Sunday, April 01, 2007

Post Season Pain

The excitement and pain all left in an exhilarating, if frustrating, game a couple of weeks back. I took the only antidote I could and left for a few days to Hawaii so as not to see any of the news reports. It helped a lot. I didn't have to relive many of the what-ifs that invariably come up at work on Monday morning, and I could lose myself in a different kind of pain: listening to how many otherwise reputable scientist abuse and misuse our instrumentation to do supposed science.

I was at a 2 day conference in Waikiki on soil moisture, which mostly turned into a gripe session where the scientists tried to be forward thinking by ripping all types of probes on the market, demanding lower prices and better performance and generally suggesting industry sits around and grows fat off a lot of bad stuff. It was exhausting, in a word, and I was happy to return home to get back to some real work. Still, one day on a field trip got me a decent sunburn on my face, enough to have my workmates suggest I was enjoying a day on the beach instead of the meetings. I should have, it would have done me more good.

Another item high on the list of painful experiences was Emily and my visit over to the State Destination Imagination convention yesterday in Wenatchee. A school full of K-12th graders along with family entourages is not my favorite enviroment. Combine that with having to wait hours for anything to happen (i.e. performance, awards cerimony, etc.) makes it a very long day. Luckly, I was prepared and had brought a good book, the cell phone to listen to conference, and a map to the nearest Costco (1.5 mi. away). Although the day was painful, the ride over and back with Emily was completely the opposite. We had a lot of fun talking about lots of different stuff including why her team happened to take last place. This was particularly hard for her to deal with, but I think she is using it constructively.

Well, that's all for now. Keep up the posting.

3 Comments:

At 3:21 PM, Blogger tams said...

I find that being with Emily is a real joy these days too. I have marveled at how she was able to get over her whiny days and become a beautiful young woman!

 
At 9:15 PM, Blogger Kersten said...

Wow! You wrote another blog! Loved it sweetie! You're the greatest!

 
At 10:03 AM, Blogger Grandma's Musings said...

I was waiting for you to tell how you straightened out all those "scientists". Love to both you and Emily.

 

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