The rain that has filled the landscape and soundscape of the last several days continues to fall. It is barely sprinkling right now and there are three sounds in the apartment - that faint hiss of the light rain on the balcony cover, the ticking of the clock in the kitchen, and the faint clacking of the keyboard as I type.
Work went smoothly and quickly today, about half the day in meetings and the other half working a wide variety of customer support items. Today also marked one of the best parts of being manager - merit increases. I met with most of my staff today and will meet with the rest tomorrow to give them their raises. I am happy to say that everyone got a raise and that the raises, even at the lower end, were decent ones, even in these times.
Working in the defense and government contracting industry we are immune to some of the normal commercial pressures - we build products and provide services to demand. That is the customers agree to buy certain goods and services before we even begin to work - consequently we do mostly contract work, as opposed to commercial companies that first create the good or service and then try to sell it. We sell it before we even start work. It is not all upside though - we just move on a different cycle. In our business cycles when a contract ends (when the good or service is provided) or when there are major contracts that are delayed or cancelled, we expand and contract accordingly. In many ways this cycle is rougher than the commercial cycles in that we are more closely tied to our customers. As I wrote in the previous article about Meng Shih, we live very much under the waxing and waning of Heaven.
After work I came home and took a nap, then met my friend Tony at Frankie, Johnny, and Luigi's II in Westgate West shopping center in San Jose. I had the New York style lasagna and Tony has the baked rigatoni. We both had the minestroni and I chased dinner with a small slice of carrot cake. After dinner we drove up to Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale and Tony picked up some printer cartridges and the soundtrack to "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles".
Then, it was home for the evening. I listened to the rain and watched TV (I had recorded "Chuck" and "Heroes" on the DVR from last night). I web surfed for a while, just idling through the interconnected links of various blogs. Now, I am winding the evening down, trying to spark the creative flow and do a little writing. One of the things I like about online journaling is that often it serves as a good spark to get the creative thought processes rolling in another direction.
We've got an event coming up here this coming weekend that I am looking forward to - the 28th Annual Clam Chowder Cook Off at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk this coming Saturday. If the rain lets us, I am going to swing over there with my friends Pierre & Helen. The quality of the food is simply astounding to me - some of the finest clam chowders imaginable will be on display and it's a chance to just hang out at the municipal wharf and the Beach Boardwalk. I missed last year (I simply missed it, forgot all about it until I read about it the week after). I am looking forward to it and may go rain or shine, though shine will definitely be better.
I've been reading Christopher Moore's "Fool" - his satirical take on Shakespeare's "King Lear" the last couple of nights. Typical of more it is simply twisted, pointed and very funny. I consider myself a huge Christopher Moore fan - I've read all of his novels and count some of them as the funniest books I have ever read. My personal favorite is "Island of the Sequined Love Nun", followed by "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove". If you have never read Moore the RUN, do not walk, to your local bookstore and buy everything that has his name on it. You will not be disappointed.
Tomorrow looks to be a day almost entirely devoted to meetings so I am going to try to go to sleep early tonight (and yes, I will slip in some reading as I fall asleep) and head into the office a little early so I get a chance to get some work done before I fall entirely into the rhythm of weaving in and out of meetings.
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