Holy shit it’s cold!! 23 below with wind chill approaching -40. What a way to start the Christmas vacation. First thing this morning I had guy knocking on the door – his tire was flat and he didn’t have a jack. Spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get the jack out of my Jeep (it’s screwed down underneath the rear seat) and then watched him risk frostbite to remove a tire that just didn’t go flat, it exploded.

Off to the coffee shop for my morning fix. The sun is so bright today that it’s painful. Add the clouds of salt dust being churned up by the traffic and it was almost impossible to see. Sun=warmth – not today bucko.

Even though I’m on vacation, the gods have conspired to make sure that I don’t enjoy myself too much. I have some system testing scheduled so it was down to the basement, log in through the VPN only to find that the test data hasn’t been loaded by our client. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

Yesterday we attended the yearly regulars party and Jake’s Boathouse. Good times, free food and drink and a chance to share some laughs with some good friends. We’ve met some very interesting people in our time at Jake’s (25 years) and yesterday’s group was a perfect example of the diversity:
- airline pilot and his wife who just retired from her position as a senior flight attendant
- retired gas company technician and his wife, a retired bank teller
- a big rig driver
- a inventory controller for a ball bearing company and his wife who is a customs broker
- a retired pharmacist’s assistand and her husband (who just happens to be my boss)

Jake’s is very much like the old sitcom “Cheers”. Everybody knows your name.