We’re home now after a fun few days with Kelly’s family. The travel wasn’t bad, either, as we avoided I-95 like the plague it is. Kids are in bed now, most of the things are unpacked, and I’ve got a good book waiting for me on the bedside table. Not a bad way to close out the day.

We spent the day driving through this miserable weather to spend the holiday with Kellly’s parents in Virginia. As we were driving up Creedmoor road near Falls Lake, I saw the truck ahead of us startle a large bird by the roadside. The large flapping wings had me thinking it was a Great Blue Heron but as we got closer I was amused to find I was wrong. It was a big, honkin’ wild turkey! One lucky enough not to be joining its brethren on the kitchen table tomorrow. I’d have thought he would’ve been lying low this time of year.

Have a good Turkey Day, wherever you are.

MT.Net is back online after some unfortunate timing. The server went offline Tuesday morning, right when I was due to catch a plane. I had 20 minutes to try to fix things but was unsucessful. Today (Sunday) was the first day I had a chance to work on it again. Turns out that a bad switch is at fault. Bah.

I’ve been saving up the posts since then, so don’t worry your pretty little heads. It’s good to be back.

That. Was. Awesome.

Four hours sailing on Lake Gaston. Steady breeze and sunny skies, with a high in the upper 70s. Even the launching and recovering wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected.

We took my buddy Scott with us, who had fun in spite of missing his sunglasses. The kids did well, too. Hallie took the helm for a moment yesterday as I went forward to retrieve a line. Travis had a nasty fall late in the day, falling backward in the cabin and hitting his head. He recovered quickly like the champ he is, though.

That marks the sixth time we’ve taken the boat out since we bought it in August. I think it was the best sail yet.

Happy Veteran’s Day to my fellow vets. You know who you are. Never forget what you’ve done, and what those vets who came before you have done. And above all, don’t let pretenders take away those things for which you’ve worked so hard.

We’re going to spend Veteran’s Day sailing on Lake Gaston if I can find the courage to launch and recover the boat while waist-deep in water in the middle of November. Above the surface things should be perfect with highs in the upper 70s and a 10 to 15 MPH wind. Wish us luck.

I had a meeting Tuesday in New Jersey, a demo for one of our important partners. On Monday night I packed up my laptop and accessories and placed them by the door. I laid out my clothes so that I’d be ready to go when the alarm went off. I climbed into bed early, told Kelly good night, and promptly blinked out, not even remembering her turning out the light.

The next thing I know, Kelly’s waking me up. “Weren’t you supposed to be leaving right now?”

Yikes! I never turned my alarm clock on! It was ten minutes to takeoff of my flight and I was still in bed!

I jumped out of bed, raced through a shower and shave, and flew out the door with a handful of breakfast Kelly had made me. On the way, she gave me alternative flights by telephone. I arrived at the airport just as a Continental 737 was climbing through the sky: my flight.

Fortunately, though, there was another flight to Newark just 30 minutes later. I parked, went through security, and hoofed it down to the Contiental gates at the far end of the terminal. While I was at security, I heard an announcement looking for two missing Continental passseners on the next flight. The gate agent assumed I was one of those passengers but quickly waved me on when I showed her my ticket. I settled into my seat and tried to settle down, too. But I was on my way!

I arrived at my meeting with plenty of time to spare. The partners weren’t even there yet. In short, no one knew just how crazy my travel had been to get there.

Never underestimate the value of getting there by the skin of your teeth. That is, as long as you get there!

I’m on the way to New Jersey for a day trip. And its Election Day, too. Fortunately I took an hour of my Sunday to vote ahead of time. No matter what time I return tomorrow evening, I plan to stay up late watching returns.

The country could look a lot different Wednesday morning.

We took the kids to the Halloween Trail event at our neighborhood Durant Nature Park (motto: “come see nature before Jesse Taliaferro paves over it!“). As Hallie and Travis worked on creating styrofoam bugs to hang on the giant web, I noticed the guy next to me looked familiar.

Sure enough, he was familiar. It was Scott Reston, my former coworker at Indelible Blue over seven years ago. Scott built the website thingies and I handled the Linux products and support.

Scott and I talked about how cool it was to go to work and start the day off with a mountain bike ride with the company president, Buck Bohac. Though I never biked with Buck, I did rollerblade with him from time to time in the parking lot out front.

Buck used to bike the 15 miles into work each day. His and his wife Katy let their dog Einstein, a Great Pyrenees, have the run of the place. There were beanbag chairs only in the conference room, too, and onsite daycare once-upon-a-time.

In short, Buck and Katy were two of the best bosses I’ve ever had. I took a huge pay cut to work there just for the experience of working for them, and to this day I don’t regret it. The job didn’t pay much at all but it showed me that money isn’t everything (something I should have remembered in November 2002). It was a blast.

It was good to see Scott and recall that fun place to work, gone forever but whose building now sits less than a mile from our home. Word has it that Buck is still busy with Prism Data Works, though I haven’t kept up with him (or he, me).

(Interesting how when one does a web search for Buck, his words appear on porn websites designed to spam the search engines.)

Yesterday was Sunday. For once it was nice to have a Sunday where I wasn’t either rushing out the door or trying to plan for rushing out the door. I actually enjoyed the whole weekend for once, not just half.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that it was my son’s second birthday party, and the 34th birthday of my brother, either. Always good to have family over!

I don’t have any upcoming trips on the horizon, which is an even better thing. I look forward to enjoying my breather.