In a white room

A quick post from a hotel in White Plains, New York. I'm here for a couple of days of meetings with my new project team. The team is a mix of stand-at-home engineers, testers, and writers and a troupe of traveling consultants and sales people. It's a good group of people.

Downtown White Plains is a dense cluster of tar and concrete. The ride here, about three hours, isn't bad, although I can see how it could jam up quickly in bad weather. I'm glad to be going home this afternoon.

Happy Birthday, Lily. Good luck to Adam, Jennie, and Lily in their new adventure.

Five years

The past five years have given us two presidential elections, the September 11th attacks, the tsunami, Hurricaine Katrina, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. My mother would have found these events fascinating. It would have been heart-rending for her to watch us go to war, but she would have followed the details all the same. She would have been bouyed by the program of peace studies at her alma mater. "I'm planting winter wheat," she'd said of projects that might not be completed in her lifetime.

It's been five years since my mother died and we still miss her. Not only do we miss her good humor, generosity, and eclectic spirit, but we also miss the way that she help us understand the world in a different way. Each day held something interesting. Each person brought something new. Each idea connected her with someone important in her life. She lived as she died, surrounded by friends and family, in her room and in her heart.

Re-entry

It's not good that vacation's over, but it's good to be home. Well, the part where Marley got sprayed by a skunk last night wasn't so good. We got through it pretty well. A combination of tomato juice, and then soap and water, and then a concoction that we got from the vet's the last time he was sprayed (the time that he had the skunk in his mouth) gave us a dog that smells pretty much like a dog. My co-workers may notice a slight fragrance that isn't Old Spice, but that shouldn't last more than a few days. Marley was very tentative when he went out this morning and was glad to get back inside to lie in front of the stove.

We finished our time at the camp in fine style. Adam, Jennie, and Lily came for a visit. We toured the lake in the boat. Adam showed his chops as a water-skier and demonstrated his prowess at pie-baking (blueberry).

At home, we shuffled through the big box of mail that the post office had held for us, a couple of letters, many bills, a few magazines, a lot of catalogs. The world missed us.

So now there are tinges of orange in the maples and it's dark earlier each day. With the bright blue sky this morning, it's uneasily like that bright and cool morning four years ago when so much changed.

Angles of the sun

There are two small windows on the east side of the camp, on the same side as the fireplace. At this time of year, and again in early spring, the rising sun sends beams of light through the window and straight across the room to the kitchen counter on the opposite wall.

We need a fire in the stove every morning now. We have our breakfast at the table near the stove, rather than on the porch. We went for a swim yesterday afternoon and noticed the layer of cold water on the bottom. That cold water hadn’t been there even a few days ago.

Today we’ll go for a walk at local nature preserve, a nice path a couple of miles long up and then down a wooded hillside. Marley will have a good run. We’ll then have lunch at the Petersham General Store. This afternoon I’ll sharpen the chain saw so that we can continue to cut up the scrap wood that’s around.

Mike and Lynn brought their family here on Monday. We had a wonderful time with the boat and with each other’s company. The tube that we pull behind the boat can hold three people, so everyone in their family, except for Cassandra, had a chance to ride. Mike, Michael, and Matt each had their turns with water-skiing with minimal loss of blood. Adam, Jennie, and Lily will be here on Saturday.

I met with a new doctor on Tuesday and we sketched out a new plan to get me on track. I enjoyed the visit. The doctor is very pleasant and very smart.

When my new job starts in a couple of weeks, I don’t know how much time or energy I’ll have for this kind of writing. I’ve enjoyed this a lot, enjoyed the chance to sort out my thoughts and to stay in touch with family and friends.

Windows on the world

For the seven years that we’ve been taking our vacations at the camp, we’ve kept a list of our vacation activities. Some years are quiet and our list records canoeing, walks, and rest. Others have interrupted by external events, such as my mother’s health in 2000, a trip to take a friend to detox, or replacing a water pump. This year’s list includes an offer of a permanent job, an offer that I received on Monday and accepted yesterday. It’s a job with the company where I’ve worked as a contractor, although with a different group. I’ll start on September 26th, giving me a couple of weeks to wrap up my current assignments.

It’s exciting. I’m very grateful to the people who helped me get this job and who have supported me during the transition. I’m a fortunate guy.

And what else is on the vacation list? Well, we do have a new boat. There’s always work to do, wood to split and stack, brush that needs clearing, objects of various sizes and shapes that need painting. It’s not all work, though. Hardly. We get to visit some favorite restaurants and farm stands. We get to swim whenever we want. With Marley back with us again, walks through the woods are more lively.

Storms are around, spin-offs from what’s left of Katrina. There are fresh breezes that have knocked down a few branches. We’ll keep the windows open until the rains get heavy. We open more windows more while we’re at the camp. It’s a reminder that we’re in the woods, even if there’s a laptop and phone line in one corner of the room and a TV in the other corner, showing pictures of the devastation down south.

Autumn skies

Driving home in yesterday's sun and showers, I could see that the sky has taken its turn toward autumn. It is, recalling Emily Dickinson, that slant of light, and the cold air above that's a richer blue, even as the thunderclouds roil upwards. We'll get our share of hot days, to be sure, but they won't last. The shorter daylight hours can't sustain a heat wave. It's definitely fall on the way. You can see touches of red and orange on the swamp maples.

Sandra's driving to PEI today. She called from the border and reported a good trip so far. She'll visit with her parents and return with Marley on Monday. We'll spend the next two weeks at the camp. We have a day trip to Boston planned; we'll meet a long-time friend of Sandra's whose daughter is starting at BU. We also have one day planned in town for a doctor's appointment for me.

Work is going well. I made a presentation at my boss's staff meeting yesterday. For those who care about such things, I demonstrated how one can make a graphical representation of the topic layout in a FrameMaker document. I've been able to work full days this week for the time in quite a while.

Late yesterday I received a background clearance form from the recruiter who's been handling my latest job prospect. I'll take this as a sign of progress. I don't think that they'd be doing a background check if I hadn't passed the first couple of rounds of interviews.

The FDA is considering regulations regarding the use of leeches and maggots. Leeches, maggots, Washington bureaucrats: <Insert your own joke here.>

I bought my first $40 tankful of gas yesterday. When I was a teenager, the school lunch, a pack of cigarettes, and a gallon of gas were about the same price (close to 25¢). Kids would skip lunch and buy one or the other.

Outside the gas station, a guy had a guitar and small amp and was singing Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone, his voice as out of tune as his guitar.

What does this thing do?

So we now own a boat. It's a 17' Larson with a motor big enough for water skiing. We still have some paperwork to complete on the registration, followed by a trip to the Registry. (In order to obtain a registration, you're supposed to have a pencil tracing of the hull identification number. The ID number is etched faintly on an aluminum strip on the stern.)

We bought the boat in a private sale from a co-worker. He arranged for his dealer to clean and deliver the boat to us. Sandra waited at the camp all day on Friday while the dealer didn't deliver the boat (and didn't call to let us know) because the seller hadn't been paid the dealer for the cleaning. Finally, on Saturday morning, the dealer sent Homer and Jethro to deliver the boat. They got the truck stuck as they were pulling the empty trailer from the water. Jethro and I pushed the truck out, although Jethro was smoking a cigarette and doing mostly heavy leaning. After they left, we found something that looked suspiciously like a drain plug in one of the cup holders. In the meantime, we noticed that the bilge pump wasn't keeping up with the water coming in. We learned in phone call to the dealer that we needed to get the plug into place immediately or we'd ruin the motor and, that, yes, they took out the plug, but it wasn't their responsibility to put it back in. ("If you had purchased your boat from a reputable dealer, you wouldn't have had these problems." Anyone know of a reputable dealer?) We located the drain hole, put in the plug, and resumed pumping.

As the result of a labo(u)r dispute, the CBC has locked many of its workers. As a result, we have to turn to the BBC to learn about Canada's antics in the high arctic, sending two warships to assert its claim over an uninhabited island that's also claimed by Greenland (Denmark). The CBC web site in PEI hasn't provided news for several weeks. The locked-out employees are preparing plans for a strike web site. In the meantime, we can still rely on the Guardian ("Covers Prince Edward Island like the Dew") for our Island news. The first gay couple married on the Island last Friday.

After reading Pat Roberston's latest screed, that we should assassinate Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, I thought it important to find some sane resources on religion. The Theology Resources (via Lockergnome) site is one of the better ones that I've found, including lots of good reference material.

Last week we learned that the husband of a former co-worker is gravely ill. We use our spare moments to reflect on our gratitude for what we've received, knowing how quickly things can change.

To be treated by a nerd, you must think like a nerd

Yesterday The New York Times published an article how patients are treated in hospitals and other medical settings. When I met with my doctor yesterday afternoon, he said that the article had been forwarded to everyone in the clinic at least three times and was causing a lot of discussion among the staff. In brief, the article says that we're treated pretty much as meat with an insurance card.

Later in the day, I had another appointment with another doctor. I had to ask him three times to write down the name of a medication that we were considering so that I could do some research. Finally, when I provided an index card from the pack that I carry in my shirt pocket, he seemed pleased that he was dealing with a nerd like him and wrote both the brand and generic names of the medication.

The other day I mentioned that Joe and his friend, Seth, caught fish with buckets. They weren't just being resourceful. In the boathouse, we have some very old fishing poles, but no working tackle. The next time we go to Wal-Mart, we'll pick up a cheap rod, reel, line, and hook, nothing stylish like this. We might even get licenses. A friend used to promote fishing as a way to serenity, only occasionally interrupted by the actual catching of fish.

During the overnight, the BBC had a story about the 400th anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote. Earlier in the year Venezuela gave away thousands of free copies of the book to mark the event. One of the points that I learned in college, and which was discussed in this radio piece, was the pronunciation of the title. Most often, we pronounce it Don Ki-ho-ti. Even the Spanish speakers pronounced it this way. There is, however, some evidence that Cervantes pronounced Kwix-oat. We use the word quixotic, for example. Some citations even have it as Don Quijote. Y'see, if you give academicians something like this to fuss about, they'll leave you alone for quite a while.

You can now write blogs from Microsoft Word and post them to Blogger with a new Word plug-in. I'll stick to the web interface for now. Word is too slow and bloated for quick notes such as these, IMO. Also, I can't imagine that all of that Word-generated HTML can be healthy for Blogger's diet.

I have a second interview this morning. This one will be by telephone with the manager in White Plains. The challenge will be finding a place where I can talk freely. Conference rooms are hard to find on short notice. I may have to hide in plain sight and take the call on my cell phone while I'm in the cafeteria or outside at one of the picnic tables.

My current job is good and, if there was an opportunity to stay with it as a permanent employee, I would stay. I'm not chasing a lot of job leads at this point and so don't need a subterfuge like this to make it look like I'm doing real work.

The start of the season of wood

The air is cool this morning. Someone in the neighborhood has a wood fire going. Which reminds me that I need to order some wood for next year. The prices on seasoned wood are jumping up along with the prices for home heating oil. I'm hoping that the prices for green wood won't be climbing as much, but our wood guy is having to pay a lot more for fuel when he cuts and delivers. Mike delivered a half-truck load to the camp - oak and maple that will be good for sauna.

This installment of "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" comes from NPR's Talk of the Nation. Last week, they had a segment about great car chases. (Bullitt and Blues Brothers naturally were among the favorites.) Several minutes were devoted to playing clips from the movies. On the radio.

Elvis left the building on this date in 1977. As I mentioned on his birthday, my favorite material is the kind of backstage mix of rockabilly and gospel that formed the foundation of his music. When he was in that element, he was never better. So, if you see him pumping gas someplace, don't ask for Vegas show tunes. Ask for 'Brown-Eyed Handsome Man' or 'Peace in the Valley.' You'll get an earful that'll last a long time.

If cats want to travel, they get to stay in luxury. For dogs, it's the same old story: pack in, pack out.

Ye shall be fishers of fish

The party on Saturday was a fine one indeed. It was hot, so everyone stayed near or in the water as much as they could.

All of us like our toys, be it Xbox, iPod, power boats, or whatever, but it's good to be reminded that we can be delighted by nature as well. We have wild blueberries growing on our shore. During the party Sandra and I swam the shore with Tess and Krista and ate blueberries until we were blue in the teeth. Joe and his friend, Seth, stayed overnight on Saturday. The next morning, we had blueberry pancakes made with the wild blueberries. After breakfast, they went down to the water with the leftover hot dog and hamburger rolls to feed the fish. Using just a couple of buckets, they caught seven fish, kivvers and one small bass. The fishermen in the boat out in the cove, with their fancy lures and depth finders, laughed in disbelief.

Job leads seem to come in bunches. Over the weekend, a friend sent me a referral regarding prospects at a large computer company. In addition, my automated searches turned up a couple of interesting prospects, each at companies where I know at least one person.

The weekend mail brought news that a former manager, who moved to Seattle last year to work at Amazon, has retired. He's seeing the sights of the Northwest and enjoying the leisurely life.

The big European mobile phone company, Vodafone, is onto something with their new product called Vodafone Simply. They have designed a simpler interface for their mobile phones, using text instead of cryptic icons to indicate when a text message has arrived, when the battery is low, or if you have a good signal. Although they don't really say so in their promotional materials, they're targeting the older market. This service is not available in the U.S. yet. Vodafone owns about 45% of Verizon Wireless, so we might see something before too long.

If you have to check the spelling on this word, you're either not comfortable using it or you're way too comfortable.

Big thunderstorms rolled through the state yesterday afternoon and evening. We were spared the worst, but many towns lost trees and limbs and were flooded. This morning, cool fresh air is filling the house.

The skies are alive

Today's interview went well. The hiring manager said that I was an excellent candidate. She'll set up a second round of telephone interviews for next week. (The rest of the team is in White Plains, New York.) The project feels a lot like the Rational Suite team that I joined several years ago. For the first month or two, I would spend a couple of days each week in White Plains; the rest of the time, I'd have an office locally.

In the meantime, a few interesting problems landed on my desk - accessing the Windows registry from a script and helping a customer with a problem.

Tonight is the night for the Persied meteor showers. We will have hazy and cloudy skies so the viewing won't be good. One night about 20 years ago, Sandra and the boys met me at Logan Airport when I was returning from a business trip. We drove to Prince Edward Island through the night. In the dark skies of northern Maine, the sky was alive with meteors.

Mike's construction business has a web site.

The weather remains hot and will get hotter still over the weekend. A good time for a party at the camp tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Joe. Happy Birthday, Marian.

Getting things done

Last night I received a call from a recruiter regarding a permanent job. The position is a senior individual contributor on a high-visibility project. (The CEO of the company follows the project closely.) I have an interview with the hiring manager tomorrow morning. I'll trust that the process will lead me to the right decision.

Today's automated search for a documentation position turned up this one:

Position: Software/Firmware Developer
Location: Gardner, MA (MUST BE OKAY WITH LOCATION TO APPLY!!!)

I was talking with a couple recently about some ways to help ensure that their teenagers were using the computer and Internet properly. One way was to have the computer in an open part of the house. The parents agreed that it was a good idea. Until they could move the computer, however, they found another approach. The father was keeping the keyboard and mouse in the back of his truck, at least until school starts.

It's been easy to get overwhelmed by my assignments lately. I've taken to writing things on index cards and adding a time estimate for each task. If it's less than five minutes, I'll try to complete it then and there. If it's less than 15 minutes, I'll prioritize it and put it in a queue. If it's more than 15 minutes of work, I'll try to break it into 15-minute chunks and schedule those. My desk has the look of a large ransom note, but the system seems to be working.

give(peace(chance(1)));

When I was traveling a lot, I would usually take the red-eye flight home from the west coast. I had a small MP3 player that held two hours of music. Most of the time, I listened to Buena Vista Social Club. Ibrahim Ferrer, who died last Saturday, was featured on the Buena Vista recording. What I know of Spanish wouldn't get me a shoe shine, but no matter. His smooth, rich tenor voice will always remind me of a ride home, half asleep in the darkness, in the sky.

Today's automated job search for a technical documentation position brought a listing for an Explosive Inspector. It reminds me of the bomb squad t-shirt that read, "If you see me running, try to keep up."

Here's some interesting summary findings about stress and how it affects the brain and other parts of the body.

Our Middle East policy, written as a UNIX shell script, reminds us, as always, to read the fine manual.

Chain saws and the Eucharist

On Saturday we went to the funeral of our co-worker's husband, mentioned here last Monday. The church was full. The evening before, winds from a severe thunderstorm had uprooted trees and broken branches throughout the area. So, while the mourners gathered for the funeral Mass on that warm summer morning, the rest of the town was cleaning up, cutting away the broken limbs and dragging brush to the roadside for the chippers. After the Mass, we went the airport to pick up Mike and Lynn.

M&L had a wonderful time, meeting people, seeing sights. We dropped them off at their house where they could exchange cuddles and kisses with their children and then we went off to the camp. We were tired from the week and it was barely dark when we went to bed.

There was an interesting, if somewhat flawed article in yesterday's BostonWorks about depression and work. It's flawed because some of the facts about depression aren't presented quite right. The article claims that 15% of clinically depressed people commited suicide; it's more likely that 15% attempt suicide. The author also mixes up anxiety attacks with depression; they are related, but separate illnesses. The article cites a book named Working in the Dark: Keeping Your Job While Dealing With Depression, which I have ordered.

Anyway, it's an interesting piece, made more so for me because I had a chat with my manager about my health last week. I needed to have that talk because my health was starting to have an affect, at least from my perspective, on my ability to do my work. He was very supportive and assured me that my performance was still what he was expecting of me. That was encouraging. When I look back at my time at my previous, I can see that I was starting to go into a skid during my last couple of years there. I made some bad decisions and dug myself into a few holes. Had I known and been able to talk about it, I might have saved my manager and myself some embarrassment.

In one more example of Google not being like the rest of us, think about what Google expects of its chef the next time you go to lunch at your place of employment. BTW, C|Net got into some trouble with Google for this story

I was working at a diner on August 8, 1974 when Richard Nixon announced his resignation. The restaurant, which would normally be fairly busy, was empty, except for the two waitresses, the dishwasher, and yours truly. We listened on the radio as this Shakespearean character stepped from the stage, an odd, misshapen, seemingly friendless man who could see poetry in the histrionics of Mao and Zhou.

That was the week that was ...

and what a week it was.

Sandra kept a careful journal that she'll share with Mike and Lynn when they return from their week-long trip to Ireland, but, in sum, we kept our promise. There were six kids at the start of the week at the beginning of the week and there are six kids at week's end. We spent five nights at their house and were wide-eyed with wonder as the household whipped around us. We got to know little Cassandra, what made her happy and what made her annoyed. Matt and Joe started football practice, Michael is in weight-training after work each day, and Krista and Tess stayed with friends for most of the week. All the while, the supply depot kept churning food and milk and clean clothes. At a minimum, Sandra estimated, there were two loads of laundry a day and we never had a full complement of kids in the house for a whole day. It was a blessing to be in the middle of a whirlwind of energy and love and fun and humor.

While Mike and Lynn were in Ireland, they hung out with Paul Hill, the story whose incarceration was told in the movie In the Name of the Father. M&L will have other stories to bring back as well, but we knew that they'd befriend all whom they'd meet.

In the "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" Department: a recent edition of the The Connection radio show had, as its featured guest, Marcel Marceau. In what I can only guess is an unrelated event, The Connection is going off the air today.

A tragedy wide and deep

Last night the husband of a co-worker and friend died of a heart attack. He was a young man. Please give someone you love a hug and think of a young woman who has lost her husband and girl who has lost her father and friends who have lost their friend.

2005 Irish Ploughshares in showrooms today

We don't get much good news these days, so we should celebrate when we can. The decision of the IRA to put its arms beyond use is a great one. It doesn't wipe clean the misery caused by the decades of terrorism nor does it ensure justice for people of Ulster, but it's a start. More than 3000 people have been killed in the name of Jesus. It was brave of the IRA to make a step toward peace.

There is some interesting research news out of Harvard Medical School, supporting earlier work that indicated that the prefrontal cortex is one of the areas of the brain most affected by depression. This may lead to treatments that are faster-acting and more specific for each patient.

Twenty or so years ago, the computers we used (VAX/VMS) had a program called Phone. With Phone, you could send a brief message to another who was logged in. Almost no one used it. It was intrusive when you were logged in and useless when you weren't. We preferred email. Roll the calendar ahead a couple of decades. We still prefer email, we of a certain age, at least that's what the polls tell us. Young people like instant messaging, which is basically Phone with baggy shorts, a hat on sideways, and a skateboard.

Dinner by candlelight

Sonoma is small, elegant restaurant tucked in a small, undistinguished strip mall just over the town line in Princeton, Mass. It's a fine place for a special dinner. Sandra and I went there last night to celebrate her birthday. We had just finished our starter courses when, outside, a thunderstorm was unloading noise and lightning and rain. We asked our server if they'd ever lost power while serving dinner. She said that it had happened once a long time ago, just after a number of meals had been served.

Sandra had the lamb and I had ahi tuna. Both came with colorful and tasty sides of mushrooms, root vegetables (beets, potatoes, carrots, turnip), and a flavorful risoto. We were glad that we had a few minutes to see our food because, in a short while, the power flickered once, came back, and then went out for good. (I don't remember the exact number, but a hardware engineer told me that if the power is out for more than about seven seconds, it's going to be out for a long time. It takes about seven seconds for a circuit breaker to reset itself. If the reset doesn't work, then a repair crew needs to fix it.) The staff brought extra candles to the tables and we ate in the dim light. Even the whispers of "What am I eating?" didn't diminish the romantic mood.

On a special day

The temperature just stepped over the 90° mark. The wicker rocking chairs on the front porch are, um, rocking in the strong breeze. Heavy thunderstorms are predicted for this afternoon and evening, but the radar shows nothing right now. It's quiet here, just the low hum of the room air conditioner.

I'm working from home today. I have a number of tasks that can be done at home just as well as in the office. With vacations during this month, several of the regularly scheduled meetings have been called off. I finished one bit of tidying up and am now taking a break for lunch.

Yesterday I learned of a permanent job at the company where I'm working. The job is with a group in White Plains, but they seem to be amenable to having someone working from afar. I've started my resume through the channels. In the meantime, I guess I should keep working as though I have a permanent job. A co-worker asked me if I'd be interested if I'd like to participate in a project that will take place in October. I said that I would if my contract is extended. She said that my contract would probably last long enough for me to retire.

How grateful I am that I don't travel this world of work, of home, of family, or of life, alone. Happy Birthday, Sandra.

Alt-Tab, the boss is coming

Today, it's back to whatever passes for normal. I have a good bit of work work to address, along with some more personal business, so it's going to be a busy day. In the discussion of the report about goofing off at work, mentioned here a couple of weeks ago, a TV commentator noted the concept of the at-work personal day. Often, we're starting work earlier and staying later, such that we need time during the work day to get the stuff done that we can't get done at home - banking, web-based shopping, calls to the plumber, personal correspondence. I'm in the process of moving from one web hosting company to another and need a chunk of time to complete the task.

[The subject line refers to the trick of switching between programs, such as between your web browser and word processor, by pressing the Alt and Tab keys at the same time. That way, you can look like you're working when you've just been making your way through the American Girl web site for a birthday gift for your niece.]

Construction is underway for the new road at the camp. Many trees are down, bringing bright sunlight into the back of the camp. The contractor could very well have the work completed by the of this week. Adam and Lily spent the night at the camp on Saturday. Mike and Lynn will take the family to there for supper and swim this afternoon. It's good that the place is getting use.

My father's back is still bothering him from his fall last week. I went to his house to mow his lawn. He sat on the front steps and watched while I mowed. After a few minutes, he came over and pointed out a couple of things that I wasn't doing quite right. He went back to his observation post for a while longer and then, either satisfied or resigned, went inside.

Today's automated search for technical documentation jobs turned up listings for Gap Store Director, VP of Edication (their typo, not mine), Catering Manager, and Java Jedi.

Congratulations and a dose of virtual Vitamin I to friend Tania for completing the 2005 Ford Ironman USA in Lake Placid yesterday.