Wow, it'll be one year at this position on the first of November. How time has flown.
Things have improved tremendously. Most importantly my back has been comfortable enough that I'm able to play tennis again. I played last week and both days over the weekend. I'm pretty out of shape, but my plan is to play Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. If I can manage that for a few weeks I definitely will be in much better shape within a month or two.
Married life is great. My Wife is the most giving, generous, wonderful woman in the world. She puts up with my crap and smiles about it.
Work was pretty tough initially in this job. There wasn't much training and I really didn't know what I was doing. I found out I did things wrong when I made mistakes. I had a month or so in the early Summer when I was on medication for my back and I sort of spaced out for a few weeks. I came to work, but wasn't here. I got written up for it, but the day I met with my boss to go over the Performance Improvement Plan, I had been off the medication for a couple of days and was feeling like myself again. I started meeting weekly with my boss and going over my projects. It helped keep her in the loop and helped me get much more organized. After 4 weeks of it, I was deemed improved and doing well. I do feel much better about what I do here. There's much I don't know about how our bureaucracy works, but I'm learning. I'm comfortable enough now to be much more efficient.
Unfortunately there's a lot of time where there's not too much to do between projects and that does make some days really drag. Other, busier days are nice. This is a marvelous place to work and I'm eternally grateful that I was lucky enough to get hired full-time at a company where 200 out of 700 in the building are contract employees. That's 29% of the people in the building. Really a shame. We lost three contract people in our department and none are being replaced.
My boss is a Saint though. Calm, patient, knowledgeable - she's the best boss I ever had. She doesn't micro-manage at all, but is available to help with anything you need. I do tell her frequently that I think the world of her, she deserves it. She's also a very nice, pleasant person with a decent sense of humor. I couldn't ask for more. Most of the people here are like this. There doesn't seem to be too many bulls in the China Shop at this company. They just wouldn't fit in too well.
My little Grandson has started Kindergarten. I picked him up from School last Friday. It's amazing how quickly this little 5 year old is growing up. We met his friend and his Mom and Sister at school. The little boy invited himself over and I said sure. They rode their bikes to the house. I went into the computer room to help them put a disk in one of the machines. When the game was up and running my little boy said "you can go into the other room now" pointing to the living room. I just laughed and laughed. He was so serious and impossible to resist.
We took him to a Church Carnival and a Pumpkin Festival on Saturday. He had a great time, running around and trying everything. This little boy is the greatest gift I've ever had given to me. Having him in our lives has brought a wonderful light and purpose into our lives. We both are so crazy about him it's almost comical. But he's a very good boy and really appreciates the love.
