From the Mind of MandoRon

As I was leaving Quik Trip with my coffee this morning, I noticed a Toyota parked next to me with the engine running and nobody home.  It got me thinking about some of the things that leave me bewildered.

Here’s a partial list:

• Why do people leave their car running unattended outside of convenience stores? 
• Why can’t  I eat whatever I want and lose weight?
• Why doesn’t the rest of the world operate on my schedule?
• Why would anyone would cheer for OU?
• Why are people so mean to each other?
• Furthermore, why do people try to get ahead by destroying other people?

So what are some of things that cause you to scratch your head?  (Figuratively.  Not literally.  We’re not talking about head lice people…)

My friend @mechem retweeted a link to an interesting NY Times project called Mapping America: Every City, Every Block.  I’d recommend checking it out.

You can type in your city or zip code, and then check out census data overlaid on a Google map.  The initial map is racial/ethnic distribution, but be sure to click on “View More Maps” to see education levels, household income, and a few other things.

It’s a good way to kill some time.

Greetings Earthlings!

So… it’s been more than 3 months since my last post.  And 8+ months since my last post that wasn’t a Sunday Setlist.  After taking a little break, I’ve decided it’s time to get blogging again.  But no Sunday Setlists.  Well, probably not.

From the beginning, I wanted to use my blog ” to inform, to inspire, to debate, and to entertain” while doing my best not to bore you.  Somewhere along the line, I bored myself. 

I’ve had a lot of ideas rolling around in my head the last month, or so, and I’m thinking it’s time to start putting them on the interweb blog thingy. 

You may be wondering what I’ve been up to the last few months.  So I’ll do my best to summarize October thru December using a bullet list.

• I’ve barely touched my mandolins.  Mostly, I’ve been playing guitar as of late.  The plus side is that I’m getting much better on the guitar.
• I changed jobs in November.  I quit my job in Purchasing at Cessna to be the Engineering Manager at PCI, an aircraft interior supplier.  It was very weird leaving after 13+ years but it was a great opportunity for me.
• Coinciding with the job change, I stepped out of my leadership role in the band at GracePoint.  Just not enough time and bandwidth with the new job.
• My daughter, Jada, had another brain surgery in November to put in a shunt that keeps the spinal fluid from building up and causing headaches.  This was a possibility after they removed the tumor this summer.  She’s doing great!
• We took the kids to San Antonio after Christmas break for our summer vacation.  (Yes, I realize that it is winter, but our summer vacation plans were cancelled when Jada had surgery on July 1st…)  We were able to go to Six Flags, Sea World, the AlamoBowl (Go Cowboys!), and we had an awesome  hotel room looking down at the Riverwalk.

I’m sure there were other things, but that is what immediately came to mind.

See you again soon!

Ronnie