Hi all,
Been a while since I have been posting here. I was active a bit over 5 years ago life has gotten in the way of my pipe hobby. I moved to Europe and worked my tail off in a job that moved me up in my profession but wrung me out personally over the last year and a half. I lost a couple of cats, my house, and some family members during that time and my dad had several heart attacks to boot. Through it all, I enjoyed the company of my remaining cat, my wife and my pipes. They made it possible to deal with the adversity without losing too much of my sanity.
Recently though, the wife and I had a chance to move up in our professions so I took it. We picked up house and moved to India. I'll tell you, that has been rough. The pollution, the heat, the noise, the heat, the lack of anything familiar around, the heat, and the aimless bureaucracy have been tough to get used to. I think I forgot to mention, the heat is nuts. I lived in Vegas for goodness sake...it was 114° F on the pavement when I moved out. This is a whole other level though. The humidity, combined with the heat, combined with the amount of concrete around makes it feel like a sauna all the time. On the good side, my coworkers are great and my boss is supportive and competent. The food is great and I've managed to lose about 10lbs of weight and am getting more fit. I have also found my way around the neighborhood and can find most of what I need day to day without too much hassle.
Cue the last few weeks. First I decide to break my hand (at least I can finally type...yay). Then my cat gets an infection and I'm in a country where I have no contacts or support system for vet help. Side note, the vets here have so far been awful with one exception. Then my computer dies. Then work blew up. Everything is coming due at once with all of the projects needing to be finished in the next week. We've had 2 days off in the last 5 weeks with so much work that next weekend is going to be solid work too. It's just another level of crazy. During this time there have been some extra "voluntary" projects sucking up most of our time. Top it off with the wife's grandfather passing away suddenly and the ensuing plane tickets, lost wages, etc. and you have a recipe for a crap time of it. All this and I can't even smoke because of this **** heat.
I know I'm whining but hopefully it'll help somebody who's having a bad day feel a bit better. Incidentally, now that I typed that thread title...it will get worse. Too late, I already typed it. Once it's out there, you can't take it back.
[/whining]
This isn't meant to evoke anything. It's just a rant/whining session. You can all return to your regularly scheduled forum.
Been a while since I have been posting here. I was active a bit over 5 years ago life has gotten in the way of my pipe hobby. I moved to Europe and worked my tail off in a job that moved me up in my profession but wrung me out personally over the last year and a half. I lost a couple of cats, my house, and some family members during that time and my dad had several heart attacks to boot. Through it all, I enjoyed the company of my remaining cat, my wife and my pipes. They made it possible to deal with the adversity without losing too much of my sanity.
Recently though, the wife and I had a chance to move up in our professions so I took it. We picked up house and moved to India. I'll tell you, that has been rough. The pollution, the heat, the noise, the heat, the lack of anything familiar around, the heat, and the aimless bureaucracy have been tough to get used to. I think I forgot to mention, the heat is nuts. I lived in Vegas for goodness sake...it was 114° F on the pavement when I moved out. This is a whole other level though. The humidity, combined with the heat, combined with the amount of concrete around makes it feel like a sauna all the time. On the good side, my coworkers are great and my boss is supportive and competent. The food is great and I've managed to lose about 10lbs of weight and am getting more fit. I have also found my way around the neighborhood and can find most of what I need day to day without too much hassle.
Cue the last few weeks. First I decide to break my hand (at least I can finally type...yay). Then my cat gets an infection and I'm in a country where I have no contacts or support system for vet help. Side note, the vets here have so far been awful with one exception. Then my computer dies. Then work blew up. Everything is coming due at once with all of the projects needing to be finished in the next week. We've had 2 days off in the last 5 weeks with so much work that next weekend is going to be solid work too. It's just another level of crazy. During this time there have been some extra "voluntary" projects sucking up most of our time. Top it off with the wife's grandfather passing away suddenly and the ensuing plane tickets, lost wages, etc. and you have a recipe for a crap time of it. All this and I can't even smoke because of this **** heat.
I know I'm whining but hopefully it'll help somebody who's having a bad day feel a bit better. Incidentally, now that I typed that thread title...it will get worse. Too late, I already typed it. Once it's out there, you can't take it back.
[/whining]
This isn't meant to evoke anything. It's just a rant/whining session. You can all return to your regularly scheduled forum.
