Now, a Breather

Ah, glorious September. Glorious, action-packed, never-a-dull-moment, Fall-postponing, September. Month of back-to-school, birthdays, pennant races (are they still called that?) and questioning the meaning of life.

Yeah, September’s kinda rough around here.

Last week was Patch’s birthday. It was soccer-themed, as my just-turned-eleven-year-old plays for a travel “futbol” club as well as the Middles School team. We rented a pavilion at the town lake, grilled burgers and hot dogs, had cake and watched a half-dozen sixth graders maniacally kick the ball in the heat. Her favorite gift, a gift which warms those cockles in my heart, was a Kindle.

(Hey! Now she can buy my e-book! That is, once she finished The Long Walk, a Stephen King suggestion from her dad.)

Next was my birthday. I’m a deck of cards, 52. I’ve never been one to dwell on these things, which is why I’m glad Patch has a birthday the day before mine; takes the spotlight off of me. Lately I decided a perfect gift is to be let alone to watch a classic science fiction flick. Last year I selected the wonderful Day the Earth Stood Still. This year I chose poorly in retrospect: Dune. I intend to blog it up on that, later this week.

As far as gifts, well, we don’t do much of that for me, at my request. I got some gift cards, which will probably be used to purchase books. I’ll let you know once I decide on what to purchase (I’m in the process of paring down my library). Patch suggested to the Mrs. that they buy me a pair of binoculars, to observe the Mon and the planets. I don’t remember mentioning this to her, but kudos because I love it and have examined la luna in depth several nights already. I’ve committed to memory the names and locations of a couple of maria and craters.

There was Back-to-School Night Part I, Middle School edition. High school edition is later this week. That was Thursday. Then I took Friday off because – wedding! Yes, the wedding of my wife’s colleague. Remember that post from a few days ago? Well, it still holds. Although this wedding was tolerable. No DJ – a live band that played some pretty cool electric guitar jazz. A lakeside ceremony. And, best of all, I was allowed to retire around 9:30 after five hours of payin’ dues, while the Mrs. and her work pals partied it up under the canopies until midnight. We drove home Saturday and recouped / recovered Sunday.

Work has me busy, as I missed Friday. Since this is a payroll week, I’m about four hours in the hole. Then, this morning, I learned someone in my 500-person company opened up a strange email and infected the entire system with ransomware. The network was down all that day and over the weekend, and IT was only able to restore up to the prior Wednesday, so all the work I rushed to get in on Thursday before my day off for the wedding vanished into the ether. I had to rebuild and recreate, which put me another four hours in the hole. Oh well. At least I have a built-in excuse if someone crabs about their paycheck. Assuming, that is, that the time and attendance software I will be processing tomorrow works post-spyware.

Once I’m over the hump ill have more posts. Dune, like I said. I also have some thoughts on It Chapter 2, which I saw with my buddy (and Little One!) ten days ago. And some interesting developments on other fronts, too.

But, for now, a breather.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.