March 28, 2010

We are well into March madness and you can decide for yourself if that is the NCAA tournament or the weather.  All of my favorite teams have already lost in the basketball tournament so I'm routing for underdogs from here on out.  I have managed to catch a fair number of the games although have missed a few I wanted to see since many of the games don't start until 9:30 at night in the east - and you know me and my bedtime.  On the weather, we had another wet soaker this week and predictions are for more to come.  So far for March we have received over 7 inches (normal is 4 inches) with another 2 to 5 inches supposed to fall Monday and Tuesday.  Basements across the area have flooded but fortunately we have not had a repeat of the water entering the living/dining room ceiling.  For those in the more rain challenged areas who read this - that is 7 inches of rain for one month with more to come!  Now you know why there aren't a lot of flat roofs in the northeast. 

Work wise, my job remains fairly quiet with still no boss announced and apparently not one to come for several more weeks.  I've kept busy cleaning up some old items that I had put aside since they weren't absolutely critical and working through the files - electronic and paper - that have accumulated to decide what needs to be kept.  Jo was home for most of the week with only one quick trip to NY for the day on Wednesday.  Nothing too exciting on the home front during this week, we needed to take our Toyota hybrid in for the recall fix in which they worked on the gas pedal and floor mat.  We haven't had any problem, but I'm still not completely convinced that Toyota knows what is causing the problems in some of the cars.  While the car was in the shop, the mechanic (or technician as they are now called) noticed the water pump was leaking so that was changed as well.  Seems wierd for a water pump to go in only two years, but everyone at the repair shop seemed like it was no big deal - does make one wonder about Toyota's attention to quality though.  Also had to take the Jeep in due to a slow air loss in one of the tires.  So this was the week for car repairs.

Over the weekend, we begin to gather up the fallen wood for our annual chipping event to be held in a few weeks.  It is always a lot of fun to generate a big pile of wood chips and there is something fascinating about watching the wood chipper eat through big pieces of wood.  Unfortunately to enjoy that, we first must gather up all the fallen wood which consists of dragging large branches through the forest (again, for the water challenged readers, a forest is where there is enough rain - say 7-12 inches a month - to allow a large number of trees - large plants with trunks and leaves - to grow).  Made a pretty good start but the next few weekends will consist of dragging more.  Also worked a little in the garden, raking leaves out of the strawberries and blueberry bushes.  Couldn't do too much as the ground was pretty water-logged (see the rain comments above if you didn't figure out why).  Was hoping to rototill this weekend, but that will have to wait another week or so.  All of this left my repaired shoulder somewhat sore as I probably overdid it on how much weight I'm supposed to allow the should to bear.  But then, I never was particularly good about sitting back and letting things heal like they should.

On Saturday, or last night depending on how you want to track time, we went over to Bruno and Sheri's to celebrate Bruno's birthday.  Had a nice surprise as Sheri's mom, Diane, was visiting unexpectedly.  Had a great time and Bruno got to enjoy gifts from China due to Jo's recent visit.  As you can see from the photo, Bruno along with one of his cats enjoyed receiving the deep wisdom of Chairman Mao as found in his little red book - unfortunately, some of the English translations rival the translation found on the sign in last week's posting. 

That's all for the week.  Nothing too exciting planned for this week - except trying to figure out what to constructive value I can deliver to Pfizer and Jo heading to New York for a couple of days.