It’s made it to July in Atlanta, and in most other places, too, I would imagine. Canada Day (7/1) nearly got past me, but I remembered it at around noon. There was no way to forget the 4th, seeing as how my neighbors began their annual bombardment sometime in late June. That has, fortunately, nearly ceased – although there were a couple of explosions last night. Thankfully, it rained yesterday (hard!), and I’m hoping that will put a damper on the fireworks.
One of my favorite clients, in Burlington, told me the other day that it was nearly 80 degrees and she was ready to enjoy the warmth. Suck it, Vermont. It’s been pushing 100 down here for the last couple of weeks, and I’m ready to hit the road for winter in Michigan. That’s still three or four months away, unfortunately. I’m hoping to spend Thanksgiving week in Cheboygan, since we get both Thursday and Friday off on that week. I’m also hoping that there isn’t as much snow up there as there was last November, since I’ll be going a week later and I don’t want to find out how my Subaru does in a foot of snow on an unplowed track through the woods to my cabin. If I have to find out, however, I’ll find out. I’ve been dreaming of being at that cabin for the last couple of months.
I power-washed my driveway last weekend, which was quite a bit of fun and also quite a bit of work. My whole body ached on Sunday. Hard to believe it was so much work, but the driveway (and my front stoop) looks amazing. I also “fixed” my old trimmer/edger/weed-whacker….by throwing it away and buying a new one. I can’t complain too much, as I did get 4-5 years of use out of the old thing, but I’m still not sure what actually killed it. It’d been acting temperamental for several months and last week it just died and seized up when I tried to restart it. Futzed around with it for 30 minutes or so and then just tossed it. The new one is doing an admirable job and all of the accessories from the old one fit it just fine.
We’ve got 7 new people starting at work on Monday. There were supposed to have been 8, but one of them who’d reluctantly accepted our offer on Wednesday decided to reverse himself on Thursday. I can’t say that I’m heartbroken over that, as my comments regarding his interview began with “Rubbed me the wrong way at first – throughout the interview, actually. Struck me as arrogant, thinks he knows more than he does, kind of entitled.” So how’d he make it to the point of getting an offer? Well, I finished off my comments by saying that I was probably the same way on my first interview out of college, and that he probably had the raw skills to do an okay job if he could watch his attitude when dealing with clients. I said I’d approve him if the other two interviewers did, and they did. They started to rethink things when his acceptance of our offer began with, “I guess I’ll go ahead and accept your offer…”
As I said, he changed his mind the next day. I’d already indicated that I didn’t want him on my team, so I’ll still get two newbies and we’ll begin interviewing for another junior consultant later next week. I’m getting pretty good at spotting the ones who won’t work out, I must say.
Got the oil changed in the Subaru this morning. Only about 1000 miles after I should have, and almost forgot to do it anyway. I looked at my watch at 6:30 and remembered that I meant to do something. 10 minutes later, it dawned on my that I’d made a 7:00 appointment with Tires Plus for the oil. No harm, no foul – I wasn’t even late.
My no-sugar diet (or as close to none as I can get) is actually working out pretty well. I’ve dropped 10 pounds in the last month or so (Chamberlain, who also likes to weigh himself, has held steady at 16.2 pounds over the same period), and don’t feel nearly as crappy as I did for the last year. Have even started walking most mornings again. Not going for speed (much), but my calves have stopped aching and I guess I’m averaging around 16-17 minutes per mile, which is fine.
Got a pot roast and some veggies lined up for the slo-cooker this afternoon, which should be pretty good. Had salmon and potatoes the last couple of days. Interesting fact: Chamberlain’s favorite cat food is salmon-flavored stuff, but he turned his nose up at the real thing. More for me. The other two kitties, should you be wondering, were both upstairs when I made the offer to Chamberlain. I don’t know if Joshua would’ve gone for it or not (although he’ll generally try anything that I put in front of him at least once), but I suspect that Boo would’ve sucked it down pretty fast.
I do need to mow half of the front lawn today. I did the other half on the 4th, but it was so hot I didn’t want to spend more than 15 minutes outside. The weekend before, I put in a few hours in the back yard and the south 40, which I hadn’t even looked at in about a year. Lots of bushwhacking with a machete and urging my ancient gasoline mower through 4-foot-tall shrubbery. In restrospect, it was probably that (not the pressure washing) that put me in my sore state.
I guess that that’s about enough writing for today. I actually sat down at the computer just to update my bills spreadsheet with the oil change and some grocery shopping that I did this morning, but thought it’d be nice to do some typing, too.
Now that I’ve done so, it’s time to tackle the lawn.