Thought we would wake to an inch of snow this morning but no such luck. The usual comments about overpaid weathermen and the fact the we will likely get nothing dominated the early conversation. It's nice to sort of "coast" on Christmas Eve. if you can, but I couldn't. At least not early on. Our alarm system hardware provider sent out an email late yesterday alerting us to potential problems with the "Holiday Schedule" routine in their software. Decided to look in to that right after explaining to my cow-orkers that the snow was still coming. While the usual Gulf moisture seemed to be cut off, (at least the more direct route), there was quite a bit of moisture wrapping around the low that was south of us, as it moved slowly eastward. Not enough moisture with this scenario to really bury us in snow, but a little moisture can make several inches so the potential was still there for a significant bout with the white stuff. Anyway, explaining all of that and then bringing attention to the fact that the precipitation was building from east to west, while the low moved in the opposite direction, did take a bit of time. Then I knew it was time to tackle the alarm thing. After copying a couple of files to just the right directory and doing a full "download" to the access panels I was convinced we were in good shape for the Holiday. Then there was the hood detector problem. We have sonic based detectors that signal the lane computer that a tall vehicle, usually a semi, is approaching the automatic ticket machine in the entry lanes at our turnpike plazas. These detectors are quite reliable under normal circumstances but with all the snow and high winds there was enough moisture in the target area of the detector to set it off. Therefore, every vehicle was a truck, or so the computer thought, and would spit the ticket out of the higher encoders. This was an inconvenience to our customers but was not a show stopper as they could still push the "get ticket" button to force the Datim, (Dual Altitude Ticket Issuing Machine), to spit low instead of high. The snow causes problems in other ways too but things, all in all went fairly well today. After a last minute gift purchase on my lunch hour and a relatively slow afternoon I was off to church. I decided to go ahead and go to the Christmas Eve. service in spite of the weather. I had loaded my guitar, mandolin and music into my truck before I headed for work so I was able to drive directly to church without going home first. Geepers, I just realized I left my mic at the church. Well, maybe my brother will pick it for me tomorrow. I can't believe I did that. Anyway, I got to church a little early got out my mandolin, tuned it and commenced to participate in a couple of wonderful services. Christmas carols, a reading of the Christmas story, a message from our pastor, some special music and voila', you have a great evening on your hands. We always close with a candle lighting ceremony which is carried out while singing Silent Night. I hope the satisfaction and peace that visited me as I quieted my voice and listened to the hundreds of voices lifted in song will be yours too, this Christmas.
Happy Birthday Jesus!
