Home at last. It was a really long trip, but I am home now. Not yet sure how I feel about the trip. I got a lot done, built a lot of bridges, but I really feel things will slowly fall apart because I am not there. As they need time they will start to cut out the things we tried to get started. That in turn will cause the quality of the product being delivered to go down which will just cause more problems. It is probably better if we have someone in India all the time but given the events of the last week it is not very likely anyone will be going back.

If you live in a hole you don't know about the terrorist attacks on Mumbai since they have been in the news for days. Basically a small group of radicals went into the city and killed something like 200 people and wounded another 250 or so. I had already left the country so I was not involved, and more likely than not I would not have been involved since it was in a higher rent district than I was in, but still. It would have been much closer to me than would have been comfortable so I am just as glad I had gotten out of the country prior to the attacks.

I can not describe how good it feels to be home. I can't even say that I have done all the much, but just being in my own bed for a few days makes all the difference in the world. I say for a few days because I was home for four days when I had to make a road trip to my son's for Thanksgiving. He is a fireman and had to work the day after Thanksgiving so we we went to his house, about 200 miles south of here, for the holiday. It was a good trip, seemed to be great for my wife since she got to see her granddaughter which is a high in her life. Anyway, did the social thing and am now back home and back at work. I was off all of last week.

It's still odd to sit here and look out the window and not see hundreds of people walking around and thousands of cars driving by. It is clean, with a clear crisp blue sky. All things that I have not seen in three months. Along with that comes the cold. The weather here is working its way into winter so sweaters and long sleeves is the order of business. In India the temperature is around 90 right now, much warmer than it is here. But I can take the cold to be home. Much better to be a little cold than to be 3000 miles away.

Haven't done much in the way of seeing friends yet. I spent most of the first weekend sleeping and trying to catch back up on the time zone change. Also I was pretty sick when I left India so I had to have time to recover from that. Fever, chills, stuffed head, just pretty much feeling really sick. Started the trip being very sick but took some NyQuil as I was leaving and pretty much broke the fever during the trip. Still needed some recovery time when I got home but not as much I thought I would need. Anyway everyone had to work the next week and we were gone the holiday weekend so I have just not had any time to get with friends. Hopefully this weekend will change that and I get a chance to socialize and play some cards. It will be nice to see my friends.

It's amazing how different this country is. I am sitting here listening to last.fm and enjoying music I like. I couldn't even do that in India. The internet connection was so bad, and the power situation is so sporadic that I could not keep my last.fm connection up. So like I said, just sitting here listening to music while I type seems like such a privilege. Leaving for a while sure makes you appreciate the things we have here. I think everyone should be required to visit a third world country for at least three weeks in their lives. That would change their perception of this country big time. Let them realize how nice we really do have it. Maybe give them some respect and love for what is here.

Well the big election is over and Obama won. I sure hope he can turn this country around during his term. We are hated overseas, lost a lot of individual rights at home, and now we are in a recession. The stock market is going to hell in a hand-basket and I am watching my retirement accounts get smaller rather than bigger. So hopefully he can live up to some of his promises and turn this mess around. All we can do is hope and wait to see what he does. He is putting together an interesting cabinet. Lots of people that were politically against him in the past, but I think people that have the same agenda he has so hopefully this will all work out.

Guess I have rambled enough. Sure is great to be back home.

Current Location: home/work
Current Mood: rejuvenated
Current Music: Jimmy LaFave - When the tears fall down