Sing To Me

“Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, one he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.” Homer, The Odyssey (Robert Fagles translation, 1996)

I slept close to eleven hours last night.  I got home at about the ordinary time, had a simple enough dinner, watched the most recent episode of Defiance off the DVR and then decided to take a thirty minute nap.  It was a beautiful cool evening, so I curled into bed, listened to the street noises and drifted off.  When my timer woke me up, I reset it for another thirty minutes because it was so cozy sleeping.  Then, when it went off the second time, I…turned it off and went back to sleep.  It was about six p.m. and I slept straight through until about 2:00 a.m., where I woke briefly and then drifted back to sleep, finally waking up about five a.m..  It was very nice.

Today, my work is mostly meetings - a solid block of meetings from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m, for a total of six hours.  I’ve already got two meetings knocked off and I am in the third now.  The third is an informational presentation - in this third meeting, I helped to prepare the meeting materials, so I am just on the call as a question and answer resource.  I have some things that I hope to accomplish in the afternoon, but I am also planning on heading home fairly early today, since I started at 6:00 a.m.

Right now, I am going to head over to the conference room and spend the next half hour listening to the meeting and walking in small circles.  In thirty minutes, I will be able to get in about a mile or so, in small concentric circles. Move, move. Move.

I saw the quote from the Odyssey while I was at San Jose Museum of Art over the weekend and it was stuck in my head, so I thought I would share it here, since the process of sharing information can often release it.

The Door

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

San Jose Museum of Art

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

I Finished Leviathan Wakes

I finished reading "Leviathan Wakes" and I would definitely recommend it if you are a science fiction fan.  I am going to read the next book in the series - "Caliban's War".  Between here and there though I am reading "Many Lives, Many Masters" and a biography of Julius Caesar.

It was a beautiful evening.  I worked a full day at the office, then stopped at Santa Clara Billiards to shoot some practice games on the way home.  I am recovering my mojo when it comes to pool.  I am almost completely recovered from changing up my game - I would guess another five hours or so of practice will get me there.  I am running at a pretty consist .62 in straight pool.  My current goal is to drive that up to .75.

This week has been relatively pleasant.  T.R. is off to Kure Island with her friends for a week or so. My parents are both home at the ranch and doing well enough, with my nephew Tom in the mix.  Work has been busy but relatively sane.  I lost some time this week trouble shooting a bug that a code change introduced in a vendor product, but they found the root cause today, so it is now just a matter of cleaning up the damage and moving forward.

I lost a spot of time on one of my projects, but I am making up for it later here in the week.  The time spent trouble-shooting had to come out of somewhere and unfortunately, it came out of project time.  That is an equation that upper management fails to grasp.

I am looking forward to the three day weekend.  My plan is, on Saturday, I am going to the San Jose Museum of Art to see an Annie Leibowitz exhibit and then probably grab some lunch downtown.  Part of my renewal of  membership in the museum was a coupon that is worth 10.00 off at 17 different restaurants and cafes.  I think that I will see if I can go to all of them this year.  That might be a worthwhile little eating adventure.

Off the IPO Boot

It was a brisk day here in California.  I started with a meeting at 6:00 AM and then had constant meetings through the day until I went to the podiatrist at 2:00 PM, then as soon as I got out of the appointment, I dialed in to another teleconference.

The high point of the day was the doctor telling me the foot looks good and discharging me, with a follow up in a couple of months.  I am officially off the IPO boot, which is great - now, I just have to remember how to walk without it!

After the last teleconference I stopped and met Tony at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and when we were getting ready to leave and I was getting out of the booth, I was very careful stepping out - at if I was getting onto the IPO boot. It is probably going to take me a couple of days to figure out how to walk again, but I am sure looking forward to it!

I think at some point in the coming weekend I am going to visit a museum just for the sheer pleasure of wandering. Maybe catch the light rail downtown and then walk over to the San Jose Museum of Art and spend some time looking at the exhibits, and then lunch.  Let's face it, I am truly looking forward to getting out and simply walking around.

Meanwhile, it is a beautiful evening here, the far horizon is tinted in shades of red and rose and I am preparing to slip into bed early and spend the night reading. I have another heavy meeting day tomorrow, with the first meeting at 7:00 AM, so I am planning on an early rise. 

Elsewhere, T.R. is still on her off the grid vacation and I am missing her (while envying her being off the grid, I plan a similar thing for my next vacation).  Wherever she is, I hope her night is gentle and graceful.