Followed By An Easy Day

The sun is sliding toward the horizon, painting the hillside south of the hotel in shades of dry green, typical of the Southern California hillsides at this time of year.  After a weekend of cool and gray it remained cool, but the gray vanished and was replaced by blue skies. 

We did next to nothing today.  We had a late breakfast at the Broken Yolk here in Mission Valley. Then, we went to the Mission Valley AMC 20 to see REDS 2.  It was an excellent movie, a great way to unwind after four days on my feet.  It was easily as good as the original. It has an exceptional cast for an ensemble movie, started with the immensely talented Helen Mirren, and then flowing smoothly into John Malkovich, Bruce Willis, Mary Louise Parker, Anthony Hopkins, Byung-hun Lee, Catherine Zeta Jones, David Thewlis, and Brian Cox.

From there, we walked the shopping center, mainly to stretch the legs, and I picked up a few odds and ends.  Then, back to the hotel where the afternoon was spent as lazily as possible, watching Forrest Gump on HBO and napping off and on.  I wrapped up the afternoon with a call with TR.  Then, we popped out for dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, where I had an excellent dinner followed by a simple piece of cake to indulge myself.

We've got one more full day here in San Diego, so tomorrow we're planning on a trip to either the Zoo or Sea World, just to spend another easy vacation day. On Wednesday, we're going to start back north.  The plan is to come up the coast highway (Highway 1) for the view.  That will make the return trip longer, perhaps adding an extra night onto the journey - all depending on how Tony, who will be doing the driving, wants to take it. I'm actually looking forward to the drive.

One of the nice things about actually having two weeks of true vacation is - today is only the first day of the second half of the vacation and I can say that I am sliding deeply into relaxation.  That is a great feeling and one of the reasons I think people should always try to take as long a vacation as they can. It gives you a chance to relax and set down some of the things you carry in the working world,

Incidental Angels

I've had this piece for quite a while. I found it at a junk store one day and bought it for the pure functionality - it sits on the table near the door and catches my keys at the end of the day. It is such a habit that when I accidentally set my keys somewhere else, even in plain sight, I have through finding them.

Being Catholic, I like the idea of angels, and I specifically like the idea of incidental angels - those angels that are on some other task, but with whom you simply cross paths, perhaps knowing, perhaps unknowing. I like to think they do simple and subtle things in our lives and then continue on their journey.

I watched a good movie last night - Julie Taymor's "The Tempest" with Helen Mirren. First, I don't think you can go wrong with any movie that stars Helen Mirren, and second, I've always like The Tempest as a story. So, when you combine the two, I had two hours of pure enjoyment.

All in all the last couple of days have gone well - work has been brisk and only mildly frustrating. It's been the usual source of frustrations for me - mainly circling around desktop support, or the lack of it. I feel for the individuals involved in desktop support, they have a very difficult job, but I don't have any real sympathy for the process we use, with the emphasis on closing tickets and not solving problems. I've ranted about it before, I am sure I will rant about it again, and most likely I need to just let it go - which I am continually working on. I've done a better job than usual this week, so I am kind of proud of myself there.