Up came the contender from the mat.

Down he goes with a crushing blow.

Up.

Down.

Every two hours, either the Gore or the Bush camp---usually alternating---got a ruling in their favor.

I still have no idea how this is going to end. Will Gore get enough votes without Miami-Dade? Will the Florida Republican legislature overturn the electors despite the vote? Will the Senate and the House of the US Congress be the last word? Will the Supreme Court?

All my guesses have tended to be wrong, so I'm just going to sit back and wonder.

I just think it's going to be a TKO---a technical knock out---rather than a real one.

Will that satisfy the country? I dunno...

I just know I'm going to feel sorry for both the loser...and the winner.

The lady who was helping me get together my Six Sigma project suggested I run through it in front of another lady---who was the supervisor of the person who's supposed to really be running my project, who is in Italy.

Turns out they wanted to head in a totally different direction...and didn't tell me.

They gave me a problem---and assumed I would head in one way to try to get it done, which would be a recommendation for resources to be assigned for that---

Little note. Do not set me a challenge and assume it's insurmountable. That it will take a huge new program to get around the difficulty. The problem is I've solved it---with something that costs little or no money, and would cut the time by two-thirds.

They weren't expecting me to solve it.

So I got some additional information, and added it to my presentation. So I think I've satisfied both what they wanted---and what they challenged me to do.

Just...*sigh*....don't bet against me, after you give me a goal. Not when it's something I can use my brains to solve. Don't tell me a week before I have to give the presentation.... that it isn't what you wanted. That you didn't want it solved.

If you don't clue me in---surprise!

I'll solve it.

On the second floor, where I now work, it was cool this morning (though freezing outside) and like a tropical jungle this afternoon.

It was a slow rest of the day, as most days just before a major holiday are. The companies we help go home early, more often than not. I made sure the right people had the right beepers, that everybody knew which hours they worked Friday (which is technically a holiday for us, but is manned by volunteers for time-and-a-half overtime...not me, I'm salaried, but the hourly employees I manage) and that everyone knew my beeper number and home phone number.

Yet it was hot, and muggy, and slow, and once or twice, I felt like I was about to fall asleep....

It's the start of a four-day weekend. We have nothing planned. Barb got a turkey much too big for us, and she's going to cook (I offered to just put the turkey in tomorrow morning, and she demurred, saying it was her work.) most of tomorrow. I'm going to sleep, and surf, and read, and sleep, and vegetate, and sleep, and watch movies...and sleep.

Did I mention I wanted to catch up on my sleep?

Every morning, no matter how late I go to bed, Eric will get up bright and early. He's certainly been more artistic lately....even specifically drawing a doll of his, looking back and forth as he was drawing her. It's a great improvement...

Except...when he forgets to use paper and draws on the wall instead...

So I can't sleep as late as I'd like to, at least until someone else gets up...

Yet there's a danger here.

The less I do, the more I am tempted to think about Jamie. I don't want to do busywork to avoid thinking about Jamie's passing, to its "anniversary" next Monday...

Yet perhaps this holiday will work against me. Because there are some things I can't fight against. Some things I have a glass jaw for. Some things I can't outthink or outwit.

Sadness, and grief, and a memory of what had been, and who I had, and who I lost...

It may be too long a weekend, in some ways.