5 Computer Problems You Can Fix Yourself

watchingthenet.com

Great tips from Kim Komando at Komando.com A link to her site is provided below:

Computers always act up at the worst times. You're in the middle of a major report or playing your best game ever
and - pffft. 
Often, users get so frustrated that they needlessly go out and buy a new computer or pay for a computer repair. With a cool head and a little know-how, however, it's easy to fix the most common computer problems. In fact, the solutions I recommend below are free.
1. Speed up a sluggish PC
Computers slow down over time - that's normal. If your PC is fairly new and it's slow, remove the pre-installed programs, or bloatware, that came with it. PC Decrapifier will remove trial programs and other junk in a snap.
To give an older PC a speed boost, break out the CCleaner. This tool looks through Windows, Web browsers and other third-party programs for unwanted clutter and gets rid of it. CCleaner can also scan and fix errors in Windows' registry. Just make sure you allow it to backup the registry before making changes.
Grab Duplicate Cleaner to remove duplicate files that might be clogging up the system. But, limit your file hunt to the Documents area of your computer. You don't want to accidentally delete important system files.
In your cleaning process, you might find programs you no longer need. Windows' built-in uninstaller has a tendency to leave fragments scattered around your hard drive. You can remove those fragments efficiently with Revo Uninstaller.
2. The Blue Screen of Death
Thankfully, Windows' dreaded "Blue Screen of Death" is getting to be a rare event, but it still occurs. When it does, it isn't very helpful in helping you hunt down the problem.
The problem can often be traced to bad memory modules. Memory is cheap and buying extra RAM capacity is usually worth it for the performance boost. You can find out what kind of memory your computer takes with this scanner.
It's not difficult to remove and install memory modules. You'll find video tutorials at all the major online memory stores.
Just remember to ground yourself when you open your computer. You don't want to fry sensitive electronics with static electricity.
3. The zombie spyware plague
A message pops up on your screen repeatedly, telling you to buy a security program. It happens so often that you can't get any work done.
Your gut tells you that this is a rip-off, and your gut is correct. The message is adware that found its way on to your system, probably through an online ad for a "free" security scan you clicked on.
If you do download - and often pay for - the security program, you'll end up with fraudware. No matter how many times you run the program it will always find the same problems and keep trying to get more money out of you.
Before you buy any security software, make sure it's real. Use this site to stay current on fake antivirus programs.
Once you have fraudware, running a real antivirus program probably won't help. To stop the pop-ups, you must run an anti-spyware program. There are a number of good ones - I'd start with Ad-Aware. You can find that and more legitimate free security software in my Security Center.
4. SD card stuck in CD/DVD slot
This is one for the Mac people. If you're distracted or pre-occupied, it's annoyingly easy to shove an SD camera card into an iMac's superdrive. The two slots are right next to each other on the right side of the computer.
You don't have to take the machine apart or ship it to a service center. The fix is easy. Cut an L-shape out of cardboard to use as a fishing hook. Slide it in and pull out the SD card. Watch this video to see how it's done.
5. Network issues
If your wireless network is dead, your router, cable or DSL modem probably crashed. It happens. Reboot the gadgets by unplugging them for 30 seconds, then plugging them back in. That usually solves the problem.
If your signal is weak or the connection is slow or drops out, there are a few tricks you can try to improve your home Wi-Fi, such as the beer-can antenna booster. I made a fun video to show you exactly how to make your own. Watch it now.
http://www.komando.com/columns/index.aspx?id=13793&utm_medium=nl&utm_source=column&utm_content=2012-12-23-column-end&page=4

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Classic Car Stories - My 1965 Buick GS 400

Photos courtesy of Cardiff Classics. A link to their site is provided below:
Classic Car Stories: This is one of those cars I wish I would have just put away, parked in a shed for a couple of decades!

I bought a really clean used 1965 Buick Gran Sport convertible after I got back from active duty in the Army Reserve. This was about 1972 and I had gone through a couple of beater cars before I got my gas station. After starting to earn more income, I found this car from a friend of a friend. It was in immaculate condition with not a spot of rust on it and I don’t even remember what I paid for it.

 

Mine was a medium to dark green with a black convertible top and black interior. It had the nailhead 401 cu in V-8 with a factory 4-speed in it. It had decent power and a ton of torque for a Buick. The nailheads were known for their increased torque and lumpy idle due to the aggressive camshafts from the factory. The previous owner had installed a couple air shocks in the rear suspension that raised the back up some and firmed up the ride and handling.

 

It was a really nice car, but at that stage in my life, I was pretty burned out on performance cars. Before going into the Army Reserve, I had a ‘62 Impala with a 300 HP 327 and factory 4-speed. I basically destroyed it drag racing, street racing and continually breaking transmissions, differentials, U-joints, etc. I had grown tired of the cost and hassle of constantly fixing it. The car was so bad, that my dad ended up selling it after I went on active duty for $20!

 

I drove that Buick very conservatively, not wanting to break it as I was very involved in getting started in business with my gas station.

 

The thing I remember most about that car is this. The engine in the car I had came with a Carter 4 barrel carburetor and in that model year, there was a factory option dual-four-barrel carburetor set up. A friend of mine had another friend who just happened to have this set in his garage and was not using it at the time, so we asked if we could borrow it for a couple days and put it on my engine. He agreed and we went to work. After taking it out on the street afterwards, I couldn't believe the increased power and torque the car had. It felt like a totally different vehicle and I sure wanted to keep that set-up! Unfortunately, I had to give it back, as the owner refused to sell it to me.

 

I don’t even remember what I sold that car for, but I basically gave it away. It was such a clean car and not beat up. If only I had found a place to store it. Reconditioned, it would probably be worth about $40,000 today! Oh well, one of many of life’s hard lessons and a good classic car story!

http://cardiff-classics.ebizautos.com/detail-1965-buick-skylark-gran_sport-used-3138534.html

Other of my car story posts:
Classic Car Stories:1970 Pontiac GTO - Dick Hands me the Keys!
Classic Car Stories: My Buddy's 1968 Plymouth GTX
Classic Car Stories: My Hemi Chrysler
Classic Car Stories: My 1965 Buick GS400
Classic Car Stories: Mopar Man to Chevrolet
Classic Car Stories: My Second Corvette
Classic Car Stories: My First Corvette
Classic Car Stories: My 1993 Camaro Z28
Classic car Stories: My Three Camaros - One Good, One Bad and One Great!
Classic Car Stories: Mom's 1961 Plymouth Valient

The Art of Selling Snake Oil

livingstingy.blogspot.com

Selling Snake Oil to Trucking Companies and Truck Drivers

Nice piece written by Bob Rutherford of BigTruckTV.com and posted on 2012/12/18. 
A link to their site is provided below:


After several discussions about my previous blog entitled “How to Sell Snake Oil and Mouse Milk to Unsuspecting Trucking Companies”, I felt a follow-up blog was in order.
I started doing some research on a product that a trusted resource told me he was sure didn’t work – the aerodynamic mud flap. One company had a SAE/TMC Type II test done and so I started reviewing it on their website. As is so typical in this industry, the website has only a summary of the test. I know someone at this company who knows that I am a blogger, a TMC member and work with Auburn University. When I asked for a copy of the complete report, it was for the good of the trucking industry. The surprising response I got from the mud flap company was that they would be more than happy to send it to me, except they have a confidentially agreement with the well known testing agency that ran the test. Hence, it prevents them from sharing the report with anyone, only the summary.
This made no sense to me, so I called the testing agency and asked about this nonsense I was being shoveled. Here is their cut-and-pasted response from a follow up e-mail after our telephone conversation:
“The testing that we conduct at our facilities is for our customers. The information about their testing is proprietary to those customers, which prevents us from providing any of their information to another person or company. The test data is their property and after 90 days we destroy the information, as it’s no longer our property.”
I was lied to, there is no agreement with the testing agency that would prevent any company they ran tests for from releasing information to me. There may be a confidentially agreement, but it keeps the testing agency from disclosing the results of an unsuccessful test, not the other way around.
My next call was to Buzz Powell at Auburn University’s PAVE program (Program for Advanced Vehicle Evaluation) to confirm that we DON’T have such a policy. If the customer has the only copy, who is to say that an “accident” during reproduction of the report happened or not? I was relieved to find out that Auburn keeps everything, so there is a benchmark that is secure there. In fact, one of the first things Auburn did when they started the PAVE program was to ask the trucking industry how we could be of service. The big request was to please put the test results on the university’s website so we don’t have to depend on the vendors’ sales reps to provide a copy of the test.
Apparently with some companies there has been accidental moving of decimal points in the past. I have been told decimal points tend to wander around test reports when being reproduced in the marketing department. As a Big Truck TV thought leader, here is a thought I would like to share- I think the TMC should have a recommended practice outlining accepted independent testing protocols. I will try to get the idea discussed at the upcoming March TMC meeting.
One nice thing about being associated with a major research university is there are lots of pots someone like me can get stirred. We do have an aerodynamics lab that I asked if they have ever looked into this aerodynamic mud flap technology or are they thinking about it. A quick response was something like, “This could make a great thesis paper for a student.”
I can get free products, so I e-mailed back, “What do you need beside free products to test?”
As soon as I get that answer I will write my next blog, working title “Crowd Funding for University Research for a Better Trucking Industry”.
http://blog.bigtrucktv.com/bobrutherford/more-snake-oil

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5 Keys to Holding Driver Managers Accountable

freewayenterprise.com

Article thanks to Don Jerrell - Associate Vice President - HNI A link is provided to their site below:

Make it clear that driver retention is a priority for everyone in the company, especially for driver managers. Driver turnover should be measured by the driver manager (not just at the company level) and the driver manager’s performance review (and any bonus system) should be tied to this statistic.

1. Enlist Driver Managers’ Help With Training of New Hire

During the orientation process make sure to have the driver manager involved. Have them involved in the development of your orientation program, making sure what the drivers are being told is actually what is going to occur when the driver reports to dispatch.During orientation, have the driver manager spend some time with the new hire to discuss how they are going to work together. Establish how much money the driver needs to make to meet his/her needs, and have the driver manager sit down with the new hire and discuss this. Make it clear what it is going to take to make this type of money as well as what is the agreed home time requirement. Setting these expectations from the get-go is essential in reducing driver turnover

.2. Have a Special Dispatch System for New Hires

Consider having a special dispatch system for new hires instead of including them as part of your regular fleet. This can be helpful in helping new drivers “ramp up” as they learn your company and procedures.Have the driver manager meet with the new hire upon return from their first trip to review how the trip went and make sure the paperwork is properly filled out – so that the driver gets their pay check. Discuss any issues that may have popped up that the driver didn’t catch during orientation.

3. Have Driver Managers’ Let Dispatch Know What You Promised in Recruiting

How do you let dispatch know what was the agreed “home time” policy was for the new hire? Do you have a process in place to measure home time? What is your process for ensuring that the driver’s expectation for miles is not only met, but also meets the needs for your company?

If dispatch doesn’t know what recruiting is promising drivers in terms of home time, miles, etc., you are going to have some disgruntled employees pretty quickly, and your driver turnover rate will reflect this.

Have the driver manager coordinate between the driver, dispatch, and recruiters to ensure everyone is on the same wave length.


4. Train Driver Managers on Driver Relations
Consider training driver managers on working with different personalities and conflict resolution. While you’re not going to smooth over every personality clash with a meeting or a class, bringing up this topic shows that you know it’s important, and it raises awareness.
There are a number of professional personality profiling tools to consider – Gallup StrengthsFinder, Myers-Briggs, Lance Porter and the Kolbe Index are just a few.


5. Establish a Common Set of Measurements That Define Success
Agree on the most important metrics to monitor, and ensure they can be presented in a manner that both the driver manager and the driver can understand. Concentrate on your CSF’s (Critical Success Factors).
You need to have a process in place that ensures that your driver manager is aware of potential issues with drivers and are addressing them before they get out of control. Regularly scheduled meetings for drivers who have numbers that are not acceptable along with regularly scheduled performance reviews with all drivers (using your driver managers) are the catalyst is essential for success
The bottom line is that everyone at your company needs to know that reducing driver turnover is a priority – and that it is everyone’s job. If that responsibility is given to Safety or H.R. and no one else is accountable, then your company’s missing a huge opportunity and will fall short of being the kind of company that drivers are not only excited to work for, but that drivers are willing to communicate about to other potential applicants.
http://hni.com/default.aspx

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11 Tips to Minimize Fuel Costs

blog.dieselpowerproducts.com

TIPS FOR DRIVERS to save on fuel, thanks to CCJ Magazine. Link to their site below:
Of all the factors affecting fuel economy, including aerodynamics and tire maintenance, more than a third are attributable to driver skills.


1 Turn off the engine. Drivers should avoid excessive warm-up times when starting the truck, even for a short time. Look for other times when
drivers have a habit of idling.
2 Avoid revving the engine between shifts. Ease into each new gear, and don’t be in a hurry to climb through them.
3 Run in your engine’s sweet spot. Once you reach cruising speed,
operating in the peak torque zone gives you optimum horsepower so that the
engine runs most efficiently. It takes only about 200 horsepower to maintain 65 mph.
4 Minimize air-conditioning use. Running the A/C delivers a 2/10- to 4/10-mpg hit.
5 Anticipate traffic lights. If you can approach slowly and avoid a complete stop, it saves fuel and reduces equipment wear.
6 Lower your average highway speed. Every mph over 55 equals a 0.1-mpg drop in fuel economy.
Don’t punch the throttle. Gradually put your foot into it, pretending there’s an egg between the pedal and the floorboard. Use smooth, steady accelerator inputs to avoid fuel burn spikes.
7 Maximize use of cruise control. That enables you to avoid wasteful throttle use to climb hills.
" I question this, if you are an efficient driver you can get better MPG without cruise. Any time your speeds drops off on cruise, you get full on power to regain your speed setting.”
8 Use truck stops atop hills. Driving uphill toward the truck stop allows natural deceleration, and going downhill to re-enter the highway requires less fuel.
9 Maintain an extended following distance. It helps to prevent unnecessary acceleration due to frequent braking.
10 Use shore power when it is available. Many inverters and auxiliary power units come
with a plug-in option that converts incoming current to DC to charge the batteries, using AC
to power climate-control units and/or in-cab accessories. The truckstop electrification movement to help eliminate idling has gained steam in the last year, with plug-in options available
at many more parking spaces.
11 Avoid needless acceleration when not on cruise. Don’t hit the throttle
too much when approaching the hill’s crest. Instead, lay off the throttle and
let the truck’s momentum carry it over. Watch the boost gauge for an exact read of
what you’re doing.
http://www.ccjdigital.com/files/2012/10/FuelTips.pdf

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Click here for Our Christmas Card to you!

I've been writing this blog since February of 2012. Thanks to all of you who have been reading and following it. Your comments, suggestions and guest posts are always welcome. You can find my email address in my side bar. I'm taking a break on this Christmas Eve to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! From our family to yours (missing from the picture is Kira's husband Brendan and their newest daughter Emory, because I could only get 5 on the ecard!). 

Pipe Bombs Found Attached To Truck, In Residential Area

salem-news.com

Article thanks to Truckersreport.com Link to their site follows:

A driver in Oklahoma’s wits and sharp eyes kept him alive earlier this week when he spotted something attached to the fuel tank of his rock hauler. That something turned out to be a live pipe bomb. When the Oklahoma City Bomb squad arrived at the scene, they found a second pipe bomb under the cab of the same truck.

The bomb squad was able to destroy both devices without any damage or injuries.

A day after the initial bombs were found, a mail carrier found another pipe bomb a few blocks away from the scene in the yard of a residential area. Police confirmed that all three devices found were live explosives.

The driver works for Magerus Trucking in Oklahoma city, but representatives from the company aren’t talking about the incident since there is still an ongoing investigation. What is known is that 38-year-old Kevin Wayne Burke was arrested on charges of placing an explosive device on a vehicle with intent of bodily injury or death, and three counts of manufacturing explosive devices.

By not touching the bombs and instead reporting it to the authorities, the driver saved his life and possibly the lives of those around him. Doug Morris, OOIDA director of Security Operations, reminded drivers that if you see something suspicious on or near your vehicle, you should not touch it. Some devices are rigged to explode when they detect any motion, so even just touching it can detonate the bomb.

“The safest thing to do is call police and stay away from it, and keep others away from it,” Morris said.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/pipe-bombs-found-attached-to-truck-in-residential-areabom/

NFL replacement ref, lives with blown Packers-Seahawks touchdown call

t-wire.com

We’ve all seen “the play”. Thanks to Kent at the Washington Post, here’s the story of the man who made the call. 

In depth piece thanks to and by Kent Babb, of the Washington Post 

Published: December 15.

Link to their newspaper follows:

In SANTA MARIA, Calif. — The strangers laugh as Lance Easley shares the story again, standing and gesturing at their table to tell it right.
One of them asks about the night Easley changed the 2012 National Football League season, and when he does, they laugh at his jokes and groan at his misery. A few yards away, this story has lost its thrill.
“Everywhere he goes, I go, ‘No,’ ” says Easley’s wife, Corina, sitting at the restaurant table with an empty chair to her right. “ ‘Not again.’ ”
Nearly three months ago, Easley was a replacement side judge during the NFL’s lockout of officials, which placed applicants with only high school and college officiating experience onto the game’s biggest stage.Mistakes were made, and men were embarrassed. None was vilified like Easley, the 52-year-old bank vice president who officiated football and basketball games in his spare time.
On the night of Sept. 24, tension was high and the game was close. As time expired,Easley signaled a touchdown for the Seattle Seahawks on a Hail Mary pass to the end zone, handing them a 14-12 win against theGreen Bay Packers. More than 16 million viewers watched as the NFL season changed, along with Easley’s life.
“I go, ‘Oh, crap,’ ” Easley says, still wearing his business suit, as the strangers listen.
Easley’s controversial touchdown call sent ripples through the NFL that haven’t yet settled. If the season ended today, for instance, the Seahawks would make the playoffs and the Washington Redskins would not. One victory can sometimes mean everything, and so can one decision.
Facing pressure in the aftermath of the call,the league settled with its locked-out officials three days after the game; the replacements would not represent the NFL again.
In this coastal town about three hours’ drive northwest of Los Angeles, the following weeks faded into a blur of threats and humiliation. Easley has mostly given up officiating, his side job and passion, and doesn’t trust outsiders or even those he once considered friends.
“It can collapse a person,” Corina says as she waits.
Finally, Easley returns to the table, dips an artichoke leaf into white sauce and orders a rib-eye. He smiles again and waves as the men disappear toward the door.
It eventually fades.
“I think about it,” he says in his first extensive interview since the Seattle game. “Does one moment in your life really define who you are?”
The chance of a lifetime
They stood on the golf course last summer, discussing the downsides. Sure, some might not like that an official was willing to be a “scab,” going against the union and benefiting from the NFL officials’ lockout.
But Howard Hall, a friend and a fellow high school official, told Easley that this was a chance that so few get: to practice your craft at the highest level. Sure, Easley told him, he’d submit an application.
Still, sending the paperwork wasn’t easy. Easley stood at the fax machine, hesitant to press send. What would his coworkers and friends say? What about his fellow officials? Was this a renewed invitation of turmoil, the kind that he believed God had eased 27 years earlier?
In those days, Easley liked to drink and start arguments, and back then there were reasons for both. In six years, he had four surgeries on his feet, ending his football career. The son of an official, Easley volunteered to officiate intramural football and basketball games. He joined the Marines long enough to complete boot camp, but when the Corps discovered the bones in his feet had been fused, he was issued a medical discharge.
Easley was lost, bouncing between colleges and then jobs, from marketing to acting, searching for his identity in any place it might hide.
When he was 25, he mostly gave up drinking and began attending a Bible study, where one evening an 18-year-old Mexican immigrant named Corina walked in. He told her about the day his mother left his dad a note, telling him goodbye; she told him about her father’s death and her family’s move across the border.
He found comfort in her warmth and compassion. She admired his ability to see things simply, in black and white. On their third date, Lance picked up the check for the first time and proposed marriage.
“I’m a closer,” he says with a smile.
Corina noticed that Lance seemed happiest when he was officiating. He was healthier, more vibrant. There was purpose in those signals she couldn’t understand, something that had been missing in Lance’s life. She says officiating has been a blessing for him.
This past summer, Easley stood at the fax machine, considering what his friend had said on the golf course and what this opportunity represented. He saw it as a chance not only to experience greatness but to bring its lessons back to Santa Maria, where he’s president of the Los Padres Basketball Officials Association. Then he prayed.
“I had a peace about it,” he says.
He sent the paperwork but maintained muted expectations. He had worked junior college games only for a few seasons, after giving up coaching. At his core, Easley was a high school official, refereeing sometimes but usually preferring the role of back judge.
Then the e-mail came. Get to Atlanta for a tryout. They ran five miles, underwent a background check and labored through tests of their knowledge and judgment. Easley had studied the rules like never before, but in the officiating game, making a split-second judgment call, such as with pass interference, is the real test. Officials dread the day a decision affects a game’s outcome.
Easley passed the first leg, moving on to Dallas for training and uniform fitting. The NFL game is different than in high school and college, and this was a crash course in the variations, the speed, the pressure.
Easley kept waiting. Then another e-mail arrived. When the preseason contests began, he’d get $2,000 per game. If the ride continued into the regular season, the stipend increased to $3,000. He would be a side judge, not a back judge, as he had been used to. Regardless, Easley wanted only one game, to walk onto a field wearing the NFL stripes.
The good news, though, came with a hangover. In late July, Easley received another e-mail, this one from the Southern California Football Association, which had overseen his college officiating and had learned that he’d applied as a replacement NFL official.
He read the 94 words, but these were the most jarring: His services would no longer be needed.
‘Follow the play’
He remembers the goosebumps of that first game, of hearing the fighter jets’ engines as the opera singer hit the final note of the national anthem.
“This is really happening,” he remembers thinking.
At first he underestimated the NFL’s grandeur. Easley thought a punt returner had lined up too deep, then watched the ball sail farther than he’d imagined. The speed was harsh, making each official’s learning curve steeper, their insecurities more noticeable.
“You don’t want bizarre when you’re a replacement,” Easley says. “You want simple and normal.”
By the end of his crew’s second regular season game, there was blood on Easley’s shirt from scuffles between Redskins and St. Louis Rams players, and his mind was drained.
Easley had thrown a flag for a late hit against Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III, and his eyes had focused an instant too early. Griffin wasn’t out of bounds when he was touched by Rams linebacker Ernie Sims.
After each game, NFL officials are graded, receiving pluses and minuses depending on calls and no-calls. He was given a minus for the late hit, which Easley still disagrees with because he felt he was protecting the Redskins’ franchise quarterback.
“The spirit of the call was right,” he says.
By then, though, the replacement officials were under heavy scrutiny. Mistakes were rampant during a nationally televised game between the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons, and ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico called it “embarrassing” during the telecast. The NFL’s credibility was being battered.
Easley admits the continual criticism affected his on-field decisions.
“I would think through my calls,” he says, “thinking, ‘What’s the media saying?’ ”
The day before Easley and his crew traveled to Seattle, a simmer of frustration was becoming a boil. Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan berated a replacement official at the close of the Redskins’ loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, and New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick grabbed an official at the end of a loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Shanahan and Belichick were later fined.
Before the Monday night game, Easley sidled next to Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a central California native. They were a long way from home, Easley told Rodgers.
That peace turned to tension during another game that exposed the officials’ inexperience. It began with a roughing-the-passer call against the Packers, negating an interception. The game’s 15th penalty, which Easley flagged, was a debatable pass-interference call on first down and 25 yards to go against Green Bay’s Sam Shields.
“I don’t even believe they’re going to call this,” ESPN analyst Jon Gruden said during the broadcast of the game.
With time expiring, the Seahawks needed a touchdown to win. Rookie quarterback Russell Wilson scrambled to his left. Easley, expecting any pass to land short of the goal line, stood near the pylon and eyed players running toward the end zone.
“Follow the play,” Easley remembers thinking.
Wilson stopped and launched a deep pass, and Easley’s eyes tracked the ball.
“I’m just going to watch it be some hope,” he says now, “some prayer that wouldn’t come through.”
A cluster of players had formed in the end zone, and when the ball approached, Easley began watching their hands.
“I’m hoping when I got on top of it that one of the players would rip it out,” he says.
Instead, Seattle wide receiver Golden Tateshoved Shields, the Green Bay cornerback, forward — Easley would receive a minus for missing offensive pass interference, which would’ve ended the game and given the win to the Packers. Despite that, Green Bay safety M.D. Jennings initially caught the ball, though Tate’s left hand somehow never lost contact. Easley hurried over, and remembering the rule that joint possession goes to the offense, he caught the eye of back judge Derrick Rhone-Dunn.
“In my mind,” Easley says, “I’m like, ‘We can’t talk about this, because the media is going to crucify us.’
“So my hands go up.”
‘It’s going to be ugly’
Back in Santa Maria, phones were ringing in homes throughout town. Dana Cusack called her husband, who worked with Easley on the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Hall, the fellow high school official, called a friend, and they laughed about what they had just witnessed on TV.
A while later, another phone rang. Corina Easley picked up and heard her husband’s voice. He asked if she had watched the game. She had it on television but hadn’t been paying attention.
“Well,” he told her, “it’s going to be ugly.”
The next morning, two unfamiliar cars were parked outside the Easleys’ home. They belonged to reporters, and they soon wouldn’t be alone. Corina drew the shades and locked the doors. An NFL security official called, saying that Corina should prepare herself for threats.
Friends stopped joking about what had happened on Monday, concern taking humor’s place. When an unexpected package arrived from Wisconsin, Corina hurried it outside and called police. They traced its origin and opened it carefully; inside were cheese curds and a note leaving little doubt Packers fans had sent the package: “The Cheeseheads will never forget.”
Their only child, 25-year-old Daniel, worried about his mother’s safety. “I have never experienced this type of fear,” Corina says.
Easley’s call and the national outcry forced the NFL’s hand, and it agreed to an eight-year contract with the permanent officials. Then the league moved on. The replacements had no such option.
Easley stopped in Fresno, Calif., for a banking conference on his way home from Seattle, and when he returned to Santa Maria, neither he nor his wife left the house for nearly a week. Everyone wanted to know how Easley could’ve gotten the call so wrong; how an ordinary man can redirect the season trajectory of America’s most popular sport.
When Easley returned to work, a security guard stood watch and didn’t leave for a month. Easley listened to his voice mail. He heard one man say that he hoped Easley’s family died, the next say that he wished for Easley’s death, and the next one . . .
That was enough. There were dozens of them. If he didn’t recognize the voice, he immediately pressed the button to archive the message; he had been told by security to save them. If he did recognize the voice, he returned the call and asked the person to pray for him.
President Obama referred to Easley’s call as “terrible,” and Jay Leno made a joke about the Seattle touchdown. A friend read about Easley in an Israeli newspaper.
“You go from just a regular, normal schmo — normal guy in your community,” he says, “to people all over the place, all over the world, knowing you.”
Easley shut down his social media accounts. He offered to change his phone numbers. When he returned to officiating high school football games, the feeling had changed. The eyes seemed on him, not the players.
During officiating meetings, Easley’s peers whispered and laughed. If he explained a rule, someone brought up if he knew that one as well as what he had shown on that Monday night.
“I have noticed a general consensus of not, at times, taking him as seriously,” Hall says. “When he says something, there’s always a tail-end, last comment. . . . It’s too bad.”
So when the time came to sign up this fall to officiate basketball games, Easley stepped aside. He doesn’t know if he’ll return to basketball; for now he says he’s simply taking the year off. He doesn’t expect to officiate college games again. He says he has gained weight and doesn’t feel the need to exercise and eat properly, as he did when he was officiating.
But a turning point came, he says, when he opened his phone, drifting through his contacts. He asked himself how many of the names had been through what he had. And how many of them would allow it to consume them? Some had called to offer encouragement. Others, including many officials at higher levels, had gone silent. Rhone-Dunn, the back judge in Seattle, hasn’t returned Easley’s calls.
“You thought they were your friends,” he says.
Then he and Corina talked about God’s plan, and maybe there was something he was being prepared for, the same as when the surgeries and the drinking and the wandering led him to her so many years ago.
She doesn’t like that her husband has stopped officiating, but she likes thinking about how good things might come; how strength comes from darkness.
“Nobody who has never suffered pain,” Corina says, “could withstand something like this.”
Searching for normalcy
He walks into the gymnasium at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, during a high school basketball tournament. Cusack, whose husband works FCA events with Easley, spots him first. He hasn’t been around lately. He sees her, touches her fingers.
“I was sad for you,” she says. “But I was proud of the way you handled it.”
He nods, smiling of course. He ignores the sounds he’s so used to: bouncing balls and squeaking shoes. Easley leans in.
“I thought about it like, ‘Why is it happening to me?’ ” he tells her.
This is the moment it becomes clear: Regardless of how Easley or any of the replacements handle this, or seem to handle it, they unknowingly sacrificed themselves and their reputations so that the NFL machine could keep running. As the regular season winds down, they are mostly forgotten. But in towns like this, in school buildings and offices, in communities and churches, men like Easley are left to search for normality even in the places they call home.
“I just want to make sure,” Cusack says, “you’re taking time off for the right reasons.”
He presses his hands on the table, pausing for a long time. There is no joke this time. No smile.
“I don’t want to be a distraction,” Easley says. “And what if I make another controversial call?”
He shakes his head, and a question arises: What is the difference between strength and denial? Only someone who has endured this, carrying this burden, can know.
“It’s better just to let it rest,” he tells her, and a moment later she lightens the mood, saying that the Monday night game wasn’t the first time she disagreed with one of Easley’s calls.
As he stands there, friends and neighbors, admirers and strangers, walk by, shaking Easley’s hand or slapping his shoulder. They ask how he’s holding up after all this. He nods and smiles, sometimes making a joke. The conversations usually don’t last long.
“How are you?” a man says as he climbs the bleachers, and Easley looks up.
“I’m alive,” Easley replies.
“I saw you right before you were dead.”
Easley chuckles.
“I’m resurrected,” he says, smiling again.
Then the man sits, and Easley turns toward the game. Men in stripes bring law to the chaos, and players run from one end of the court to the other. Easley stands in a corner, watching as the whistles blow and the signals are made, and at this moment he is almost invisible.
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