Yet Another Day Of Rain

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.

Cinnamon Altoids

Cinnamon Altoids. If you haven’t tried them yet I highly recommend them. Like all Altoids they pack quite a punch and I have become semi-addicted to them over the last month.

It is late in the evening here in California and I am sitting in the living room, writing this entry and watching Fringe on Fox. I have been enjoying the series and I hope it lasts for a while. I tend to enjoy those offbeat television shows like Fringe, and I was a huge fan of the X-Files.

I almost tipped over and went to sleep earlier tonight, but in the process of moving around and getting ready to go to bed I kind of woke up. LOL - that almost always amuses me when it happens - except - when you are at the end of a long day and you are tired and you crawl into the warmth of your bed - and your eyes pop open and you are wide awake. Fortunately that is not what happened to me tonight - tonight I just was not as tired as I thought I was.

I am definitely in the mental countdown to vacation - six working days to go! I always hesitate to call my trips to South Dakota in the winter as “vacation”. It is not like I am going there to take the waters or something. Visiting family is always great - but to me, a vacation is someplace nice, preferably in a nice hotel, with cable TV, internet, pay per view, a pool, a spa, a restaurant, a bar, room service and Euro trash. Visiting family is relaxing but it is most decidedly not a nice hotel.

I always have my fingers crossed at this time of year and hope that I am not going to fly into the teeth of an early winter storm, and I do mean teeth! Two years ago I flew back at Thanksgiving (I usually alternate between Thanksgiving and Christmas, with the summer or spring visit tossed in every other year or so) and I flew into one of the worst blizzards in twenty years. That was quite an experience - being chewed by the teeth of that snow storm.

Tonight has been a very pleasant evening. I got home and had a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner. The evening was cool and gray and it ached for comfort food. I chased it down with a bowl of chocolate ice cream. I settled in and watched some TV on DVR (I watched last nights Terminator and Heroes). I strummed my guitar for a while. I took a very nice phone call. I took a bath.

I popped online for a bit to read and write some email, popped into Spiritual Insights chat room on AOL to see how the evening was going (quiet), and then popped off to go bed. Seems like there was a lot of popping involved! All in all, I would have to call it a good day.