It's Time to Take Down the Christmas Lights

We got back this afternoon from a fun trip up to Marble Falls/Austin/Round Rock. We were there to attend the wedding of a college friend of Kayla and Bethany. It was an outdoor wedding, and the weather was a little iffy for awhile, but aside from it being a little on the cool side, everything went well and we all had a good time. For a change Kayla and Bethany weren't bridesmaids. This time around they were members of the "house party" which is really a pretty good gig. Unlike bridesmaids - who have to cough up some cash for a dress - the house party girls operate as more or less honored guests. They're not quite in the starting line up, but they are still members of the team. No dresses to buy, but they still get to attend all of the wedding festivities - bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal dinner, good seats up-front at the wedding, and they get in the official group wedding pictures. Like I said - a pretty good gig. And, oh yeah, Cody did make the starting line up on the groom's side. He was an official tux-renting groomsman.

While in Marble Falls we were guests of the Simmons's at their recently acquired/renovated house on Lake Buchanan, which was also the site of the bridesmaid luncheon on Friday (which was hosted by Vicki and Diane Simmons). I hear it was a great event for all who participated. This morning we had fun sitting around with our girls and with several of their ACU friends who had come to town for the wedding and then crashed at the Simmons' place last night. On our way back to Sugar Land we made a quick stop in Round Rock to drop off Bethany and Cody.

When we got back home I dropped Vicki off and drove over to the church building to attend a screening of the video of the Joseph show. As I was driving into the parking lot I was thinking that we're a little like those people who leave their Christmas lights on until the middle of January because they don't want the fun to end. The video was entertaining to those of us who had never really seen the whole show from start to finish. We laughed and applauded and teased each other. But, enough is enough. Tonight was it. The show is now officially over. Turn out the lights, take down the tree - it's time to move on.

Speaking of moving on, I found out this past Friday that I'm on the committee that will plan the entertainment for this year's FCCC Winter's Eve program, which is our annual Christmas extravaganza. Our initial plan is to make this year's show a little more of a variety show instead of just a series of singing presentations. We plan to introduce a little more humor than is customary.

This past Thursday was my Second Mile day and I spent my time building a table. A table, you ask? Why a table? Well, it seems that a local company donated a very functioning copier to Second Mile that is far superior to the one they are current using. However, they neglected to donate the stand that the copier formerly sat on, which is necessary so that the sorter, stapler, collator attachment can be used. So, in order to make everything work together it was necessary to find a table that was 15 1/4" high. After unsuccessfully scouring the warehouse for such a table I decided that the best thing to do was to build one, which I did using scrap lumber that I found laying around. As you can see from the picture below, it won't be mistaken for an Ethan Allen original, but it will hopefully serve the purpose.


My job search is going nowhere and I am starting to get really disgusted with the whole thing. When I think about what's transpired to put me into my current situation I get more than a little irritated. Until November 2007 I was working for a perfectly good company. It was profitable, well-managed, highly respected within the industry, and generally a very enjoyable place to work. Then along came Transocean - the antithesis for GlobalSantaFe. As a company Transocean was years behind GSF in its use of technology, it relied on systems that were inferior to those of GSF on all fronts, its policies, procedures and documentation were out-of-date and generally not effective, and it was a sweat shop with a rampant employee turnover problem. Since the takeover, the CEO's of both companies - the two guys most responsible for this disaster - have extracted their financial windfall and bailed, as have almost all of the members of the senior executive teams of both companies (the SVP of HR of GlobalSantaFe being the most notable exception). I'm not sorry that I have had the opportunity to escape from Transocean - to the contrary, I'm thrilled to be gone - but I'm starting to get just a little bit bitter that this whole unfortunate turn of events ever happened in the first place. If there's any silver lining in this whole situation it's that it has allowed me to refocus on what is really important in my life, which is my faith and my family. Whatever happens over the coming months (years?) I'll rely on God to point me in the direction He would have me go. Sorry for the rant. It won't happen again (at least not again soon)!

This coming week has several notable and exciting events on tap. I have an appointment on Tuesday regarding my upcoming colonoscopy. I promise that there will be no further details on this event. I'm also going to borrow my neighbor's pick-up truck and get a load of top-soil for my drought-ravaged front yard. Keeping with the yard/lawn theme, I'll also be spraying my back yard with whatever chemical I determined is required to kill brown patch, which with the advent of slightly cooler weather has invaded and is beginning to wreak havoc with the green grass that survived the summer. I also plan to file my first claim for unemployment benefits this week. I'm guessing that that will be both fun and exciting.