Getting small but necessary things done this morning. Lunch with the usual suspects down at a seafood place on the beach. Heaven.

Struggling through the day, not much attention available. News comes from the power company that there is the danger of rolling brown-outs or black-outs, so we are switching the site to generators to take the load off the surrounding communities.

Mid-year update complete for one of three teams, the others due by Friday. Took a peek at another team, just to see how we compare. They have about 15% more work in one area, but three times the people. I am proud of my team.

Noticing my slumping body all day, allowing it to correct and straighten. Not sure why I'm slipping so much, but there it is, plain as day. Also noticing that having the new inserts for my Franklin planner has eased some stress I felt last week. It just puts me in the place where I know I can get things done, reasonably well, reasonably on time.

Budgets - a two day flyout the 6th and 7th to work with my manager on the 3 group budgets I am responsible for. 15 hour days and lots of thrashing about, both of us trying to figure out what the hell our previous manager was thinking when he did this.

Coming home briefly after the bugdet work. Little time at home, a minimalist birthday, discovering that I will not have the wherewithall to go to Argentina in October. The dog is still itching like mad, and no resolution in sight.

A week+ in Pittsburgh, with time over the weekend, the first half with my new teams, getting more familiar with them and clearing up budget info, the second half with the old team, getting them set up for the second half of the year, in order that I be able to divest myself from them as quickly as I can.

Hotel routine typically:

6:00 AM - Alarm
6:15 AM - Actually get up, sit
6:45 AM - Shower, dress, etc
7:15 AM - Practice guitar for 30 minutes
7:45 AM - Go to the office
8:00 AM to 6, or 7, or 8, or 8:30 PM - work.
Evenings - dinner, read, call the wife, practice guitar more.
11:30 PM - Sleep (maybe, with plenty of tossing and turning)

Guitar practice this week primarily on Hammerhead exercises, Third Relation, Bicycling to Afghanistan bass, learning Askesis bass and some of the leads (thinking of Alan the whole time). Made very good progress with Askesis.

Now, at 4:38 PM on Wednesday, I am so fucking ready to go home and on to vacation for the next 5 days.

Lisa tells me this week that the dog is still itchy, and now the cat's herniated sphincter is worse. $1200 for surgery. Also, she wasn't paying attention and tweaked the car door going out of the garage. I got testy with her this week, as she's building herself up for some stress related illness or injury. She was pushing me for *exactly* when on Thursday we would be leaving (I had no idea). Basically summed up our conversation with something along the lines of "Calm the fuck down, you aren't the only stressed person in the house. Deal with it." Part of me regrets the outburst (that part that saw my father do it a lot), and part of me doesn't (the part of me that sees her mother's health issues and father's stubbornness and knows that she needs to calm the fuck down already).

I did manage to read quite a bit this week - two novels (Peter Hamilton's Naked God part 1 and 2), a collection of stuff from Kevin Smith (he has a real hetero love-affair with with Ben affleck), and many magazines, newspapers, etc. Felt good to have the words flowing into me. I still seriously doubt that I would ever be able to have them flow out with quite the same quality, but it's worth a try.

Back to budget, and trying to account for all the little things we have, software mostly, which nailing down the cost can be elusive.

Thought about Dad today. I can see him in my own stress reactions and general behaviors. I still struggle with this, and this is such a key part of my life. I was very specific at 16 with myself - I would not turn into that man, no way, no how. While there are moments, I've managed this pretty well for the past 21 years, with no small effort. The other reason I thought about him today was that on, or about, today 9 years ago, he took voluntary leave of this world. But that's a story for another time.

Remarkable meeting today, at least for me. The work was solid and focused, and something was present, as evidenced by the silence that walked in at the end of the meeting. I was a bit twitchy with it near the end, but it was there. Three things that stood out for me:

- The circulations, particularly the first one. There was much more listening happening than usual. Despite the shakiness of the circulations during Immanent Grace, there was still a tremendous amount of listening.
- The work on the new pieces. Again, much listening, no judgement, and a quality of work I feel we haven't had in a while. - Silence.

Home and to JotD, followed by dinner at Puerto Vallarta with my wife and a friend, then to a hilltop to watch the fireworks (at least 6 different town's displays were in view from our vantage point). A little bit put off by the degree of talking around us, but not enough to make me leave. This is followed by a dash to the theater, and watching Batman Begins. damn fine movie, and a good version of the Bat. There is hope for the franchise.

Home to a realtively quiet evening, my wife still not feeling to well. The dog is still scratching away, despite any meds we've given him.