. We talked about the things we wanted to get done today, and I spread out the pool cover to take a look at what we needed to do to get the holes in our pool cover taken care of before the pool gets formally shut down for the winter soon.

One of the things we talked about doing was getting flu shots in anticipation of the coming influenza season. I was concerned about my vulnerability considering the amount of time I spent on airplanes.

And it wasn’t too long after that I felt the first bit of stomach cramps.

The rest of the day was pretty much lost to some very painful stomach cramps and a couple of less than dignified trips to the bathroom for what George Carlin would call an “involuntary protein spill”.

I popped a couple of little blood vessels around my left eye.

I took a nap for a couple of hours writhing with the pain related to my stomach issues. I shot off a couple of emails to my manager and teammates about my condition and the need for us to consider flu shots.

The worst part is that I only had today to get stuff done with my wife, and that day is gone now. I’m feeling better, staying focused on re-hydrating. and I might try to eat something before I go get cleaned up and head off to bed.

Back on the road again tomorrow.

Peace y’all.

I’m writing this entry as I am flying from Newport News, Virginia to Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s a relatively short flight, 41 minutes, so I need to get this done and posted before I have to shut down my internet access.

I had a good week. It was a long week, with deliveries in the Washington, DC metro area and another delivery in Newport News. I flew into Dulles, then drove down to Newport News on my travel day. All in all, I would call it a successful week with a couple of good deliveries. My second delivery this week was with a trainer that I’ve worked with before, Abu. We had a chance to have dinner together on this delivery, and we got to know each other a little better. I think this is the first time he’s seen me make a full delivery of our Azure Fundamentals course. In this line of work, we have to focus on our strengths. Abu is brilliant, and knows the solutions architecture role very well. I don’t know it as well, but my strengths are a little bit more on the presentation side. I know my voice and delivery style are my strengths. I need to work on the deep dive into Azure, though. There is always so much to learn. Thankfully, I’m surrounded by the best Azure technical training team on the planet. I ought to get better just through osmosis.

I get about 34 hours at home this weekend, then back out again. Texas and Chicago next week, a few days at home, then Dearborn, Michigan. After that, an interesting mix of deliveries in Minnesota, Chicago, Alabama, and Philadelphia.

I love my job. I do need to do a better job of blocking out prep weeks at home, though.

Time to wrap this up.

Peace y’all.

Hey, everybody. I realize that some of y’all are friends, maybe even a couple of family member, and who knows, maybe even a complete stranger or two. If you like what I write, or disagree, it’s OK to leave a comment. I don’t get a lot of comments. I’m not in this to make money or become some weird pop culture social influencer (what the hell would I be influencing, and why the hell would anybody be influenced by me?).

It’s a Thursday night. Abu had a good delivery today, and I get to be the other guy tomorrow when we go through the study session and the online exam at the end of the day.

I am really looking forward to getting home late tomorrow night and sleeping as much as I can before I have to mow. I also need to head off to the airport on Sunday again, but we don’t need to worry about that. Let’s just focus on the moment, enjoy the time I’ll have at home, and then get back to the job. I’ve got a three city tour next week.

American Airlines better be nice to me… I’m certainly being nice to them.

Enough for the night. I’m going to get some shuteye.

Peace y’all.

OK, tonight I need to write a more comprehensive post, to cover a little bit of genealogy for my future grandchildren.

I am Bob (Robert) Reinsch. I was born on Sptember 16, 1963. My parents are Don and Carol Reinsch. This blog entry pertains to my dad’s side of the family, namely that of my paternal grandmother, Lenore (Palmerton) Reinsch.

In my dad’s exploration of our family history, he focused primarily on my paternal grandfather’s side, and he discovered a lot of interesting information. That said, he did his research via word of mouth and family records. He didn’t have the advantage of today’s internet, but he gave it a shot, and I am grateful for the information he passed along to me.

On that note… my grandmother was the daughter of Marshall Palmerton and Ida Mae Yenne. She was born in 1902 and passed in 1989. I’ll always have fond memories of her chocolate drop cookies and her pecan cinnamon rolls, because when you’re a young boy in Sioux City, Iowa, sweet food is a very high priority.

On her mother’s side of the family, you have some pretty cool people, including a 4th great-grandfather that died fighting for the Union during the Civil War.

The thing is, that family line has some folks that did some things that were pretty cool, and some were, by today’s standards, complete assholes. We go back through the Sally Mildred Peek, and there’s Peeks and Marrells and Randolphs and Hambys.

And then we get to the Harrisons. I found out I am a descendant of Lucy Bassett Harrison, daughter of Benjamin Harrison V, and Benjamin Harrison IV… and I’m going out on a limb here, but I think there’s a Benjamin Harrison the III, II and I in there somewhere.

If I go back further, I come across other Virginia family names like Basset and Carter. I find guys I would like to punch, like Robert “King” Carter. (Check Wikipedia… he was rich, powerful, and probably a total dick).

I went to the Burkeley Plantation today. I picked up a couple of things, and I took a couple of pictures from the genealogical record of the Harrison family they had on file.

Yeah, they were dicks.

I have a little reading to do about that history. It’s cool that the guy, Benjamin Harrison the Fourth, signed the Declaration of Independence. and thought of some people as property. I took pics of his last will and testament, and that reinforced my opinion of the guy. I know it was a different time in US History, and I know there were some things that were considered the norm back then, but damn. Really?

I need to ponder this. The pondering might involve the consumption of alcohol.

Peace y’all.

I shouldn’t be writing this. I really should be out on the lawn mower trying to take the grass down a few inches before I head back out on the road, but the precipitation is winning, and it’s too wet to mow. I did run into toen to get some gas for the mower. I filled up my car, then transferred the hose into the opening of my gas can. Too bad, I spilled a quart or so of gasoline on the ground, on my shoes, and on the cuff of my pants. I do hate it when gasoline smells. The stuff just stinks. Of course, some of the residual gas that remained on the side of the gas can is now stinking up the back of my car, so I left the back hatch open, hoping that a few hours of ventilation help to resolve that issue.

I haven’t written in a couple of days. We finished up our retreat on Friday, a little earlier than I anticipated. I had figured I had no chance of catching a Friday night flight back to Kansas City, so my travel plans were to stay overnight at a hotel by the airport, hen catch a 10:00 AM flight home to KC, and get home around 4:30. It was very nice to get in very early Saturday morning instead, and I am very thankful my wife stayed up for me. I married a wonderful human being, and I am indescribably blessed to have her as my partner in life.

The resort we went to for our organizational retreat (I’m with the Worldwide Learning organization at Microsoft) was beautiful. I looked out my window and saw prominent hills/mountains (I’d have to say hills, but big ones nonetheless – I’ve seen the Rocky Mountains a few times, and these weren’t nearly as large… but maybe the Great Smokey Mountains are a bit more mature and aren’t quite on the same scale as the Rockies). There was also a very enticing river at the foot of the overlook the resort was located upon. At least one member of our team went down the 400 hundred-odd steps to do a little fly fishing. The thought had crossed my mind as well, but that was a whole bunch of steps, and I don’t know that I was up for such a haul.

I just paused from writing for a moment. I remember that October has begun, which means it’s time to think about November. One of the things that I have thought about for years is participating in an event referred to as “NaNoWriMo”, which is an abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month. I’ve been kicking around an idea for a coupe of months now. Maybe it’s time for me to flesh this thing out and get some words on paper, or at least get some scrawlings on my laptop. Anyway, what I was doing there for a few moments was going out to StoryBundle.com to take a long look at this year’s NaNoWriMo tool set that always becomes available this time of year.

My time here at home was too short. Hard to believe I climb back on a plane tomorrow. I have three delivery days this week, four next week, then two the following week. They do keep me busy, but you know what? If I wasn’t busy, that would be a bad thing. If you’re busy, that means you’re in demand, and it has been conveyed to me from on high that people are pleased with my performance to date. That means I rack up some miles in the air and behind the wheel.

So, I’ve tried to makeup for a few days absence with this entry. I’ve been doing pretty well with my writing commitment, month by month, and I have consistently averaged over two hundred words per day. I’m going to wrap this up and take a look at some of these tools I just bought.

I wish you all the best.

Peace y’all.

It’s a Thursday morning, and I am at a work event, located in a beautiful resort in Washington state, about an hour and a half outside of Seattle. This event has been a wonderful experience, quite possibly due to the comradery in the after hours events than the daily content. I’ve had much needed follow-up conversations with some coworkers, and have met some others that are just all around great people… and at least one fellow employee that lives in Lawrence as well.

I didn’t write yesterday. It was a very busy day, with lots of Worldwide Learning team content, and a fun activity in the afternoon where we focus on the giving campaign. Microsoft is really an incredible company with a very human-centric culture. People genuinely care. I’m not saying that people didn’t care at my other workplaces, but the coordination and the “more than the some of it’s parts” application of talent is something to experience.

Other good news in the offing… today we get another internet service provider at the house. We had hoped the install would take place last week, but they were missing a key piece of equipment. Today, however, is the day we get things done.

We just went through introductions, and Steve remembered everybody in the room. Wow.

I’m going to get this wrapped up, as we’ve got more important things to talk about… Later.

Peace y’all.

Hey, gang! Hello to my future grandchildren and any other gentle readers that dare to trip the light fantastic that is my daily blog entry.

First of all, let me take a moment and emphasize the need for one and all to blog. Your children, your grandchildren, and their great, great grandchildren are going to want this. Seriously. We all have a responsibility to pass along our thoughts, our words, the ideals of the day in which we live… it’s something that many of us are doing, and more ought to be doing.

Here’s the thing. Everybody ought to be doing it. I occasionally read the misbegotten ramblings of racists and other bigots in the internet. Whether right or wrong, all have a right to speak. My old saying is that I’m a full supporter of freedom of speech. It ought to be exercised often. It also makes it easier to spot the asshole. That way, when our grandchildren look back at the degrees of ignorance in full display by some loud folks in this day and age, they can at least say, “Grampa thought everybody ought to get an equal shot, and equal access to all of the services necessary to achieve that dream”.

Dreams don’t have a gender.

Dreams don’t have an orientation. OK, some guys are going to disagree with that, bit they’re also the guys that dream of having consensual sex with a girl.

Dreams are equal opportunity.

We all need to come together, and help our respective peer groups achieve those goals. *

*Except you racist assholes. Y’all need to get over that shit, because one of your kids or grandkids is going to fall on love and marry someone that doesn’t look like you. Deal with it.

Peace y’all.