Week of June 30, 2025

I’m officially back to work after my sabbatical.

On Monday, my final day of sabbatical, Jeremy Wall and I paddled up the Croton River from the Echo launch at the train station up to Fireman’s Island, which is about the farthest you can get without carrying your boat. Beautiful day and the water was ice cold.

We were off the river by noon when it started getting hot, then Amanda and I went out to lunch. Late afternoon I put the AC in my office and cleaned up the space so I could start work the next day.

Later that night Charlie had fun playing in the kayak. I can’t wait to make him one when he is a little older!

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were a whirlwind of calls, trying to get caught up on what happened at work while I was out, learning new systems, and reading P2 posts.

I am moving into a new role, leading the operations team instead of the engineering teams in the Special Projects org. This will definitely be a change for me and will take some time to adjust to.

It is also taking me some time to readjust to my working schedule, being inside most of the day, and scheduling errands, tasks, and hobbies for evenings and weekends rather than just whenever. It is harder than I thought it would be. (Cry me a river, right? I was just off work for three months!) Anyway, I’m settling back in.

Wednesday night we picked up woodfired pizza from Baci and ate it at the Verplanck waterfront, so Charlie could play on the playground for a while.

Friday, July 4, we went over to Erica and Trevor’s house in Lake Peekskill for a late breakfast and to row around on the lake for a bit. The community has a little party at the north beach and people from all around the lake paddle their boats over to hang out. There is a boat decorating contest that the community votes on. It was fun!

We originally planned to go down to the Peekskill waterfront that night to listen to the live music and watch the fireworks, but when we realized that Charlie would be overtired by that point, we opted to stay home, do some sidewalk chalk, go for a walk in the woods, and go to bed at a regular time.

Saturday we drove up to Rhinebeck for an airshow at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. We all had fun! Their Saturday “History of Flight” program highlights the Pioneer era before WWI, a WWI Show teaser, and the Golden Age of Aviation in the ’20s and ’30s. They did stunts like tossing a toilet paper roll out of the plane and seeing how many times they could cut it by flying through it before it hit the ground and trying to pop balloons released from the ground.

One of the visiting pilots, Mark Meredith, didn’t learn how to fly until he was 47. Never too late to pick up a new hobby!

Afterward we had dinner and milkshakes at Del’s Roadside.

Unfortunately, on the way back we had some car trouble on the way home. About 30 minutes out the Check Engine light came on, the car started automatically braking, and we had to quickly pull over. I turned the engine off, but couldn’t get it to turn back on. It would try, then just start to shake the whole car, and then stop.

So, this was my first time actually using the AAA service we’ve subscribed to for 9 years. Thankfully the tow truck was there in about 40 minutes. And thank goodness that Uber was available in the area, so Amanda and Charlie could get home quickly while I dealt with the tow.

I thought we were out of luck, given that it was a holiday weekend, but we were able to get a rental car the next morning so we can still get around until the dealership can look at our car.

The time may have finally come for us to get a second car.

I finally read James by Percival Everett. It is as good as people said it was with some interesting twists, though some definite heart wrenching parts.

Next I think I’m going to read 88 Names by Matt Ruff, since I think a cyber thriller will be a good change of pace, then possibly David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, which I’ve wanted to read for years.

We harvested our garlic! Charlie helped me plant it last fall and he helped me harvest it today.

Pretty sure a faerie has tea here.

Until next week,