Hello Again

Long time no hear I know. Life has gotten away from me in so many ways of late. No time to go into great detail right now but here is a brief overview of happenings:

Me: I am basically half nuts by now. I have been working crazy hours. Literally 18 hours a day on average, through the weekends, through some nights.... There are a lot of pressures at work, deadlines etc. But more than that Nortel is going through another round of significant layoffs. Particuarly in Raleigh. I, at this point am unprepared to be out of a job. I need to get a resume together. I have one but just a skeleton really. I need to start looking around, building a network of contacts etc. Something that withers when you have been employed for 11+ years at one place. This is the first time in the many layoffs over the years that I have successfully dodges that I feel significantly threatened. I guess I have let work take over so much of my life in an attempt to keep off the top of the layoff list. Unfortunately we are at the point It does not really seem to make a difference how good you are.... Anyway I have 2 issues that I have made commitments to that I will get done (for myself as much as anything). I am working as hard as I can to get those done but after that I am going to dial back significantly. Thing have gotten out of control. If a customer has an outage that is one thing. But no more round the clock shifts for internal "priority" issues.

Karen: Has been very good about the hours I am working, she is picking up my slack where she can around the house. Very stressful for her. As I think I mentioned before, she had some heart tests done. She was having irregular heart beats etc. From all professional accounts they are really nothing to worry about. But they are annoying. Karen has always been good about exercising and eating right, she limits caffeine and can be satisfied with a small desert where many of us would go for the triple size. Even still she is cutting back on tea etc with the hope it will reduce the occurrences. As it turns out the largest contributing factor appears to be stress. And I ain't helping her any. She is a strong woman. It took me too long in our marriage to appreciate and understand her strengths and virtues. It is too easy some times to see and dwell on a person's weaknesses or at least perceived weaknesses. Let see, I am 42, have been married for 20+ years and am just learning what it means to be in and appreciate close personal relationship. Another area I need to spend some time strengthening. I love ya Karen. I will be back with you soon, maybe without a job but we will get through that as well.

Bob: Is doing well at ECU. Getting good grades. We signed a lease on a house for next year for him and 2 friends to live off campus in. He had a really sweet, on campus, job lined up after the Christmas break. The job was such that he had to quit his job at the Apple store in the mall (non compete clause or something). The new job was a set salary and would have paid him throughout the year (even through summer). The job entailed basically being the Apple Computer rep on campus. Helping professors and students with questions, demo-ing software, planning Apple-centric events on campus etc... Well, 3 weeks into his job, he was laid off. Funding cuts. That left him with NO job. He is working on lining something up for the summer however.

Tyler: We are really proud of Tyler. He has always been a good student. Maybe 1 C in his whole school career. (English, what can I say). This year particuarly he has kicked it up a notch. He is taking high level courses and getting all but straight A's... Even in English! He has figured out the true meaning / purpose of studying. (something lost on most kids, even in college) He studies in ordered to be prepared to learn. Think about that. A different thing than studying to learn / catch-up / reinforce what has already been taught. I don't know where this insight came from. I just wish I had it oh so many years ago. Anyway, he is doing well in Band. The Jazz band swept the UNC State Jazz festival a few weeks back. They also opened for Maynard Ferguson and received high praise from him. (Very exciting for Ty and me.) He has a paying 'gig' coming up as well.

Tyler recently got a job. He has not officially started or even been hired. He has to go through some aptitude test and drug screening before officially being offered the job. But that should not be an issue. He decided after marching band season that he wanted to get a job. And he wanted a job at "Harris Teeter" (regional grocery store chain). He did not apply anywhere else. After a couple of months, (and some prodding from one of his friends that work there) he finally got the call. We will let you know how that goes.

Kyle: He seems to have started to figured out the High School thing. There were some rocky grades the first couple of quarters. We shall see how his third quarter grades are but from what we can tell they look to be pretty good. He also has high academic goals and is starting to see what it will take to meet them. Early this Winter Kyle decided he wanted to make the H'S golf team. His grandparents agreed to pay for some lessons with a pro to see if he had any potential or aptitude in the game. The initial agreement was for 3 lessons. Kyle basically blew everyone away with his innate skill and his work ethic and drive to learn the game. Specially considering the closest he ever came to golf previously was a putt-putt course in Emeral Isle. Ultimately he did not quite make the team. A lofty goal after only 6 weeks of practice. He has not let it discourage him and he spends hours working on his swing. Kyle challenges our parenting skills/patience at times, specially recently. It's a learning experience all around. I won't go into details but we are working through things with him.

Michelle: What is this thing called a "GIRL" and where did it come from? When she was a toddler Karen would dress her up in frilly little dresses and that was my little girl. But as all kids grow they never want to wear what you want them to wear, and as parents we pick our battles right. Anyway the little girl disappeared and was replaced by a child. As different from the boys as the boys differed from each other. She was a kid. Tomorrow she turns 11. What is on her birthday list? A purse?!?!! Jewelry?!?!?! what is all that. Dad, watch out. She is doing fine in school generally. She too is in the "advanced classes". She recently has had some issues in math particuarly. Kinda hard to figure out because when you go over it with her, most times she knows what to do. But she will get low grades on quizzes and such. I had a conference with her teacher last week. She is as baffled as we are. She starts her spring intersession next week. We will do some math practice while she is off.

Michelle has taken up the saxophone. Grandma gave her some lessons for Christmas. And she has taken to it really well. She has learned to read the notes well and has really impressed her teacher. She is still trying to figure out how to be consistent with her tone and such. When she has it right, her tone is as good as many high school kids. But on occation we hear the typical beginning saxophone "honk". Tyler and Kyle have been great about helping her learn different parts of music. Kids tend to be rather self centric, specially teen agers. It's kinda neat when they slip up and help on another. Anyway Michelle played her saxophone in front of the girl scout troop and the parents. We were proud of her for having that courage, specially after only 6 weeks of even owning the horn. She was disappointed in her performance. While Karen and I have heard her play better, she did fine and we received many unsolicited comments from the other parents about how well she was doing.