Hopping On The Bandwagon

Well, since everyone is posting now, I guess I will as well. October was a very busy month. Very busy. I think I only got about four full days off for the whole month. And I worked a lot of long days, where I was working all day, and then in meetings in the evening. I don't mind too much though, because there was some interesting stuff.

I was the keynote speaker at one of our diocesan mission conferences. I talked about the importance of seeking God interculturally - the idea was that our cultural assumptions can limit how we think about God. I used the traffic in Sri Lanka as a metaphor. Then we looked at pictures of Jesus - a black Jesus, an Asian Jesus, a Sri Lankan Jesus, a historically accurate picture of a Judean male from the first century, and talked about how these different images shaped our ideas of God.

Halloween was quiet. Jeff and Kirsten came over, and we made supper, carved jack o'lanterns, and watched movies, waiting for trick or treaters. Only two came, so with great reluctance we ate the candy ourselves. After they left I was on duty in the Church. Last year there was significant damage in the graveyard at Halloween, thanks to vandals, so Peter wanted someone there all night. He stayed till 11:30, then I stayed till 5 am. A parishioner came by and sat with me til around 2, and then I was on my own. I sat in the church reading a book, and did periodic sweeps of the graveyard. No vandals, although one woman had decorated her daughter's grave with a jack o lantern, which was sort of creepy at 1 am.

Probably as a result of staying up all night in a draughty church, I am now sick. I've got a sore throat and stuffy nose. I spent today drinking lemon ginger tea. It is very difficult to be creative when your head is full of cotton.

I'm finalizing all my things for the ordination! November 30, 4:30 pm, by the way. I've chosen my lay presenters - my buddy Jeff, who some of you met, and Auntie Barb, who is able to make it down. I was really glad that Auntie Barb could come. It turns out that some old friends of hers from Yellowknife are my parishioners!

Almost Had Some Company This Weekend

but the weather has stopped them.. Laura and Wilf were supposed to bring Henry back this weekend, but after they got up this morning and the roads were terrible they decided to put Henry on a plane instead. Then Geoff called, said he was bringing the kids back, and wanted to stay the night. Then a call a couple of hours later, to say they decided to wait until tomorrow. because the roads were terrible. As I look outside and see the snow still coming, I am happy to be in my house and not out shoveling the snow.

I have decided to change my work hours again, and have gone back to working 5 days a week. I think it will be OK, and I am glad to be home earlier during the day. I have booked a couple of days off in May to attend Will's convocation in Vancouver, I am really looking forward to it.

A Down and Up Week

This is the time of year that we do our performance appraisal (or in IBM acronym PBC). I hate it but a necessary evil. To top that off I received a call from my manager to talk about BU (billable utilization). Mine is too low. So that just set me off, I felt very emotional about it for some reason, most of the time I don't care, I try and do a good job, and if more time is needed I put it in, but I don't work just to get my BU up. Even though I knew Lucy (manager) was just the messenger, she was the brunt of my anger. So no one can say I don't work hard, and that I am not effective, but putting in more hours does not mean better work. I have decided that when IBM says we need more work life balance what they are really saying is "How can you balance your life so you can work more" so all in all a crappy meeting. A couple of days later, we had a Town Hall (aka staff meeting) to meet the new Managing Partner for GBS (group of IBM that I belong to). I was not expecting much, but was very surprised. Her name is Lisa Caldwell and her background is diverse not all working for IBM, so she has a different outlook than a lot of IBM executive. she has only been in the job for 60 days, but can already see lots of the issues. Some one asked about BU and she sounds like she is trying to get it to be a little more realistic (the target right now is 94%, if I work 4 hours per week extra, never take a sick, training or any thing other than vacation and stats, I can just make it). I asked why we keep getting the line that training is important, but of you don't take it in the first two quarters forget it, because it always gets canceled in the last two. And why every year for the last 10 years I have worked for IBM, we are asked to move vacation into the next year, if not taken by the third quarter, which if we do negatively impacts our BU for the new year(bit of a catch 22). I said it seemed like poor planning to me. She agreed. I do like my job, it can be stressful sometimes and I get a lot of job satisfaction, but some of the surrounding administration and directives from on high, make me wonder why I stay. So it will be interesting to see what happens in 2011, if Lisa will make a difference. And if not, then only 4 more years to retirement, I am sure I can last.

Just to round out the week, a cold is making it's way through the office, and I caught it, so I am taking Cold FX, hoping that will help it go away sooner, or at least the symptoms will not be too bad.

The weather has sorted itself out, beautiful blue Alberta sky and temps around 0, much more enjoyable than the - 25, -30 something with the wind chill. And next weekend Schmoozy and chocolates, so things are really looking up.

Labour Day

For which I got double time and a half for working nights. Thank you super stat, IH, and BCNU!
I am doing the SPCA walk, for which I have sent out emails. I don't generally like doing group emails like that, but it is the easiest way to do it. And it is for the amnimals. I'm going to see about borrowinig a dog for the walk.
We had a good visit with Nathan (nephew, Bill and Kathy's son, from Ontario). We went to Radium and Golden. White water rafting is so much fun! I think we should do it when in Golden next year. I would send pictures, which we bought, but they are on DVD and our computer does not have player. Humph. Anyway, Radium is only 1 hr from Golden, so we could do that there too. We took a look at the lodges that Theresa found, they look very nice. About ?20 minutes from Golden. Anyway, we camped in Radium, it rained, but Richard had bought a giant tarp, plus several others to add to our collection, so we were fine. We got back here on Wednesday, drove through Nakusp and went to those hot springs too, and then Thursday Richard had to work so Nathan and I biked the Kettle railway. That area was burned of course, but there was still a fair amount of trees left, and it is interesting to see how much has rejuvenated.
Richard is busy making his 2nd set of stew for lunches. we both hate making them, so this should help.
I am going to Dr's tomorrow. I have a weird pain in leg, right at top of thigh. Naturally, being a nurse, I am worried that I have a blood clot. well not really, but I have a hard time standing or walking for any time at all. It has to better by the walk. It came up the last night I worked, and I could barely make it to my car.
We are going to Vernon to meet a friend of Richard's from school and are thinking of going to Lumby for breakfast, though don't know if we'll have time before appt, so may have to settle for Vernon.
Joshua, nephew in Ontario has his surgery date for his heart/aorta and will be having it Sept 22nd.
All of the sudden fall is here. Nights are much cooler.
We have a new tenant downstairs, Tiffani. Yes, spelt that way. She has painted the living room, looks nice, a warm yellow which looks good with the wood. The previous ones are going to have a baby, so we promptly said, 'no babies here, we don't want to hear shrieking in the night'. Actually, they wanted a bigger place for obvious reasons.

Sunday Morning at Home

I am posting this from my deck, the sun is out, not too hot yet, I am listening to Tom Waits, as I wait for the Ferrey's to get up. Not that I am trying to compete with you Lisa, and how much you work, but flew to Toronto on Sunday, worked all week, flew home Friday, got home around 7:30 pm, and leaving again at 2 pm to go back. Less than 4 twelve hour shifts (back to back) at home, work all week again get home next Friday at about 10.

The flowers on my deck look amazing, Thank you Allison for the good care you took of them, I was pretty sure I would get home and they would be dead, after more than two weeks of no care, since my designated gardener was also away. What a nice surprise.

All of the Ferrey's (that are in the country), are at my place right now, it was Jesse's wedding this weekend. My living room looks like a hostel, and I feel as though I am back on the boat, trying not to make too much noise, so I don't wake up the sleeping beauties. Most of the company arrived on Friday night, so we walked across the bridge to the High Level Diner, had supper and came back home. Saturday we got up and had breakfast, then everyone left to get ready for the wedding, and I went downtown to shop a bit. As I was leaving the restaurant I ran into Rem, doing his weekly fruit and veg shopping at the Farmers Market. He said that this year he and Stef were not going to lay a tarp, but visit with others on the hill, so I said they should make sure to come and sit with us for awhile. I am always surprised when I run into someone I know, randomly like that, not sure why, but I feel good when I do.

Mom and I got the cd of the history that Hugh Robins put together, it is very interesting, some great old pictures, and now I am starting to remember who belongs to who (e.g. Hugh is Frank's son). If anyone wants to download it, I will gladly share the cd with you.

Looking forward to seeing Laura and Lisa in a couple of weeks, also looking forward to working from home in another week, then I can really enjoy my flowers