Christmas Letter

It isn’t even Christmas yet, and we have already received our gift. Marty got a job. A year ago, he decided to taper off from his contract work in Houston. He wanted to find a job nearby so he could be close to wife, kids and parents. He’s been looking all year and it’s been a long journey but, on December 14 he started a new job as an imbedded software designer in Fort Worth, Texas.

We started 2008 with great optimism. Marty had a few very strong job prospects in January and in April. Each time it seemed as if he had the job sewed up, then it mysteriously vaporized. Every morning he started his day by searching the online job listings and sending in applications. But after a few months, we decided there had to be more to his life than this.

He began purchasing self paced training modules for computer applications that he wanted to learn. He spent weeks learning C#, dsPic processors and Java. He also did some short term contract work. He worked two different times for Weatherford International. The first time he did firmware troubleshooting and the second time he did a Photoshop project. He also occasionally returned to Houston to work a few days.

The rest of the time he was at home. This turned out to be a really good thing. Over the course of a few months, our house required the fence mended, toilets reworked and the roof replaced. Every time, Marty was there to set appointments, greet the repairman and oversee the work. No need to schedule appointments on Saturday, go in late to work or take a vacation day, he was available to handle it.

I started depending on him to help get me ready for work every day. I tend to cut my time very close and I am always rushing in the morning: throwing some food together for my breakfast, feeding the dogs, grabbing all my stuff and running out the door. It started slowly as Marty took over feeding the dogs. But soon he was buttering toast for my breakfast, carrying my things to the car and sometimes even driving me to the carpool lot.

The other way that we took advantage of Marty’s increased free time was by taking three vacations. In April we visited “A” towns in Texas: Abilene, Amarillo, Arlington (Dr’s appointment) and Austin. One highlight was visiting my cousins, Laura and Terry Browder. Terry runs several outstanding, upscale guest houses in Abilene collectively called the Sayles Ranch. We took a second vacation in July to Illinois to attend the Hobson reunion. We rode in Marty’s car with Marty’s daughter, Carmen, her 1 year old, Julianna, and her 3 year old, Shane. Amazingly, we traveled well together. Carmen rode in the back seat between the two kids. She was occasionally awakened from a nap by a finger in her eye when Shane got bored, but otherwise she was ok. Our third vacation was in November to the Lost Maples in the Texas hill country.

Another class that Marty took was on writing and book publishing. I took the class also and was inspired to begin writing a blog. My blog inspired Marty to begin a website cancerreportdaily.com. It is a collection of late breaking news articles related to care, treatment and discoveries about cancer. He spent several weeks building a quality, easy-to-use website. He updates it once, or more, a day. Just about the time he got ready to roll out his website, he applied for one more job. Evidently this was the one that the Lord had been saving for him, because he was hired 10 days later.

We are both ecstatic. Marty is relieved to be earning a steady salary. He is excited to be at work again. Now we will have a little more leeway in our budget. We can begin saving again for car replacement and future retirement. Also, we both are looking forward to buying new shoes. There is just one drawback to this whole Marty job thing. Who’s going to pick up my dry cleaning?

I Can't Go - Vacation Day 1

I can’t take a vacation now. First of all, Marty and I don’t have the funds. We are on a tight budget this year. Secondly, I hate to burn up more vacation time. I’ve taken more vacation days this year than I did by this same time last year. Thirdly, I’ve been feeling very irritable lately. I hate to subject Marty to four days of being locked in a car with me.

So, why am I on vacation? We found a way to do it cheaply. Marty has lots of hotel points, so we get to stay for free. We are visiting the Lost Maples in Texas, so we aren’t spending much money on travel. We have set ourselves a food budget of $25 per day. The hotel provides free breakfast. We brought groceries for a picnic at one meal per day. That leaves $25 for the entrée that we share at lunch. That takes care of the first excuse.

I have used 10 vacation days this year. That may be more than last year, but I still have 18 days of vacation left. I could save it for later, but I have been under a lot of stress lately. I need to get away. Excuse #2 is gone. Marty says he wants to go on vacation with me. If he is willing to take his chances with a fussy wife, who am I to stop him? Marty overrules excuse #3.

So, on Saturday we drove from Arlington to San Antonio. Our first desire on our vacation was to enjoy some delicious kolaches in West, Texas. I consulted the GPS on my phone to see how far it was to West. The GPS could not understand my request. “Please fill in all required fields.” It seemed to be asking, “West what?” I decided to try entering the name of the restaurant. I knew phonetically the name was the Check Stop. How do you spell that? Is it C-h-Z-ech? C-z-H-ech? Neither of those seemed to work. The GPS is no good at guessing what I mean. Then I remembered I could use the web connection on my phone and do a Google search. I found it. The restaurant was the Czech Stop and it was 44 miles away. When we arrived, I chose a sausage and cheese kolache and a strawberry cream cheese kolache. Marty paid for it all out of his spending money.

The drive to San Antonio took about 5 ½ hours. Marty drove. He has a herniated disc in his back and it often causes a nerve in his knee to react. Several times while driving, he winced as it sent a shock through his leg. He also had pain in his shoulders from gripping the steering wheel. Once or twice I was startled by a loud noise. “What was that?” I asked Marty. “You were snoring,” he said.

Driving to our hotel in San Antonio I noticed the Magic Time Machine. It’s a restaurant where all of the wait staff dress up in costume and pretend to take on the character they are dressed as. I remember having a great meal there almost 30 years ago. I told Marty that I really wanted to go. We decided to check into our hotel and come back.

We returned to the Magic Time Machine about 3 pm. The restaurant was almost deserted. Pocahontas, in an outfit that was too short and too tight to be authentic, showed us to our table. There we were greeted by Robin Hood in a pair of green tights.

Marty shared the filet mignon that I begged for and even agreed to bread pudding for dessert. (He hates it.) He was very good natured as the waiter returned frequently and made bad jokes in an effort to flirt with me. (I’m sure that flirting with middle aged women is part of Robin Hood’s job description.) Marty only flinched a little when the bill was $15 over our entire daily food budget.

Taking a vacation was a good idea. Excuse #3 turned out not to be a problem and Marty gets an A+ in grouchy wife handling.