Not surprisingly, Marley has been subdued since he got home from the vet's yesterday. He does his usual stuff - eat, inspect the yard, wag his tail when he hears Sandra get up - but does so slowly. We can take the bandage off of his foot on Monday if he hasn't already chewed it off. So far, he's left it alone. We'll return to the doctor's in two weeks to find out what's next.

I left the office early yesterday afternoon. The project leader was making the final CD. We're done with the release. On balance, I believe that we produced a better product than we did in the previous release. I'm pretty sure that we won't make it into the Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness. I hope that, in the coming months, I will be doing less writing and more work with the systems and software that the team uses.

My manager reports that he's extended my contract, so it looks as though I'll have work through the summer. I'm relieved. I'm not ready to start interviewing for jobs again.

In the early 90s, AT&T did a study of its staff in an attempt to find out why some engineers were more effective than others. They equalized for intelligence, education, and experience. The study indicated that the effective engineers were the ones who built their personal networks before they needed it. When they ran into to trouble, they knew who to contact and those people would answer the phone. This article reports much the same. (Here's his blog.)

Let's see, a hair dryer that looks like a gun. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, and don't forget something for the kiddies. Let them have stuffed animals mounted like hunting trophies.

On this solemn day, while people ponder deeply the matters of life in this time and for all time, American ingenuity lifts us up.

I'll take Marley to the vet's shortly. Last year, the doctor had suggested that Marley might have an autoimmune disease, such as lupoid onchodystrophy. If true, we could be in for a lifetime of treatment.

Yesterday we received emails from Marian. She's been able to walk up the lane to get the mail, about a kilometer round trip, a walk that she couldn't complete last year. She reports that there are fishermen on the ice on the Cardigan River. (The Cardigan River is a salt water inlet.)

If the wind is right and you listen very carefully, you can hear something approximating music coming from the west end of Prince Edward Island. PEI has the only year-round college for bagpipe instruction in North America. (What's an optimist? A piper with a beeper.)

This morning's job listing include a job as, and I'm not making this up, a JohnFAdbprg. It's something to do with database programming. Hakkarainen's Job Search Rule #6: Don't take a job that you can't pronounce.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that the NIH had posted song lyrics for kids. The Centers for Disease Control, not to be outdone, bring us this. Who cares about PSP when you can have the Staph Infection card (PDF viewer required).

The Blogger spell-checker didn't recognize the word outdone recommended OTTOMH as a replacement.

Today is Maundy Thursday. Being Unitarians at most, we didn't have a lot of Christian observances in our house when I was growing up, so the phrase didn't have much meaning until I was in my late 20s. And now? Well, let's say that I'm not alone in my pondering about the significance of these days.

Work has taken some surprising turns, mostly for the better. For several weeks, I was having a lot difficulty writing. My reviewers were catching simple mistakes that were embarrassing to me. I finished my final editing tasks on Monday and moved on to help the rest of the team with some technical issues. For those of you who care about such things, I was able to convert a FrameMaker document into the RoboHelp glossary format. It took a couple of hours and has made a few people, including the manager and project leader, quite happy.

About four inches of snow fell in our yard, less than expected and more than was needed.

In anticipation of the storm, I brought my laptop home. The system weighs about five pounds and fits nicely in a briefcase. In the early days of portable computing, some portable systems were just under 50 pounds. People have been trying to solve the problem of making portable writing systems for a long time. I wrote my high school papers on a black Smith-Corona manual typewriter. And, as much as I grumbled when I jammed the keys, I now know that Americans have it easy compared to what others have to do.

This morning's automated job search for a technical documentation position brought a listing for a job as a Hotel Inspector. "This role also will include the documentation of hotel facility evaluation conducted while traveling to hotel properties." Requirements include: "Utilizes excellent oral and written communication skills."

Marley's foot was bothering him this morning, in turn waking us up around 4:00. He'll go in for his surgery early tomorrow morning.

Red skies in the morning, .... We'll see some precipitation later today and overnight. Most forecasters are calling for snow and it may be as much as eight inches.

Sandra's parents arrived at the Island around noon yesterday. They're very happy.

Marley will have surgery on his foot on Friday. One of his nails has split up to the quick. There's also a small tumor on the same foot.

We met with the Phillipston Conservation Commission last night. It's a very dedicated group of volunteers who are looking out for the water quality in the town. The town hall is tiny, not much larger than our house. The commission will inspect the site in a couple of weeks. If the snow hasn't melted on the road, we might have to walk in.

I had been slow to call the commission to arrange for the hearing. As a result, we'll have to comply with new regulations that went into effect on March 1. More time, more money, more work.

After the meeting, we had dinner in the only restaurant in town that's open in the evening, and then drove home, talking and listening to jazz on the radio. The moonlight was bright on the snowy fields.

Happy Birthday, Phyllis.

Yesterday afternoon we came home to a cold house and a lonely dog. We can turn up the heat in the house and leave the radio on to keep Marley company, but it's not the same. The MacGregors should arrive in Cardigan mid-day today.

Mergers and acquisitions are part of the fabric of modern business, even on PEI.

Today marks one year since I left IBM. For all that has happened, I've been able keep myself mentally stimulated and entertained, while trying to stay humble.

We work hard, but what we do isn't hard work.

Happy Birthday, Mike L.

Sandra's parents will leave for Prince Edward Island this morning. There was some talk that they might have to delay their trip for a day because of some forecasted snow. The temperature is 35, so the precipitation will be rain. (The temperature is also 2 °C; they're going to have to get used to metric again.) They plan to stay overnight in Sussex NB, where, well, you figure out what's going on there.

When they return to Canada, we hope that they don't recieve letters such as this from the Canadian health system: "If the person named on this computer-generated letter is deceased, please accept our sincere apologies." They'll also have an enhanced shopping experience in town.

A fellow runs a small computer support and repair business in Poole's Corner, PEI. He charges a reasonable rate to come to the house and take care of computer problems. He used to be the manager of the fish plant before the plant closed down.

You'd have to go halfway across the continent, to the Soo, to match the excitement of PEI.

Yesterday we visited with my father and started talking about spring. Mostly he wanted us to remember that we should wait until the frost is completely out of the ground before we bring heavy equipment onto the camp road for the septic construction. If the ground is still wet, the machines can get stuck.

He has also started talking about not sailing. This is one of those ideas that requires some pondering. It's more than about not sailing.

Sandra, Marley, and I walked in to the camp. The snow was soft, but the snowmobiles had made good paths. A cross-country skier had visited the camp as well. We saw rabbit tracks and the tracks of something larger, perhaps a fox. Inside the camp, the mice had chewed open little packets of mayonnaise, leaving shreds of foil on the counter. It must have been a hard winter. We left a cookie for them. "Treat your mice right," said Adam, "and they'll treat you right."

It's spring, tra-la. Here's when the feds say that spring begins. Believe them if you want to. If you don't, but need spring anyway, here's a way to get the fresh air you need.

On our trek to North Adams we took Route 2 as it followed the snow-covered Deerfield River for many miles into the Berkshires. We stopped at a sugar shack because maple syrup season is in full stride. There was a 45-minute wait for a seat in the restaurant, even in mid-afternoon, so we headed along, stopping at the Olde Willow, where we had the place to ourselves. The ride is spectacular, however fast or slow you want to take it. After a few times, however, I can see how it would be a long ride and why former governor Jane Swift would want to take a State Police helicopter home from Boston.

North Adams is doing very well. It's nice to be able to say that about an New England mill town. It looks larger than its population of 14,000 would suggest. The state provided seed money for MoCA and the transformation of the old North Adams State College to the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Williams and Bennington colleges are nearby, adding to the vitality of the region. There were many little shops along the main streets and a Wal-Mart on the south side of town where people could do their real shopping. The North Adams Transcript had a decent list of decent jobs in the classified section.

Our hotel was a renovated row house across the street from the old factory that now houses MoCA. The rooms were decorated very nicely, with modest but clever pieces of art hung on the shiplap-paneled walls and colorful plates on the plate rail. There was a heated pool, hot tub, and electric sauna out back. The young woman taking care of the hot tub said that the pool had been packed last week during the snow storm.

We had a continental breakfast in a small dining room in the main building. Sweet Honey were up early and on their way to Peekskill before we got up. After our breakfast and leisurely morning, we went to the heritage park where we saw a video of the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel and had a delightful talk with the woman who hosted the visitors' center. She gave the name of a man who was collecting railroad stories and who might be interested in talking with my father about the riding the rails during the Depression. We also visited an antique store and the North Adams Historical Society. At times, the hosts were a bit too eager for company.

We took a different route back, down Route 8 to 116 to 112 to 9. We stopped at the Good Time Stove Co. in Goshen. A friend in Maine is interested in one of their refurbished gas stoves and wanted to know what kind of place it is. It's a fine place with great stoves at good prices. We almost didn't get out of there, though. The mud in the driveway was pretty deep. Mud season isn't on the calendar, but it's every bit as real. A bit further down the road, we picked up some bakery goods at the Williamsburg General Store.

We hadn't made plans with Adam and Jennie and so were disappointed, but not surprised that they weren't home. We visited one of my favorite stores, Dave's Soda and Pet Food City (Where else could you buy a hedgehog?), and came along home.