I know it's been a while since I've written... and there have been so many changes in the last seven months.Here goes.
2016 has been a really bizarre and eventful year for me. I lost my keys back in March. I mean, 100% gone. Still haven't found them. Jamie found a locksmith to replace my car key, and made copies of the other ones.
The next month though, Grandma took a turn for the worse. There was little time to prepare, but we drove to Mtn. View to go visit her. It's about a 400 mile trip each way, and we had to leave Friday and come back Sunday, maybe Monday. I forget. It was kind of depressing to go to the nursing home to visit, but there was a lot of family there. I was ready to see Grandma and everyone, but wanted to spend a little bit of time with her because I knew it would be for the last time.
Jamie cried privately, during the moments we went outside to smoke. The next Friday morning, she passed away, 25 years to the day after my Pa on the other side of the family passed away. The funeral was the next day, so we went back that weekend. It was very sad and very emotional. She was buried in the Cove. There's a cemetery there with many Canards and relatives, a place I connect with through family history, and want to be buried at when I pass, though it's far away from home. It probably won't happen since my roots are pretty deep here.
The service was very ordered and dry. Personally I didn't think it was enough of a tribute to her life. It was alright, I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, but the mood of it was too formal. We are all family and friends. At the burial, we all met several even distant family members. And old family friends. It wasn't a large event. But there was love there. As we left Mountain View, I thought to myself, I have no close family anymore in the town i partially grew up in and made so many memories in. Grandma has travelled to Heaven, and the lady who helped raise me for a time is not in this life anymore.
The next month began a whirlwind of work stress that is only now subsiding. I'm in the mortgage business, and early this year, rates started dropping dramatically, increasing business for all lenders. Just an aside, mortgage rates are not based on the Fed rate, they're based on the 10 year Treasury bond. That's why rates change so frequently and don't exactly follow the Fed rate. Follow that on financial websites and you'll know when to bite. Anyhow, the 10 year hit a record low earlier this year.
There were four people on my team for the system I'm on back in May. There's a new system that was deployed early this year, and I was on the team dealing with finishing out work on the old one. Right after Memorial day, two of them abruptly left the company. There were no replacements. The only help the remaining two of us had was sending bits of our work to a site and California, and another one on Florida.
My one remaining teammate has some health issues that can be unpredictable, so I never knew when she would miss work. We get along pretty well, so please don't think I'm being critical. We both have been up against the wall for months. I've had to cover when she was out. She had to cover when I was out. It was like dancing with the devil just to go to the office. For both of us.
Things have been shuffled around a little bit now. It's just now beginning to be sane there, if you can call it that. It's toughened me up a hell of a lot. I'm thankful for my job. I get paid pretty damn decent, so I'm flexible and trying to make the best of it. It's made me a little bit better with confidence and other work related stuff too.
That's just a couple things about the last seven months. More to come.
