Spaced out, as usual.

Recently finished reading Babylon's Ashes the 6th book of The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey. Though maybe not the best volume of the saga I still found it engaging and enjoyed having the main characters back together after previously having dispersed to other fronts in the series storyline. Wednesday night begins the second season of the TV version "The Expanse" with a double episode based on the books. Little late for a work night so I'll be looking for it as a On Demand showing from the cable company hopefully available by Friday night. Once finished with BA I felt I needed to continue with something equaling satisfying and chose Glen Cook's "Star's End: The Starfishers Trilogy: Volume Three". For me Cook came out of nowhere. I had never seen his name or books then came across one of his space opera books "The Dragon never Sleeps" and a short while later read "Passage at Arms". The depths of characters and storyline took me hook, line and sinker. From what I can tell he only has five SO books and a multitude of fantasy/sword and sorcery/scifi books which generally are not my cup of tea but at some point I'll look a little closer and try something there just because I love how he writes.

Taking a step back

Been two weeks since the last posting with my elation for the Green Bay Packers victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. Well, the following unposted story of the lost to the Atlanta Falcons in the conference finals was quite a let down though not entirely unforeseen. Atlanta had annihilated the Seattle Seahawks thoroughly the week before and I cringed at the thought of what could happen to the Packers should they beat the Cowboys especially give the shape their defence was in... but a fan could wish.

With a game winning field goal

PACKERS WIN! On to Atlanta for the Conference championship, ain't going to be easy. GO PACK!

GO PACK GO

The Green Bay Packers are in Texas today and will play the NFL National Conference #1 seed Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the playoffs as a 5 point underdog. After a 4 and 6 record to begin the season they have run the table winning the remaining regular season games, wrestling the division title from the Detroit Lions and winning their first round game against the New York Giants. The Cowboys will be a tough challenge and had beaten the Pack in Green Bay earlier in the season. I'll be buckled in for this one. GO PACK GO!

Recent short trip

More or less a regular week at the office. Before hand on the previous Saturday we attended the a very nice Celebration of Life service in Massachusetts for Carol's Aunt Marie who passed away a month before. Hers sons had a food and fellowship gathering at a local organization's hall afterwards. As we left the church it had begun to snow quite briskly, After a short drive to the reception hall it had accumulated to almost 2 inches, then the fun part. By the time we left for home we were at about 4 inches and still coming down hard. What had been a two and a half hour drive to get there had become a four hour plus drive home. Felt it the next day, though we had a safe highway return trip tension must have built up and I felt somewhat drained most of the next day.

Grinding into the new year

Sort of nice getting back to work after a week off and New Years Day. It didn't take long before I was in the thick of things at the office with technical posters submissions on two fronts besides intensive proposal graphics sandwiched in and around some smaller efforts. In November the office received a state level engineering organization honor award for a river sediment leakage remediation project we had submitted. That entailed the project management doing a write up of the the project and providing me with text and imagery to develop a 30 x 30 inch photographic display as a supporting visual for display use. The honor level award made the submission eligible for the national level so that needed some adjustment to submit for the Friday deadline, shipped the day before. Then there was the annual conference on remediation and management of contaminated sediments that is a forum for sharing research results, practical experiences, and opportunities associated with remediating, restoring and managing the environmental and economic vitality of waterways. Now there's a mouth full. For that I laid out 6 eight foot wide by three foot high posters of technical information and imagery from an assortment of engineers and scientists from my company and including some associates from other companies. I'd been working on those for the past month all of which when finally approved I arranged for laminating, picking up, packaging in shipping tubes and sending to the hotel Friday that our attendees are staying at beginning today. I've done posters for these events once or twice a year for several years now. They look great when done but it all needs to get done amidst everything else I have to do. It took up to today to catch up with it all.

Two weeks for a holiday

Okay, I've sat down and worked on this blog post at least three times in the last week and a half each time just needed to wrap it up only to get side tracked and not getting back to it until several days later. The following with several weather events and some editing is dated, please read on bearing that in mind...

Three "Christmases"  First Christmas was on Carol's side of the family the Sunday before Christmas. That was at Elaine and Steve's with their son Mark and wife Megan and kids Lydia and Brock. Carol's sister Lois and Jim her husband and the sister's mother Margaret. A good time with good food. Ian made it too. Unfortunately Ali had to stay home to study for semester finals at law school. Well Carol and I were able to make up for missing Ali when we had accepted an invitation from from Ali's parents, Mandy and Victor to spend Christmas Eve and Day, our second Christmas, with them at their lake house in New Hampshire, a two hour drive from here. We arrived with time to spare for Christmas Eve services where Ali's grandmother Rosemary played piano for the choir. Back to the house for a bolognese dinner nicely done, Mandy is a great cook. Christmas morning was a big breakfast featuring Swedish pancakes, a big deal around Carol's family and us as well. Carol shared the recipe with Mandy who cooked them up and with bacon/sausage, Cool Whip and strawberries. A little while later we shared Christmas gifts having a good times with surprises and good laughs. Chilled out for most on the afternoon as Carol, Mandy and I watched a movie. Ian and Ali had run an errand. Ali had brought a very tasty coffee stout which was a great afternoon treat. Dinner that evening included some friends of the family Anne and Mick, Mandy cooked a huge roast beef that Victor finished on the grill out on the snow covered decked. We enjoyed the time there very much. Third Christmas was Saturday, New Year's Eve day with my extended family at our nephew Eric and wife Kailey's place a short drive away for us. Great turnout by my siblings and their adult children and Ian and Ali - only Jim, sister Kathy's son couldn't make it as he had to work though his wife Kelly and step daughter Taylor were there. As usual it was pot luck eats, a very good Yankee Swap for the gifts and of course the huge family photo.

I also managed to take vacation time during the holiday week with a little bit of office work I could do from home. Seems I have an abundance of vacation time available that I hope to use here and there over the next couple of months. Believe it when you read it here.