How Things Are Going.

It's hot. I'm sweating steadily in the shade under a fan.

The circumstances at Christina's job seem to be improving somewhat, at least in terms of working conditions. In what seems to be a steady cycle, all the accusations against Christina of racism, incompetence, poor attitude have been shown in time to be false, and she is being complimented on her professionalism, discretion and abilities. The person promoted to the position that Christina turned down because of the ridiculous workload expected has been found wanting in terms of doing work, and so at least the discontent of unfairness is going away somewhat.
So Christina is in a better mood, money is coming in at a rate that enables us to save regularly, disaster and misery averted for the time being. However, the prospects of The Plan are not ideal. It seems that Christina's work has instituted a hiring freeze to the point that it is quite possible that if people leave they will not be replaced. This means that the prospects of Christina getting a promotion or two is pretty low unless she decides to look for work in other companies. This has been talked about for six months now, no progress to report....

For me there has been quite a change in that we are now settled in the house, we have had multiple visitors but without the prospect of more, and all previous locations are now somebody else's problem. We have pretty much what we need in terms of stuff, all the utilities are hooked up, everything in the house works. Moving has finished. If I can shop, cook, clean and walk the dog enough for Christina my duties are completed. My workload has been reduced. It is also nice for me as the one who looks at the finances that the effects of all of this means that for the first time in fifteen months our account balances are going up rather than down.
The down side of this situation is that unless I think of things to do, themes, schemes and devious plots, I find myself in the situation that led me to write this post. That is that I don't have much to do.

The gout struck me finally three weeks ago. It had been lingering in the background with aches and swelling in my ankles and feet, but hadn't really incapacitated me. This changed three weeks back after a combination of plying my mother and nephew with proper Texan food, and the post visit debauchery, resulted in swelling and pain for three days.
Since then I have been almost entirely vegetarian, and dramatically cut my alcohol content (just on the weekends, and even then much less). Christina has joined me in this regimen (although she can eat what she wants for lunch) and combined with daily bicycle riding we are acting in a manner that is said to be more healthy. I think it has been excellent for Christina's mood, and I find myself becoming addicted to the exercise. We've lost five pounds or so each, so far. I don't really miss drinking as such, but the evenings do tend to be a lot less exciting and interesting.

Last week I joined a band. While sitting around with little direction I thought I'd randomly search through craigslist ads for musicians. It turned out that there was a band looking to play irish music who wanted a mandolin player. It even turned out that the person looking had been in my basement in Portland when I was starting Sam's Cross. I've been to a practice and it looks like I'm the second best musician in a motley crew of guys who remind me of any dungeons and dragons session, or IT department, or Portland video arcade at night. It looks relaxing, fun, and involves real-live people with whom I can converse.

In summary, life here is not like a box of chocolates, more like spaghetti and Ragu.