I... am... so... bored....

The title pretty much says everything. I am sitting here in the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport waiting for my connecting flight to Vancouver. This week sounds like it is going to be pretty interesting - actually very interesting - but travel like this is the pits.

I think I can talk about what I am doing in some ways... I am going to be installing a tool in Vancouver and conducting some training on how to use the tool. It is not a tool that my company has sold before, so it is going to be a learning experience for me. What is cool is that the tool is not going to be used for electronics manufacture. It is going to be used for cancer research! Like I said before, I am not sure how much detail I can go into, so I am going to err on the side of caution and not say too much. Let me leave it at, I am looking forward to this week because I am going to do a very small part in finding a cure for cancer, and my Dad and father in law both died of cancer.

Bored bored bored...

Not too much besides that going on. Things are winding up to the Christmas holidays. Shopping is almost done - it is all done for my lovely bride! It is not going to be as big a Christmas as in years past, but it is going to be a better one because of that, I think. The biggest Christmas for presents was the year I built and installed system 185. I pulled in an enormous amount of overtime, and most of it went to Christmas. It was a lot of fun, but not the smartest thing to do. This year, Santa is following a very tight budget - and I think it is going to be the best Christmas ever. I just get that feeling.

I have been lamenting for years that Christmas is too commercialized, too much about finding the perfect gift for someone or getting the perfect gift. We paid lip service to the meaning of the season, but our actions had us worrying about stuff. This year, the expectation is that there will not be a whole lot of stuff - and I think that has freed us up to really concentrate on what the season means. Two thousand something years ago, a child was born - and the world changed. In a time of despair, hope arrived with a baby's cry. Look at the world around you today - and I am not just talking about the financial crash and the job losses... Look at the world around you - what do you see, almost everywhere you look? Hopelessness. Despair. At least that is what you see when you turn on the TV or open a newspaper. All of us should look at the season and be thankful for what we have, for each other. We should, if just for a day, have faith and hope. Maybe the world might change again.