What? I'm Here for Your Amusement?

Because for the past couple of weeks, I've had more important things to do than amuse you. Not necessarily more fun, just more important.

For some years, my wife has suffered frequent chronic pain from a bulging cervical disc, and on MLK day it decided to go "full bore" and severely pinch a couple of nerves, leaving her unable to lift anything heavier than an coffee cup for a couple of days, and bouncing from clinic to ER to clinic getting X-Rays done and MRI's scheduled. She's doing better now, and we've finally got a doctor to start paying attention to it, so maybe instead of getting a new script for Flexeril every time this happens, she'll get TREATMENT, and maybe even permanent relief.

This last week brought business travel with it, and instead of blogging in the evenings I was in Florida drinking. So there. I thought for a bit I wouldn't make it back, too. First, there were a bunch of bored Floridian kids throwing molotov cocktails all over the place, slowing me up. As if that weren't enough, once I got to the airport i found out my flight was delayed, so late that my connection was in danger. So I cried out for magic - both to wreak vengeance on the teens and salvage my travel plans. Shortly a short, gnomish old dude came to the gate, made the Sign of the Devil and told me I would make my connection. I did.

Rainbow In The Dark @ Yahoo! Video

Now these two items don't account for 100% of my time, but they do account for a lot of it. The rest of the time I just didn't have it in me. But I think I do now.

Change I Can Count On...

Okay, so I have an incomplete post I'm working on, and really want to finish, because it's a great story (well, to ME it is!) but I'm putting it on the backburner for the obligatory "This is what's gonna' be different in the new year" post. No, I'm not talking about 20 January; because this year is going to be really different.

Change - in this case it will be closer to a complete transformation - in life is inevitable. "No change is un-permanent; but change is". Thank you, Geddy.

First, someone is coming this summer to take my job. That's the benefit of my line of work; you know (to within a month or so) when you'll be moving on so you can plan your life around it. The big career-managing office in the sky has paired names with jobs, and in that list is a name next to my job, and I'm just waiting to hear who it is so I can get to managing when it happens. Set a date, make a schedule, show him everything, sign the paperwork, and bam! The show is his. That's the easy part.

The really big change for us is going the transition to MY next job, which will prove ... interesting. I'm pretty sure (I'll give it better than even money) it will involve a place that ends in "-raq" or "-istan", (an outside chance of Southeast Asia or the Horn of Africa), for a year. Setting up my family to get along without me for a year is my top priority for the next six months. Even if I don't go straight out of this job, I WILL go out of my next one. Just the nature of the beast.

So I guess I don't have resolutions so much as I have plans. Get the rest of our debt gone, get the family back to Rhode Island close to our extended family, and set to move into our home once our renters leave, and figure out how the heck we're going to make more living space (either by finishing the basement or financing an addition) for a family of six.

And for me? Get the Hell into shape. While this old sailor's job probably won't be running around the desert or the mountains in "full battle rattle" I hope not to be sitting in cubicles sipping coffee and making powerpoint slides either.

I Will Start the New Year With A Blatant Plug...

...for my better half and her new project, One Moment a Day (A Year of Moments, in Photographs).

Y'see, since I started taking this blog semi-seriously with NaBloPoMo back in November, I've been bugging her to start writing on her first blog again. Well, maybe that will (ahem!) happen again, but she's also started up this new one that showcases her mad camera skills, one day at a time. The first photo is of my four favorite minions; I can't wait to see what the other 364 are...