A couple of weeks ago, I took my license renewal test. I suffer from test anxiety syndrome. The longer the results take to get here, the more I question all of my answers, and worry that I was reading too much into the questions....

One of our other guys took the test at the same session, and he got his results last Friday. He had failed for the second time, which means he will have to wait six months before he can retest. This morning, I called to find out what was holding my results up. The test proctor told me that I had passed, and that the delay was caused by the wait for the Fire Marshal's signature. I feel much better now.

Sometimes it's good not to be the Sprinkler guy....

It is seven degrees in Omaha. I am not sure how cold it got last night, but this morning my pager sounded. It was the maintenance guy from an apartment complex not far from here. He had a fire sprinkler line in the attic of one of his buildings freeze and split in the night and really needed a referal. I gave him the number of the company we usually use.

we are in out of the cold, and I have a pot of chili simmering on the stove.

It has been a busy week here. Monday morning my truck was dead. I got a ride to work and shifted into another truck while mine was being repaired. I moved some tools into it and I was off to a client site about 90 miles away to do a repair that required a second round trip back to the shop. The guy that usually drives that truck is a smoker and likes those tree shaped air fresheners. the combination of the two smells mae me a little nauseous all week. After an eleven hour day, I had the client's system working again. The next day started real early to let me do a few system checks in the protected rooms of a hospital. Once again, eleven hours. Wednesday, I started at regular time, but had a night appointment for that same hospital for the system in the computer center. Twelve hours for Wednesday. Yesterday I did a few odds and ends. The guy had my truck running, so I moved back into it, then helped another tech on a job he should have done Friday . He is at least two days away from done. Maybe by Monday. I am heading back there today to help him out again.

We had six inches of snow overnight. We also had nothing planned for today, so I put some nice lean beef in the slow cooker for a stew this evening, cleaned off all the cars and shoveled the driveway. It's a good day to just relax, sip some wine and watch some old movies. I hope your day is lovely too!

I just got back from my license renewal test. This takes place every four years. Since my last test, the material from which they draw the questions has been updated. Back in August, I gave the service manager a list of the seven books I needed. I told him I would be more than happy to pay the three hundred bucks, but I wanted them soon so I could start the conversion process. He told me to keep my money, and that he would get right on it. In November, He finally purchased the books as pdf files rather than the hard copies. The pdfd files were the same price. He assumed that he would just run us off copies whenever we needed them. What he did not think about was the size of these works. One of them is 765 pages. He used about a dozen printer cartridges, and a few reams of paper. I got the last of the material yesterday. (lots of study time there....) I have since ordered real books rather than the single sided huge binders I have been using.

Today was the test. I am pretty confident in my answers. The results will be here in about two weeks.

Good morning friends,

It is seven am, and bone chilling cold out there. I should be snuggled up in bed, but I am sitting with a cup of coffee while my truck warms up. One of our larger clients requires that we test their alarms during off hours. All three of us will be there, and we will be billing them for overtime rates, but even at time and a half, I really hate to work weekends. I hope your weekend is going better.

Good evening friends,

On New Years day, I resolved to:

Laugh more
drink more good wine
Take Sunflower out to dinner more often

as a start on accomplishing these tasks, I took Sunflower out to our favorite Italian place tonight, where we laughed, ate delicious Sirloin Marsala and shared a bottle of claret from the Copolla winery.....