A few weeks ago, my brother moved from Queens NY to a small town much nearer to us. I expected it would be nice to have him closer. I did not think it would be as cool as it has been.
I helped him move in, and he took a week or two to get settled. Then he invited us over for dinner. We had homemade chili and gluten-free cornbread. The kids hung out, we played Ticket to Ride, ate ice cream. It was nice. We hadn't really figured out the whole entertainment thing - the boys didn't want to play the game, and there wasn't much for them to do.
Last weekend, we hiked Mt Beacon. It was super fun. Aria didn't want to go, but we had the other 3 kids, and we had a great time. 2 miles of hiking, beautiful views; the outdoors is such a relief from the concrete we used to live in. At the top of the mountain, we turned around and headed back to the car. He continued on a hike and camped for the night.
He started to give Aria guitar lessons, and that's been going on for a few weeks now. She is practicing, and using one of his acoustic guitars. He was going to sell it, but didn't/couldn't, so she's using it now as a loaner. Libby had fun playing his electric guitar, and decided that's what she wanted to do. So we went looking for electrics and found a mini Stratocaster for her for a decent price. She was willing to pay for half of it, so I put it in my Amazon cart. On Monday, my brother found one on Craigslist that included an amp and tuner for just a few dollars more. So I picked that up on Tuesday.
Last night was dinner at his house/guitar lesson night. He grilled burgers, roasted some potatoes (not quite fries, but close), and we took over strawberries and a homemade shortcake. Dinner was nice, and then it was guitar time. He had purchased new strings for Libby's guitar, so he sat down and worked on it for half an hour, telling her how it worked and trying to make it better for her. He had asked me for some birthday ideas for Jake. I had given him some gift ideas, and also suggested that he take Jake out for some 1:1 time. He asked Jake if he'd like that, and Jake was totally on board. Then Libby got her first lesson. Basic, simple, took about 10 minutes, and it was about all she was ready for.
Then we put on Return of the Jedi, and he gave Aria her lesson. Hers took about half an hour. He had bought capos for both of them, and a lesson book for Aria. Then we all snuggled on his couch and loveseat and watched the movie and made fun of it at the same time.
It was the most relaxed I have ever been in a home that wasn't mine. He's so good with the kids, and they really love him. And I really appreciate his service to them, both as an uncle and a guitar teacher. And I am jealous of the bond that they will have with their uncle. He's going to be a very special person to them for the rest of their lives. Which truly is beyond priceless. We're very very blessed.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Thursday, April 25, 2013
#139 - The Honeymoon is Over
When joing a new group of people, there is an initial adjustment phase. I learned it in school as the "storming, forming, norming, performing" scale. At first you're all thrashing around, trying to figure out who does what. Then you start to get. Some things go well, others do not. By the time the team is norming, everyone is comfortable in their roles, and the team works pretty smoothly. It is at this point that the team can start to become greater than the sum of its parts.
In my previous job, I found that it normally took 6 months for someone who joined my team to norm. By a year, he or she was performing for the most part. It has been instructive to me to watch myself in a similar microcosm as I joined my new company and started to become integrated with the team - both above and below me on the management chain.
As checkpoints, it has been instructive to see my performance reviews. My first was a very blase "you're too new here for us to know what you can really do" review. My boss took the time to notice some things I was doing well, and I got a slightly-better-than-the-normal score for such a new employee. 6 months later, I was norming. I got an average review, with plenty of positive comments. I had started to assess my team, to set expectations, and question how we did things.
The honeymoon period for new employees where I work lasts about a year. No matter where you come from, there is a significant learning curve. I brought a lot of relevant experience and skills, but I had a TON of things to learn. After 7 months on the job, I started to act. It was time to implement changes that needed to be made, and I went after it. Along the way, I found members of my team who asked questions, and were interested in the change process. By the end of January, I had made some difficult decisions regarding my team, pushed through some initiatives with the management team, and was making headway on some other projects.
I made a conscious decision to step out from behind everyone else and forge a bit of a trail. Yesterday I got my first real review from my boss. By real, I don't mean that she didn't take time or effort on previous reviews. But this review was an accurate assessment of my skills, qualities, and accomplishments. And I'm happy to say that it was very positive.
So the honeymoon is over, and that's a good thing. I have learned a few things through this process:
1) That the advice I read in business school that successful leaders take some time to observe before making changes was very wise.
2) That the skills I grew at my previous employer were indeed valuable and transferable.
3) That given an environment with some freedom, and a team that wants to get better, I can lead a change effort.
4) That being mid-career is a very comfortable place.
The future is bright - lots of fun things to do, interesting things to learn, and people to coach. Goos tuff. I am so thankful that I was given a chance to be a manager. It is my true calling.
And how different would my life have been if my brother had never introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons? There is a very strong causal link between where I am now and playing D&D as a kid. Another entry for another day.
In my previous job, I found that it normally took 6 months for someone who joined my team to norm. By a year, he or she was performing for the most part. It has been instructive to me to watch myself in a similar microcosm as I joined my new company and started to become integrated with the team - both above and below me on the management chain.
As checkpoints, it has been instructive to see my performance reviews. My first was a very blase "you're too new here for us to know what you can really do" review. My boss took the time to notice some things I was doing well, and I got a slightly-better-than-the-normal score for such a new employee. 6 months later, I was norming. I got an average review, with plenty of positive comments. I had started to assess my team, to set expectations, and question how we did things.
The honeymoon period for new employees where I work lasts about a year. No matter where you come from, there is a significant learning curve. I brought a lot of relevant experience and skills, but I had a TON of things to learn. After 7 months on the job, I started to act. It was time to implement changes that needed to be made, and I went after it. Along the way, I found members of my team who asked questions, and were interested in the change process. By the end of January, I had made some difficult decisions regarding my team, pushed through some initiatives with the management team, and was making headway on some other projects.
I made a conscious decision to step out from behind everyone else and forge a bit of a trail. Yesterday I got my first real review from my boss. By real, I don't mean that she didn't take time or effort on previous reviews. But this review was an accurate assessment of my skills, qualities, and accomplishments. And I'm happy to say that it was very positive.
So the honeymoon is over, and that's a good thing. I have learned a few things through this process:
1) That the advice I read in business school that successful leaders take some time to observe before making changes was very wise.
2) That the skills I grew at my previous employer were indeed valuable and transferable.
3) That given an environment with some freedom, and a team that wants to get better, I can lead a change effort.
4) That being mid-career is a very comfortable place.
The future is bright - lots of fun things to do, interesting things to learn, and people to coach. Goos tuff. I am so thankful that I was given a chance to be a manager. It is my true calling.
And how different would my life have been if my brother had never introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons? There is a very strong causal link between where I am now and playing D&D as a kid. Another entry for another day.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
#138 - Initial Impressions of the Appalachian Trail - March 30, 2013
One of the things that I was very excited about when I first started researching moving to this part of New York was our proximity to the Appalachian Trail. This trail stretches almost the length of the Eastern Seaboard. My house is less than 10 miles from the AT, and there is a certain mystique for me. It brings images of rural Kentucky to me (or how I imagine it to be) and here it is in my own back yard!
One of my Boy Scouts recommended that we camp at a place on the AT, so that's where we set out to go. Directions were not hard to find, and we set out on a short hike at 6:15pm. The parking area (in Oregon it would be a Trailhead) was at an old cemetery. Some of the headstones show death dates in the early 1800s, so the area has been inhabited by Europeans for a while.
We walked across the road and 100ft down a gentle hill and there we were: the mythical AT, previously only known to me by legend. The entire area here is heavily wooded. So this is just one more heavily wooded hillside, like many that I drive by every day on the way to or from work. The trail follows a gentle switchback. The woods in the Winter (and the forest has not fully woken from its Winter slumber yet) are lifeless and brown. The only green is a little bit of moss, and some ferns flattened by snow that have not risen above the leaf layer yet.
You can walk any way you want through the forest. There is no undergrowth to slow you down, nothing to impede your progress. Although the area is completely natural, you would think it is carefully cleared. A hillside such as this one in Western Oregon would be nearly impossible to plow through. You would sink into 6 inches of detritus, stumble over hidden logs, slip on moss and ferns, and find yourself stopped by impenetrable bushes.
We arrived at our camp site in about 15 minutes. It was only a quarter mile. The site was 3 sites under one name. A smaller site just East of the shelter that has a large platform for a tent and a fire ring, the shelter with its wood pile and stone cooking area, and a larger site with a larger fire ring close to the edge of the hill. There is a spring, and a well attached to it (although the well pump is currently out of order), and a composting outhouse. The outhouse is required, because there is no cover for a person to get some privacy. It's a very foreign environment.
The shelter has a plastic box with a log book and some pens, and another with emergency supplies. It's wonderful. Water, food, shelter, and privacy for bodily functions.
The forest was quiet, but we didn't notice this so much until the morning. An owl hooted all night, but we heard nothing. Our dirty dishes were not touched all night. No animal made itself known to us at all. We made breakfast, broke camp, and got ourselves ready to leave. Then we headed on a day hike, to explore. We ended up following a trail marked by white paint on the bark of trees. It wound around and over hills, over creeks, crossing roads, and sometimes in sight of houses. The whole morning, we saw nothing that moved. No squirrels, no snakes, nothing. We found some raccoon tracks, deer tracks, a dead frog, woodpecker holes. But nothing alive. It was eery.
On the way back we spotted a hawk circling, and heard another bird, but it was so little life. Almost a Silent Spring. It would not have to change much.
I think, though, that the area will be nearly unrecognizable in a couple weeks, once leaves have come on the trees. The Pacific Crest Trail has many long sections, and they are not accessible by car. The AT has short sections (1-2 miles) that are accessible by car. I think that over time, I'll be able to hike a large portion of the AT with Christian and Jake and my brother Tim. It's going to be a good accomplishment. Maybe I'll do all of NY first, then get Connecticut, then move to New Jersey. Fun stuff.
One of my Boy Scouts recommended that we camp at a place on the AT, so that's where we set out to go. Directions were not hard to find, and we set out on a short hike at 6:15pm. The parking area (in Oregon it would be a Trailhead) was at an old cemetery. Some of the headstones show death dates in the early 1800s, so the area has been inhabited by Europeans for a while.
We walked across the road and 100ft down a gentle hill and there we were: the mythical AT, previously only known to me by legend. The entire area here is heavily wooded. So this is just one more heavily wooded hillside, like many that I drive by every day on the way to or from work. The trail follows a gentle switchback. The woods in the Winter (and the forest has not fully woken from its Winter slumber yet) are lifeless and brown. The only green is a little bit of moss, and some ferns flattened by snow that have not risen above the leaf layer yet.
You can walk any way you want through the forest. There is no undergrowth to slow you down, nothing to impede your progress. Although the area is completely natural, you would think it is carefully cleared. A hillside such as this one in Western Oregon would be nearly impossible to plow through. You would sink into 6 inches of detritus, stumble over hidden logs, slip on moss and ferns, and find yourself stopped by impenetrable bushes.
We arrived at our camp site in about 15 minutes. It was only a quarter mile. The site was 3 sites under one name. A smaller site just East of the shelter that has a large platform for a tent and a fire ring, the shelter with its wood pile and stone cooking area, and a larger site with a larger fire ring close to the edge of the hill. There is a spring, and a well attached to it (although the well pump is currently out of order), and a composting outhouse. The outhouse is required, because there is no cover for a person to get some privacy. It's a very foreign environment.
The shelter has a plastic box with a log book and some pens, and another with emergency supplies. It's wonderful. Water, food, shelter, and privacy for bodily functions.
The forest was quiet, but we didn't notice this so much until the morning. An owl hooted all night, but we heard nothing. Our dirty dishes were not touched all night. No animal made itself known to us at all. We made breakfast, broke camp, and got ourselves ready to leave. Then we headed on a day hike, to explore. We ended up following a trail marked by white paint on the bark of trees. It wound around and over hills, over creeks, crossing roads, and sometimes in sight of houses. The whole morning, we saw nothing that moved. No squirrels, no snakes, nothing. We found some raccoon tracks, deer tracks, a dead frog, woodpecker holes. But nothing alive. It was eery.
On the way back we spotted a hawk circling, and heard another bird, but it was so little life. Almost a Silent Spring. It would not have to change much.
I think, though, that the area will be nearly unrecognizable in a couple weeks, once leaves have come on the trees. The Pacific Crest Trail has many long sections, and they are not accessible by car. The AT has short sections (1-2 miles) that are accessible by car. I think that over time, I'll be able to hike a large portion of the AT with Christian and Jake and my brother Tim. It's going to be a good accomplishment. Maybe I'll do all of NY first, then get Connecticut, then move to New Jersey. Fun stuff.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
#137 Reflections on a year in NY March 4, 2013
I started work in NY on Feb 5, 2012. The past year has brought a massive amount of change in my personal and professional life.
Firstly, I did not fully appreciate the difference between the suburban sprawl lifestyle we had and the rural sprawl lifestyle we now enjoy. I call it rural sprawl because there's woods everywhere, and the land has been cut into 1-5 acre lots for miles around. Where the land is flat and the farming is reasonable, there are farms. Most of the land is a shallow layer of soil on top of shale or granite. It's deep enough for trees to take root, and seriously unbelievably rocky. No wonder the first Europeans headed west, where the farming was easier.
We now have to think about the grocery store. My work commute brings me right past a grocery store. It's not the cheapest around, but it'll do for milk, eggs, fresh veggies, and meat when it's on sale. As I leave the house in the morning, I take a quick obvious inventory and make a mental note. On the way home, I'll stop in if needed. All of our non-grocery purchases either go through Amazon or to special trips to town. And even that is consolidated with the weekly major grocery trip to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. Our life is much less commerce oriented, and that is refreshing.
Instead of doing whatever it was we were doing in the evenings in the suburbs, we spend our evenings either out with the church youth group (Katrina and I both do that now), or at home. The kids play in the lego room, do homework, sled, read, work on projects, and sometimes play video games or watch TV. In the summer, there are fires in the firepit, swimming, and exploring the forest we live in. I've been working on house projects. The most recent is sorting and organizing our basement detritus. Some of that stuff moved with us from California 9 years ago, and I just sorted through it. Now that is complete, and spring is nearly here, I'm transitioning to trimming, raking, and doing some other early outdoor maintenance. Because out house is in the middle of 2 wooded acres, I can use power tools in my garage all night long and nobody notices. Not even in the house, because we've built the pantry between the garage and the house and the bedrooms are on the far end of the house. It's wonderfully freeing.
Katrina, after a frantic few months of moving in and getting organized and having family here for Christmas, jumped into college, and she's been doing homework most evenings. It's a pleasant life - not lazy. Certainly not lazy. But a life that is less driven by outside rhythms and more by internal rhythms. Is Aria in a show? Are the kids' friends coming over? Did something in the house break and need fixed? Conversely, is there an improvement project that needs doing? Those get queued up and done, one by one, as time allows. It's nice.
The kids have grown immensely in too many ways to document fully. Liberty is still fully in transition. She has a very good friend at school, but she really misses Oregon. Jacob is fully acclimated to life here - he loves the outdoors, the Lego room, and the freedom he has here to go outside, scream, and run around. Christian is coming around. He has become much more responsible with his homework, and now chooses to spend his free time with books or Legos instead of the TV when he has the chance. He is making life choices confidently, and that's encouraging to see. Aria jumped into school, did 2 plays, and had made the honor roll every term. Her last report card was straight As, and she's very passionate about doing well at school. She's an amazing person. A seriously impressive individual.
I suppose that's enough for this post. I owe more detail and more frequency. We'll see. I have a busy Spring lined up, and things to accomplish!
Firstly, I did not fully appreciate the difference between the suburban sprawl lifestyle we had and the rural sprawl lifestyle we now enjoy. I call it rural sprawl because there's woods everywhere, and the land has been cut into 1-5 acre lots for miles around. Where the land is flat and the farming is reasonable, there are farms. Most of the land is a shallow layer of soil on top of shale or granite. It's deep enough for trees to take root, and seriously unbelievably rocky. No wonder the first Europeans headed west, where the farming was easier.
We now have to think about the grocery store. My work commute brings me right past a grocery store. It's not the cheapest around, but it'll do for milk, eggs, fresh veggies, and meat when it's on sale. As I leave the house in the morning, I take a quick obvious inventory and make a mental note. On the way home, I'll stop in if needed. All of our non-grocery purchases either go through Amazon or to special trips to town. And even that is consolidated with the weekly major grocery trip to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. Our life is much less commerce oriented, and that is refreshing.
Instead of doing whatever it was we were doing in the evenings in the suburbs, we spend our evenings either out with the church youth group (Katrina and I both do that now), or at home. The kids play in the lego room, do homework, sled, read, work on projects, and sometimes play video games or watch TV. In the summer, there are fires in the firepit, swimming, and exploring the forest we live in. I've been working on house projects. The most recent is sorting and organizing our basement detritus. Some of that stuff moved with us from California 9 years ago, and I just sorted through it. Now that is complete, and spring is nearly here, I'm transitioning to trimming, raking, and doing some other early outdoor maintenance. Because out house is in the middle of 2 wooded acres, I can use power tools in my garage all night long and nobody notices. Not even in the house, because we've built the pantry between the garage and the house and the bedrooms are on the far end of the house. It's wonderfully freeing.
Katrina, after a frantic few months of moving in and getting organized and having family here for Christmas, jumped into college, and she's been doing homework most evenings. It's a pleasant life - not lazy. Certainly not lazy. But a life that is less driven by outside rhythms and more by internal rhythms. Is Aria in a show? Are the kids' friends coming over? Did something in the house break and need fixed? Conversely, is there an improvement project that needs doing? Those get queued up and done, one by one, as time allows. It's nice.
The kids have grown immensely in too many ways to document fully. Liberty is still fully in transition. She has a very good friend at school, but she really misses Oregon. Jacob is fully acclimated to life here - he loves the outdoors, the Lego room, and the freedom he has here to go outside, scream, and run around. Christian is coming around. He has become much more responsible with his homework, and now chooses to spend his free time with books or Legos instead of the TV when he has the chance. He is making life choices confidently, and that's encouraging to see. Aria jumped into school, did 2 plays, and had made the honor roll every term. Her last report card was straight As, and she's very passionate about doing well at school. She's an amazing person. A seriously impressive individual.
I suppose that's enough for this post. I owe more detail and more frequency. We'll see. I have a busy Spring lined up, and things to accomplish!
Thursday, January 3, 2013
#136 - A new year, snow and peace - Jan 3, 2013
Thursday.
So it's been a few months. Sue me.
We haven't missed many beats so far - Aria performed in her first drama, then auditioned for and was cast in the Wizard of Oz at her junior high. Christian has come around to recognizing the value of his strict teacher. Jakers has learned to read, and now rarely wets the bed as long as his evening liquid intake is regulated. Libby is now baptized, our first Christmas in this house has passed, the ward choir did a fabulous job in our Christmas devotional, Katrina registered for school, my brother might buy a house and move relatively close to us, and my sister might come out here for an internship.
So that's the short version.
We've had wonderful weather - a long a warm fall, cooling nicely as it got to winter, and snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It's been very cold since, and we got 2 more snowfalls on the 26th and 29th. This morning my car said it was 12 degrees when I got in it. There is a mountain of snow in the parking lot at work - maybe 12' high. The forest floor around the house is blanketed in snow, still soft and crunchy where it has been undisturbed. Our pool has frozen over, and if you look in the forest you can see raccoon tracks. We saw a fox skirting our fence last week.
We've all been sick for a couple weeks, too. This year's cold is nasty. I've had it for a few weeks, and although I have my energy back, I'm still dealing with a very clogged nose. No fun at all. My parents and Katrina's mom came to visit and all got sick as well. So we've spent nearly their entire vacation sitting around and feeling sorry for ourselves. I've been going to work most days while the family slept.
Work continues to be interesting and evolve. I've taken charge of my team, and we're making solid forward progress. The team is made up of smart, hard-working guys, who are relatively new to working in a corporate environment. It's my goal to help them become better engineers and to also be able to navigate the corporate environment better. It's a completely foreign skill set to most people, and must be learned organically. So I've put some structure to it, and we're starting to make progress. It's good stuff.
I also expect to get 4 other people to join my team in the near future. Things have been progressing in a certain way for a while, and I expect some people to make decisions soon that will make this happen. It means I'll gain responsibility for another facet of our operation here, and I'm excited about it. It's going to be a good thing. A good thing for sure.
I have a million pictures - here are a couple from November: our first snow of the year. Enough for sledding before it melted in the morning, and Katrina volunteering to help with recovery from Hurricane Sandy on Staten Island.
So it's been a few months. Sue me.
We haven't missed many beats so far - Aria performed in her first drama, then auditioned for and was cast in the Wizard of Oz at her junior high. Christian has come around to recognizing the value of his strict teacher. Jakers has learned to read, and now rarely wets the bed as long as his evening liquid intake is regulated. Libby is now baptized, our first Christmas in this house has passed, the ward choir did a fabulous job in our Christmas devotional, Katrina registered for school, my brother might buy a house and move relatively close to us, and my sister might come out here for an internship.
So that's the short version.
We've had wonderful weather - a long a warm fall, cooling nicely as it got to winter, and snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It's been very cold since, and we got 2 more snowfalls on the 26th and 29th. This morning my car said it was 12 degrees when I got in it. There is a mountain of snow in the parking lot at work - maybe 12' high. The forest floor around the house is blanketed in snow, still soft and crunchy where it has been undisturbed. Our pool has frozen over, and if you look in the forest you can see raccoon tracks. We saw a fox skirting our fence last week.
We've all been sick for a couple weeks, too. This year's cold is nasty. I've had it for a few weeks, and although I have my energy back, I'm still dealing with a very clogged nose. No fun at all. My parents and Katrina's mom came to visit and all got sick as well. So we've spent nearly their entire vacation sitting around and feeling sorry for ourselves. I've been going to work most days while the family slept.
Work continues to be interesting and evolve. I've taken charge of my team, and we're making solid forward progress. The team is made up of smart, hard-working guys, who are relatively new to working in a corporate environment. It's my goal to help them become better engineers and to also be able to navigate the corporate environment better. It's a completely foreign skill set to most people, and must be learned organically. So I've put some structure to it, and we're starting to make progress. It's good stuff.
I also expect to get 4 other people to join my team in the near future. Things have been progressing in a certain way for a while, and I expect some people to make decisions soon that will make this happen. It means I'll gain responsibility for another facet of our operation here, and I'm excited about it. It's going to be a good thing. A good thing for sure.
I have a million pictures - here are a couple from November: our first snow of the year. Enough for sledding before it melted in the morning, and Katrina volunteering to help with recovery from Hurricane Sandy on Staten Island.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
#135 - Laboring with love - October 16, 2012
Tuesday.
Aria got sick last night about midnight. She didn’t go to school today.
The rain cleared off in the morning. I got up early, took out the garbage, burned
a ton of cardboard that was overfilling our recycle bin, took the recycle bin
out, and worked on reviews. They were
due last week, but I still had a few to do.
I took the kids to the bus while Aria slept. I got a couple done, then it was time for Katrina
and I to learn about my company’s changing benefits plan.
We know which plan we won’t choose, but we’re undecided on
which HSA plan will be better for us. So
we have to do some analysis on our family’s likely medical usage and make a
choice in the next couple weeks.
I got home and evicted some woodpeckers from our house. Katrina noticed a woodpecker pecking at our
house a week or so ago. The hole is
large enough for the bird to easily get in and out of. Today, Aria noticed that the woodpecker was
pecking on the sheetrock now, trying to get into the house. It was time to take action. She did some research online and found that
woodpeckers don’t like tinfoil. So I took
a rolled up pie tin and stuck it in the hole.
While I was up there, I found 2 more woodpecker holes, so I put tin foil
in those. And then we looked around the
other corner of the house and found 2 more woodpecker holes. It appears I have some patching to do.
Then it was time to clean up leaves. We have a push broom that I bought when we
first moved in to sweep the driveway.
The leaves have been down for a while, and it was time to sweep them
off. So I spent about an hour out there
with the push broom and got most of the driveway done. I had forgotten how wide it actually is. It was nice to be out there working up a
sweat on a cool fall evening.
And I realized that I enjoy working on this house. Our house in Beaverton was a lot of work to
maintain – everything grew with abandon, and it was manicured. So you would notice if something was untended
for a while. And there was the fact that
that house did not feel large enough for us after we’d been in it for a
year. Katrina hated the tile floor in
the kitchen, the kids were sharing cramped rooms, and our office was always
clogged with stuff.
This house is different.
I enjoy cutting and hauling wood.
I have enjoyed building the pantry.
I enjoyed taking care of the pool.
Katrina has been working piece by piece to make the house beautiful – 6’
high family trees on the wall, fall decorations on the partial walls around the
kitchen, figurines in the display case by the dining table, new lights for the
front porch. She likes this house. And even though the kitchen floor is tile, we
don’t complain about it. It’s on our
list of things to do, just not quite yet.
I will admit that I don’t like bringing wood inside. I like cutting, hauling, stacking, and
building a fire. Just not the between
part. I don’t know why. But living here is a labor of love. I will trim the bushes back in a few weeks,
but I have time to do that. And I’ll do
a million other things, too, as it gets colder outside and I have to turn the
focus inside to finish unpacking the house and organizing the basement into
usable space. Much of it is still
clogged with boxes that need sorting.
But what a nice day it was.
As evening fell, we ate dinner and I went up to the bedroom instead of
watching the debate. I was hoping that
Obama would come out swinging. But I
read the second book in Aria’s series instead.
“Pretties” (by Scott Westerfield) is a better book than the first. I’ve enjoyed it. And before I went to sleep, I was nearly
done.
#134 – Reading in the Autumn rain - October 15, 2012
Monday.
It rained all day today.
A hard, uncompromising downpour.
On my way home from work, I stopped twice to pick up garbage in the
middle of the road that was making cars swerve.
I got home, soaked to the skin in my purple shirt.
I spent the evening finishing “Uglies”. A good book – some kissing and hugging, but
not too much. Certainly not too much for
a teenage girl. It certainly was
interesting and a little offensive to hear the characters talk about one girl
stealing the other’s boyfriend. As if
you can steal a person. I have never
understood that dynamic. If you’re
married, sure. If you’re not even
engaged? In that case, nobody has made a
commitment. Fair game. And it was not even intentional.
It was a warm evening, so at first I sat on the porch,
reading with the rain stripping the leaves off the trees. After dinner it was too cold for that, so I
settled into the recliner by the fire and read there as the rain beat down on the
skylight.
A very simple day. I
did not accomplish anything special today – a normal day at work, and a
relaxing evening. My back was sore all
day, probably due to the lumberjacking on Saturday and Sunday. So taking the evening off was logical and
extremely enjoyable.
As an important side note, Katrina has been awesome the past
few weeks. I’ve been focused on building
and home maintenance. After I did a full
weekend of laundry with our louse problem, I haven’t done a single load, but
Katrina has been making progress every day.
She has planned and made meals for the most part. I made tuna melts tonight, but she has been
putting everything else together. So I’ve
been free to accomplish things. It has
made my progress on these projects much faster, and has encouraged me to get
them done.
Thanks, babe. You’re
the best.
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