Nearly Summer

It's been an interesting, somewhat challenging year.

Driving home one day I saw my kids on the front porch as I I pulled in. Ben was in his underpants. What was that about? They stepped out into the front yard and as I got out of the car Carina said "the house is on fire." A moment later I heard the fire alarm and my heart started racing.

I went in and checked. We had a small fire in the upstairs bathroom, a fair amount of smoke but not too much heat yet. I put it out by smothering it, and turned the fan right above off - it was a charred, melted mess and had obviously started the fire. The fire had moved up from the fan into the beams in the attic, which I couldn't really reach.

I told Carina to call 911 and tell them we had a house fire. The fire men were there less than 2 minutes later. With their oxygen equipment they were able to get above the fire in the attic and put it out quickly.

Everyone was fine, Carina & Ben handled it beautifully, and we're insured so it's not too bad. Deductibles suck, though.

Dana's health has been a concern. She went in for some reasonably major surgery, and hanging around in the waiting room as things ran long was unpleasant. She was fine, everything came out fine (the doctor showed me pictures of what got taken out - oog). One of those moments that forces you to consider mortality, even as you try as hard as you can not to.

My oldest daughter got married, so our family has gotten bigger. They live in an apartment in north Seattle and work hard for very little money the way young people always do. I hope they are enjoying life as much as they should, this really is a peak experience in their life: they'll never be so young, fresh, and innocent again. They make a beautiful couple and I hope, wish and pray that things go well for them on their journey together.

Work is hitting a peak as well - we're at the end of our product development cycle, when we have to finish making fixes and get the product shipped pretty soon. Keeps me busy. Last night I was mildly insomniac and checked my e-mail at 11PM. A coworker from Bangalore (India) had posted a follow-up question. I went ahead and followed up, remotely accessing a server in some lab in Bangalore (I assume, I only know it's IP address) to figure out what broke and how to fix it. By midnight or so I got it patched and he was able to get it upgraded, allowing him to move further into getting the next load tests going on that system. By the end of the e-mails it was ridiculously late, so I slept in a little and worked from home. Gotta love the commute - down the stair, down the hall. Take a seat.

Spring was unusually cold for the most part - a good snowfall in April, lots of cold late May and June days. As summer gets here we're getting maybe our second or third good stretch of the year, well into the 70s. It feels like it's been a long time coming.

We're headed to our cabin next week, we'll stay there for most of a week depending. No crabbing yet, not sure if we'll take the boat out. Probably will, we've got plenty of time to kill.