Battle Ground, Washington
You know it makes me wonder, sitting in the quiet slipstream, rolling in the thunder.—Neil Young, Look Out For My Love
I am working in Portland again for a couple of days. These are long 10+ hour shifts with a client as we put together a catalog for his business. Certain elements of the work are fun, but I miss Erin and Jonah and the work usually isn’t at such a pace that it can crowd out those feelings.
It seems strange—maybe even silly—to feel longing, since I’m not really gone for more than 48 hours. Fortunately, I can set up iPhoto’s slideshow to run pictures of Jonah on Trin while I’m slogging through all the InDesign work on the client’s G4. In those brief moments when I’m waiting for the Mac to save a file or finish sending to a print server, I can glance over at Jonah’s happy mug. God, he’s a beautiful boy.
I am in Battle Ground this evening staying as I frequently do with Joe and Carol, our friends and Jonah’s Godparents. Sleeping over at their cozy home cuts over an hour of travel time, allowing me to stay up later and/or sleep longer. It also allows me the chance to see them, which is perhaps an even bigger advantage.
Today is the day after Carol’s birthday, but she’s feeling a little under the weather this evening and is heading to bed early, so I won’t have the chance to ask her how it was. For a person who feels somewhat unwell, Carol looks radiant. (How come when I feel unwell I look very much a person who was hit by a car? Who do I talk to about this?) I hope she feels better soon.
Joe’s had a problem receiving email for the last several days. Joe tries my troubleshooting suggestions while I gratefully chow down on a chicken and rice dinner Joe and Carol made for me. I finish the delicious meal. Joe’s gone without email success in the meantime. I whip out Trinity and start combing the web. Solution on the Apple Discussion Boards (also on MacInTouch). The answer? Delete the PayPal email from the In Box on the Comcast email server. For whatever reason, PayPal emails cause the Mail.app in MacOS X 10.2 to bonk. Bizarre problem and unexpected solution. Cool that Joe and I got to futz around with MacOS X, though. Makes me wish I had more time to do so. Joe works tomorrow, so no all-night Carmaggedon or Aliens v. Predator games for us. Good thing, since I’ve probably got another 10 hour slog tomorrow.
After heading to bed I hop on the Kann Airport network and have a bit of an iChat with Dave. Jonah’s not left me much time for chatting lately, so it’s good to connect with Dave again online, however briefly. After logging off, I should’ve turned out the light, but I end up messing with iTunes and clicking some 50 songs into my shopping cart. Some day I may even buy them. Of course, I say that about the iPod too.
Thanks to everyone who helped make today a good day.