Giving Thanks

So window replacement went well. At 9am the crew arrived in two trucks. One was completely outfitted with a carpentry shop and the other contained my nine new windows. The foreman introduced himself and the guys got to work.

Work crews, which I've become very well acquainted over the course of the church renovation, all have a dynamic. There's the foreman, a senior worker, a junior worker and the "intern" type, usually a teenager. While I held the door open for the junior and the intern who carried in the windows, I could hear the intern mumble "Damn, these are some big windows". "Yep", I replied to what had become a familiar chorus.
They protected the work areas first.

Then they got to window removal and replacement.

They worked with the precision and swiftness of Navy Seals. By 4:30, they were sweeping the floors and wiping down the kitchen counters leaving me with nine new beautiful working windows whose effect was immediate on the temperature inside the house.

In the middle of the process, which happened on a Friday, I drove over to the liquor store (after telling the teenager not to throw any wild parties while I was gone) and bought them each a six pack of local craft brews which I planned to give them as a tip and start their weekend right. As they were packing up, I opened the trunk of my car, showed the foreman the case of beer and thanked him for their good, fast work. The teenager was still sweeping up inside and as I walked up to the front door he was just putting the broom away. Again, familiar with the dynamic of work crews, I said, "Hey kid, I gave the foreman FOUR six packs of beer. Don't let him tell you there's no beer for you." "What, wait! Do you know which truck they put in?!" he exclaimed as he ran out the door and hopped in one of the trucks. I hope he picked the right one.
Window replacement could not have come at a better time as there has been a development that will keep me upstate for the winter months. I took on a part time gig as art director at Sundazed Music. As I've mentioned, left to my own devices I can develop some bad habits (you'd think I would have worked that out already!), so when Bob and Mary Irwin my neighbors and friends, offered me the job, I looked forward to a little structure and to be with people three days a week in an office.
Here's the building that I work in.

And across the street is the Sundazed warehouse in this beautiful building.

It is filled to the brim with vinyl which, of course, only makes it even more beautiful.

Not to mention the greatest part, Sundazed manufactures tons of special vinyl and their main thing is 60's reissues so the artwork is fantastic. While I was familiarizing myself with the Sundazed catalog, computer systems and projects in process, Bob asked me to work on some tee shirt designs. He asked Tim, one of my officemates and the head of sales and marketing, to show me the visual reference archives downstairs for inspiration. Here's just a fraction of the stuff that I found:

So, basically, it was like I died and went to heaven.
And finally, there's the commute. I pulled it down from Google Earth so you see the route:

It takes exactly two minutes and 15 seconds on foot from the time I lock my front door until I put my coat over my office chair.  Here is a photo of the north side of my property:

When I built the new deck, I had David crudely place pieces of the old deck onto the steeeeeeep slope to indicate the eventual terracing  that I would like to do which would provide quicker access to the river. When I finally get to do that landscaping, I figure that will cut down my commute to about a minute fifteen.
So, yeah, I've got a lot to be thankful for.