Catching Up

I called Time Warner a week before we moved and they promised to have our service transferred to the new address the day after we got into the new place. Not only that, but the same service would be $30 less per month because of competition from Everest. It wasn't enough to hold onto us, however. When the technician came out, he said he couldn't hook us up because he had to run a new line and it would take special equipment to bore under our sidewalk. He'd be back in a few days with a supervisor to do the job, he said. Only, they never showed. When I called about it, no one knew what I was talking about. We called back a third time and they said the work couldn't be done for more than two weeks. So we called Everest and they got us all connected in less than a week. We're back with cable and Internet now after 10 days of isolation.

The downtime was especially bad because I was home on vacation. I'd planned to have the Tour on in the background all day while I worked and instead had no TV. I had to go out of my way just to check results and email, which felt strange after being used to computers at work and home all the time. But, really, I think, it was the TV silence that got to me more. I don't watch much TV, but like having it on in the background for company. I like going the restaurants and other publice spaces to read so that there are people around. I don't like doing work in my office because it gets lonely, but would rather do it out on the public service desk in between patrons. I listen to talk radio rather than music. I'm a definite introvert and don't always enjoy engaging with people, but I like having them around for company. It was a strangely lonely week.

But it was a very productive week. Having vacation to move into the new house was perfect. I started by moving all of the boxes and mess into the basement, then put things back together a piece at a time. The place was liveable almost immediately. I got picuters put up and many of the other little touches that make it feel like home. There was never a super excited feeling of, "Wow, I can't believe it's mine," but there was also never the adjustment period of it feeling strange or foreign. It just feels right, calling the house home. Having the time off also allowed me to do things like update my driver's license and register the cars with the new county. I guess I'm officially a resident now. I didn't necessarily go back to work feeling refreshed, but stable, organized, and satisfied with having accomplished a lot.

One thing that I should have done but didn't was kick-start my workouts. Having my crisis at work pretty much wrecked me for this triathlon season and I've been slow to get back into it. The medication I'm still on has taken away my urge to really push hard and exercise lacks a certain zest right now. I now spend much of the free time that would normally be for workouts in bed sleeping. Add to that the fact that free time has been less while we've been busy moving. Also, I have a heel spur right now and every time I run I have to spend the next 2-3 days limping in pain. So that's why you haven't heard much on the triathlon front lately, because it's been fairly non-existent. I'm just hoping to maintain a basic fitness level until I can get back into it.

When that might be, I can't say. I'll be in my manager position until they find a replacement. That should have been this month sometime, but the initial process didn't produce anyone and they have just reopened the position to start the search over. It's a bit depressing, but I'm handling it OK. I've made peace with the job, in fact, and imagine I can do it indefinitely. I just go in each day and put in my hours instead of expecting to do something I love. I keep myself a little bit numb and the doctor wants me to stay on the pills until I've been back at the other job for a month, but I'm surviving. I've even had comments from some of my employees that they wish I'd change my mind (again) and stay. That makes me feel good and think I must be doing better than just surviving.

And since I'm trying to update everything I've been doing lately, I'll reward your perseverance in reading this far by making this a cycling post. After 8 years of dominance, a U.S. rider failed to win the Tour de France this year. Levi Leipheimer was only third, although it was a very close third at only 8 seconds behind second and 31 seconds behind first. And he couldn't really complain since the winner was teammate Alberto Contador of Spain. So by taking first, third, and eighth, U.S. team Discovery Channel won the team competition and proved itself the strongest in the world. It was a good tour.

Finally, on the Harry Potter front, some words of wisdom from Stephen King, written for Entertainment Weekly even before he read the book:

My guess is that large numbers of readers will not be satisfied . . . The Internet blog sites will be full of this was bad and that was wrong, but it's going to boil down to something that many will feel and few will come right out and state: No ending can be right, because it shouldn't be over at all. The magic is not supposed to go away.