5 working days...
That is all.
The days be crawling...
but at least it's forward.
And yea, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth...
Unsurprisingly, not everyone is greeting the news of my pending departure with words of encouragement and congratulations.
We're Coming Home
I received the offer via HR over the phone, and although it will mean a modest pay cut from my current wage it's still more than I was expecting the VA to offer. I accepted and the paperwork train is leaving the station. I'll have loads of credentialing fun as well as the requisite physical and security checks in the coming weeks. Not to mention dealing with the fall out of my departure from my current position.
Anticipation...
fucking sucks. I don't care what Carly Simon sang. Waiting for the phone call now. And slowly dying inside...
Well I'm working here in Jackhole town...
And the "soldiers" are trying to bring me down
and it's getting very hard to stay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
and I'm stuck right here in jackhole town...
the "brave" lament their lot in life
they've had to deal with all this pain and strife
even though they've not deployed a day-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
just another day in jackhole town
the "intrepid" need their MRIs,
percocet and duty day profiles
why was my sergeant so mean today-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
and I'm dying here in jackhole town
Every "fighter" has a pretty good shot
To get as much as the other "hero" got
They never sacrificed in the first place
"Heroes" throw the flag in our face, oh oh oh.
it doesn't matter if you lie
we just don't want to make you cry
soon or late you'll get your way-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
when your a citizen of jackhole town
Whatcha talkin bout Willis?
Zee job, she has been offered...
I said that in my best impersonation of John Cleese impersonating a frenchman. Oh, and since you'll ask, we already got one. You know, a grail. Of the holy variety. Annnnnyyyywhhhoooooo, I got the job offer and now my resume goes before the committee and they decide what I'm worth. I'll get the salary offer by the end of next week hopefully. If it's adequate, the lumbering beast that is our worldly possessions and associated accoutrements will begin the journey northward.
Auto tune for guitar
The official get your shit together campaign starts today
Despite a regular running schedule for the last few years, I have been incrementally adding the lbs to the point where I've gained back about 15 lbs since I got back from Afghanistan nearly two years ago. I plan to reverse that direction, hopefully over the next few months so I can be back to my post deployment weight by the end of the Summer. I need to lose 1-2 lbs a week, so I'm just mainly going to need to watch what I eat more and continue my current 25-30 mpw running schedule.
Hope for chronic pain
An interesting brief talk on the nature of chronic pain and future developments.
Waiting for an answer
The interview went well, now I'm just waiting for my potential boss to talk to some of my references and then tell the HR folks thumbs up or down as the case may be.
'Sup
A lot of not much has been happening lately. I continue to pursue employment opportunities in grand ole D/FW. I'm waiting to hear back for an interview in the upcoming weeks. It's for a job with the VA, working out of a clinic in Ft. Worth. This should be a good opportunity on multiple levels. 1- It's in D/FW. 2 - It's a federal job (service, benefits, stable) 3- it's in a specialty in which I have alot of experience and can see myself staying long term. Hopefully the salary will be close to my expectations, assuming they actually offer me a job. I'll definitely have to take a pay cut from my current contractor position, but that's to be expected for a federal job. We'll see. On another professional note, I took and passed my recertification exam. That's a big professional check off that I won't have to worry about for another 6 years, or even 10 if they change the standard like has been discussed. I got the results only two days after taking the test which is much better than it was in 1998 when I took my first certification exam. I think I waited around 6 weeks to find out if I passed.
lazing on a Saturday afternoon
Today's been a good day. Went for a nice long run, awesome tasty barbecue with the wife unit, enjoyed some good beer,watched porcupine tree...
Thanks, Yngwie.
Leave it to Yngwie to say one thing in an interview that actually solves a problem I've been struggling with for a long time. There was a question about speed (with Yngwie of all people) and he said "If you don't have your left and right hands synchronized, you'll never play fast." Now, this seems like common sense, but it's one of those fundamentals that seems so simple you don't think about it. The most effective way to synchronize your left and right hands is to play with a metronome (or equivalent) only at a speed that you can play the material perfectly. I've heard this over and over, but sadly I had gotten away from metronome playing for a long time. Since I started incorporating 5 minutes of steady metronome scale playing a few weeks ago I've already started to notice improvement in my fast scale playing. Yeah, I'm kind of a genius. Or an Idiot Savant with heavy emphasis on the former.
New Guitar Day Approaches
The longest anticipated guitar I have ever purchased is in the hands of Fedex and on the way to my house as I type.
Cowboys looked like a different team.
The Cowboys were 14 point underdogs going into the game at Giants stadium yesterday. Their abysmal year that led to Wade Phillip's firing last Monday was the main reason I hadn't previously posted anything about them so far this season. Interim head coach Jason Garrett must have put something in the water, or he has supernatural motivational speech chops, or maybe they are just reacting to a new situation. Whatever the cause(s), they came out and played with a fire that has been missing for weeks. It was a strange victory, with a couple of key plays (101 yard interception return for a TD) that made the difference although we didn't necessarily dominate any phase of the game. Other than big momentum plays, that is. We had several of those. Regardless of the post season implications (still essentially null and void at this time), it was fun to watch and at least gives us some potentially competitive games to enjoy for the rest of the season.
100 miles in 4 weeks
I managed to cram 30 miles into the last 4 days. I'll try and stay on schedule for the next month so I won't fall so far behind my pace this time. I haven't calculated my marathon training plan cumulative totals for the next month, but with ever increasing long run day distances, I might meet the goal a bit earlier than 4 weeks.
Tropes...
I'm not talking about the overused TV themes kind of tropes. No, this is merely a salutation using my best commanding officer pronunciation of "Troops". I think they send field grade officers to a special class on how to speak majestically when addressing your Tropes. Words like Godspeed and Fourscore are also highly encouraged.
Anywho, it's been awhile. Life has been tumultous, but overall predictable since last I posted. Back in August I was preparing for retirement and was going to start working as a contractor at a Ft Hood clinic. Since that time I declined that job and ended up taking a federal job for a new off post clinic that the Army was building in Killeen. Now it's going on mid-November and things are probably going to come full circle. I'm currently in the process of taking a different contracting job on Ft Hood, maily because it's about a 35% pay hike. Without going into detail, I'm thinking about going back to school in a few years and short term earning potential is paramount since I won't be able to work much after starting school.
On the fitness front I have been training to run the Austin 2011 Marathon next February. This will be my first marathon so I started training several months in advance. I just completed a half marathon last weekend, which was actually a few weeks ahead of my training schedule but it was a memorial run for the November 5th shooting victims and it seemed like a good coincidence and a worthy reason to run. I ran in 1:44 which I was pretty happy with since my marathon goal is to break 4 hours. I had a short term goal of running 100 miles in 30 days (at the insistence of the Nike+app, actually) and I need to run 8.5 miles today to meet that goal. I have been keeping a pretty steady running schedule, but the occasional Saturday over-indulgence in sudsy beverages has caused me to skip an occasional long run which is usually scheduled for Sunday.
On the musical front not much is different. I had been in an acoustic phase for the last several months but began playing electric a few weeks back. I'm getting gradually closer to "Endless Road" which has lived up to its name. I started playing electric again out of natural jonesin and also looking forward to getting my Suhr Modern a la Frankenstrat here in the near future. On the piano front, I had actually signed up for piano lessons at a little studio here in Harker Heights and took four lessons over the course of a month. The teacher was nice enough but it was very regimented and strictly by this beginner's lesson book. It would have been good for me to learn sight reading, but I'm more interested in learning songs and don't really see that it's worth the effort to get fast at sight reading. So, I quit taking lessons and I'm back to just playing my selection of songs. I've added "Linus & Lucy" which is challenging but alot of fun.
A long drive to Colorado, Rush, and back
We returned home Friday after driving 16 hours both ways to see Rush in Colorado. We spread the drives out over two days each time, staying over at the posh Amarillo La Quinta, home of musty air conditioning and pet droppings in the grassy patches. The long drives and seedy motel stays were worth it since we got to see Rush in what's probably one of the best venues in North America, Red Rocks in Colorado. Built out of a natural amphitheatre in the mountains outside of Denver, Red Rocks is a mixture of natural beauty with a man made venue overlaying it in seamless fashion. The staggered stadium style seating means that everyone in the place has an unobstructed view of the stage, a rarity for most concert venues.
The weather was mild and beautiful, and the crowd were fully energized for a night of classic progressive rock from its pre-eminent power trio. The set list didn't disappoint with their typical mixture of old and new (including two songs from their forthcoming album) with the classic "Moving Pictures" being the feature of their second set. "The Camera Eye" is a song I never expected to see Rush perform, and it was a truly moving experience to hear it live for the first time. The show featured all the requisite Rush lights, video, sound, pyrotechnics, with a set list to satisfy everyone who came to the show. They played all the expected hits but threw in enough deep cuts to satisify their stalwart loyal. In addition to TCE, they played La Villa Strangiato, Leave That Thing Alone, Stick It Out, Presto, Faithless, and several other deep cuts. Their two new songs "Caravan" and "BU2B" were ideally suited to live performance since both are pretty hard rocking tunes. A fantastic show as always and we're looking forward to seeing them again in Houston next month.