There’s a new poll up asking how far you drive each way to work. Just curious to know how much time the average MT.Net worker spends in traffic.

I was in Tiger Direct yesterday and noticed that they now sell Packet8‘s 8×8 terminal adapter. Tiger Direct’s price for the DTA-310 is $59.95, plus you get two months of Packet8 service free and free activation!

I think the DTA-310’s are top-notch terminal adapters, and $60 is a fantastic price. Of course, would I want to pick up another, I would sign up for the two month’s free service, cancel, and then reflash it to use Asterisk. But that’s just me.

Wednesday night I spent some time at a meeting of the North Carolina Veterans for Kerry. MSNBC was there getting footage for a story on battleground states.

The show airs this Sunday, July 25th at 10 PM ET. If you’re quick, you might see me at the corner of the table, looking as serious and focused as possible. Most likely, you won’t see me at all. Either way, the show should be entertaining.

I’m missing the writing I usually do. Sitting down and holding forth from a keyboard is relaxing for me. I often wind up finding out about myself as much as my (twelve?) readers do.

The past few weeks have been busy, as you know. Finding work (note I didn’t say “job”), moving out, moving in, and making this house a home have been my top priorities. I’m only now getting to the point of being able to exhale.

We had an impromptu neighborhood party tonight when the neighborhood kids all descended on us. A full description is on Mighty Hallie‘s site, but the short version is a happy tornado flew through our playroom. It was lively and full of fun – but a bit enlightening, too. After they all left, I realized that this is what life will be like now: one laughing, noisy playgroup after another. And if I’m to take advantage of all the fun, I’ve got to put other things aside.

My time is no longer my own. This is especially true as we look forward to meeting our newest family member in November.

It was also sobering to see Hallie form her own relationships. Kelly gets a regular dose of this at all the playgroups, but work has kept me away from those. The shepherding part of me felt the urge to be Hallie’s bodyguard, but I knew I’d have to give her her space. She obviously was thrilled with our guests, and that attitude will serve her well in life. But it also made me feel a little sad that my percentage of her time just got a little smaller.

It’s the little moments that make being a dad so unbelievably special. And they all go by too fast.

Yesterday evening, we looked out over our yard from the dinner table and discovered a new guest in our backyard: a groundhog! The groundhog (also known as a woodchuck, but I used groundhog in reference to another groundhog I know) was hanging around the woodline, munching on the leaves it could find. Occasionally, it would stand up to work on higher leaves in the plants at the edge of our yard.

Kelly and I find it amazing it is to see such a variety of wildlife. We’ve lived in homes bordering woods before, but never have we seen so many different animals coming and going. Now if we could put up some bird feeders and get some trees, we could add more birds to the mix, something I’m finding myself missing lately.

I figured out yesterday why our upstairs is like an oven in the afternoon: our house has no ridge vents. That keeps the hot air trapped in our attic instead of venting out. The gable vents on the house might meet code, but that doesn’t mean they’re any good.

It’s much worse in our office, over the attic. The ceiling in that room is closer to the roof than the rest of the upstairs, thus it’s closer to the heat. Luckily, ridge vents aren’t too difficult to have installed on existing roofs. We’ve got to find some recommendations for local roofers to do the work.

I totally forgot to mention yesterday’s thirty-fifth anniversary of the first man on the moon.

NASA was always bigger than life to me as a kid. Who didn’t want to be an astronaut when they grew up? The great thing is that Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites might actually let everyday people get to space.

I found a UHF repeater up for bid from the state. It’s ancient, but might still be useful. I’m hoping it can be modified for amateur radio use (most radios can – we amateurs are crafty!) My plans for it have it either going up on the Wake County tower near my home for purely selfish reasons. Or, better yet, being set up on a tower in Garner.

Now you may wonder why I want a repeater in Garner, since I don’t live there anymore. The reason is that I decided it would be neat for the area’s growing Hispanic community to have their own repeater. I’d love to have a repeater in the area that’s primarily Spanish-speaking. It would provide another tool to help this community connect with others. It could help English-speakers learn some Spanish, and vice versa. And it might spur these new residents to become hams.

I might get out to see the repeater this week. If it’s a piece of junk, all plans are off. But if it isn’t, it could turn into a wonderful experiment in community-building.