Onward to Memphis

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Today’s featured image is of a deer bouncing away from me as I stand in the parking lot of my office in Alpharetta. Apparently, there is a small herd of the critters living in a rather cramped bit of forest in the middle of the office park, and they come out to graze or pee or people-watch or whatever just about every night when I’m getting ready to leave.

Speaking of leaving, I’ll be driving over to Memphis in a few hours to start a 5-day stint setting up a new client there.  I am somewhat nervous about this, as I’ll be the only person at the site.  It’s an offshoot of a Chattanooga firm, and everyone else on this project (5 people, I think) are going to the Chatty office.  My concern is that, while I’m not overly worried about the technical aspects of the job, I’m not entirely sure about the procedures that I’m supposed to be doing.  The X-company documents pretty much nothing.  You’re just supposed to pick it up from osmosis, I guess.  Problem is, I’ve only been on one other project, with one other person, and I really don’t know what’s expected.  Guess I’ll find out.

The plan is for me to start doing some off-site work (joining machines to the local domain, getting antivirus installed, etc.) tonight – from my hotel room – and then there will be a down day tomorrow, when I’ll go to the office, physically connect our server to the firewall, set up printers, patch the workstations that I can’t get to tonight, etc.  Then I’ll work with the users Tuesday-Thursday (including a training class on Tuesday, for which I have no documentation, though there is supposed to be a PowerPoint presentation somewhere) and hit the road for home after work on Thursday.  With the time change, I should get back to Atlanta sometime around midnight Thursday and will take Friday off.

After that, I’ll go BACK to Memphis on Sunday because – I really don’t get this – the office that I will set up this week will be relocating to a new office next week.  Why they didn’t just do everything on the same week is completely beyond me, but it’ll be a shorter week for me.  I’ll drive out Sunday, move our server and firewall to the new place on Monday, then hang out and help the users until Wednesday, when I’ll again come home.  Will take the following Thursday off.  Not sure about that Friday.  I’ll probably go to work because I know that I’ll have email and old tickets backed up beyond belief by then.

I was made the primary consultant for two more firms over the last couple weeks.  One in Baltimore, the other in St. Cloud, MN.  Both are problem children and the one in Minnesota is a particular beast.  Whoever set them up (from the X-company) did a terrible job, and the firm is paying the price.  Their email system was set up incorrectly.  A couple of vital software packages were only partially installed.  Worst of all, the client opted to go with “cloud only” support, which means that I don’t have remote access to their workstations.  So this company is opening probably 20 new tickets a day, most of them having to do with their email or the poorly-installed applications, and I pretty much have to say, “Yeah.  Our bad.  We’re working on it.”

Did I mention that the project manager who did that job (in St. Cloud) is the same guy who’s leading the effort for the firm in Chattanooga and Memphis?

So yeah.  I’m a bit nervous about these upcoming trips.

On the home front, Mary is indeed moving out later this week, though she says she’ll take care of the cats into the first week of December for me when I’m gone.  As I said in a previous post, I’m mentally taking back my house and I’m sort of excited about that.  Haven’t decided yet if I’ll get a new television, since I’m strongly considering putting the one in my bedroom into my redesigned office, for use as a large monitor.  If I do that, I think I’ll be more comfortable working from home once or twice a week.  I’ve not done that yet (the offer is on the table) because working on a single screen really sucks when you’re doing the kind of work that I do.

So if I do that, I’ll move the television that I put in Mary’s room (the office) into my bedroom, and then I’ll probably want to put one downstairs.  If I decide to do that, then I’ll probably want to get a decent-sized television with all the Roku stuff (streaming channels) built in.  So I’m window shopping.

Ironically, I’ve also decided to basically stop spending money, as I’ve decided that 55 would be a great age to shoot for for retirement.  I know, I know.  It’s too young and blah blah blah.  But the fact is that I’m tired of doing what I do.  I was happy – and well-paid – in my AT&T gig, and I’m miserable – and making half of my old salary – with the X-Company.  By 2021, I’ll have about a half-million in my 401k, about $120K in my AT&T pension (from which I’ll be able to draw around $800/month – I’ve checked); and, assuming I can sell the house, I should be able to buy a few acres in the woods and put up a hovel for cash.  I recently visited my friend who did exactly this over the last two years, and – while I’d find better land and put in a few more amenities (a wood stove for sure) – she’s got a pretty sweet setup.

So there it is.  It’s out there.  I aim to retire in 3 years.

In other news, Furman won a playoff game against Elon yesterday.  Very close game, and a bit of redemption from the 2nd game of the season, when Elon won a squeaker on a last-second field goal.  The reward for the win is that Furman will travel to Wofford next week for the second round.  In the 1st week of the season, Wofford beat Furman by 1 point by stopping Furman’s 2-point conversion attempt on the last play of the game.  Furman fans are calling these games, “The Revenge Tour.”

Not much else to talk about these days.  I get up before dawn, go to work, come home after dark, and go to bed.  Not depressed.  Not elated.  Just sort of bored.

Maybe Memphis will give me something to write about.

 

Post-vacation wrap

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So I’ve been back in Atlanta for a couple of weeks – the second of which I was the on-call guy for work, which sucked – and I suppose it’s a good time to catch up on all the news that is or isn’t fit to print.

The featured image for this post is one of Lake Huron that I took a couple of weeks ago as a storm was rolling in.  It was mainly bluster – not a great deal of rain – but it was chilly and raw.  I loved it.

I’m currently sitting at Tires Plus, waiting for my oil to get changed and my tires to get rotated and my wheels to get balanced and all of that other fun stuff that I do every few months.  Decided this morning that I’d bring my original Surface Pro with me and do something productive while I sit here.  I’m beginning to really appreciate this machine again.  Bought it several years ago, but it’s so small that I used it basically as a novelty.  Real work got done on one of my other laptops.  But, due in large part to it’s small size, I brought it with me to Michigan and took some notes on what was going on.  Those will be pasted, in their unedited entirety, later in this post.

The vacation was a wonderful respite from life.  I started out (and finished, actually) at the Cheboygan State Park in Cheboygan, MI.  This park – I think it’s around 800 acres – sits on Cheboygan Point on the Straits of Mackinac, and it is a lovely place.  I’m pretty sure that I’ll be going back.  I chose the park mainly because it’s a few hours closer to home than is Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior and – for the same price that I’d pay at Pictured Rocks for a basic campsite – I got a basic campsite plus electricity, showers, flushing toilets…all the good stuff.  My site itself was a fairly secluded area on the southern side of the point, sitting on the shores of Duncan Bay, which is a marsh and not at all what I had in mind for a great lakes vacation, although the breeze coming off of the bay was extremely pleasant.  I set up my car tent and a hiker’s tarp.  Bed in the car, various helpful things (camp drawers, table, stove, firewood, etc) in the tent, picnic table under the tarp.

And I had a great few days there.  Arrived in the early afternoon on Thursday, October 12 and had pretty good weather (until Saturday night).  By then, after walking around all over the park, I’d decided to rent a cabin on the northern edge of the park, right on The Straits.  Gave up the electricity and the running water, and paid triple what I’d been paying for the campsite, but gained a fantastically cozy, warm, dry, spacious domicile with easy access to Lake Huron, trails, various critters, and – of course – the ubiquitous fall houseflies of Michigan (see my writeup from last year).  If you refer back to the featured image, I actually took that between the time that I checked out of my campsite (at around noon) and the time that I entered Poe Reef Cabin (at around 2:30).  I spent the time in between just walking around on the point – on the beach, into the woods, back onto the beach, in the off-beach dunes, out on the point, etc. – and getting very cold and a bit wet and playing my wind game (hiding behind trees, under bushes, near rocks…I love my wind game).  Finally, I decided I’d waited long enough to get into the cabin, which I technically wasn’t supposed to do before 3:00.  Whoever had been in it before me, leaving by 1:00, had left a birch log slowly burning in the wood stove, and walking into that dry, warm, wonderful room was probably in the top 5 greatest experiences in my life.  It.  Felt.  So.  Good.

Stayed until the following Thursday morning, then drove home in one shot, arriving at sometime around 1:00 AM Friday.

Back at work, the first week was fine.  The second week, as I mentioned, I was on call.  Got very little sleep (I do not understand why CPAs feel the need to work – and call the help desk – at all hours of the night and on weekends), but survived until yesterday morning, when my on-call shift ended.

Learned on Thursday that the X-Company has been acquired by Right Networks in Hudson, NH, under an umbrella of a venture firm in Boston.  Not sure what that means at this point, but it doesn’t have the same stress level of the other mergers I’ve gone through.

Still looking for another job, but I’m finally starting to settle in and accept the fact that I might be stuck doing what I’m doing for a while.  With that in mind, I accepted an offer to go on a project in Memphis during the last week of November and first of December.  Sounds like I’ll drove over there on Sunday the 26th, come back on the 30th, then go back on the 3rd and return on the 6th or 7th.  Lots of driving, but at least it’s something different to do.

Mary informed me yesterday that she may be moving out at about that same time.  Not sure why, but it’s all good.  I’ve been redesigning my house in my mind since she told me.  Getting my office back (currently her bedroom) and the second guest room (currently unusable because of the boxes in it) will be nice.  I’ll also be able to drop one or two of the paid streaming services that I’m paying for, since I only picked two of them up so that she wouldn’t complain when I dumped DirecTV.

And that’s about that.  The remainder of this post consists of what I wrote while in Michigan.

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6:27 AM 10/14/2017

Saturday morning, day three (or four, if you count Wednesday) of my 2017 vacation. Cheboygan (MI) State Park, site 27. It is a brisk October morning and the sun hasn’t even though about coming up yet, but I had to pee (did so in my trusty pee jar), and then figured I’d take advantage of the bathroom building before they shut it down – I’m told that that might happen tomorrow – so I got up, got dressed, walked over to the loo, and did my business. Being up and dressed, I figured I’d go ahead and start the day, so just made some coffee and pulled out the old Surface Pro to catch up on things.

My vacation actually started on Monday. The idea when I asked for the time off was to head out for the great unwashed north (probably Pictured Rocks) on last Saturday morning and arrive sometime Sunday afternoon. As so often seems to happen to me these days, life got in the way of those plans. Found out that I had a concert on Sunday, so leaving on the weekend was out. Then the GBB set up a very agressive schedule, giving us a minimum of rehearsals between concerts; I decided that it would piss people off if I missed two rehearsals in a row, so I hung around Atlanta until Tuesday and left on Wednesday morning.

While all that was going on, Dad and Diane went to Myrtle Beach last week with plans to stay for a couple of weeks. Drove over to see them on Saturday, and also reserved a spot at the state park there for this past week in hopes of spending some more time with them. Unfortunately, Dad had some medical issues and cut the trip short. I say, “Unfortunately,” because of course I don’t want him to be sick. It did have an upside, though: Myrtle Beach was (and is) incredibly hot and humid this year, and I’ve got to admit that I was not looking forward to camping there for a week. My recent purchase of a Kelty 20-degree bag was definitely not made with hot weather in mind. So once Dad let me know that he was leaving early, I started looking for places to stay in the Upper Pennisula.

Having prepared for Myrtle Beach in my head, I had pretty much wrapped my head around the idea of having electricity, so my normal spots at Pictured Rockes were out. I looked around at other places near Grand Marais, but all of them looked kind of boring: close, tight, campsites with little direct water access. So I started to just look at other parks under the Michigan DNR umbrella. And I found this one, settled in on the Straits of Mackinac on a little jut of land that provides a marsh on one side, the Straits on the other, and an all-day breeze that is amazing. The website said that the bathroom building (showers,toilets, running water) would be shut off on October 4, but all sites have electricity – and it’s cheaper than my Pictured Rocks places! So far, I’m pleased.

photo of Duncan Bay

Duncan Bay

So what’s happened? Well, I left on Wednesday morning and drove to Lima, OH (imagine that), where I spent the night at the Country Inns and Suites – pretty much my go-to plan when heading north to either Michigan or Canada. Hit the road by about 8 Thursday morning and made it here at around 1:30. Checked in via a dedicated telephone (haven’t seen an actual ranger yet), got to my site, and got everything set up. The rest of the day was spent doing basically nothing. Sat in my chair, drank beer, took a couple of pictures of Duncan Bay (the marshy area that is my backyard), and eating an Arby’s beef sandwich leftover from Wednesday night. Went to bed at probably 8:30 (well after dark) and slept until sometime between 7:00 and 7:30 yesterday. Slept like a brick.

For much of the day yesterday, I explored the trails in the area. I walked a total of about 10 miles all over Cheboygan Point, which is nearly all park land. Discovered a couple of beautiful little cabins on the north shore that I’m going to have to check out online (with an eye toward renting next year) and also bushwhacked to the extreme northern tip of Cheboygan. Took a few pictures of Mackinaw City, Grand Mackinac Island, and “The Mighty Mac” (bridge) – although it’s quite difficult to see it on a cellphone camera (I opted not to bring any real cameras with me).

Between walks, I cooked up a couple of angus steaks and some corn on the cob – both were amazing – back at my site. Lit a fire last night as the weekend crowd started rolling in. I’ve got a couple with a very whiny daughter to my right now. Still no one on my left. I’m guessing that it’ll be just me and few folks in their motor homes if/when the water is turned off. I’ll cool with that. There’s a pit toilet about 200 yards from me and one shed where the water will remain turned on all winter. So it’s the same as Pictured Rocks would be – plus I’ve got electricity.

Camping at Cheboygan

Planning on doing some more walking on the point today, but we’ll see what the day brings.

9:51 AM 10/16/2017

On Saturday, I woke up fairly early – I’d guess around 7 – and, with no real plan in mind, started walking down the approach road away from the campground. After about a mile, I came upon road labeled “Poe Reef Cabin” and decided it looked like a nice walk. Locked gate, so I wouldn’t have to worry about traffic, and it headed off into the north woods, which I wanted to explore some more anyway.

Very shortly, I came upon the afore-mentioned cabin, which appeared to be bereft of humans, so I walked around it to the beach and sat in the wind for a while, looking across the straits to Makinac Island. Then walked back around the cabin, peered in the windows, availed myself of the outhouse, and made a snap decision to try to rent the place. Pulled out the phone (it’s great to have a couple of bars of coverage up here), and found that Poe Reef Cabin was available from Sunday until Thursday. Then checked my bank account and learned that I’d finally been reimbursed for my trip to Maryland from two months ago. That did it. I immediately tried to reserve the cabin and was immediately rejected because I already had a reservation at the campground. I resigned myself to doing it next year.

After walking some more (saw a porcupine), I ambled back to the campground – it was probably around 10:00 by then – and flagged down a passing ranger, there to clean the restrooms. I told him I still needed to pay him for my Michigan DNR passport (a parking pass necessary for all MI parks) and that I was wondering if I’d be able to get the cabin in spite of my campsite reservation. He told me, “Theresa will be in the ranger station at noon – sometime after noon – and she can probably help you.”

So I went back to my campsite, made some coffee, ate some peanuts, and waited for noon. At noon, went back to the office – no Theresa. Back to campsite. 1:00 rolled around, and Theresa still wasn’t at the office, so I tuned in to the Furman/VMI football game on my phone. I remember, back in the mid-90s, when David Willard and I would plan for days in advance trying to find a bar with a satellite dish that might possibly be able to get the Furman game. I even started a website about Furman football as a way to force myself to keep up with it and to help other people who were looking for places to hear and/or see the games. Now, I can just pull up Tune-In radio on my phone and hear the games live from anywhere in the world that has cellular coverage. Amazing.

Furman won, 42-10, by the way. But back to the story.

About halfway through the first quarter, I walked back to the ranger station and found that Theresa had arrived. We took care of my passport, and then I broached the subject of the cabin. She clicked and clattered away on her computer (complaining all the while about how slow it was, while I was still listening to my football game over the phone), and not only reserved the cabin for me for Sunday-Thursday, but also reimbursed me for those days at the campground. I told her that I’d happily eat the cost of those nights – if I have to give my money to any government entity, it would be the Michigan DNR (I mean that sincerely) – but she was adamant and I didn’t argue the point. The she offered to walk the key and combination for the cabin to my campsite later (which she did), and told me about Saturday night’s Halloween festivities.

The cabin was sounding better all the time. Apparently, the campground had set aside Saturday night as a “local kids don costumes and bother campers for candy” night. Later that night, there was the “Haunted Trail” campaign, during which, for $10, children (and, I assume, their folks) could walk along a few of the trails near the campground after dark and be frightened by various things set up on the trails.

I opted to turn my back on the moochers and drink bourbon while staring at Duncan Bay. Lit a fire somewhere around 5:30, as the wind began to pick up, and hit the sack, I’d guess, at around 8:00.

I have yet to spend any camp time in Michigan that doesn’t end with me tearing down in the rain, and Sunday morning was no exception. A squall came in out of the north shortly after I went to bed, and it more or less raged all night. At some point, one of the bungees holding my tarp up gave up the fight. This allowed my tarp to fold in half and completely expose my table – on which I’d left my lantern, stove, jetboil, and pans – and to soak everything. When I got up, somewhere around 8:00, I fixed that issue and then hoped for a break in the weather during which I could tear down while staying as dry as possible.

It never really happened. While I did get about 20 minutes of non-rain, the wind never let up. Every time a gust hit, rain fell out of the trees and covered everything again. In a nutshell, I did get everything sort of packed into the car, but I had no chance to dry out the tent or the tarp. And I was drenched. I took the opportunity, after packing everything, to use the campground’s shower, and felt much better. Headed out at about 12:45, but couldn’t check in to the cabin before 3:00. So I parked at the trail head, and started walking.

The squall had picked back up by now, so I tried to keep to the internal forest as much as possible. Every time I got within a quarter-mile of the lake, the wind and spray was pelting me and it was getting cold. I’d guess that the actual temp was around 45, but add strong winds and wet and I have no idea how cold things really were. Time went fairly slowly, as I walked probably 8 miles of trails waiting for 3:00. At 2:45, I was back at the trail head and thought, “Screw it. I’m going in.”

So I did. And when I opened the cabin door, I learned that the people who’d left earlier had left a nice birch log roasting in the wood stove. The inside of the cabin was between 75 and 80 degrees. It was the most amazing feeling that I’ve had since….it was just the most amazing feeling ever. I’m trying to compare it to sometime during a Shoreham winter when I came into the kitchen after playing outside, but it went beyond that. I was absolutely worn out and freezing when I opened the cabin door, and the sense of being warm and dry was incredible. I moved all of my stuff (except the tent) into the cabin, crawled into my sleeping bag, and slept for close to 4 hours. Then got up, ate a couple of sandwiches, played in the wind for another hour or so, and got back into bed. Slept until 9 this morning, with one interruption at 4:00 to get up and pee and throw some more wood into the stove. The wind was still howling at that hour, and it was very cold. By 9:00, however, the storm had cleared. The sun is now shining and the wind has died out as much as it can on the shore of a great lake. It’s still chilly – there was frost on my picnic table this morning – but the sun feels good and I’m hoping for temps in the upper 60s today. Inside my cabin as I type this, with some oak smoldering in the stove – flu nearly closed – it’s right at 60 degrees and feels wonderful.

I’ll do some more hiking today and, perhaps, drive into Cheboygan for a few supplies. Coffee, batteries, maybe some ice. And I’ll continue this tome as time permits.

Poe Reef Cabin

5:15 PM 10/18/2017
Today and yesterday were both phenomenal, weather-wise. Temperature was in the mid-60s and the sky was perfectly blue on both days. I did jump into the lake briefly yesterday (very cold) and considered it again today, but decided not to – though there’s still another hour or so of daylight left. Got a couple of long walks in on both days, and filled out things by sitting at my cabin, listening to podcasts and drinking. Also built a fire outside the cabin today.

During this morning’s walk, I startled an eagle out of a tree by the beach – first time I’ve ever seen one of those in the wild, and it was pretty cool. Other interesting wildlife that I’ve noticed this week are a flock of swans in the straits and a multitude of jet-black squirrels. Also got a couple of close-ups of a pilliated woodpecker over the course of the week. I assume it was the same bird, but it could be that all of them enjoy showering me with wood chips.

If you look closely, you can see a wild eagle in this picture

Planning on leaving before dawn tomorrow, but that really depends on how I sleep tonight. I woke up briefly at around 4 this morning, but convinced myself to go back to bed, where I happily snored until after 9. When I get home really depends on when I leave here. I’d like to get there before Friday night, so am hoping that I can suck it up and do the trip in one shot. Otherwise, I’ll probably end up stopping in Kentucky somewhere, and I hate to spend money in Kentucky. “Don’t support anyplace that supports Mitch McConnell,” is my motto.

As for the rest of today, I have no plans. Had a couple of sandwiches an hour or so ago, so I don’t think I’ll need to eat again. Already boiled some water and put it into my thermos for my morning sponge bath. I’ll probably have some coffee at some point, and I’m still listening to podcasts. Might watch a movie on the Surface Pro before bed. I brought 5 or 6 or them with me, planning to go through them in the campground – where I had electricity – but since moving to the cabin, I’ve had to be stingy with the amount of time that the computer is running. The phone and my iPod are fine – I’ve got a great portable charger – but once the Surface Pro dies, it’s done until I’m home or at a hotel.

To sum up, it’s been a great week – particularly the last four days – and I’m fairly certain that I’ll rent a cabin here again next year. Might try to get one of the other two that are about a mile farther up the point – they have better beaches – but I’ve got nothing negative to say about this one, and I’d take it again in a heartbeat.

Another Sunday

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Messing around with my WordPress installation today, and I think I managed to get the media folders working again.  If so, there’s a featured image with this post, which shows the Little Santeetlah Creek in Joyce Kilmer National Forest.  If not, well…use your imagination.

Last week felt like one of the longest of my life.  Not sure why.  I just really didn’t want to be at work, and my clients were annoying the crap out of me.  I also didn’t get a lot of sleep, or at least didn’t feel like I did.  Being up late on Tuesday is usually a given, what with band practice, but I also stayed up past 10 on Wednesday and Thursday for no reason that I can think of.  Friday, I went out and played Golden Tee video golf for a while, but didn’t stay up too late.

Speaking of band practice, it went pretty well from a personal standpoint.  The horns have a gorgeous soli in one of the pieces that we’re playing, and I kinda played the snot out of it.  Best I’ve sounded in years.  Not sure what I was doing differently, but I hope it sticks.

Mary is going to Detroit next week, and I’ll have the house to myself.  Looking forward to that.  Planning on trying to do some cleaning and re-arranging furniture, which generally makes me happy.  It would be really nice to have my music room back – and a bonus if I could actually re-organize the spare bedroom, which has been chaotic since I moved everything out of its walk-in closet to give Mary more room for her stuff.

Might also try to clean off the deck and trim some of the holly around it.

But that all begins next Saturday.  Between now and then, I need to get through another week of calls.

It’s okay.  Every week at work gets me one week closer to my vacation.

Wind

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And it’s been three weeks without an update again.  Neat.  I do it this way just so that I might have something worth typing about.

Brett and I went back up to our hidden hunter shelter the week after the eclipse.  Knowing what to expect this time, we planned on car camping and brought speakers and coolers and firewood and all of the other great things that you can bring with you when you don’t plan to hike anywhere – like beer.  We spent a great two nights up there (Labor Day weekend), and even found – holy of holies – a pit toilet hidden in the brush behind the shelter.  Not just a hole dug in the ground, mind you.  An actual cement vault with a toilet on top of it.  Not a great deal of privacy if anybody happened to walk up to it while you’re doing your business, but since nobody was anywhere around, it was pretty perfect.

Did a bit of walking with the dogs (Brett brought four of them), got some more ideas for my upcoming sojourn to the upper peninsula, and enjoyed nearly perfect weather for the weekend.

Then it was back to the grind at work.  Not much to say about that.  I got assigned as primary to three more companies, which isn’t as glamorous as it sounds.  Other than that, it’s just more of the same.  Oh!  I did get taken off of the phone queue, which is nice.  I can actually concentrate on some of my more pressing tickets now without worrying about being interrupted.

I guess the big news was that Atlanta was put under its first-ever tropical storm warning a few days ago.  Hurricane Irma swept up through Florida and headed towards the big A, causing damned near every idiot in my adopted city to freak out.  I couldn’t wait for the thing to arrive.  I’ve always loved strong wind.

And…that’s about all we got.  In spite of the governor declaring the entire state an emergency area.  In spite of schools somehow making the decision to close for (at least) FOUR DAYS.  In spite of my own company declaring that everyone should work at home on Monday and Tuesday (I didn’t).  Here’s what I experienced in this mega-storm:

Sunday: A beautiful day, with an absolutely fantastic breeze blowing all day.  Gusts of about 20 MPH.

Monday: Light rain and breezy in the morning.  Empty roads on the way to work.  Me and one other consultant in the office.  Sprinkler system going full-blast all around the office.  Rained on and off all day – never very heavy.  Some pretty significant gusts (50-60 MPH) in the afternoon, lasting less than 5 seconds per gust.  Lots of leaves on the ground (you know – like it’s FALL or something).  Empty roads on the way home.  Rain stopped by 7:00, beautiful breeze continued with some occasional strong gusts.  Opened all of the windows (the cats loved it).  Sat on the deck for a while with my eyes closed and imagined I was at Lake Superior.  Went to bed with the windows open.  Slept like a rock.

Tuesday: Light rain and breezy in the morning.  Empty roads on the way to work.  Drove around two trees that had fallen into roads (over the course of my 14-mile commute).  Me and three other consultants in the office.  Rain ended by about noon.  Breeze died.  Light traffic on the way home.  Rehearsal until 9:30.  Home in a drizzle.

Wednesday: Any other day.

So that was the Tropical Storm Trauma, huh?  Not much different than any summer storm.  Yet many schools are closed on Thursday….

I mentioned that I got some new ideas for my Superior trip during the Labor Day car campout.  Ended up buying a Kelty 12-foot hiker’s tarp (which I’ve actually been meaning to do for years), and while looking for it, I stumbled across a double-wide Kelty sleeping bag, rated to 20 degrees.  It’s pretty fantastic.  Has a zip-off quilt and internal blankets and I’ve been sleeping in it on my bed for the last several nights.  Incredibly comfortable, very warm when it needs to be, but wide enough to let me stretch out, cool off, and be very comfortable.  It will be a wonderful topping for the air mattress in the back of the Subaru.

Can not wait to get back to the lake.  I don’t remember the last time that I needed (and I do mean NEEDED) a vacation so much.  Ironic that I’ll be going to basically the same spot where I found out that I was probably getting laid off, which is what ended up making me need to go back so much.

And that’s about all that’s new for now.  I’ll probably think of more stuff later, but won’t write about it for another two weeks.

Catching Up

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I’ve spent a great deal of time this morning attempting to get the permissions set correctly on this WordPress site, and – so far – have had very little luck in doing so.  I did manage to get a plug-in installed to tell me what’s WRONG; Unfortunately, it has been unsuccessful at actually fixing those things.  Looks like I’ll be doing manual edits for a while.

I perused my latest entry and discovered that I haven’t written anything since going to Annapolis two weeks ago, so here’s a quick rundown on what’s gone on since then.

As mentioned, I spent the week of August 8th in Annapolis, MD, helping to set up a new client for the X Company.  It was pretty straightforward stuff – adding machines to the domain, setting up printers, installing the correct version of the Citrix receiver and antivirus on machines, and then spending a few days working with the people there and showing them how to navigate the cloud, finding fixes for individual problems, etc.  I would have enjoyed myself a lot more if some actual planning had gone into the project, rather than just a basic, “Here’s a domain controller. Knock yourself out,” approach.  The more I work at this company, the more I realize that they talk a really good game about project management, but they actually do very little of it.  If/when I’m ever able to find another gig – and if I get an exit interview – that will be the #1 thing I have to say.  They’re growing too fast, they don’t plan for more than the simplest changes, and it’s eventually going to bite them in the ass.

Maryland itself was fine, I guess.  I didn’t see much of it.  Contrary to the thoughts of a few of my friends, I was not on a vacation.  I was up by 5:30, in the office by 7:30, worked 11-12 hours a day, and returned to my hotel, where I normally ate microwave macaroni and cheese and either watched television or played “Medal of Honor” for an hour before going to bed.

I did go out to dinner one night with my co-worker, Nate.  We found a sushi place across the street from my hotel and gorged on it.  Blew through my entire per diem for that one meal, but it was worth it.  Besides, by eating Mac & Cheese every other night, I made a few hundred bucks on unspent per diem.

I had planned to drive back from MD on Friday morning, but the more I thought about it, the more attractive it became to leave on Thursday night.  I didn’t want to hit morning traffic in D.C.  I wanted to have an extra day to decompress at home before going back to work at the office.  And – seriously – I missed my cats.  So I left at about 7:30 Thursday night.

Had a fairly uneventful drive, although I discovered U.S. 360 West – got on it somewhere around Richmond and took it over to 29 South.  Very pretty drive, although I got confused at one point and ended up on an “ExpressPay” lane for about a half a mile.  Since I don’t have any type of transponder, I’m wondering when I’m going to get a bill for that, and how much that little goof is going to cost me.

I got home at around 5:30 Friday morning, slept for a good part of the day, mowed some lawns, and had a decent weekend before going back to the phones on Monday.

The GBB kicked off rehearsals on Tuesday, so that was a nice diversion.

While in MD, I requested and received paid time off for August 21 & 22 (which is today).  That being the case, I headed for the NC mountains on Saturday, August 19, with an eye towards catching the solar eclipse in both totality and relative seclusion.

As it turned out, there were about a billion other people who had the same idea, and so it was incredible luck that I got lost on the way to my original destination (Big Fat Gap) and ended up driving down an increasingly horrible road that ended at a lovely hunter’s shelter near Deep River Gap.  My friend Brett, who had planned to meet me at BFG, got concerned on Saturday afternoon because 1}BFG was incredibly crowded, and 2}I hadn’t shown up.  So he started randomly driving around the area and actually ended up finding me on the increasingly horrible road.

This is not the first time that we’ve managed to locate each other, without any type of communication, in 20 square miles or more of wilderness.  We started talking about it on Saturday night and determined that we’ve probably done the same thing – him finding me or vice versa – 5 or 6 times in the last 15 years.  It’s uncanny.

Anyway, the increasingly horrible road was a godsend, because we only saw 2 cars and 1 motorcycle at our shelter between Saturday afternoon and Monday afternoon.  People would see the road and just turn around.

I know this, because I damned near did the same thing.  Now that I know where the shelter is, though….gold.

On Monday morning, Brett said that he wanted to catch the eclipse somewhere along the Cherahola Skyway, but I was in no mood to fight with the crowds and the traffic (I’d heard that Huckleberry Knob – where we’d originally planned to hike up and see the thing – had been outfitted with dumpsters and porta-potties), so I stayed at the shelter and Brett left.  I’d been told that an old, closed, forestry road that continued up the mountain from my shelter eventually ended up at The Hangover, which is a beautiful spot in the Joyce Kilmer forest; so at around 1130, I started hiking up it.

After 3.5 to 4 miles – every motherlovin’ step of it UPHILL – the road-cum-footpath ended up at a clearing in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  By then, it was 1:15, and I decided to head back down and try to make it to my backup plan for the eclipse, which was a nice little hill on one side of the increasingly horrible road that would offer close to a 360-degree view.

While the hike down was much (MUCH) easier than the one going up, it still took a while, and when I found an open spot on the trail at around 2:00, I took out my eclipse glasses just to see if anything was happening.  Good thing I did, because the eclipse was well under way by then.

So I set up my tripod and camera (did I mention that I carried both of those things all the way up that trail?  Auuuuugggghhhh!!), and spend the next 40 minutes trying to get some shots.  I assume that I did.  I haven’t looked at my memory card yet.  I did, however, get a look – with my eyes – during the 2 minutes or so of totality.

Wow!  It really was cool to see the corona.  Very cool.

It was also a fascinating experience in less majestic ways.  Like, for instance, the way that it went from light to dark as if someone had flipped off a switch.  Or the way that the crickets were chirping and birds were singing their twilight songs in the middle of the afternoon.  Or the fact that the temperature dropped about 15 degrees in 60 seconds. Or that I could actually see a few stars.  I’ve seen (that I recall) two other solar eclipses – but never totality.

It was worth the trip, and the increasingly horrible road, and the 3-mile hike uphill to nowhere.

After the meat of it was over, I continued back down the trail to my car at the shelter, packed up, took one last drink of filtered stream water, and headed out.  Within 500 yards, I saw a truck approaching from down the increasingly horrible road, and pulled on to a turn-out to let it by.  It pulled up next to me, and I saw that it was occupied by a family of 5.  The driver, looking very concerned, asked me, “How much longer does this go on?”  I told him he was near the dead-end and that the worst was over, and the kids in the back started celebrating.

So at least one other family no knows the location of my new happy place.  Though, I don’t know if they’ll want to make the trip again.  When I said, “Truck,” earlier, I meant “Minivan-like vehicle.”  I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it had bottomed out at least four times to get as far as it got – and that part about “the worst being over” was a complete lie on my part.  The last 500 yards were the worst on the road.

But I’ll go back.  And I might even hike that stupid trail again, although my calves are SCREAMING at me this morning.

The NC mountains never fail to calm me.

Fun while it lasted

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As expected, I spent most of today removing Ubuntu from my Surface Pro and reinstalling Windows. I’m currently downloading the Windows 10 update for it – which is what I was trying to accomplish when everything went balls up last year. Hopefully it will work this time. I’m typing this on the SP, which has Windows 8 installed currently, and it’s just so much better than Linux. I try. I really do. But I’m still a child of Microsoft.

I finally got a little bit of training regarding the work that I’m supposed to be doing in Annapolis beginning next Sunday. One interesting li’l tidbit that came up during said training: Book flights 21 days in advance. Had I been planning on flying, that would have been a good thing to know prior to 7 days before leaving, huh? I’m also a bit ticked that travel expenses are reimbursed, rather than put on a corporate card, but maybe I got spoiled at BS and ATT. Wonder what would happen if I just say, “Hey, I can’t afford to pay for this up front. Sorry.”

Anyway, I still haven’t been able to get in touch with the project manager or the team lead for this little trip, so it’s going to be interesting. I don’t know who the client is, what the address is, if there’s a preferred hotel….this is all stuff that I was supposed to have been told three or four weeks ago. I was talking to Jenny about this stuff today, and I honestly think the X company has just grown too fast this year. They’ve got people in middle management who don’t know how to manage. Two months ago, they were doing network installations. Today, they’re supposed to be managing projects with multiple new people – like me – who haven’t been given any real training. It’s not frustrating. It’s not frightening. It’s just annoying. Trying to keep a good public attitude, but it gets tough.

Weather-wise, it has been ridiculously hot for the past couple of weeks. I actually mowed the lawn in the dark last week because I just couldn’t stand the thought of doing it when I first go home from work. Too hot. That’s also been cutting down on my morning walks, as I’d rather just go back to bed at 5:20 AM instead of walking for an hour in a 95-degree sauna. Not going out every day has started to play a bit of hell on my feet, as when I do go out, they tend to hurt. Went through the same thing a few years ago.

I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a post on this thing that will be updated frequently – like every day – with just a “what I did today” type of thing, while still reserving the right to compose longer things every week or two. I’m not sure how that would work, which is why I haven’t tried it so far.

That’s about enough for today. Not much new in my life, as you can tell. Still not satisfied with the employment situation, still wondering how and when I can just retire…still wondering what the big picture of my life is, to be honest. Or if there is one. And, if so, do I really care about it all that much? Maybe THIS is the real mid-life crisis, and that little mental vibration I had a few years ago was nothing. It felt more urgent then. Now, it’s just…eh.

Tally-ho and all that. My next post will probably be from Maryland.

Doing Stuff

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Why yes, this site probably does look different to you.   It crashed completely last week, and I haven’t gotten it back to normal yet.  Back in the day, when I got home from work at a decent hour, I might’ve spent more time on it.

Actually, it’s a good problem to have.  I’ve been meaning to dig into the mechanics of WordPress.  I’ve got this fuzzy idea that I might be able to make money by setting up/maintaining/repairing other folks’ WordPress-based sites.  You never know.

Another thing I’m doing a little different today is typing this on my Microsoft Surface Pro (the original!), with Linux installed on it.  After not using the little thing for about two years, during which time Microsoft came out with a number of Windows 10 rebuilds, I pulled this thing out last October, tried to install everything at once, and immediately broke it.

Not just crashed.  I mean BROKE it.  Couldn’t even get to a logon prompt.  Spent a few days at AT&T (remember, I was getting paid to look for a new job at the time) trying to get things working – even found an external DVD drive and tried to do a fresh install from there – but I had absolutely no luck.  So I put it back into its little bag, brought it home, put in on top of my piano, and basically forgot about it until today.

This morning, I caught a commercial for a USB-stick-based emergency repair product (FixMe or FixIt or something like that), and wondered how big of a scam it was.  So I started reading up on it.  It appears that it’s a legitimate safety net for computers that have been compromised by malware, so that’s nice.  I wasn’t going to buy the thing anyway – just wondered if it was a complete rip-off.  Anyway, while reading up on it, I learned that it was running a Linux distro on the stick (no surprise there), and it inspired me to see if I could revive my Surface Pro in a similar fashion.  So I downloaded an Ubuntu .iso, set it up to boot off of a flash drive, plugged it in, and booted off of it.  Used it to check the drive on the Surface Pro (seemed to be fine), but decided against trying to repair the existing Windows installation and went straight to “Install Ubuntu.”

Half an hour later, I had a working Surface Pro again.  Running Ubuntu.

At some point, I’ll probably reinstall Windows on it, but it seems to be working very well with Linux.  So maybe I’ll just leave it as it is.  It’s not like it’s my primary laptop or anything, and it works fine for checking email, reading the news…updating this blog.  Still working on getting a Citrix client to work on it, so that I can use it for work stuff if necessary.

I managed to get the front lawns mowed last week, and also pulled out the stupid bricks that have surrounded my mailbox since I bought the house.  At some point, the bricks outlined a little square around the mailbox for flowers and crap, but I’ve just let grass grow there, and the bricks dinged up my mower blades.

They won’t any more.

Considered doing some mowing in the back yards this morning, and maybe cutting down the ivy and other creepy stuff surrounding my desk, but it’s incredibly hot and muggy.  So I’ve been cleaning my bathroom this morning, and I may decide to call that my big project when I’m done and go have a beer or 11.   Also need to get my hair cut.

I’ve volunteered to do a project in Annapolis, MD, on the week of August 8th.  Supposedly, I’ll be trained on what that entails before I actually do it, but I haven’t heard a peep about that.  Beginning to wonder how the X company gets anything accomplished.

Guess that’s enough for now.  My proof-of-concept Ubuntu Surface Pro is a success!

Dammit

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Another couple of weeks have passed, and – while I’m still not and never will be a fan of AT&T – this has been one of those periods causing me to really miss that paycheck.

We have had rain every day for about the last 10, although “rain” probably isn’t the best word to describe the amount of water that’s been dropped two or three times daily.  Downpour. Deluge.  Monsoon. Frog strangler.  It had gotten bad enough by a week ago that I finally decided that I needed to get one of my two gasoline-powered lawn mowers running again.  My battery-powered mower does a fantastic job on the lawns if they’re dry and if the grass isn’t too tall.  If both of those conditions aren’t met, I’m lucky to get 30 minutes out of the battery.  I managed to stay ahead of the curve in the front lawn over the wetness, but with the grass growing like crazy and the rain every day, the back of the house has turned into a veritable jungle.  It’s time to fire up the Briggs & Stratton.

In the past, I would’ve just take the mower(s) up to Corley Small Engine in Duluth and gotten a fix for $50-$70, but I decided to save some money and learn a bit about my mowers.  Purchased a carburetor rebuild kit online for $13, brought the newer mower into the garage, and – with the help of a few videos – took the old carb off one night after work while the storm raged outside.  Noticed as I was doing this that some water was leaking through the top of my (internal) garage door.

Great.

Finished disassembling the carb, threw away all of the old gaskets, dropped the parts into a carb wash bucket, and went to bed.  This was on Monday, I believe.  By Tuesday morning, I could barely open the garage door.  The frame had swollen or warped.  Also saw water damage at the corner of the ceiling above the door and in the drywall around it.  Still raining.

Tuesday after work, I climbed up on the garage roof (oh, joy), cleaned out all of the gutters (disgusting) and a pile of leaves and other crap in the corner of the roof above the garage door where it was most likely that the leak was.  Didn’t see any obvious place for the leak, but didn’t spend a lot of time looking, as another storm was on the way.

Received my carb rebuild kit and was ready to put everything back together on Wednesday.  Unfortunately, the kit didn’t contain a float gasket.  Just, you know, the most important gasket in the whole friggin’ thing.  So I put everything back together without the gasket and set it aside.   The garage door remained very sticky, but the leaking seemed to have stopped.

Went to Corey’s yesterday, got the float gasket that I needed – and also picked up the same rebuild kit (for $13) from them so I could fix the other mower at some point.  As expected, it contained ALL of the  gaskets I needed.  Somebody screwed up the online order.

Got home, put the carb back together, put it back into the mower, hooked up the fuel line, and released the grip that had been crimping the fuel.  Gasoline immediately started pouring out the bottom of the carburetor.

Fantastic.

I re-crimped the fuel line, took the carb back off, checked all the gaskets.  One of them, on the nut on the bottom of the carb, looked suspect, so I took that gasket out of the new kit that I’d purchased and replaced it again.  Put everything back together, released the fuel line clamp….gasoline leaking out of the carb.

Crimp back in place.  I’ll take the mower to Corey next week.  The bigger problem now is that gasoline was spilled on the mower, and the mower  was in the garage…so my garage smells like gasoline.  Got up this morning with a plan to move the mower back to the shed in the backyard.  Pulled on the doorknob to open the garage door.

Doorknob broke off in my hand, leaving, as you might expect, a hole in the door.  Gasoline vapors found it very quickly.  Now my entire downstairs smells like gas.

After some trial and error, I managed to get the garage door open without a knob, completely took out all of the knob, covered the hole with some painter’s tape.  Off to Home Depot this morning for a new knob.  Also spoke to a contractor friend of mine about fixing the drywall and the door frame in the next couple of weeks.  Also bought some spray sealant which I’ll put on the garage roof today – more ladder climbing, more time on the roof, more joy.

It has become apparent that, insurance or not, I’m going to have to replace my roof.  Yes, I can afford it by raiding my savings.  I just really didn’t want to do that.  At this time last year, I could absorb the expense and be back on top within a month or two.  These days, I’ll probably end up financing it and locking myself into the stupid job for another three years.

Maybe the gasoline smell will be gone by then.

A Necessary Saturday

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Today’s featured image was taken three years ago.  The boys were just about 4 months old, Boo was still the biggest critter in the camp, my renter was a large and bald ex-bouncer, and I was probably mentally ready to head to Canada for a couple of weeks.  Today, Boo is dwarfed by her little brothers, my renter is a relatively petite customer service manager, and I’m still mentally ready to head out anywhere – although that’s not going to happen for quite some time.

Got kind of a punch in the gut last week when I applied for an Onboarding Specialist position that’s opening up at The X Company.  Informed my new boss of my intention to apply, he said fine – he’s been my boss for all of about two weeks, having just been promoted to the L1 lead position.  Did an interview with our talent scout, who is filtering applicants to send to the hiring manager.  I thought it went fairly well.  He asked all the usual questions, including what my boss would say that I did well and what my boss would say that I didn’t do so well.  I explained that I really didn’t know what my *new* boss would say, as I haven’t talked with him; but said that my previous boss, Joe – based solely on the (three) one-on-one meetings that I’ve had with him, since he and I have barely spoken since I started working – would probably say that I do a good job with my clients, consistently meet my metrics, have good communications skills, and generally know my shit.  As for what I need to work on, I really didn’t know and I said that.  Perhaps more consistency with the metrics, but judging on the daily stats that I get combined with his comments – written and verbal – in those three meetings, I really couldn’t think of anything that I needed to drastically improve.  I know I’m doing a good job, and I told the guy that.  Said, fairly bluntly, that I understand that I’m new, but that this is stuff that I was doing close to 30 years ago, that I’m going to get better and better at it, and that I’m going to be bored to death with it within 6 months.  Also mentioned that I’d taken a 50% pay cut when I accepted the job.  Didn’t pull any punches, but was polite, positive, eager to learn new things and be more involved with customer planning, yada yada yada.

Got a fairly terse email the following day informing me that the interviewer had spoken with my bosses and they’d informed him that I really needed to improve, that my metrics were below par but getting better, and that the interview process could not proceed because “we’re only looking for people who meet and exceed expectations.”  I was mildly stunned.  Pulled up the daily stats and graphed them.  My metrics are solid.  At the top, in fact.   So I pulled up the records of my three meetings.  Scored 9/10 in my first one, 10/10 in the next two.  Got a bit pissed off, but decided to be cool.  Sent a nice note back to the interviewer and stated that I disagreed with the take on my performance, but that I understand that I’m new and I try not to take anything personally and it was nice talking with him, thanks, etc.

Two hours later, my new boss (Ben) sits down next to me, says, “Will you have a few minutes to talk today?”  I said I could talk right then.  So we go to a conference room and he begins his remarks by saying, “Joe and I never said anything to Neil about your metrics.  You’re doing fine.  Joe thought you might have an attitude problem because you haven’t been particularly friendly.”

I agreed with him on that point, particularly where Joe is concerned, explaining that I haven’t been overly friendly with Joe because I’ve had the feeling – from day one – that Joe actively dislikes me.  Ben said something along the lines of, “That’s understandable, and you’re not the first one to say it.”  I then explained again that it was all good.  I wasn’t going to worry about it.  If there were issues – perceived or real – then I’d just go back to taking care of my clients, which is what I’m paid to do.  Ben said he’d talk to Neil (the interviewer) and straighten things out, and I assumed that I was back in the running.

The next day, I got another email from Neil that said, “I hope that, after talking with Ben, you have a better understanding of what the problem is.”  So I wrote back and said, “Actually, I’m now more mystified than ever, but – again – I’m not going to worry about it.”

Two days pass, and we arrive at yesterday afternoon.  Joe called me into his office.  I’m like, “Oh crap.  Can we just let this thing go?” but I sit and ask what’s up.  He says that he heard back from Neil and that I said I was still not sure about how I’m underperforming; so I laid out the whole timeline for him (did not mention that I still think he dislikes me), and said for about the 15th time, “It’s okay.  I’m new to the job and the company.  I guess I’m trying to move too fast.  I just have seen no indication that I’m not performing as expected.  If I am, please tell me what I need to do to improve.”

And Joe says, “No, your metrics are great.  Your firms have nothing but good things to say about you.  You obviously are incredibly technically qualified.  Your communication is good – wish the other guys out there would document things like you do.  You pay attention to detail.  You’re doing great.  The thing is, we worry about your teamwork.  Some of the guys on the floor thought you came off as sort of condescending when you started here.”

And I’m like (in my head), “THAT’S what this is all about? Seriously?”  So I laid it out for Joe.  I came to work at The X Company after 17 years of being responsible for nearly every bit of infrastructure – phones, computers, televisions, signage, wall hangings, heaters, fuse boxes, coffee makers, you name it.  While I did work in a business casual atmosphere there, it is also a Fortune 50 company and there is certain level of professionalism that is expected.  Prior to working at BellSouth/AT&T, I was a contractor for three years and worked for some of the most respected companies on the planet.  And when I got to The X Company, I was thrown into the middle of a bunch of kids who spent their days playing ping-pong, talking about online gaming, and shooting rubber bands and nerf guns around the room.  The company took a day off to have a picnic and play kickball.  The dress code includes The X Company t-shirts and shorts.  Not to mention that I was doing my best to 1}Learn the applications that I’m supporting, and 2}Provide my clients with top-notch support.  So, yeah.  I probably did, and perhaps still do, come off as aloof and/or condescending at times.  My focus is and will be on my clients, and if the office that I’m sitting in is one step up from kindergarten, then call me the guy without team spirit.  I’m okay with that.  And oh, by the way, those guys are now coming to me for help with their own clients.

Joe got the message.

He and I then talked about upcoming projects (wherein people like me go to new clients and get them set up) and an opening for a project manager (who manages people like me who are going to new clients to get them set up), and he encouraged me to sign up for some of the former and to apply for the latter.

So after the gut punch, maybe there’s a glimmer of light.  We shall see.  At least Joe, and hopefully Ben – and maybe even Neil – now knows where I’m coming from.  I’ll shoot the nerf guns between 5:30 and 6:00, after I’ve shut off my phone and I’m winding down. The rest of the day, I’m focused on my clients.

In other news, I took a short trip up to the Pisgah National Forest (the Shining Rock Wilderness Area) over the Memorial Day weekend and spend a wonderful, restful, couple of days in the middle of nowhere along the Pigeon River.  Only had to hike in about two miles to get away from the day hikers.  I setup my tent and a tarp, drank some apple-crisp whisky and splashed in the river on Saturday; then slept like a dead man while a massive storm raged during Saturday night.  On the way up to the area, I passed the Davidson Creek campground in the national forest, and thought that it might be an alternative to my Lake Superior campground for later this year.

Looked it up online when I got home.  The 2nd and 3rd weeks in October are almost fully booked, and it’s $40/night!  I’m once again leaning towards going back to Pictured Rocks on Superior.  Yes, it’s a longer drive – but I know that I’ll be fairly alone, and I know that it’s a beautiful spot.   Actually, while talking with Joe about upcoming projects, I learned that there is one in Wisconsin and one in Michigan (I believe North Lake, MI, which would be incredible) coming up in late August.  Am considering trying for one of those with the idea of scheduling my vacation at the end of the on-site week, so that I could just leave and head to the lake, saving the company air fare and getting my lake jones taken care of in one fell swoop.

On the good news front, I spent this morning rolling coins and counting the paper money that I’ve been stuffing into a water jug over the last year.  You know the drill – you get home, you empty your pockets, and you save any money that’s in them.

I’ll be making a deposit of just over $2,700 this morning.

It’s going to be a nice vacation if I can ever get it scheduled.

 

Chillin’

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Today’s featured image was taken on this day one year ago, and is of the Little Santeetlah Creek in the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest – one of my favorite places in the world for a quick getaway from city life.  My buddy Brett and I had actually planned to go up there a couple of weekends ago, but it was covered in snow, gates were closed, trees were down, and the roads were basically impassible.  We opted instead to hang out at Fires Creek in the Nantahala Wilderness for a one-night campout.  Bing tells me this about the JKMF:

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest is an approximately 3,800-acre tract of publicly owned virgin forest in Graham County, North Carolina, named in memory of poet Joyce Kilmer, best known for his poem “Trees”. One of the largest contiguous tracts of old growth forest in the Eastern United States, the area is administered by the U. S. Forest Service.

Oddly enough, Kilmer himself was born, and lived most of his life, in New Jersey.  He was killed in France in WWI.  Why his name is attached to a forest in NC is somewhat of a mystery, excepting, of course, the reference to his “Trees” poem, of which I’m sure that everyone knows at least the first line.

Work was a bit more hectic than usual last week, largely due to the fact that I got another “primary” firm (meaning that I’m their primary consultant), and they’re brand new to The X Company.  McSoley, McCoy & Company is a small CPA firm in South Burlington, VT, and I’ve got to admit that I like taking care of them simply because of their location.  At this early stage, however, they’re pretty needy.  I’m told that it usually takes about 6 months for a new firm to settle into a cloud-based environment, and I’m hopeful that they get used to things a lot faster than that.  I’m spending a lot of time on the phone with them, and I’ve got 5 other primary firms that I’ve somewhat neglected since MMC on-boarded.  They’ve been fun to work with, however.  Nice people.

I tried to get some sleep yesterday – don’t have much time to do so during the week – but I still have things to do at home.  Managed to get a few loads of laundry done and to straighten up my bedroom.  Still need to mow the lawns, but storms rolled in yesterday afternoon and nixed any idea of working outside.  I should also mention that it was about 90 degrees and humid, so outdoor work would have been incredibly uncomfortable.  Took a 3.6-mile walk this morning in a steady drizzle, and the rain is predicted to continue for much of this week, so my lawns are going to be a major pain to mow by next weekend.  I’d hoped to maybe try the mountains again, but it looks like I’ll be stuck at home to mow and do other home-type things.  Still need to fix the toilet in my half-bath.  Been meaning to do that for about 8 months now….

Learned a couple of weeks ago that I will not be able to take a vacation in July, so Ahmic Lake appears to be out this year.  I’m trying to decide if I want to go back to Lake Superior in October (haven’t asked if I can have that time off yet…perhaps I should) or if I can find something acceptable that’s closer to home.  Basically, I don’t want much in a place, but there are some non-negotiables:

  1. It has to be cool, bordering on cold.
  2. It has to have plenty of tree cover.
  3. I have to be alone, or as close to it as possible.
  4. It has to have water into which I can immerse myself.  A decent-sized stream, a lake, an ocean.  No ponds.
  5. It has to have wind.
  6. It has to be secluded enough to allow me to take long walks in the trees.

Superior, of course, has all of those things and is currently at the top of my list.  The drive is the only problem.  Not that it’s boring (it’s beautiful for much of the way) or that it tires me out: It just cuts into my time in the woods.  Figure 1 or 2 days to make the trip each way, and my vacation takes a serious hit.  At AT&T, it wasn’t that big of a deal.  I mean, I got something like 38 days off every year.  At The X Company, I think I get 10.  I’d rather not lose 3-4 of them driving.

So I’m considering places along the Atlantic…North Carolina, Virginia, perhaps Georgia or SC (although I think it’d be too hot and too crowded in those states, not to mention the fact that the beaches in GA and SC have very little tree cover).  Have been looking into the other great lakes that would be closer – Michigan, Erie, Ontario – but I don’t know if they’ve got the tree cover that I’m looking for, either.

One idea that I’ve been pondering is to head to Vermont, somewhere along the Long Trail, and maybe talk The X Company into letting me have a couple of days “on the clock” visiting with McSoley, McCoy.  Not sure if that’d fly or not, but I’d be willing to float the idea if I can find a perfect camping spot in, say, the Northeast Kingdom.

“Why not just go to Joyce Kilmer,” you ask?  That is a possibility, of course.  The only problem with it is that hunters and rednecks abound in that area in the fall.  The “alone” part of my list is pretty important.

One other idea is Unicoi State Park in Georgia.  I’ve never spent much time there, but it’s in the mountains, it’s got a lake, it’s got trails, it’s got cover, and it’d be chilly in October.  Biggest drawback is that, in October, the leaf-peepers will be coming out of the woodwork.  It’s got some walk-in campsites, however, so I might be able to get away from the crowds.  Going to do some more research on the park.  If I could make it work, it’d be fantastic.  It’s only about 3 hours away, and it really is a beautiful park.

And I think that’s about it for now.  Still plugging away, still dreaming about a retirement life in the woods, still a bit pissed off at AT&T (I doubt that I’ll ever get over that, to be honest), but still trying to keep a positive attitude.  A few more years.  I can last a few more years.

TWD