All Quiet on the Home Front

Unfortunately, it seems that declaring my cold over was premature. I've spent most of this week with the snuffles, although now it seems I'm finally getting over it. Fortunately, I had the perfect week for being sick. Work was the quietest it's been since I got here so I was able to mostly hunker down at my desk and work quietly.

I don't know if it's the new year approaching, but I've noticed that people (both pedestrians and drivers alike), have been worse than usual. Monday on the way home, I stopped at one of the poorly-placed crosswalks on the highway because someone was crossing. It turned out to be two slovenly teenage girls - walking so slowly they might as well have been walking backwards - and eating cheetos. Not a care in the world. Being sick, I was in no mood for that crap so as they were passing in front of my car I gave them a nice long honk on the horn. It was great -cheetos in the air and everything. Of course, it didn't make them move any faster but I felt better for it anyway.

What's scarier is that I barely avoided hitting some kids twice on the way home tonight. It's dusk and they just came running across the road, not even looking. It's a good thing that the first thing you learn about driving here is to be alert.

Not too much else to report, although today I had to return 'gifts' from some of the local cell phone companies. In my position, receiving gifts is hard to do ethically anyway, but in this case, since we're contracting for cell phone service, it was particularly important not to give the impression of unethical conduct.

Very much looking forward to another long weekend. This is probably the last post for 2009, so HAPPY NEW YEAR!