The Time Sink

We (Brad and I) managed to get a fair amount accomplished on his room over the weekend. We're down to just a few boxes to move to the garage (oops, there's still a stack in the hallway!) and some desks that may stay for either his or Daniel's room. ...and some stuff that will head off to storage. ...and the computers.

Yeah, that's the next big step: I have to move the main connectivity for the house out of that room. The network is centered in there as is the telco feed. Not good. At this point, it's looking like I'm going to have to drop either to the garage or to the kitchen. The garage I can handle, but the kitchen will cost some bucks to have someone fish the wall that starts in the vaulted ceiling. Yeah... No way am I taking on that part of the attic, so it may be the garage...

Well, we finally can say we had some rain! We awoke yesterday to runoff in the streets for the first time this season. ...heck, for the first time since April. It did make the Costco run kinda' awkward; but the skies cleared later in the day and we had a sunny and cold afternoon. ...and I dried out.

The evening got real interesting though: we'd heard some light rain falling as the boys' bedtime approached, and then all heck broke loose! A thunderstorm cell came right in on the deck as it headed toward the hills and lit up the area for about twenty minutes. ...and it brought plenty of noise and wind with it. Wow. What a show. Trees down in the area and almost continuous thunder at one point. Still, we've been dry a long time here in this valley and it's more welcome than not...

Full day... I may even remember some of it at some point. Right now it's all a blur of running hither and yon and yon and hither trying to get things done. ...and realizing that maybe my only time to blade this week might be today and just sprinting from work (okay, walking quickly; this body doesn't run...) to get home while I still had light.

I do recall getting into the office early so I could leave early on a shopping run (in the midst of the Christmas insanity <shudder>), but not managing that until nearly noon. ...and coming back and realizing how far behind I was. Ah, well, at least it wasn't raining while I was out!

Winding down the insanity? I just don't know... Tonight was the second of the two Christmas programs at the boys' school. Tomorrow night is the corporate Christmas party. ...and Saturday we'll be spending much of the day delivering presents as part of the Angel tree program. That will pretty much take us up to Sunday, which will be used to prep for the coming week...

Ah well, Friday will be fun enough just making sure that everything is in that needs to be in. 'Cause that supply pipeline has already gone soft on us and it's pretty much shut down for the next week or two... That shouldn't be a problem unless someone has an emergency. Hmmm...

A little nostalgia for Shelley and me this evening... The occasion was the company Christmas party.

My first Christmas party with this bunch was in 1978. We probably had fifty people in attendance that year, and that counted the on duty crews and their spouses. Everyone even remotely associated with the company was there with the exception of the duty dispatcher and the dog.

Shelley joined us in 1983, when we were getting close to maybe fifty employees. By the time we married and she left in 1990, we had over one hundred. Tonight's get together easily had over three hundred people in attendance. ...and both the counties we serve were still fully staffed and their were dozens of employees and spouses that couldn't attend.

Part of the fun for me is seeing the growth of the firm and all the new faces, but Shelley's favorite part is seeing the people she worked with. She hooked up with several medics she's worked with in the past, while I got to visit with an old partner who'd married the training chief and came off the streets about the same time Shelley and I did.

Christmas time for us include dropping gifts off to children who have a parent in prison. Yeah, that would be a hard one... This year we upped our efforts a little: the youth group that usually handles the bulk of the deliveries had another committment. That left the families like ours that usually handle the overflow doubling or tripling or even more...

We ended up with the MommyVan packed to the roof! ...but this is one time the ambulance experience comes in handy once again: Daniel and I spent time before we went out planning our trip around the city and reverse loading the van since it would be loaded to capacity. With that finished, we were off for a few hours of deliveries at some of Shelley's and my old haunts from our time on the street. ...and some places I hadn't even thought of in years.

The cool part of the trip though was the faces of some of the kids who didn't have a clue that we were coming. ...or that dad or mom had figured out a way to get presents to them. Yeah, that was very cool.

...as was the dinner out we decided on about half way through our trip <g>. Bonus: some Christmas Carolers were having dinner there also. ...and when they finished their meal, they sang two songs for those in attendance! The boys were thrilled with the traditional garb and we were just amazed at the sound quality the could put out. Wow...

...and it's time for the big push to finish clearing the "stuff" from the library today. Yeah, by the end of today, I only want furniture and a computer or two left in there.

...and yes, it will be another working day or two on the computers, but that's another story.