Ticket to crazy town.

Two days back in the office after 11 days away and my brain has already been thoroughly scrambled. My most productive time has been from arrival at 7am until say 10-ish, from there on in I'm interrupted at least every 10 minutes or so it seems. This, that and whatever keep happening, inquiries on a poster calendar with daily spaces big enough to jot short notes on, made as a client handout but there are a dozen individual separate request for a copy to "adorn" their cubical. A quick diagram for a proposal about to out the door, software update information suddenly required. Then there's the "remember that graphic you did for me back in September with the squiggly lines and bold text" of which I've produced a hundred graphics with squiggly lines, etc. since then. Thankfully most of the time it's not quite as intense as the last 48 hours and bless each and every person that seeks me out for whatever they need as I really like my work. I guess I should have expected that train to come through the tunnel after all.

Change in the air

Something strange has happened to me - I seem to be enjoying the cold weather. It's become the coldest yet around here this winter with temps below 10 degrees F. when dark. I took a nice brisk walk at lunch time up to and around the Western Promenade. I had bundled up, a bit of a breeze, may have been about 20 degrees but it's the feel of breathing the cold air that is doing me some good. After dark with the clear sky and the stars at their winter brightest, difficult for mighty Jupiter to compete, just adds to the chilly effect. Remains to be seen if I'll continue with this state of mind through February - better enjoy it while it lasts.

Reality eve

Yes, back to reality tomorrow. Though I've been away from the cube farm since December 21st I did manage to drag some work (and my cold) home from the office that would amount to ten hours. That aside the extended family gatherings over the weekend before Christmas and our own stay at home on the holiday were great. A fine turnout of nieces and nephews at my mother's on the Saturday mid-day/afternoon, then Sunday at our place we hosted Carol's sisters and their families for brunch and gift exchanging. As usual plenty of good eats and time to catchup on each others activities. The story for the remainder of the week was a couple of moderate sized snowstorms Thursday then Saturday into Sunday. I was out and abouts during Thursday's storm. Our nephew Johnny and his girlfriend Kyla are up from Texas visiting family so I took them visit with Ian and Ali in Portsmouth. I picked them up at Lois', snow swirling all over, roads covered, plow trucks, turnpike speed down to 45 mph but as we approached Portsmouth we encountered sleet and then in Portsmouth it's just wind and rain. At home, still snowing. So a couple of days for snow cleanup, a quiet Friday in between, Football on TV Sunday, made it to the gym yesterday. A couple of Netflix shows last night with a bottle of wine got us to midnight so we switched over to watch the crystal ball drop at Times Square. I think we've hit the sack early the last couple of New Year's eve so that worked out well. Today we took down the Christmas decorations and tree, now it's all college bowl games. I guess I'm as ready as I can be to get back to work, at least my cold is gone.

Happy New Year!