Tales from the Steppes

2005-04-20

12:21 a.m.
What if the artists ran the TV? All the ads would be for fine scotch whiskey: Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, the whole single malt family

I had to change my plans for my week, due to my inability to correctly interpret my calendar. So yesterday was hiking because I have a lunch on Friday to celebrate the finishing of a master plan. Given that my team does not have t-shirts or polos, this will be about all the thanks we are likely to get. And since I will be leaving the team shortly, I should probably show up and have a margarita.

The hike yesterday was beautiful and I did not encounter another person out on the trail for the entire 10 miles. I enjoyed the drive out to the mountains as well. While I did not get out as early as I would have liked, something about going to bed at 2am the night before, even traffic wasn't that bad into Virginia. I must be getting old because I took not only a first aid kit but a bivvy sack as well, in case I really screwed the pooch. I even wrote out instructions on where I was going and the route I was taking. Not something I would have done a number of years ago.

The route I picked was fairly scenic, though I did not get to climb up to the rock formation at the summit. It started thundering and raining just as I got to the cut off. While there was the potential of maybe getting a great photo, I was just carrying a digital camera and not my 35mm. So I was a wuss and headed the three miles down the trail to the parking area. I can always go back - that giant rock is not going anywhere anytime soon.

I had such a good time that I will have to schedule another outing sometime soon. I have picked my next destination already - the Dolly Sods. This one will have to include an overnight as it is not just a few hours away. And it has the added excitement of unexploded mortar shells sprinkled through it, thus giving an element of surprise to wandering off the path. But it is a unique environment for this part of the world so it will be worth seeing. But no mongols with me for that, as they would not appreciate the danger but instead see if they could push each other off the path.

This will be difficult to do anytime soon because I will start my new job in a couple of weeks. It is not that I spend my time slacking exactly, just that I am not completely regimented in my schedule. It remains to be seen whether my new bosses will go with my concept of working 7am to 4pm instead of 8am to 5pm. This will allow me to be home right after the elder mongols get off the bus as well as drive both the EM and YM to ballet several days of the week. But we will see what they say. I tried to talk to them today but it seemed like the entire department was out. I walked into my office today to find out that my new position had already been announced in Environment and word had already spread through the rest of the building. That part kinda sucks as I would have preferred to tell my boss myself, but at least he knew it was coming.

Earlier this week, I had my annual at Planned Parenthood. No, no, there will be no gory details. Do not worry about that. It is more that I hate going there yet feel compelled to keep supporting them. I guess I could just send them a check every year but that doesn't seem like enough. It also seems vaguely hypocritical. So I go and enter through a security system to sit in a waiting room where I am the only person who speaks English. There are some days when I delight in the sound of people speaking so many different languages and there are days when it just irritates me. Of course, what is far more irritating is that Planned Parenthood has to keep their door locked because of lunatic right-to-lifers. Not that being against abortion makes you a lunatic. You can believe that the moon is made of green cheese as far as I am concerned. Beliefs are beliefs. It is the bombing of clinics performing a legal procedure that is lunacy in my book.