stripethree

I can’t believe it’s the end of the month already. It went something like this…

Happy New Year // Watched the Red Wings beat the Coyotes // Ahhh crap, someone stole my credit card… // Tucson SCCA Meeting // Dodgeball // Got a present for the R // New Autocross Tires! // Autocross in Phoenix // Tucson SCCA Meeting // Dodgeball Tournament // TUS -> IAH -> DCA // Sherlock Holmes // Fantastic Lunch with the all the family in VA // Watched the Terps beat up Longwood // Downtown Silver Spring // RJ Bentley’s College Park, hooray Yuegling! // DCA -> IAH -> TUS // Tried to see how much tire I could stuff under the R32 // Autocross in Tucson // Old Chicago //More R32 parts… // New Season of Dodgeball! // Work Deadlines… // Work Annual Reviews // Hooray refunds from CC disputes! // House Hunting!

Whew.

So passes yet another month; ever feel like you’re just along for the ride?

My foot/ankle/useless stupid appendage is still not completely better after another doctor visit and it better hurry up, because softball starts again at the end of August. My visit to DC went about as well as it could, except for the lack of sleep. It flew by in the sense that I didn’t really get to see anyone outside of family, but sometimes that’s just the way it is. Work has been somewhat better, the big rush to complete one project is obviously now over, but now there’s the new rush to get things rolling on the next project. Oh, and that next project, I have been graced with the status of technical lead or lead engineer, whatever you want to call it. Our program management lead/my old supervisor (re-org time!) informed me of this decision right before the DC trip and I was a both surprised and anxious. Surprised because I had yet to be the lead of a major task, much less a large project, and anxious because, well, you want to talk about learning shit on the fly and on the job training, this will be it. I’m optimistic though and have lots of help, but it’s going to be a big challenge and unfortunately, some long days are ahead.

This past week Tracy was in town, making a stop on her cross country, school visiting, site seeing tour, which was awesome because I hadn’t seen her in, well, years, sadly enough. It was a good combination of catching up and exploring Tucson, which kind of reminded of two contrasting things. First, how much this place has grown on me whereas I used to just think it’d be super short term and second, how much I miss some of my old, long time friends that, even though we may not be in touch that much, can never, ever be replaced. We went to some of my favorite places to eat in Tucson, toured Mount Lemmon, and Tracy even came out to an autocross. I did not run, even with a couple co-drive offers I just honestly wasn’t feeling like it given the car situation, and I got to relax after running registration and took some photos. Hopefully Tracy can stop in again on her way back around this area – drive safe!

As for the car, the trans is in Maryland and the parts bill is already rising. Ugh. I don’t even want to discuss it honestly. There’s no complete cost estimate yet and no estimate for when it’ll be back on the road. Neither of much are encouraging to me.

It has not been a kind month. My ankle is still sketchy at best, and I swear it bothers me more when I walk around with this brace that the doctor gave me. I go back in another two weeks, and I don’t know what to expect since even though there’s less pain, the range of motion isn’t there and it flat out doesn’t feel right. Also, another lesson learned, even with really good insurance and health benefits, emergency room visits are not cheap.

Work has been no picnic either. Next week I fly back to DC Monday through Friday for another software delivery and the work leading up to this delivery, and the official testing that is taking place this week, has been hellish. There have been a lot of 16 hour days, a lot of frustration, and a lot of, well, bullshit to deal with. I guess I feel like a lot of this hellish rush to the finish could have been avoided, but that’s for another time and place. I am hoping this will come to a graceful and positive end with the delivery next week, after which things will return to some kind of normalcy.

Last night was the culmination of the proverbial shit storm, as I left work at 5:30 to have dinner with Summer and friends only to get a phone call asking to come back and fix some absolutely necessary things. I got back there at 8 and was there until 12. Finally sniffing freedom and anxious to get home and try to get some sleep, the R32 crapped out on me about a mile away from work. It crapped out in a big way; something internal to the transmission, possibly the differential, failed and locked up the transmission. A few AAA calls, another to Summer to pick me up, and a trip across town to drop off the car at Stuttgart Autohaus later and we didn’t get home until 2am. Sleep, ha! I was simply way too stressed now having to deal with facing a car repair bill that will, without a doubt, be well into four figure territory. Turns out the R32’s return to the road was short lived and it’s next return, well, who knows. Luckily the GTI is in good shape only needing tie rod ends and an alignment to be tip top. Hopefully I can hopefully get to that stuff this week, provided I get home from work in time. All I want is for the GTI to keep on keepin’ on. The first parts off the donor Corrado, the front brakes, were installed last weekend and are working great so far. Looks like the rest is going to have to continue to wait.

I realize things could be much, much worse and all this crap will pass with no real lasting damage (other than to my bank account, so much for looking at houses… ) but man is it frustrating.mu

Most of the time I write about all the fun, wonderful, productive things going on. Today, I write about a failure. With the arrival of a new digital SLR camera over Christmas, I thought it would be wonderful to hone my skills all 2008 long with a photo a day project. The fruits of this labor may or my not have been noticed here.

Well, I made it to the first week in March, then I slipped up, forgetting to snap something after a long day at work and a trip to the gym afterwards. Last week I started my new project and my hour fifteen minute one way commute. Makes it hard to find time to take pictures. I considered bringing the camera on my drives, but that would prove a bad distraction, and additionally, I did not want to leave the camera in the car all day or bring it into work. It is a military base so even if it is technically allowed, it would probably be looked upon oddly and with suspicion. Not worth the trouble. So with my time window closing I forgot one day, then two, now three. Even before I missed the days, the subject matter was getting predictable. Working at home left me ample chances to catch the cats doing something photo worthy, but also left me with more pictures of my cats than any man should have. My car, and my friends cars from the Friday night gatherings also began to dominate the subject matter, and one can only have so many pictures of cars. I have more than I need.

So it is now that I officially declare this little pet project a failure and I’m pulling the plug. No excuses: it was simply getting overly forced, and I need to find another way to motivate myself to practice and find new subject matter. While I didn’t expect the photo a day to always yield my best frames, it was becoming too much of a ’snap a quick one before bed just to keep it going’. Not what I wanted, at all, and not what was going to be conducive to sharpening my skills. Perhaps some of the monthly ‘assignments’ and contents on some of the forums I participate on will suffice. I won’t stop shooting, and perhaps it will even spark more creativity when I do have the time to dedicate to it.