I came in the Brandenburg Gate as I always do in the morning. The guard was obviously in a rather seasonalby festive mood. He notice the muddy paw prints on the hood of my red car, and then looked at me with a twisted grin. My 1st thought was that I was goig to be pulled aside and my car search again.  He looked at the car, then back at me and said, "Noticed the paw prints on the car.  Reindeer?"  It took me a couple seconds, but he was obviously making a round-about reference to me looking like Santa Claus. I laughed all the way in to Burger King that morning! Is it any wonder why I like this job??

Happy Labor Day!

It's been a minute or two since my last entry. I've unfortunately been "tempered" by some recent events. I haven't had the time or the patience to sit down long enough to keep things up to date. Since seem to have an extra day this weekend, I do have a few minutes to review some of the high points of the last couple weeks.

Yesterday I ran into one of the "kids" I haven't aggravated for a while. We had about an hour to waste (laundry day!). Tyler was saying a lot of the same things that Erick had said last year. Some things really bothered me. Looks like I may have another "project" coming up.

Last week I got an emergency phone call from one of the kids. He and his wife were stranded out in the country about 8 miles from town. No utilities except for water. They had to walk a mile to beg a neighbor to call me. They hadn't had any food in 3 days. Kerri is 5 months pregnant. Neither of their families can or will help them very much. Resources all around are getting pretty thin. I made an emergency food run that night, and another two days later. This weekend they're here at the house with me. Terry has worked around the house a couple months ago for some help I'd given them earlier. This long weekend, though, I just wanted to be sure they are comfortable, well fed and entertained.

Work is going OK. As long as I can stay busy and stay away from the headquarters building, I'll be fine. The stress-level at HQ is MUCH higher. We're down to 4 team members now. Charie had an opportunity to move to Delaware and start a new life. She's a great tech and a good friend. I wish the best for her and and her son. She will be missed.

David, Charie and I had been kind of "camped out" in some vacant workstations in G2 the last couple weeks. People in that dept are great. They're already talking about "adopting" us and giving us work to do!

Terry's brother threw a birthday party to his 5 yr old son last Saturday. Little Danny is autistic. He's a great little kid. A lot of family and friends showed up. I got to see a lot of their family I hadn't seen for a while. Jerry, one of Terry's cousins, came in later. We asked about his brother only to find out that he's been rushed to the hospital the day before. Jake had complications from an appendectomy a few days before. We had some time yesterday to spend some time with him in the hospital. I could write a whole dissertation about our discussions. Suffice it to say that this experience has changed Jake's attitudes about life. I was thrilled to hear him talk lie that. I hope he can be a positive example to his family for a long time to come.

With Jake in the hospital, his brother had his sons in tow for the party. Jerry was great with the boys. That's a good thing. Jerry will be a new father within a couple months.      Both Jake and Jerry are going to be great fathers.  Jerry is one of those kids that takes everything in stride--even intense aggravation from me!  I'll start in on him and he'll cut me that little half-grin that just tears me up.  Did I mention that I had all these kids as students while they were in school?  If Terry calls me "Dad" one more time I'll just adopt the whole family!

Well, the laptop is about "full".  I've got to scramble this week to get a new desktop together before my mailbox starts bouncing!  Today, though, I've got to get the kids out of bed and see if we can find some work for Terry. 

I hope everyone had a great day.