Back from the Dead

This past week was pretty horrible.  Friday evening I could feel my immune system start to sputter. Saturday I woke up with a scratchy throat. By Saturday afternoon I had a dull headache.  I was not looking forward to my near future. Early Sunday morning came. My throat felt as if I were swallowing barbed wire.  There was pressure building at the center of my brain. At any moment it was it going to exceed its limit.  My head was about to explode. Despite my dire circumstance I was unable to stay awake.  I would continually drift off to sleep, but never for more than 45 minutes straight. Sunday afternoon I started to run a fever.  I felt like total crap.

Barring an overnight miracle recovery, I was pretty sure I was going to miss work on Monday.  My alarm went off Monday morning.  I continued to sleep. I slept most of the a.m.  I had been taking medicine every few hours. Monday afternoon was the first time the medicine actually felt like it was working.  By the evening I was feeling better.  I was confident I would make it to work on Tuesday.
I woke up earlier than I usual that next morning and I was feeling pretty good at first.  I took a shower then set on the couch drinking some water.  I was trying to evaluate whether I was really sick, or if I just wanted to stay home from work another day.  As I sat there I leaned over and put my head on the pillow.  Forty five minutes later I woke up, and I was late for work.  I hurriedly got dressed and grabbed a couple oranges on my way out the door.  It was a freezing cold morning.  I was so glad for my garage as  I watched the neighbor scraping his windows. It was cold outside, but I was sweating as I walked from my car to the building.  This isn't a good sign.

It's November?

Holy freaking crap, it is November already. Not only is November here, it is one fourth of the way through. It doesn't seem possible. It seems like October had just started, and then Halloween was upon us. I am not sure what happened to an entire month. September was a good month for me. Somehow I had a few days of vacation left over that I had to use up before October. I took a couple Fridays off, and a Monday. On that four-day weekend we headed to Kansas City for a mini vacation. Neither of us had ever been there before and we wanted to check it out. We spent most of our time at the Country Club Plaza area and both of us were really impressed. We had a nice and relaxing time. The only downside was the hotel tricked us into buying a five dollar bottle of water. When we arrived we thought, "How nice, the hotel has provided a complimentary bottle of smart water". Only after it was opened did we notice the attached paper had a $5 price tag on it. Well played Embassy Suites, well played.
-deric

Electricity

The other night as I was trying to fall asleep my mind started wandering, settling on thoughts of what life must have been like 100 years ago. Specifically, I pondered the day to day life of somebody living pre-electricity. I concentrated with all the focus I could muster and attempted to imagine what it would have really been like to exist before electrons flowed into our homes on wires, relinquishing their energy for our convenience. No matter how hard I tried, I was unable to wrap my mind fully around the reality of not having electricity. I reluctantly gave up as my mind turned to another thought. Imagine you did live in a world that was dark at night. Save from the flickering candle light, there was nothing. Then imagine seeing the full, bright illumination of a light bulb for the very first time. By the simple flip of a switch, or pull of a string, your once dark room was flooded with light. This must have been an amazing sight to behold for the very first time. As I sit here typing on my computer I have to acknowledge that in my lifetime I will probably never have an occasion that will seem as important as what it must have felt to see that first light bulb coming on. This fact somewhat saddens me.

-deric

Making The Move

This past week it became official that I am leaving the engineering department and moving into intermodal pricing. I have spent the past 4 years in engineering, and really never imagined myself working in any other department at JB Hunt. It just seemed like the correct move to make right now. It is very bittersweet for me. I loved my time in engineering, and I will really miss the group of people I worked with. However, I was getting a little burnt-out on the work, and I needed something to mix it up for a while. It will be interesting for me to experience the business side of corporate America. It will be a really good experience for me, and help me to learn where I want my long-term career path to go. This past week also marked my 4 year anniversary of starting at JB Hunt and moving to Arkansas. It doesn't seem possible that I have been here for 4 years. Yet part of me feels that I have been here much longer. It is hard to imagine living anywhere else right now, we are both really happy here. I really don't know what the future holds for us, but I have a feeling we will be spending a bit more time here in the mid-south.

-deric