Fall, leaves, etc.

I know it's a cliche how time flies, but it certainly does, doesn't it? This summer especially had zipped by me. I wonder where it went. As the kids have gone back to school, which signals the end of summer, even tho' summer still has 3/4 of a month to go before it's officially Fall, I couldn't say that the cooler breeze is making a return. Because this was a cool summer in general around these parts. The past Friday and Saturday did give us a taste of real summer, hot and muggy. Insanely unbearable. It was a shame that bay area denizens do not have that much tolerance for hot and muggy. We get really grumpy in weather like that.

Friday wasn't really a problem as I was inside working all day with the temperature controlled to a pleasant level. But at night, the breeze was nowhere, it was in the 90s at 9 pm. Hot, hot, hot. And continued all thru Saturday, which really gave me a horrible headache and I had to run some errands in all that heat, yucky.

Thankfully, Sunday arrived with our usual cool weather, breezy at times, and manageable in the 70s.

So what was my point again? My brain doesn't work in hot weather; although my allergies disappear in hot weather.

Still, even with cool breeze all thru this summer, there is still something to look forward to with the arrival of Fall. The changing of the leaves, of course! I am a leaf peeper. Every year we drive some 200 miles to watch the leaves. Not much leaves can be seen around here so we have to drive far to see them. It's like a yearly pilgrimmage. If I don't make it to the pilgrimmage this year, no worries, I have plenty of shots from last year that didn't get posted yet.

On the drive to work today, I was listening to the radio as I always do. One thing got me thinking. The dj mentioned that the US is ranked almost in the bottom of the list on the number of paid time off (vacation time) per year. According to the news, the national average for US is 13 days (pathetic isn't it?). And the leader of the pack is France which gives its workers 38 days of paid time off annually.

I was really saddened by the data. So upon arriving on my desk I computed how much time I get each year. Of course I have been here in this place for 11 years, so my accrual is more than say a newly hired. I get a total of 299 point something hours, which translates to roughly about 30 days. Now we have PTO which combines our sick leaves and time off.

Oh I breathed a big sigh of relief upon learning how much time we truly accrue each year. Of course I don't take all of that each year. So far this year, I have had two 4-day trips outside of the state, which isn't really that much, but of course I also took a day here and a day there in between. Thankfully, what I haven't done much (can't remember one incident) this year was call in sick.

I was about to talk about September coming, but I'm quite tired now. Besides there's a whole month to talk about September. Plenty of time to do a post --- can you tell I'm a procrastinator?

I made it!

Oh yeah, I did! I made it thru this work week without calling in sick. It was a feat that I would celebrate with a beer tonight.

Since Monday I was feeling run down. Must be the allergy acting up all week --- sinus pressure, air in ear, ringing in ear, clogged nasal passages, dry itchy eyes, and raspy throat. I thought that it would definitely take a miracle to get thru this week without calling in sick. And I guess I got a miracle of some sort.

Each night as I get home, I feel exhausted. I would get my usual 6-7 hours of sleep (cant believe I get that much, I just realized that today) and wake up somewhat energized. Midway thru my day tho' I get very tired. But each day I wake up, there was enough energy in my body to get me to work and I'm really happy for that. Not that I don't have any sick time left. If my memory is correct, I haven't called in sick yet this year. I mean I had taken sick leaves, all for scheduled medical and dental appointments. On second thought, I'd rather leave the sick leave alone :)

Well, I have been quite busy with facebook. My high school friends are there, the ones I really hung out back then and that's all I do. I have invites to a farm of some sort, but truly I don't think I have time to tend to a cyber farm right now.

My Life (according to the Eagles)

I was tagged on Facebook by Gzel. And I always comply.

Here is the rule:

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions with that artist’s songs’ titles. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me. You can’t use the artist I used (Gzel used Michael Jackson). Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think!

Pick your Artist: The Eagles

Are you a male or female: Witchy Woman

Describe yourself: Desperado

How do you feel: Peaceful Easy Feeling

Describe where you currently live: Hotel California

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: New York Minute

Your favorite form of transportation: The Train Leaves Here This Morning

Your best friend is: New Kid in Town

You and your best friends are: Busy Being Fabulous

What’s the weather like: No More Cloudy Days

Favorite time of day: Tequila Sunrise

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: Heartache Tonight

What is life to you: Life in the Fastlane

Your fear: Hole in the World and No More Walk in the Woods

What is the best advice you have to give: Please Come Home for Christmas and Do Something

Thought for the Day: Learn To Be Still

How you would like to die: Take it Easy

Your soul’s present condition: Lying Eyes

Your motto: Love Will Keep Us Alive

[I thoroughly enjoyed this meme. And I did not find it difficult, maybe because I chose an artist/group that has 7 record albums and 2 live albums, and whose songs are somewhat reflective of my life. ]

This (bullet) and That (bullet)

Here's what's happening/going on whether you're interested or not :)

• I finally surrendered, caved in, succumbed to peer pressure ... er make that facebook pressure. Oh where would I find the time to update, help!

• Had entertained close friends (on two separate occasions) last weekend. Is this what they say that once you own a house, you will be entertaining?

• Attended my first Tomato Festival on Saturday. For $2, I got to sample as many different varieties of tomato as I wanted. My favorite was called Juliette.

• Attended my first RELAY FOR LIFE (an American Cancer Society fundraising) after the tomato festival. Will return to walk longer next year, God willing.

• Had to ask two different people (friend and boss) this question, ARE YOU READY TO LET GO? Both have family suffering from the big C, looks terminal for both cases. My heart is breaking especially for my friend's sister, who also happens to be an ex-co-worker. She is suffering too much. May God relieve a little of her pain, and reassure her that it would be all right.

• Reconnected with some friends from high school. Ah the magic of the world wide web.

• I want a little road trip, a weekend get-away preferrably near the ocean, Mendocino is my choice.

• It took me two weeks to locate the box containing our iron. I need to have my clothes pressed so it was a major relief to finally track down the iron.

• Oh my Shah Rukh Khan had a memorable experience with the airport people. Really, who doesn't know him? I am shocked!

Note: looks like the bullets are not showing :(

Updates

I should write something here. After all it's been days since my last entry, and I don't want to keep this idle for a long period of time. Not that I have plenty of things to say. Nor do I have some interesting life to share.

But we have finally moved. August first was the day that we rented a U Haul truck and physically moved --- our furnitures and our bodies --- over to the new "old" house. Needless to say that weekend was exhausting. I can't remember now how tired I was. But I knew that once my head hit the pillow that night, I was immediately taken into dreamland.

And so while we continue to slowly open up each box that is filling our two-car garage, we continue to work, work, and work to pay for this house. Still missing are our pots and pans (oh we have those daily use pots and pans) so we can't cook anything for more than 4 servings.

Because I wanted so much to clear the boxes in the garage, I was toying with the idea of taking a day or two off. But at the same time I don't want to use up whatever I have accrued on vacation cache. Anyway, there are a few touch-ups that still need to be taken care of. And the garden hasn't really gotten full attention from me.

That's been really the major change in my life right now.

At work, we decided to start walking around the block (which is actually about 6 or 7 blocks). I believe we started doing the round for 30 minutes. Today we rounded the "block" for 13 minutes. We are doing good.

And Tony Bourdain did San Francisco on No Reservations last night. I liked that he didn't do the obvious things, the touristy things, nor eaten in places where people go. I hoped he went farther into the East Bay rather than stop at Oakland. And what about Berkeley. There is more to Berkeley than Chez Panisse. A whole world more.

There was another "new" show on Travel Channel last night. I think it's called ---- heck I forgot what it's called. It's a show about how a travel writer goes about his job (traveling). I put new in quotations because to me it's new. Never seen it before, but don't know if it's been around. You see I haven't been watching a lot of Travel Channel lately. I haven't been watching a lot of tv lately in general because of the move. But I love that show. I vaguely recognize one who writes a travel blog. I may be wrong. Heck when I landed on that blog, I made a mistake of not bookmarking his site.

And also I just had a birthday. Yipee! My husband said the gift was huge, it was the house. I couldn't agree more. Although I nagged for a dinner and a movie which I got.

We went to see Harry Potter and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved how the characters have grown up. Dinner was at a Vietnamese restaurant in Berkeley where the decor was expensive looking, but the food was reasonable and delicious.

That's all for now. Lunch break is over, it's back to work time now for me.