It seems that a few late-winter days in the sun are just what the doctor ordered to pick up the spirits. It’s been a marvelous trip so far and to my own great surprise I haven’t picked up my blackberry or turned on my laptop in the better part of five days now. Of course I know all that work I’ve been avoiding will probably bitchslap me on Tuesday, but at the moment I’m more concerned with the 5-7 inches of snow that are expected to fall in the Charlotte area tomorrow through the day. I’m not particularly enamoured with the ending this particular idyll with delayed flights and snowstorms. Call me crazy.
Monthly Archives: February 2009
A while yet…
Even if all I did was sit on the beach and read, grab an occasional rum punch, and eat whenever the mood struck me, I’d have a while yet before this vacation got old. Of course that’s not all that’s in the cards. It’s a snorkling trip tomorrow, probably an island tour on Saturday, and then climbing back on a 757 for the ride back to the world. Time hasn’t grown so short that my thoughts have turned brooding just yet, but every sunset is a reminder that an end is coming and that it’s almost time to be an adult again.
Maybe a little too much…
A little too much sun this afternoon combined with a little too much rum and a sunset cruise this evening have conspired to make this a bit of a rough evening. I definitely think I’m over the rum punch for the rest of the night. Of course if someone twists my arm, I could possibly be convinced to give it one more go. As it is, I’m struggling to get up the steam to wander across the beach for dinner and steel drums at Iggie’s.
Yeah, so I pack like a girl…
In a touch over 14 hours, I’ll be headed to Charlotte on the short leg of tomorrow’s itinerary. I always think my packing for TDY is bad until I have to pack for one of my own trips. I’m serious this time, though… I’m only checking one bag and will cram as much electronic gear as humanly possible into my carry one. I know it’s true that I pack like a girl, but I rarely get somewhere and think, “damn, I wish I had insert-name-of-item here.” With that being said, I’d better get back to it… I have a lot of empty suitcase that needs filled.
Lost, Damaged, or Destroyed…
After one of the longest four-day weeks in recent memory, I managed to get away from work nearly on time. I pounded out a txt on my way to the parking lot, put my bag on top of the truck bed cover, sat my phone down beside it, and tossed my coat in the back seat because I hate driving with my coat on. The bag is tossed in next, I settle in to the driver’s seat and I’m off to start a week and a half of vacation time.
You might have noticed that I didn’t mention picking my phone up. Well that’s because I apparently didn’t. Of course I didn’t know this as I pulled out of the parking lot, drive through the gate, and made best possible speed for the house. I only realized this ten minutes later when I reached down to grab it off my belt clip. There was the clip sure enough, but the phone was ominously missing. I reach behind me, thinking it probably had just popped out of the clip or maybe slid between the seat and center console. No dice there. Not paniced yet, I pulled my coat over the seat and rummaged through the pockets. Sill no phone. It wasn’t in its usual spot on the center console either. This is where the dread starts setting in. I pull to the shoulder, check under the seats, check my coat again, and actually check every place a phone could possibly end up. It, of course, was in none of these places.
So now I backtrack to the office. No one has turned in anything to the gate guard and it’s not lying in or near the parking lot. It’s not lying anywhere inside the fenceline for that matter. I scouted that area pretty well. It’s not outside the gate where I would have made my first quick acceleration. It’s not at the exit where I turned onto the highway. By now it has begun dawning on me that I’m not likely to find it. In a shower of curses not often heard from me, I admitted defeat and accepted that my phone was lost, damaged, or destroyed.
So yes, my pretty and still relatively new 16 gig iPhone is now officially listed as missing in action. I only hope that flying off the back of a fast moving truck damaged it beyond repair because the thought of some schlep using my phone as a high powered iPod makes me crazy at the moment.
I’ve switched over to a back up phone and my number still works, so all told I was off the grid for about three hours. Three absolutely terrifying hours.
Getting in the mood…
Believe it or not there are times when I have had to actually work on getting myself psyched to go on vacation. There’s always work piling up and the backlog when I return from where ever I wandered off to will certainly be enough to stun a team of oxen in their tracks. Some of it is usually the busybody in me just hating to be out of the loop for more than a day or two. For the record, this is not one of those times. I’m ready for this one and can’t cut the feather soon enough. The only question now is whether I have the self discipline to leave the blackberry at home.
Decisions…
I’ve never understood why there is so much resistance by so many people to the simple act of making a decision. I’m not thinking about things like what movie to see or where to go for dinner. It’s the ones about what projects should get priority, which ones need more incubation time, or which simply need to go away. Get the best information you can, decide the best course of action, and move out. Don’t whine and complain about how hard it is. Grr.
Adiós Comcast… almost
With DirecTV now beaming 500+ channels of goodness into the house, I thought for sure I could finally be rid of the devil called Comcast. Trying to find an reasonable alternative to their cable Internet service, however, has proven to be an exercise in futility. The DSL that is available here just doesn’t stack up after a few speed tests. So, for now it’s an uneasy truce with the devil I know as I wait impatiently for Memphis to slog its way into the 21st century.
Good…
Sometimes I need to be reminded that despite the petty annoyances, the universe may not just be stringing us along after all. And it’s always amazing that it’s the small things, the things like an offhanded remark, an unexpected message, or a late night phone call that do most of the reminding. Sometimes that’s just enough to carry you through to the finish line. Hey universe, thanks for tonights’ reminder. Seriously. Well timed and greatly appreciated.
200…
It’s the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin which makes it about 150 years since he published On The Origin of Species. According to a poll published today only something like 39% of Americans believe in the kind of evolution outlined by our English friend. That’s 39%. Are you serious? It boggles the mind that 61% of those polled either disagree or don’t know what they believe. By the way, it’s a question about what you *believe* how can you possibly not know the answer?Where ever it was that this 61% of the American public was educated, they should demand a refund or at least a repeat of Intro to Biology, as they have been badly misserved by the educational system.
I weep for the future of the Republic.
JEFFREYTHARP.COM 