The depagosafication of Pagosa...

When Galina introduced me to a couple who was being served at the store and told me we'd be visiting them last night, I little suspected that she meant immediately after the store ended. Had I known that, I would have gone easy on the perishables at the City Market, especially the small container of Hägen-Dazs (cherry vanilla). As it turned out however, Bruce and Diane live not too far from where Piedra and Pagosa Boulevards intersect, about as far from the highway as you can get without actually entering the National Forest.

Their house is beautiful, but they live in a development that was designed to make someone a lot of money and the devil take the scenery. Think of Levittown in three dimensions. Our guests live in a very nice house, with a really great view, until the fellow who owns the half-acre next door builds his house.

We'd gone there to pick brains about the tradeoffs in (a) hiring a general contractor to coordinate whatever needs to be done to renovate our house, and (b) performing that function ourselves, which likely saves a significant number of bucks. In my mind, the lurking variable in the works is getting the coordination done without blowing the budget; I don't know how things are in other parts of the country, but some of the local construction contractors are famous for not being able to organize a two-car motorcade, although once they're under way, they supposedly know their way around their tools.

Anyway, we're sort of informally invited to join them for dinner tomorrow night, out at Williams Creek, where there is supposedly a place that can't be beat - in terms of quality, quantity, or price - when it comes to ribs. I've never heard of such a place, which is not to say it doesn't exist. I'm looking forward to the trip. It may be the closest I get to Williams Creek lake all year.

A client called a few minutes ago with a job that will definitely put me over the top for June, and if I work it faster than is called for by the deadline, there might be room for a job or two more. It would, therefore, be an ideal time for the Kazakhstan gig to go forth, as the concomitant lull in cash flow starting in late July would be partially concealed by payments having freshly come in for June.

Enough jawing. I've got to take a closer look at what I've gotten myself into.

Cheers...

In the electronic age...

...when, as a matter of course, we've become used to getting our password resets and PIN reminders almost instantaneously, Delta Airlines will remind you of your PIN by snail-mailing (and apparently only snail-mailing) a notice to the address they have on file for you.

Which really makes it easy to take advantage of one's farblegargling frequent flier account, I'm here to tell ya!

Why am I interested in taking advantage of my Delta SkyMiles account?

Hint: Delta flies to Moscow.

The game is afoot, and apparently, I'm to be in Moscow... soon.

Cheers...

Another careful plan...

The day brought a 17,000 word assignment, due after I leave for Russia. And that deadline becomes even less "informative" when you consider that Galina and I need to depart for Houston in sufficient time to get there to unload a truckload of stuff and get ready for my trip.

At 3,000 words per day, the document ought to be complete after 6 days of work, giving me a three day margin for rest, rehabilitation, and packing, and not much of a margin for accepting any additional work.

Details of the "move" (we're not moving the whole household) are medium-sharp in my mind; I'll probably spend some time crystallizing them in my LJ this weekend.

The main thing, though, is that I need to buckle down and deal with the new assignment in a workmanlike manner, and clean my plate of all outstanding work next week.

Cheers...