Since the New Year, work has been nuts. I have been very busy at work. Full days. Less “slack time”. And full long days. 8 AM to 7 PM pretty much every day. Usually no lunch or lunch at the desk. Lots of cola that I actually shouldn’t be drinking, but am.

It has been fun. I actually feel good being useful and productive. Much better than having extra time to kill or let myself procrastinate, as I am wont to do if given the option sometimes. But it is also stressful and exausting. I finish up at around 7 PM (as I am doing right now) and I just want to go home and crash right away. So stuff at home is falling behind.

Looks like this pace will probably last at least the end of the month given what we have coming up. Maybe after that I’ll be able to rest. For a little while. Maybe.

But it is “good busy”.

Time to go home.

I have lamented for several years that the 1998 Q4 random vacation, the very first of the true random vacations, did not have a full narrative like the rest of the random vacations. This was the trip to Lac Megantic, Quebec that I took with my mother the weekend after Thanksgiving that year. It was only a two day trip, but it started the whole random vacation thing for me. However I only started writing up the trips and posting details about them with the next random trip. For years this website has had a note apologizing for the lack of a narrative and pointing to a few pictures.

Recently though I asked my mother if she could write up something about the trip since she had been with me. She kindly obliged, and now the Lac Megantic trip has a full narrative like the others. Click through below to see the whole thing.

1998 Q4 Random Vacation

There were fewer and fewer tracks as we passed uninhabited summer cottages. I kept suggesting a driveway etc where we might turn around as I looked straight down a very steep bank to the stream in the distance below on my side of the car. Roads were treacherous and getting stuck was a very real possibility – as was sliding out of control. However, this was Sam’s trip and he was in no mood for suggestions – especially from a parent – so I TRIED not to either boss or panic! But I was REALLY anxious – and increasingly annoyed at Sam’s pigheadedness at continuing forward, higher and deeper into snow!  Finally Sam had to really persist – going forward, then back – trying and trying – spinning wheels – to make it up one hill only to decide about a mile further that we should turn back after all.

This is the LAST in a series of posts with items that would have been posted on my blog if I had had a blog during the months I did not have a blog. This was originally sent to friends and family on September 9, 2004 04:09:57 UTC.

Well, got home a few hours ago. Long trip. Long week. Very tired. The general area is somewhat a mess. Lots of signs down, trees down, electricity is sporadic block to block. The big palm tree in front of the house we are in fell down right across the driveway. One of the last things we did before we left was make room in the garage for Brandy’s second car. If we hadn’t, the tree would have whacked the car right in the middle. There was some random debris otherwise, and the number “2” from the “1270” on the house fell down. But otherwise the house was fine. And we had electric. In talking to one of Amy’s friends who stayed the whole time, the block only lost power for half an hour or less. Good.

Meanwhile, the place we have the offer in on didn’t fare quite as well. The enclosure around the pool area collapsed and is now in the pool, and there appears to have been at least some roof damage too causing some water damage on the living room ceiling. And some minor damage to some of the exterior trim. And like everywhere, some broken trees and bushes. Looks like our options are: walk away, delay closing until they fix everything, do some sort of deal with the insurance money being credited to us. Right now we are leaning toward #2. But we will be looking in more detail at the options tomorrow.

Anyway, things look pretty good. Now it is just time to undo the plywood and get the place back cleaned up and in normal condition and get back to the routine life… oh… maybe not…

Of course, in the end, Ivan did not hit us, but Jeanne did. But all that was already posted about on this blog…

My left shoulder (which I injured several years ago when I went skiing with Chris on a slope that was more ice than snow because there was freezing rain, and which was beyond my essentially non-existant skill level because the kiddie slopes were closed that day) is really hurting this morning. I’m sure I aggrivated it with all the moving heavy things and sleeping on floors and air mattresses and such. Anyway, it really hurts. I should take something maybe. I think I have one Vioxx left from when I originally got treated from the shoulder, but they have that whole heart attack thing going now, so maybe not. Maybe some OTC Motrin or something. Dunno.

I had a fever a couple days ago, but it is gone now. Still have a headache and a cough though. Amy is sick too. And I am just tired. There has been a lot going on. And not enough sleep. (Although the day I came home from work with a fever, I went right to sleep and basically slept through to morning.)

I look forward to the day, which probably won’t be for a couple weeks, where we can take a whole weekend and just relax without having to worry about things we have to get done.

While I was at work today, the cable guy came and turned on the broadband at the new house.

Even though cable might not be as good as DSL for this purpose, I’ll be attempting to move abulsme.com there later tonight. So there will be some downtime. And hey, cable might not be ideal, but a couple months ago I was running this website off a dial up 56k connection! It will definately be better than that!

Today was a late day at work, but it is finally time to leave. To do more packing and moving! Yea!