Monday Monday 7.1.2008

Hi Everyone,

I realize that it has been several weeks since you last heard from me, and my excuse is that I haven't had much to write about.

I have been working from home for the past month or so, and I'm preparing to head back out on the road next week. I'm just going back to Annapolis, MD and will likely be there for quite some time.

Graduation
I used points to fly up to Albany last weekend for my cousin's (Bobby - Aunt Pam's Youngest) high school graduation. He graduated from my Alma Mater, so it was interesting to see the Hartford Central School Graduation for the first time since 2002 when I walked that aisle myself. It was announced at graduation that 5 teachers were retiring. I had all of them, my parents had at least two of them, and its clear that now almost the entire staff has turned over since 2002.

Graduation reminded me of how technologicly advanced we are back in the rolling hills of Washington County:
We installed a new central air conditioning system this year called "The 2008 HCS Graduation Programs." This individualized device gets handed out to everyone as they walk into the gym, lists all the awards and students on it, and you get to take the air conditioning system how with you afterward. It was a good thing we had these programs to wave back and forth in front of our faces too because when you pack the entire team into our little gymnasium, the temperature rises very rapidly
We also have this great Slideshow presentation thingy-ma-jig. This year we could see about 50% of the screen, but I hear if you make the screen fit the projected image - you can actually see 100%. The slideshow did feature pictures from all of the 35 (give or take a few) graduates, and our friends at HCS played it over our new advanced speaker system that I think got purchased at Wal-Mart and was brought in over the right shoulder of one of our senior staff members. I wonder if this new speaker system had a casette player.
I guess its nice to see that some things don't change no matter how much you do or how far you move away. . .

We had Bobby's graduation party at my Parent's house the next day and lucky for us we had a beautiful day with a constant overcast sky, continuous thunder and lightning, and a cumulative percipitation of about 2.5 inches of rain. It was nice to see that no matter how much Mother Nature bitched (whoops let that curse word slip), she couldn't put down enough rain to put out our massive bon fire in the back yard.

Travel Woes
No matter how many times, Maggie and I fly into Albany International Airport (International because they probably have one flight to Montreal or something), we always have something go wrong. Last Thanksgivining, Maggie's flight out of Chicago was delayed, so she missed the connecting flight in Washington DC. Fortunately she was able to hop on a late night flight bound for Syracuse, rent a car, and make the three hour drive to Hartford. She got in at like 3AM that time. This time, she had a little bit better luck because she had a direct flight that only got delayed. Luckily we knew ahead of time, so Mom picked up a Mandy's Pizza to keep me occupide for a few minutes while we waited for her. She got into Albany at about 1:20AM. The surprising thing about all this is that we are relatively unphased by these minor disasters because we deal with them almost every week. One time Maggie had to fly to Atlanta and then make a 4 hour drive to Charlotte, so she got in at like 4AM. Another time she was forced to fly out to Raleigh Durham, so I drove out to pick her up (three hours away). Of course, I just talk about the time where I had three consecutive Thursday night flights home cancelled. Fortunately Baltimore to Charlotte is only about 8 hours, so I hopped in a car and made the trek getting in at the wee hours of the morning

While I was gone. . . .
Business was anything but usual in Charlotte, while I ventured up North.
Our friend, Scotty, moved into our spare bedroom. Which could have been a very smooth process if I remembered to put the key out. Fortunately I remembered as soon as I landed in Albany, so I still had time to pay $18.30 to overnight the key to him.
Our favorite restaurant that we probably average a once a week visit to closed it's doors over the weekend. I think I might move. . .
Our friend Dustin's car got stolen. . . .I don't know what else to say on the subject considering I thought that I got robbed by the post office when sending a key overnight.

Tah Tah For Now,

Ryan