Today is the first day of my winter vacation. Last year I went to Arizona and I miss not going there, but I will travel soon to Washington, DC for DrupalCon. This morning I went to the gym with our daughter, Dara. Dara’s home this week because she’s been student teaching in the nearby Hamburg Central School system. I worked out on the eliptical machine, which I’ve been using religiously lately. This morning I did 4.5 miles in forty minutes. I was happy with that. I compete with myself, trying to improve each day. I did the math and that’s less than nine minute miles. After getting home and showering I had my a bowl of rice krispies with milk and honey. Today I’ve been relaxing, watching “Dances with Wolves,” and napping. What a life.
I haven’t written here as much lately, but I’ve been busy. I researched and built a new Ubuntu Linux Terminal server on our network. It is a virtual server. That means that it resides inside one of our VMWare ESX servers. Because it has been virtualized it can be shared more easily with others. It is one of my ways of contributing to the open source community. The teachers and students who came to rely on our older Linux terminal server and who waited patiently while this one was built and configured are very happy. I’ve also been learning how to use and deploy Drupal. My life has always been about reading and learning. It’s been my passion and it continues to consume me.
Yesterday a friend wrote a very nice recommendation. I had asked him to recommend me on LinkedIn and I was humbled by what he wrote. It is nice to have friends who think highly of you. Here is part of what my friend Frank Pirrone wrote.
Don is one of those creatures who by temperament or by choice inhabits the cutting-edge of whatever he finds himself working on or engaged by. He has done tremendous work implementing novel technology solutions for the Franklinville school district as well as the surrounding community.
There is a chance I might retire from the school district. I don’t have to, but I’m eligible. I hope that those of you who read what I write will pray for God’s will to be done. I will try to listen to his will. I’m trying to determine what that is in all of this. Next month I will have worked at school district for thirty years. Add to that a couple of years of military service and some other public service and I will have nearly thirty-five years of service. I suppose that is enough, but I don’t want to sit around collecting dust. Life is to be lived.