The month has been up and down so far with the good and the not-so-good. A great moment of joy was had on the 3rd when Sheila's oldest daughter gave birth to a baby boy, making Sheila a grandmother and me a grandfather by virtue of marrying into the family. I was pleased as punch to see a picture of the little guy when he was barely an hour old. I kept looking at it and realizing that life itself is a miracle.
Then there was news of some complications with the young one, but within the few hours the complications were showing signs of self-correction and the day after we knew that the new family member is doing OK. I am going down to see him on the 27th.
At work, we seem poised to do some great things that have never been done before. These are things I can't talk about, but you'll read them in the news if you know where to look. There is most definitely a market for what we're offering and my challenge as an engineer is to help get the product to the marketplace. I'm having loads of fun working there.
As for Las Vegas itself, I was Downtown yesterday strolling around and people-watching. I saw the usual collection of panhandlers and weirdo street performers along the Fremont Street Experience. No, I didn't gamble, but I found a nickel on the ground so I was able to come out ahead.
I took a different way home, mainly wanting to check out this Salvadorean restaurant that was on Main Street, a few blocks north of Downtown. I figured I would drive by it and see if I could get a feel as to whether or not I would want to go inside sometime. What I found out was that part of Main Street was a real trashcan of a neighborhood, and of course I was remembering what Bob Self had to say about Las Vegas.
That of course obliterated the positive view of southern Nevada that I had when I went out on a drive to Amargosa Valley last Saturday. I hadn't been up that stretch of US 95 since July 1993, and I wanted to re-acquaint myself with that area. The mountains in the distance had this signature scenery to them, and in a few places it was a lot like being out in the middle of Cochise County back in Arizona. I'm thinking that I should go out there again, but I'll likely wait until I have new tires on the back of my truck, and I want to put that purchase off until I'm in the next billing cycle of one of my Visa cards.
Meantime, I can report that the weather is finally warming up. We had an unusually cold and wet winter in Las Vegas this time around according to a ten year resident here who I cross paths with at work. I spend most of my lunch hours walking around the campus with another co-worker; I do 1.7 miles each day unless I get the wild hare to leave the plant for lunch. I have discovered some great eating places that I can get to and back before my allotted one hour for lunch is up, and I'm thinking it's time to check out one of them.........that being the Bacon Bar (it's tempting to go there for breakfast tomorrow).
That's going to be it for now.
