Back to the cube farm

So it's nice being back at work not that I wouldn't mind taking another week off. That will have to wait for Christmas week. In the meantime I have a conference poster to finish, in-house holiday do-das to create, two retirements coming up that I'll work up some sort of photo montages of them through the years for their years of employment here (buggers are younger than I am for Christmas sake). Large format cubical wall calenders that a lot of the staff like to pin to a cube wall and plan out their projects and schedules on. Then there may be some sort of holiday staff party that will need banners and such. Who knows I may even get some project and/or proposal work to do. December usually does get a little wacky.

The rest of the story

Paid Holiday No. 1 and 2 Friday leading into Saturday. Ah, Thanksgiving Day for us was at Ali's parents Mandy and Victor home in New Hampshire along with her brother Victor John, our Ian and Victor's extended family. Carol and I drove the two hour trip earlier afternoon, checked in at a local hotel and arrived by 2:30. Social time in the rec room with appetizers and hors d'oeuvres galore, a pool table, beers/wine/Scotches and the first of three football games on television. Good conversations, multiple partnered pool games, dinner was ready around 5:30, very well done by Mandy. Multiple pies and ice cream selections before a card game was started. I watched that, couldn't remember the name and didn't catch on with the playing of it. Very enjoyable visit and the time to catch up with Mandy and Victor who we'd last seen at Christmas. Afterward it was back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep before driving to Boston Friday to visit the Fine Arts Museum there.

Up somewhat early, took the time to take in a very nice complementary breakfast buffet at the hotel then made the one and a half hour drive into Boston. It as been a long time since the last time we were in one of the great metropolitan museums (London, 2001). Quite overwhelming and of course a lot of ground to cover. We were able to see most of it with a break for lunch but after two floors of the Arts of America we were toast for the last two. There were a couple of smaller exhibits we didn't get to either.

From there we drove to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and spent the night there. Pretty crazy place as they had a tour bus full of people from New Brunswick, Canada on a Christmas shopping spree staying overnight. Talked with some of them, they did this trip every year. Another nice complementary breakfast buffet yesterday morning then we headed for the business district for a little Christmas shopping of our own followed by the trip home.

It's been a pretty good week, should do it more often.

Dancing in the rain

Paid day off No. 3, the last for the week, tomorrow and Friday I move into paid holiday status. Today's activities began at the dealership where bought my car from. I brought new snow tires and had them installed. Arrived at the scheduled time of 7am, was told it would take an hour and half. Should have asked when I scheduled it, might have had the shuttle service drop me off some where. Well I'd brought a book with me so that didn't seem to be too bad. I also was having nitrogen installed in the tires. A little after two and half hours the work was done. I like reading but not that long in a waiting room thank you very much. Paid up and took off, rain that had been forecasted had started, grabbed a snack and coffee for the drive to the gym, got a good workout then went in search of a winery I heard had an excellent cranberry wine to purchase for Thanksgiving day dinner Carol and I are attending. I reach the region where I thought the winery was I could not find the landmarks or sign that I had passed several times over the last 10 years or more - turned out to having gone out of business. Not helpful. Called it a day then went home. Looking forward to some sunny weather tomorrow and into the weekend.

Dare to be boring

Paid day off No. 2 for the week. Fully intended to get to the gym this morning drop off items at thrift store with a followup to the transfer station (actually the bulky waste facility). Fortunately I decided to check the hours of operations and found out that bulky waste was closing at noon. Change of plans, instead of go to gym/thrift store come home load truck, go to bulky waste it was load truck, go to balky waste, come home load items for thrift store, drop off come home, sort more stuff. Nothing too exciting but the weather was splendid and I had nice day with it all. Tomorrow I step up the excitement.

No sunscreen required

Paid day off No. 1 for the week. I may not be going to some exotic getaway but I am being paid for not being in the office and that is special in it's own way. As far as how I spent it, well I began with a quick tasty breakfast, casually prepared and left for the gym for a workout, grabbed a coffee and snack afterward. Stopped at the grocery store for trash bags and a Guinness 6 pack, forgot a bottle of wine. Correct that mistake tomorrow. Arrived at home and began clearing out things to be tossed out on a trip to the transfer station. Mostly from the garage attic. Needed to sort out things I could drop off to the a local thrift store. Also removed and stashed the deck railings for easier snow removal this winter - El Nina is coming don't you know?!? Did get in some quality reading time. Didn't feel like taking a nap though I had planned to. Kind of sounds like training for retirement. Well you can never start too soon.

Rainy Sunday

The streak of fair weather weekends has come to an end with the arrival of precipitation yesterday evening forecasted to continue through the rest of today. Good a time as any for the plans we have. Yesterday Carol picked up her mother, Margaret for the day from Lois' then they went her church's holiday craft fair after which came to our house for the day. I had been doing some of cleanup in the garage and putting away summer outdoor stuff as planned. Plenty more to do over the next several days before Thanksgiving Day. Early in the afternoon Ian and his dog Io arrived for an overnight visit. After some relaxation time we convened for coffee and a snack over a few rounds of Dominoes before Carol returned Margaret to Lois'. Our Netflix DVD movie was "Arrival" starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. Some good discussions points after. Thumbs up from the three of us. Mostly light stuff to do today, computer time, football games, reading - Ian and Io are doing a wet walkabout in the back field and maybe beyond. No complaints today.

On the brink of sanity, be that as it may

On vacation next week with the Thanksgiving Day holiday approaching. I'll start by meeting up with a buyer for some winter tires we have for a previously owned Subaru. A few bucks in the pocket that will come in handy for some of our plans next week. Still have plenty to do to be ready for winter including buying snow tires for the new car. I'll get those mounted next week. Also need to download a new book. Let me know if you cannot keep up. Trust me there will be more to write about next week.

Nothing to see here, move along

No real accumulation with yesterday's snowfall. Most of it in the driveway and lawn had pretty much melted away. The deck still had about an inch of slush hanging on. Brought the snow scoop out from the garage attic and plowed that off to the side. Maybe some rain and possible flurries later in the week. Still a lot to do to be ready for winter at it's best though the forecast this weekend is on the damp/rainy side but I'm planning on taking the three days before Thanksgiving day off to make it a week plus of time off from the cube farm. Should get caught up with it all by then. Carol and I have some plans for the hoilday part of the week and the weekend that follows. Looking forward to it.

A shot across the bow

Another good year with the deck - had to end sometime...

Late afternoon today and kept snowing lightly into the evening. I could have waited a couple more weeks for the first snow.

Baby it's cold outside

Quite the chill in the air over the past week. Maybe its my age that I went straight to a heavier jacket with an extra layer underneath. Carol ordered me a pair of lined twill cargo pants to get me between warm places, much appreciated. One of those warm places is the office. I've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks and quite challenged at that. Besides some work from in-house staff there has been graphics support work for a couple of proposals in California , two tech conference 8ft x 3ft posters for 2 attendees from Pennsylvania offices. The week before I worked for one of our Australian offices for a government client. A little awkward when I'm coming into the office when they are getting ready for bed. It was a little hectic at times but after having gone through some lean weeks earlier I am not complaining though true be told I did get frustrated at times.

Not quite the Stone Age

A much herald rain and wind event arrived as forecasted overnight Sunday followed by the power going out at 4:15 Monday morning – the wind is the key part in the equation. Power outages were anticipated. Soon after Carol and I got up to get the generator fired up, I had set it up the previous evening night in the breezeway that connects the house to the garage and had the wiring set aside until hooking up when needed. That took care of the fridge, boiler and some general stuff around the house. At 8am there were nearly 80,000 homes in my county without power, 286,000 in southern Maine. By Tuesday we were into the routine of using the generator when we got up in the morning, shutting down to go to work then back up again when returning home. Cleaned out the refrigerator, tossed a lot and put the meats and other perishables in several coolers with ice from the convenience store on the way home that had power. Add in a couple of trips to fill my gas cans to keep the generator running. When Carol returned home Thursday afternoon the power was on – and we were back to civilization again.