About two weeks ago I visited Congressman Chet Edwards’ (D-TX 17) Bryan, Teas office. I commented about that here.

Chet Edwards - "Please just answer the question."

I went back today.

Leila, who was very cordial to me before, was not at all like that this time. Seems one of the things they do at that office is Google your name after you visit, which brought her to my Redressing My Grievances post. As I was sitting myself down, she asked me if I had brought my recorder with me this time. I said I had, and she asked me to turn it off and said something about it not being allowed in a federal office, or some such. I turned it off prior to that, because I’m a nice guy and my primary purpose for visiting is to redress my grievances, not get anybody in any “gotcha” situations.

I use a digital recorder for all my client visits and taking notes. A one-eyed guy doesn’t have a lot of resources to spend on a notepad and pen, so my recorder is with me wherever I go. Note that I never posted the audio on the blog, or anywhere else on the web. (more…)

This story probably requires protecting the innocent…one of whom may be me! So “Michelle” isn’t really her name, and she was dealing with a computer guy at Island Business Group (IBG)…not a mechanic. That’s as specific as I will get.

So Michelle has been trying to get a problem fixed with a software package she bought from The Mechanic and his company. She is a client of mine, so I’ve been helping as I could and doing more coaching on how to talk to a computer nerd than anything else. The gist of the problem was that she would get an error every time she entered a certain string of characters into a field in this data program developed by The Mechanic.

He decided that the problem was because Michelle was using the latest version of Microsoft Access, and the program had been built around and developed using Microsoft Access 2000 (not the latest, by any stretch of the imagination). So he said he would call Michelle back with a solution. (more…)

I am a Knight of Columbus. A Mason made me do it.

For years David Cooper (Union Dave, Cole’s Daddy) had been telling me about the Masons, and I was familiar with them enough because of the long history on my father’s side of the family back East. David had honored me many times by telling me I would make a great Mason and I should join. It seemed every time David and I were together we’d talk about his Lodge, and we’d visit about the fine men of the Lodge he knew and if I joined he’d vouch for me and get the other good ol’ boys on board to approve my application, too. (more…)