How ironic

When I got out of work today, I went to my truck and it would not start. I thought it was funny. I just paid it off and not it would not start. I sat in the parking lot for an hour and then Dad was able to give me a jump. hopefully there will not be any more issues anytime soon, but I will take it in tomorrow to have it checked out.

Paid in Full!

Isn't that a wonderful statement? Well, I have been working at Children's Hospital this week and I stopped by the credit union to see what is left on my truck. I saw what was left, though hmm... then came back to my office and did a web transfer from my savings to my checking, grabbed my checkbook and payed it off. Only eight months early. So, I now own my truck free and clear.

Excitement at the General

I got to work today and I noticed some smoke from the other side of one of the buildings across from the main building. When I was crossing the street to the main building I saw a bunch of people running across to that area. I decided to just head up to my office... I would be able to see that area from one of the offices up on my floor. When I got in the build I notice there were not many lights on but really did not think twice about that. I got to the elevators and they were out, so I ran up the stairs to the fifth floor. There was no power in my area and the data center was on generator power. I looked out the windows on the one side and there was smoke coming from the power house. The fire trucks started showing up shortly after that. The A building, the tower, was mostly on normal power and the rest of the site was all on generator power. Well, the hospital was now at a code orange status(disaster). I got a page from the code orange command center that they were not able to get the phones working, so I headed down there. Come to find out someone had decided to move the command center to an unused area in the A building, because there was no power in the boardroom, where the command center is suppose to be. They should have stayed in the board room and opened the curtains. Well, I got a couple of phones working for them and they pulled out the emergency cell phones. Because I was there, I became the IST person for this disaster. So, there were Administrators, managers and then me in the command center. I ended up stay there for most of the morning, relaying information. A little before 11 o'clock, the COO came in and briefed us on what the electric company was saying at that point. They were still in the process of seeing what damage there was, and that we were likely not going to be back to full power most of the day. At this point it was decided that I could be pulled out of the command center and head over to Children's Hospital, where I was suppose to help out this afternoon and all next week.

Book Review: Alone Together by Jack Weyland

This was a good book. It was quite the change of pace from the last book I read.

When I read, I put a lot of effort, well a lot of emotion into the book. I loose myself in the book, and I loose track of time. Since I read slow I could loose a lot of time. I put myself in the shoes of the different charactors and in a way share in their pains and their accomplishments. This book was no different. I really got into it. The main charater is very much like me. Parts of it really hit close to home for me. The end was a happy ending. I am glade. I love happy endings.

Great Escape

I have been doing a little kayaking lately. I would like to get out a few times a week. It is nice to escape from everything for a little while. I am able to the kayak and head over to this nice little launch area. They have a nice sign there that gives the distances on the different lengths of the creek. I usually take this kayak, but I do have a second. The other one is just an inflatable one. This one is a little bit easier to use, and you don't need to take five minutes or so to inflate it, just pull it out and go. I take the a-c routes, up one way and back the other. According to the sign it is about 3.1 miles. It is just a creek so no white water or any thing like that. It takes me about an hour and ten minutes. It is a nice little trip. There are all kinds of animals along the way. i usually see several turtles, and groundhogs. There are always lots of birds( lots of ducks, seaguls, cranes, pigeons, I have seen hawks, redwing black birds, robins, and many I do not know what they are). I will see butterflies. Once in a while I will see deer, I saw two deer today - a buck and a doe. I want to find someone to go with me. I have been able to get missy out there... as amazing as that may seem. It took a little while to convince her, because of something that happened during the whitewater trip. She will take James out there every once in a while. I have been trying to figure out who in the ward would join me out there... maybe I can convince someone at some point. Of course I will take it easy with who ever goes, and I may go more often.

Back to Buffalo General

I had spent the past two weeks helping out other sites and finally got back to the general today. It was nice to be back in my office, but there is a lot of work piled up there. they really got behind while I was gone. Joyce, the team lead, was really glade that I was back. It is kind of interesting to see how much she relies on me.

Problems with Analytics and RSS Readers

First of all, that rss reader leads you to a feeling of having read everything, but does not let you know about the comments. sometimes the comments are a lot better then the original post. Then this RSSreader I have every once in a while will pop up and say I have new feeds and show some old post. It looks like the Analytics software does not recognize if somene views the site through the a RSS Reader, or feed.

Book Review: Out of My Later Years by A. Einstein

This was an interesting book. It is made up of several essays and letters by Einstein. It was very interesting to read his views and thought process in several different areas. Only a part of this book deals with math, and that part is really neat to see how conclusions were arrived at. It seems like he put a lot of effort into trying to prevent war. He seemed like a very humble person. In a couple of places he stated that what he was writing was just his views based upon his experiences, and he invites all to think for themselfs. At some point I will reread this book. I think this may be the type of book you will get new things out of each time it is read.