Daynotes On A Budget, V6.0

 It's rarely a slow week around here, and this last one had all of the excitement I really wanted to avoid.  And some nice moments. After last weekend's away time, we got home last Sunday, 10/17, and Monday I spent most of the day recovering.  Which was probably a good thing. My typical night-time bedtime routine is fairly standard.  I have medication which I take before coming down to the bedroom, where I toss in a pair of benadryl to keep my nose from getting too stuffy, and most nights, I'll add a pair of generic Tylenol which usually kick in just about the time my brain decides to focus on my aches and pains, and I'm out like a light.   Thus was where I was when my wife shook me awake last Monday evening at 10:30 or so.  "I don't feel good.  Let's go to the ER."   Now, for those of you who have not spent the last 31 years in constant daily contact with She Who Must Be Obeyed, the nickname "Iron Lady" is far more appropriate to her th...

 So for the first time in over two years, I slept somewhere other than my own bed.  And for the first time in more than 6 years, I slept in a bed I had to pay for. Last year was our 30th Anniversary.  We had mumbled about maybe doing something special for our 25th, but that fell in the rather disappointing period of what I call "those almost safe years".   I was working, but at a rather heavily discounted rate (for my experience, but it was what it was), and I was ... well, almost nearly getting by. These days I am most often with my head above water.  We're working through getting caught up with most of our debt, a few big ones still getting some attention, and others we're saving to put in the paid column, but it is what it is.   Both Ann and I were feeling the need to do something a little out of the ordinary, and the North Shore beckoned.  Those of you who aren't from Minnesota or the area, when we refer to the "North Shore" we're referri...

 I am by no means a mental health expert.  I know very little about my own mental health, honestly.  I don't know that I am qualified to diagnose all of my quirks, but this one I am a little bit smarter than I used to be about, anyway. As a child, and well into adulthood, I found that there was something inside my head which would immediately push back when told what or how to do something.  Not when it was a training situation, you understand, but when someone - especially someone who did not have the direct authority or need to tell me what to do.   Now, before you start screaming at your screen, let me be perfectly clear.  I do recognize when I am in a professional situation there are superiors who are responsible for keeping me busy - that is, keeping me profitable - and in some of the jobs I have been able to hold over the years, I have also been responsible to peers and every member of the organization, for whom I was a resource.  I want to ...

 Today marks the 99th anniversary of my father's birth.  While he has not been here to celebrate with us since 2008, I will say that I miss him daily. One of my most cherished memories involves a day my father and I, together, went to the nearby small town of St. Stephen.  A farmer there was deeply engrossed with and loved the steam-powered era, and enjoyed showing off his collection. One of the massive machines was a steam powered tractor.  It was based on a locomotive.  Yes, that size.  But even today I can smell the wood smoke, the sawdust flying from the steam-powered saw mill that had been set up on site, and the glorious sunny fall weather.  That faint hint of "still summer" in Minnesota, with the new crispness that seeps into the air as the humidity from our ten-thousand-plus lakes begins to fade away as the air drys towards winter. And it was just Dad and I wandering a field, looking for new and neat experiences and wonderful machinery. And yes...

 Yeah, I'm a cranky old bastard.   Kinda surprised me too.  I still find great joy in technical problems - and solutions to them.  So I guess it's kind of a quadruple-edged sword with the work I do these days. I am not exactly certain where it happened, but I joined my present employer three years ago.  And for the first eighteen months and two weeks, I was the new kid.  I could look around the room and see all the folks whose experience greatly exceeded mine.  Then, about ten months ago, now, I got moved.   Actually, that's not literally true.  I've been pretty much in the same spot when I work for about the last eighteen months.  But actually eight months ago, word came down that my employer was assembling a...  Well, I don't suppose they still use the term "tiger team" but this was billed and sold as an elite team of professionals who do my job to strap into rocket sleds and take a ride into the company's future.  ...