- Signed: Matthew Hartman
- Filed under conference , photography , travel , weather , work .
I learned yesterday at work that over the course of the 3-4 day snow event over the central and northern plains this past weekend, that we received over 300,000 calls on our 511 system. At one point, supposedly during the morning hours of Monday, we were receiving calls at the rate of one every 3 seconds for our customers in Kansas and Nebraska. I don't have the exact numbers, but if I remember correctly, it was close to 345,000 total calls, give or take 2-5,000. Damned if I've ever heard of so many phone calls! That's just crazy...
I completed my 10:00am to 6:00pm shifts yesterday, have today off, then work a couple of mid-shifts (12:00am - 8:00am) tonight and Friday night, then pretty much have the weekend off. I don't have any major plans for the weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to get out and do something. I feel guilty for spending money, but I need to get out of this apartment. Last weekend, I was just feeling miserable (battling some sort of cold, I suppose) and was just too lazy to get out and do anything. I felt I accomplished some things - I got all my laundry done, cleaned up the apartment, and filed away some bills and some papers (something that's needed to be done for a couple of months).
I also received my federal tax refund check in the mail Monday. So, I've now received both my state and federal refunds. I guess I can say, that I'm fairly proud of myself for that. This is the first year I've completely done my taxes on my own. I went out and bought TurboTax, but for some reason it wouldn't let me complete my state forms... So, I took it back to Best Buy and decided to fill out the forms manually. Call me old fashioned, but it's cheaper (you don't have to pay for some stupid program or pay extra for e-filing). I'm sure Chris (my brother-in-law) would be proud to hear that! heheh... Anyhow, both of the refund checks are going to my credit card to pay off the purchase of my Digital Rebel XT. The federal check should take a good chunk of the balance off the credit card. I hate using my credit card because the interest rate is so frippin' high, but well, if you knew how bad I wanted this camera, you'd understand why I finally decided to use it. ;)
I've decided to attend the Northern Plains Convective Workshop down in Aberdeen in a few weeks (April 17-19). Initially, although I knew about it, I wasn't planning on going - mostly because of financial issues and, of course, getting the time off of work to go. I realized, however, Monday that Mr. Russ Schumacher is giving a presenatation on Extreme Rain Events... Russ and I were colleagues at Valparaiso University, so it'll be kind of neat to see him again. Hopefully, I'll be able to run into him and see what he's been up to after all these years. I'm going to eMail Erik Zarnitz, as well, to see if he's going to be there. He's living somewhere in South Dakota (I can't remember where...) so I'm wondering if he's considering it. It should be a fun experience and hopefully an informative and educational one, as well. I haven't attending any conferences in a couple of years, so even though I'll probably be spending $50-80 on the trip and for hotel accomodations (it's a 2-day event) I think it'll be worth it. I should know by tomorrow if I'll be able to get the time off work, but if I do, I'll be heading down with Justin Turcotte, a co-worker of mine. Which will work out even better... That way, we can split the costs of traveling and accomodations. I'm getting anxious for that, it should be fun!
Well, as we "Hartman's" tend to say... I'm running out of gab... LOL!
Have a great day, folks!
I completed my 10:00am to 6:00pm shifts yesterday, have today off, then work a couple of mid-shifts (12:00am - 8:00am) tonight and Friday night, then pretty much have the weekend off. I don't have any major plans for the weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to get out and do something. I feel guilty for spending money, but I need to get out of this apartment. Last weekend, I was just feeling miserable (battling some sort of cold, I suppose) and was just too lazy to get out and do anything. I felt I accomplished some things - I got all my laundry done, cleaned up the apartment, and filed away some bills and some papers (something that's needed to be done for a couple of months).
I also received my federal tax refund check in the mail Monday. So, I've now received both my state and federal refunds. I guess I can say, that I'm fairly proud of myself for that. This is the first year I've completely done my taxes on my own. I went out and bought TurboTax, but for some reason it wouldn't let me complete my state forms... So, I took it back to Best Buy and decided to fill out the forms manually. Call me old fashioned, but it's cheaper (you don't have to pay for some stupid program or pay extra for e-filing). I'm sure Chris (my brother-in-law) would be proud to hear that! heheh... Anyhow, both of the refund checks are going to my credit card to pay off the purchase of my Digital Rebel XT. The federal check should take a good chunk of the balance off the credit card. I hate using my credit card because the interest rate is so frippin' high, but well, if you knew how bad I wanted this camera, you'd understand why I finally decided to use it. ;)
I've decided to attend the Northern Plains Convective Workshop down in Aberdeen in a few weeks (April 17-19). Initially, although I knew about it, I wasn't planning on going - mostly because of financial issues and, of course, getting the time off of work to go. I realized, however, Monday that Mr. Russ Schumacher is giving a presenatation on Extreme Rain Events... Russ and I were colleagues at Valparaiso University, so it'll be kind of neat to see him again. Hopefully, I'll be able to run into him and see what he's been up to after all these years. I'm going to eMail Erik Zarnitz, as well, to see if he's going to be there. He's living somewhere in South Dakota (I can't remember where...) so I'm wondering if he's considering it. It should be a fun experience and hopefully an informative and educational one, as well. I haven't attending any conferences in a couple of years, so even though I'll probably be spending $50-80 on the trip and for hotel accomodations (it's a 2-day event) I think it'll be worth it. I should know by tomorrow if I'll be able to get the time off work, but if I do, I'll be heading down with Justin Turcotte, a co-worker of mine. Which will work out even better... That way, we can split the costs of traveling and accomodations. I'm getting anxious for that, it should be fun!
Well, as we "Hartman's" tend to say... I'm running out of gab... LOL!
Have a great day, folks!
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 and is filed under conference , photography , travel , weather , work . Monitor this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You may leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
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