10 of 11 Over!!

So when you rotate and have a short break in between strings of shifts...more often you end up referring to it as blah out of blah. Last week I worked 5 shifts (Tues-Sat), had Sunday off, and then worked Mon-Fri....so yup...my 10 out of 11 is over! I would say it was bad, but that would be a lie. Usually, during these stretches when I have a very short break (<= 1 day) it honestly feels like 10 of 11. But I had such a great day off. I was able to not think about work at all, and I was outside the whole day... it was fabulous. For those few who work with me (who read this) and know the sagas of last Friday (regardless of apologies the next day) know that having that day off was incredibly important. The last five days were fine. I was given permission by the powers that be to switch shift duties with one of our interns so he could work on the short term forecast and I would be on aviation. It's great experience for him and (hopefully) will eventually lead to him becoming a forecaster. Regardless... my 10 of 11 is over...the sagas and dramas are over (for now)...and I'm on to enjoy a 3.5 day weekend (which means I start evening shifts on Tuesday night). It's really like a whole other language when you rotate. 

Friday evening has been great so far...Paul and I took the beagle for a walk, then went out to run some errands. We came back and an HD version of the Piedmont concert for Dave Matthews Band is on the music channel. It's as close to a concert of theirs as I'm getting to for a while, so I'm livin' it up. They'll be down in Denver the weekend of June 5th I think, but that's the weekend of our niece's graduation and my LEAD event...so no go. And trust me, I'd rather go to the graduation and the LEAD training than go to a DMB concert any day! :)

So only around 3 weeks until the LEAD conference. I'm really excited about it. I'm not so excited about the flights, but that's alright. It'll be worth it I'm sure. Plus, I don't think either of the flights are very long, which is a plus for me. We finally got the flights arranged through the government for my flights to Louisville. I have to change a portion of one of them so I can go to the niece's graduation...but it'll be worth it. That's in the plans for next week.

Anyhow, we're catching up on DVR shows are an awesome dinner of grilled hamburgers (Paul is still the king of the grill!!) and fresh fruit salad. Yum! Have a great weekend anyone who's reading this!

New Boat almost ready for maiden (to me) voyage

Well I spent part of Sunday afternoon working on the boat. I redid the wiring for the fish finder, filled the boat motor with gasoline and got it going on 3 pulls! Dad's excellent maintenance made sure of this, even though it had been sitting in the garage unused for 8+ years.

For those of you curious, the boat is an aluminum 12' Open fishing boat. The motor is a 4.5Hp Evinrude. Both the motor and the boat are from 1980. That's right... 29 years old. The boat is in excellent shape as it's never been on anything but gentle mud! Heh

At this point, I'm waiting on the G&F department to get me the boat registration information. Additionally, I'm waiting on my permanent trailer tags. In either case, I am good on my situation until mid-May if I choose to take the boat out.

Additionally, it looks like this summer I will finally pick up fly fishing. One of Katy's co-workers showed me the ropes and I'm currently waiting on the last of my gear so that I can start fishing. As of right now, I'm hoping to spend Memorial weekend fishing in several different ways, by boat & fly fishing!