Say What?

I had this past week off from work and that's always a dangerous thing at this point in my career. Our ever-changing plans are for me to work another 9 to 18 months but throughout the week I routinely found myself imagining what it would be like to not have to go back. I daydreamed of texting Tracee and asking her to please prepare my paperwork to process me out. More than once I made a list in my head of both pros and cons for retiring now but the results were always the same. I'm determined to stay put and keep feathering our nest. We're not quite there yet but we're close. I would love to see Tammy be able to call it quits before I do. She's never been more frustrated with her job and I really don't like to see her stressed the way she's been. Toby had a rough start to the week. He was hesitating coming down the stairs in the morning as if in pain. He'd haltingly take one step at a time rather than the usual blur his little legs make when he's...

I was clicking through channels one day last week when I landed on my all-time favorite movie: Breaking Away. It didn't matter that I have it on DVD, I couldn't pull myself away from it. I remember watching it in a theater by myself in San Diego when it came out in 1979. I loved it and the connection I felt with the lead character, Dave Stoller. I brought along a couple friends from my ship the next night to see it again. It's a coming of age movie about 4 friends from Bloomington, Indiana and a growing competition (born out of their own insecurities) between them and some of the college kids in town. I guarantee you that you won't be disappointed if you take the time to watch it. As of a couple weeks ago, Rachel has a set of wheels to get around on. Her dad gave her his 2001 Toyota Camry with about 110,000 miles on it. This should be all she needs to get her through the next few years until she's more able to afford something newer. She's done well the last...

Tammy noticed our freezer in the basement had stopped working and most of its contents had melted and spilled out onto the floor. At about the same time she was telling me of the mess she'd just finished cleaning, I was reaching for a frozen pizza from the upstairs freezer and noticed that it too was struggling to keep the food frozen. Both units had power to them but something was seriously wrong. I had a tech out from Tony's Appliance in Burnsville the next day and he diagnosed the problem as a failed compressor in both the downstairs freezer and our upstairs refrigerator/freezer. I kind of figured as much. Neither one would be worth fixing. We'd had a strong storm come through two days earlier and the tech said it's quite likely that the storm could've caused a power surge that took out both units. We're just thankful it didn't happen while we were away on vacation. We'll have some new appliances delivered this week and while we wait, we're than...

There's an interesting read in Kathryn's Report about Mike Blume's crash a few weeks ago. I'll let my ATC friends make of it what you will. A photographer for the Chaska Herald sent me a photo he took of me recently while I was on a ride, stymied by the flooded Minnesota River in Jordan. I offered to pay him for it but he was kind enough to simply send me the file for my personal use. It's now serving as wallpaper on my 4-year-old Macbook Pro (photo to the left). Allie has become more skittish than ever about the sound of fireworks; so much so that it's very difficult to get her to go outside at all once late afternoon to evening rolls around. I have to tell her in my most excited voice that we're going out to see the rabbits and squirrels or she won't follow my lead. Evening walks with her are out of the question for now. Toby and Charlie don't seem to mind the noise. I hate to see our little guys getting older. Toby has recently become hesit...