Carpooling with Baby and Dog.

My wife and I and our 5 month old daughter Caitlyn and our pup Duke just returned from the in-laws in Janesville, WI.  It was about a 6 hour car ride back and forth, and for the most part went well with no real major issues,  It was fairly cramped inside with all the people and animals but we accomplished it.  I will say that it made me think a little harder about getting a travel trailer to pull behind our Santa Fe.  I don't think it has the capacity and I would be more comfortable if everyone was in the same cab and had more room to move around.  Our dog, Duke, was forced to be in the third row, and luggage kept falling on him.  He is such a good dog, he wouldn't wine about it, he was just try to deal with it.

I now have begun looking at Class C motor homes again.....HA HA HA.  I will surely waste another month of my time researching the hell out of something that I may never purchase.  I do really want one, and the more I think about it, I was going to settle for a camper trailer.  I shouldn't really settle.  There is a Winnebago Minnie for sale in Paynesville, MN.  It is a shorter model and they are asking about 12k for it.  Seems to be in decent condition.  I may be to take a look sometime in the next couple weeks.

I ordered about $150 worth of parts for my RC Truck.  I get a little carried away, but I found a setup that seems like it would work out pretty good.  I finally am getting the spec tires that I need to race locally.  I was able to test them and I was about a half second faster with them on.  I think that was some of my problem that I was having.  I hope to get it back together and run this Friday or Sunday.  I went a week ago and there was only two others there, kind of a bummer and didn't really get me pumped up to race again.  I need competition to have fun I guess.

I applied for a few different jobs.  I don't know why I do I guess.  At the moment I know that I am depressed and I understand that I make dumb decisions when I am.  I have received interviews and thought that they went well but I don't end up getting the job.  In reality I have it pretty decent where I am, but I would like to not have travel much.  Today I applied at a few different positions that are close to my home.   I think that I will like this if I was able to get the jobs, but it is just a little scary at times.

I have about 2 weeks worth of classes left before Winter break.  I have two big projects left that I need to do decent on.  One is a 10 page paper on Dry Machining.  The other is a control system for a spring loaded seat.  I am only really concerned with ME 424 system dynamics and controls, since it is a much more difficult course and my grade has reflected that.  I can write a decent paper I believe but I just need to find the time to get it done.  I don't care to give up that many points just because I am lazy or stressed out.

Bummin

There was a young woman killed this Sunday morning on a road that is traveled by me and my family daily.  Rachel did some research on her Sunday Evening and found out that she has a 4 year old child and was engaged to be married......I don't know this girls family but I know what they are going through,  Not fun.

This car accident and other events in the recent few weeks have left me bummin.  I have slipped a little in school with some of my homework and test prep, nothing that I can;t recover from.  Its been my MO since I started going back to school.  I will pass and do fine in the class, and forget about the turmoil that I caused myself and do it all over again next semester.

I went and helped my friend Mark move out of his apartment that he had with his now Ex-Wife.  I am worried about Mark's mental health a little.  He was basically dumped by his high school sweet heart. They have that same physical disability, CP.  Mark had become very depressed working nights and she was a stay at home wife.  She ended up meeting someone else with CP and divorced Mark.  Unfortunately for Mark, he is a geek and was able to pull all of her texts, email, and Skype sessions with the guy and knows more than he really should.  I can only imagine the heartbreak,  Of course her friends all support her, the damsel in distress, BS.  She flat out cheated on someone she once cared for.  I think it might be good for Mark to not be married to her, but I am concerned that he will take it too hard. 

I was looking at Mark as we talked, and I was trying to picture the type of guy / friend that Mark would have been if he was disabled.  Would he still have the same passion for computers and networking that he has now.  Would we be friends if he wasn't disabled?  How would his personality change if he wasn't.  Things to ponder.

All of these things have made me realize that I should be thankful for what I do have in life.  I have a great family, who raised me well.  I have a lovely wife and a little girl to call my own.  I have a old dog that I'll gladly pick up his poop just to have him as a friend.  It is great to be thankful, especially when thanksgiving is just around the corner.

2014 Update

It's been a considerable amount of time before I have updated my blog.  A lot has changed since I was in here last.  I am going to make an effort to be more diligent on posting on here.  It was fun for me to look back and see my old posts.  It gives you a glimpse of what you were feeling and thinking at any one point in time.

I have continued going to school at UND and I am on track to finish in the Spring of 2016.  I can take 2 classes per semester, which I have found to be the perfect amount of classes for me to take.  I took 3 classes a semester for one semester and learned my lesson.  With work and school it was too much stress for me and my grades suffered.  I also only took 1 class and that was not enough for me to take it seriously.  I am just thankful that there is an end in sight.  I believe that the 1.5 years left will fly by.

I recently sold my beloved Chevy Impala.  We bought a Hyundai Santa Fe and I started using Rachel's Elantra leaving the Impala to sit and rot.  I had it on Craigslist for about 3 months and finally after lowering the price several times I sold it to a local early twenties man.  I really enjoyed the car, I had owned it for its whole life and it was really good to me.  I actually like it more than the car I will be driving from now on.

The more that I write the more I realize that I have failed to mention that Rachel and I got married in Lindstrom, MN on April 6, 2013.  We had it at an old Girl Scout Camp in the main dining hall.  It went well considering that it rained pretty heavily before and during the reception, making it a mud pit for all of our guests.  I think for our guests that's all they will remember.

Another major event was the birth of our daughter, Caitlyn Rose.  She was born on June 28, 2014.  It was a normal pregnancy until the very end.  When Rachel was about 1 week overdue, on a checkup they were concerned about Caitlyn not moving around as much as they thought she should be and ended up inducing labor that evening.  During labor we found out that Caitlyn had her cord wrapped around her neck and was preventing her from coming out nicely.  The doctor had to used the suction cup on her head and pulled with all her might, and actually popped off once showering me with blood.  She tried again and luckly was able to get Caitlyn out safely.  They had concerns about her breathing and had her in the NICU for what was supposed to be a couple hours.  During her stay she stopped breathing during crying, alerting the nurses and along with Belly Rubian and Low blood sugar issues she was in the NICU for about a week.  It was the longest week that I can remember and I can not imagine if we had to stay as long as some of that parents that were there with premies.   With all that said, Caitlyn has been a great addition to the family, and now I cannot imagine my life without her in our lives.  She had quite the personality, smiling and sticking her tongue out.  I cannot wait to help her grow into a smart beautiful woman.

Update.

Well its been a while since i wrote one of these.  I only came in here trying to snoop on a relative lol. Looking back at my posts i can tell that a lot has changed and still some stay the same.

I will recap some of the things that have changed.  Mostly for my own good, later on.

Starting in the Fall of 2010 i took classes at nights at the UMN. I took Engineering Physics 1 and 2. These classes were interesting but it seemed that i was spending a lot of time and money on getting down to school after work and finding parking.  I have recently started taking classes at UND towards a BS in Mechanical Engineering.  I can take most of the classes online, and take the tests at a local library.  So far this has been good and the courses have been better than i thought they would be.  They must have a lot of students doing the same, they seems to cater, or they have experience with the class recordings and communication with online students.  So I have been taking Statics and Electrical Circuits along with Calc 3 at the UMN.

In the spring of 11'  I transferred into the Automation Group at my company.  It is something that I found an interest in and it gives me a more stable work environment.  Except now, lately, I have been out of town a lot.  usually weeks at a time.  I hope to move into more of a Engineering role, but I feel that i have been categorized as a tech type person, and that the only way that I will break that label is to move to a different company and be hired as a Engineer.  But i cant do anything till I am done with school or at least have some more school under my belt that someone would hire me in an beginning Engineering role. 
I have just started to be able to program and play with some of the Cell PLC logic and Programming.  It is more difficult than a guy would think.  Its actually rather tedious and boring, but the final product seems like its never finished, something can be always tweaked or adjusted to just perfect.

I ran two half marathons with Rachel, and i managed to beat her in the Lindstrom Lopet this year.....she must of been hurt or something.  First half was the minneapolis one and i had trained a little for that, but the second was a spur of the moment, the seattle marathon which was just 2 weeks after my first.  I bought a guys bib, like  a drug deal or something. lol.

Well i'm sure there is more, but i have assignments due tomorrow and i should really do them instead of this.

Another Day.

Well I haven't wrote anything for a couple weeks.  I have been busy studying for a Calc2 midterm and really haven't done much of anything else.  I have been able to rack up 60 miles on my bike since i install the computer on it.  We have been training Duke to run with us, he's doing great i think.  Today he was barking up tree's and climbing wood piles looking for the mysterious animal that no one else saw.  I think he did this for hours, circling and looking high and low.

I have been helping my dad get ready with the tractors and the occasional car repair.  I think I am the only one that he knows will help him no questions asked.  Maybe its because I'm not married to anyone, or what the deal is.  I kinda like it, being able to spend time with my dad a lot.  It's something that you can't replace, and something that my older brothers are really missing out on.  I don't think my brothers wives are completely fair about how they guilt my brothers anytime they are away from them, or their kids.  Really, what is the harm for them to be gone for a whole day without being called or asked when are you going to be done.  Is my dad an inconvenience for everyone? What makes your opinion so much better.  I know for a fact that it isn't the same way when they go to their parents homes, or spend time with them.  But this is all looking from the outside in.

Lately I been trying to hold my tongue and not complain about stuff, unless it is something that needs to be addressed.  Pick and choose my battles.  I have been pretty good about not expressing my feeling to people at work and so on.

Work is getting slow again and they are talking about changing how we record our work time.  This all stems for a few of my co-workers complaining to HR about being forced to trade our overtime for comp time.  In the end of this we are going to get screwed over.  Some things are better left alone.  The only way to fairly record our time is to have everyone drive into the shop and clock in and leave from there and return to there at the end of the day.  This will give most people more paid hours.  The company will loose the amount of work that can be done, and the savings of travel time from people's homes.  They take this all for granted, and assume that they are giving us this great benefit and that they don't get anything out of it, they even charge some of us to use the car.  Hopefully this all sorts out ok in the long run.

On your left!

It was a really nice day today, the first of the spring.  Everyone seemed to be outside doing something.  It was great.  Me and Rachel went for a couple bike rides.  One with Duke it was 4 miles and hopefully wore him out.  You never know with him because he seems to save his energy for a passing dog or squirrel.  We dropped Duke off and loaded the bikes into my car.  I had to take the front wheels off both bikes but it seemed to fit alright in the trunk of my car.  We drove down to Rachel's old apartment, and there they have a nice bike/walking path.  We rode that about 16 miles round trip.  It took me to some areas that i have never been, including Lake Calhoun.  There was tons of people out walking along with the wind "surfers" on the thin ice on the lake.  There was several people in the bike lanes, not noticing or caring that they are in the wrong, most of the offenders didn't speak english or it seemed that way.  We also had several run-ins with the serious bikers, when you hear someone yelling from behind you "ON YOUR LEFT", it always seems that your instinct always pulls you to the left of the path, and the biker behind you must feel as though you are trying to block them, but they always pass and most say thank you.  Rachel and I haven't gotten to that stage yet, but I was temped to use my massive fog horn of a tinker bell to put the fear into unsuspecting walkers and runners, lol.  Overall a fun experience, good to get some miles on my bike.  I recently ordered a trip computer and a helmet, and bike lock.  Installed the trip computer and wore my new helmet today.  Fits nice and i forget that i have it on my head, perfect!  I want to make a better mount for the lock so it will actually stay on the bike frame.  There were several complaints on amazon about peoples bike locks falling off in the middle of the street and so on.  I hope to make one or have one made at work.  


Well on Thursday I was called into the office.  I was thinking that it wouldn't go to well and that they would figure that i was quitting.  But they sat me down and wanted to know my thoughts and so on.  I told them that I was going to go back to school and what my thoughts were that would work best for me.  
They let me know what would work out for them, and of course it was anything that wouldn't affect them.  But I understand that, and we agreed that me going to school at night and possibly one class during the day would work out ok.  Also I reopened the idea of them paying for some of the tuition, they kinda balked at it, but i told them that i would turn in all the paperwork for every class that i would take and they would have to deny all of it, but at least i tried and that is all that i can do. This talk was a great relief since a few of my other options were entry level minimum wage type work.  I still have a slight chance to get into another company but I won't know about that till later, and I don't know if its the type of job i want while i go to school.  I feel some what comfortable at my company and it pays decently.  Especially when I am getting quarterly bonuses and such.  I hope to only leave for something truly better than what I have now.  The only way to fly.


I have been slowly working on my homework and studying for a my up coming math midterm.  Like I have said before.  I need to do well and finish this class with a decent grade. B would be great, but a C would suffice.  I really want a B and I still think that it is attainable.

Up in the Air

Well I've done it.  I have let my employer know that I may not be with them this fall if they are not willing to be flexible with my hours.  It is bitter sweet.  I know that they don't want to, and I usually don't want anyone to make a fuss out of anything, especially about me.  I don't have any idea how they react, all I know is the mood of my supervisor changed dramatically during the time that i sent the email to when I saw him last.

I've had a couple jobs come up that are interesting, probably don't pay much but they are worth investigating and that's what I have been doing.  One is very close to home, and may be able to work odd hours.  Another is a customer that is fairly well off and they might have a 2nd shift position.  All of these options will have their pluses and minuses.  If it gets down to the final decision, I'll have to break out the chart and rate the pro-cons.

I have ran through all the assignments in my math and biology classes.  I am currently studying for my 2nd math midterm.  I need to do well on this test and the following test (final).  My biology course is almost finished, I have to do a lab with some milkweed bugs.  I have to observe them for about a month.  I don't think Rachel wants bugs in my house but I guess that they are specially bread to only live off of sunflower seeds.  I don't know how or why just sunflower seeds.

I have rode my new bike around some more and I really do like it.  Duke has been getting a better workout then I would give him if I was to take him for a walk.  He also got a new e-collar so he doesn't torment us outside at night.  One beep and he comes a running.  He still gets confused of why, and lately he doesn't want to be outside much.  I think that he'll get over it in the summer.

I recently bought some toys for my bike. A trip computer, helmet, and a U-lock.  All these items are fairly cheap and hopefully will only add to the enjoyment of biking.  I have looked up some trails around my house.
I shouldn't say trails because they assume that if a road has a wider shoulder that it is an bike friendly road.  I would like to avoid as many roads as possible but you can't always.  I want to ride the full length of the Luce-line trail about 70 miles this year.  I would bike from my house to Matt's farm in Cokato.  It's an hour car drive from my house so I bet its a day ride, but it would cool.  I don't think that anyone would want to join me for that marathon of a ride. Only those that want to do it and not want to quit half way.

I've been reading the bible more lately, it was something that I started to do right after Matt died.  I stopped for a while, but I am reading more consistently now.  I am almost <25% through the book.  It seems to calm me and "enlighten" or put life into focus.

I also read "The New Frugality," it was basically a 225 page book about not spending to much money and how the "great recession" evolved.  I always find it funny to read some of these financial books and find out that some people just don't get it.  You have to save some money, and don't put yourself into a bad spot by buying a new car or clothes and putting it on a card/or loan with no intention of paying it off at the end of the month/soon.  At some point it makes me sick to think that we can't wait to buy something.  I think that people that don't have money are trying to keep up with their friends that do have money, and then they get into trouble.  No body cares about your money like you should.  And yes I know that I too "splurge" on stuff, but I don't do it all the time, and I have been saving some money for "fun stuff" so its payed for.