Having another stupid insomniac experience

Here I am awake at midnight with a very full day behind me and another in front of me. All reason says I should be in bed sawing logs, but my head is still in being vertical mode.

New job is good. Lots of stuff to sink my teeth into, and these folks really have a need for the kind of skills I have. We are chest deep into bringing up new software to forecast the business. Supposed to be live in a couple weeks, but some humps to get over that may push that back a month. I'm frustrated that I still don't have intimate knowledge of the business, but then it's not realistic of me to expect in depth knowledge after just 5 weeks with the company.....nobody there is frustrated with my newness, so why should I be?

Rob and Amanda are turning into fine parents. It's very gratifying to see your son become an honest-to-goodness sensible, reasoning, caring adult after all the crud the kid went through during adolescence. Amanda and Nathan are still trying to work out a decent wake/sleep cycle, and I suspect Amanda is having some trouble adjusting to just having the dog and baby for company all day when she's been used to working with people who can carry on conversations. Still, the kids seem to be happy in their new roles as parents, even for all the adjustments that come with the package.

I've been remembering family stories a lot the last few days (with Edna's funeral tomorrow and all). When Mom was failing a couple years back, two of Edna's daughters brought her up to visit Mom at the same time we were there. Edna told me a story about my Dad that had been a secret for umpteen decades. Back in the days when I first started smoking (and actually admitted it to my folks) Dad would caution me about smoking in bed over and over again. I never knew why the obsession until Edna told me that she had come home from work one afternoon to find that Dad had laid down in his bed and lit a cigarette and proceeded to doze off. He burned a hole in the mattress which was smoldering when Edna arrived and she doused it with a glass of water, then patched up the mattress for him and neither let on to their parents who would have given Dad a real licking for nearly killing himself, burning down the house, etc., etc. Edna said she came home to find a new sweater lying on her bed one day soon after.

We're supposed to get some actual summer weather tomorrow.....about time. We've had the heat on so far in June, but not run the AC since last year. Weather here has be like early May for weeks and weeks. Cool and rain, rain, rain. It has only reached 80 degrees twice this year...today was the second time. It's been hotter in the Twin Cities than it's been here in Chicagoland.

Don't know the details yet, but we're expecting company here the 4th of July weekend. Meg, Jon and son Eli are coming along with Meg's cousin Rebecca. (Meg and Rebecca are daughters of two of my brothers). Looking forward to the visit. I tease them that they plotted a visit last summer that never came to pass, but this year there's a new 'cousin' named Nathan to come see.

Lost my aunt last week

My Dad's sister Edna died on June 12, 4 years to the day after my brother Bruce died four years earlier.

Edna was one of my favorite relatives. We frequently went to what Mom called "down home" where we nearly always stayed either at her brother's or her mother's place, but the visit almost always included a Sunday dinner at Aunt Edna's and Uncle Al's and the cousins Larry, Janet, Norma, Joyce and Scott (as the years passed the cousin group got smaller at dinners as they went off to school, married and moved away.) Still, I stay in close touch with Norma and Joyce to whom I am closest in age (sandwiched firmly in the middle).

Uncle Al has been gone for years now. Edna has gone to join him after what sounds like a very peaceful passing at just about a month short of her 89th birthday. She will be buried with Al, at Badger Hill Cemetery in Gladbrook, Iowa, just a few steps from my Dad and Mom.

On being a grandparent

Too busy to notice the difference, really. We did spend a few hours with Nathan, Amanda and Rob last weekend, and Sue was over to help out yesterday.


So not much news from me, but here are a couple more pictures to share.

Welcome Nathan Robert Eilers

We're grandparents

7 lbs 7 oz
19 in
Ten fingers and toes

Tired, but not sleepy

There's something wrong about this.

I had a long, hard day at the office....brain fried before I left. Even after all that, it's 11:30 and I'm still not in bed.....don't get that.

No grandchild yet, but can't be long now. If no delivery until then, induced labor will begin Monday.

New father, Rob, is a basket case. He was fine until there was a false start last week. Now he's ready for this to all be over right now.

It will be soon, one way or the other (kid comes on his own, or they give him a jump start.)

Maybe I will actually go to bed. Trying to put lucid thoughts together is tough; perhaps a clue that I should sleep.

This work stuff gets in the way of blogging

Just because there's been a gap in posting here doesn't mean there have been no goings-on. The quiet has to do with lots of happenings distracting from the blogging.

Number one, I'm working....had a paycheck and everything. I keep pinching myself to see if I'm dreaming, but yes the job is real, yes I have insurance, investment plan, work to do, all that stuff. I like these people. They like me. I know stuff they need. All is good, but when I get home after work I don't seem to have the energy for extracurricular blogging.

Late spring has finally arrived and summer is almost here, so yard work is back. No special projects here, but maintenance still needs doing.

On the grandparent front, we thought we'd have news the other day....but no, false alarm. The little guy decided to be bashful and stay put awhile longer. Amanda isn't fully due for a bit over a week yet, but it won't be long. Will have pictures to post when the little scutter actually does get here.

A rather brief post, I know, but at least something to show we're still alive here.

Liesure certainly is over

Not that they're killing me, but let's put it this way, I have two days on the job and it's taken me a day and a half to get caught up on my email. Seems to me that's a sure sign of eventually not having to worry about keeping busy.

I like this place. They are doing a whole bunch of stuff right, there's more stuff to be done, they recognize that, and they seem to be doing the right things to address the needs.

I was issued a laptop computer before lunch on my first day, and it worked right the first time. My phone worked from the get go as well. Everyone has been very pleased that I'm around and genuinely helpful.

What I hate is being the newby. Everybody knows more than I do about the nitty gritty stuff. I'll get over that rather quickly, I'm sure, but I still hate the starting-over part of the 'no worries' about having enough to do.

Well, by this time tomorrow I'll have added a full 33% more experience so my observations and attitudes have high potential of doing some shifting. Stay tuned.