I’m in San Jose now, after a long day which was originally planned to be fairly slack. I drove from meeting my friend Paul and another former shipmate, Joe, in San Diego out to Matt’s house in Palm Desert. The drive was over 2 and a half hours long. All told, it seemed to go by quickly.

I hung out with Matt, Daniella, and Angus last evening until way too late, and then had breakfast with them this morning. It was good seeing Matt and Daniella again, and to meet the famous Angus. Matt and I quizzed each other on the whereabouts of our former shipmates and complained about those who tormented us while we served together.

The whole time I’d been living in San Diego, I’d never gotten out to see the desert. Today was my first view of it in the daylight. Not long before I woke, the sun rose above the mountains near Matt’s home. The craggly mountains presented a stunning view, with the millions of shadows each carried capturing the attention. I was also amazed at the number and variety of birds around his home. Though the desert seems a forbidding place, there is a simple beauty to it which becomes apparent once one takes a closer look. I didn’t have nearly enough time to explore, so I’ll have to take Matt up on his suggestion of getting invited out again. The fact that it was 80 degrees and gorgeously sunny there while back in Raleigh it was cold and rainy also makes Palm Desert attractive.

As I walked around the Palm Desert mall, I couldn’t help but notice all the retired folks there. The place has a huge population of senior citizens. Nothing wrong with that in the scheme of things, I suppose, though it did make me feel weirdly out of place. I wondered if some of these folks were pretending to be young again. Then I thought, what’s wrong with that? When I’m that age, I’d sure as hell love to be out playing tennis or golf or whatnot, rather than sitting around a retirement home staring at the walls. I should be so lucky to have that option.

Driving back to San Diego sucked royally. I wound up spending more time at Matt’s house than I expected, and thus the non-rush-hour window for getting back almost slipped away. It was nerve-wracking threading my way through Los Angeles traffic, but I managed to make good time back to San Dog and only hit slowdowns once I was close to my destination.

The San Jose airport is a “cluster,” as we used to say in the Navy. To get out, you navigate a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. I thought when I finally got out of there, I’d pass a big piece of cheese or something.

I’ve got lots more thoughts bouncing around my head, but sleep calls, and a busy day tomorrow awaits. TTFN.

I slept well last night and didn’t wake up hungry, as I suspected I would. This hotel, the Misson Valley Residence Inn, is amazingly quiet. Nice to have that for a change, since the past few hotel stays I’ve survived were noisy affairs. The full, hot breakfast was just what I needed, too. I piled on a plateful of eggs and ate them with reckless abandon. Ya gotta get the hair of the dog that bit ya, ya know.

I’m going to be seeing my old commanding officer today at the decommissioning ceremony of my old ship. He’s now a three-star and will be speaking there (Elliot was his first command). I hope to put the bug in his ear about network security, as I know it was on his mind recently (within the last year, at least). Then I’ll be catching up with my old shipmate Matt before meeting with another shipmate, Paul to discuss business and reminence. Should be worthwhile.

I’ll be out of access for most of the day until checking in tonight at Matt’s house.

I thought I was on the mend, but my sandwich idea didn’t seem to take. At least I didn’t splurge on a more-expensive meal. I’m giving up on dinner tonight and hitting the sack. No doubt dreams of tomorrow’s free hot breakfast will be dancing in my head.

My first sign of food-poisoning delirium was clicking on the hotel TV and seeing Florida State playing basketball. The second sign was the fact they were actually WINNING. By the time I saw there were real, live spectators in Leon Civic Center, I was checking myself into the hospital.

The ACC is gonna be crazy this year, and I can’t wait! Add in that Dook is sucking wind and you’ve got the mix for a topsy-turvy basketball season.

I reckon someone ought to keep his weblog running well past football season…

I grabbed breakfast at the airport before boarding my flight to San Diego. Bad idea. 🙂 The “Western Wrap” I purchased at the Green Leaf restaurant near the Southwest gates gave me no shortage of grief for the seven hours I spent on a plane today. Flat out laid me low. Only now am I feeling human again.

I recommend you steer clear of that place if you’re in a bind and need food before flying. Ugh.

Now it’s off to find some peanut butter and jelly for sandwiches. That’s about all I can stomach right now. For real.

Today is my wife Kelly’s birthday. Every day, I am reminded of how lucky I am to be her husband. In spite of the travel that’s been keeping us apart, we’ve grown closer in the past few months, laughing and working and parenting with increasing ease. Each day I respect her more.

Kelly is everything I could ever ask for in a wife, and more than I could imagine. I love you, sweetie!

I’m off this week to California to help with bidness. This time, I only booked hotels with free Internet access. I’ll post some entries when I get the time, but don’t be surprised if the page goes quiet for long stretches. I’ll check in when I can.

I’m having a blast being around my family. Can’t remember when I had four days together when I wasn’t working. Awesome.

The weather was so nice yesterday morning (75 degrees, at one point), that the girls and I went to the park and had fun just chasing each other around. I guess we were making the most out of the last bit of warm weather we’re likely to see here for a while.

Tonight I’m taking my wonderful wife out to dinner for her birthday. Again, I can’t remember the last time we had a date like this. We’re both looking forward to it!

I hope to find some time this weekend to whittle down this huge pile of paper on my desk. Fat chance of that happening, though.

If I find the right moment, I may post some thoughts on my career which have been bubbling around my head lately. Or, I may not.

A project that almost got completed last night was the addition of a decent photo gallery to this page. I tried Drupal‘s, gallery.module and image.module, but gallery crapped out on me and image doesn’t exactly do what I want done. I am leaning now towards the perl-based IDS, as seen on my friend Tanner’s website. Ultimately, I’d like to simply drag-and-drop a folder onto my fileserver and have it appear as an album in the gallery. IDS seems to do this. Why the others don’t, I have no clue. Seems so simple.

Got to get crackin’ on the list of things to do. I’ll check in later with more thoughts.