Live the High Life While Getting Away

Momoko and I flew out to see her parents. Her mom is still in the hospital Kit Kat drove us to the airport. Momoko and I both worked half days and flew out in the later part of the day to maximize our time away.


We did the normal procedure when we reached out destination. Momoko got the luggage. I took the shuttle out to get the rental. This time around, I opted for something different. I reserved a luxury car. I thought I was going to get a Cadillac. The attendant at the rental car place told me to chose my car. I spied a BMW 740i. So I got in it and drove it away.


The BMW is difficult to operate. No mechanical emergency brake. No physical gear shifter. I got to press some buttons to control that functionality. Took a long time to get the radio playing. I always forget to turn off my headlights because it does not warn me that I leave them on. Still loving driving around in style.

Vacation - Have to Get Away

This week is my spring break from college class. Momoko is also off from work. So we scheduled a trip to see her parents. It just so happens that I only work on my project at work four days out of the week. On the fifth day, I do assorted training. This is because the customer is trying to save money by only paying for four days of work. Fine be me. Vacation starts a little earlier for me then.

There has been a mad rush to test out the latest software release at work. Testers working around the clock. Of course they need help. They keep finding what they think are problems. Once in a while, they are right. Most of the time I trace it back to some faulty tests or data.

Today I fly out for vacation. My team leader asked if I was taking my work computer with me on vacation. Of course not was the answer. Taking the computer would signal that I would be doing work. That is not the point of my vacation. I take what I like to call real vacations. That means zero work. I have earned it.

Can we Skip the Snow?

The area got a big snow storm this past week. My brother went to work while it started snowing. He took his four wheel drive. Momoko was off due to schools closing. Little Kat did not work. I headed to the basement as I work from home.

Kit Kat needed to report to work. Momoko said she would drive Kit Kat to work in her four wheel drive. While they were gone, I took a break from work. I went outside and found our driveway full of snow. I thought Momoko and Little Kat were supposed to have shoveled a part of it.

So I got the big shovel and cleared the man driveway lane. They I salted like crazy. Momoko and Little Kat returned home after dropping of Kit Kat at work. They brought me some Chinese food for lunch. Got me the wrong dish - General Tso chicken instead of Hunan chicken. I ate it anyway.

Kit Kat got off work early. She joined Momoko and Little Kat in clearing the other lanes of the driveway. I got another break from work and helped them finish up. At night a snow plow came down our street. The pushed much of the snow onto our curb, as we all park in the driveway.

I went outside late at night to find water pooling at the end of our driveway. I buckled down and dug our the plowed snow from the curb. The water then had a place to drain. Every day after that, I have been chipping at the mound of snow piled up by our curb. First I cleared in front of our driveway, then the mailbox, and finally a place to put the trash out next week.

Yard Work on the Hill

Turned out that I had to work all weekend. But here is the strange thing. My customer said that my hours were capped. So what am I supposed to do? I tell you what. Worked a couple half-days. Then took the second half of the week off.

With my early departure on the half days, I decided to do some strenuous yard work. We have a hill that slopes all the way down to a creek on the back of our property. I have been neglecting this area from yard maintenance because it is hard to do anything on that slope.

Well now it was time. I had started to rake up the years of leaves and am bagging them. Luckily the county comes once a week to pick up yard clippings. The only requirement is that I bag everything in tall paper bags. No problem. I just bought a boatload of those bags.

I have a lot of other errands to run. I think I will do them on the days I am taking off at the end of the week. This is going to be one nice long weekend coming up. I deserve it.

Strong Winds Rip Roof Shingles

We had two days of record winds recently. At first I thought we were safe. A couple trees fell down behind the house. Did not hit anything. The trash cans below around. Chair on the patio overturned. I could live with that. Then Kit Kat said she saw some shingles in our front yard.

I was initially optimistic. The color of the shingles did not seem like they matched our roof. Plus we went out into the street and peered up at the roof. Looked intact. Later we did a more thorough inventory. We had to go way back to the woods behind our house to get a view of the back roof. Something was wrong near the apex.

Momoko thought maybe the shingles just got displaced. Little Kat took a ladder up to the roof, but could not see anything. When I spied on the roof again from a distance, it seemed like we were definitely missing shingles. Little Kat then took a pair of binoculars and confirmed my suspicion.

I am hoping my handyman can repair those missing shingles. He does not do full roof work (he will not install a new roof). But he has patched shingles and flashing on the roof for us before. The only worry now is that rain is in the forecast for this week.