Momentum? I hardly know him!

Finally, some decent weather around here! Looking outside, though, it seems very Autumn-y today - where has the Summer gone???

I really need to get outside and check the garden, but I'm flirting with the idea of just letting it go. The plants have been growing like crazy but I haven't even eaten any of the produce yet, since I'm not enough of a cooking fanatic to bother with any of it. I know, kind of a waste but... I just don't have the emotional connection required to enjoy it this year. It's almost as if I'm satisfied just knowing that something grew in that little patch of dirt.

It's going to be a busy week here in the Valley due to several concurrent projects. My buddy, Eric, and I are putting together a little band with another local musician whom some of you may know, and hope to play a show mid-October. Believe it or not, that's not much time for me to practice and learn new songs. I'll give you the details once we've worked everything out.

The Class Reunion is coming along, thanks to some serious effort by a couple classmates, so I hope to have everything settled enough to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone. I was somewhat surprised that Facebook isn't more effective at spreading the word, but invitations have been mailed. We shall see.

I'm also working on a serious deadline with the non-profit organization I'm involved in. The current project is a last-minute scramble to help the family of a disabled Iraq vet - housing, household goods, clothing, moving help... these folks need everything. Trying to find housing and coordinate donations and volunteers by the end of the month is turning out to be a bit more complicated than I'd originally anticipated. I'm actually using my second cell phone and carrying it around with me, and I am definitely not a phone person. But I know all too well the miserable weight of desperation, so I'm glad I can do something to help these folks.

(As an aside, PayPal can be one of the most frustrating outfits you'll ever deal with on the internets. The concept is great but the hoops you're forced to jump through will make you pull out your hair. Honestly, they have one of the worst User Experience models I've encountered.)

I guess that's it for the moment. Here's hoping the coffee kicks in soon, so I can accomplish something today.

Zero Hour, 8AM

For the last few weeks, I've been working on a project with some of those Dirty Fucking Hippies from the Great Orange Satan. (Ooooh, I hope Bill O'Reilly doesn't catch wind of this!) Basically, it started as a program to match up folks who had no place to go for Thanksgiving with folks who could host a guest or two. In just under a week, we were able to assist in making some success stories and helping some people connect and make new friends. (Some of the success stories brought a tear or two to my eye. Just sayin'...)

Of course, once you get a taste of that kind of work, you want to see what else you can accomplish. So, it turned into a full on program to raise money to help folks with bills, buy toys for children, match up more folks for the holidays, and who knows where we'll take it from here.

There are three of us doing most of the work on this, right now, and since I have a brand new website with no content and lots of bandwidth available, I've been doing the tech work. Frustrating? You betcha! I'm using an interface that's new to me and there's a certain amount of pressure to get this thing set up in time to manage the requester and donor information so we can provide some real results. But it's been a good learning experience and, frankly, it fits perfectly with the vision I had for the new website. So, maybe I was preparing myself for this project before I even knew about it. That's cool. Well, as long as Sarah Palin doesn't find out and make snide comments about us being Community Organizers.

Anyhoo - we're going to launch the second wave tomorrow morning and it should be an interesting week and a half. I'm hoping that we can really make a difference for some folks who are going through tough times. No idea what's coming down the road after Xmas. One of the principles mentioned helping people with heating bills, which could keep us busy all Winter.

I'll let you know how things turn out.