Summer is Great Share

June 30, 2010

It's been a minute since I updated my journal! Life has been very busy with a new job, getting ready for Thatcher, having a garden and summer in general. For all the activity that has taken place there's not anything too major or ground breaking. The job is going well. I'm doing SQL Database Engineering, which basically means anything that needs to be done. But this place is much more deadline focused on specific projects than environments I have worked at in the past. I'm also working with a lot of what I would call code monsters. These guys speak in multiple languages at the flip of a mouse click and it is impressive and at times intimidating. But this is exactly the environment I needed in my career--something with a little pressure, where I have to learn new stuff and learn it NOW and learn it in a practical way. I think for the most part I have stepped up to the plate. I still ask questions and I still learn things, and some of the things I learn are still basic. But I'm beyond the point where I'm regularly confused by things. It's more like I'm learning how to be practical and useful in real life with SQL. Apparently I'm booksmart and I need to become streetsmart. That's how I would put it. But again, I'm doing it day by day. I have been very thankful for my job from day one, but it's really been this past two weeks where I'm waking up in the morning and looking forward to getting to the job, which I think is optimistic.

We've painted Thatcher's room and have put together furniture. London is kindly donating her crib and changing table to Thatcher, so she needed a new dresser and toddler bed which needed assembly. Beckah is now in her third trimester. It's great fun to feel the baby move. As each day passes I am looking more and more forward to having a son and a daughter in the same house.

Last night London and I went out in the garden and picked fresh strawberries and ate them right off the plant. She had juice dribbling down her chin and she was laughing. Eventually she started hunting through the leaves to find more. That was a very good summer memory. I remember standing in Grandma and Grandpa's garden eating peas out of the pod and apples and pears off the trees. I want London and Thatcher to remember that kind of stuff when they get together when they are both in college.

There's not too much going on this summer beyond the baby. No big vacations planned. The garden has some good points and negative points. Currently I have strawberries that are just going nuts. Corn is started, green beans are there but they are very weak. Tomatoes are there and I think they will be fine. Eddie and I built a new garden just on the south end of the house and he helped me expand my current garden. The new part of the garden needs compost so the stuff I planted there is basically growing in clay and thus barely surviving.

The flowers are going very well for the most part though. I havn't done too much other than weed around the flower beds. The canterbury bells I planted are up and loud right now. They are all purple though and I thought they would be multiple colors, but I'm not about to complain. I've been putting plastic edging around everything so the grass doesn't grow into the flower gardens and I have a lot more of that to do this summer.

When I sat down to write this I didn't have too much to say, but once I got going this entry wrote itself. I had a stand by topic though. I've been quite interested in the concept of wind power and a little bit of solar power. I stay up to date on the topic and I found a story on solar power. I love the concept of reaping power from the sun. I think every roof should be covered with solar panels and have at least one windmill. I am embarrassed that every house does not have these items. If I was going to run for any office my entire platform would be around getting as many houses and businesses as possible to use these devices. If Bush is the war president, and Obama is the health president, I think we need an energy president. And I don't think the answer is for government to fund it. I think the government should give giant tax breaks to any company that will sell wind and solar devices. I think that would increase competition enough to lower the prices and these things would become more affordable and people would use them on a much larger scale.

So there is the outline of my political agenda. I'm not running for office though! Too bad. It would be a no brainer idea. The technology is there and improving, the cost is dropping. Why hasn't this been done?

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