Rolling Water

This is my last entry as an entirely free man. Tomorrow will find me chained to an office desk for an undetermined duration of time, a fate I have freely chosen.

But I do it for the good of those around me for whom I care most. My family finally deserves the good things of life–things my previous choices have denied them. My will is bent toward their happiness and security.

Oh, and by the way, I just finished “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” I loved it. I’ll have to write about it some day.

Hey, my friend in the State Department* had a link to this video on his site.

It took me a minute to figure out what the premise was. I thought, “Ah, another French guy with a lisp” (those of you who have watched Jacques Pepin’s cooking show on PBS know what I mean). It’s really very clever.

*Doesn’t that make me sound important?

I have accepted the position at Omniture. Actually, I was a little surprised at how quickly they moved on this. I start Monday (yes, the 6th).

So I immediately went out shopping for a new truck. I got my bank to pre-approve a purchase for me, so I would have the benefit of having cash available when I go to see the dealer. I can shave a goodly amount off the sticker price that way.

Well, this morning I’m not driving a new Tundra, like I’d hoped. My wife, much as I love her, is probably the more practical of the two of us. And, much as I dislike it, I have to listen when she feels uncomfortable about something. She usually ends up being correct. She did, after all, pick out the house we’re in.

That was over seven years ago. For five of those years we had no equity in the house at all and at one point were actually upside-down. I wondered for a long time if moving in here wasn’t a mistake. When housing values rose sharply in Utah two years ago, we hoped to finally see some kind of moderate increase in the value of our home. We were not disappointed. In fact, we were pretty happy with it. Then they went up again this year. If the county’s estimate is low, as my friends in real-estate tell me, we could be looking at a 75% increase in the selling price of our home in the last two years. If the trend continues next year, the selling price could double what we paid for it.

But I still don’t have my truck. I managed to find a 2001 Tundra for $12,500 that’s in excellent condition, but Lecil thinks we should wait until we have a more solid foundation under us.

And she’s right. So now my question is how much will it cost to get my old Camry working again–the one that caught fire sitting in the driveway?

Well, I have a decision to make. I was just offered a position on Omniture’s implementation team. It’s a job I am familiar with, having done essentially the same thing for another company called 10x Marketing.

10x was purchased by a larger company called Innuity, which ended up laying off the local employees and moving operations to Redmond, Washington. Since then, I have been doing contract PHP/MySQL development for Develligent.

The decision I have now is whether to focus on PHP development in earnest, or to make it a secondary pursuit. My schooling is also a factor. I will need to let them know tomorrow.

It’s cloudy today. It’s been trying to rain for a few days, but so far it’s only sprinkled. We need some rain badly. Everything has been so dry here this summer.

July is now officially the hottest ever recorded in Salt Lake City. What that means is that the daily average temperature is higher than ever before. Is that proof of Global Warming? No. The Deseret News did a study last year that indicated the Utah’s average yearly temperatures were actually declining. You can’t use the temperature of one month as proof of an overarching trend.

Anyways, it’s nice to have some cooler temps today. Hopefully we’ll see some rain as well. A nice thunderstorm would be welcome, too. I miss the big thunderstorms we used to have here when I was a kid.

I have finally got the blog to appear the way I want it. I began with the Paalam theme, which has some good bones. Then I went hunting for an image that best captures all the things I love most about this world. I couldn’t find one that incorporated mountains, rain, falling water, AND driving at night, so I settled on the one above. After a little Photoshop work, I got it to fit in the space provided and…

…I’m right at home.

The sound of rushing water. I know of nothing more soothing and relaxing than the sound of water falling over rocks or running along a canyon floor.

My name–Trenton–is loosely translated as “rushing waters,” or more specifically “a flood; a torrent.” My name is an extension of Trent, which originated with the naming of the Trent River in England, which again is a contraction of Torrent. Hence the title of this blog.

Well, there you are…

And here you are as well…

Enjoy your visit. Stay as long as you like. Fear no nightly noise.