Vito Delivers

Was up near regular time and quickly downstairs engaged in morning calisthenics. It was Thursday, an easy exercise (no push-up) day. They were behind me by 555am and soon I was at my PC with coffee. It was another clear morning, the 2nd in a row. Still cold, too, only 29 degrees.

I fooled around online until time to wake Mindy at 605am. I returned for my coffee and fun before mediation. In fact, I was at my PC until almost 620am. I needed to be in New Albany for a 9am meeting. I really needed to get moving. Despite being pressed for time, i still did a thorough meditation and stretch. No sense selling myself short.

The newest pattern emerging is me getting out for my run so late that I wish Mindy well before my run. I headed up to say goodbye around 645am. I was still out the door ahead of Jacob. It was cold but I was dressed for it. I'm starting to adjust to winter's chill, getting along just fine with one winter wicking layer and my light jacket with temps in the mid 20s. I try to save adding the 2nd winter wicking layer for the single digit temps. I ran the full 4.1 miles and still made it home just before Mindy left for school. Just barely, though.
She headed out the door for her seminar soon after I leashed up the pug. I reminded her about the Time Warner service call between 4-5pm.

My eggs were runny even after I rewarmed them in the microwave for 12 seconds. I hit them again for 15 seconds more. That did the trick. Bella and I enjoyed a little time together. We checked the Mad River Mt. website, again enjoying the live web cam feed of their snow making process. Sadly, the weather's supposed to warm above freezing for the next several day and nights. All their efforts might be for not. Looking ahead, I wouldn't be surprised if next weekend's opening gets further postponed.

Off to the shower by 745am, and then back downstairs 15 minutes later dressed and ready to go. Started putting together my lunch even though I was scheduled to have lunch with a handful of coworkers. Bella and I headed out for the bus at 810am, but not before starting/warming the Accord. Chrissy & Makayla met us there. Chrissy still with shower wet hair. I insisted that it was OK to leave Makayla with me so she could head back inside and finish her ready for work. The bus showed up around 815am.

I hurried back inside to secure the home before leaving for the office. I started the dishwasher on my way out the door. Almost a repeat of the last time I needed to be across town for a 9am start time, I ran into a serious traffic jam on 670E near downtown. I could only shake my head in disgust & disbelief because it only seems to happen when I have a looming deadline. However, despite the slowdown, I made it to the meeting on time. Of course, it didn't hurt that I was able to snatch one of the coveted 20 minute parking spots near the building's main entrance. Rare for any of those to avail themselves, especially at the 9am hour.

I hustled inside where folks were still just gathering. I still had a few minutes to spare. Chatted with a couple peers before the meeting got underway, essentially a status update from our customer on their holiday season success thus far. The meeting was brief. As expected, they emphasized the need for sustained focus through the rest of the holiday sales season.

After the meeting ended, a few of my peers and I talked a little shop,. Alicia, the sales executive confirmed everyone's attendance at the luncheon she scheduled. And while I planned to work on campus all day, I graciously opted out of the lunch. I had a long list of to-dos I wanted to knock out, but also wanted to use my lunch hour for Xmas shopping.

I headed to another building on the campus where my office is located. I was granted access to the connecting tunnel some months ago, but I've yet to figure out how to access it. Instead, I drove over.
I was logged in and settled by 10am.

I spent a couple hours reviewing/analyzing a detailed technical report I had run over the last week. My goal was to put together a summary and then some actions items as follow-up to those results. Worked on that until 1245pm. I responded to a handful of emails then left for lunch and Xmas shopping. I made two stops, pretty much eating up an entire hour. A customer phoned just as I was walking back to my car. I took the call and promised to look at their issue and get back with him as soon as possible.

Arrived back on campus near 2pm. Vito, a Time Warner tech, called just I was parking my car. Asked if he might be able to come to our service call appointment early. I thanked him for the offer, but shared that neither me or Mindy would be home until around 4pm. I took the opportunity to define the problem since i wouldn't be there, which is something Mindy expressed worry over having to address in my absence. We chatted for a while, me eventually sharing that I worked for Time Warner for 15 years, but 15 years ago. Several of the guys that used to work for me run the place now. I'd like to think that's no coincidence. I taught them well. I offered to give Vito Mindy's cell phone since she'd actually be the one meeting him, but he didn't want to bother her. Said he'd show up as scheduled, between 4-5pm. As promised, I followed up on the issue another customer called me about as soon as I was back at my desk. Essentially, I had to coordinate getting our technical resources to call the customer's technical team to sort through the problem. Sometimes that can be a challenge, but this time I was able to get the parties talking in relative short order.

Stayed busy all afternoon leading up to our 415pm weekly team call. During our team call my boss presented a new operational strategy. Went far longer than most of his weekly calls. During the call, Mindy was texting, providing updates about our Time Warner service call. Vito was there for almost 90 minutes squaring away our service issues. I didn't get out of the office until 515pm. I called Mindy in route to home. Vito was still there. She handed the phone to him so we could talk. He explained what he did to correct our issue. He also passed along a couple hellos from former team members.

Traffic thickened, just as it normally does near Hilliard, but it never came to the dreaded stand still fairly common at rush hour. I arrived home near 545pm. Mindy was already gone, running Bella to gymnastics and then picking up her mom to go Xmas shopping. She sent a text asking me to plan on picking Bella up from gymnastics.

At home I spent time working on my Xmas photo project, eventually finishing up the edits for Gloria's album. It was already time to go after Bella. I headed out the door at 715pm. I made good time, arriving at the gym around 725pm. Practice was just wrapping up. I had to wait no more than five minutes. Even before we got into the car, Bella asked if we could stop at Wendy's. I didn't verbally commit either way, but figured I would.

We ended up stopping at the McDonald's nearest our home. Uncharacteristically, Bella wanted only a cheeseburger plain with pickles. That's all we ordered. I didn't bother ordering anything for myself or Jacob. Apparently Jacob felt a bit put out, and unbeknownst to me, called his mom asking that she bring him home some food from her Xmas shopping spree. She got home maybe 30 minutes later and had more McDonalds in tow. Somehow she thought I asked for a cheeseburger, but I didn't. I didn't want any of that crap! She must've misunderstood me when I told her that I picked up a cheeseburger for Bella earlier.

While Mindy & Jacob enjoyed their McD's, I poured a Jack & Coke and tuned into Thursday night NFL action, the Bengals and Eagles. The Bengals took an early 10-0 lead. Looked really good in the 1st quarter. But as good as they looked early on, they looked equally as bad in the 2nd quarter. By halftime they were trailing 13-10. Kept shooting themselves in the foot, much like they did last Sunday against Dallas when the y dropped several key passes on offense and dropped three easy interceptions that would've sealed the victory. Come halftime I was beginning to dose from the sofa so I headed to bed.