Meticuous +1

Today is Sunday. That's when I do my outdoor work. It is chilly out. I put on a hooded beach jacket I bought around 20 years ago. The thing is tight around my spare tire of a waist. But it will be easy to wash if I get it dirty.

I grab my grabbers. They are a two foot long tool with a handle I can squeeze to cause two tongs at the other end to "grab" sticks that are on the ground. This saves me from bending over and straining my back. There are a lot of sticks on the ground in the back yard.

Today I am just collecting the new sticks. Last week I collected a wheel barrel overflowing with such sticks. I also collected two thick branches last week. After collecting the stick, I go to work sawing the branches into small logs. Got to get things these ready to fit into a bag.

I line a 30 gallaon trash bag with old newspaper. I put dried leaves I collected into the bottom of the bag. Then I break up smaller sticks and stuff them in the bag. I also add the mini-logs, making sure the bag does not get too heavy. I tie the bag when it is full. I wrap it in a second bag with more newspaper.

One bag done, at least two more to do.

New Eats +1

Yesterday I had a lot of people needing help at work. Problem was I needed to go into the office for a required meeting. I helped out with the highest priority items. Then I bolted. On the road, a manager called me up. Told him I was required to go to a meeting. Advised him to call me or another guy I was meeting at the meeting.

The meeting had lunch served there. That was nice. Had a chicken caesar salad with a coke. In the middle of the meeting, the guy next to me handed me a note. They needed me to call into a conference. We both joined the call after the meeting. I told the people I needed to get home. Then I could help them.

Back home, I figured out the problems found by one of our teams. It was a bad product. The testing technique was wrong. Then the big boss tasked this team with some new actions. They told me they needed help. I told them I needed to go. It was dinner time and I had plans to meet a friend. I gave them some tips and wished them good luck.

I drove to my buddy's house. He was in the mood to try something different for dinner. I volunteered to drive, and we headed to the outskirts of a big city to try this fancy Italian restaurant. Food was delicious. Service was top notch. Price was pricey.

Familiar Face +1

Today was a bad day. As soon as I started work, there were emergencies to deal with. Not a good time since I had an exam for my college class to take today. I barely made it out to pick up some fast food for lunch. Dealth with problems and meetings all afternoon.

I tried to sneak out to go to my exam. The big boss wanted something done. I had to tell him that I would do it after my exam. Crazy. I had working late after I come back from school. There was bad traffic on the drive to school. Luckily I left a whole hour before class started.

For once there was plenty of parking in the school parking lot. It was chilly out. As I neared my building, who do I see walking towards me from the side? It was Kit Kat. She had just finished her job for the day and was going home. That's the first time I have ever seen Kit Kat on campus.

School News +1

Yesterday I got a letter in the mail from my college. It had the work "library" stamped on it. Great. Do they think I checked out a book a never returned it? No. It was an invitation to join some honors society. I got one of those before when I went to school the first time around. Did not join then. Is it time to give it a try now?

In other college news, Kit Kat got a letter from the four year college she wants to transfer to. She did not get accepted. Oh no. Her options are to try to raise her GPA. Or she can try to get an Associates degree at the community college. I had told the family that if Kit Kat does not get in and stays in the house longer, we can buy some more gerbils. I guess we will be visiting the pet store this weekend.

This morning I got up and attended a marathon phone conference. Had to run that job from the other day for real. It turned out well. It just took a long time. I worried that I would have to clean off the snow from the driveway really late when the conference was over. I got lucky. The sun melted almost all of the snow.

Yoda Lives +1

I needed to run a job at work. But I had to wait until another one finished. The problem was that I had to go to school in the afternoon as well. I called up a coworker and informally agreed with him that we would run the job when I got back from school at 8pm.

After school I came home and Little Kat said I needed to call Momoko. She was supposed to pick up dinner for the family. She said we should go out to eat. No good. I needed to return to work. Kit Kat picked us up some burgers at Wendy's.

As I waited for the food to come home, I took a rest in my bed. Figured I might be working late into the night. Had to relax for just a bit. Then I heard a conversation in the other room. It was only Little Kat and me in the house. I heard Little Kat talk, and Yoda replied to him!

I guess Little Kat has perfected my Yoda imitation. Ha.

Driveway Extension +1

I try to park my car close to the edge of the drive to give Kit Kat plenty of room. Recently I have been driving my front wheel off the edge of the driveway onto the grass. With all the snow melting, it left a rut full of water just past the edge of the driveway.

Today I figured I should do something about the depression in the grass. At first I tried to fill it in with crushed rock. But it did not provide much support. The rock just sunk down. I put some concrete mix on top. Then topped it all off with some more crushed rock.

Let's see how this works after the ground dries. I am hoping I just extended my driveway by six inches right where it counts. After working the driveway, I headed to the back yard where sticks had fallen down everywhere. Time to do the dance calling picking up sticks.

Out of Time +1

Yesterday I was getting close to finishing my current task at work. It was due today. I needed input from a couple other people. Had to wait on them to comoplete my task. I was getting nervous as it was already afternoon and I was not making good progress.

Finally I finished my part and handed it off to another team. I waited for the other team to finish. They were taking longer than normal. Plus some another colleague told me my fix would not work. I told him there was no time for it not to work.

As I was waiting for the team after me to complete my part, it came time for me to go to school. I helped that other team get past some nasty problems. But I had to go to school. Wouldn't you know it? Class lasted longer than normal. After school I came back home and got back to working.