No, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here in Missouri. Susan is on her annual trip to warmer climes to do pollinations for the winter research corn crop. This year it is Puerto Rico. She left December 26th and will return tomorrow evening. Puerto Rico has pretty good cell coverage, so we have been able to talk on a daily basis, and she has texted photos from time to time. One of these years I'm going to have to go down to PR with her and see some of these sights together.

A lot of my time was spent in providing attractive alternatives to the television, computer games, and general idleness for my boy, but I also had to work at my day job. I was able to take a couple days off so we could get out of the house and do something. So what would get a 16 year old boy out of the house when there are such attractive nuisances available? Well, a lot of it was target shooting at a public range north of town. I guess some might consider that an attractive nuisance, but it is one thing that he and I both enjoy, and he understands that when we are engaged in such activities there is no compromise with safety. It's a character builder.

My son went back to school on the 5th of January, and fortunately he is learning to get up and dressed without a whole lot of prodding. He is at the bus stop at 6:40am and since I am pretty much alone this week, I just go into work early, and, if possible, leave a little earlier. As a computer system administrator I work mostly during normal work hours, but when a crisis occurs at 4:59pm it has to be dealt with. Fortunately that is a rare occurrence.

I plan to take tomorrow off and make sure the house is tidied up for Susan's return -- after I sleep in for some much needed rest.

Well, anyway, Happy New Year to all, and I hope you experienced the blessings of Christmas. And I'll try and be a little more regular with the blog entries.