by up10ad | May 2, 2007 | All (Home), Weather, Work
Spring came early this year. By late March it was somewhat comfortable for a few days, and April was very nice indeed. The mud season didn’t amount to much more than a few days of melt-off and it was over. Things turned green very early and spring is now well established.
The Quintus lawsuits settled out last month and the Mustang Software, Quintus saga has reached finality. Not much more to say about it; I’m still pissed but getting over it.
Our barn is just about complete now, the contractor made all the needed repairs and we have water and power installed. All that is left is to put together the stalls. I put 60 yards of sand (90 tons) on the inside floor and outside area as footing for the horses. It was easy to do with the Bobcat and kept me from having to level the dirt.
The NC Telecom bankruptcy is still moving slowly, but I’m about to make a change to get it done in a few months. There is a large telco that is interested and willing to spend significant $$$ to secure the assets. This means that I may not be able to ‘steal’ it away, but at least I’ll be in a position to secure a good contract arrangement for the future.
On a computer note, I just bought a new Dell XPS quad-core and used it to replace 2 PCs running my web sites and weather software. With 4G RAM I can run everything on a single PC although some of the weather software doesn’t get along with Vista Ultimate well so I run it in Windows XP under a Virtual PC 2007 session. I really like Vista and it has been solid as a rock. The 4 cores barely get a workout, even when crunching my 2G .avi files with Media Encoder every hour.
ps – we also just got 41 baby chicks to add to the coop; they are so cute! They have to stay int he garage for a few weeks but you’ll be able to see them outside on the cam soon.
by up10ad | Mar 4, 2007 | All (Home), Dogs, Work
Not much exciting news. We started building a barn in October and it still isn’t finished right. Lots of issues with the contractor , you can read the entire story as I post and update it on TractorByNet.com.
The Quintus action is final as of December, but here it is March and we still haven’t gotten a distribution of the funds. Seems our attorney has to get SS#s from all the members of our small class, but hasn’t seen fit to do so during the past 6 years so we wait some more.
The NC Telecom bankruptcy is still moving along, slowly. We now have the framework for an asset sale to two groups, one is a regional electric generation facility who will buy the majority of the fiber and real estate, and the other is yours truly, who will buy the operating assets. We’re still 4 months or so away from finalizing a plan so things could change, expecially if we run into someone wanting to overbid at plan confirmation.
On the dog front we did get Bauer a companion, a sweet female Giant Schnauzer named Bette (like in Middler). Her ears aren’t cropped like Bauer’s and she has the standard or European coat which makes her body hair a bit coarser than the soft, long American coat that Bauer has. She is small as Giants go, but as a 2-year old she has a ton of energy and that is just what Bauer needed to get him active again. They just love one another and play all the time.
After using it for almost 10 years we traded in the John Deere tractor at Christmas for a Bobcat Toolcat. It is so nice to have a cab and heat and air conditioning! Plowing the driveway this year has been something I look forward to! We use it all the time and it goes enywhere we need to on the property since I put chains on all 4 corners. A bit pricey but a great vehicle.
Well, that’s about all I can think of right now, talk to you all later!
by up10ad | Sep 15, 2006 | All (Home), Dogs, Food and Drink, Work
Well, a lot has happened since my last post. The Fudgey Duck closed rather quickly, primarily due to landlord/tennant problems. Its just as well, I’m happy to not have a business to keep Sandi away from home every day. We may re-visit it later, but not for a while.
In May we lost big dog Enzo to cancer and two months later our big Lab/Newf mix Jessie joined him. Bauer is now alone and seems to miss them both very much. He does get a lot more attention now and we’re looking into getting him a friend, perhaps a standard Schnauzer.
The Quintus Federal Class Action settlement was granted preliminary approval and the final approval settlement hearing is on October 19, 2006 at 2:00 pm. Assuming final approval is granted on that date or shortly thereafter, we hope to have a distribution of the settlement fund in the State action before the end of the year. We’ll see. There is some great reading about how badly Alan Anderson botched the company, read it here on the SEC site.
The NC Telecom bankruptcy is still moving forward under my excellent leadership. There is going to be an auction of assets later this year. but the winning bidder will have to continue offering most of the services. I’m not really too worried about things, there will likely be a position for me as a principal or manager.
We have had the house up for sale for a few months while we work on getting some property locally to build a new place. Had a few nibbles but nothing firm just yet. We’re looking for a bit more acerage and river frontage. If it doesn’t click together soon, we’ll hunker down for another winter here since the real estate market just dies in late October or early November.
Sister Diane and Roland came to visit in their motorhome; stayed about 10 days. We had a teriffic time. We took the motorhome up to Hahns Peak outside of Steamboat Springs where I’m part of a group that owns a 40 acre gold claim. We ran the dredge and had a great time around the campfire.
by up10ad | Apr 15, 2006 | All (Home), Food and Drink, Weather, Work
Spring is trying…
News on the work front. For the past few years the company I work for, NC Telecom, has been battling cashflow problems stemming from a massive $12MM loan from the feds for rural communications infrastructure improvements. Last year the stock owners (UBTA Communications, a Utah-based ILEC) stripped down the company and put me in charge. Unfortunately, the only choice was to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy which we did in October 2005. I’ve certainly learned a lot about how reorganization works, and I’m working on a plan to emerge later this year with the company intact and continuing to serve the region. Unsettled times, but exciting in a way.
Sandi has taken the plunge and gotten back into the food business again, with a different twist. We opened unofficially last week:
We make and sell fudge and other goodies like Jelly Bellies, as well as some gift items. The kitchen is located in the same building as the local flower shop. We’ll see how it goes.
The Quintus suit is settled, but still pending disbursement of proceeds until the Delaware Class Action is confirmed. I’ve stopped believing dates, but it may happen this summer.
by up10ad | Nov 20, 2005 | All (Home), Weather, Work
Well, winter arrived early as usual. We usually get snow on or around Halloween and this year was no exception. Everyone is healthy and things are going well.
The company I work for filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in October and I’ve been handling the process with the Trustee and Creditors. It’s a new experience for me, and thankfully the local creditors realize that the debt issues evolved long before I assumed management in mid-2002. If things go well the company and assets will be sold in the proceedings, and I am mounting a campaign to assume ownership and control. We’ll know by 2nd quarter 2006.
I’ll try and keep this updated more often. Drop me an email if we haven’t touched base in a while.
