Catching Up

Well, this has blog been dormant long enough. Things have been very busy in our life as we . . . well, live life. There has been a basketball tournament, snow removal, lots of school, teaching preparation, snow removal, doctor's visits, snow removal, and the extra busyness that goes in when I am finishing a project up for a deadline.

It is time to be honest. When I am doing work for someone and get to the end of their project, I am quite frankly tired of the project. Usually when I have about two to three weeks left until I am done, I really get the urge to move on to something different.

The actual ending has the following components. During the installation the customer is excited because they are seeing it all go together for the first time. For me, the installation is anti-climatic. I have lived with the project in varying degrees for at least the last six months and the happy feeling that have is that I don't have to think about it any longer and I can move on to new challenges. Recently, after building and installing a very complicated piece, the customer looked at me and said, "It is absolutely beautiful! Did you have any idea it would look like this?" My response was, "Yes. It turned out exactly how I pictured it in my head over a year ago." So for them, they were seeing it for the first time and were excited. For me, I was seeing what I had been seeing all along.

With all of that stated, there is a funny story about the recent completion of a project. Last week, I finished up the last final details of various projects for a customer that I have been working with for the last year. Actually, the first project I did for them started over 3 years ago. Anyway, last week I was done and when I finish a job I file all of my drawings, work documents, and everything related to the project together into my "Finished Work" file. As I was putting this project into the file, I commented to Caleb that there is a happy feeling of finality when I actually file away the project. He looks at me and ask, "Dad, how much did you charge them to build all of that?" "It was pretty expensive," I replied. "Was it $2,000.00?" he asked. I said, "No, it was more than that." "Was it $100,000!?" he asked. I just laughed at him. The fact that an eleven year old mind can have a $98,000.00 jump in the price amused me.

The first week of the Sunday school class went very well. We made it through the introduction and the first point on the outline this last Sunday. We were actually suppose to start two weeks ago, but that Sunday morning we canceled church due to an ice storm that came through. I may or may not be teaching again this week due to a special speaker coming or not coming, but I would guess that I have at least a couple of weeks left yet in this short series.

It has been awhile since a mentioned how Kim is doing, so I will give a brief update on her. She still is suffering from the same symptoms she has been, so actually, not much has changed. The doctors have been trying some different medications with her to help ease that pain, but none of them have been completely effective. Her symptoms still vary in intensity from week to week or day to day seemingly without reason. She has started to see a chiropractor to see if she can get any relief there. At this point we are unsure what else to do.

Well, that is all for now. I will try and maintain a regular blogging schedule, but I have some major deadlines approaching so I can't make any promises.