Easing back into work

My Father-in-law was supposed to be here until the 31st, but his wife called and her dad had been taken to ICU.   As harsh as it is to say, I hope that his time has come to move on to the Summerlands. He has been in so much pain and unable to care for himself for so long that it would be a mercy for him to pass.

Anyway, I was up early (4am) yesterday because a solution to a problem at work woke me up and I had to come down and log in to try it when my Father-in-Law came down and asked if his flight could be changed because he wanted to get back to be there for his wife and all.   I jumped right on it and got his flight changed with no charge or additional fees.  As of this time, my Grandfather-in-law???  is still hanging on in ICU but hopes are not high.

********


Well, vacation time is over and it's time to start thinking about work again.

Today is my first "official" day back at work and all I'm really doing is watching for new email.   I have many things to do but reviewing patch notes or doing network diagrams for new product just isn't tickling my motivation bone today.  I checked my meeting schedule and it seems I was smart enough to put all new project meetings off until the 6th of January so I should build back up to full work mode by then.

In going over some of the email from when I was "Out of the Office" it seems I've been re-org'd again.  Lets see that makes the 6th new boss in 4 years.  I'm getting tired of training new bosses...

... that being said, I'm glad I have my job and that I have enough work to keep me busy.  An idle Otterboyy is a dangerous one. :)

Maybe I'll go play with my new camera!

Geek to Farmer

My Father-in-law is here visiting with us and as man, he is a "Salt of the Earth" type of person.  Now think about that statement for a bit and be honest with yourself about what comes to your mind. To me, when I first met him, I thought he was a simpleton.  To quote RFD-TV "I'm just a farmer, plain and simple" sums up what I my first impression was of him.

How wrong I was.


When I first traveled with my then-to-be-wife to the farm house where she grew up, I got out of the car and saw the soy beans stretching off to the limit of my eyes and I exclaimed "Boy this is a lot of farm!"

The love of my life bluntly said "Mark, this is just a few acres and is a hobby for my Dad when he isn't working at the factory."

Now growing up in Southern California, I've seen some open land!
El Dorado park

Well compared to what my wife grew up with, it was the size of a pimple on a gnats ass.
The general area where my wife grew up

I really tried to absorb the vastness of acres from this raised-in-California mind, but it really didn't work.  The first clue I got was when my Wonderful Wife (WW from here on out) announced that she was going to "mow the yard."

Now, growing up in Condoland AKA Southern California, I never had to cut a blade of grass in my life, let alone "mow the yard".   I've seen yards.  Those are the pretty green things that always look like places to let the dog that my parents told me was mine, pee on so they would turn yellow in spots and piss off old Mr. Gresh.

Right?

Either way, when my WW mentioned that she was going to "mow the yard", I assumed (yes I see ASS in there) it was going to be a quick endeavor.

Oh how so wrong I was.   See it turns out that mowing the yard was a 3 hour process on a motorized lawn tractor along the lines of this lawn tractor and I was used to using these grass shears to "trim" the grass.

This was my introduction to what makes up living a farm life.

What is that?   That doesn't sound so hard?  Heck the grass needs to be cut so you jump on the lawn tractor and go for a ride and it's done.  Right?

No.

That's just the outside the house chore.

There might be still things to harvest, plant, feed, sort pigs (trust me, from the stories I've heard about raising hogs, you never want to do it), toss hay up to the barn or dry the corn kernels.

Oh did I mention the that a corn, wheat or soy bean farmer has to understand the hybrid's that the seed manufacturers are producing and also keep in compliance with the state on non-hybrid crops and oh ya, the fertilizer.... not to mention the weather affecting when you can plant and harvest.

Harvesting, if you think it's easy, I dare you to jump on a Combine and try keep a 6-row corn shell head straight.  Let me tell you, it looks easy, but it isn't.

Oddly enough, as much as a techno-geek as I am, I want to be a farmer.

Yes, I did it.

This hasn't been the best Holiday season.

My wife got laid off a week and a half ago and then 5 days later gets a call from the State of Washington that the son that she gave up for adoption 15 years ago has been given up by the adoptive parents.  It has been quite a one-two punch.

Fortunately we had already gotten the presents for the family and for Pickle (the 10 year-old). We wouldn't have gotten the things that we did if we had waited and then the Wife got laid off for sure.   But, being that we had, we stuck with it and even spent a bit more to decorate the house since it's our first Christmas in our first house.

Then it comes to me getting a present for myself.  It's not something I regularly do, but this was a bit different.  See I've been saving for 3 years to buy this particular item and I finally had saved up enough to get what I wanted and some accessories with it and here I am now with the Wife getting laid off.  

Do I still get it?  I've saved for 3 years for it!
 I waffled, I almost ordered it 5 times in 3 days...

Finally I did order it.

My present to myself

All in all I got the camera and 3 lenses and I'm a happy shutter bug.  I did make one concession in the fact that I bought the model one level down from the one I wanted and paid off the balance on one of our credit cards.

Something I never thought I'd hear my wife say

I have so much that I want to put down here, but between work and well work I haven't had the time. I took the day off tomorrow so I should be able to find some time then.


Now, as I was up laying down in bed, my wife comes out of the master bathroom saying "I'm sorry I was in there so long".

Admittedly, my first thought was "mafhafhfhajust drifting off to sleep damnmafha".

Then this follows her statement:

"I apparently had one stuck in the chute"

Now it took a moment to process, but ultimately what I think I said was "Why in dear heavens would you choose to share that information with me at this time when I am attempting to reach a state of slumber."

I have to admit it might have been more succinct, along the lines of "What the fuck are you talking about!?!"

In any case, she has apparently lightened her load and I can now safely return to the bedroom without having to discuss my wifes bowel movements.

*note to self: I have to relate the story of when my first wife got stuck in the toilet because I forgot to put the seat down*

Peace!

Vanity Cards

If you don't know the comedic brilliance that is Chuck Lorre, well, I'm sure there is a charity somewhere for you.

From the latest Vanity Card at the end of "Two and a Half Men" :
"Jillian had a urinary tract infection... again.

That sentence appeared in my head a few days ago, just as you see it above. I have no idea what it means, other than the obvious, and I don't know anyone named Jillian. Regardless, I thought it'd be interesting to begin a vanity card with it and just see where it goes.

Jillian had a urinary tract infection... again. Her doctor liked to abbreviate the condition to UTI. She liked to abbreviate it to TMH - Too Much Humping. Regardless, the road back to vaginal happiness was always the same: cranberry juice and abstinence. Thankfully, her boyfriend, Dudley, was always very understanding. He'd just smile, hold her in his arms and say, "Well, babe, when one door closes, another one opens up." She'd always giggle and blush when he'd say that, but deep down she wished she had the courage to cover his mouth and nose with a chloroform-soaked rag, and then, while he was unconscious, snip off his testicles with the little scissors she uses to groom her schnauzer.

All of which explains why the next sentence popped into my head recently.

Nobody sang Bee Gees songs on karaoke night like Dudley."

.........

I want to go back to Indiana.

Enough said for now, I'll ruminate on this statement later.

Connecting with an old friend

After over two years of not talking to to him, I sent that email back on Oct 4th. I have to tell you that it was a very hard thing for me to do and I cried buckets in my wife's arms that night.

(random macho posturing for admitting that I cried)

A few days passed and I got a response back from him and it was one of confusion, hurt and pain. He asked some questions about why now and some other pointed ones, to which I'm proud to say I answered honestly and openly, even as hard as it was for me.

We met up for lunch and it was like we had just seen each other just a few weeks ago. We did a lot of catch up on family, life changes, the economy etc. The one thing we never did talk about was why we hadn't talked... strike that, why I had cut him out of my life.

See even now, I'm trying to minimize the fact that I was the one that cut him out. Yes, I did it because of something he said to me at the time, but I'll get into that in another post. I really just want to bask in the comfortable feeling that see him, sharing laughs and yes, even disagreeing about somethings brought back.

That being said, we parted on good terms and I did email him later about the fact that we never did bring up or discuss the reason for our estrangement. I'll paraphrase his response, but it breaks down to this:

Ya, we didn't talk about it. Maybe someday we will and maybe someday we won't. I'm just glad to have you back in my life.


True friendship can overcome stupid.

-O-boy

I have to say, after reading the blog post of Crystal at (I epic fail at blogging) http://www.mcknob.com/2009/10/my-girls-and-giveaway-in-that-order.html

I've sent an email to the friend who I've lost. I could go into detail about it, but right now, the scab I've picked is just to raw. I do hope that he responds, for despite his faults (and mine) he has a heart of gold.

how long is to long?

How long is to long to go with out forgiving a friend?

Perhaps I'll post more, but for now that is the question that consumes my soul.

I better type something here. I don't know if they delete inactive accounts and I might actually get jiggy-with-it and blog some stuff one day.