From Wit’s End

Today marks the fifth anniversary of my arrival in Columbia.

Rachel and I both cleaned out our desks today. But it’s much better than it sounds.

Rachel recently accepted an offer with Netbank (which used to be RBMG) to help them write reports to the SEC and other press releases. This is a welcome change for her, because she won’t have to deal with 55-hour work weeks during tax season, or traveling out of town for days at a time. She gets a decent raise out of the deal, too. Netbank’s building in town is an abandoned Wal-Mart renovated to be a cubicle farm. Rachel says she’s just tall enough to see over the cubicle walls to see the grid as far as the eye can see.

I am accepting an offer to go over to the new Diesel Systems North America Division of Siemens VDO Automotive Corporation (SVAC). This is is basically a spin-off company made up of a significant portion of the R&D group of Siemens Diesel System Technology, a joint venture of SVAC and International Truck and Engine Corporation (ITEC). I moving from what has grown to be a fairly large factory employing about 500 people, to a smaller R&D facility employing a few dozen. This will be a return to the old days for me, as when I was a drafter at SDST when it was still in its temporary facility and only a few dozen people worked there.

There’s all sorts of funny converging circumstances with this. Before the change, Rachel had a monthly paycheck and I had a biweekly paycheck, and now it has switched. In my old plant, I could wear jeans every once in a while, and Rachel couldn’t, and now it has switched. Our respective commutes will both be about five minutes shorter.

On balance, it’s all good. We have each been worrying and praying about these things for a little less than two years now, and God has been better to us than we deserve.

And I’m glad it’s over.

1. Rachel was out of town for business training from Sunday night through Wednesday.
2. The tiresome and fake showboating in Boston this week.
3. This is the last week before my infusion, and i’ve been feeling kind of yucky.
4. gapless budget + end of the month = harrowing Thursday

But…

1. I only had to be at work for half a day today,
2. I received that aforemention infusion of grace this afternoon,
3. i managed to hit all three of the Office Depot locations in town today,
4. We both got paid today,
5. and It’s Friday!

So life is good.

My intrepid and lovely wife Rachel has been working 10 hours on weekdays and 5 to 8 hours on Saturdays for the past three months during this tax season, and we have been in survival and maintenance mode. But today is tax day, and Rachel is allowed to be a human being again. Lord willing, we won’t have to deal with such a harrowing schedule again for the foreseeable future. Let the gardening, travelling, and hospitality resume!

Long live the Attic!

Even after major and minor distributions of stuff to the other members of my family, there is 1.5 junk-room’s worth of stuff of which the disposition is yet to be determined. Hey-ho for the shipping stores, flea markets, and landfills! And yes, some things will end up back in the attic, but the sentimentality-usefulness value density for these contents will be greatly increased relative to the previous population. Whether this will be done before Tax Day as previously intended remains to be seen. Wish me fortitude…

self

27 years ago today, I was born. It’s funny, this year more than others, I have been flashing back to birthdays past…

• 15th birthday… Surprise cake with candles at the evening meeting of Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Tinton Falls, New Jersey
• 16th birthday… Eating a fresh strawberry out of the box in the fridge for breakfast first thing in the morning in Syracuse, NY and feeling the hope of Spring.
• 18th birthday… Birthday party at Aunt Bekah’s house in Germantown, Philadelphia, PA. For presents, I receive the jacket I wore all through college, and one of my most favorite CD’s for all of time.
• 19th-22nd birthdays… At Grove City College, Pennsylvania, getting a cake from my Mom (made by one of the ladies in my church), and sharing it at lunch and dinner with all of my friends, with a little bit left over just for me for the next few days.
• 26th birthday… In Columbia, South Carolina, the biggest birthday bash I have ever thrown, attended by 40 people throughout the day, with all kinds of food; Muppet Show videos, Legos, and hallway bowling for the kids, and birthday cakes baked by my future wife.

For those who are reading this, may your birthdays ever be full of friends and whatever is your equivalent of chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.