We Don't Walk Slow

Life Events

I’ve been bogged down with life events and it’s detracting from this site. I’m backed up about 6 hours on television that I want to watch, (Breaking Bad, Dexter, Ray Donovan, and Orange is the New Black) and work, and this home buying thing are taking my free time. The house is a pain in the ass with the detail and constant back and forth between people who want my money. It constantly feels like I’m opening up my wallet for every Tom, Dick, and Harry (I wanted to write that expression so that you can use it in your everyday life). Combine this with the moving out of 444 that has to be finished up by the end of August and I’m in motion. I also have plans to head down to OCMD this weekend and that shortens things up even further. It’s all good stuff but the relaxing is far and few between.

The origins of my posts come from my abstract (a good word for idiotic) thinking and I haven’t had time for it lately. I do feel like I’m on point mentally and have been honing in on good decisions and behavior. I know this is a scary thought but I would almost say I’m growing up. As in I see people my own age or younger and know that I’ve seen and have more experience that allows me to work certain conversations or situations to my advantage. I could probably write an entire post about this next point but I’ll keep it short. During my interactions with people I’m basically bullshitting the entire time. That’s not all true but you have to understand that an element of knowing how to act comes from not being yourself but being who someone wants you to be. As long as you realize this, than I’m not sure any of it is bullshitting. Take business for instance, I’ve talked to so many people on the phone in terms of getting them the right tools for the job that I’ve learned how to put myself in their position and tell them what they want to hear. I truly do care about getting them the right tools for the job but I also care about making sales. Now I consider if one of our customers read that last comment and he’d think I’m a completely phony but he’d be incorrect because I’m providing value and will bend over backward to make it right. I’ve gotten good at dealing with people. I’m not a sycophant (a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage.), but I also feel like I can be manipulative without any mean intentions. I hope somebody understands what I’m trying to get across because I know it’s not clear but it’s important. To sum it up in a sentence, I’m fake by being totally real. Or real by being totally fake.

No picture for the post because there wasn’t 1 thing I could think of to put.

By Tom Stortz|2013-08-26T22:15:39-04:00August 26th, 2013|My Life|0 Comments

2 Steps Backward, 1 Step Forward, in Lake Placid

I’m pushing this post through production in rapid pace so I’m going to miss some important things. It’s 11pm now and I’m waking up tomorrow at 6 to start a drive to Pittsburgh to attend a party of a friend who is getting married. This aside, I spent the past week in Lake Placid for our annual family vacation and it more than met our expectations. I started last week at a Ck4 bachelor party but that’s going to have to take the back burner while this trip is fresh in my mind. I’ll try to document that party and Pittsburgh in a post on Sunday.

I staggered out of the Golden Inn in Avalon at 9am on Sunday prepared to make a 6+ hour drive to Lake Placid. I wasn’t feeling 100% but that wasn’t going to stop me from making killer time. I ate a Chicken Carbonara at Quizno’s along the way and enjoyed the solitude and music for what seemed like a long time. I arrived at around 4pm with my family just hanging out. In hindsight I wish I took a few pictures of our cabin because it was quite unique. There were horseshoes and a fire pit in the backyard and a stuffed moose, bears, and wilds cats hanging from the inside. It was quite luxurious actually and a perfect set up for us. When I first got there we killed some time playing Guess Who and Sam and I noticed the (hopefully) not resemblance to our characters in the game.

Guess Who Brotherly Studs

Since it was almost dinner time we headed out to a place that didn’t serve alcohol which was a pleasant surprise (this would be symbolism to how it started compared to how it ended) and the dinner went quite well. I ate a trout with its head attached. We spent late night sitting around the fire and shooting the shit. We were brainstorming ideas to revolutionize the world and a spinning upside down toilet held the top of the list. This was a joke obviously but imagine the shit storm.

JC was raving about the Legends of the Oval (a group of 5 speed skaters who took many medals in Olympics) and the Olympic Training facility of Lake Placid (it held the 1932 and 1980 winter Olympics) so we took a tour of the area. In 1980, the now Herb Brooks arena was the setting for the famous “miracle on ice” when the USA beat the USSR. They now use the arena as an ice rink for tourists. We also saw some young female figure skating hopefuls in a different part of the arena. Watching these girls in person was dangerous.

Herb Brooks Ice Hockey Arena – home of the Miracle on Ice

Actual Medals from the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games

Lake Placid is an awesome setting and is first class all the way. The main strip is filled with bars and shopping that everyone can enjoy. There is also a lake right next to Lake Placid called Mirror Lake and we went paddleboarding and kayaking on one of the days. It was quite peaceful and enjoyable until I had to take a shit and realized I was stranded in a lake. Jeff and Sam also picked up some 16? year old females along the way. We also went on some family hikes and enjoyed good meals. I thought the running environment was top notch with this summer atmosphere having nearly no humidity. There was plenty to do and even though we didn’t really hit the night life the way I would have liked to, it was certainly enjoyable and relaxing.

On Thursday, Jeff, Sam, and I decided to challenge ourselves on a 13+ mile hike along a trail called the Gothics. I am a pretty novice hiker and have never thought that hiking was much of a challenge. I’ve reconsidered that position. We set off at about 9am without a map, 6 bottles of water, 3 sandwiches, some triscuits, and 2 peanut butter bars. Jeff assured us we’d be fine. The group was in high spirits and we came across this awesome falls within about an hour of our hike.

Beaver Meadow Falls in the Adirondacks

At this point we made an error. I saw a path, pointed it out to the guys and we took it. This proved to be the wrong way as we completely missed the other entry point to another trail (I’ll take the blame here). What ended up happening is that, without our knowledge, we starting taking a longer, less direct route up the mountain without knowing it. What we thought was going to be a 6 miles hike one way, turned into somewhere closer to 8. This might not sound like a big deal but this was some of the most physically exhausting work I’ve ever put in. There were multiple times where my heart was beating out of my chest like I’ve never felt before. Combine this with having insufficient water and you had yourself a bit of a problem. After 3.5 hours of hiking, we reached our actual destination and were granted with this incredible view from the top of the Gothics.

Awesome view from the top of the Gothics, a 4,734 ft elevation

Getting to the top was the first part of our journey which we did successfully, the ride back down wasn’t so easy. Getting to the top had my legs built with so much lactic acid that any uphill made them tired. This mountain isn’t exactly a straight shot so even when you are descending thousands of feet, there are still series of uphills. Combine this with the fact that we didn’t know where we were going exactly and you had a hell of a situation. The last two hours of the trail I hate to say were not enjoyable. It started to rain in huge amounts and we were soaked head to toe but didn’t care at that point. At the falls on the way back, Sam and I were so dehydrated that we were scooping out handfuls of water from the lake not caring if diarrhea was going to be the end result. We eventually got back to our car but this was easily one of the hardest physical challenges I’ve undertaking in quite a while. I was full sweat multiple times and felt unprepared more than that. Nevertheless though, it makes for a great experience and view.

That pretty much summed up the vacation and I would go on with more details but I really have to get some shut eye. I’ll post back in a few days.

By Tom Stortz|2014-04-04T08:01:01-04:00August 23rd, 2013|My Life|1 Comment

A Day in the Life

Today was one of those days where the action never stopped. I was out of the office yesterday on a sales trip trying to sell our paint scrapers. We have a new idea for a replaceable blade scraper that I was pitching to stores around the Philadelphia area. The trip was a moderate success as I was able to produce a few orders from the day. Since I will be off on Friday for the CK4 bonanza party, I had to squeeze everything I could into today.

I started the day buying new tires for the Acura because I’m running hot on the miles and it looks like I might get stuck with it. Considering I will be driving 1,000 miles over the next few days, I think it’s a good investment. Next I had to discuss the golf arrangement with CK4 for tomorrow which was more challenging than you’d think because everything is so damn expensive in Jersey. After that I went to see a house with the realtor that I actually made an offer on the same day I saw it. Talk about a quick decision. So I handled all the paper work that came with that decision and just cross my fingers I didn’t sign my life away. Combine that with all the final prep work for leaving for a week and I was busy all day. Amazingly I still find the time to write a blog about it but I think these are the best types of days. Days where you are constantly moving and always thinking and making things happen. Sitting and doing nothing doesn’t compare to this.

Anyway, this will be the last post for a while unless I have post from my Kindle which isn’t that much fun. I’m looking forward to a week off and will probably post some updates and entertaining news to my Twitter account @rnningfool. If you use twitter and don’t follow me AND follow the blog, this would be a good time to do so. I’ve said it many times before but vacations are the reason you go to work each day. It’s time to relax and enjoy life instead of slaving away at the meaningless bullshit that seems to important. Until 8/26, enjoy life.

By Tom Stortz|2013-08-15T16:32:35-04:00August 15th, 2013|My Life|0 Comments

Quitting Coffee Like It’s Hot

I prefer the Irish.

Drinking coffee was an addictive phase for me. For the majority of my life I had never touched a cup of coffee. Then one day about 2 years ago I went to Dunkin Donuts and got a bagel and decided to get the combo with coffee instead of only the bagel. As the weeks rolled on I found myself urging the bagel combo with coffee more often. With what began as a morning breakfast started to turn into an everyday affair with a medium coffee, cream and sugar. I even evolved into Wawa coffee on evenings to help facilitate any work that needed to be done. I’ve decided that enough was enough, quitting coffee is going to happen.

Caffeine is obviously one of the tamest drugs considering there are hundreds of millions of drinkers around the world and you are not called an addict if you drink coffee. However, no one can argue that the longer you drink it, the more you need to drink to catch a buzz. I never elevated past a one cup per day, medium size but I know if I continued on this pace, I would. I drank coffee because it gave me the feeling of “waking up” in the morning and it would always lead to a nice morning deuce.

Why have I decided to stop drinking coffee? It’s purely an experiment. First to show that I can stop drinking it even though it has an addictive nature. The second is to see if I feel better without coffee in my life. After the first almost week without consuming it, I don’t really notice much of a difference either way. Aside from the natural addictive instinct to “want” coffee, it doesn’t seem to impact negatively or positively either way. For this post, I did some minor research on the ill effects and didn’t really come up with anything horrifically bad on why I should quit drinking it. That being said, I’m going to continue on this scientific path and expect to launch into the stratosphere by eliminating a drug from my life.

By Tom Stortz|2013-08-12T12:46:41-04:00August 8th, 2013|My Life|0 Comments

The Double Day Hangover

I considered going with “The Never Ending Struggle Against Dehydration” or “My Body Hates Me” but settled for the title above. I don’t believe that the older you get the more you struggle with hangovers because I pay careful attention to how alcohol affects my body. I don’t care if you’re 20, 30, or 100, if you treat your body how I do, you pay the price. During the weekend I consume practically no water and only alcohol for extended periods of time. This weekend was no different and was incredibly fun with stories galore.

Friday was a pretty typical night beginning with some pre-gaming and ending with some madness at the bar. I specifically remember getting shot down by a 10 out of 10 within the first sentence I spoke. Sam was making some moves on some ladies who I’m sure he wouldn’t have had the balls to go after without some liquid courage. Everyone got back to 444 safely and the next day was where it really began. I met up with the Shee at 11am to have some breakfast and a drink called a “painkiller”. After we were finished eating we got the beer pong going. Inexplicably, Jonny and Gourlay were lounging around without their shirt on when our neighbor (who was going to bring over some females) stopped over and noticed the scene only to never return. This is where things start to get a bit hazy.

At 3 pm we all started to pour on the shots and then head to the free radio 104.5 concert that was being headlined by Panic at the Disco. I couldn’t tell you what time we got there but my memory remembers the concert being over in 30 minutes but I’m sure I was there for 3 hours. It was extremely crowded and easy to get lost from the group so we met back up after the concert. Things didn’t stop here though as we started playing some ping pong for shots. At this point you’d think we’d be tired after 10 hours of straight drinking but that didn’t stop as we went to one of Jeff’s friends house. People at the party could describe the events better than me but I was pretty shitfaced and had to be making an ass out of myself and hardly coherent. You’d think I’d have done this so many times that I wouldn’t be embarrassed by it but you’d be wrong. In incredible fashion, all 3 Stortz boys passed out on their couch at some unbeknownst time that was probably before midnight. I awoke at 5am surrounded by people on the couch and staggered out of the apartment to get a cab. Amazingly I was able to hail one and got back safely.

Why I played golf yesterday I’m not sure because I felt terrible. I haven’t played a round of golf where I was really feeling like playing in 3 rounds. This could be construed as a waste of money as not only am I not playing my best, I’m also not enjoying it as much as I should. Today was rough too but at least I’m feeling better now. You can always judge in what state of mind I’m in by tuning into the blog. If I’m posting regularly and my posts contain some thought, I’m feeling good. If I go 5 days without posting, I’m either missing or inebriated. I should have a nice week lined up though so I’ll keep the posts coming. Good weekend overall though with many funny times with good people.

By Tom Stortz|2013-08-12T12:47:20-04:00August 5th, 2013|My Life|1 Comment

Simply alone

I’m typing this from my Kindle Fire so I’m limited in my ability for pics and additional content. My words per minute are also way down but not horrific. After very little sleep last night, I awoke at 5am to drive down 95 on a sales trip. I’ve made this trip about a dozen times so I’m becoming quite efficient in who to visit, which way to go, and what my purpose is. I scheduled about 5 new stops which always keeps things interesting. Without boring you with the details of the trip, I’ll note that things went well and I have at least one sale under the belt. What I intend to blog about is how this particular trip plays out and my thoughts about it.
After mg visits, I stay in the same hotel in Alexandria each time. It is my furthest point South (most times) and a fine price in a unique area. In this particular spot, as a Caucasian, I’m the minority. This is only humorous because the last few times for dinner I had Boston Market and the line is predominantly white. I also like it because after I’m done for the day, I drive to a random park to do some running. Today I found Lake Acrimonk and I really enjoyed it. After the run I shower, visit the supermarket for honey bbq chips and parmesan goldfish, get my Boston Market and eat and review my trip while preparing for the next day. I’m like a programmed human who does what he likes to a t. The great thing is though that it’s exactly what I want to do. No one to answer to or tell me what to do, I could essentially do this in any part of the country and lead a more interesting, just as boring life. Yet this makes me happy.

By Tom Stortz|2016-10-29T13:19:35-04:00August 1st, 2013|My Life|0 Comments

Leaving the Scene of a Car Accident

Is it illegal to leave the scene of a car accident if you weren’t involved and no one was hurt?

It is illegal to leave the scene of an accident without providing full and accurate contact information. If the police are called, you need to wait for them to allow you to leave. Leaving can result in criminal charges.

For a minor accident, with no injuries and no damage other than to the cars themselves, you can exchange information and agree with the other driver to file a police report.

I’m leaving my apartment ready to get something to eat from WaWa (the turkey club is delicious) and I decide to drive through 4th street and pick up Delaware Ave on Race instead of making a U turn to get to Spring Garden and hitting it there which is my norm. That decision turned out to be costly. I get up to 4th and Callowhill and there is a small green car next to me that guns it while the light is still red (it turns green momentarily). He’s driving way too fast for this road and I’m trailing behind him when all of a sudden there is a blind cross street that from past experience I know is dangerous. The black wagon starts creeping up (he can’t see fully down the one way street) and finally decides to drive straight across 4th where Maniac McGee is flying. Maniac sees the black car but by then it was too late as he slams on his brakes and I’m watching from behind maybe 20 feet. Green car’s brakes don’t stop on a dime and he t-bones the wagon. Considering I haven’t seen many accidents I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of casualties of war.

Both airbags went off and I was the first person at the scene of the accident. The green car guy gets out and I ask if he’s OK and he was fine. He seemed like a foreigner but it’s hard to tell. As we approach the wagon I can see both air bags are deployed and the driver was making an effort to open his crunched door. A female gets out of the passenger side and appears to be alright. The driver soon gets out and has a stream of blood coming from what I thought was his nose but might have been a cut on his forehead. I run into the restaurant and get the guy some napkins. He didn’t say much and neither did anyone else. I could tell he was pissed but he didn’t erupt. More people started crowding around and I wasn’t sure what to do. Everyone was relatively fine, the cars had some damage and the authorities had been called. I wasn’t sure if I should have stayed or left.

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By Tom Stortz|2013-08-12T12:46:10-04:00July 31st, 2013|My Life|0 Comments

Kenny G Spotify

I don’t have much cooking for this post other than the creative title. I always think to myself that I shouldn’t have to mention that this isn’t going to be a good post but without this sentence there would hardly be any content. I played two rounds of golf this weekend and the Friday round was about as good as it gets. I was in recovery from two days of drinking on the Sunday round and that isn’t ideal. Saturday was also a fun day that started early and finished late which is why Sunday wasn’t tip top. All of this combines to not much blog posting and my brain not producing many interesting topics to write about. This however won’t last and I should be back on my game starting tomorrow. Possibly even tonight.

By Tom Stortz|2013-07-22T08:56:44-04:00July 22nd, 2013|My Life|1 Comment

Verizon Left Me Butthurt

A portrait of me after talking with Verizon 8 times.

I had glanced at my phone a couple of times during the torrential downpour during the 104.5 concert and I believe this cause my phone to incur some mild water damage. It is still operable but I have to push the lock key in very hard for the screen to light up. This left me with the idea that it was time for a new phone. I’ve seen Ck4 work magic with AT&T a few times before and wondered how hard could it really be. The upgrade on my account was exactly 1 year away so that dropped that option of making it easy. The next step was understanding my options before I threatened to leave and hopefully get Verizon to wilt to my pressure of terminating my contract.

Option 1 – Leave Verizon, pay $230 to get out of Verizon, move to AT&T where they’d set me up with the same plan I have currently (more data actually) and give me a Samsung Galaxy III (not even a 4 and red) for free.
Option 2 – Stay with Verizon and pay full retail price for a Samsung Galaxy III which was $599 and had pre-owned options at $399.00.
Option 3 – Get Verizon to sell me a phone at the discount price of 199.99 which would be the same as using my upgrade that I didn’t have.

I also called Verizon and understood that they would set up new members with a Galaxy III for $150 and a $50 dollar rebate making the phone I wanted 100 bucks. Next I called Verizon explaining that my best option at this juncture was to pay 230 dollars and move to AT&T because the prices for a new phone they were offering me were unreasonable. My hopes were that they’d settle for option 3 after I explained to them all the variables. I went through their website chat representatives, their retention department 4 times, and any other possible means I could think of and I couldn’t get one person to relent and SELL me a phone at a discounted rate. I’m a smidgen away from actually cancelling and paying the $230 for a new phone and moving with AT&T. My @Verizon email address still exists and I get the phone I want for $230 + $36 activation fee = $266 dollars compared to $599.00. I’m not a spring chicken on the phone either and I swear these people are trained to be impossible to work with. I had one woman actually schedule a disconnect for my line. After trying 5 times to talk to reps I eventually decided to take a break from the beating and reconsider my options. Any suggestions?

By Tom Stortz|2013-07-17T17:11:12-04:00July 17th, 2013|My Life|3 Comments

Philadelphia Walk To Remember

Philadelphia view from the Camden side.

At around 11pm the high stakes gin rummy game at 22nd and St Albans finished up. The outcome was surprising. I didn’t drive there so I needed to taxi home. It was a relatively nice night and I decided to walk a bit of the way just because. I knew that Philadelphia had a lot of characters at this time of night but I heard one of the best lines of my life tonight. I couldn’t make this stuff up. As I pass a trio of two females and a male, I overhear “People lose their cool over money, Rita almost threw Ramone out a window over 50 cents.” Is our economy this bad? Is this what it’s like on the city level? I seriously hope they don’t live on the 5th story. My brain couldn’t produce a thought this original. This could be the premise of an entire comedy act. After that line I kept walking but didn’t see any other possibilities for material so I decided to catch a cab and then it hits me square in the face.

The cab driver was a 65 year old, born and raised, Philadelphian. He starts off with the leading line, “are you coming or going?” I pondered it a moment, unsure what to say, “I guess you’d say I’m going.” He replied, “Going out for the night.” I said, “Going home, that question isn’t very clear.” We got to some small chat and he updated me on the building collapse at 21nd and Market. First he noted “Ronald Wagenhoffer, the city inspector who previously examined the four-story Center City property that collapsed onto a Salvation Army thrift shop June 5, killing six people and injuring 13, committed suicide in a secluded stretch of Roxborough Wednesday night, authorities said.” Then he told me, and this I can’t find any record of so I can’t verify it properly, “they locked up a poor kid who makes 11 bucks an hour because he knocked down the building and no one stopped him.” The man noted above was in charge of the operation and had the power to prevent this kid from knocking down the building. I can’t vouch for any of this other than that is what I noted from putting the pieces together from what the cab driver told me. After that story he told me how the Gov’t holds all the power and the people have none. He started getting a little heated telling me about some Wegman’s alcohol department in NJ asking for his ID (he’s 65). Next he moved into what it’s like in Panama and how some woman rammed her shopping cart into his back for no apparent reason. It was fairly bizarre and normal at the same time.

I digress back to earlier in the night. I went for a run after work and showered quickly in hopes of making it to the bar as quick as possible. This proved to be a mistake as I wasn’t finished sweating after my run. To make matters worse, I started walking and couldn’t get a cab. This had me walk 14+ blocks in the heat and as I arrived I was completely drenched in sweat. It was completely embarrassing as no one else in a crowd of 300 was sporting a disgustingly sweaty look. I cooled off in the Comcast building and eventually was suitable for socializing for a few hours. I will never make this mistake again in heat like this. Ample time is needed after working out and taking a shower. Shower sweats deserve their own entry. Nevertheless, this was a more entertaining Wednesday than most. I’ve been making an effort to do something every night of the week so I’ve been more active as of late. Hope this entry was as fun reading as it was living.

I noted in the intro that the gin rummy outcome was surprising. I was down 140 points to Evan in the final round when he needed 15 to win. Adam was hooking me up with cards because he didn’t want Evan to go out and I made a storming comeback. On the final hand I was down a few points to Evan with 3 cards, 778, in my hand. The board read 88 and Adam had to drop. He knew I had the 77 and elected to drop the K because it would be over points wise if he dropped his 7. He dropped a K, I scooped the 88 and dropped the K for the win. Except I stupidly dropped the 7, Evan went out, and ended beating me by 5 points. How I could misplay that last hand makes me question my brain. It’s one of those situations where technically Evan can say he wins, but it’s not a win you’d be proud of.

By Tom Stortz|2013-07-11T11:25:23-04:00July 11th, 2013|My Life|0 Comments