Yes, I’ve been busy. Yes, I wish I could have (would have) written more. But this is life. I’m basically doing multiple full-time jobs worth of work these days. There’s the one that actually makes me money, then there’s the family, then there’s the FSP (two huge jobs there, and some smaller ones), then there’s … well… need I say more???<\/p>\n
Part of the reason I didn’t post for a couple weeks was because I was home. When I’m home, I like to focus as much of my ‘spare’ attention on family as possible. This time, I didn’t get to do that nearly enough. Not only did FSP work eat up a big chunk of time, but I had to do the taxes, among other large non-FSP projects. The good news is we’re getting a bit of a tax refund (we’ll pay WAY less taxes in ’04 than ’03). The bad news is, it took Edi and I a combined several days worth of work to figure all that out. It’d be easier just to let them have it all. I guess it serves them right for making us do all that work to have to write us a couple of nice checks \ud83d\ude09 Anyway, the point being, I didn’t have much spare time at home, so I didn’t write here. Such is life…<\/p>\n
So back to the subject line, I’m back at work (the paying job) again. I changed bases back to the west coast (Los Angeles) again. Seems counterintuitive (living on the east coast and all) but I’ll get better schedules that way. It’s already working out well. This month and next I’m flying freight across the Pacific. <\/p>\n
There’s lots of advantages, really. One is, I’m not working (indirectly) for the government. I really do prefer the commercial contracts to the government ones. Another is, freight is just easier. The boxes don’t complain, the work gets done efficiently, and the food is better (believe it or not). And then there’s the Tennis…<\/p>\n
I’ve been playing racquetball for most of my life (off and on, anyway). I’ve gotten to the point that I’m pretty comfortable with the game, though I’m a bit out of shape lately. I’ve never really played Tennis, though. I may have hit a tennis ball around once in my life before, but definitely not a game or anything like that.<\/p>\n
So today was a bit of an adventure. The other F\/O (Jeff), our Ops Rep here (one of my favorites to work with, a Malaysian named Mahat), and I went to the Taipei University tennis courts and played. Mahat is basically living here so he has racquets and balls and what not all available for whoever shows up.<\/p>\n
What did I learn? Tennis is a *very* different game from racquetball. I did have a good time (Got a little sunburned, though), but I may well have done better if I had never played racquetball before. It was pretty bad. I think I only hit the ball over the fence three times. But getting it actually in the court was much more rare. Towards the end of the day, I got to the point where I could occasionally score of my opponant wasn’t paying attention and I got really lucky. <\/p>\n
On the way back to the hotel, I talked the other F\/O into going to play racquetball when we get back to Anchorage. Then it’ll be my turn to give the lessons… \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
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Yes, I’ve been busy. Yes, I wish I could have (would have) written more. But this is life. I’m basically doing multiple full-time jobs worth of work these days. There’s the one that actually makes me money, then there’s the family, then there’s the FSP (two huge jobs there, and \u2026 Continue reading