All is Quiet

Except for the droning of the server fans, all is quiet in the house. Finally. Work on Monday's is generally a catch-up day, where people who didn't get their high priority tasks fulfilled are asking, "When will it be done?" There are always high priority tasks that need to be done yesterday, but you need to take it all in stride in as a Support Engineer. Set new expectations, communicate, and hopefully keep things running relatively smoothly. Sometimes the ride gets a little bumpy, but by and large, it feels good to be helpful.

That sometimes means that you get out of work late, like today, and you run behind with almost everything else. I tried to stop by Pad Thai restaurant to pick up dinner, but when I got there, I learned it was closed on Mondays. The backup plan was pizza at Red's Savoy — back to downtown Saint Paul on 7th Street. What was supposed to be dinner at 6:30 PM turned out to be dinner at 7:30 PM.

We had no groceries in the house, of course, so with all three kids, I ran errands. First stop, REI for a new headlamp - mine isn't all that bright, and the battery life is questionable. A few minutes later, I had a Princeton Tec 150 lumen headlamp (that could last up to 110 hours!), Gu gels, and a couple pair of Injinji socks. (I tried the socks on at home, and didn't really like the fit, unfortunately. They were VERY low-cut styled.)

Off to the grocery store (Target) we went. I didn't realize how much time was burnt just trying to keep Connor and Ryan under wraps. Ryan is constantly moving, and Connor just likes to push his buttons to see how long he can keep it up. At least Nora was a patient little angel... yeah right. She twisted around in her seat to grab things out of the cart and throw them about. At 10:30 PM, I was happy to call it a night. We arrived at home, fought over who would help bring in the groceries, and listened to Ryan scream and throw a fit over bugs circling the backyard light. "He's six," I have to remind myself, "and tired."

Off to bed the boys went, and soon Nora followed. The groceries put away and a cold beer in hand, we finally had time to relax and slow down. Hopefully, on-call will be a quiet night tonight. I'll probably try to wake up and fit a run in before I go to work tomorrow. I enjoyed my afternoon run today, hitting the hills of Saint Paul, but I generally like to keep that activity to the mornings. It's cooler, and generally the production issues just don't surface until mid-afternoon. It's nice making that afternoon run, since someone at work can usually cover, but it's also nice not having to ask for that help.

Let's see... Eleven days down. I still haven't formulated a real plan regarding my pre-40th birthday 100 miler, but getting in daily miles and one or two quality workouts a week is going to have to suffice for now.