Vacating

We are!
This is reminiscent of a vacation we took a few years ago, through St. Louis.
Actually, the biggest similarity is that it is hot. Triple digits or at least close.
A few years ago we were in similar temps with a car with no AC. But that was in August.
There was also a St Louis vacation (me alone) on the 4th of July. Went to the Arch. Played Knots. Ran through a rainstorm.

Last night was an Em’s game (Little Minor league A M’s), followed by fireworks.
The game was crowded and stiffling hot. The fireworks were fun. Down on the outfield, lying in the grass.

This morning was the Butte-Butte run/walk. Dan ran, the rest of us walked. The walk was a 4.5 mile. Enjoyable fun. Everybody made it – Jay, Carl, Chris, Elisia, Parker, Maggie, Sue, Kevin, Angela – ages 4-52. Then a few of us walked about 1-2 miles more to get coffee (how Seattle). Really, the minivan only held so many, and there were a few more of us than so many.

So – my milage is a bit shorter than it should be, and last week was devoid of exercise.
Falling off the training wagon, but will get back on next week. 45 days or so to go, so it won’t be the end of the world.

(Rey – if you’re reading, Carl said he parked 70, and Parker got 1 off of Carl)
I’m not sure, but there may have been a little bit of exaggeration going on.

A 3 Day Weekend

I even tried to leave work early.
Not tremendously early, just 1/2 hour. A mere 30 minutes.

I went to check with my project of the hour compatriot to be sure he had things handled.
I knew he had just been talking with one customer because he had asked me a question.

But less than 5 minutes later – he was gone.
And then I realized that all other manager, supervisor types were also gone.

So – I turned my computer back on, called home to give an ETA of home arrival, and went back to work.

But at 4:30 I was packed up and ready to skeedaddle. Checked in with the 2 that stay until 5, and out the door.

The original idea had been to get home, pack (since there had not been any time to accomplish this earlier), and take off for a 5 hour (under good conditions) jaunt southward.
But while slogging through the homeward commute I decided that the tonight or tomorrow AM question was listing toward the AM.

So – now, as soon as that was agreed to by all involved, the tiredness is coming in waves.
I need to pick it up for a bit and finish the packing part.
Early to bed will probably not be an issue, and then it will be early to rise.

It will also allow us to spend at least part of an evening with our friend Dennis – who lives south, but is spending the fabulous fourth here.

3 Day Weekends are:
Sweet, Awesome, Rad, Cool, Groovy, or whatever your generation likes to use to describe Nice.

Saved

Saved by friends.

You know when it’s your significant other’s birthday,
but you’re just too busy to do much,
you manage one kind-of present – not a surprise (so practical)
and you just can’t find your way around work
and you only come home because you think your kid needs the car?

But your friends decide to have a birthday party -
at their house
with pizza and cake and ice cream and presents

And another friend brings movies (16 mm)
from the 1920’s up through maybe the 1960’s
with an intermission and everything
(The Marquis would have really enjoyed the approximately 1957 film on bicycle safety).

And somebody called a few more friends and we all had a good time.

And I now have a lot to be thankful for.

And Carl had a good birthday.

Late night

It is almost tomorrow.
I just got home from work – really probably 15-20 minutes ago.
Still.

Public meeting tonight. We try to end them at 9, and at 8:50 I tried to reel it in, but it just kept going.
All in all not a bad meeting, and I am sure we did some educating, especially for our Board.
This was not originally intended to be a Board meeting, but they all wanted to hear what was going on – so they did.

Tired

8 AM meeting in the morning. I got my stuff ready for that one at about noon today – so it should be a breeze.
Then it is prep for the 7/6/09 meeting, which sounds far off, but is really just 3 work days away. Getting ready for today’s meeting provided an opportunity to do double duty for both meetings (today and the 6th) and I took it and ran with it – burning up multiple copy machines.

We finished our last packet of information 10 minutes before tonights festivities started.

OK – this is way more information than anyone needs, but I tend to dump my head after a public meeting. It is kind of like a performance. So consider that you are all saving Carl from at list a little bit of me blabbing away.

As things should be?

Ah – evening at the R-H household.
Carl, dishes and working on stats and talking baseball with friends
Ashlan, aerobics (off-site) following by more working out on-site (we think)
Jay, home (Ashlan needed the car) working on the next evenings public meeting.

Well – we were all at home together for a bit at least.

Un-wiped (see below)

Finally up – and missed the start of any organized walks.
Glad to have slept, but need to do some sort of exercise.
OMG – a birthday is coming up and no time showing in the days between, except today.
A want/need could be found at REI – down to the flagship store – Sandals found and purchased.
So – need a walk – walk back.

Announcement – First Raspberries of the year! A large handful, large & flavorful.
Sorry no pictures this time – they got eaten too fast.

Wiped Out

Got up at the usual time yesterday, went out for a 13 mile walk, small cup of joe and home.
Had some lunch (I think – it seems that it should have happened then)
Little computer time and then out to a movie (Up).
The movie is really good. I don’t get out to many first run movies. Ashlan was going out with a friend and wanted us to wait another day, but sometimes plans like “wait” don’t pan out so, … off we went.

We walked, of course, to the theatre. Sat through the show with several others. SPOILER ALERT.
Carl accused me of knowing it was a tear-jerker and not telling him. Well he never asked!
SPOILER OVER

After the show we went home via the grocery store and picked up some food that could be used for dinner.
Made dinner. About halfway through my body started to shut down.

I think the last few weeks of work finally came home to roost. Not just the physical part, and probably more the mental part. So – off to bed. I was planning to do another long walk this morning, but I needed to allow for some catch up time in bed. So I will try to get a shorter walk (5-6 miles) in this morning.  Time to train is still 5-6 weeks, but it is starting to feel shorter.

Twenty dollar symphony

Having a world class symphony in town is one thing.
Being able to afford tickets is another.
We managed to score some $17 tickets. They get you in the door, they get you right up close, really close, look out for musician sweat close.
The interesting part is that while you could see the musicians right in front of you, the rest was just bits and pieces.
The first half had soloists and a chorale. We saw pant leg and skirt bottom of the soloists. I saw the hands of one person in the chorus. A pianists hands came into sight for a brief moment when two violinists moved their legs briefly.
Nevertheless, music is about listening more than seeing.

The second half of the program was Holst’s Planets. It was great.  I love the music. In the last movement – Neptune – the Mystic – there were singers in the very back upper balcony. It was a mysterious sound. My personal favorite is Mercury, although Mars and Jupiter are close to the top as well.

Time to sleep – planning to walk tomorrow AM.

The first half was a new piece called “Meditations” by a composer whose name I can’t remember (and am too tired to get up and find).
It was OK, but it didn’t grab me. I followed the words (all about God and how could he think much of me) I actually was counting columns of lyrics to see how far we had to go until intermission.
At one point I flashed back to a twin bill at the Soo Drive In. Carl & I suffered through Blind Date with Bruce Willis and others, whi;e waiting for George Carlin, Bette Midler & Shelley Long in “Outrageous Fortunes”. I believe we had baby Rey along as well.

Whirlwind

Sometimes – Yesterday work was consumed by 3 projects.
Well 1 (actually 2 now that I think) meetings and 2 projects.
Well 2 meetings, 1 incident and 1 project.
Scary when incidents are treated just like projects.

Meeting 1 – presenting – have to be there. Did OK, although I did refer to accounting as mundane, which got a follow-up reaction from our accounting department.
Meeting 2 – short, training, we’ll see.
Incident 1 – teenagers (I assume), school is just out, beer, smokes, mostly secluded location with two 4 million gallon tanks. Don’t know what their goal is, but have cut locks, fences and caught the attention of one of the few neighbors, who has diligently worked to get the attention of the police. The police were not initially too interested, although they did manage to contact the individuals and warn them. But we wanted MORE response, since if they did manage to get into the tanks we would have to consider boil water, draining, many thousands of dollars of time. Climbing tanks may be a time honored tradition, but these days – not a good idea.
I explained our position and told our finest that we wanted/needed to go further, and could I have the names, and what did I need to do. And – they are at least doing some investigation! We’ll see.

So – that was the morning.

Project 1, which has dominated my last 3 weeks had a letter that had to be written, attachments that had to be prepared, and it had to go out. It includes notice of a meeting in less than a week which was just scheduled and another in less than two weeks, and this is way off of our 2 week notice period we like, but ………. Post office closes at 6. 12:30ish – GO. Write, edit, edit, write, edit, edit, edit, labels merge, edit, letter merge, edit, attachment print, fold, stuff, postage, out the door at 5:15.

Drive – TRAFFIC JAM – into town, home, walk, bus, Ball Game.
Friends, food, fun and a WIN.
Walk, drive, check e-mail, bed.
Alarm, up, drive, eagles – 2, school buses no longer and issue, but garbage trucks are, back to work.

Choose your Attitude

Yesterday had a frustrating end to the work day.
As I was driving in this morning I thought – I have an opportunity to be depressed, and people would understand.

But I don’t like being depressed, so I thought I would choose my attitude to not be depressed. And I’m not. But perhaps instead of choosing what not to be I should have focused on what to be. I was thinking that not depressed would be happy and energetic. 1/2 right. But it has an aggressive and slightly evil edge to it.