Miscellaneous Friday stuff

It really feels like Spring in Minneapolis. It is gloriously mild. I was outside without a jacket today.

Happenings:

1. Finally received the last check for the hail damage project. It was monies in a "restricted escrow" with US Bank. I can't figure out the logic of not ACHing the monies. I had to wait for a check to arrive. All the paperwork (the faxes back and forth from our contractor to USBank, contractor to us, USBank to us, us to USBank) was finalized 2/25 ... why did I have to wait 7 business days to have a check mailed. For $ 9 they would have FEDEX'd it after processing (which was Monday) but I would haved had to have been home to sign for it. I didn't have to be home for the same check to put in my mailbox. Which doesn't make sense to me. I was worried about making the 3:00 p.m. deposit window to have it cleared overnight but I drove home at 12:30 and picked up the check and made the deposit.
   
2. We recently replaced our furnace and hot water heater. Kathee stayed home to let the City of Plymouth building inspectors in this morning. One said to Kathee, "this is the cleanest furnace room I've ever seen". Probably an exaggeration but Kathee does keep is swept and tidy back there. We upgraded from an old 78% efficient furnace to new 92% efficient furnace. After just one month (our March bill) the gas bill was $ 100 less than the year before. The exhaust gases are cool enough that they can exhaust though a PVC pipe. A wall in our dinning room (like a large square post) has the furnace flue inside of it. That used to be warm to the touch (wasted heat) ... now no furnace exhaust goes that way!
   
3. I had lunch with Jason Stamper our Youth Pastor today. Jason is the quintessential Youth Pastor in my mind. As the director of our young adult ministries report to Jason. Lunch at Chili's - how great is that!
   
4. Wells dropped the dividend today from .34 cents to .05 cents. Saw it coming. Not a big deal.
   
5. Our next level of organization (post merger) was announced today and my boss's boss retains her position over desktop computing. I hope this bodes well for my boss and for me!
   
6. I drove back down to the office after lunch. Non-handicapped people probably don't understand this but there is a special bond among handicapped people. I was in an elevator with a blind man - just him and me. He struggled to find the button (which of course is easy for me), but he walks straight - or straight enough with his red tipped white cane to guide him. I told him (in case he could not heard my crutch tip accentuated walking - that probably goes something like thud (from my right foot) clump (from my 2 crutch tips) hitting the floor at approximately the same time) drag (my left foot)) that there was a guy with crutches in the elevator with him. He said "imagine that ... a crippled guy and a blind guy"). We both kind of chuckled and then went our separate ways. Almost sounds like a joke - "there was a blind guy and a cripple in the elevator together .... (not sure what would come next?)"
   
7. Other projects. We have a moisture leak in the master bedroom shower. We had a tile man by Monday night and tomorrow will go to pick out tile. The entire shower needs to be redone. I guess that isn't too bad after 13 years of use.
   

Update ... organization names and levels (all this is new to me with the org announcement):

Levels ... I am in the:

1. T.O.G. (Technology Operations Group)
   
2. T.I.S. (Technology Infrastructure Services)
   
3. E.T.S. (Enterprise Technology Services)
   
4. E.U.C. (End User Computing)
   
5. EUC PO (End User Computing - Program Office)
   

People need to lighten up a bit. I said our official uniform was the TOGA (think T.O.G.). And our department name is pronounced UCK POO! I still think both are funny but I guess my sense of humor doesn't fit well with everyone's taste!