A Gathering of Random Strays

I hit a bit of a bump last week and just could not find anything to say worth writing, so rather than simply fill a space with pointless drivel, I decided to skip the whole process and move on to other things. Not willing to let that happen a second week running, I decided that I really needed to post something this week. I think this week will really live up to my blog's name. Please forgive me if coherence or continuity seem horribly absent.

Stray Thought #1
January is all but complete and things have mellowed somewhat at work. I have decided that I have no desire, whatsoever, to visit New York City or much of northern New Jersey. I am not so shallow that I truly believe that everyone there acts entitled and rude, but I have dealt with enough people who do the last four weeks that it has put me off that area entirely; at least for now. I have developed a bit of emotional armor plating (something I'm not sure I am all that grateful for) that helps me deal with the ruder, more belligerent callers, but it still has it's chinks. Friday I got ripped a new one by a UR nurse from that area who was complaining about how unprofessional the care managers were being, all the while acting completely unprofessional with me. When I told her I would have to transfer her to the assigned person, she said, "That's just great. Now I get to play phone tag all day" in a very rude manner. It was all I could do to not say, "Yep, and you're it!"

Stray Thought(s) #2 (With pictures!)
Nasty calls aside, there have been some very positive things happen in the last couple of weeks. I got my time off, so Yellowstone and Arches are looking like they will happen now. I actually aced my first audit at work, which was nice. We finally got the car fixed so we do not have to drive around with eyes glued to the rear view mirror anymore. We had a snowstorm that was very beautiful, leaving the mountains looking amazing. I finally made it to a meeting of our Manly, Manly Book Club and had a great time. It has been a long time since I have had an intelligent and respectful discussion with people of so many differing view points (and the sushi was great). Merilee and I got to walk home in the snowstorm after the BYU-UVU hockey game on the 22nd; nothing quite like walking in the dark with three inches of snow on the ground and more coming down (we'll forget about the clueless driver that almost hit us in the crosswalk on 900 E). The hockey game was great fun as well.

Stray Thought #3
I found out two weeks ago that I was supposed to have a ward history into the stake by the 15th so they could have them to church headquarters by the 30th. With the bishopric and me all being new at the same time, somehow this requirement of my position was missed, so I had to get something together. I finally put together a rather brief (though fully illustrated) history that I hope will pass. Now, at least, I know that I will have to do this next year, so I will be paying much closer attention to things than I did for the last 6 months. I had even fruitlessly looked on the church Web site and scoured the distribution center for anything to help when I first started. I finished what I submitted promising that 2010 would be better.


Stray Thought #4
On a similar note, I learned a valuable lesson yesterday regarding church service. The bishop had sent me a photo from one of the missionaries serving from our ward to print so it could be posted on the bulletin board. Now, I have some older Kodak photo paper that I thought would be perfect to use because it would help to use it up. I'm rather ashamed to admit that I thought that it was only a photo for the bulletin board, so the Kodak paper would be good enough. Well, I learned 'good enough' is definitely not good enough. The paper did not take the ink well and it looked very dark. I later reprinted the photo using my best paper and it was amazing the difference. Lesson learned: when the bishop asks you to do something, use only the best tools available.


Stray Thought #5
While I am still enjoying winter, I am ready for spring to arrive. This is mainly because I am really wanting to go hiking again. I don't have the gear to go tromping through the snow (no snowshoes are rated for people of my girth, I have found) and I just want to disappear up in the mountains for a spell. Merilee and I may head down to Zion in a couple of weeks if the weather is going to be nice and if we can afford it. At this point, April seems so far away.

Well, that is probably enough for now. I could probably spend more time writing, but I will hold that back and perhaps do the unthinkable....write in the middle of the week (gasp!). We'll see what next week brings.