Looking forward to vacation

Another middle-of-the-night, Friday night, post.

Fell asleep in my chair before midnight and woke up here a few minutes back. Need to decide whether to crawl up to bed, or just stay put when I finish this. Decisions, decisions.

Sue and I are taking a trip in a month. I bought plane tickets, reserved hotel and rental car. We're headed for Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia and places in the vicinity. We'll fly into Richmond on Sat. Oct 10 and see some of the Confederate sights there that day before driving to our Williamsburg hotel where we will HQ for the rest of the week. We're planning a couple of days for Williamsburg itself and time at Jamestown which is very near. We'll take a day to canoe some body of water in the area (canoing is a vacation requirement for Sue) and play a couple of remaining days by ear. That part of the world has far more sights than we could ever do in six days. On the list but not formally planned are suppers including lots of seafood while we're so near the coast, and for that matter, some time on the coast itself as well. I will take lots of pictures to share.

Things at the office seem to be turning toward some kind of routine finally. We spent the whole week actually performing planning duties (that for which we get paid) rather that fixing the planning systems. That's a good indicator that all the pain we've been experiencing is beginning to pay off....about time.

Nathan, our grandson, continues to thrive. He's handsome and brilliant, of course.



Cheers

Half a weekend

It was a long, long week. Stuff at work was an uphill battle every day. Finally, after a full day Saturday, I felt like we'd begun to pull ahead. Following that, we congregated at the boss' house for beers, pizza and fellowship. Sue got to meet folks for the first time. It was a nice evening.

There hasn't been a lot of time for activities other than work lately. Hopefully, that will change now that we've slain a few dragons. Sue, Laura, and I will be attending the wedding of a young woman from our church next weekend. I have started a stool from cherry, but will have to work evenings this week to be finished on time.

It seems like there should be a million things to say, but I'm tired and the wisdom just won't make it's way to the keyboard this evening....perhaps another evening.

J

We've reached a second OMG!

On the phone until 10:30 tonight. Breakfast meeting tomorrow at 7 a.m.

Hate going to bed with open issues, but need rest before tackling OMG's tomorrow.

Happens every time

Forgive me if I talk about work stuff this time a bit more than I like. We all spend a huge amount of time on our work, and it shapes who we are.

A few months back I was hired by a new company to help them put in a new system and to make it run in their day-to-day business in a manner that would improve the overall performance of the company. I've done this kind of thing before, so it was no surprise to me that we reached a point where the general attitude was, "OMG! What have we done?!"

This is actually perfectly normal....happens every time a new system is installed. Even knowing it's normal, though, it's still a huge bunch of work to get past the OMG phase. I think we've turned the corner. After working screwy hours and weekends, I'm actually going to take a day off (if nothing breaks) this week. Still stuff to fix, but becoming confident that when I fix it, it will stay fixed and I won't have to go back and re-fix it. We can now quit worrying about "does it work" and begin the work of convincing everyone else that "it is working".

Life at home is all good and normal. Both kids are self-supporting but still keep us included in their lives. Rob has new professional challenges but will survive and perhaps even prosper. Laura's work is good, and she even has a boyfriend. Sue is happily adapting to the role of Grandmother. I pretend that being a Grandfather hasn't phased me, but it sure is fun to play with the little scutter when I do get the chance.

So, I should end yet another insomniac entry. I have things to accomplish tomorrow so I'll be able to take Friday off.

Just me and the cats

It's a nocturnal moment. Nobody stirring except me and the cats, and they aren't moving too fast. Fell asleep in my chair after a very long day at the end of a hard week. Woke with the need to go to the bathroom and then not ready to go back to sleep.

Amanda has started back to work this week. Sue will be watching Nathan on Fridays, when she has her regular weekly day off. Yesterday was his first day here, but I didn't get to see him since I left for work before he arrived and didn't get home until he was gone again.

It's supposed to be like August here this weekend..hot and humid. There have been only 3 days that hit 90 so far this summer, so we really can't kick.

Work has been a bit draining lately. As happens with system implementations, we've reached that point where's there's no return and our reaction is, "OMG! What have we done?!!!" We had an all day meeting with the software vendor and our key staff this Thursday and hammered out solutions for show stoppers. We'll get through this and be better for it, but I'm surely getting too old for this stuff. At least the long day Friday will mean I don't need to spend most of the weekend working.

We will be having contractors back at the house soon. The carpenters will be back to install venting for the kitchen vent fan (they couldn't go through the roof when there was snow on it). Then we will call the floor guy back in to have him refinish the back half of the house.

Sue and I will be taking vacation in October. The current plan is to go see Colonial Williamsburg. Plans are in the very early stages; no specifics just yet. We've thought about driving since we haven't seen much of the eastern part of the U.S. But, since it's a 14-hour drive each way, we also think it might be kind of dumb to take 4 days of seven just getting to and from our destination.

So, survived the work marathon

Still kinks (some pretty big kinks) to work out in the new systems at the office, but we lived through it. Many, many parts are going better than expected and that helps offset some of the worries that remain. All-in-all, I'm still most pleased to be associated with Bay Valley Foods.

Grandson Nathan was over this weekend after not having seen him for two weeks. Know what? Two weeks in the life of a 7-week-old represents big steps forward. Nathan remains remarkably handsome, however, and his genius seems to expand every time we see him.

I chatted with some old friends tonight. One is a former co-worker who keeps being paid but is currently uninspired. She knows that she needs to make some kind of move to take care of that, but things aren't quite bad enough to force the move in the current job market.

Another was a friend/mentor/job coach who lost a job and then was diagnosed with terminal cancer. First despair, then he's on top of the world because he quit worrying about work, went 'home' to be with family, and then has found experimental treatment that gives him all the hope in the world. His faith in God has bloomed and he's happier than he's been in years, if ever before.

My niece and nephew, Rebecca and Aaron are on RAGBRAI, the great bike ride across Iowa, this week. Both are enjoying the trip for its own merits, I'm sure, but also remembering their father who did this ride many, many times. Both are sending trip updates via the Internet using different methods. I'm enjoying my vicarious involvement thanks to their posts.

It's certainly been a mild summer here. Bills for the A/C are nonexistant so far, and still warm enough to be comfortable. There are some who wish it would be hotter, but I'm not kicking.

I'm too old for this

That big project at work caused me to work all weekend and made me absolutely exhausted. Fortunately, we seem to have accomplished what we set out to do, so I've earned the wages they've been paying me. There are still kinks to work out -- but if this stuff was an automatic slam-dunk, then why would they have to pay me?

Grandson is good. Think he's showing signs of genius (at six weeks).

Grandson's parents are good. So is Aunt Laura.

We enjoyed guests, but they were gone too soon.

Woodwork has progressed but there's more to go.

Later this week, I will be having one of those crummy medical procedures us middle-aged types need to do periodically in order to prevent bigger troubles. Not fun, but 5 years ago the same procedure detected and removed pre-cancerous growths....so some discomfort is traded for longer healthy years.

After 11:00 and I'm about to fall asleep.....guess that's a sign I should sign off.

J