Armed, Rain, & Wrap

I slept in again until about 550am. With only a couple work days remaining this calendar year, one would guess I'd be a bit more motivated. However, that just wasn't the case. Perhaps the two Bodhi's the night before were to blame. Not sure. Regardless, I felt tired and sluggish. Of course that didn't stop me from digging into calisthenics. Whipped out sit-ups, windmills, and curls in short order. Glanced out back. It was cloudy, but so far no rain.
I was a little stressed thinking about all I had/needed to accomplish through the day. The most anticipated event on my day's agenda was the installation of our security system, but that wasn't scheduled until 5pm. That alone wasn't much of a stressor, but the fact that I'd have to leave work an hour early caused me a bit of concern. One top of that, I had a number of Xmas tasks I wanted to get done, too. Working from home would relieve a lot of that stress. Doing so would allow me to work right up to the minute the security system installer arrived. I could also take care of some Xmas wrapping too. So that soon became my plan.

Like most work from home days, I started much earlier. I was at it well before 7am, sending follow-up emails on some carryover issues. I also sent an email to one of my clients letting them know that I wouldn't be on campus that day after all, but instead working from home. I soon let Mindy in on my plan as well. That saved her some time too. She didn't need to make me breakfast. She left for work near her usual time.

After a thorough stretch & meditation, I headed off for my run. It must've been just after 8am. I opted to run only three miles but enjoyed every minute. It didn't register until the final stretch of my run that I was supposed to join an 830am call. Oops! I got back from my run around 835am, a joined the call a few minutes later. No biggie.

I had a number of items on my to-do list, many in an effort to close out 2012, which included a handful of administrative tasks, like drafting my 2012 performance review, writing out-of-office messages to send to each of my clients, and a host of other things. Of course, I still had to take care of my routine tasks, too.

I stayed busy until about 11am, when I took a break and went to the basement to gather up gift wrapping materials as well as Mindy's Xmas gifts. I set up right next to my PCs, but on the floor, that way I could reengage in work at the drop of the hat if necessary. The wrapping went smoothly. Like a lot of things, once I get going I become faster, more efficient. They looked really nice, but I wasn't finished. I still had to apply bows & ribbon - a tiny creative outlet if you will.

Stashed the wrapped gifts away then edited some photos for printing, but this time sent them to Target's photo processing to give them a try. They're 33% cheaper than Cord. I was/am curious to see the quality difference, if any. Can't be much worse than my recent experiences with Cord.

Got back to work after an hour or so. All in all, another pretty easy day. Started raining around lunch time, and at times really hard. My thoughts, once again, were another opportunity for big snow missed. Speaking of the weather, according to the local headlines, all this rain was supposed to turn to snow sometime Thursday night. Calling for as much as 4" by the time it's said and done. Supposed to turn colder over the next several days too, but still not below freezing during the daytime hours until sometime mid next week. In turn, HV was forecasted to get even more snow.

Mindy called mid-afternoon to ask how I felt about her mom coming over that evening and helping her wrap Xmas presents. She was a bit taken back that her mom would put out such an offer - unlike her. Sure, dear. Whatever you want. Aside from dealing with the installation of the security system, I didn't have any other plans. Meanwhile, the heavy rain continued through the late afternoon.

Working from home afforded me an opportunity to witness just how bad marketing calls have become. Our new home phone must've rang 15 times during the day, and all but one some sort of unsolicited marketing call. Of course I stopped answering after the first 2 or 3. Going to have to figure out the do not call list thing.

Jeff from Alarm Force called around 440pm to let me know that he was about 20 minutes away. Arrived right on time - 5pm. It was still pouring rain. Mindy wasn't home from work yet. Not only was she stopping to pick-up her mom, but she was doing a little shopping, too. Jeff was very efficient, and obviously knew what he was doing. Home security had come far since our home was constructed. No longer are most security systems reliant on hard wiring. Instead, everything is wireless. I wouldn't call our new system state-of-the-art hi-tech, but it should be effective. Mindy & Gloria showed up around 540pm. By then, Jeff was wrapping up the installation of the hardware. Still had to program everything and then review it with us. I was a little overwhelmed with it all, trying to determine what was and wasn't important to remember & know. Mindy and Gloria started their gift wrapping session almost immediately.

I had to pull Mindy away so Jeff could review the security system operation with the two of us. I figured having both of listen was better than only me, then me trying to teach her later. I wanted to avoid 'the blind leading the blind' scenario. :) Seemed fairly straight forward. I wanted to fully understand the enable/disable process. We learned through our system review that we might be better off adding a fourth door sensor on a slight delay, that way Jacob can come in from school through the garage door and still have time to disable the system. In its present state, it sounded as though he would activate the alarm every time. We went ahead and added the extra sensor.

We settled up with Jeff, and he left for his next job, an easy one, around 615pm. I hung out in the kitchen with Mindy & her mom all the while the two of them wrapped gifts. Mindy was hell bent on making sure the kids had an equal number of gifts, a notion that seems ridiculous. Is that what Xmas is all about? Sadly, yes! Meanwhile, the rain continued to pound. But now it was accompanied by high winds.

I'm guessing it was near 730pm when Mindy and Gloria finished wrapping. Not long after that, Mindy ran Gloria home. While she was away, I tidied up where Jeff moved things for the security system install. I poured a Jack & water too, then snuggled up in my reading chair with the security system guide in an effort to fully understand it's operation. Mindy was gone for about 30 minutes. Just before her return, the rain turned to ice balls. I was instantly aware, as it pounded against the skylights in the family room. That phase didn't last but minute or two. And when Mindy got home a few minutes later she shared that it was starting to snow, albeit only lightly.

We hung out for a while in the quiet, chatting about the many things we needed to get accomplished as well as the many events upcoming. It's going to be go, go, go over the next 5 days. Mindy headed to bed well ahead of me. I stayed up until about 1030pm. Apprehensively, I armed the security system before heading up to bed. No problems.