Desiree humored my camping craze. She and I went camping this weekend. We got out there about 9:30 and found a nice spot to camp. Then we setup up camp and proceeded to try (key word try) to get the fire going. The wood didn't appear to have been cured completely and despite my coaxing, it wouldn't catch. Since it was cold and we'd had a long day we climbed into the tent and proceeded to enjoy a couple of beverages. We had blown up a leaky air mattress for Desiree and I had my Therm-A-Rest pad for me. She was bundled up in my thicker sleeping bag with 3 shirts on (two of which were sweatshirts) and a blanket. I had her sleeping bag and slept fitfully, but well for most of the night. About 3:00 in the morning my cell phone starts going off. We can't find it in the tent. I'm looking around and she finally pulls it out of her coat pocket. It was my boss Yaser.
Now you have to get the picture here. We have been making a lot of changes at work. We were supposed to implement them Thursday night, but we had customers still in the system. Instead they decide to bring it down at 5:00 on Friday. It was supposed to take about and hour and I didn't think it would be that big of a deal. I had already made plans to go get Desiree at 5:00 and we were to head to the park. At 6:30 I called Dezi and told her that we hadn't started the update. To say I was a little frustrated at this point is putting it mildly. Especially since there is very little that I could actually do. The gates of the park closed at 10:00 and if we weren't there, there was nothing we could do about it. I left about 8:00 with the update only just beginning. Yaser called at 3:00 because he wanted some of the data that he had asked me to get to the sales team. I had put it on the shared drive, but my battery was failing and I couldn't call him back. In fact I couldn't check the voice mail he had left. They were still at the office at 4:00 Saturday morning. Crazy people. I imagine he may have been upset at me for not answering my phone, but I didn't want to crawl out of my sleeping bag to see what he wanted.
I charged my phone the next morning and called Yaser's phone. I still had the phone in my pocket when my brother Jeff called me to tell me about the shuttle Columbia. I realized what had happened, but it didn't sink in until we got back to Dezi's and watched the CNN coverage. It was all I could take to stand there and watch the shuttle break apart time and time again. This country has been through an incredible amount over the last couple of years. And with war looming I would just ask for everyone to pray for the nation, for the astronauts and their families and friends. Dezi said something that I thought was quite appropriate. At least they were doing something they loved. Somehow it makes it all easier to cope with. On the radio yesterday they were playing this song. I know it was written as a reflection of the 9/11 attacks, but it's strangely appropriate here as well.
