Grateful to Work Indoors. :-)

.....The weather is a little bit better this morning than it was yesterday, but still. I'm looking out the office window before the day really gets moving and I'm watching a group of Shipwrights put up staging. Takes me back about twelve years or so when I was one of them in Shop 64 and working in a JLG about 60' in the air with an air driven sawzall, pulling the rubber off of the sides of submarines (sorta like skinning a whale). The weather could be in the 40's, the rain driving in at a 45 degree angle. I'd be chilled and wet to the bone. It'd take hours at home buried under the blankets to get the body temperature back up to human. :-) Then it would be time to get back up and do it again.

.....I do not miss those days in the slightest. Back then I'd been in the Yard for only about six years and we were going through a Reduction-In-Force. There was a solid chance that I could lose my job, so it wasn't like I was going to get something better. That was after the Yard moved me out of my Refrigeration Mechanic position in a 'right sizing' maneuver. Very confusing times. Very nervous times.

.....Whenever I get supremely frustrated with the 'Big Boss' or think that this job really sucks, it doesn't take much in the way of reminders that I've got things pretty good these days. I actually like what I do. I work at a desk in a nice, warm office. I get paid pretty good money, with pretty good benefits.

.....Busy days these days. Seems like the work isn't going to end any time soon. :-) Have merchants about all charted out for Twelfth Night. Just need to get with Laurellen and determine just how much space I have exactly in which to place merchants in the Marketplace. Then I can float the list to the web-site and to Renart (who has been been rightly anxious to see it, if I were in his place, I'd be anxious too :-)). The December Crier needs to come together completely. Only missing a couple of items of information for it. I should be able to get it to Idaho early next week. The machine problems have been fixed at UMD so the December Crier should come out a few days earlier this time. And finally, need to get with Master Ralg and get the Marketplace Application finalized for June Faire. It needs to go into the January issue of The Crier. I'm shooting for Thanksgiving weekend to have all of these complete. I think that I'll be able to make it.

.....We have our first meeting with Port Gamble this month. They did not renew the lease with our favorite people at the General Store. I'd like to find out what their plans are for the building. I'm hoping that something will go in that can provide the food stuff (and ice) that the General Store has provided in the past. We'll see what Olympic Resources has to say.

.....Looking forward to a trip to the beach this weekend. Hoping that the beloved Laurellen will be up to going. It would not be the same without her. Supposed to be a stormy weekend. The beach always looks exceptional during stormy weather. Should be fun. :-)

.....Hope everyone stays warm and dry today.

.....Aaron / Arontius.