Life's Update

Hopefully I can get my friends caught up with what is going on in my life and maybe give some perspective to my notable abscence on-line.

Well, today is the first day of my next adventure. No more 15 hour days or dealing with people that would rather stab you in the back than tell you something doesn't work and let me fix it. As I reflect over the last 6 years, I wonder where everything got side tracked. Am I completely innocent? Most likely not. But I am least up front and will get into your face and not your back. It will be a most interesting period of time watching how they handle things over there. The lead engineer doesn't have a clue, either in life or at work. A newsroom full of linux servers and he is so smart he doesn't know the password, or where each one is, or any idea what to do if he does find them. The other person is new and still learning computers. Ready to fly solo yet? No, a lot of over the shoulder is needed and sadly Salem is horrible at that. They like to throw people into the mix and then when they make a major mistake, fire them. I guess one thing that irks me is that my boss or the VP for the division never called to talk and try and figure out what has happened. I guess when you are a remote micro manager who cares. But I really think it was an opportunity to dump my salary and try to get a entry level person in there or better yet, a better reason to eliminate my spot and have a reason to consolidate the operations back in Dallas. To my friends in the newsroom, I hope and wish for the best and that your time there will be better. To the others, well, play your games, sleep, back stab and generally go to hell.

#1 has no change. Though the young lion felt his oats last night at the bowling alley and challenged the old lion. Happily, the old lion won 217-212, but the lioness was only at 190 and with her hadicap she put us both back into place. As a team we gave a lesson to the other team with a 175+ pin win.

#2 is cold. Being on a mountaintop in the fall gets cold and will get colder as the snow comes. Well, we will go and buy him a new coat rather than tracking down the old one he left here, where only God knows. He took his GED and now we await the results. Drivers school is next on the horizon and his trade schooling is moving along. Except for the occaision bouts of homesickness, he is doing ok. We are both proud of him for getting this far but anxiously await him to get all the way through.

Saturday was spent riding along the Virginia / North Carolina border looking at properties and houses that were for sale. We saw some beautiful ones that we are checking further into, especially on piece of land on US Highway 158 south on Lake Gaston North Carolina. Old southern farm house with columns, a tack house with a mother-in-law apartment, stables, a large pond with running stream right through the whole farm, the prettiest deep green grass with with white fences all over. The driveway was down a road flanked on both sides by a white fence and pastures. There is about 40 acres there with some of the back section still heavily wooded. Oh well, time will tell as we investigate further.

The our schedule gets fuller by the day. Oct 29-30, we are home but at the church alot with trunk-or-treat and our annual charge conference. Nov 5-6 is my nephews wedding which means a whirlwind trip to Florida. Nov 12-13 is a quiet weekend at a cabin located in Berkley Springs WV. and Nov 19-20 the #2 son comes home for the Holidays. At that point we are only 5 weks away from the cruise with Thanksgiving and Christmas in between. Some one say, "you can do what when?"