After all that work to get this weblog using Expression Engine, I go and let it sit here for most of a week without posting anything.  It’s akin to getting a shiny new toy and just letting it sit on a shelf, gathering dust.

Of course, part of it has been that I have a set of deliverables due on Monday that have been looming over me for a while now.  Unfortunately, my management had several “emergency” requests last week that took up time that would have otherwise been spent on this work.  Since they’d stolen several days from my work on the deliverables I asked for more time to complete this work and was denied, meaning that I had to work extra hours to make up for it.  It irks me a bit when they do this kind of crap, since the deliverables are some bureaucratic nonsense that don’t add any value.  They’re just check marks on some checklist somewhere.  If they were something that added value for the customer, I’d understand not moving the deadline.  Heck, the deadline was arbitrary anyhow, based on the estimate I’d given them for the number of hours it’d take to complete and assuming that I’d be able to work on it half-time.  They’d already moved it several times as they gave me other tasks that were more important.

By the time I’d finished work, walked the dog, and dealt with everything else I just wasn’t interested in writing.  Instead, I got wrapped up in a bit of PHP coding.  It’s kind of addictive in that you can’t stop until everything is just right, although there will always be little tweaks to make.  I think I’ve finally got a handle on the work now, though, and will have everything wrapped up by EOD Monday without having to work the weekend, which is nice since my birthday is Sunday.

Since we were close enough, we made a day trip to Manitou Springs, where we looked in a bunch of junk shops.  Later we rode the Cog Railway to the top of Pike’s Peak.  There were lots of dire warnings about the thin air at that altitude (14,110 ft) on the rail tickets, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  They don’t give you much time at the top before the train leaves (they have to carefully coordinate the trains, since there is only one line with a few sidings; they point out that the difference between being a passenger and a hiker is one minute).  Because of this I rushed around a bit to try to get some pictures at the top, which left me a bit winded from going too fast. 

A view from the top:

My niece and me, along with the junk we picked up at the store at the top of the mountain:

Last Sunday morning we left for Colorado and returned late Saturday evening. 

A few observations and thoughts from the trip:

• My dog took the trip surprisingly well, given her history of getting sick.  I think part of it was that she’s gotten more used to riding in the truck, though I cheated a bit by using some calming supplements.  I also got an extra fan to put in the back seat just for her since she tends to get hot easily.
• Given the number of Texas license plates I saw in Colorado, maybe we should consider merging the two states into one.  We’d need to borrow a bit of New Mexico as a corridor, though…
• Is there a contract you have to sign when you buy an RV or travel trailer that says you have to drive at least 5MPH under the speed limit and can’t move out of the way?  Is there a bonus payment clause in the contract if you speed up to avoid being passed in the rare passing zones that present themselves?  There’s a section of Highway 64 in New Mexico where there are no opportunities to pass for miles at a time and there’s always some obstructionist in the way.  It must be a cause of continuing problems because the state has put up signs urging patience (one of them also says “Courtesy Pays”).
• I particularly liked the fact that the speed limit on I-25 in Colorado is 75 in the southern part of the state.  Since traffic tends to move a bit above the posted speed, it really speeds up that part of the trip (and helps make up for the time wasted sitting behind hostile RV drivers in New Mexico).
• You don’t really appreciate how big the state of Texas is until you’ve spent most of the day just trying to reach the border.  Of our 700 mile trip, two-thirds of it was spent getting to the New Mexico border.  If I lived in East Texas this would have been a two day trip.

Just returned from a week-long trip to Colorado.  More to come…

At least you will be able to next week.

Tomorrow I will go in to the dentist’s office to have all of the measurements, X-rays, etc. done for braces (one of them is called a ‘cephalometric film’, which just sounds evil, although I know it isn’t), which will be fitted next Wednesday.  This is the beginning of a two-year course of treatment.  I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t qualify for the Invisalign braces because too much correction is needed on the top teeth.  It’s going to be kind of odd to go through the whole process at my age, although I know that a lot of people are getting it done.  My aunt, who is in her late 50’s, did it recently, although she had the advantage of using Invisalign.

Of course, none of this comes cheap.  The whole bill for the full course came to just over $4800, of which insurance should pay $1000.  They gave me a discount for paying the rest up front, which meant I had to pony up a little over $3600 today.

I’m about to get out of here for the weekend as I’m heading home to visit my mother. 

You did remember that this is Mother’s Day weekend, right?  If not, you’d better get with it!

I kind of debated whether I should write about this, but it’s been bugging me and this blog is as good a place as any to get it out.  That having been said, given the subject matter I will not give any names.

Back when I was in high school I had a couple of good friends who decided during our senior year to join the Marines.  I kind of lost touch with them after we graduated.  One guy I haven’t seen since graduation, the other I last saw in early 1993.  Even though I haven’t seen them I’ve kept track of them indirectly through other friends.

I started hearing pretty soon after graduation that my first friend wasn’t doing too well.  He had trained as a mechanic in the Marine Corps, but ended up leaving under a medical discharge (which was the subject of some unconfirmed rumors that it was more related to attitude than actual medical condition).  Shortly after that his troubles with the law began.  He got into trouble for breaking into a car and a few other fairly small things.  But in 1998 he got sent away for criminally negligent homicide related to a car accident.  He’d always been a reckless driver (as I can attest from many white-knuckled times as his passenger), so while I was disappointed that he’d ended up in that situation I wasn’t surprised.

My other friend seemed to be doing better, or so I though until recently.  He served his tour as an MP and had been deployed to Kuwait in 1991 for Desert Storm.  All things considered I thought that he had it together.  So I was very disappointed to learn that he is currently serving a 10 year sentence for sexual assault of a child.  I did a little more digging and found that this wasn’t his first time.  In 2001 he got 7 years probation for the same offense. 

It really got me to wondering about things, though.  We came from a small town and there were only about 30 people in our graduating class.  That we would have two serious felons in such a small class seems odd.  Further, they had good opportunities and seemed to have started out on the right path only to end up in such a sorry state.

On my trip to Minnesota last month I was pleased when the seatbelt fit me with four or five inches to spare.  I hadn’t flown in several years and the last time I’d flown I’d needed the belt extender.  However, on the return trip I was concerned that the belt was pretty snug.  I wondered how I’d gained four inches without having to buy new clothes (and how I’d done all this in the course of just one week!).  This morning when I got on the plane the seatbelt fit with four or five inches to spare again.  I’m certain that I didn’t lose that much weight in the last five or six weeks.

The only conclusion I can come to now is that each plane has seatbelts with different lengths.  The first image that came to mind was an aircraft mechanic or assembly-line worker eyeballing the belts and cutting them to his whim.  But then I started putting things together and came to the conclusion that newer planes and older planes with new seats have longer seatbelts than the older ones (these were all Super 80’s, which seem to be the bulk of American’s fleet; the seats and the labelling on the tray-tables lead me to think that the first and last S80 I was on were newer than the middle one).  Of course, this is all supposition as to whether this is the case, but I do know that I’m not fluctuating four or five inches between flights.

I’m going to the NRA Annual Meeting this weekend.  I’ll be flying out this morning and returning Monday afternoon.  Depending on the schedule and availability of internet access, I may not post anything until I return.

I just finished filling out my tax forms.  It was a tedious mess, because I had sold some stock last year that was acquired in my employee stock purchase plan.  Because they were bought in small quantities over time, each purchase had to be entered manually.  This meant that I had to enter 57 stock lots.  The final printout that TurboTax produced with all the forms is about 3/4-inch thick (there’s a worksheet for each of the 57 stock lots). 

On the plus side, President Bush’s tax cuts made a difference.  Taking into account my basic income and taxes already paid and using the standard deduction showed me with a tax liability of about $50 as compared to the $250 that I paid last year.  However I was able to itemize deductions for interest paid on the house, property taxes, points paid on the mortgage, and charitable contributions.  Once that was taken into account TurboTax showed that I will receive a refund of $668.  This will be the first time in seven or eight years that I’ll be getting money back.

Even with the refund, though, I’m still not terribly happy about paying a five-figure amount to Uncle Sugar throughout the year.