Separating The Chaff From The Stuff You Throw Away…

Friends,

It’s been an interesting week. Good mostly, bad sometimes, with a strong chance of ugliness in the forecast. Allow me to explain to the best of my ability (and as confidentiality agreements allow).

The Damp Dog Lodge *

You didn’t see a blog update this weekend mostly because I was playing host to my Dad at the cabin. Sure, he drove up the Hill to help with projects and we kept busy doing them, but I spent a certain precious amount of time trying to find things to do that didn’t involve going outside. When it’s thirty-eight degrees and raining, that seems the prudent course especially considering Dad is a desert rat who can’t abide by the cold—and is sick and tired of the wet.

My Dad has a tremendous capacity to “find a way” to get seemingly impossible jobs done, leaving me no option but to tackle them. It’s a trait I admire, but it severely cuts in to my lounging time (as well as my blogging time).

The weather cleared up on Sunday, so the roof got patched, more pine needles were collected, and in our spare time we added more items to The List. Like I needed more things to do up there.

Underpowered Truck

I know you’ve been worried sick about the status of the Mighty Dodge Dakota. Me too! It’s running, and hauling, and doing all the things pickups are supposed to do save one—get out of its own way. I can’t help but think something’s amiss because it’s so loud and so underpowered. Could it be the exhaust leak I thought I fixed? Stuck lifter? Something else? (could it be that the engine is a tired little lump that can hardly move a chassis designed for a V8? – ed Ouch, that really hurts. – bob)

Service Interruptions

Between the Airport wireless connection being down, giant attachments choking my inbox, and the aforementioned, I can hardly get a word in this thing. One of the first rules of developing and maintaining a content-driven site like this is to, erm, provide content. No new pictures of the cabin are available because I’ve forgotten the camera for two weeks running. No interesting words other than “shit, shit, shit” about work. Essentially, I haven’t had too much to work with. (some would say you still don’t. – ed Oh, now that’s unfair. – bob)

The next interruption? My kind and generous hosting provider is changing servers so I’m changing servers too. bobtherieau.com might have some hiccups over the next couple weeks as a result. Nobody goes there anyway, so it’s not a huge deal but I thought I’d get it off my chest.

Some Other Stuff

I can’t really write about some of these other things right now, but maybe there’s a new job around the corner, and some other things that are new are happening as well. I’ll just go ahead and post this, then come back to them when I think I can relay the gist without actually spilling the beans. It’s fun (mostly) and exciting and dammit, I can hardly contain myself (gee, you’re quite the martyr for your craft, aren’t you? – ed Okay, that’s about enough. – bob)

Your best pal,

bob

ASTERISK: Your prize is coming any day now. I just have to make the sign and stand in front of it and shoot a picture (if I remember to bring the camera. sheesh).