| I, Mathis B. Rogers, was born in Shamrock, located in the Texas Panhandle, January 19, 1961,
although I never lived there. We lived in Briscoe at the time. My father
was a farmer/rancher, but always wanted to be the boss, so, as you can
imagine, we moved frequently. Some people wonder where I got the name "Mathis." Most people wind up thinking that my first name is Rogers and my last name Mathis, since no one has ever heard of anyone with Mathis as a first name. My father had a brother named Matthew and somewhere in there I had an uncle named Milton. My brother, almost two years older than me, was named Mitt, after Uncle Milton. My father wanted to name me just plan Matt. Mother had gone to school with some people with the last name of Mathis, so they compromised and named me Mathis and called me Matt. We didn't have a television until I was 13. That set was willed to Mother when my great-aunt Josephine died. My father said that he'd never buy a TV. Of course, he bought four TVs after that one played out. Because Mother read to my brother and me, I feel that began my love of reading. When I was in high school my Freshman year, my English teacher told the students we could earn extra points by writing poems or something to post on the bulletin board. Thus started my love of writing. Because I enjoyed reading mysteries (The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were my favorites, but Agatha Christi's Miss Marple was also a favorite) I decided to try my hand at writing mysteries, too. Therefore, I came up with "The Nolan Mysteries." They were about a brother and sister whose father was a renowned lawyer in Rapid City, SD. However, I made a major mistake in the first episode and that series is now in a box in the top of my closet. One day I may get back to it and do a major re-write, but don't hold your breath while waiting for it. While growing up, since we didn't have a TV, I listened to the radio all the time. While we were raised on Country and Western music, Mitt did venture off to Rock and Roll and Disco. I'm okay with soft rock a little and, being a Born Again Christian, I do enjoy Contemporary Christian music, as well. But basically I've stayed with Country and Western because you can hear the words. Mitt and I spent countless hours searching the airwaves in the evenings trying to find how many AM Radio stations we could receive. I still have that list in the top of my closet (it's in the same box as "The Nolan Mysteries" are.) While searching for stations, we located a station in Tulsa, Oklahoma that aired "CBS Mystery Theater". It came on Sunday nights at 8:00 PM. It was two half-hour mysteries that had sound effects and everything. You had to really listen and visualize what was going on. I believe that these mysteries are what helped me to be able to write so that the reader can visualize what's happening. After we moved away from Anton, the town we lived in when we were able to pick up the station in Tulsa, I thought they had stopped doing the shows. However, one New Year's Eve after I moved back to Plainview, I did a search on the Internet hoping to find some "Live Radio" show through RealAudio that would be close to what "CBS Mystery Theater" was. However, at the time, I couldn't remember the name of it. While searching, I was thrilled to discover that "Imagination Theater" is actually playing on KFYO 790 AM in Lubbock, just 45 miles south of Plainview. However, it's also available on the web at the Transmedia website. I graduated from Whiteface High School in 1980. Whiteface is a small town on the South Plains that sits on a curve in the road and if you blink as you take the curve, you won't see Whiteface. After graduation, I moved to Plainview to live with my mother's parents until I was shipped off to Lackland Air Force Base for basic training. My stay in the Air Force lasted "three months and nineteen days too long." I returned to my grandparent's house and got a job at Page's Thriftway in December of 1980. I worked there for a year before I was laid off because Johnny Page sold his stores to Pay-n'- Save. Pay-n'-Save cut 100 hours, I wasn't the only one who was laid off. The following week, I started working at Allsup's Convenience store. Almost a year later, I made the biggest mistake of my life when I married a woman I met while working at Allsup's. This marriage led to Harlingen, Texas - in the Rio Grande Valley. And then to Dallas where I got a job working for LaQuinta (pronounced La Keenta) Motor Inn. Two months later (November 1, 1983) Lauren Elaine was born. A few weeks before Thanksgiving I transferred to Harlingen, where I became the relief Auditor, then the Night Auditor the following year. A year later, it was plain that the marriage was a mistake and my wife left, taking the kids (one she had before the marriage). In 1985, Mother moved in with my grandparents in Plainview. Granddad died of a stroke in 1986, one month before his 86th birthday. Mother and Mamaw wanted me closer, so since there was nothing holding me in Harlingen; now that I wasn't married any more and I hardly ever got to see Lauren, I transferred to Amarillo, where I lived for four years before getting the shaft from LaQuinta because I had been with the company for seven years. La Quinta figured out that they could hire two people for the price of me. All long-term employees were getting this same treatment. In December of 1990, I found a job in Temple, Texas, as an Accounts Receivable Clerk for a nursing home. I had met a guy from Chicago (actually Antioch, IL - 50 miles north of Chicago), on a BBS (Computer Bulletin Board System) and we become good friends. Rodney was on his way to the University of Texas, in Austin, so I took him to Temple with me, then on to UT in Austin in January. Five weeks after arriving in Temple, the job at the nursing home ended due to the stress of the situation. The first day I arrived at work, my trainer didn't; she quit. Five weeks later, my boss thought I should know what I was doing even though I hadn't been trained, so I packed up and moved to Austin - since Rodney was still at UT there - where I found a temporary agency which placed me at The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations, in the Tow Truck/Vehicle Storage division. A year later, the TDLR opened up the position, so that I could actually get the job as a permanent Texas Employee and they promptly hired someone else for the job I was doing and expected me to train the replacement. I conveniently forgot to show up to work the next morning. I was finally placed at another long-term job, where I was the data-entry clerk for an insurance adjusting firm. This job lasted over a year and they were getting ready to hire me as a permanent employee when I found my dream job at IBM as a technical support front end for OS/2. This job was perfect - except the pay was a little weak. I enjoyed the job and there were no problems, however, Mamaw had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and Mother couldn't take care of her by herself any longer. So, I quit my dream job and moved to Plainview, Texas in 1994 to help Mother take care of Mamaw. I worked out of the house for a little over a year, doing typing and transcription, but it appeared that no one knew what a computer could do for them and the money didn't come in. So, I found a job as the Night Auditor at The Holiday Inn Express in Plainview. Four months later, my Sunday School teacher, who was working out of his home operating a computer business, asked me to work for him as his office manager. This job was closer to my dream job than the Night Audit, so I jumped at the chance to work with computers, again. As the months went by, I enjoyed this job, but realized that my boss wasn't the good Christian that he claimed to be. He would lie to his customers to get them to buy computers, then would not return their calls when the computer didn't work right. In June of '96, a customer brought a computer to the house and I had him set it at the end of the couch. I told the customer that I would call him when we knew something. Three days later, the customer called back and asked what the status of the computer was. I informed him that it still set where he had left it and it hadn't been touched. In July, the computer company moved out of the boss' house into a store front. The second day they were in the store, the boss showed up at my house at 8:30 p.m., wanting the key to the office back. He informed me that I wasn't being fired, but for me not to go to work the next day - he said he would pay me for the day - but a customer, who worked at a major company in Plainview, had told his boss not to use this computer store because they took too long to work on computers and didn't do a good job of working on them when they did (which is true). The customer's boss told his entire company not to use this computer store. Now, I wasn't officially fired, but I feel that when my boss showed up wanting the key to the office, that was a lack of trust on his part and, therefore, I wasn't going to stay with him. And since it came about by me telling a customer the truth about his system, (yes, it was the same guy) I feel that I was fired for being honest with a customer. I was paid for the day I didn't work. Two weeks later, I went to a restaurant with my pastor. The manager of The Holiday Inn Express was having lunch there. I asked him if he needed another night auditor and he said, "Call me tomorrow." The next day I started working at the Best Western Conestoga as the Night Auditor. (The Holiday Inn Express and Best Western Conestoga in Plainview, were owned and operated by the same company -- HIE was purchased by a different company on February 5, 1999, so they are separate now.) Since I am a writer and a member of the Plainview Writer's Guild, I enjoyed this job because I got to write five to seven hours a night. Mamaw went into the hospital in August of 1997 to have her leg amputated because diabetes got to it and, after the surgery, she refused to eat. She died on August 22, 1997 at 12:30 a.m. My grandparents' home was sold to a neighbor whose daughter got married in June of '98, so Mother and I had to move. We have finally gotten used to our new home. In April of '98, I went to Virginia Beach, VA, to see my friend, Sandy. Sandy was my manager for two years at La Quinta in Amarillo, back in 1988. We squeezed two weeks vacation into four days. In May of 2000, I finally got tired of the stupid rules that my boss (not the one who hired me) kept coming up with off the top of his head and quit my job at Best Western. In July of 2000, I found a literary agent, but the contract was up in January 2001 and The Mysterious Bed hasn't sold yet. March 16th, I finally found at job at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Towers in Lubbock, TX (45 miles south of Plainview) as the night auditor. I am enjoying the job, but hate the 45 minute one-way commute every day, however, I did get a new car so the drive isn't so bad any more. On May 4th, I got a call from the Manager of the Plainview Hotel (formerly Holiday Inn Express (above)) and she talked me into going to work for her. Better pay and the hotel is only four miles from my house. I am, however, going to continue to work at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Towers on my two days off at Plainview Hotel & Conference Center to help with my car payment. On June 28th, the owners of the Plainview Hotel & Conference Center acquired the franchise for Ramada Limited. Our new computer system will (should) be here by July 15th. We are excited about the changes that are in store for us. I finally got to take my well-earned vacation October 8, 2002 through October 19, 2002 from Ramada Limited. I also took off the weekend before the 8th in Lubbock. Mother and I went to San Jose, California to see her sister. We had a blast that week as I had never been to California before. May 9, 2003, the Ramada Limited in Plainview sold and the new owners promoted me to Assistant General Manager. I was able to quit my part time job in Lubbock and am off the night shift. We've gotten the franchise for Super 8, so we will be changing the name soon. Now I haven't got as much time to write, but maybe after I get settled in the routine o the job, I'll be able to get back to writing. As time went by, I enjoyed being the Assistant General Manager of the Ramada, but business was terrible. In order to break even, we had to rent at least 50 rooms per night in the 95-room hotel. From the end of August through the end of September, we rented less than 20 rooms per night. Therefore, on Saturday, September 13, 2003, the owner told me that he'd have to cut me down to $6.00 per hour and work the desk for 40 hours a week. I knew that if I did that, then he would also expect me to do the tasks I was currently doing in the office, so I told him, no. After a few weeks being unemployed, I got a call from the Holiday Inn Hotel & Towers in Lubbock. They had an opening for part time graveyard shift, so I told them I'd take it until either they hired someone else, or I found something else, whichever came first. Jobs in this area are scarce and no one seems to want to work the weekend graveyard shift, so I may wind up staying there for a long time. In February, 2004, Holiday Inn Hotel & Towers hired a lady to "replace" me. They have asked me to stay on as an "on call" employee for emergencies and when the others go on vacation. Since I still have not found a job, it appears that I'll be out of a job before I find another one. My replacement was finally trained and ready to go solo by the middle of May, so I am currently unemployed unless they need someone to fill in. In August, the Night Manager will take two weeks of vacation, so I will work for him, if I haven't found a job by then. Good news finally. I got a job doing Imaging -- scanning documents into the computer -- June 21, 2004. My official title is Senior Operator. I am loving it. I don't have to answer the phone (there's not even one on my desk) and I don't have to deal with customers. I am in the basement with two other people who enjoy being in solitude as much as I do. Because of Mother's insistence on walking to the Post Office and to the Plainview Daily Herald daily, for something she doesn't need (it's a 3 mile round trip to both) I got her in an activity center in Lubbock. She's not happy about it, but it keeps me from having to put her in a nursing home and from having to worry about her. As soon as I can get some bills paid off and settled into this job, I will be able to find a place closer to Lubbock. In April of 2006, Mom got to where she wouldn't stay in bed through the night on weekends, and began falling frequently. So I had to worry about her getting up in the middle of the night and going to the Post Office, so I had no choice but to put her in a local nursing home. She's been there for over two years now, and as long as I only go visit her every other day, she doesn't insist on leaving with me. She has taken to a wheelchair and she won't turn loose of it so that I can get her out of it into the car to take her to church, so I'm not taking her out any more. She doesn't know anyone but me any more, so I'm at least glad that she still remembers me. The end of the year is up in August for the Plainview Writers Guild, so I am not going to run for any offices again. This will afford me some more time to spend writing. I hope to have my next episode released by Halloween this year. On June 30, 2008, we changed the way we do things at work and I now have my own private office *yea*. I am now a "floater". Basically, that means that I do whatever needs to be done. I will be getting a raise for this position soon. This position means that I am now covering for the lady who does walk-in enrollments and I am covering the phone system when I'm needed. I also have to pull exams for the testing center. So far, I am enjoying the position, but it seems like there's so much work to do that I don't have time to do anything. Mom's still doing fine. She'll be 85 August 27, 2008. She won't get out of the wheelchair now, so she's not falling any more. And she says she's not hurting anywhere. I don't go see her every day because when I do she wants to go with me, but if I go every other day, she's content to stay there. However, she doesn't want to sit and visit with me. She just wants to wheel herself up and down the hallway. At least her ankles aren't swelling any more. I will do another vlog one of these days and make sure that she's in it. My land lady's daughter died at the end of December 2008, so my land lady moved into an assisted living center in the town her other daughter lives in. The weekend before Mother's Day, a friend of mine did the Estate Sale for her and her daughter's stuff. There was so much stuff that he had another one the weekend after Mother's Day. Since I don't know where I'll wind up and we had so much stuff in the barn that I don't even know what is, I pushed it over into the sale, too, and will not have a ton of "junk" to move if/when I do have to move. Mother is still doing fine and I'm still working at Tech in Lubbock. I still don't care for the commute, but I have a subscription to Audible and download books and put them on CD and listen to them. It makes the drive much more entertaining. As you know if you watched my previous Vlog on the front page, the house sold, so I have until the 19th of August to get out of my apartment. I found a nice place in Lubbock, so I'll be moving soon. I'll do another Vlog when I get settled. Mother is still doing fine, so I will leave her where she is and return to Plainview a few times a week to see her. The story is coming along great. My mind is running wild and I am working on it frequently. November 1, 2009: I had, once again, hoped to get this story finished by Halloween night, and I actually did finish it, but a friend of mine came in from out of town and I had to get the video ready for church so I wasn't able to get it posted until the first of November. 3-25-2010: I decided it would be easier to keep this updated if I had a blog, so check my blog out by clicking on Blog below. I may occasionally copy posts from it over to this depending on how blogger.com works out, but more than likely, this page will not be updated again. .
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