What goes around

Posted by Chuck at 11/14/2008 12:09 AM
Categories: First House, Disneyland
The kind of work I do is based on projects that usually last between one and three months, sometimes longer.

These periods frame my memories into mini eras based on what project was in progress. Like my nephew, Jimmie was born on the day I finished my first project of the kind I do and whenever I think of his birth, I think of that project's name.  The memory and the "era" are inseparable and one always evokes the other.

I've always done this too, like I remember things from my childhood based on one to three month reference points, like popular songs of the time or TV obsessions, or a crush on whatever girl. So if I remember some moment from 8th grade, (like the time Todd and I sat in the lilac bushes in front of his house shooting dog food kibbles at cars with slingshots until one guy stopped and said "I see you little m..f..s, I had my window open and you hit me, f...rs," but we just stayed there ignoring him and he went away, and Todd's dad heard the whole thing through the open window and joked with us about it the next day, but didn't discipline us) I'll immediately remember that it happened during my crush on Amy B., or while Everybody Wang Chung was popular.

I think I was drawn to the work I do because of this phased pace. I get bored with things really easily and can only stay excited about anything for a few weeks or months, so doing this kind of work is like changing jobs every few months without having to leave my company. Usually, each project has all new people, with some reappearing characters, but never the same team, or even 10% commonality from one team to another. Because I help people win new business, if I'm successful the people I work with will have contracts to work on and won't need me again for years.  So when I work with people I don't like, I try even harder to win so I won't have to see them again until 2015.

Tonight, two eras came to a close; I delivered a project and, later, I had my last Palmdale Partner's Academy class. Both of these were favorable eras from the standpoint of enjoying the overlying defining eras, but they are also the framework around Kelly's dad, passing away.

Moving onto the next project at work this time feels a little like finishing a good book in which you liked all the characters and are going to miss them, and leaving the class is kind of the same thing, but it took me longer to figure out how much I enjoyed my classmates. So I guess I'm fortunate that during such a tough time, when we were grieving and while Kelly was back in New Hartford (NY), I had positive, enjoyable projects and people to be around. But also because the projects are ending, it feels like the grieving process should be winding down too. That's where having these associations gets tricky.

Anyway, onto other things. We've been busy in our little free time getting the house ready for our next visitors. We're starting to make the place OURS and to also make it look a little more like grown-ass adults live here, like people who own furniture and hang pictures on the wall.

My favorite new feature is the replaced exterior lighting.

Before:



After:



We traded three 100 Watt lights for three 5 watt LEDs that look way better and are as bright. All my by self. Like I'm all growns up.

Then I replaced the white shields on all the recessed lights to brushed nickel. Well, I did a dozen of them, but apparently there are 15 total, so I need three more.

Before:



After:



I know it's a subtle change, but with the stainless appliances, it looks really good. All of the lights are CFDs now, so we're even a little greener.

We got some stools for the kitchen too, which look way better than I imagined.



And the coop-day-grass is the chair an a half for the Christmas tree room in front, plus we pulled the tree out early.

Before:



After:



But with all the personal and professional work, we did sneak off to Disneyland to enjoy the last of our annual passports.

It's the time of year for the Haunted Mansion to be all The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is awesome.











And there was the new Monorail Blue in service too!!!



That was our first glimpse of Monorail Blue.



Bad ass.





Kelly and I got into the tail cone for our first ride on Blue.



See my shadow doing the offhand shot?


 
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this post
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Leave a comment

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.