I've been a bit scarce over the past month as I've been settling into the new job. The commute is very long, yes. But there are some wonderful things about it. I've been able to use the time in the car to "switch gears" and finalize my thoughts about work for the day before getting home. That's a real luxury. I'm still looking for voice dictation systems though.
I've found another person who lives in the area who works where I do. We're carpooling twice a week, which makes things a bit easier on both of us. There's also a dad in the babysitting co-op who commutes farther than I do. Its nice to know I'm not the only crazy one.
The black locust tree that I had to take down out of the back yard is still piled up neatly. We'd offered it to a friend, but they've been slow about picking it up. We had someone make us another offer, so we have to decide whether to take that or not. Decisions, decisions.
Fortunately, that black locust is still the only tree problem we have. The two storms have left us with quite a few limbs down, but no major damage. That's a lot better than many around here have fared. Between Ivan and Frances, there have been quite a few trees down in addition to the flooding.
Losing a few trees, of course, is nothing compared to what the floodwaters have wrought. There is so much damage, and with the Parkway in such bad shape, there will not be much in the way of tourism here this leaf season, which will not be good for the local economy. We'll see how much the FEMA rebuilding funds can do over the course of the next three months, but I expect this will be a very lean year for the city, the county, and everyone here.
Posted by brent at 21:24