After a very long wait (nearly three hours!), Sandra's parents, her sibilings, and sundry spouses met with the surgeon who will perform MRM's back surgery next week. It was a successful meeting, in that all questions were answered and the family felt that it was a team coming together for an important purpose. Everyone came back to the house for pizza afterwards.

My work days are starting to fill up with meetings, both regularly scheduled and ad hoc. Some meetings are more organized than others. Most tend to start late, but end on time, and are rarely longer than an hour.

It still seems like a luxury to be working just 40 hours per week.

I've done nothing to personalize my cubicle. I brought in a couple of reference books, but have added no pictures or other personal items. My desk, for those who've seen my offices in the past, is uncharacteristically tidy. As is typical these days, my work stuff is on a laptop, so I can be as productive in a conference room or at home as I am in the office.

My contract will be extended another three months, providing me with continued employment into the new year. This news, combined with a couple of new and interesting projects, have made this a better week at work. Vacation was nice and re-entry was a bit of a jolt, but the work so far has been good.

This afternoon, Sandra will go with her parents to meet with the doctors who will perform her mother's surgery next week. After those meetings, there will be a family meeting with the surgeon, Sandra's parents and siblings, and sundry spouses. The family meeting will give folks a chance to learn about the procedure and recovery and to ask their own questions in their own words. Everyone is in a helpful and hopeful spirit.

On Saturday morning, we took an hour-and-a-half canoe ride around the lake. The sky was clear and the air was fresh. A few people were outside, working on their camps. We saw just one other boat on the lake. It was a fine example of why we take our vacation in September.

We had a good time, a very good time. We did things and didn't do things. We worked, finishing a few of the season's projects, and then were quiet, particularly during the rainy days mid-week. I'm reading Khrushchev by William Taubman, a professor of Russian history at my alma mater. Sandra's reading Naked in Baghdad by NPR's Anne Garrels. We also watched tv, not all of it bad. It took some adjustment to get used to not having access to the 24-hour news channels. We stayed up late to catch the 11:00 news and even saw David Letterman a couple of times. We didn't get to play cribbage and found the jigsaw puzzle not to our liking. We enjoyed each other's company and needed that quiet time together.

My father can't climb the stairs to the camp these days, so we set up chairs at the water's edge by the boat house and had our coffee break there. We're making plans to build a road up to the camp.

When we thought of work, which wasn't too often, it made us anxious. Both of us are returning to projects that are overdue. I'll go in a bit early this morning to spend extra time on the week's emails. There's never a good time to take a vacation. It's also good to learn that we're important, but not that important.

Sandra's parents have returned from PEI. Sandra's mother will have back surgery next week. Sandra and her siblings will meet with her parents and the surgeon on Wednesday to talk about the procedure and the recovery.

It's also time for me to start thinking about what's ahead for my employment. I'm two months into a three-month contract. There's a very good chance that the contract will be extended, but I can't assume anything. There are a few opportunities in the queue. Mostly, though, I will re-establish contact with friends and former co-workers to let them know that I'm looking again.

It's going to be a busy time. By late morning, vacation will be a distant, though wonderful, memory.