10 January 1998: Bumpy Ride

Saturday, 10 January 1998:

Bumpy Ride

Thursday we had a decent-sized snowstorm in the Upper Midwest. We got four or so inches in Madison, and driving home from work was quite an adventure. I tried not to go over 25 MPH. Later in the evening - after the snow had stopped - my friend Karen and I went out to find frozen custard. All the shops were closed, so instead we bought Haagen-Dazs at a convenience store, which was an acceptable substitute. On our way around, though, my car went into a 180-degree spin at one point. Fortunately, I was only doing about 25, and it was on an off-ramp from the highway, so we coasted to a stop on the grass at the edge of the road. I backed up got us out without any trouble or damage, fortunately. It's the first time I've ever lost control of my car in any weather; a strange feeling.

The next day, ironically, I renewed my driver's license for another four years.

Friday was also the last day at work for a woman who's been at Epic nearly as long as I have (almost 3 years for her; a bit over 3-1/2 for me). Our team took her out to lunch, and at that lunch another programmer on our team announced his imminent departure. He in fact is more senior than I am, which is a strange feeling for me. I realize that in many ways I've been at Epic a long time.

I'm sure that this will translate into more responsibility for me in a few ways, although now that we have five other full-time developers on our team we can spread the work around more easily. We'll see if it translates into anything else, as well. I will shortly be the longest-standing developer on my team. Weird.

I've been in a CD-buying frenzy lately. A friend of mine bought me The Spell, the first solo album by Ivan, the former lead singer for Men Without Hats (one of my favorite groups). I picked up the excellent Tales of Mystery and Imagination by The Alan Parsons Project (quite different from their later work; it was their first album), and Annie Lennox's Diva. I bought Queen's Greatest Hits I & II, and the new gold-CD reissue of Jethro Tull's Living In The Past. LitP's initial CD issue showed that the original master tapes were in rotten shape, and I'm glad they've done a proper reissue of a better recording. Expensive, but I'm a big Tull fan, so I decided to buy it.

Impulse shopping; gotta love it!

I'm in the office right now to write this entry and check my e-mail, and it's nearly 6 pm so I should get home soon. More next week sometime...

Michael Rawdon (Contact)