I am miserable. I have been suffering with some of the worst allergy/sinus issues of my adult life. My head is so stuffed that breathing through my nose is almost impossible. I am sneezing and today my eyes finally started to itch...
I have taken Claratin, Sudaphed, Tylenol Sinus, and Zyrtek...nothing gives me much relief. I have an appointment with the doctor at 8:50 AM to see if it is just allergies or if there is something else wrong. My chest was a little "rattley" a couple of days ago but it feels better now.
I have been fighting with allergies my whole life. When I was a kid I was miserable. As an adult they got better (I could afford better drugs) but over the years they have gotten worse. I have tried one prescription med that has helped, Xyzol. It works but it is kinda pricey. However if I don't get relief soon, I will be willing to take out a loan for it if needed.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Time Flies
It has been almost a week since my last post and I am not sure where the time has gone. Heck I am not even sure I know what all has happened during that time.
The most memorable event in the past week was my little Geocaching adventure on Saturday near Monksville, Texas. It was my first long hike (nine miles) Geocaching and has to be one of my favorite trips ever. It ranks right up with my caching trip to WV a few weeks ago. You can read more on that over at my geocaching blog.
Work as been tolerable. There are always little things that irk me (like changing processes and not telling anyone) but over all things have been pretty good. My colleague is on call this week and we are both covering for a colleague in Brazil who is on vacation. I am not sure how other countries can afford to let employees take two to four weeks off at one time (we could never get by with that here in the States) but I am glad he can get some time off. He is a very busy man.
Our weather here has been warmer lately than I would have expected. We had a cool snap that kept me in long sleeves at night for a few days but that is gone now...we are back to normal later summer temps which is causing two problems for me: Allergies and the tempurature of our office.
Rag weed is heavy right now and since I am allergic to the stuff, I have been stuffed up so bad I can hardly stand it. 24 Claratin only lasts about 12 hours or so at best (one day it lasted about 6) and I hate to mix and match meds just to get some relief. Thankfully this should end soon and I will be back to "normal"
With the late summer temps comes the HVAC's system at work becoming "confused" on what to do. Right now it is blowing ice cold air into an already cool office. Not only is out office ice cold but the restroom closest to my office is bitterly cold. This happens every fall and it really is annoying. It is so bad my office mate wears a jacket in the office. It is about all I can do to tolerate it.
My wife got an e-mail from our pastor the other day. He is a young pastor, with the majority of his experience coming from pastoring youth. He also is very likable and somewhat boyish, but I digress. The reason for the e-mail was to have my wife and I pray for him as he delivers a sermon on Sunday on tithing. The subject of giving is always a touchy subject. Many who feel they do their share are offended and feel singled out. Those who do not give a tithe or give one regularly think the church is greedy. I used to feel like the latter until I decided to give tithing a try.
It was not easy but after a few years I was able to gladly write out my tithe (10% of my income) check to the church. And while things have been tight, we are still eating, have a roof over our head, and employed. Besides, if your budget is so tight that 10% will make or break you, then you need to reexamine your priorities.
A lot of people look for a way to lower their tithes like some people try to lower their taxes. They bicker over tithing on the net or the gross, on re-embursed funds, tax returns, bonues, etc. I think it is silly to do that. The rule is in my house, that unless you have already tithed on it, you will tithe on it! And sometimes we will tithe on something like a tax return as an offering to God. Yes, since we tithe on the gross, we have already tithed on that money, but what the heck, it all belongs to God anyway.
The most memorable event in the past week was my little Geocaching adventure on Saturday near Monksville, Texas. It was my first long hike (nine miles) Geocaching and has to be one of my favorite trips ever. It ranks right up with my caching trip to WV a few weeks ago. You can read more on that over at my geocaching blog.
Work as been tolerable. There are always little things that irk me (like changing processes and not telling anyone) but over all things have been pretty good. My colleague is on call this week and we are both covering for a colleague in Brazil who is on vacation. I am not sure how other countries can afford to let employees take two to four weeks off at one time (we could never get by with that here in the States) but I am glad he can get some time off. He is a very busy man.
Our weather here has been warmer lately than I would have expected. We had a cool snap that kept me in long sleeves at night for a few days but that is gone now...we are back to normal later summer temps which is causing two problems for me: Allergies and the tempurature of our office.
Rag weed is heavy right now and since I am allergic to the stuff, I have been stuffed up so bad I can hardly stand it. 24 Claratin only lasts about 12 hours or so at best (one day it lasted about 6) and I hate to mix and match meds just to get some relief. Thankfully this should end soon and I will be back to "normal"
With the late summer temps comes the HVAC's system at work becoming "confused" on what to do. Right now it is blowing ice cold air into an already cool office. Not only is out office ice cold but the restroom closest to my office is bitterly cold. This happens every fall and it really is annoying. It is so bad my office mate wears a jacket in the office. It is about all I can do to tolerate it.
My wife got an e-mail from our pastor the other day. He is a young pastor, with the majority of his experience coming from pastoring youth. He also is very likable and somewhat boyish, but I digress. The reason for the e-mail was to have my wife and I pray for him as he delivers a sermon on Sunday on tithing. The subject of giving is always a touchy subject. Many who feel they do their share are offended and feel singled out. Those who do not give a tithe or give one regularly think the church is greedy. I used to feel like the latter until I decided to give tithing a try.
It was not easy but after a few years I was able to gladly write out my tithe (10% of my income) check to the church. And while things have been tight, we are still eating, have a roof over our head, and employed. Besides, if your budget is so tight that 10% will make or break you, then you need to reexamine your priorities.
A lot of people look for a way to lower their tithes like some people try to lower their taxes. They bicker over tithing on the net or the gross, on re-embursed funds, tax returns, bonues, etc. I think it is silly to do that. The rule is in my house, that unless you have already tithed on it, you will tithe on it! And sometimes we will tithe on something like a tax return as an offering to God. Yes, since we tithe on the gross, we have already tithed on that money, but what the heck, it all belongs to God anyway.
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.
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.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Off The Hook
I wish all my on-calls were like my last one. I did not get called all weekend long and the calls during the week were few. As a matter of fact, the week was rather light compared to the past couple of months. While we did have a few lingering issues (just like today), there were no frantic calls at 2:00 AM asking to have a server rebooted or a report of a network being down...although one call did come in at 4:00 AM. While that issue was a mess, at least it was resolved with minimal problems.
The only other notable issue was the hurricane that tore through the Texas Gulf. While it had little effect on us (it was about two hours east of us) we did wind and rain, although it was minor. The real damage is being realized today as the gulf area of several states is being investigated and searched. It looks pretty grim. About the only plus that I can see is that the impact to oil and gas production will be a lot lower than expected. I am glad I filled up on Friday at Kroger ($3.33/gallon) since now it is $3.60/gallon and rising.
The only other notable issue was the hurricane that tore through the Texas Gulf. While it had little effect on us (it was about two hours east of us) we did wind and rain, although it was minor. The real damage is being realized today as the gulf area of several states is being investigated and searched. It looks pretty grim. About the only plus that I can see is that the impact to oil and gas production will be a lot lower than expected. I am glad I filled up on Friday at Kroger ($3.33/gallon) since now it is $3.60/gallon and rising.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Hulu Love
I really cannot stop singing praises for Hulu. If you are not familiar with Hulu, it is a streaming video service that carries movies and popular TV shows via the web. There are no fees and you only have to sign up if you want to see movies with an "R" rating.
Overall the content is not bad. While I will admit the movie selection might be considered poor by many or most people, you cannot beat the price. Now if Joost can just make a web version of their service and offer more selection.
Hulu has allowed me to catch up on a few shows that I have missed because I had other things to record or watch during the time they were aired. They even have the recently air pilot of "Fringe", the JJ Abrams ("Lost") creation from Fox.
I am currently watching "The Bionic Woman" season one on my playlist. Past shows I have watched were "King of the Hill", "Firefly", and "Battlestar Galactica". There are probably more but there is so muc TV programming (both old and new) that you will keep busy for quite some time.
The one other down side is the ads that are broadcast but they are short (30 seconds or less) and fewer (four or five per episode), so that is not such a huge issue. I really hope they increase content for movies. If they do then this will be the place to watch your favorite TV show or movie in hi-def (when available) on the web.
Overall the content is not bad. While I will admit the movie selection might be considered poor by many or most people, you cannot beat the price. Now if Joost can just make a web version of their service and offer more selection.
Hulu has allowed me to catch up on a few shows that I have missed because I had other things to record or watch during the time they were aired. They even have the recently air pilot of "Fringe", the JJ Abrams ("Lost") creation from Fox.
I am currently watching "The Bionic Woman" season one on my playlist. Past shows I have watched were "King of the Hill", "Firefly", and "Battlestar Galactica". There are probably more but there is so muc TV programming (both old and new) that you will keep busy for quite some time.
The one other down side is the ads that are broadcast but they are short (30 seconds or less) and fewer (four or five per episode), so that is not such a huge issue. I really hope they increase content for movies. If they do then this will be the place to watch your favorite TV show or movie in hi-def (when available) on the web.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
And I Should Care Because...?
From The Drudge Report (as reported by ABC News) : BBC POLL: WORLD WANTS OBAMA...
Why should I care what the world wants? It is our president, not yours! The world is largely socialistic, so I should care what a form of government that I do not prefer thinks about who is best for the US? If you want Obama so bad, you take him.
What I want is a leader (and VP) who is ethical and has similar values that I do. Do you want to know a secret? Neither party has exactly what I want, but the Republican ticket is awfully close. Well, close enough to at least vote for them.
The internet is full of "world opinion" on who our next president should be. The US largely does not care who the next King, Prime Minister, or Chancellor is, so why should we care what the world thinks about who our next leader is? If we wanted our country to be like yours, then we might listen to your opinion but since we work hard to make our country different, your opinion means little to us.
I am not an elitist. While I do think the USA is the greatest nation on earth, I do care about what goes on in the world. I work in a multi-national, global company that holds accounts in many nations. I have gotten to travel a little and I can appreciate the countries I have visited. However, my opinion on what is best for your country is hardly relevant.
Let's just keep American issues in America.
Why should I care what the world wants? It is our president, not yours! The world is largely socialistic, so I should care what a form of government that I do not prefer thinks about who is best for the US? If you want Obama so bad, you take him.
What I want is a leader (and VP) who is ethical and has similar values that I do. Do you want to know a secret? Neither party has exactly what I want, but the Republican ticket is awfully close. Well, close enough to at least vote for them.
The internet is full of "world opinion" on who our next president should be. The US largely does not care who the next King, Prime Minister, or Chancellor is, so why should we care what the world thinks about who our next leader is? If we wanted our country to be like yours, then we might listen to your opinion but since we work hard to make our country different, your opinion means little to us.
I am not an elitist. While I do think the USA is the greatest nation on earth, I do care about what goes on in the world. I work in a multi-national, global company that holds accounts in many nations. I have gotten to travel a little and I can appreciate the countries I have visited. However, my opinion on what is best for your country is hardly relevant.
Let's just keep American issues in America.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
I Am Hank Hill
I just became a fan of "King of the Hill" last year and for a long while I was the only one to watch it. My wife did not seem to care for it even though it portrays middle class small city (as opposed to small town) Texas pretty well. Heck you could substitute Arlen for the town we live in and it would be a pretty good fit.
Over the past couple of months I have noticed a change in my wife as she has started to watch King of the Hill on a more frequent basis. I was even told that she watched it most every day while I was out of town visiting family and friends. I began wondering why my wife, who is usually anti-anything that I like, now races me to the TV at 6:00 PM CDT to watch the latest mis(adventures) of Hank Hill and his family and friends and then it hit me. I am Hank Hill.
I think that is the attraction. Now my wife is no Peggy and our son is certainly no Bobby (my wife is not bookish smart and my son is not effeminate at all) and our neighbors do not resemble Dale, Bill, or Boomhauer but I am for all intents and purposes, Hank Hill...right down to my mid sized pickup truck (I prefer Dodge over Ford) and glasses. Heck, we even both suffer from DGS (look that one up on the Hank Hill Wiki) or at least so says my wife. We both even had cantankerous fathers.
We were both athletes in high school, although his claim to fame is much greater than mine. He played football (it figures...he is from Texas) while I ran track. He of course was not born in Texas and always thought he was whereas I was not born in Texas and never wished so.
Hank and I share a penchant for "Farmer's Tans", grilling over propane versus charcoal, and love our family very much. We both attend church (Hank is a Methodist and I am non-denominational), and we both have and dote over dogs (which are geriatric). We are both conservative, Republican, and consider our wives to be our best friends. Also, we consider loyalty to be a very important and endearing quality.
To be honest there are a lot of differences between Hank and myself. For one, I do not sell propane but I have supported the same customer for 12 years. I am not a football fan (actually I do not like any professional sport) but I am a huge college basketball fan, especially the NC Tarheels. I have never smoked (other than a few tries in high school) but I did dip snuff for a few years.
Also Hank tends to be a bit naive, where I am a bit more cynical. When angered, quite often threatens to "kick someone's ass" as where I don't threaten...I would just do it (if I were so inclined. I have not been in a fight in quite a long time).
So, which King of the Hill character are you?
Over the past couple of months I have noticed a change in my wife as she has started to watch King of the Hill on a more frequent basis. I was even told that she watched it most every day while I was out of town visiting family and friends. I began wondering why my wife, who is usually anti-anything that I like, now races me to the TV at 6:00 PM CDT to watch the latest mis(adventures) of Hank Hill and his family and friends and then it hit me. I am Hank Hill.
I think that is the attraction. Now my wife is no Peggy and our son is certainly no Bobby (my wife is not bookish smart and my son is not effeminate at all) and our neighbors do not resemble Dale, Bill, or Boomhauer but I am for all intents and purposes, Hank Hill...right down to my mid sized pickup truck (I prefer Dodge over Ford) and glasses. Heck, we even both suffer from DGS (look that one up on the Hank Hill Wiki) or at least so says my wife. We both even had cantankerous fathers.
We were both athletes in high school, although his claim to fame is much greater than mine. He played football (it figures...he is from Texas) while I ran track. He of course was not born in Texas and always thought he was whereas I was not born in Texas and never wished so.
Hank and I share a penchant for "Farmer's Tans", grilling over propane versus charcoal, and love our family very much. We both attend church (Hank is a Methodist and I am non-denominational), and we both have and dote over dogs (which are geriatric). We are both conservative, Republican, and consider our wives to be our best friends. Also, we consider loyalty to be a very important and endearing quality.
To be honest there are a lot of differences between Hank and myself. For one, I do not sell propane but I have supported the same customer for 12 years. I am not a football fan (actually I do not like any professional sport) but I am a huge college basketball fan, especially the NC Tarheels. I have never smoked (other than a few tries in high school) but I did dip snuff for a few years.
Also Hank tends to be a bit naive, where I am a bit more cynical. When angered, quite often threatens to "kick someone's ass" as where I don't threaten...I would just do it (if I were so inclined. I have not been in a fight in quite a long time).
So, which King of the Hill character are you?
Friday, September 05, 2008
Something To Keep In Mind
There has been a lot of press regarding the nomination of Sarah Palin as VP of the USA. I have read a lot of blogs (both professional and personal) that tend to get a simple fact confused:
Sarah Palin is not running against Barack Obama for President of the US. She is the VP candidate for the Republican ticket. Comparing Sarah Palin to BHO is inaccurate. Please keep all the comparisons in order, BHO/McCain and Biden/Palin. If you want to comment on how good of a VP Palin will be, compare her to her opponent, Joe Biden. The same goes with Barack Obama. If you want to sing his praises, then compare him to McCain...apples to apples.
It drives me absolutely crazy to see BHO being contrasted and compared to Sarah Palin.
Now to be fair, you can do a "what if" on Palin. "What if John McCain kicks the bucket after 8 months in office...can Palin do the job? Would she do a better job than BHO?"
That is a pretty good and a fair question. Information has been surfacing that Palin ran her governership like a popularity contest rather than an executive office. Wether that info is true of just disinformation, I do not know.
Again, I like the personae of Sarah Palin. She has a lot of qualities that I think most people can admire. I believe she is a good mayor and we all know the majority (80%) of the population of Alaska approve of her, but can she fill the shoes of a dead president, if things go that way?
Sarah Palin is not running against Barack Obama for President of the US. She is the VP candidate for the Republican ticket. Comparing Sarah Palin to BHO is inaccurate. Please keep all the comparisons in order, BHO/McCain and Biden/Palin. If you want to comment on how good of a VP Palin will be, compare her to her opponent, Joe Biden. The same goes with Barack Obama. If you want to sing his praises, then compare him to McCain...apples to apples.
It drives me absolutely crazy to see BHO being contrasted and compared to Sarah Palin.
Now to be fair, you can do a "what if" on Palin. "What if John McCain kicks the bucket after 8 months in office...can Palin do the job? Would she do a better job than BHO?"
That is a pretty good and a fair question. Information has been surfacing that Palin ran her governership like a popularity contest rather than an executive office. Wether that info is true of just disinformation, I do not know.
Again, I like the personae of Sarah Palin. She has a lot of qualities that I think most people can admire. I believe she is a good mayor and we all know the majority (80%) of the population of Alaska approve of her, but can she fill the shoes of a dead president, if things go that way?
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Fanning The Flames
If you have spent any time at all on this blog you know I am a mostly conservative Christian father and husband. My wife is far more conservative than I am but we will agree to disagree on some issues to keep the peace.
My wife and I watched the big RNC speeches last night on TV and to be honest, we were both blown away. Rudy and Sarah both made great speeches and they had the crowd fired up. There was only one thing wrong with it. It was all politics.
Don't get me wrong, I like Sarah Palin and think she is an good role model for young women everywhere. While she is far from perfect, she still embodies what I believe the United States needs. She is a powerful speaker and proved that even when the teleprompter makes mistakes, she will still march on without missing a beat. She is a great spokeswoman for the Republicans. But can she do the job?
I have never been a John McCain fan. I supported Fred Thompson from the beginning and was truly saddened when he bowed out of the race. I then started looking towards Mitt Romney. While he is a Morman, he still sticks by his faith and I have to admire that.
When all the men I wanted to pull for dropped out, I felt like I was left looking at an old broken down draft horse in John McCain. He is old and has had at least three bouts of skin cancer. Oh, I know he is a fighter, but he old. Too old to run for president of the greatest nation on earth.
How does he remedy this situation? He recruits a young (early 40's), attractive hockey mom who just happens to be governer of Alaska. Now, tell me that does not just reek of politics?
To be honest, neither the Democratic candidate for president, nor the Republican candidate for vice president have enough experience to run this country. Not to mention that McCain is too old and I am really not sure what to think of Joe Biden...I need to research him more.
If John McCain is elected and he dies while in office, Sarah Palin would become president of the USA...a rather large job for a mother of five.
Am I a sexist? Not really. The bible has outlined roles for men and women but it does not state that women cannot be the leaders of countries.
This election is going to be 100% politics. Lots of mud will be sprayed on each and every candidate...no one will be spared.
My wife and I watched the big RNC speeches last night on TV and to be honest, we were both blown away. Rudy and Sarah both made great speeches and they had the crowd fired up. There was only one thing wrong with it. It was all politics.
Don't get me wrong, I like Sarah Palin and think she is an good role model for young women everywhere. While she is far from perfect, she still embodies what I believe the United States needs. She is a powerful speaker and proved that even when the teleprompter makes mistakes, she will still march on without missing a beat. She is a great spokeswoman for the Republicans. But can she do the job?
I have never been a John McCain fan. I supported Fred Thompson from the beginning and was truly saddened when he bowed out of the race. I then started looking towards Mitt Romney. While he is a Morman, he still sticks by his faith and I have to admire that.
When all the men I wanted to pull for dropped out, I felt like I was left looking at an old broken down draft horse in John McCain. He is old and has had at least three bouts of skin cancer. Oh, I know he is a fighter, but he old. Too old to run for president of the greatest nation on earth.
How does he remedy this situation? He recruits a young (early 40's), attractive hockey mom who just happens to be governer of Alaska. Now, tell me that does not just reek of politics?
To be honest, neither the Democratic candidate for president, nor the Republican candidate for vice president have enough experience to run this country. Not to mention that McCain is too old and I am really not sure what to think of Joe Biden...I need to research him more.
If John McCain is elected and he dies while in office, Sarah Palin would become president of the USA...a rather large job for a mother of five.
Am I a sexist? Not really. The bible has outlined roles for men and women but it does not state that women cannot be the leaders of countries.
This election is going to be 100% politics. Lots of mud will be sprayed on each and every candidate...no one will be spared.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Back In The Texas Groove: Part Three
After a week of not eating very well, not sleeping very well, and putting up with some cool, rainy days, my week was over and it was time to head back to Texas. I enjoyed myself, mostly because my friends and I had some great times driving all over WV to look at scenery and pick up a geocache or two...or 41, which is about what I grabbed if my total is correct. It was fun to be on my own for a week. Any longer and it would have been boring, any less and it would not have been enough. Being back revived, if only for a week, my fantasies of moving back to "The Mountain State". I miss that place more than I had thought...maybe more than I miss North Carolina. I guess if I could merge parts of my past and my present together it would be something like my current job, in WV, with my current church, my childhood friends, and my NC house. Of course none of that is in my future but it is a nice little fantasy nonetheless.
I got up early and packed my gear while I waited on mom to get up. I had hoped to leave by 7:00 AM but the longer she slumbered, the less likely that scenario would unfold. I was completely packed and dressed by the time mom got up at 6:30 AM. When the coffee was done, I ate a couple of corn fritters left over from the night before while I sipped my overly creamy and a touch too sweet coffee. Flavored creamers rule.
Mom and I chatted and when I was finished I began loading the van. I said my good byes to her and left the house at 7:30 AM. Before I pulled out my wife called me (like she did so many times during the week) to make sure I was up. I chatted with her just as I hit the road.
My wife had a hard week while I was gone. After her thyroid surgery, her energy level has dropped drastically. She still has the same drive, but the energy just isn't there. With that in mind, she was not able to keep up with her own demands, let alone completing the tasks I normally do on a weekly basis. The anguish of not being able to keep up with the demands of the house while I was gone were evident in the tone of her voice.
I made pretty good time on the first day. While I could have made it to my destination a little sooner had I not been adamant about grabbing some geocaches along the way, I still made it to Memphis, TN by 8:00 PM. Far from impressive but not too bad overall.
I stopped off to spend Friday night in Memphis. Why Memphis? My friend Block lives there with his sister and since he and I have not seen each other in a year or so, he invited me to stay with him instead of the campground. He called me during the week I was in WV and I was not too sure I wanted to stay the night with him and his sister. I did not know her and I did not want to impose. When I finally arrived I noticed several cars in the driveway and soon found out that I was not the only guest that night. I was a bit ticked off but I bit down the anger and went inside. Soon my anger was gone and I had a nice chat with his sister and the other guests, who just happened to be former roommates. It was sort of a get together for them and I just happened to show up for it.
After getting some good quality sleep in less than perfect conditions (Block snores louder than I do) I got up and packed my gear. I cleaned up a bit and then said my good bye's to Block. No one else was up yet so I asked him to thank his sister for me.
Saturday was my last day of driving. It was the shortest of the 4 days and I did not start feeling the drive until I crossed the Texas state line. That point on the map (Texarkana) marks the three hour point in my trip...either I have three hours to go or I have been on the road three hours. In this case it was the former and the road began to take it's toll.
Feeling a little run down, I pulled off at a gas station and got an iced coffee drink and some gasoline. I took the time to drain the drink and tune the radio to an 80's station before I hit the road again. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Thankfully, I made it home in one piece about three and a half hours later. Coming home is such a sweet feeling.
After I got home I noticed my throat was sore and my sinuses were really painful. Over the next couple days it got worse but on Wednesday I started to feel better. I am not sure what it is but it is contageous because my wife is now feeling the same way. Ain't love grand?
Well, now that I am back and slowly getting back into the swing of things, updates should get back to regularity. Hopefully political, technical, and faith based posts will be included once I get used to working every day again.
I got up early and packed my gear while I waited on mom to get up. I had hoped to leave by 7:00 AM but the longer she slumbered, the less likely that scenario would unfold. I was completely packed and dressed by the time mom got up at 6:30 AM. When the coffee was done, I ate a couple of corn fritters left over from the night before while I sipped my overly creamy and a touch too sweet coffee. Flavored creamers rule.
Mom and I chatted and when I was finished I began loading the van. I said my good byes to her and left the house at 7:30 AM. Before I pulled out my wife called me (like she did so many times during the week) to make sure I was up. I chatted with her just as I hit the road.
My wife had a hard week while I was gone. After her thyroid surgery, her energy level has dropped drastically. She still has the same drive, but the energy just isn't there. With that in mind, she was not able to keep up with her own demands, let alone completing the tasks I normally do on a weekly basis. The anguish of not being able to keep up with the demands of the house while I was gone were evident in the tone of her voice.
I made pretty good time on the first day. While I could have made it to my destination a little sooner had I not been adamant about grabbing some geocaches along the way, I still made it to Memphis, TN by 8:00 PM. Far from impressive but not too bad overall.
I stopped off to spend Friday night in Memphis. Why Memphis? My friend Block lives there with his sister and since he and I have not seen each other in a year or so, he invited me to stay with him instead of the campground. He called me during the week I was in WV and I was not too sure I wanted to stay the night with him and his sister. I did not know her and I did not want to impose. When I finally arrived I noticed several cars in the driveway and soon found out that I was not the only guest that night. I was a bit ticked off but I bit down the anger and went inside. Soon my anger was gone and I had a nice chat with his sister and the other guests, who just happened to be former roommates. It was sort of a get together for them and I just happened to show up for it.
After getting some good quality sleep in less than perfect conditions (Block snores louder than I do) I got up and packed my gear. I cleaned up a bit and then said my good bye's to Block. No one else was up yet so I asked him to thank his sister for me.
Saturday was my last day of driving. It was the shortest of the 4 days and I did not start feeling the drive until I crossed the Texas state line. That point on the map (Texarkana) marks the three hour point in my trip...either I have three hours to go or I have been on the road three hours. In this case it was the former and the road began to take it's toll.
Feeling a little run down, I pulled off at a gas station and got an iced coffee drink and some gasoline. I took the time to drain the drink and tune the radio to an 80's station before I hit the road again. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Thankfully, I made it home in one piece about three and a half hours later. Coming home is such a sweet feeling.
After I got home I noticed my throat was sore and my sinuses were really painful. Over the next couple days it got worse but on Wednesday I started to feel better. I am not sure what it is but it is contageous because my wife is now feeling the same way. Ain't love grand?
Well, now that I am back and slowly getting back into the swing of things, updates should get back to regularity. Hopefully political, technical, and faith based posts will be included once I get used to working every day again.
Back In The Texas Groove: Part Two
My first night back at my mom's house went well enough, but there were a few issues. First, mom lives right by a creek and her house is damp. Texas is dry and I am acclimated to Texas, so the mildewy, moldy, dampness of her house is tough on me initially. Also, she tends to use older down pillows and I am allergic to down. She never seems to remember this, even though I have been coming in to visit and stay with her for 20 years.
By the time I got up I was stuffy and congested but some sinus/allergy meds were in my bag so I took a dose with the fresh coffee mom made. Her coffee used to be so weak that you could see through it but over the years it has gotten stronger. She still drinks it black but she makes sure sugar and creamer are handy for me (even if it is powdered cheap stuff...at least she tries).
We chat and I watch the news while mom reads the morning paper. Being Sunday, we would be going to church in a few hours. Mom is a member of a little tiny country Baptist church with a membership of 60 or so and attendance of maybe 15. It is even tiny compared to our little country church here in Texas.
After church, many of us go to McDonald's for lunch. This is the first time I can remember since I have been coming in that I have gone out with her church friends for lunch. She tends to go out with them every Sunday after church and she appears to look forward to it. I got the feeling that she felt she had to come home with me instead of going out with them, so I invited myself along. In the end, it turned out well. We had some good conversation and I learned a lot from her friends.
We came home and changed into some lounging around clothes. I did not have an agenda but since I had been driving for two days I wanted to get out and stretch my legs. I figured I would go walk some at the park on the walking trail and grab a geocache that had been recently placed there. I found the cache pretty easily and decided to grab a couple of more in the area.
I came home and had a light dinner and chatted with mom for a while. My friends Rob and Brenda wanted me to come over and hang out with them when I had time so I figured tonight would be as good a night as any. I grabbed my laptop and headed over, hoping to get caught up on my e-mail (and some of my geocache logging) as well as catching up with old friends.
I stayed over at R&B's until 2 AM or so...a common habit when visiting them. I tend to spend a lot of time with them when I come in because they are such nice people. They will invite me over any night I am free.
The next few days were a bit different than they had been during past visits. Normally I spend the day with mom, helping her with things around the house that she cannot (or will not) get done by herself. However, this time I had been asked to go Geocaching with the friends who got me hooked on that hobby in the first place. While I had planned to go out once, maybe twice wit them, we ended up going out three times during the week. I am not sure that it made my mom overly happy, but to be honest, she is becoming such a hermit that it is maddening to sit all day at home with her and do...nothing. She rarely leaves the house and most of the time she watches QVC, reads, or knits. If it was not for her dog I bet she would never leave the house at all. I love my mom but she does not lead a helathy life.
During the week mom did do some "El Gee" specific things that meant a lot. She made a home made applesauce pie that turned out very well. She also made some home made pepperoni rolls with pepper jack cheese. The rest of the week (in the food department) was pretty much "fend for yourself". It is a pity mom does not cook anymore. At one time she was a pretty good cook. I especially liked he hot dog chili. It was sort of like what "Texas style" chili is supposed to be like (meat, spices, no beans) and all the kids in the neighborhood loved it. I just realized that I did not have any hot dogs while I was visiting, although I did have more than my share of pepperoni rolls.
I visted Rob and Brenda a couple of times and my sister once. My sis and I have a strained relationship centered around the man she married. There is no love lost between him and me. I have never been able to find any common ground with him. It surprises me that my he and my sis ever clicked.
I still have not seen my younger brother. I managed to talk to him a couple of times in the past but it was rather impersonal. My family back home is crumbling apart and it breaks my heart. While I admit that we are so different that any real time together would result in an explosion, it would be nice to see them now and again.
On Wednesday I was able to go to the local library and get caught up on e-mail and geocache logging. The head librarian knows my mom and let me use the system for a couple of hours while it was slow. I did not get a chance to check my e-mail or log any caches until Saturday evening after I got home. I am truly amazed how fast things pile up.
On my last night in WV (Thursday) I went out to a new Mexican place with the gang. After spending a week together, there was not a lot to say, but we managed nonetheless. It was good to see them all again. We still have a lot of the same interests and we all appear happily married. I only wish that my wife and I could come in together, but until we get the extra money to stay in a hotel (my wife refuses to stay at mom's), that just isn't going to happen. We did not stay out late...everyone had a busy day ahead of them...so we said our good bye's and went off on our way.
Since my vacation had a lot of geocaching in it, I will update my geocaching blog with all those details later.
By the time I got up I was stuffy and congested but some sinus/allergy meds were in my bag so I took a dose with the fresh coffee mom made. Her coffee used to be so weak that you could see through it but over the years it has gotten stronger. She still drinks it black but she makes sure sugar and creamer are handy for me (even if it is powdered cheap stuff...at least she tries).
We chat and I watch the news while mom reads the morning paper. Being Sunday, we would be going to church in a few hours. Mom is a member of a little tiny country Baptist church with a membership of 60 or so and attendance of maybe 15. It is even tiny compared to our little country church here in Texas.
After church, many of us go to McDonald's for lunch. This is the first time I can remember since I have been coming in that I have gone out with her church friends for lunch. She tends to go out with them every Sunday after church and she appears to look forward to it. I got the feeling that she felt she had to come home with me instead of going out with them, so I invited myself along. In the end, it turned out well. We had some good conversation and I learned a lot from her friends.
We came home and changed into some lounging around clothes. I did not have an agenda but since I had been driving for two days I wanted to get out and stretch my legs. I figured I would go walk some at the park on the walking trail and grab a geocache that had been recently placed there. I found the cache pretty easily and decided to grab a couple of more in the area.
I came home and had a light dinner and chatted with mom for a while. My friends Rob and Brenda wanted me to come over and hang out with them when I had time so I figured tonight would be as good a night as any. I grabbed my laptop and headed over, hoping to get caught up on my e-mail (and some of my geocache logging) as well as catching up with old friends.
I stayed over at R&B's until 2 AM or so...a common habit when visiting them. I tend to spend a lot of time with them when I come in because they are such nice people. They will invite me over any night I am free.
The next few days were a bit different than they had been during past visits. Normally I spend the day with mom, helping her with things around the house that she cannot (or will not) get done by herself. However, this time I had been asked to go Geocaching with the friends who got me hooked on that hobby in the first place. While I had planned to go out once, maybe twice wit them, we ended up going out three times during the week. I am not sure that it made my mom overly happy, but to be honest, she is becoming such a hermit that it is maddening to sit all day at home with her and do...nothing. She rarely leaves the house and most of the time she watches QVC, reads, or knits. If it was not for her dog I bet she would never leave the house at all. I love my mom but she does not lead a helathy life.
During the week mom did do some "El Gee" specific things that meant a lot. She made a home made applesauce pie that turned out very well. She also made some home made pepperoni rolls with pepper jack cheese. The rest of the week (in the food department) was pretty much "fend for yourself". It is a pity mom does not cook anymore. At one time she was a pretty good cook. I especially liked he hot dog chili. It was sort of like what "Texas style" chili is supposed to be like (meat, spices, no beans) and all the kids in the neighborhood loved it. I just realized that I did not have any hot dogs while I was visiting, although I did have more than my share of pepperoni rolls.
I visted Rob and Brenda a couple of times and my sister once. My sis and I have a strained relationship centered around the man she married. There is no love lost between him and me. I have never been able to find any common ground with him. It surprises me that my he and my sis ever clicked.
I still have not seen my younger brother. I managed to talk to him a couple of times in the past but it was rather impersonal. My family back home is crumbling apart and it breaks my heart. While I admit that we are so different that any real time together would result in an explosion, it would be nice to see them now and again.
On Wednesday I was able to go to the local library and get caught up on e-mail and geocache logging. The head librarian knows my mom and let me use the system for a couple of hours while it was slow. I did not get a chance to check my e-mail or log any caches until Saturday evening after I got home. I am truly amazed how fast things pile up.
On my last night in WV (Thursday) I went out to a new Mexican place with the gang. After spending a week together, there was not a lot to say, but we managed nonetheless. It was good to see them all again. We still have a lot of the same interests and we all appear happily married. I only wish that my wife and I could come in together, but until we get the extra money to stay in a hotel (my wife refuses to stay at mom's), that just isn't going to happen. We did not stay out late...everyone had a busy day ahead of them...so we said our good bye's and went off on our way.
Since my vacation had a lot of geocaching in it, I will update my geocaching blog with all those details later.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Back In The Texas Groove: Part One
I know it has been a while since my last update. I was planning to update this when I got back but I had terrible sinus problem for 3 days...
Well everyone, I am back to my "normal" life, having returned from my yearly pilgrimage to West Virginia to visit family and friends. This trip was a bit different than most but it was a good different.
I left on Friday morning (August 22nd) at 7:15 AM CST. My plans were to drive to Wildersville, TN and spend the night at Natchez Trace State Park before continuing on the following morning. Since I was traveling solo and had a new GPSr unit, I was excited to test it out on the road as well as doing a little Geocaching along the way. For more info on my Geocaching adventures, please see my Geocaching blog.
I stopped at Kroger to get a few things I would need for the road (milk, juice, sandwich stuff) as well as some cash before I started out. I took my time, driving carefully even though I was in a hurry to get to my destination. I had been informed by Knightmare_Duck that "caching along the route" would delay my arrival time considerably so I made plans not to over do it.
Gas prices surprised me some. In the Dallas area we were paying $3.40 or less per gallon but the cheapest I saw it my first day was $3.49. The prices only increased the further north and east I drove. Of course when I got back the prices were about the same as they were when I left, albeit a couple of pennies lower. I guess the rest of the world as not gotten the word yet.
My first day of traveling took me from Dallas,Texas to Wildersville, TN. While I normally get to the camp by 5:00 PM, it was closer to 7:00 when I actually got there. Blame it on the geocaching. I found a great spot (actually I was just the second camper to make it into this area) and nibbled on some food I had packed. I grabbed my geocaching gear and took a little stroll to see if I could get one before the light failed. I was successful.
The campground was wet and the air was humid. I was soaking wet with sweat and I hoped that I would cool down in good time. I was getting sleepy and the park ranger had still not shown up to collect the camping fee of $11.00 per night, of which one night was all that I would be staying. I did not want to go to sleep and have him wake me up so I stayed up until he finally arrived. In the mean time several other campers showed up looking for some sort of gathering that had was supposed to go on. I later learned the gather was cancelled due to weather.
I slept fitfully Friday night. It was hot and humid and I was sweating profusely. I tried to cool down but nothing seemed to work. Finally around midnight/1:00 AM I was able to fall asleep. I noticed a few campers came in late and set up in the dark. I got up and treated my self to a hot shower at the bathhouse. It felt good to wash away the sweat and grime from the day before. After I was finished with that, I ate a light breakfast of fruit, yogurt, cereal bars, and milk. A quick brushing of my teeth and I was ready to hit the road. First stop, the gas station.
Mileage on the van on the first day was about 22 mpg. Not great but considering the hills and the fact it is a v6 and a van, I was not too disappointed. The second day's mileage was more of the same and my meals were also more of what I had eaten the previous day: sandwiches, water, and fruit. I am a creature of habit.
I arrived in WV about 8:00 PM local time, which is about two hours later than normal for me. Again, caching along the route will slow you down. I also made sure to make some calls along the way (via mobile phone) to those who needed to know where I was and when I would be in.
When I arrived at my mom's house, I unloaded the van (my wife's vehicle, the vehicle of choice when traveling) and gave my mom a hug. We chatted for a while and then she asked me if I was hungry. I was, since the last meal I had was a sandwich eight hours before. I told her I was and she asked me what I wanted. In the old days, mom would have a ton of leftovers in the fridge. Coming home meant some of mom's home cooking. But ever since dad died back in 2002, mom has stopped cooking and lives of frozen dinners and sandwiches. Wanna take a guess what delectables I was offered upon my arrival? I declined food when I learned what was available and she seemed hurt. I tried to explain things to her but she just did not understand.
Mom and I caught up on things and before I knew it, I was yawning. It was about 10:00 PM local time and I was bushed. I have not had a plethera energy lately and I really need to go to the doctor to see what is causing my deminished stamina.
Well everyone, I am back to my "normal" life, having returned from my yearly pilgrimage to West Virginia to visit family and friends. This trip was a bit different than most but it was a good different.
I left on Friday morning (August 22nd) at 7:15 AM CST. My plans were to drive to Wildersville, TN and spend the night at Natchez Trace State Park before continuing on the following morning. Since I was traveling solo and had a new GPSr unit, I was excited to test it out on the road as well as doing a little Geocaching along the way. For more info on my Geocaching adventures, please see my Geocaching blog.
I stopped at Kroger to get a few things I would need for the road (milk, juice, sandwich stuff) as well as some cash before I started out. I took my time, driving carefully even though I was in a hurry to get to my destination. I had been informed by Knightmare_Duck that "caching along the route" would delay my arrival time considerably so I made plans not to over do it.
Gas prices surprised me some. In the Dallas area we were paying $3.40 or less per gallon but the cheapest I saw it my first day was $3.49. The prices only increased the further north and east I drove. Of course when I got back the prices were about the same as they were when I left, albeit a couple of pennies lower. I guess the rest of the world as not gotten the word yet.
My first day of traveling took me from Dallas,Texas to Wildersville, TN. While I normally get to the camp by 5:00 PM, it was closer to 7:00 when I actually got there. Blame it on the geocaching. I found a great spot (actually I was just the second camper to make it into this area) and nibbled on some food I had packed. I grabbed my geocaching gear and took a little stroll to see if I could get one before the light failed. I was successful.
The campground was wet and the air was humid. I was soaking wet with sweat and I hoped that I would cool down in good time. I was getting sleepy and the park ranger had still not shown up to collect the camping fee of $11.00 per night, of which one night was all that I would be staying. I did not want to go to sleep and have him wake me up so I stayed up until he finally arrived. In the mean time several other campers showed up looking for some sort of gathering that had was supposed to go on. I later learned the gather was cancelled due to weather.
I slept fitfully Friday night. It was hot and humid and I was sweating profusely. I tried to cool down but nothing seemed to work. Finally around midnight/1:00 AM I was able to fall asleep. I noticed a few campers came in late and set up in the dark. I got up and treated my self to a hot shower at the bathhouse. It felt good to wash away the sweat and grime from the day before. After I was finished with that, I ate a light breakfast of fruit, yogurt, cereal bars, and milk. A quick brushing of my teeth and I was ready to hit the road. First stop, the gas station.
Mileage on the van on the first day was about 22 mpg. Not great but considering the hills and the fact it is a v6 and a van, I was not too disappointed. The second day's mileage was more of the same and my meals were also more of what I had eaten the previous day: sandwiches, water, and fruit. I am a creature of habit.
I arrived in WV about 8:00 PM local time, which is about two hours later than normal for me. Again, caching along the route will slow you down. I also made sure to make some calls along the way (via mobile phone) to those who needed to know where I was and when I would be in.
When I arrived at my mom's house, I unloaded the van (my wife's vehicle, the vehicle of choice when traveling) and gave my mom a hug. We chatted for a while and then she asked me if I was hungry. I was, since the last meal I had was a sandwich eight hours before. I told her I was and she asked me what I wanted. In the old days, mom would have a ton of leftovers in the fridge. Coming home meant some of mom's home cooking. But ever since dad died back in 2002, mom has stopped cooking and lives of frozen dinners and sandwiches. Wanna take a guess what delectables I was offered upon my arrival? I declined food when I learned what was available and she seemed hurt. I tried to explain things to her but she just did not understand.
Mom and I caught up on things and before I knew it, I was yawning. It was about 10:00 PM local time and I was bushed. I have not had a plethera energy lately and I really need to go to the doctor to see what is causing my deminished stamina.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
This Would Be Funny If It Were Not True
Courtesy of "Basic Instructions" and Scott Meyer. Very funny stuff.
Winding Down, Ramping Up
Today I am marking two events...winding down the work week and ramping up to go to WV to visit family and friends.
Work this week (with the exception of early Monday morning) has been light weight, and for that I am thankful. My colleague who is on call has had a nice light week so far. Now, to be honest, all that could change in an instant but as long as I can make it to 5:00 PM, I am ready to begin my down time.
It took a couple of days to decompress from my last on call. Monday and Tuesday I found myself carrying my mobile phone with me everywhere just like I was on call. I even took it with me to my church board meeting Tuesday night.
My wife has decided to go back to work part time (10 hours a week or so) for the same guy that she worked for last time, doing mostly the same work. There are a few differences this time however. The first is that she will be getting a raise. While not "big bucks" (a little less than half of what I make), it still will help get us past this lump of debt that we are facing (surgeries).
The next difference is that she will not be doing payroll. The guy has outsourced that and it works much better than it did with him trying to maintain things. While my wife was doing most of it, it was a mess when he was out of town and to get him to sign the checks. Besides, Quickbooks was constantly crashing on his PC...I could never get it stable. This time my wife will be doing all his invoicing, which he does manually. She understands his system (she is the only one who does) and he asked her to come back and get things back to normal after the person who replaced her left it in a mess.
The final thing that is changing is...she gets to work from home. She is not required to come into the office! And the nice thing is when she does have to go in (for whatever reason) her boss is giving her a gas allowance. Not bad at all.
To celebrate we went out to Mimi's Cafe, one of her favorite places in the world to eat. I ordered light (citrus shrimp, asparagus, and a salad) and my wife ordered heavy (meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and veggies) but I really wanted dessert and saw that they had a chocolate chip pecan pie with vanilla bean ice cream that looked wonderful, so I ordered it. My goodness, it was enough for two, maybe three people. I ate half of it (I have a big appetite for sweets) but I was stuffed. I had to walk a lot last night to work that off. Heck, when I work up at 6:00 this morning I was still not hungry. Good thing I guess since to day is a fasting day.
I woke up an hour later than normal (we had a power outage yesterday and I slept in and changed my alarm time) and let the dogs out. It still looked like it would storm (It stormed all day yesterday) but I need to cut grass or the yards will be a jungle when I get back.
I fed the dogs and then logged on to check e- mail. I took the time to update my PDA and my GPSr with geocaches to grab along the way to WV (I loaded 500 or so, knowing I will get less than 10% of that...I wanted a good pool to pull from) and began packing things for my trip. While I am not as thorough as my wife, there are things I make sure I pack. Since geocaching is a big part of this trip, all my geocaching stuff will be packed (I still need to get things out of the truck) and all my OTC meds. Since I am prone to sinus issues, I need to be prepared.
I am looking forward to this trip. I have only grabbed caches in a couple of locations outside of TX while travelling and this will be a good opportunity to add a couple of more states (AR, TN, KY) to my states cached list. Fun times ahead!
Work this week (with the exception of early Monday morning) has been light weight, and for that I am thankful. My colleague who is on call has had a nice light week so far. Now, to be honest, all that could change in an instant but as long as I can make it to 5:00 PM, I am ready to begin my down time.
It took a couple of days to decompress from my last on call. Monday and Tuesday I found myself carrying my mobile phone with me everywhere just like I was on call. I even took it with me to my church board meeting Tuesday night.
My wife has decided to go back to work part time (10 hours a week or so) for the same guy that she worked for last time, doing mostly the same work. There are a few differences this time however. The first is that she will be getting a raise. While not "big bucks" (a little less than half of what I make), it still will help get us past this lump of debt that we are facing (surgeries).
The next difference is that she will not be doing payroll. The guy has outsourced that and it works much better than it did with him trying to maintain things. While my wife was doing most of it, it was a mess when he was out of town and to get him to sign the checks. Besides, Quickbooks was constantly crashing on his PC...I could never get it stable. This time my wife will be doing all his invoicing, which he does manually. She understands his system (she is the only one who does) and he asked her to come back and get things back to normal after the person who replaced her left it in a mess.
The final thing that is changing is...she gets to work from home. She is not required to come into the office! And the nice thing is when she does have to go in (for whatever reason) her boss is giving her a gas allowance. Not bad at all.
To celebrate we went out to Mimi's Cafe, one of her favorite places in the world to eat. I ordered light (citrus shrimp, asparagus, and a salad) and my wife ordered heavy (meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and veggies) but I really wanted dessert and saw that they had a chocolate chip pecan pie with vanilla bean ice cream that looked wonderful, so I ordered it. My goodness, it was enough for two, maybe three people. I ate half of it (I have a big appetite for sweets) but I was stuffed. I had to walk a lot last night to work that off. Heck, when I work up at 6:00 this morning I was still not hungry. Good thing I guess since to day is a fasting day.
I woke up an hour later than normal (we had a power outage yesterday and I slept in and changed my alarm time) and let the dogs out. It still looked like it would storm (It stormed all day yesterday) but I need to cut grass or the yards will be a jungle when I get back.
I fed the dogs and then logged on to check e- mail. I took the time to update my PDA and my GPSr with geocaches to grab along the way to WV (I loaded 500 or so, knowing I will get less than 10% of that...I wanted a good pool to pull from) and began packing things for my trip. While I am not as thorough as my wife, there are things I make sure I pack. Since geocaching is a big part of this trip, all my geocaching stuff will be packed (I still need to get things out of the truck) and all my OTC meds. Since I am prone to sinus issues, I need to be prepared.
I am looking forward to this trip. I have only grabbed caches in a couple of locations outside of TX while travelling and this will be a good opportunity to add a couple of more states (AR, TN, KY) to my states cached list. Fun times ahead!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Abysmal
Abysmal - a·bys·mal /əˈbɪzmÉ™l/ [uh-biz-muhl] –adjective
1. of or like an abyss; immeasurably deep or great.
2. extremely or hopelessly bad or severe: abysmal ignorance; abysmal poverty.
(Courtesy of Dictionary.com)
That describes the lunch my wife and I had Sunday at Hong Kong Palace in Allen, TX.
My wife and I left church in search of lunch on Sunday. We left later than normal so we knew we would most likely get in some long lines. My wife was in the mood for cheaply priced Asian food of some sort so we stopped at Hong Kong Palace for a quick bite. I was on call so we had to pick something close.
HKP was written up in the local paper a couple of years ago as the best budget priced "Chinese-style" joint in town. We had been there countless times and enjoyed the meals immensely, so there was no reason to suspect anything different this time.
When we pulled up, we noticed a sign that said "Grand Opening". We thought this odd since it has been in business for over two years. Then I noticed in very small letters, "Under New Management". The alarm bells went off, but when we got inside, we noticed it was about half full. One half of the clientèle was Asian, the other half WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant...my term for your average Joe and Jane White Folk) so I figured all was good to go.
We were greeted and seated at a clean table and were given cheesy paper takeout menus opened to the dinner menu (even though it was lunch time and they had lunch specials). The server, a mid 40's Asian woman (I think she was Korean, but I am not 100% sure) who spoke very little English asked us for our drink orders. My wife requests her typical "water with 3 slices of lemon/lime" and I request a diet soda.
"Coke?", the server asks.
"Whatever diet soda you have will be fine" I proclaim.
Our drinks are brought out. My wife's water is missing the lemon she requested and my diet is (and I am not kidding here, folks), "Big Value Diet Cola"...in a can with a cup of ice (in which we were charged $1.50 for later). I just look at my wife and smirk. She asks the server for the lemon and the server takes our order.
I order Hunan Chicken and Shrimp since I enjoy hot/spicy Asian food. My wife, not pleased so far is disappointed that they do not have Lo Mein on the menu for lunch (they only make it for dinner) so she orders Teryaki Chicken instead. The lunch menu starts is $6-8 per entree.
When asked what kind of soup we want, my wife orders her customary Won Ton soup, but yet again, they state that they only make that during dinner. My wife says that she does not like the other choices (Hot and Sour or Egg Drop) and the server says she can have the cook make it but she will have to charge extra for it (Well that is what she meant. What she said was rather unintelligable). We agree, hoping to make the most of the lunch that is rapidly goining down hill.
The spring rolls are brought out along with my soup. My wife's soup has not been brought out and there is no explanation on why (although we figured it was because the cook was making it). We munched on rather unremarkable spring rolls while I was able to eat my soup. My wife asked me how it was and I told her, "Well, it is hot and it is sour...waaaay too sour." Little did I know things were going to get worse.
My meal was brought out 15 minutes later but yet again, my wife's was not with it. I waited patiently while my wife looked at me, then told me to begin. I refused and continued waiting until her's came out.
When her meal finally arrived, it was a sliced chicken breast with a touch of Teriaki seasoning and sesame seeds on top of a bed of stir fried rice and a side of mostly cold mixed veggies. My wife took inventory of the food and picked at it, eating what she could.
When I got started, the first thing I noticed was the overpower taste of black pepper. Most "Chinese-style" food does not use a lot of black pepper, even in the hot and spicy dishes. I know this since I cooked in a Chinese-style place many years ago. The taste was not like any Hunan style food I had ever had in the past. Once I got over the taste (well, somewhat...it was pretty overpowering) I noticed my food was sitting in a pool of grease. Now, admittedly I am not the sharpest lightbulb in the cookie jar, but how is chicken and shrimp greasy? And to be honest, I am not even sure what I had was chicken.
The more I tried to eat (I was very hungry) the less I could stomach it. Without asking, our check was brought and we noticed they did not charge for the soup. They did charge me $1.50 for a generic diet soda so I figured we were even. When I laid my debit card on the bill to pay for it, the server came and picked it up. However, she did not bring it back, a young man did. In his broken English, he explained the soup should have been charged and was not so he took the liberty of adding it to my check. How thoughtful of him.
Before we left and before we paid), I went over the table behind us. The people seated there came in just in front of us and were finished way before we were. Like us, they refused a to go box. I decided to ask them if their meal was as bad. The woman asked me why I wanted to know and I told her our story. She said her hubby could not stand it and she doubted she would be back. It looks like they had a winner of a meal as well.
I plan on writing a letter to explain to them how horrible things were. Not for a refund, but to help them out. If this is what the new management is like, they really need some help.
I came home and ate some fruit and some yogurt for the rest of my lunch and had a couple of turkey wraps later on after my stomach stopped protesting the crud I attempted to consume a few hours earlier at HKP. Such a shame. HKP was once a great little Chinese place with good service and fairly priced, enjoyable food. Now I would not send an enemy there.
1. of or like an abyss; immeasurably deep or great.
2. extremely or hopelessly bad or severe: abysmal ignorance; abysmal poverty.
(Courtesy of Dictionary.com)
That describes the lunch my wife and I had Sunday at Hong Kong Palace in Allen, TX.
My wife and I left church in search of lunch on Sunday. We left later than normal so we knew we would most likely get in some long lines. My wife was in the mood for cheaply priced Asian food of some sort so we stopped at Hong Kong Palace for a quick bite. I was on call so we had to pick something close.
HKP was written up in the local paper a couple of years ago as the best budget priced "Chinese-style" joint in town. We had been there countless times and enjoyed the meals immensely, so there was no reason to suspect anything different this time.
When we pulled up, we noticed a sign that said "Grand Opening". We thought this odd since it has been in business for over two years. Then I noticed in very small letters, "Under New Management". The alarm bells went off, but when we got inside, we noticed it was about half full. One half of the clientèle was Asian, the other half WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant...my term for your average Joe and Jane White Folk) so I figured all was good to go.
We were greeted and seated at a clean table and were given cheesy paper takeout menus opened to the dinner menu (even though it was lunch time and they had lunch specials). The server, a mid 40's Asian woman (I think she was Korean, but I am not 100% sure) who spoke very little English asked us for our drink orders. My wife requests her typical "water with 3 slices of lemon/lime" and I request a diet soda.
"Coke?", the server asks.
"Whatever diet soda you have will be fine" I proclaim.
Our drinks are brought out. My wife's water is missing the lemon she requested and my diet is (and I am not kidding here, folks), "Big Value Diet Cola"...in a can with a cup of ice (in which we were charged $1.50 for later). I just look at my wife and smirk. She asks the server for the lemon and the server takes our order.
I order Hunan Chicken and Shrimp since I enjoy hot/spicy Asian food. My wife, not pleased so far is disappointed that they do not have Lo Mein on the menu for lunch (they only make it for dinner) so she orders Teryaki Chicken instead. The lunch menu starts is $6-8 per entree.
When asked what kind of soup we want, my wife orders her customary Won Ton soup, but yet again, they state that they only make that during dinner. My wife says that she does not like the other choices (Hot and Sour or Egg Drop) and the server says she can have the cook make it but she will have to charge extra for it (Well that is what she meant. What she said was rather unintelligable). We agree, hoping to make the most of the lunch that is rapidly goining down hill.
The spring rolls are brought out along with my soup. My wife's soup has not been brought out and there is no explanation on why (although we figured it was because the cook was making it). We munched on rather unremarkable spring rolls while I was able to eat my soup. My wife asked me how it was and I told her, "Well, it is hot and it is sour...waaaay too sour." Little did I know things were going to get worse.
My meal was brought out 15 minutes later but yet again, my wife's was not with it. I waited patiently while my wife looked at me, then told me to begin. I refused and continued waiting until her's came out.
When her meal finally arrived, it was a sliced chicken breast with a touch of Teriaki seasoning and sesame seeds on top of a bed of stir fried rice and a side of mostly cold mixed veggies. My wife took inventory of the food and picked at it, eating what she could.
When I got started, the first thing I noticed was the overpower taste of black pepper. Most "Chinese-style" food does not use a lot of black pepper, even in the hot and spicy dishes. I know this since I cooked in a Chinese-style place many years ago. The taste was not like any Hunan style food I had ever had in the past. Once I got over the taste (well, somewhat...it was pretty overpowering) I noticed my food was sitting in a pool of grease. Now, admittedly I am not the sharpest lightbulb in the cookie jar, but how is chicken and shrimp greasy? And to be honest, I am not even sure what I had was chicken.
The more I tried to eat (I was very hungry) the less I could stomach it. Without asking, our check was brought and we noticed they did not charge for the soup. They did charge me $1.50 for a generic diet soda so I figured we were even. When I laid my debit card on the bill to pay for it, the server came and picked it up. However, she did not bring it back, a young man did. In his broken English, he explained the soup should have been charged and was not so he took the liberty of adding it to my check. How thoughtful of him.
Before we left and before we paid), I went over the table behind us. The people seated there came in just in front of us and were finished way before we were. Like us, they refused a to go box. I decided to ask them if their meal was as bad. The woman asked me why I wanted to know and I told her our story. She said her hubby could not stand it and she doubted she would be back. It looks like they had a winner of a meal as well.
I plan on writing a letter to explain to them how horrible things were. Not for a refund, but to help them out. If this is what the new management is like, they really need some help.
I came home and ate some fruit and some yogurt for the rest of my lunch and had a couple of turkey wraps later on after my stomach stopped protesting the crud I attempted to consume a few hours earlier at HKP. Such a shame. HKP was once a great little Chinese place with good service and fairly priced, enjoyable food. Now I would not send an enemy there.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
I Cannot Explain It Any Simpler
Dear Lord...why are some people so hard headed?
One of my issues that I took up on Friday afternoon ran into a snag on Friday evening. The customer reported the problem with one system, but the problem was really in another one. Well, that is not a huge deal...we can get the case assigned to the right team and it will get worked on. Well, as I am investigating the issue, I do not find any support phone numbers which usually means one of two things:
1) Support is not offered 24x7. The techs only work 8-5, Mon-Fri THEIR time (that time being CET).
2) Our customer has not given us the scripts for support so we can't do anything until they do.
When I called the customer back I told him that most likely it was scenario "1" but I was not 100% sure. I told him that I would investigate further by calling a few people "in the know" and see what they could offer. He was not too happy about that, giving me the perception that I should somehow pull the support's contact info out of my posterior. You cannot offer what you do not have!
Well over the next four hours or so I called several people, none of which had even heard of this system (I finally found out that it is a locally supported app in Finland. Oh, the group that supports it is actually a sub group of our customer, so we are not even in the loop, but I digress). I am a little deflated...I hate being defeated, but I had to call the customer and tell him that after scouring the customer databases as well as our databases and calling 2 knowledgeable groups, I still was no closer to finding support info on this.
Shortly after that I get an e-mail from the customer's manager and the local site manager. Not to mention a call from my boss. I explain the situation as best as I can to them all and the only one that seems to grasp it is my boss. I then begin to wonder if my abilty to to verbally convey information is impeded someway, so I explain the situation to my non-IT wife and she seems to understand. What gives?
The next morning I see two e-mails regarding the situation. One is from the client manager who asks me why I have not started working this as a priority case and the other from the customer complaining that he has not heard from me since 9:45 PM the previous night. Well, that stands to reason, since I told him that I would only contact him if the support teams worked on this system 24x7. Since they did not, I did not call him.
Then later than morning my boss calls me to ask me if the client manager gave me the contact info yet. I was a bit perplexed. The client manager has this information? WHY didn't he give it to me? Then my boss told me that the client manager was going to call an escalation manager in Europe to hunt down the names and numbers of the support team and forward that info on to me, but had failed to do so yet. I then start looking thought the attachements to the e-mails in my inbox and see an attachement e-mail (in Swedish) that I cannot read. Not that it mattered...I could still tell that there was not a name, e-mail address, or phone number in it, so the point as moot.
My boss calls me one more time to tell me that he is going to call the client manager and tell him until he finds the contact info (scripts) that he cannot call us anymore. It must have worked. It has been quiet ever since. However, once the business day starts in Finland, I bet I will be getting a phone call...somewhere around 3:00 AM my time. Joy.
I guess I should go to bed early tonight.
One of my issues that I took up on Friday afternoon ran into a snag on Friday evening. The customer reported the problem with one system, but the problem was really in another one. Well, that is not a huge deal...we can get the case assigned to the right team and it will get worked on. Well, as I am investigating the issue, I do not find any support phone numbers which usually means one of two things:
1) Support is not offered 24x7. The techs only work 8-5, Mon-Fri THEIR time (that time being CET).
2) Our customer has not given us the scripts for support so we can't do anything until they do.
When I called the customer back I told him that most likely it was scenario "1" but I was not 100% sure. I told him that I would investigate further by calling a few people "in the know" and see what they could offer. He was not too happy about that, giving me the perception that I should somehow pull the support's contact info out of my posterior. You cannot offer what you do not have!
Well over the next four hours or so I called several people, none of which had even heard of this system (I finally found out that it is a locally supported app in Finland. Oh, the group that supports it is actually a sub group of our customer, so we are not even in the loop, but I digress). I am a little deflated...I hate being defeated, but I had to call the customer and tell him that after scouring the customer databases as well as our databases and calling 2 knowledgeable groups, I still was no closer to finding support info on this.
Shortly after that I get an e-mail from the customer's manager and the local site manager. Not to mention a call from my boss. I explain the situation as best as I can to them all and the only one that seems to grasp it is my boss. I then begin to wonder if my abilty to to verbally convey information is impeded someway, so I explain the situation to my non-IT wife and she seems to understand. What gives?
The next morning I see two e-mails regarding the situation. One is from the client manager who asks me why I have not started working this as a priority case and the other from the customer complaining that he has not heard from me since 9:45 PM the previous night. Well, that stands to reason, since I told him that I would only contact him if the support teams worked on this system 24x7. Since they did not, I did not call him.
Then later than morning my boss calls me to ask me if the client manager gave me the contact info yet. I was a bit perplexed. The client manager has this information? WHY didn't he give it to me? Then my boss told me that the client manager was going to call an escalation manager in Europe to hunt down the names and numbers of the support team and forward that info on to me, but had failed to do so yet. I then start looking thought the attachements to the e-mails in my inbox and see an attachement e-mail (in Swedish) that I cannot read. Not that it mattered...I could still tell that there was not a name, e-mail address, or phone number in it, so the point as moot.
My boss calls me one more time to tell me that he is going to call the client manager and tell him until he finds the contact info (scripts) that he cannot call us anymore. It must have worked. It has been quiet ever since. However, once the business day starts in Finland, I bet I will be getting a phone call...somewhere around 3:00 AM my time. Joy.
I guess I should go to bed early tonight.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Rounding The Corner
I am coming up on the end of my work week. I still have three more nights of on call (plus two days) but since I took it "one day at a time", things have moved quickly. As a matter of fact, this week went by quicker than most. Then again, I was busier than normal.
Of course the week can't just end peacefully. It tried to. Today started off with a bang and then died. It was slow all day long until the help desk calls me up (okay actually they IM'ed me) about two issues the customer deemed "critical". The first one was a tool that is considered business critical but it is not down. According to what I have read, it is just running slower than they want it to. I was very hesitant to make this a high priority case until I received some additional info from the manager. I eventually caved, but I think he may be mostly right.
The second case that "demanded" high priority status was not in any way shape or form high severity for Friday evening at 4:30 PM CDT. One person, ONE SOLE PERSON, could not connect to his home drive (Windows) and he wants it raised. He is not even a mid level manager. He then claims that others are having "intermittent" problems. Our server team had the ticket and since they were not overly busy they looked at it and found the server up and responding. It had been up for 27 days.
My guess is that it is a LAN issue. They have a kludged together network bootstrapped to the WAN of the company that bought them (our main customer) and they have had issues from day one...mostly their own. Software that is buggy and does not work well, strange configs that boggle the mind, etc. Needless to say I shot that request down.
I can only hope that the one issue I raised gets resolved quickly. I hate wasting yet another weekend playing "the waiting game" with the third party support this tool has.
I know it sounds wierd, but I am looking forward to Monday...I will finally be off call and on Friday I will be hitting the road, God willing.
Of course the week can't just end peacefully. It tried to. Today started off with a bang and then died. It was slow all day long until the help desk calls me up (okay actually they IM'ed me) about two issues the customer deemed "critical". The first one was a tool that is considered business critical but it is not down. According to what I have read, it is just running slower than they want it to. I was very hesitant to make this a high priority case until I received some additional info from the manager. I eventually caved, but I think he may be mostly right.
The second case that "demanded" high priority status was not in any way shape or form high severity for Friday evening at 4:30 PM CDT. One person, ONE SOLE PERSON, could not connect to his home drive (Windows) and he wants it raised. He is not even a mid level manager. He then claims that others are having "intermittent" problems. Our server team had the ticket and since they were not overly busy they looked at it and found the server up and responding. It had been up for 27 days.
My guess is that it is a LAN issue. They have a kludged together network bootstrapped to the WAN of the company that bought them (our main customer) and they have had issues from day one...mostly their own. Software that is buggy and does not work well, strange configs that boggle the mind, etc. Needless to say I shot that request down.
I can only hope that the one issue I raised gets resolved quickly. I hate wasting yet another weekend playing "the waiting game" with the third party support this tool has.
I know it sounds wierd, but I am looking forward to Monday...I will finally be off call and on Friday I will be hitting the road, God willing.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Facing The Undesirable
I once read that when you are in situation that you are dreading, the best way to get through it is to break it up into manageable chunks. I never really gave it much thought until I realized that being on call without any pay (or comp time) was something that I really dreaded. So I thought I would give the technique a try. Oddly enough, it seems to help.
Since my rotation is for seven days and nights, I just keep telling myself, "Make it through the night and tomorrow will take care of itself." As long as I only focus on the present day, things seem to go well.
I am on my fourth day of on call, one more day left of the work week and then two days of weekend. After that I work for four days then I am off until September 2nd.
One day at a time. And everyday I ask God for the strength to get through one more day.
Oh, I understand that many of you wonder why I put up with the on call if I hate it so much. Well to be honest, every job I have interviewed for has had either on call or 60 hour weeks. At 40 something, I am too old to live by a phone that rings at all hours.
Since my rotation is for seven days and nights, I just keep telling myself, "Make it through the night and tomorrow will take care of itself." As long as I only focus on the present day, things seem to go well.
I am on my fourth day of on call, one more day left of the work week and then two days of weekend. After that I work for four days then I am off until September 2nd.
One day at a time. And everyday I ask God for the strength to get through one more day.
Oh, I understand that many of you wonder why I put up with the on call if I hate it so much. Well to be honest, every job I have interviewed for has had either on call or 60 hour weeks. At 40 something, I am too old to live by a phone that rings at all hours.
Trend
What is it with Indian (India) buses plunging into rivers, ponds, and gorges? CNN has an article on this today (11 dead).
It seems we have these stories every other month. What gives? No guard rails? Bad drivers?
February 1988 - 35 dead
March 2001 - 40 dead
June 2002 - 46 dead
April 2006 - 64 dead
January 2008 - 38 dead
April 2008 - 39 dead
July 2008 - 17 dead
I am sure there are more, but I figured this was a good enough example.
I am not trying to be morbid...I just find it fascinating.
It seems we have these stories every other month. What gives? No guard rails? Bad drivers?
February 1988 - 35 dead
March 2001 - 40 dead
June 2002 - 46 dead
April 2006 - 64 dead
January 2008 - 38 dead
April 2008 - 39 dead
July 2008 - 17 dead
I am sure there are more, but I figured this was a good enough example.
I am not trying to be morbid...I just find it fascinating.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Oh What A Night!
On call is never "fun". It can be quiet, but never is it fun. Last night was about as un-fun as you could get.
I went to bed about 10 PM. When I am on call it pays to go to bed early since you never know when you will get called. Well I got called at midnight. I was up for 20 minutes, then went back to bed. I was then called again at 1 AM but this time I had to stay up an work an issue until about 3:00 AM or so. At 3:30 AM, I was called again and then I was able to sleep for...1.5 hours. Yes, I was back up at 5:00 AM.
I walked and fed the dogs, then I went back to bed at 6:00 AM. I slept until about 7:30 AM when I got up for good.
Yeah, that was rough, but the good news is I have only had one calls so far. While I am sure I will get more (I had three I worked on yesterday), at least it is not busy now.
It could be worse. An update to SAP was rolled out last weekend and there could be a multitude of little things that need corrected. That happened last time we did a big SAP update. It took months to straighten out.
That being said I am going to take a nap at lunch time (God willing) and get some more rest. While it will not be like a real nights sleep, it will help.
Now if I can just get the ground to dry up so I can mow a couple of lawns.
I went to bed about 10 PM. When I am on call it pays to go to bed early since you never know when you will get called. Well I got called at midnight. I was up for 20 minutes, then went back to bed. I was then called again at 1 AM but this time I had to stay up an work an issue until about 3:00 AM or so. At 3:30 AM, I was called again and then I was able to sleep for...1.5 hours. Yes, I was back up at 5:00 AM.
I walked and fed the dogs, then I went back to bed at 6:00 AM. I slept until about 7:30 AM when I got up for good.
Yeah, that was rough, but the good news is I have only had one calls so far. While I am sure I will get more (I had three I worked on yesterday), at least it is not busy now.
It could be worse. An update to SAP was rolled out last weekend and there could be a multitude of little things that need corrected. That happened last time we did a big SAP update. It took months to straighten out.
That being said I am going to take a nap at lunch time (God willing) and get some more rest. While it will not be like a real nights sleep, it will help.
Now if I can just get the ground to dry up so I can mow a couple of lawns.
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