Days off. So necessary...

Last day before vacation...

A few things on the plate today. Took care to send resumes for two positions, one internal, one external. We shall see what becomes of this. last minute bill arrives from Germany (to the tune of $185,949.35). I need to address this and bill the appropriate parties before the end of the year. Such fun is my job.

A mellow day yesterday: lots of food. Department lunch then a dinner with a smaller subset. Tasty stuff.

Vacation T minus 2 days and counting...

Got a call from the boss-man on the way in regarding some last minute quotes that we need to assess before the end of the year. A little churning here, and we come up with a plan that addresses it long term, in a way that it hits our budget monthly, rather than all at once in December. Hooray for accounting!

Yesterday was pretty quiet, got a few last minute tasks I need to complete. Got home and our friend Kerry came over. We made the rough decision to go to the maul for some shopping. This drove my wife a bit nuts, as we had no specific items or stores we were going to (she hates mauls, and can be a bit OCD when going there - get in, get what you need using the least number of steps possible, get out). It wasn't too busy, which was good. We saw another friend there, and I didn't recognize her for a minute. I had that feeling like it was a face I knew, but couldn't make the association. Really wierd, and a bit disturbing. Hoping it was just because I was tired (this along with a few other things that up my paranoia level - not being able to remember certain things I thought I should be able to, my prescription for my right eye seeming to go off sometime earlier this year - I can't remember exactly when, but it's noticeable). Hopefully just getting older and not something more sudden and drastic.

Woke at a reasonable time today (Sunday was pretty relaxing, though some necessary work was done on the house).

Rewinding and recapitulating:

Saturday was a full day. Necessity dicatated that I opt out of the YGP meeting, in order to begin addressing the roof over the four-season room. After running through a number of errands in the morning with Lisa, I began the roof work about 1:30 PM. Today basically required that I take down the deck that sits on the flat roof. This has been here a while, and the drainage is bad to begin with, but all the leaves and detritus have accumulated over the years, so the roof never really dries out. In addition, the seams of the roof along the house have begun to separate, so if there is a rain, or heavy snow melt, the muck on the roof holds the water, it doesn't drain properly and backs up into these gaps and into the room below (occasionally through the light fixture). On Friday, it was bad enough to be coming in along another seam where some of the snow was backed up in the drains.

Finished this work at about 4. I noticed a quality to the energy I could bring to the work. Gifts.

Now, I have a pile of soggy lumber to get rid of (it's so wet, I can't burn most of it, and in addition, a lot of it is pressure treated, so I really can't burn it). Plently still to do there. Also researching mending flat roofs. I may have to do a bodge-job to hold it in for the winter and have a pro come look at it in the spring. Since it's a flat roof, and really was never set up with any sense of water flow, I may not be able to address it myself. For the time being, just observing how water flows on it now to get a sense of what needs to happen. Also tossing around design ideas as to how I can put up a new deck and resove the fundamental issues the previous owner created by building the deck in this way. Three issues he didn't address:

- Water flow: all the beams essentially held water in place, once it came through the decking. There were no clear paths for flow, and as a result it all came back up to the edge of the house. Also, there was a facing board that shouldn't have been there that blocked it off.

- Air flow: the stuff never dried because the water had no plae to go, that side of the house is fairly shaded and instead of figuring a way to lift the deck some, he used 2x4's laid flat - essentially all of 1-3/4" of space below the deck. There was no way for air to get in and dry things our, even if there weren't 1-1/2 inches of decomposing leaves.

- Leaves: inevitably, leaves, sticks, acorns, twigs, etc. get between the decking and underneath. With no place to go, they sit, rot and hold water. Bad in general.

So, many things to consider when I redo this. I've got some ideas, but I need to look at the structure of the roof before I go too crazy. I also have to take the door onto the roof into account, as well as it's threshold, which is showing signs of rot. That's the bit that I think is going to get me.

Saturday night was fun. Out to dinner with my wife and a friend, and then - BOWLING! We had margaritas, so that is inevitably followed by a bowling outing. Usually, after 2 margaritas, my wife bowls a 180 (no kidding!), but this time she had only one, so she hit about 120. I actually beat her for once (bowled a 150 in the second game). We all looked at each other at the end of the second game and opted out of a third. It has been too long for us to throw bowling balls around for three hours. It was fun nonetheless. Really considered doing it again Sunday.

Sunday morning was spent with my in-laws. Breakfast at Jack & Luisa's, then to the job-lot to check out carpets. We've wanted oriental style carpets in the dining-room from day one, and now that things are cleaned out, the room echoes badkly and really needs it. My in-laws were jsut going to give us money for Christmas, so we agreed to go do carpets. Got a 5x8, 8x12 and 2x8 runner for under $2 per square foot. Got home and put everything down. Looks sweet and the rooms sound much better. Just need one more for an open area and we'll be all set. We'll probably look at that for during the break. It will go in an area we like to sit, and has sun in the morning - the cats and dog wil love it.

The afternoon was pretty laid back - cleaned, did cat litter, vaccumed, did a little laundry and the dishes, did some crossword puzzles and griddlers, snacked and went to bed. Some Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, American Dad and Family Guy before going to sleep.

I also finished the Chronicles of Narnia this weekend. Fun to read them again - I'd forgotten pretty much everything in the series, except for "further up, further in" from the final battle. I understand people saying there are Christian overtones in the books (how could there not be, given the body of Lewis' later works), but at their heart, these are tales of children in fantastic places, overcoming difficulties and their own weaknesses. There is some sadness, and a sense of some people growing up so much that they could never get back to or really being able to believe in Narnia again (this happens to Susan in the later books). Also, the last book (The Final Battle) has one thing I had not remembrance of - a fatal train accident. I do like Lewis' idea of Narnia (and our world for that matter) really being just a shadow or poor image of the Real Narnia. Pretty powerful stuff.

It's a wholly different read from Tolkien, even The Hobbit. I like Lewis' storytelling voice for the books, as if he were there talking you through these things. If, as Tolkien historians have it, Lewis was the inspiration for the Voice of Saruman, then to hear Lewis read the Chronicles would have been a marvelous thing.

Fried.

Thus ends my two weeks of travel, most of it through the 5th circle of Hell (otherwise known as Airports). My Houston trip was expensive, physically, mentally and financially. This past week was Pittsburgh for the last time this year. Some looking backward with the team, some looking forward. A good lunch put on by my manager for the team, some gifts exchanged. Weather a challenge for the second week in a row, delayed out of Pittsburgh by about 90 minutes, ended up home, after a slippery drive combined with a nearly flat tire, at about 1 AM.

Up this morning at about 9:00 after not really sleeping the whole night (between the dog and the wife, noisy, pushy, etc.) Weather changed so the freezing rain was just rain, and the only people on the road were the slow people who couldn't figure out that this was just rain, had been for the past few hours, it was over 40 degrees, and there was no more ice to be found. Lunch on the company (some things are turning around after about 4 years of difficulty). Fun laughing with some friends from downstairs, said goodbye to a colleague who is moving to L.A. to work and get married (I think in that order). There are now nearly 30 nameplates on the wall of people who have left or been laid off in the past year. Most of them have come through pretty well.

Two opportunities have come up that I need to get my resume together for. One keeps me in Connecticut, one would take me to Berkeley, CA. This in addition to the fundamental changes in the organization planned for next year. Opportunity and uncertainty.

Back from Houston early this morning (1:30), into work by 9:30. A little run down (had some soreness this morning in my throat), trying to get caught up, getting there slowly.

Grouchy. A couple things break this morning, naturally, right before a training session with executives and a very loud customer. Not pleasing, and now trying to understand why things don't work as I (and the customer) expect they should.