I think it's finally Spring

I haven't been very faithful with updates it seems, but here's anew installment -- even if tardy.

Nathan, our grandson, will be a year old in a couple of weeks. Little scutter sure is cute. He doesn't walk yet, but only because it hasn't occurred to him to do so. No words yet either.

Not so much different here for the adults. Laura and Sue have their same jobs. I have passed my first anniversary at my 'new' job.

One thing that is new is old as well. I have been getting reacquainted with old friends from high school via Facebook. I have really enjoyed getting reacquainted with one in particular, though have 'chatted' with several. New new/old friend Bobette will actually be in Chicago in a week and we're going to get together for lunch an a few hours of showing her Chicago before she has dinner with family who live here. Looking forward to seeing someone I knew 40 years ago (man that's a long time!)

Sue and I have to work up some ambition soon and prepare the back half of the house to get the floors refinished....had the front half done when we did the kitchen about 18 months back. Hate the thought of moving all that stuff, but no help for it if we want the floor. Maybe an excuse to get rid of some junk at the same time.

Whoa, it's been a month since I posted

Let's see, where to start.

Niece coming for summer, nope. Different plan.
Me to Pittsburgh to work, maybe sometime, not yet.
Big storm. Yep had that, snows all gone, but an inch or so new snow today (first day of spring)

Did taxes today. Owe the Feds. That depressed me until I remembered that a year ago today I was unemployed. What with two employers this last year, etc., etc., that we didn't withhold enough just means that we made more money than expected, "so quit your bitchin', James!"

Watching the grandson grow is a real joy. Let's see, he's now 9, no, almost 10 months old. Still the most intelligent and handsome child ever. We have lots of pictures, of course. They're just not organized, so posting some will wait for another day.

There were some really nice spring days here last week, even though we turned cruddy this weekend. The crocus and daffodils were trying to break through, but haven't bloomed yet. The little boy mallards are following the little girl mallards around eagerly. Robins appeared from nowhere and are everywhere now. Before this new blanket of snow, most of the grass wasn't looking so brown anymore. The catkins on the birch in the back yard seem to be getting fatter.

I met Laura's latest boyfriend briefly the other day. His name is Nathan (just like the grandson). He's a PhD candidate at Iowa State who is here doing work at Fermi Lab or Argonne (forget which), but fancy physics one way of the other. We'll get better acquainted soon. I'm told he's coming for Easter dinner.

Looking forward (if you can call it that) to a couple improvement projects once the weather turns nice. We had the floors in the front half of the house sanded and refinished when we did the kitchen last year....need to do the back half of the house next...don't look forward to moving all the furniture and crud for the project, but can't be helped. Then we need to have a plumber in to make repairs to our sewer line. I wouldn't be surprised if the line from the house to the street needs to be replaced...maybe we'll get lucky. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

My woodwork shop has been just gathering dust (and not sawdust) lately. I have received a shop order for a toy chest for new grandnephew, Max, so maybe I'll dust things off one day soon. I made a chest for his older sister, but have some different design elements in mind for this young man this time.

Last time I mentioned that Sue was feeling poorly. That's mostly gone away now, seems to have just been a combination of viruses and no longer being 18 years old. She was pretty miserable for a time, but is pretty well back to her old irreverent self now.

I guess that's all the news from Lake Wobegone for now.

Supposed to storm tonight

The weather forecasters say we're supposed to get clobbered tonight and tomorrow. Started off predicting a foot of snow, that's moderated some as the evening progressed. I guess we'll see when the sun comes up; only a half inch or so thus far.

Work stuff: Had a bunch of folks into the office last week; training of new staff, advanced training of staff who have been around. As an extension, I'll be traveling to Pittsburgh in a couple weeks to further train one of our new planners. It was a good session, but I'm still worried about one co-worker who just doesn't seem to get it. I'm afraid this individual will ultimately need to find a different way to make a living.

Over the weekend I brought the church books up to date and finished the IRS paperwork for employees for 2009. I hate the year end; all kind of folks, government, central church, insurance company, all think they need annual reports. Nobody understands how much crap I go through to handle this stuff. I'm tired of the Treasurer job, but don't see anyone standing in the wings waiting for a chance to take over. Oh well, tax season is all but over, then just writing checks isn't so bad.

Sue has been having a tough time. She's has a cold/virus that's making her miserable. In addintion, she's had a persistent pain in her lower back. After it went beyond a week, she went to the doctor who ruled out kidney stones and gave her a prescription for spiffy Tylenol. She's to report back for more tests if pain hasn't gone away in a week or two. Could be a just a virus. Or, other stuff.

We had a note from our niece Anne. She has a prospective job here in Chicagoland for some portion of the summer and was wondering that if things worked out, should she camp here. Seems like fun, so hope all does work.


Time for lights out, I guess. Everybody stay in touch. J

Nathan Pics

Promised pictures last time.

Notice that Grandpa really knows how to show a guy a good time.

Been awhile since an insomniac post

Hey everybody,

It's only 11:30, but then I tried to go to sleep and then couldn't, so here I am. Listening to Streisand, Josh Grolin, Linda Eder on Pandora....nice.

Thinking about stuff good and not so good that's going on in the world these days, and I keep wondering why it is that we (at this house) have been so lucky when there are so many around us that are having such a tough time. I mentioned this to a friend awhile back, and she was kind enough to remind me that we've had our times when it was the other way around...suppose that's true.

Poor Nathan has a cold. He was having trouble being his usual good-natured self what with having trouble breathing, stuffy nose and all, when I got home tonight. Poor kid.

Still high winter here, but not a bad one. I played emergency taxi this morning for a young woman who was in from the east coast on business...she needed to get the heck out of Dodge before the storms socked in everything out east. She hasn't called for me to come bring her back to use the spare bedroom, so I assume she's successfully back in Pittsburgh.

I have a new boss. She's finished her 4th week. I consider it a good sign that she has begun to confide in me about stuff. Sharon has her head on straight and knows her craft. We'll get along fine.

Ella Fitzgerald on Pandora now; a generation ahead of my time, but wow, was she good or what?

It might be time to start taxes...might still be some paperwork coming though. We'll see how the mood strikes when the sun comes up tomorrow.

Seems that though we're pretty busy here, there's really not all that much news. Just dealing with every day stuff.

Nathan is growing and growing. I'll post new pictures next time.

Happens in the best of families

So, I'm PC savy, really good at it. Still got messed up and am having to do a bunch of manual data recovery.

Microsoft quit supporting MSMoney. Got a new PC for home. Stuff got chewed up and lost all the Money data for our church's accounts. Gone, bye-bye, lost. No backup data recently enough to help. So, I'm back to the paper records and re-keying old data....which needs to be done so I can issue W2's etc., etc.

Crud.

Advice....always backup, always, always.

We've replaced Money with Quicken. I've paid their fee for backup service...puts my data on a computer in their house....worth every cent.

J

Today I said goodbye to an old friend

In 2000, we moved into our "new" house. This house came with a family room on the patio level off the back of the house, and that became my personal hang out.

The room needed lots of work. It's roof was shot, there was carpet damage thanks to the leaky roof, and so on. We stripped all that stuff out and were in the process of figuring out what to do with the room when we ran into some really nice furniture at a garage sale. For $400 we got two Lazy Boy sofas and a big over-stuffed recliner. This furniture-set determined the color of the walls and the carpet and the rest of the room decor.

The recliner in particular was my friend for nearly 10 years. It was my refuge when coming home weary after a hard day's work. I couldn't count the number of nights I've spent in my recliner when I fell asleep in the middle of some fascinating TV show. Then there were the nights I spent in the recliner when I was fretting about work, or fretting about the lack of work. My chair was my refuge.

Then a couple or three years ago, the right arm became 'floppy'. The frame had broken. I made a patch that screwed to the outside, reinforcing the broken arm....not attractive, but functional.

Then one day I sat down and herd a loud pop. One of the seat springs had broken. Then a bit later another. My poor chair was dying by inches. The seat was now like sitting in a hole.

So Sue and I went shopping for new chairs...hers was not as bad as mine, but also dying.

We bought two lovely new leather recliners. Hers is a rocker. Mine doesn't rock, but in moves away from the wall when reclined. They are beautiful, comfortable, brand new chairs in a house that has been furnished with hand-me-downs for longer than I can remember.

All that said, a few minutes ago I came into my room to watch my TV and sat in this beautiful new chair, and it didn't feel right....not bad, just not the same. My old friend was gone.

Garrison Keillor would have some deep philosophical something to say about this. Give me a few weeks and I'll be just fine, but I sure wish my old, comfortable, accustomed chair hadn't had to die.

I love my new chair. It's everything a chair should be....but when I walk in and sit, my butt is still expecting the old chair, and it's a bit of a shock that my environment has changed.

Life goes on.