What is so rare as a day in June?

Sandra and her friend, Donna, went to New York City yesterday. They visited the Guggenheim museum, took a ride around Central Park, had high tea at the Plaza, and brought back Krispy Kreme donuts. I brought them to the bus station in the morning and then picked them up in the late night(1:30AM).

It was a fine, clear, and warm day. Marley and I spent much of the afternoon on the back deck. I read while Marley kept patrol to ensure that there were no squirrels, chipmunks, or cats about. I'm reading two books. Yesterday I started Khrushchev by Bill Taubman, an Amherst history professor. At the camp, I'm still working through Mountain Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. In between, I'm nibbling at books on XML and Perl. Marley and I also went for a walk. We started through the woods, but the mosquitoes were fierce, so we turned back and walked around the neighborhood. So, it was a fine afternoon, quiet. There aren't many better ways to spend a day at home.

In the evening we watched TV, including a disappointing Red Sox game. Their starting pitching is really struggling these days.

Today we'll go to the camp. The water is still cool for shoreside work. Rain is forecast for later in the day.

I've started an online Perl course and have found it challenging. Some of the logical operators aren't. (The online course and a Perl reference book differ slightly in their description of the behavior of some of the operators.) It feels good to use my brain in this way.

In addition, I'm planning to take an intensive, three-day course that will prepare me for the project management certification test. The application for the test requires that I provide a lot of detail about my previous project work, including start and end dates, information that I don't have at the ready. Fortunately, Cathy was able to provide me with the GA dates for the Rational releases. I will complete the application this afternoon or tomorrow morning. I will then have to wait until I am given the authorization to take the test before I will sign up for the course.

There's a good chance that it will take me through the summer to locate a job. I have several applications in the queue and talk with people regularly. Now that the weather is warming up, I may also start spending days at the camp. I have several projects related to the dock and patio that will keep me busy for a while. We still haven't heard from the engineering firm that is supposed to be installing our new septic system. They're not returning my phone calls, either.

June dawns damp and dreary.

Over the long weekend, I have made some decisions about next steps. Of greatest significance, I think, I plan to spend the next couple of months concentrating on technical education. For this month, anyway, I will take courses through the DBM online service. They have several courses on Perl and XML. ACM also provides a good catalog of online courses. I'll also be exploring options at nearby colleges, including schools as far away as UMass Amherst. Again, I'll focus mostly on hands-on technical education. Depending on my next job, I'll consider degree programs at a later time.

If I was retired, there's no question that I'd purse a graduate degree, Master's or Ph. D., in American history and related fields. So, why the technical education now? For one, I need to have a better understanding of some key technologies if I'm going to be successful in my next job. For another, it's interesting stuff. I'm not going to transform myself into in a Java developer with a few courses; it's doubtful that I could become one, irrespective of the amount of study that I took. No, I want better technical understanding and the ability to write small utility applications to help automate selected tasks. For example, I'd like to be able to write a program that would read my iTunes music library and produce different output formats. I was never a great programmer. In fact, it was a struggle to be adequate. If, however, I can read code more easily and write a little, I could have an easier time of it in my next job.