Mid-Adventure

Sorry I've been slacking off in my writing recently. As some of you are aware, we're in the process of moving and having a baby and everything else. Let's start with the baby. Finn is due to be born two days from now. If Heather's able to hold out for two more days, Finn will be born on Wednesday morning. See, she's having a bit of pain in her back and it's causing her no end of trouble. This leads to the moving. Between me being gone most of the time in New York and Heather's current immobility, we're not getting as much packing done as we'd like. We have a lot to do and very little time to do it in. The good news is that we do have a residence in New York now along with a phone number, e-mail addresses and all of the things that we need to live up there. We also have a buyer for the house (I think an offer has been tendered - not sure yet) and we're somehow getting all of our business in order. So, we have Finn, wait a week or two for recovery and then we're off to the races trying to get out the door.

So, in case you, my avid little readers, are wondering where the next installment of my life is, it's under construction and I'll get to it as I'm able. Calm down ya monkeys. I promise I'll have some pics up of the new house next time I'm up.

The New Life

This close to the New Year and you'd think that was some sort of typo but in all reality, it's more of a description of my family and I's life these days. Again, I'm in Syracuse. The job is going well and it looks like it's going to work out for the long term but it has not been without it's hiccups. This week has been an interesting one - the company that I've been working with for less than two months now has been "aquired" by York Telecom and so the polo shirts they gave me last week are now obsolete. Probably a good thing that they didn't give me business cards quite yet.

As opposed to the last time there was upheaval in a company I was working for and where I was promised I had nothing to worry about and that my job was safe, I do really believe this is the case this time. My boss Derek told me that he's been working on this aquisition for months and he brought me in knowing it was going to happen. Add to that the fact that my partner engineer just gave his notice of resignation and I'm feeling pretty secure about now. I feel bad that Daniel is leaving. It's a little scary as I don't really have a good grasp of "the ropes" as it were but, well, people have to do what's best for them and, as I told him, I wish him the absolute best.

Regarding the family, Heather's only a few short weeks from giving birth. Before my birthday we'll be a family of four. The house is a mess but it's in that packing sort of mess as we're getting ready to move. We've been looking at houses and it seems that, as of late, all of our energy has been put towards moving north.

So, with the new year comes a new home, a new company, a new child and just all sorts of new stuff. With it comes the loss of a lot of bad stuff. No more being sick in Cincinnati (constantly), no more piss poor economic market where there are no jobs, no more polluted air and dirty Ohio river and no more IFOs. (The Kentucky term for folks from Ohio, "Idiots from Ohio". NOt like they're any smarter). Some people like Cincinnati - they can frikkin keep it. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it's a welcome change.

Happy Holidays

Well, it's that time of year again..... time to break out Santabot.

"Time to get jolly on your naughty asses!"

Working From Home

It's Thursday and I've been working from home all week. The deal is that I can telecommute from home every other week and every other week I need to be in the office. I can do this until I move, probably after the real bad winter is over. It's nice but it has it's pitfalls. The nice parts are that I can sit in my own home, in my underwear if I want and work at my own pace treating my time as I want. The bad news is that I'm tweaky enough about the new job that I feel more pressure to produce here so I take fewer breaks, five minute lunches (remember, lunch is upstairs in the kitchen), start my day about 7:00 to 7:30 and end up about 6:00ish. Then there's the lack of regular coworker interaction and semi-regular interruptions by my daughter. We're busy and I have a lot to do but mainly I want to give the impression that I'm not slacking off because I'm sitting at home. It's not all bad, mind you. Part of it is pressure (self-imposed, of course) to perform and produce but part of it is a simple enjoyment of what I'm doing. My wife will encourage me to take breaks and get away from the computer and I usually respond with, "Yeah, yeah, I'll be there in a minute right after I finish ____". It's a weird, new sort of thing for me because I've never really done this but it's good and bad like everything else.

On top of all that we're still getting the house ready to sell and that is taking a fair bit of work. We finally got the living room more or less done, cleaned up and got the Yule tree up. Of course, it was near 10:30 before we were done. I'm spending a lot of time tired these days. It's good though, it beats sitting around and being bored and stressed out of one's mind.

Homecoming and Holiday Drivers

After my first week at the new job I'm finally home. I got my first paycheck and got on the road about noon. The drive home wasn't so bad until I hit Ohio. Cleveland, more specifically. New York between Syracuse and Buffalo was a little crowded but moved nicely. No real problems there. I stopped on the other side of Buffalo and got a bite. Pennsylvania wasn't bad either. About the same as New York. I stopped and got fuel and was a little frightened by the toothless state of the local yokels but all in all it was uneventful. Then I hit Ohio. I was ok through the upper northeastern part but I ran into traffic in Cleveland. I looked at the clock and realized it was rush hour. Bad luck but nothing sinister I waited it out. The drive south was not too bad and I figured that it was going to be an uneventful trip. Wrong. Once I hit Columbus everyone started having accidents. They had all of the southbound lanes closed for one accident and nobody was moving at all. I figured I'd be there all night. Then, without warning we all go from stopped dead to 60 mph. The accident they had the entire highway closed for was, as far as I could tell, on a side off ramp. From there things got worse. I figured I'd be fine as soon as I got south of the city limits. Wrong again. Every few miles some idiot in a mini van was driving 50mph and slowing down both lanes of traffic to a near standstill. At one point we were doing under 30mph and there was no accident or other reason for it, just some idiot pissing people off. It was at this time that I had a revelation. You've heard peopl use the term "Sunday Driver", right? If there are indeed "Sunday Drivers", then, by extension, there are likely people who are "Holiday Drivers". I was surrounded by people who are so inept at driving that they only drive during the holidays. In a way it was a good thing. It kept me occupied enough with my own irritation that the remaining time flew by. Before I knew it I was home and unpacking. Life was once again good.

A Weekend Alone

I'm still in Syracuse (I leave Wednesday) and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I am alone for the weekend. No family, no friends, just me and this town to explore. It's a little weird and disconcerting. I'm used to having my family around and I miss them when I'm not with them. Even when I've been on the road before, it's always been for a trade show or some other such thing where I had coworkers around who were also away from my family

So now, as you can probably guess, the issue becomes what to do with a weekend full of time, short on funds and all alone. I've spent the morning so far drinking coffee, eating some toast and checking out maps of the area. I plan on checking out some of the suburban type residential areas. I'd like to find a tar-je' (Target for you uninitiated) and pick up some shorts so I can use the workout equipment in the hotel here. I'll check out downtown and see what the area has to offer I suppose. If I have enough money left over and feel like I can afford it, Syracuse has a symphony orchestra and they're having a showing of Mozart's requiem tonight. I've seen it at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and I'd like to see how central New York (CNY is the locally accepted abbreviation) matches up. At any rate, the long and the short of this post is that I am alone this weekend and honestly have no idea what I'm going to do. This much I do know: Starbucks is two blocks away. It's not Caribou but, well, what can you do?

The New Adventure

I'm here in Syracuse (or 'Cuse as per some of the bumper stickers I've seen here lately) and I'm getting ready to start day three. The trip started Tuesday morning at 5:00AM when I had to get out of bed and get ready to go. After a lengthy goodbye, I got in the car and made my way for gas and coffee. I had to sit outside and read my book (I'm re-reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - If you have not read this book there's something very very wrong with you that needs to be corrected right away) until the place opened but it was only a few minutes. By 6:10 I was on my way. I stopped once or twice to take care of a few biological functions and eat but other than that I made good time and arrived just when I thought I would. The drive was uneventful. Flat, straight and not much to see, kind of like ugly bookworm girls. I arrived mid afternoon and spent the rest of my day filling out HR paperwork and getting aquainted in a mild sort of way. I left about 6:00PM, checked into my hotel and was grateful to find it was an extended stay place with a stove and fridge and all the conveniences of home. I went grocery shopping for the week, refilled my fuel tank (made the whole trip on one tank of diesel - I love my VW) and ate ravioli as I spoke with my family on the internet (Yahoo messenger with a webcam and a mic). It was a good first day.

Day two was even better. I spent the morning learning the ropes from Daniel, my new partner, and getting better aquianted with some of my new coworkers. The afternoon was spent on my first project. About 6:30, my boss, my bosses boss (Tech Op VP) and one of the project managers all went out and had dinner. I have to say that I don't think I've ever walked into a job and had people bend over backwards so far to treat me well, to welcome me and to make me feel comfortable. I am overwhelmed and grateful for having landed such a position with such a great company. If my career is anything like the past few days I will be very happy to retire from here.