Tired

I went indoor rock climbing on Sunday. My arms were pushed to the point of shaking. Not from pulling me up the wall, but, from pulling me into the wall. Monday I didn't do much, besides work 'til 6. Tuesday I rode the stationary bike for 25 minutes (I'm really out of shape), noticing that from my heart rate monitor, I was moving between 140 bpm on the low difficulty settings and 175 bpm on the medium difficulty. Ugh. Then I did some weights for my upper arms, shoulders, and back. And then I did my PT.

After going to fencing & just reffing, I came home and collapsed. I was asleep at 10:30 and could barely wake up at 7am, when I had to be out of the house by 7:20 at the absolute latest.

We've decided against the house that we really loved, because of all that's going on around the house - while the immediate block is great, 3-4 blocks further its not very good. And right behind the house is a (well-kept) barn that is used for fundraisers. That and the school district isn't that good.

Its funny when I ask about school districts here at work. I can tell who is well educated and who isn't just by their answers. What it boils down to is that this is a semi-rural area, where over 50% of people don't go onto college or junior college. The school may be great for trades. Its not good for college prep.

So, we're looking further north.

Houses

We went house hunting today. There was one house I absolutely love. Its gorgeous (on the inside at least, passable on the outside). Its affordable. Its also huge. Much much larger than we can figure out what to do with.

So, I started researching the area. The local public schools, um, suck. Mostly vocational. They highlight the day care in the high school for teen parents (great idea IMO, but, how many teen parents are there???). Also, not very good scores, and less than half the school goes onto a 4 year college. Not that I have kids in high school, but its the whole thing about the area. So, I looked into private schools. The Catholic school (which is huge) seems pretty good. But.... its Catholic. Mandatory theology classes. And it doesn't solve the early education problem.

Crime rates are decent, generally at or below national averages.

What to do, what to do.

And then I heard horrible news from a friend. A terrible loss. I don't even know what to say. A great guy will be missed, but not forgotten.

Managing

So, I did my first management step today. It felt a little odd, particularly since I've never met the people I'm managing. But, I asked for status reports. Just really simple ones - what are you working on this week.

I've done reporting before. I've written more status reports than I know what to do with. I've never had to ask for status reports before. But, I need to know what's being worked on, but whom, if I'm to meet my first official goal.

I guess I'll find out tomorrow how it went. At my earlier than I would like 8am conference call. Which means leaving the house at 7am. Ugh.

New Phones

I have to get a cell phone for work (they limit the plan but pay for everything). And my Treo is dying. So, I'm getting two new phones this week. One for work, one for personal. I still haven't figured out if I get to keep my old number with the new phone.

Anyways, I've also decided to ditch the treo concept & go to two devices instead, mostly because I'm tired of having to look something up on the phone while I'm talking on it (like scheduling an appointment). So, back to two devices I go.

The real question on art

William Safire And Art That's Good for You:"American art used to confront and shame the art haters, exposing their provincial ignorance and bald hypocrisy, their cant and dogma and lies. Art used to be about more than convincing people that piano lessons will help your darling get into MIT. But no more. By limiting the debate to the idea that art is useful for developing practical skills, the arts world disengages from a more epic battle with forces in our society that prefer a world closed to questioning, impatient with the new or threatening, and comfortable only with certainties passed down from authority figures. Perhaps that's why these forces have recently taken on such prominence in our cultural discourse."

Wow. That's the best I've seen it put. I enjoy the classics. I have seen performance art. I have seen a number of controversial art exhibits, like the Piss Christ. And everywhere I look, particularly for music, organizations are failing. People no longer have jobs. People I know cannot get jobs in classical music. My violin teacher (a professional violinist with the MSO) has taken a 50% pay cut, lost all health benefits, etc. his wife was also a professional with the orchestra - bassoonist. That means their household income is halved. And they weren't making THAT much to start with.

As I look around cities, they are more homogenous than I recall them being. Strip malls in one city look exactly like strip malls in another. And if there's art around, its Thomas Kinkaid (blech). And that's it. The bookstores like Politics and Prose go away. The art galleries go away. The spaces for performances go away. Disney moves into Broadway.

We are suffering from a lack of vision. A lack of creativity. The solution to everything is corporatize, cut taxes.

Maybe we all need to look at how we spend our time and money. Avoid chains, if possible. Although then it brings into questions like local chains. Do I avoid lebanese taverna because it has 5-6 places around DC? Do I avoid a good sporting goods store that's only in one city (there's one in Boston who's name I cannot remember).

This is all made harder by living in StripMallHell(tm).

Settling In

I have been checking out fencing clubs. Most of them have reasonable rates (or at least floor fees). I met with Ariana at PdF and she said she would help me with my reffing (A rated ref in sabre). The club's a long drive (~40 minutes from work, 70 minutes from home). But its pretty good.

And here's the shocker. I was reffing sabre in practice. I reffed 7-8 bouts. There were only two complaints about my calls. And I mean complaints of the variety "but the point in line was established too close to be a PIL, it had to be an attack." The foil bouts I've reffed up here have also been extremely cordial. This makes the whole experience that much better.

My job is keeping me busier. Lots of meetings. Lots of working with spreadsheets. And a little bit of troubleshooting of things that are not going as well as they should be in the network.

I finally got a new group of contractors to agree to come out on one day to my condo so that I can get it ready for sale.

Oh, another shocker. I am up every (work) day by 7:30am at the absolute latest, usually 6:30. That's because I have to be at work usually before 8 for meetings, and its a 35-45 minute drive. This is a huge change from getting there at 10am, with a 10-15 minute drive if necessary.