Monday, October 03, 2005
Roger's journal entry: The Summer of Fun is over
The Summer of Fun is over.
Although lately I had been ferociously working on my open source Gallery Server project, and I did a little programming for Wyoming, and I built a couple web sites for local organizations, mostly I've been slacking off since April, when a 4-month programming contract ended.
I guess it's not really slacking off, because it's not like I've been staying home and playing Rise of Nations all day. Well, ok, there *were* a couple days where I played RON all day, but for the most part I've been doing stuff. Stuff like gardening, cooking, shopping/running errands, and volunteer work. It's been awesome.
I spent the whole month of April burning prairies. What a trip! I learned a whole new set of terms, like "back burn" (burning against the wind), "head fire" (burning with the wind), "laying down a line of fire" (dropping flaming fuel on the ground as you walk). Margaret even invented a new term: "ankle fire". That's a mini head fire you light near the back burn to widen out the black. If you understood that you were really paying attention. Pat yourself on the back.
In the blazing hot and humid second week of July I spent 3 days tromping through the wetlands around Lake Koshkonong helping with a wetland plant survey. There is a very healthy and diverse native plant and wildlife community that few people ever see, cause it's just so damn difficult to get to. Even though I grew up here, I never saw wild rice until this summer.
Then there was the fringed prairie orchid count, where I was one of the lucky few to see the rare plant in one of only 57 known communities on this planet.
I spent more time with Grandpa than ever, taking him out for breakfast a couple times, checking out the antique tractor pull at the county fair, and enjoying the annual Dairy Breakfast together.
But we were spending money faster than Margaret could bring it in, so it was time to step up to the plate and do my part. Today was my first day of a new programming contract that is likely to last all winter. I'll be working for the insurance company General Casualty to help write a program insurance agents can use to develop price quotes for potential customers. There are a few other developers, and they have a well-thought out and highly disciplined architecture. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
Almost as much fun as harvesting bergamot seed from the back yard...