Wednesday, December 10th

Less than 15 days until Christmas - and I have nothing for anyone.  This seems to happen all the time.  I thought of a few really clever things on the way into the office this morning, but was busy driving and didn't want to look for a pen to write myself a note to myself to tell me what I had thought would be good for someone.

Of course, at the office lunacy abounds - folks are going out on leave, others are trying to squeeze the last bit of knowledge out of those going out before they go, just in case they get a brain wipe whilst they're away and have to be completely retrained upon return, I guess.  I've been doing this stuff for so long I don't know any more what i know, and am constantly being surprised by the things I remember only when I need them - any other time I would swear I didn't know these things, and it seems like I forget them as soon as I'm finished using them.  Maybe it is a part of the brain whose job is to keep my head from getting too cluttered by hiding the indices to the knowledge, bringing them out only in extremis.

When I got up this morning, it was just over 60 degrees and I thought "Hot damn, I'll motorcycle to work today!" - and then I looked out the window into a monsoon and determined that the old Volvo had to be stirred from its rest again today.   The drive in was horrid - what takes me 25 minutes ad night can take 95 minutes in the morning, and I really hate it.  Much of this is caused, of course, by the large number of anal sphincters that one encounters when commuting.  Today, I met the guy who runs down a half-mile on-ramp to the end and then forces his way into traffic, rather than taking the hole I carefully left for him to fit in without causing anyone to become upset.  Maybe he was talking on his telephone and didn't notice all that open space, or maybe he's just too important to bother with the normal courtesies - but I gotta tell you, someone up in front of me must've had some words for him, because he stuffed his way in where there was no room.  Where's the cop when you need one?

There was another that cruised in a marked exit-only lane for a mile or more and then stopped when it turned off and made everyone wait while he found someone he could intimidate into letting him in.  

'm just not important enough to pull this crap, and I'm entirely too fond of nonstress approaches to things - and I gotta believe that behaving like that induces far more stress than I'm likely to want at any given moment.

I had a nice "visit" with my son in New Zealand last night, using Skype with a webcam - the quality was better than I had a right to expect, and the hookup was clear and the sound really good.  I was pleasantly surprised, and spent another hour or so looking for otherpeople to Skype at/to but couldn't find that many familiar names - and the names that I did find were all asleep where I should have been.

But it is a neat technology, webcams are pretty cheap (I bought 4 for around $40 on eBay and gave one to my daughter, one to myself, took one to work, and still have one on the shelf) and work pretty well.  Last night, I hooked up with Jamie and let his mom chat with him a bit, and then drove her a little nuts walking through FaceBook to look at some of our kids' pictures, and see who we could find there that we knew.  She still won't touch a keyboard that doesn't consist of white and black keys, but she's getting closer....

Choir rehearsal tonight, and I need to be there, so I'm gonna run.  Hope y'all are having great days.  Tomorrow will be another day.