My Commute

Work was good! There's so much to talk about: the new technology, the people, my return to working in a cube (I had an office in my last year at my previous job).

The biggest thing to comment on for now is my commute. Jenn and I were blessed with really short commutes. It only takes her ten minutes to get to her office. It used to take me fifteen minutes to get to my office.

Today, it takes about thirty minutes to the trip. I now spend time on Route 3, a stretch of road that eventually takes drivers into New Hampshire, cutting through Lowell. My trip total is about seventeen miles, according to Yahoo! Maps.

Route 3 is a set of two two-lane roads, running North/South. Thankfully, I travel against traffic: In the morning, when traffic is backed up going South towards Boston, I'm racing North, towards Chelmsford. In the evening, when traffic is backed up going North to the various bedroom communities along Route 3, I'm racing South, towards Burlington/Lexington (and eventually to Arlington).

The Route 3 Improvement Project proposes to 'widen' the lanes, so I'll get to witness the progress of adding two full lanes to a heavily trafficked road.

Father's Day Bag

Tomorrow, I start a new job. My wife got me a new bag for Father's Day, and I'm feeling like it's the first day of school. I can't wait to start, however. It's been two and a half months since I've been away from work, and I'm eager to get back into it.

The Sum of All Fears

I finished The Sum of All Fears today. This is a Tom Clancy book about terrorists trying to build a nuclear bomb. It was a long book (900+ pages) but a real page-turner. I was engrossed from the first few chapters, right up until the incredible finish. I couldn't read the book fast enough.

This was the kind of book that I took with me everywhere. I read bits of it waiting on line at the post office, sitting in traffic, or during television commercial breaks.

The book had a realism that kept me on my toes. When I read an article about the real director of central intelligence, George Tenet, I half expected to see plot lines from this novel. A review I read echoed the same sentiment.

This is a super fun book, and I highly recommend it.

Fitovers

I wear Fitover Sunglasses. I must admit that these look a bit 'unconventional' (they're huge!) but they work great! The weather remained hot, and the sun was blinding, but thanks to these Fitovers, I'm in the shade.

Hot

Today was hot. Hot weather. I often claim that summer is my favorite season, but on days like this, I feel I need to move summer down a notch. Someone said that winter is better because you can always put on clothes when you're cold, until you get warm. With summer, you'll always be hot, no matter how many clothes you take off.

It was 80 degrees on Paul Fox's real-time temperature monitor, but it felt like 90.

Golf Reunion

I played golf today and ended up with a reunion of former work colleagues.

I left the house after Mia's morning feeding. By 6:50AM, I went into the pro shop at the Woburn Country Club and asked if I could play nine holes as a single. Normally, I would have joined another group, but a league was teeing off in five minutes. I decided to try another course.

I went to my old stand-by, Pine Meadows Golf Course. This is a nine-hole course (like the Woburn Country Club). I paid the fee, and was asked to join three older gentlemen. As my group was getting ready to tee off, three guys from my last job happened to be walking past the first tee. The starter suggested I join them, since it was clear I knew who these guys were.

So just like that, I left the three older gentlemen, and joined my former work colleagues: Tim Besser, Bill O'Keefe, and John Perakis.

Golf is a sport best enjoyed with happy company. These guys were happy. Despite a work day, they wanted to squeeze in nine holes before the 9AM. I had played with a few of them before. The comraderie of golf can't be overstated. There was no discouraging remarks. Instead, the banter was self-deprecating, and above all, encouraging. Golf talk isn't trash talk.

And the course was an old buddy too. All of us had memories of certain birdies, pars, bogeys, snow men, and "other" scores as we marched through each of the familiar holes. I can walk this course in my head.

I played OK, but the surprise reunion made up for my ugly score.

Bourque's Cup

Ray Bourque has finally touched the Stanley Cup. He and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the New Jersey Devils in an epic seven game series, that had me emotionally spent by the end of it.

I told my wife when the Stanley Cup finals started, that I would emotionally invest myself in rooting for the Avalanche, for Ray Bourque. I told her that she could for the Avalanche for Chris Drury, a fellow BU alumnus.

For me, I spent a heady seven nights watching this on TV. There were games where I was glued to the television. There were games where I could only watch it cowered behind the computer, watching web updates to a mute scoreboard.

When the Avalanche went down 3-2 in the series, I was thrust into a despair I hadn't felt in a long time. When the Avalanche tied it up 3-3 in New Jersey, I moved about in trepidation for forty-eight hours, until game 7. Everything I did on Saturday seemed frought with Stanley Cup significance: should I wear a certain shirt? which TV should I watch the Cup? should I have a take-out lunch in addition to dinner? should I shave?

Saturday seemed filled with other great sports. I rejoiced when Jennifer Capriati won the French Open in an epic third set, but I feared that her good fortune would 'cancel out' an Avalanche win. I enjoyed the quick two goal lead by the New England Revolution, but I couldn't bear to think that the sporting gods would deny me an Avalanche victory so that my local soccer team could win one at home. I hid all this from Jenn as best I could, but in the early evening, I told her that I was a big mess waiting for this game to begin.

And when the game finally started, and the Avalanche kept pulling ahead, I frequently changed the channel, not daring to believe that a victory was possible. But with five minutes to play, I could barely sit down. After the game, I was so keyed up, I stayed awake flipping through the local news and Ray Bourque led every local telecast.

I am relieved to be writing these words as a common sports fan. The team I rooted for won, and that's a very satisfying feeling.