An encouraging morning. I had a good meeting with the hiring manager on the aforementioned contract job. The meeting with the project manager had to be postponed, so it may take a day or two to complete the discussions. According to the hiring manager, the job is mine if I want it. Sandra and I will talk about it this weekend and make a decision by Monday. I'll make some calls on Monday to see if any of the other opportunities are likely to become more active. I spoke with one of the other companies and may see an offer soon. These are good problems to have.

Russell Alexander MacGregor, 7 lbs., 3 oz., 20 inches, son of Scott (Sandra's brother) and his wife, Val, was born yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday I received a good lead on a four-month contract job. I will meet with the hiring manager and project leader tomorrow. There are still details to work out, but it's the most promising opportunity that I've had so far. Sandra and I might be able to ride to work together. (There I go, thinking too much about what the job would be like before I have a written offer.)

I'll make some calls on pending jobs to learn if anything is imminent. I would prefer a full-time, permanent job, but hiring decisions are measured in months, not days. Some of the possibilities in my queue now might not lead to a job until October anyway.

The news of the day remains grim. Scores of people dead in Iraq. Bombings in Turkey. Predictions of new terrorist attacks. Last weekend we listened to the news on the radio while driving back from the Cape. It was a worry for the kids more than the adults. I remember lying awake as a kid, worried about nuclear war. Kids these days have fresh dangers from so many sources.

Another rough night of sleep. I am not worried about anything in particular and so don't spend the night thinking about things that might keep me awake. I'm just not sleep. Oh, I'll doze for an hour here and there, but mostly I listen to the BBC, hoping that the same cycle of news stories will, after a time, let me drift off.

So, what's ahead for today? For starters I'll go out for a run. I haven't had a lot of physical activity in the last couple of days, perhaps causing as well as caused by the lack of sleep. I have several follow-up phone calls and emails on the job search. There's also a backlog of filing. I also have a scattered collection of half-read magazines and books. The weather is supposed to be nice today, so perhaps I'll sit outside and read. Yesterday I spent the afternoon in the office, paying bills and taking care of other chores that had been kicking around the in-basket for a while.

Yesterday, the 22nd, as I'd mentioned recently, marked three months out of work. It's been even longer when you consider the amount of time that I spent looking for work inside of IBM. I've learned some lessons about how I got into this. It was pride mostly, pride that didn't let me see what was really going on around me. Maybe that's part of the lesson here as well. I guess you can never go too far wrong if you make humility (and the awareness that it brings) a major life goal.

I think that I'm getting close to the edge of my primary rule in writing this journal - don't tell me what you think; tell me what you did.

Some days start slowly. I didn't sleep well last night and am paying for it today. Energy, my mother used to say, is eternal delight.

After a delightful evening of food and Whiffle Ball at Mike's house on Sunday and a leisurely lunch with Adam yesterday, I can only say that we're truly blessed with a wonderful family.

Last week I had a conversation with a former co-worker who now works at Microsoft. He directed me to a Microsoft web site that describes some very interesting new products focused on software development teams. I've spent an hour or so reading web pages and watching demos of the new products.

It's a cool, clear morning, this first day of summer, about 44F/7C. I needed to start a little fire in the stove, a smudge, as my father calls it. I have kept a couple of windows open a bit to bring in some of this good, fresh air. Summer officially begins at 8:48PM.

We had a delightful trip to the Cape yesterday. Krista and Tess joined us. They were such good company. We played the picnic games. Sandra and the girls sang songs. (With my three-quarter octave rang, I don't sing much.) We played the Anne of Green Gables CD and they sang along. At Barbara's house, the girls were good fun as well. We stayed about four hours, the same amount of time that it takes to drive down and back. On the way home, we were nearly clipped by an driver making a stupid right turn in the Sagamore rotary.

So it's Father's Day. It doesn't carry the same emotional and sentimental payload as Mother's Day, but it's an important day. My relationship with my father has improved greatly over the last few years, particularly the last five. For one thing, we accept each other more, accept our strengths and shortcomings, realizing that we'll change a little, but not much. Sharing the camp has been an important part of that healing. We'll see my father at the camp for coffee mid-day. Later in the afternoon, we'll go to Mike's house for a Whiffle Ball All-Star Game and cookout. I have a sore shoulder (rotator cuff) that doesn't let me throw as well I'd like, but I'll have fun all the same. I hope to talk with Adam by phone this evening.

This week marks three months since my job went away. With the interviews and other activity that accompanied the start of my layoff, I hadn't expected that I'd be out of work for three months. Although I've not completed major projects, I have, for the most part, spent the time wisely. How so? Bringing stability back to my life, being able to take on some of the sometimes unspectacular tasks that make a household run smoothly - get to the post office, pay the bills, be at home when the electrician comes. Then we'll have the challenge of maintaining that balance when I return to work. Some of the jobs that I am seeking have a long commute and long hours or a great deal of travel. This is part of the calculus that goes into the evaluation of any job offer. Not only do I have to think about the compensation (salary, benefits, etc.), but also the costs of work (commute, travel, number of hours, working conditions). Of course, I never forget what a luxury it is to be able to consider such things. There are many people in this country and countless others elsewhere in the world who have little choice in what they do to make a living. I am deeply grateful for the opportunities that come from my being who I am and where I am.