Changes, peeking, birthdays

My current boss is leaving at the end of the month. In light of that all of his duties are being parceled out among those of us who reported to him. It is always a delicate dance to shift priorities and assume duties that are both new and urgent; to report to someone to whom your boss once reported. It is not always a welcome exposure; especially in light of the fact that all of us have very fulltime jobs to maintain on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

This entire process is not aided by the fact that one of our peers has also left our group so his responsibilities are being taken on by one of the persons who reported to him, who also has a very fulltime job to maintain. He is very uncomfortable communicating at the current elevated level of the organization. It is kind of humorous to watch that level of discomfort evidence itself in meetings.

Mama and I are still a little lost in the process of finding a place to move to. There is still a good deal of distance between our individual expectations. The current lack of suitable properties for sale - of the type we are looking for- complicates the issue a good deal. I have suggested that we take a break from the search; no looking at realtor.com for a week, but neither of us can keep ourselves from peeking.

I stayed at work last night until about 6:40 pm as I waited on two different crews to complete work in the new office building. One crew finished up a little after 5 pm. The other asked for at least another hour. They will be back this morning. Hopefully they will not be looking to stay as late as yesterday.

It could work out okay since we have RU this evening but Mama looks forward to me getting home in time to help her get things ready for our weekly meeting. Tonight she will be putting together two Mexican casseroles for the dinner that always follows the meeting. It would be very disappointing to her for me to be stuck here in the office.

We leave in the morning for Chappell Hill. From the reports I am hearing, we will be traveling in the rain for a good portion of the trip. That is never fun with Mama. For some reason she is paranoid about driving in the rain, the snow, high winds, etc. We will try and make it a fun trip but there is always a little bit of drudgery spending eight to nine hours on the road.

I just have to keep the reason for the trip in context. At this point in their lives I do not know how much longer I will have my Mom and Dad around and birthday number 85 is a notable milestone. Dad will turn 90 in December.

At least now we are only a few hours from them versus being twenty hours away.