James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

Unemployment

Today I find myself unemployed...technically. My last day was yesterday, and I don't start the new job until Monday. I am therefore unemployed for the Day of the Dead holiday, which is today and tomorrow. I recently listened to a podcast about the tradition, and I like it. I do not intend to start practicing it this weekend but I can appreciate the culture and the way they remember their past relatives. Man this paragraph took a total 90 degree turn.

I didn't ride a bike today because my left knee is in a total and complete shit state. It's not unlike it was last year during 1 week of ski season. Last year it just...got better. Earlier this year it was the right knee but at a much lesser severity. This time it's back to the left, and it blows. Instead, we walked the dog, then I spent 3 hours sanding and sealing the new front porch we had put on. That was 4 hours of doing stuff which is enough of not sitting down doing nothing. I fully intend to sit down and do a lot of nothing this evening.

I also got the Brussels kit yesterday so I started that. Might take a while.

The weather isn't very amenable to sitting on the porch, so we won't really take advantage of this until next year. Sixer & Matty and 1 of their helpers put this together and it came out great. We just dumped the sealant on it to help prevent it from rotting, which was the fate of the last porch. This has been a long time in coming. You can probably say the money that was earmarked for Ohio State went into this. I see they beat PSU again today, no surprise.

Anyway, enjoy the porch.

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Norm said:
Unemployment

Today I find myself unemployed...technically. My last day was yesterday, and I don't start the new job until Monday. I am therefore unemployed for the Day of the Dead holiday, which is today and tomorrow. I recently listened to a podcast about the tradition, and I like it. I do not intend to start practicing it this weekend but I can appreciate the culture and the way they remember their past relatives. Man this paragraph took a total 90 degree turn.

I didn't ride a bike today because my left knee is in a total and complete shit state. It's not unlike it was last year during 1 week of ski season. Last year it just...got better. Earlier this year it was the right knee but at a much lesser severity. This time it's back to the left, and it blows. Instead, we walked the dog, then I spent 3 hours sanding and sealing the new front porch we had put on. That was 4 hours of doing stuff which is enough of not sitting down doing nothing. I fully intend to sit down and do a lot of nothing this evening.

I also got the Brussels kit yesterday so I started that. Might take a while.

The weather isn't very amenable to sitting on the porch, so we won't really take advantage of this until next year. Sixer & Matty and 1 of their helpers put this together and it came out great. We just dumped the sealant on it to help prevent it from rotting, which was the fate of the last porch. This has been a long time in coming. You can probably say the money that was earmarked for Ohio State went into this. I see they beat PSU again today, no surprise.

Anyway, enjoy the porch.

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That's a nice deck you have.
 
JDurk said:
Highly recommend Dublin. We weren't there long enough since we were on a tour around the UK that included Edinburgh, London, Liverpool and the Lake District of Cumbria.

We've talked about going back to just tour Ireland or Scotland.

Iceland has been on our radar too.
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I second Dublin. Was there for 4 days earlier this year and 3 days in the west of the country. Awesome place. Also loved Scotland. Was there for superworlds 3 years ago. Can’t go wrong in either place.

Would strongly suggest looking into southwest England. Cotswolds AONB, Bath, Cheddar and the Salsbury plain. Tons of beauty and history as well as fantastic road and gravel riding. Check out King Alfred’s way.
 
New Job Day

Today I started a new job. I think the day can best be described by something the CTO said to me today, which was, "Enjoy the down time. I'm sure it will ramp up soon enough." Today was about the easiest work day I've had in a very long time. Usually when I start a new job, it's like 0-to-60 the first day. I didn't join any client meetings. I didn't need to review any SOWs or client collateral. I just had a few meetings & conversations with people on the team.

I'm slated to be primary on a project that's currently in procurement. So that could land tomorrow or 3 weeks from now. You just never know what's going to happen when it gets there. I'll most likely need to travel for this one. On the excitement scale, this one ranks a 10 out of 10. Their HQ is in Des Moines, Iowa. After all these years of joking about it, looks like karma is going to finally get me.

I haven't travelled for work in something like 18 months. This past job was the first time in about 15 years I didn't travel at all. This is also the first time I didn't go to HQ, which is ironic since it was the closest of any job I've had in years, located in the Scranton area. While it was nice, I actually like to travel a little bit. This job will see me in Chicago for sure, since this is where our HQ is. It's possible I'm there next week. And of course Des Moines at some point, assuming this goes as expected.

From there I don't know what else I'll be working on but the plan right now is to focus on that single project. If I'm being honest, I don't know how to think about that. I suppose we'll see how everything goes.

Anyway, day 1 in the books. And we had mussels the other day and they were super tasty.

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I had a big project out in Ames, IA which is 40 minutes north of Des Moines so I did many trips out there for a few years. They needed someone who could help them out incinerating animals and DEA seized drugs.

As long as you're not there in the winter, it's not bad. I actually wish I could have spent more time in Des Moines proper as opposed to driving through it to get to Ames with the possible exception of dinner/hotel/early AM flight. It's a niced sized city. Big enough for good restaurants and parks, not big enough for traffic and assholes.

You should just bookmark this place. I was extremely surprised how good of Vietnamese it was: https://maps.app.goo.gl/WhU9zm9SnGTtifNCA

I used to have a travel road bike and took it out a few times, riding out in the corn fields isn't too bad. According to Strava I did this 50 mile rail trail at least twice after work. https://www.strava.com/activities/197519061
 
Loaded For Winter

The first thing we put back on the porch was the outdoor furniture. Even though it's 40 degrees every morning, and the warm days are over, it needed to be the first thing to be put back. In theory, it's what we did all this for. D likes to sit there in the afternoon on warm days. I prefer mornings in the summer when I wake up and have my coffee. Either way, sitting is a considerable reason why one does a porch. It's not for the walking from the top of the steps to the door, even if that is a valid reason to have a porch.

The next thing is the wood ring, which I did today. I needed to get some protectors for the feet, which I bought at the hardware store in town this afternoon. Then I loaded it up with wood, the quality of which is a bit on the inconsistent side. That said, fire burns shit. So all you need is a few good pieces and some kindling and you can blaze away anything. We got this wood from a place in town and when this is done, I think we'll go elsewhere. It's of pretty poor quality, all in all.

They say it's going to be a cold & snowy winter, to which I reply, "Who's they?!" They always say the same thing. I'm pretty sure every single year we hear from some entity that it's going to be a snowy winter. In NJ, it pretty much never is. So we'll see what happens but the next time it gets cold at night, we'll be able to have a fire which is always good stuff.

Update to knee - been taking it more seriously with the rest & ice, plus PT, and in 3 days it has gotten significantly better. Getting old sucks but at least it gives me something to focus on.

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Norm said:
Update to knee - been taking it more seriously with the rest & ice, plus PT, and in 3 days it has gotten significantly better. Getting old sucks but at least it gives me something to focus on.
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I went to the ortho for my knee tonight. No idea what I did, may have been a sleep injury!
I usually avoid going to any doctor like the plague...
Your right, getting old sucks and I'm not even old... At least thats what I tell my self ... My wife had the diagnosis right when she sent me this.
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Cole said:
I went to the ortho for my knee tonight. No idea what I did, may have been a sleep injury!
I usually avoid going to any doctor like the plague...
Your right, getting old sucks and I'm not even old... At least thats what I tell my self ... My wife had the diagnosis right when she sent me this. View attachment 271455
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Dude if you’re old then I’m ancient. Well my wise ass boys (more like young adults now) all call me old every day so 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
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