Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Some 2010 Highlights

Well it appears as though my daily responsibilities have stifled my blog posting as of late.

It is quite evident that my blog posts have been lacking and borderline non-existent over this past year.


What can I say? Between learning the ropes of the new job, working on the house, maintaining the yard, and trying to have some sort of a life, my leisure time has become a commodity and it's getting harder to focus on this blog anymore.

I do enjoy my responsibilities and even look forward to working with my hands. I enjoy planting our flowers, watering our shrubs, hanging out in the garage and tipping back a few beers while working on my truck. At this point in my life, after staring into a luminescent screen for eight to ten hours a day, getting my hands dirty has become an enjoyable release.

Anyways, to touch on some of the bigger highlights since my last post, there have been several notable blog-worthy developments over the past year. I am engaged. Matilda and I got engaged in front of her parents and brother back in April. We are planning a private wedding in Jamaica sometime in February.

In March of this year I was laid off by BBN Technologies where I had worked on the same project for five consecutive years. Only after the government had spent millions of dollars and countless man hours to develop this piece of software that my company was working on did they decide to throw it away and start over with a different contractor.

I have to be honest, it was definitely frustrating at the very least. I have never committed myself to any project or company for that amount of time. To see five years worth of effort get tossed away like that was devastating. Looking back however, the scenario is typical in the cut throat world of defense contracting.

Shortly thereafter, I was yearning for a clearer mind and a sense of adventure since I had both the money and the time to challenge myself to do something that I have always wanted to do. So in May I packed up a bag or two and I set off on a solo cross-country motorcycle journey across the United States. In eight days I went coast to coast on route 40 from Baltimore MD to San Diego CA through nine beatiful states.

The trip was absolutely incredible, I was completely exposed to the environment on my motorcycle through the most unimaginable weather conditions I have ever experienced. Outside of hiking some mountains in Alaska and accidentally running into some glacier crossings it was the most challenging and at times the scariest adventure of my life. More on this in another blog post.

I spent the other half of the summer voluntarily unemployed strumming on my banjo and learning how to sweat pipes, roll sod, put up fences, run 14-2 with ground. Yes, I was my own apprentice learning the trades of plumbing, landscaping, electricity and all around general maintenance while fixing up our 1920's era Baltimore Bungalow.

More recently, I started a new job in the private sector and have been working 9 - 10 hour days trying to play catch up from working in the government industry for so long. My skills were practically obsolete compared to the private sector. But here I am, the knowledge is starting to come together, I've got a great girl, a great pad, a great life all around.

Life is good and I am happy and that’s all that really matters.






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