Year: 2007

Anyone else afraid to look at your email on a Monday morning?

As I stare at my monitors listening to the hvac’s compressor, the whine of my case fan (please be the case fan and not the cpu fan!), the dog chasing the cat, and the otherwise still quiet of the night, my stomach knots in anticipation of a horrid week ahead. I have allowed projects to run overdue. Being late on a project is the world’s worst feeling for me. I want to beat myself up hard for the reasons that they may be behind but that self-deprecating behavior only serves to reducing my productivity so I avoid the would have, should have, could haves and push on optimistically reminding myself that a project ends when it meets all the client’s requirements and not when it is the perfect piece of artwork. Coding is art. And artists can easily find their pieces needing "just one more change" endlessly. Time to close these projects out.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the day at Pellissippi State for the Boy Scouts of America’s University of Scouting. I had some classes in the Order of the Arrow which I found very enlightening in regard to this organization within the BSA. I also took a class on lightweight backpacking which was terrific. They highlighted some of the fancy equipment that we like to buy like nalgene water bottles which may weight 6oz and cost $7 whereas an empty Gatorade bottle is "free" (came with the drink) and weights less than an ounce. So what’s 6 ounces? Two nalgene bottles weight almost a pound without water. That’s significant when you are trying to keep a pack under 25 pounds. A pack should weight 25% of a person’s weight so a 100 pound person/child should be carrying no more than 25 pounds. The outdoor cooking class was fascinating. And the class on the Cumberland Trail was enlightening. It never occurred to me that established trails like the Appalachian Trail change over time due to land rights, mining, etc. Made me want to get out and do more frequent hiking.

My wife disagrees with my latest efforts to save the world. I figured bathing once a week instead of once a day would save on water and electricity. Then it occurred to me that our real water usage is in laundry! So if I wore every outfit 2 or 3 days in a row instead of just once a day we could really cut down on water consumption and electrical usage! Imagine the savings! And we could do even better if we used one pair of underwear a week instead of per day! We could cut the heating down a degree or two if I could get my wife to start sharing the bed with me again. I really miss her hugs.

Am I ever having some serious self-doubt over agreeing to take Noah on the Okefenokee trip! Yes, money is a recurring issue in my head but when I think about it rationally that is just an excuse for me to bail. The real reasons are my work schedule (can I have my deadlines met before the trip?), some separation anxiety (am I being fair to Cathy?), fairness to the rest of the family (shouldn’t this money be put in a savings account to go toward a family Disney trip?), and are we properly equipped for such a trip. This seems like a wonderful and rare opportunity for Noah. I know I will return refreshed and chilled (these trips are like tranquilizers for me). I usually follow my gut and my gut seems to be telling me, "don’t go." Of course, other signs do point to going. When I went to ask if they still had adult and child openings (this trip is limited to 20 scouts and 5 adults), I was told, "someone confirmed you and Noah in an email."