The Myth & The Majesty

Ah, the week is over. Well, the work week is over. Whatever. Decided to do some geocaching after work today ... Okay, backing up. I sprang for a handheld GPS receiver this past week, much to my excitement. A Garmin eTrex Legend to be more specific, found on super-sale to be most specific. And today I found my first Wisconsin cache, at the Isle. Next time, I need to remember bug spray. Especially if it's as hot as today. And especially if, like today, there was a massive thunderstorm the night before that left a lot of standing water. Yeah, wasn't very smart about that one. And then I met a friendly stranger in the park with a gorgeous, well-behaved, energetic golden retriever. Yay for random fun people! Tomorrow, fun people that are considerably less random ... I'm headed north, to the Superior/Duluth area, where I'll definitely be meeting up with one woman I went to Russia with (and hopefully at least two more) ... Yay! I'll have to tell you about it when I get bac...

This is the first of what I hope will become an occasional series as I continue to find my way around town and the amusements therein. Oak Island & the Isle of Ferns If there is something that impresses me about Wausau, it’s the city’s park system. It’s possible that this is because I’m coming from a city that had one or two really good parks and a handful of scary ones, but I’ve been finding little hideaways and good walks all over the place. My favorite so far involves an island park. Oak Island is a riverside park with a playground, tennis courts, a half-pipe, picnic tables, plenty of trail-like sidewalk, etc. etc. Well-kept and clean, it’s what you generally expect from a park -- you can take the kids, have a picnic lunch, and throw a Frisbee without worrying too much about hitting someone. At one end there’s a bridge that leads to an entirely different kind of park. The Isle of Ferns is a natural history park that is accessible only by that single bridge or boat. Just after th...

... or so it felt. Okay, so it's not tomorrow. It's not even the day after tomorrow. It's actually the day after the day after the day after tomorrow. It's been a busy week, okay? Here's my trip: Friday. Went to work early, worked through lunch, raced home hoping that the UPS guy hadn't already been through. Sighed with relief when he hadn't. Packed and cleaned until shortly after 5:00 when he got there, cheered when I opened the door (scared the poor guy a bit with my enthusiasm), and left about ten minutes later with my new Chacos. (Yeah, I finally caved and bought a pair ... Found them on super-sale online, and I'm quite happy about it now.) Sophie and I hit the road. Drove to Minneapolis, picked up my sister, and proceeded as far as Sioux Falls. We got in around 1:30AM on Saturday and I was unconscious shortly after 2AM. Saturday morning started with breakfast with a family friend. My mom, sister and I hit the road around 11 and stopped in Salem to...

24 hours ago, I was in the parking garage at Mt. Rushmore. I have spent roughly 60% of the last 24 hours in a car. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, after I get some sleep.

The question for the day is ... what do you do when you can't sleep? I almost always end up on the computer. I can't really say why ... I suppose it's because a computer matches my attention span, especially late at night. There are a million different things to do here (unlike watching TV), and nothing requires too much concentration (unlike reading). On nights like tonight, when I can't seem to quiet my brain down and my apartment is just a little too warm anyway, staring blankly at a screen seems to help. Maybe I'm a nerd. Maybe I'm a child of the computer age. Maybe I'm just another standard, normal American. (Technically I'm all of those.) Let's see ... The psychotic week is over ... I spent some quality time in the pilot plant, threw off my normal sleep schedule (probably why I'm still up now), and got a new car. Yesterday I went for a nice long drive up by Rhinelander (60ish miles north-northeast of here) and had some bonding time with Sop...

The psychosis continues! I actually AM doing a little shift work this week ... Yesterday was a fairly normal day at the office. Today, I didn't come in till a little after noon, kicked off with a process department meeting, then went to the pilot plant to be their Bucket Man (er, Bucket Woman) for the afternoon/evening shift. I got home about half an hour ago. Tomorrow, I'll be in my cube most of the day, but Thursday it's another shift. And I have no idea what's going on Friday. Funny how that works. In other news -- drumroll please -- I bought a car! Yep, that's right. Lou the Flying Jeep has officially been replaced. Sad, I know, but he's had a good life with me and he gets to live out his retirement years in a quieter, gentler fashion. No more 5 hour road trips for him, and odds are he won't have to move a college student again. And my brother gets "his" car back, which probably makes him happy (because Isabella, the car I'm currently drivi...

Okay. Things are picking up at work -- really picking up. Rather suddenly. I've sort of got my "own" project; I only say sort of because it keeps getting paused. I'm going through hourly data (over 5000 points) from another project that's already up and running -- my boss' project, nonetheless. I'm also investigating a new instrument that we'll be testing in the pilot plant as soon as it gets here. And I'm doing shift work in the pilot plant (sporadically, since something got plugged up this morning and they shut down). The confusing part about all this is that each project is nothing like the others. I'll work on one thing for an hour or two and then have to completely change direction because someone needs information on something else. I know, I know, this is normal. Quite normal. And eventually it'll feel that way to me, too. Right now? Right now I'm coming from a couple of very quiet, slow months. It's throwing me off. Maybe i...