Changes

The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy. Between the normal challenges of trying to get the housework completed and the lawn mowed while working a full day coupled with the waning evening light and some other distractions, it has been busy. The changing seasons always seem to bring changes with them. The summer to fall change seems to be the most dramatic though, as time in the form of daylight is snatched from us.

Last weekend we did a day trip up to Williston, VT to do the first day of a two day cyclocross race weekend. Usually we do the whole weekend but this year we decided not to make the commitment. The course was tough with lots of climbing and not much of anything in the way of technical features to play to my strengths or rather away from my weaknesses. As such, my performance was not stellar but in reality, it never has been at that venue. Cathy had a good race and all in all, it was a pretty good day. After the race, or rather, after Cathy came and rescued me from a flat rear Tufo Cubus on my pit bike caused by a sidewall scuff/tear that finally gave up on me, suffered during a post race cooldown ride on the roads of Williston, we went to get some food. I thought it would be novel to visit the iconic Al's French Frys, a landmark drive in on Willston Road in South Burlington that has been in business since the 1940's, the last time they changed the grease in the fryers. My mother told stories of it from when she went to school in Burlington and I remember it from when I was at UVM so many years ago. With a belly full of grease we headed for home.

Despite the changing season, the NEBC Junior Development Team has still been marching forward, albeit in a slightly diminished capacity given the new school year that is in full swing. That said, we just got yet another new member. There is still plenty of interest out there and clearly we are fulfilling a need. I'm still busy trying to cobble bikes together for the kids from club donations as well as insane amounts of donations from my good friend and primary enabler Chris at the Bikeway Source. This week we got in a nice team cyclocross practice that a bunch of the boys were able to make it to. Fun stuff though to mosquitoes are absolutely insane out there right now. It seems to be a perfect storm if you will, of those miserable little monsters. I'm hoping beyond hope for a good hard, killer frost in the near future. It doesn't look good for the short term forecast though.

We have also finally gotten into full swing on an addition that we are doing to our house. It involves a new deck off the back of the house connecting with a detached, three season room. We started the process way, way back in June, when our contractor buddy Wayne was dead busy and booked. We wanted to get moving so spoke with the contractor who has done all of the other work on our house over the years including the huge addition a number of years back, another good guy named Bill. After a later than expected start coupled with some permit delays, we finally got started a couple weeks ago. Progress has been good and the addition is going to be great once it is complete.

Speaking of changes, I recently got it in my mind that it was finally time for a work change. Over the past couple of years the work situation has degraded and the final straw was that an executive realized that because they consolidated all of the labs (primarily individual acquired companies) for the state of Massachusetts to a single lab, located centrally in god forsaken, public transportationless Littleton, people would spend more time working from home rather than wasting their time and money driving and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Who'd have thought? Well, he decided that it would be a good idea to mandate that everyone is instead physically in the office five days a week. Excellent.

So anyway, I finally got sick of complaining and decided to do something about it. I published my resume and started an earnest job search with the primary criteria of being within a few miles of home. This is totally reasonable given that we are positioned centrally in the heart of the MA high tech zone. It wasn't long before I got some interest and last week I went on my first interview in over eleven years (yes, I've been with the same company for a long time). The people seemed very nice and the job would be a good fit. The best thing was that the job is actually in my home town which if nothing else, would make me feel as though I'm being more responsible environmentally. You may laugh, but I do think about this more and more these days.

Yesterday the official offer came through. Apparently the very nice people that gave me references, lied. Now I need to decide. There are pros and cons to the whole thing as well as other details that further complicate things. Bottom line is that I need to figure out what is best for me and will allow me to maintain the lifestyle I have become so accustomed to living. That lifestyle is less about money and more about time to do the things that I really love. After a long soul search I've come to a realization which has brought me to a decision, a decision that is all too familiar. One that was a previous conclusion to a thread explored right here. Now I just need to act.