Dr. Dog's House

Oh, I had such big plans for the weekend! I was really going to work on getting my new efx3.com site set up nicely, pick a new theme, write some really interesting posts and so on. But then things happened.

My Saturday turned out to be way too busy for creative stuff. Not that I did very much. I worked all morning at the office. Then I went home for lunch, and my wife suggested that we take a nap. But a nap was not exactly what she had in mind. Not at first. And actually, that’s what I also had in mind. So two minds met and joined … and then we really did take a nap after that. Slept well.

After we got up, I thought we’d have a quiet dinner at home and then maybe I could watch some hockey or else we’d agree on a movie. But she had other ideas. A while ago, we agreed that we would hold a special Victory Over Basketball dinner, to celebrate that I had covered my last basketball game of the season and will be able to spend a lot more time at home now. We don’t go out for steak that often, but we agreed this was a special occasion worth celebrating. The question: When would we do it?

She decided this would be the perfect night for it, so we went to a supper club located just a few blocks away. It was the first time we had gotten steaks there, but they did a really good job. I opted for a tenderloin with a baked potato on the side. Yumm! That was good eating. The only problem was that the gift certificate I had gotten about two years ago expired at the end of 2008. Well, it was a nice, tasty meal anyway.

After that, I thought I would go upstairs and do some writing, occasionally glancing over to the hockey game on TV nearby. But that didn’t happen because of my friend, B.

B (who lives in Alaska) and I recently decided to set up a DVD exchange program. Sort of like Netflix, only without the subscription, fees, inventory and annoying popup ads on your computer screen. I recently mailed her some films, and her package with a few films arrived in Saturday morning’s mail. We looked them over and decided to try “Definitely Maybe.” Once it was over, my wife was getting sleepy, so I took her up to bed and finally got to sit at the computer keyboard, fully intending to write something. But I quickly realized I was tired, too, and couldn’t focus my mind. I gave up within 10 minutes and went to bed.

Better luck on Sunday? I worked at the office in the morning, then went home. But David was there, too, and he brought along the movie “Wall-E.” He had gone to Iron Mountain with us on Friday and said he might come over. He did. So we watched “Wall-E.” Or tried to. My wife conked out halfway through and soon was “purring.”

When the movie ended, he went upstairs, and I started using the text editor on the Efx3 dashboard. I had been using it (instead of Google Docs) since the site started. But I bet you can guess the rest: I hit a wrong combination of keys and wiped out all my changes since last saving it. Lesson learned–I’m back to using Google Docs, because of its automatic backups.

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Two big changes to report. First, as you have seen already, I switched to a very different theme. Actually, I was looking themes over this evening, and I hit a wrong key (which I seem to be doing a lot lately), and the new theme took effect. Actually, though, I like the way it came out. Plus, that picture at the top can be changed. How long do you think it will be before you see Charlie looking out at you?

Finally, it got a lot warmer here–the 40s, anyway, which is pretty darn warm for this area in March–and nearly all the snow is gone. The back yard only has brown grass, aside from a few leftover piles of snow where the plow dumped it. Those are disappearing, also, and this week we are forecast to get rain, not snow.

I’m sure we are still destined for one last major snowstorm, but the ground has warmed up a bit now, the frost is coming out of the ground, so any new snow won’t stay around for long. Given how long and how cold this winter has been, it’s only fair. Bring on summer!

Tuesday was a day of transition. No question about that.

That’s the day I wrote my final post at efx2blogs.com. I wrote that it’s been fun, but it’s now time to move on. Better get out of the house before they tear it down. (Ironically, the guy who had been running the place showed up today. Bet he was surprised at what has happened.)

On Monday, the team I cover lost its regional semifinal game. I could tell you more about it–it was quite an exceptional game–but the reason I mention it is because it was the last basketball game I had to cover this winter. Now their season is over, and so is the hardest part of the year at work.

Then, there’s the weather. Winter has checked out–it may make a brief return, but several days in the 40s and 50s have melted nearly all the snow around here. The big piles of plowed-up snow look pretty puny now, and all the ice in the alley has melted. It will get colder later this week, but I think we can say winter is nearly over now. Time for the earth to warm up. Monday, on my drive, the car thermometer read 62 degrees F at one point. A nice day for a drive, and 12 hours of daylight.

It’s going to be colder Thursday, but not by much. Things are definitely going in the right direction. Transition time–I can take it.

I was feeling very tired (and discouraged) late this winter. All the scads of basketball. Efx2’s uncertain future. But that’s over, and I’m much happier now. Once again, I can do things that I want to do. Last Saturday, my wife and I took a trip out of town, mainly to travel some different roads and to get her to some quilt shops–first time we’ve been able to do that since last summer.

A line from a favorite Beatles’ song says it well: “Here comes the sun. Here comes the sun. And I say, it’s all right.”