The Greatest Show on Earth

We went to the circus tonight. It was fun. Fort TomCollins has a much smaller auditorium than does San Schmose, as Fort TomCollins has only a Central Hockey League team compared to the NHL team of San Schmose.

It also may be because San Schmose has a higher population in any one of it suburbs than we have in the entire county. But I think it's the hockey team.

Anyways, the place was only big enough for a one ring circus, not the three ring we got in San Schmose. But we were able to buy seventh row center seats this morning for today's evening show. HannahC loved it. MaxieC, unfortunately, was not quite himself today. He had barfed earlier in the day, and he was feeling OK at the beginning of the show but faded fast during it.

There was no barfing or shabooing at the show, though. So in the respect, it was a success.

I had nachos and a locally-brewed Bud. The Childrens had cotton candy.

I got to deal with our newly outsourced-to-Costa Rica technical support today. It was an order of magnitude better than outsourced-to-India technical support I've had in the past. And the guy actually fixed the problem, too. We've got a lot of stuff going on in Costa Rica in The Company now, and I've been overall pretty impressed with them. Where in the hell does Costa Rica get decent engineers, though? It's not a place I ever would have expected to be a technical haven.

Of course, neither is Fort TomCollins.

Today, I was in a meeting where we were getting some stuff presented to us by one of the groups that designs a component of our product, and the news was not what we wanted to hear, and this ended up triggering a 20-minute argument between two guys in the room, all while the speakerphone was on mute and the meetings (which was run out of Smassachusetts) proceeded along not knowing that this was going on in Fort TomCollins. I kept wondering if I should step in and moderate, but both these guys have been under a huge amount of pressure lately, and it looked mostly like they were just venting. Eventually, though, I had to stop them cuz I needed to ask a question of the guy who was now presenting (who I think was actually in Arizona). It wasn't so much a question as it was a statement of my opinion that what he was presenting was sheer craziness. But I phrased it as a question to try to make it less confrontational.

I know, that probably surprises you. But in general, it's a good rule not to piss off people who control how much attention the factory actually pays to making your part.

I'm thinking of putting the cap back on the pickup this weekend. I like to get it on there before the rainy/snowy season. I hope it snows a lot this year, just like last year. It didn't fall down from the garage ceiling despite me suspending the winch from screw-in eye bolts that came with little tags on them that said, "not for overhead lifting." I had done a much more complicated attachment at the previous house, but everyone assured me this would be fine. And it has been. It was a lot easier as it did not involve opening up holes in the ceiling to attach Simpson strong-tie straps (rated at 1500 lbs) to the sides of the the joist.

I should go to bed.