The Real Life Post (and Fun With Footnotes)

Non-EVE content lurks ahead, with big nasty pointy teeth(1).  You've been warned.

It's been an interesting few weeks around here, and by "interesting" I mean things keep colliding with me in a way that keeps me away from EVE.(2)



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First, the weather has been wet.  And sunny.  And then wet.  And then sunny.  The cycle has repeated itself for the past 6-7 weeks in a way that causes the grass to grow at an absurd rate.  I am really tired of mowing the lawn, but it's been needing attention every 4 or 5 days.  With the amount (acreage) I mow, it's a 1.5 to 3 hour time vortex each time I hop on the mower; longer if I do a respectable job vs. just hacking at it with the bare minimum.

I've run about 30 gallons of fuel through the John Deere, more than I normally burn in an entire year, and we are just barely halfway through the calendar.  I'm really ready for this weather pattern to break so that we can hit the usual dry and crunchy times of July and August.

There are other chores around our 10 acres that I need to do, but can't be done in wet weather.  My to-do list has been moving at a snail's pace since April, because whenever it's dry enough to mow ... I go mow instead of doing whatever's next on the list.

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Biking is doing reasonably well, mostly because I can bike on weekend mornings when the grass is still wet.  Longtime readers will know that I sat out a lot of last season due to a lower back injury, but this May I set a high-mileage record for myself for any month since mid-2013.  I aimed to beat that mileage in June, for back to back records, but we punted a couple of rides just to stop and veg out and give ourselves the night off.

I've increased my weekly swim workout another notch and now hit 2,000 yards per weekly session.  June was be the most yards swum in any given month ... ever.(3)

I'm now signed up for a total of 3 races (one completed, 2 pending) and may get on the roster for a fourth.  Normally I do just one Triathlon/Multisport events in a season, so this would be a big feat for me.  I need to get out and do some jogging as 2 of the events include a 5k run(4).

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The new internet has been great.  After constantly monitoring our monthly download quota for the past 4 years, it's odd for me to just let things run, to actually watch youtube, and not push off patches and updates until later in the month.

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Work.  Regular readers will recall a series of posts about a potential cross country move for my office.  We've put up a good fight, and for awhile I was confident we'd beaten back the wolves trying to tear us apart.  But for the past few weeks it's been very quiet on that front, which means the wolves are pacing in the darkness where we can't see them.  We expect a formal/final answer by the end of July, though despite our best efforts it seems like our momentum is eroding.  

I'm less confident than I was that we'll be successful.

At the same time, I came to the realization that if I got everything I wanted (i.e. we successfully defended the site), it would mean that I was spending the best years of my life making liars, fools, and assholes successful.

The people we work for daily are the people that lied to us and told us there was nothing to fear; that we would weather the storm, and we should remain passive and not react to "wild rumors."

The same people are the ones trying to move us.

I want to work for someone that I respect.  Earlier in this process there was some hope that we'd get some outside intervention and a mild reorg to help isolate us from the assholes and liars, but those notions were later corrected and the org will remain intact.  This means that even the best case scenario -- success itself -- is intolerable.  I'll go fight the good fight and defend the jobs of 35 other people and their families, but for myself it means that I will be working elsewhere no matter what happens.

And that's been tough for me to wrap my head around; I truly love my job and my team.  I feel a little dishonest trying to rally the troops while I'm applying to jobs in the evening hours.  I'll be glad when we have a final answer so that I can be more open about my intent.

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In the U.S., it's a holiday weekend.  I am burning a few vacation days to get caught up on chores and otherwise relax a little bit.  It's resulting in no more (but no less) EVE time, but I've been able to work on a few posts, enjoy some coffee in peace each morning, and then tackle a handful of things in the great outdoors.  The weather here looks to be very nice throughout the weekend, and if the wind kicks up just a little bit, it'll keep the bugs down.



Notes:

1. That's a Monty Python reference.  If you didn't know that, you should.
2. Actually, not really. I'm still logging in nightly, but by necessity I get forced to either shoot things or manage the blog.  Most nights I'm opting to shoot things.
3. I measure in YARDS and not METERS because my gym's pool is in YARDS.  I actually have a lot of love for the metric system, really.
4. I've done quite a few 5k runs, so it's not like I'm starting from scratch; I just haven't been jogging recently and need to get back in the groove.