Too much travel.   Too much time on the road.   This is what I get for putting myself on a commercial project…..   That said the client is great, the wife is hugely supportive and we are seeing some very cool facilities.    We’re making television history.    Sorry - can’t talk about it publicly yet.   

Now, March 25th its Aruba for the wife and me - without the kids - for five days.

We’ll be working for KNBC in the same building with the Jay Leno studios and just down the hall from Days Of Our Lives.    This is the same complex that Carson did his show from.   Here’s the fiber tray that sends signals to Jay’s dressing room.   It’s strange when someone is telling you to land your cables here or there and then you look down and see something like this in the rack you’re going to be working in.

The majority of this time will be for NBC and there’s the rub for me.  I love being busy.  I derive great satisfaction form rising to a challenge.   Arguably this NBC project  our team is taking on is one of the most challenging projects I have ever seen.   But it’s a commercial project.   Now the balance of our faith-based work goes on as usual.   Mat and Steve keep the wheels turning but I have to miss a lot of it.   I am needed elsewhere.  

I am conflicted about this because like I say, I love a challenge.   But I want to work with the church all the time.   But in this economy one should be ever grateful to literally have more work than you can handle.   This is our position.  We’re turning some work away.   

Sunday at 8:30 I am on a plane from Atlanta to San Diego.  Internal conflict or no, I will be on the plane.   I will hope for an upgrade.  I will collect my frequent flyer miles and Marriott points.   I will go through my usual first night of on the road insomnia.    I will miss two track meets and five nights of tucking in the little boys.   I will wake up alone and so will my wife.  

Still for twenty years this is what I do.  

So I guess I will see you out there somewhere and until then, keep on truckin.

Today at lunch I was explaining to Phil and Mat how Moog is not pronounced MOOOOOG, but M OH G, like with a long O.    Then Mat wanted to know how to pronounce Moogerfooger, which is the name of a real device currently in production from the company.   Is it Mohgerfohger?   “I don’t know,” I told him.  I just know that Dr. Moog, rest his soul, pronounced his own name with a long O and most of the rest of the world does not, probably causing him to roll over in his grave regularly.   

Here’s a link to the public gallery on my Facebook.

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=219549&id=756240598&l=2102b

My mother used to call snow “Frost On The Pumpkin.”   Here’s a shot of the recent snowfall at the Blue Hat Offices in Virginia’s Shenandoah valley.  

Today was the architectural kick off meeting for a campus renovation that’s expected to takes years to complete and will encompass many aspects of church life.  

The building team has prioritized several parts of the project but has placed sanctuary renovations and improvement of their broadcast program at the top of their list.    As a part of the sanctuary renovations their old pipe organ will be retired in favor of a hybrid pipe/digital organ.   Many churches who opt for this route plan on including a number of “dummy pipes” on the chancel to satiate the older members of the church who have an affinity to the traditional.    I watched this pastor come down firmly on the side of good stewardship today and say that he did not believe they should be spending money on things that have no function and are only for show.    It was impressive and inspiring.  

This is an exciting project that we are just getting started on and I look forward to helping this church extend its reach into the local community.  They broadcast live every week with several replays of the service along with a studio-produced program too.

Now the client who wrote that note last night was not at remotely the extreme end of the spectrum as the state government folks I refer to.   I am thinking that we have to find a way to help our clients with their new technology adoption cycle and its inevitable pitfalls and traps.   Its not that we aren’t helping at all.  In fact I would argue we do better than most, and often to our own financial detriment.   Eventually though we have to go home.   

I wonder if there is a sufficient need out there to justify some level of post installation support, troubleshooting and documentation maintenance.   I wonder if we could provide it without making it a financial hole we have to dig out of.