Thursday, September 18, 2008

How Do You Start Your Day?

Well, if you are me, and the day is today, you start it by having all FIVE smoke detectors issuing a "low battery" warning at 5:00 AM. They started one at a time until all were chirping by 5:30 AM.

The dogs noticed it first...they hate that noise and run away from it when it starts. The problem was, there was no place to run because the 1650 sq ft home we live in is covered with smoke detectors.

And of course we were all out of 9v batteries. So my wife takes the more social dog and jumps in the van to go to the drug store to get some. The drug store is closed, so she goes to another one not to far away. An alarm is going off as she pulls up, so she leaves...slowly. She then goes to Wal-mart and picks up two 4-packs of 9v batteries, but it takes her over an hour. During this hour, I get to listen to a cacophony of chirping smoke alarms, each one going off at an interval different than the other four.

My wife finally gets back and I quickly replace the batteries, which leave three for the next time this happens. Well, we really need five, so she is taxed in picking up at least one more 2-pack.

I then get ready to start working from home. My mailbox is full, mostly for issues I am not tracking but people want to "keep me in the loop". I get a couple of, "why did you do this?" e-mails, which to be honest one of them was my screw-up. Never put me in charge of something if you are not going to give me instructions on how to do it. They will get over it and I am sure I will not lose my job over it, either.

My wife begins getting ready to go out with one of her girlfriends while I check my personal e-mail. Oh boy, my sling bag (for Geocaching) is going to be delivered today. I got a great deal on it ($8) but raped on shipping ($7), however the overall price ($15) is very good for this so I am not too irked. It only took four days to get here via Standard Shipping US Mail. At least I have it in time for this weeks adventure.

It has been a busy week for me so far. Monday and Tuesday I had church business meetings and Wednesday we had small group. Today I am free once I get off at 4:00 PM but I do not know what my wife will want to do. Maybe nothing. I am okay with that.

I am working from home today, like I normally do on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I took yesterday off to burn another day of vacation. I wasted it on a Geocaching run in Plano. It started out pretty badly but ended up okay. I onoy got scratched up a little.

Finances have been a major source of concern for us, as well as the thought of more layoffs at my job. 24,000+ jobs to be cut, half of them in the US, most of them in my business group. I really would like to be out of debt but that just is not possible right now. We are hoping for some bonus money and an income tax refund that will clear out what we owe. It is not much by most people's standards, but it is enough to bug me. Of course all the issues with banks over the past few days are beginning to worry me some as well, but only a little.

We have deposit placed on the beach house for next spring. Since we cannot pay it off in 2 payments like the owne asked, we are sending him payments monthly. My wife going back to work has helped, so has working from home.

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