Oh Well

Day two of my colleague being out sick...he has a sinus infection. He had been coughing (a dry raspy cough) on Monday, so I told him to leave early. Yesterday he called me while I was on the way to work (I usually show up early) to let me know. It was not busy at all, however we had one issue come up 1 hour before I left that I had to hand over to this weeks on call grunt (He is in Brazil) and another came up after handover. There were problems with both, but I think we have them all straightened out. Thankfully Wednesdays are historically slow days. If the averages hold true, I should have 1 or 2 issues to deal with today.

One drawback to my colleague begin out is that I cannot report the extra time I am working into our time entry system. They closed it out on the 18th and we cannot make any changes to it. Any changes I make will be after the fact and may not even be allowed. I know it does not affect my pay, but I like to be as accurate as possible.

With my colleague being out, I am pretty much stuck in the office all day. 9-10 hours is a long time to be siting at your desk and not being able to go to lunch or take a real break. Cry me a river, El Gee...cry me a river.

I have not been geocaching in a while. I have been on call or the weather has not been cooperative. I was hoping to do some Saturday, but it looks like God has other plans...it is supposed to rain. I guess he really wants me to finish cleaning my office at home.

We still have not sent out any Christmas cards. My wife wanted to do them last weekend but something got in the way and we did not do them. We have gotten 20 or so...pretty much our average. My wife sends out 3 times that number each and every year...many to people who do not reciprocate or even write us e-mails. Normally I will send out an e-letter to everyone a week or so before Christmas, but this year I just have not been motivated to do so. Even if I did try, I am not sure what I would write.

I noticed that the last two van payments cleared the bank on the 18th. I had one scheduled for the 14th and one for the 17th. Odd how they both cleared on the same day. With that, the van is paid for. We now only owe on 2 knee surgeries for our dog and our house. With God's blessing, we can have the surgeries paid off in 2007. Doing so means paying a lot of money each month (two dog knees cost about the same as an average used car) but I am so tired of debt I am willing to suffer a while longer (we have been paying a lot of money on debt the past year or so) just to get out. I still plan, however to take a real vacation again. So far, the past 4 or so have all been in cash. If we are blessed even more, I can go visit my mom during 2008 in WV and not cut so many corners, like I have been the past 2 years.