It snowed in central Arkansas last night (a rare event), and it is snowing again as I write this.
Because we work with state government at my office, we are closed when state offices are closed. On account of the weather, most of the schools in the state were closed today, as were federal government offices. Unfortunately, state offices were open - and so were we.
I can do pretty much anything I do at the office from home. I have high-speed internet and a laptop computer with wireless internet. So… to avoid driving the ~35 miles of icy roads to Little Rock this morning I (and most of my co-workers) opted to work from home.
With a high-spirited 3 year old and an unusually fussy 6-month old in the house, I spent the day locked in my bedroom. It was the only place I could get the quiet I need to concentrate on work.
As a software developer, my job is a completely mental one. Imagine spending 8 hours a day, 5 days a week doing the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle. That’s pretty much what it’s like. Yes, it’s fun. But it’s also challenging and requires a level of concentration that isn’t very compatible with the destractions provided by small children.
With any luck, we’ll get a real snow day tommorrow and I can take the day off. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
After being parked at my Dad’s house and neglected for most of the last 6 1/2 years, my 1986 Monte Carlo now has new paint, tires, wheels, upholstery, and is bedded down in my garage.
Paint: Roy Moody (thanks Dad!)
Tires: P235/60 R15 Cooper Cobra
Wheels: 8″ Pacer Magnum
Upholstery: Y&P Upholstery - Mena, AR
Engine: Chevy 350 4 bolt main w/ stock intake & carb (replaced original gutless 305)
On the to-do list for the near future:
- Dash Cover
- Door hinge pin/bushing kit
- Weather Stripping
- Trunk Detailing
- Engine Detailing
A little history…
I bought this car the summer before my senior year of high school in 1995. Prior to being purchased by 16 year old me, it had been a Hertz rental car. I drove it all thru high school and college, then parked it in August 2000 when I landed my first professional job and bought a new 2000 Grand Prix.
6 years of sitting out in the weather had not been kind to the Monte, and the car was in pretty bad shape. Now that we’ve done all of this work to get her presentable again, she should remain in good shape for many years to come.
[More Pictures]
Update: 6/30/2007
I just marked door hinge pins/bushings off the list… A friend of mine with much more mechanical aptitude helped install these this morning. Thanks Chris!
We’ll see about that. Hanke Bros came out today and installed new gutter toppers. These aren’t actually “Leaf Guard” brand (I don’t think so, anyway) - but they are guaranteed. In addition to the gutter toppers, they had to fix some rotten wood (from clogged gutters) and install a new gutter+topper on the back of the house.
They sure are proud of their work (judging by the bill), but it’s worth it if I don’t have to clean gutters any more.
I upgraded to Wordpress 2.1 today. Bad idea. Theme compatiblity issues. In their infinite wisdom, the Wordpress folks combined link categories with post categories… dropping the `linkcategories` table in the process. To get around this, I’m updating my theme to use some new WP 2.1 template tags.
Until I can get my theme probs straightened out, I’ve gone back to the default WP theme. Ugh!
