The household is getting an early start this busy Saturday. Sandra's brother, John, and his wife, Suanne, will arrive shortly after 6:00 for a trip to PEI with Woody. They'll be gone a week. J & S often spend a week in February at the the island. The weather looks good for the travelers both here and there. Mid-morning, we'll babysit Cassandra while Mike coaches Joe's basketball game. Later, Sandra's sister, Babara, will come for a visit, joining their brother, Scott, his wife, Valeria, and son, Russell.

On my ride home yesterday afternoon, after a tough, tough week at work, I was expecting the usual sturm und drang of politics, world misery, and Michael Jackson on the radio news. Instead, All Things Considered broadcast a magnificent segment on the Soweto Gospel Choir. Healing vibrations can find you, even on Route 9.

I first heard Turn Your Radio On performed by John Hartford on his Aereo-Plain album. It was and is one of my favorite tunes, about both gospel music and the power of radio. There's an apocryphal story about John Hartford, that he had his guest room decorated like a motel room. Most of his friends were touring musicians and he wanted them to feel at home.

Don't forget that Tuesday, 10 February, is Major Patch Day. It's not too late to get your cards in the mail. Seriously, though, it's really important to keep one's system up-to-date with the latest security patches. Having the latest patches, virus protection, and anti-spyware software doesn't guarantee that the bad guys won't break into your system, but not having that stuff guarantees that they will.

Oh, and on April 13, 2029, you might want to keep your head down.

During the overnight we picked up three or four inches of wet snow. The local schools have a two-hour delay.

Marley was so excited when he heard Sandra get up this morning that he went into my closet and brought me my sneaker.

Politics may be a blood sport in Boston, but small towns can mix it up pretty well. The librarian in Westminster, the town where I grew up, was fired in late 2003. Several employees had complained to the trusteees about her management style and practices, the complaints leading a public and unpleasant spectacle. In the last election, one of the library trustees was voted off the board. The former librarian is now a finalist to be her own replacement. The librarian was a good friend of and to my mother. Some 40 years ago my mother ran for library trustee. She lost. She wrote a delightfully sardonic paper for a college course, a tale of intrigue in East Crackerville.

I have a meeting with one of the software engineers to discuss what is and is not in one of my documents. That he asked to meet with me is a sign that he cares about what I'm writing. That he asked to meet with me is an indication that what I've written isn't covering the material in the way that he'd like. One more reason why they call it work.

By 8:00 yesterday morning, I had to turn to Plan B. (For those who care about such things, I ran into a couple of bugs in FrameMaker and DzBatch that would, under normal circumstances, be just annoyances. For me, they were showstoppers. I couldn't afford to spend any more tome on the problems, at least not yesterday.) I worked very hard and had three of the four books ready for review at day's end. My boss only stopped by my office once to see if I was going to be done on time. The fourth book is still a problem, but I have one more approach to try this morning. Plan B for this one isn't as clear.

Once I get the last book ready, I'm going to take a few hours to regroup. I think that it was worth the risk to try something new. I'm sure that I can salvage a good bit of what I've done, even if the full solution didn't work as planned. I also know, however, that I made things more difficult for myself. One of the hardest things in life and work is knowing when to keep working on a hard problem and when to bail.

After Tuesday's lab tests, today it's time to be ...inspected, detected.... (with four-part harmony and stuff). My appointment is at 7:00, so my work day won't start too late.

I don't know if this book would have helped me when I was crawling through high school, but the suggestion, "Don't take yourself too seriously." is always in order.

Although the critter in Pennsylvania is getting all the attention today, the celebration on February 2 goes back much further. Hedgehog Day became Groundhog Day when European settlers discovered that there are no native hedgehogs on this side of the pond. (You can get next year's Hedgehog Day stationery here.)

"Section. 3. [The president] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union...." George Washington gave his first State of the Union address in person, but Jefferson and many other presidents sent letters instead.

I may have been too clever at work. I was trying to do some innovative things with my project and they're not coming together. I will give myself two hours this morning and if things don't work as required, I'll have to go to Plan B. Plan B isn't pretty, but it has a better chance for success. I have to have four books out for review today.

Which is probably why I am awake very early today. I rarely have trouble falling asleep. For example, watching Nova last night knocked me out cold. Waking early, though, is part of a familiar pattern.

Yesterday my boss sent a note to say that that I should plan to sign up for a course on Microsoft Exchange that's offered within the company in late March. I was bouyed by that. For one thing, it will be good to get some training. For another, it shows some confidence that I'll be around for a while. I doubt that they'd train me in new material and then send me packing a month later.

Rabbit, Rabbit.

Matt called last night and asked how he can get PowerPoint. He needs to do a presentation on Richard Nixon by next week. We don't have it on our home computer, either. PowerPoint is pricey for the occasional user and the OpenOffice tools aren't quite ready for civilian use. Fortunately, the library has a copy of PowerPoint that he can use. Matt's in the seventh grade. You can almost hear one more little blood vessel pop on Dr. Tufte's forehead.

I brought my work laptop home with me. I have an appointment for some lab work at 8:30 and need to finish up a couple of things this morning. As has been said, why do they call it fasting when it goes so slowly? At day's end yesterday, I was tripped up by a problem that could be a big deal. This is not the time to find such problems.

Some people have noted, and this even goes back to my time at IBM, that I've not been getting things done as I normally would. Tasks, many of them small and requiring just a few minutes of work, will lie about incomplete for weeks. Sometimes, a task may be blocked, waiting for another person to complete a related task, but, in many cases, I've not been able to get those things unstuck. I've wondered if it's the result of changes in some medication - too much or too little, it's not clear. That it's been going on for a year and half or more suggests something else. While I try to sort that out, there are some basics that can help me move forward. There are plenty of resources for help. Sandra is very good at acting on the principle of handling a piece of paper once - act on it, file it, or throw it away.

While I work on technical documentation for networked attached storage, other people write documentation (PDF) for products that are more essential to the well-being of the republic.

Even though Huck reported that his back was giving him a lot of trouble, when we arrived, we found him unloading a wheelbarrow full of wood in his living room. He'd managed to get the wheelbarrow from the woodshed and up over the back step. It wasn't that long ago that he couldn't get himself over the back step. His biggest concern now is that the belt that raises and lowers the snowplow isn't the right size, so it take a long time to lift the plow. The Jeep is also a bit hard to start and may need to have the carburetor rebuilt. The grandson of a now-deceased friend is willing to do the work. The Jeep isn't registered, though, so getting it to the grandson's home is a problem.

After the visit we walked a short segment of the Mass. Central Rail Trail. In most places, the going was easy, the cross-country skiers having packed down the snow nicely. Many people were out for a walk. One man pulled a sled that carried a six-month-old baby who was bundled up like a sack of laundry. We kept Marley on a leash, but he enjoyed the walk all the same. Even in the snow, there are lots of interesting smells.

On Saturday morning, Lily won a first-place gold medal in a skating competition. Her path to victory was eased when the only other girl in her class called in sick. Lily stood on the platform to receive her medal. All that was missing was the Florence village anthem.

Amazon.com reports that Holden residents are buying this music. Make of it what you will.

We had a great time with Matt in Boston yesterday. He's good company, interesting, interested, and funny.

The city is still packed with snow from last week's storms, so the sidewalks are narrow and slushy. Still, we enjoyed walking around on what felt like a spring day. We had a lunch of pho in a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown, a walk around the Common, watching the skaters on the Frog Pond rink, and a visit to Jack's Joke Shop. The owner talked with us about the relative merits of the bagel-with-cockroach, dribbling glass, and snapping gum. Matt got the dollar snatcher and received special instructions.

Sandra and I saw first Blue Man Group eight or so years ago. The advertisements were telling us that it would be in Boston for just a few more weeks, so hurry. I bought tickets for her birthday. She received a blue kiss on the cheek after the show. Yesterday was our fourth time to the show and it's still good. I sat next to a woman, a widow of three years and recently retired, who was quite fearful when she saw the ponchos, asking me every which way what was going to happen. I think that she finally had a good time. I know that we did.

On the way home we stopped at the rest area on the Mass Pike for supper. A bus had just pulled in. Sandra talked with some of the passengers and the driver and learned that they were a track team from a Christian college in West Virginia, on their way home from a meet. After their meal, they were going to ride all night, about a 10-hour ride. They were very fortunate that they were traveling last night instead of a week ago when a blizzard was howling through the Northeast.

At least we could see the people taking our orders at the McDonald's on the Mass. Pike. Not so some people in Oregon, who are asking, "Why outsource to India or Singapore when Grand Forks ND is so close?"