Well, last week, on a Wednesday morning, I went into work as I usually do, with a jaunty step and a song in my heart, i.e., drag in late and grumpy, to be greeted with the words, "The cost plus mod was signed at 2:00 this morning."

This was not good news.

Cost plus contracting is a method where the contractor gets paid his costs in performance and then is given an award fee asumiing he's done a good enough job. The award fee is his profit. The costs covered are his actual expenses and his overhead expenses.

Sorry about the lecture.

What our illustrious leaders had done was to take half our contrat and convert it from fixed price to cost plus. The only drawback to that scheme is that none of us (read zero percent) have any experience with that kind of contracting. So, we've been doing a lot of learning in a very short time. Plus we have to figure out the intricate details of how to make this animal run. It ain't fun but that's what I get paid for.

The end result is that I drag home in the early evening and the last thing I want to do is settle down in front of a computer screen again. Sorry.

Plus the weather has been crumby for the last 5 days and it's supposed to continue crumby through the upcoming weekend. This is supposed to be the dry season (D-R-Y!!!). The sun is supposed to shine in an impossibly blue sky while puffy clouds skim from east to west on the trade winds.

What we actually have is a dark grey ceiling and wet drizzle broken by intermittent downpours. The wind tosses the palm trees and tries to snatch the hat from your head while it drives the rain into your face. One of these days I'm going to HAVE to fix those windshield wipers.

And, as though that weren't enough, there is a tropical depression forming to the southeast of us that looks like it has a good chance of building into a typhoon.

Is that enough? I hope so.

On to pleasanter things. As Mary said I am going home. I will be in San Diego from February 21 to March 5. Amos, you listening? Then on March 6 I head for Manchester, NH, where I will rent a car and head for Houlton. That week coincides with my daughter's (Mudcatter Tenjiro) spring break so she will join me in New Hampster and go with me. I will be back in southern Maine on March 12 to visit my old office and start a weekend of getting in touch with old friends. Then on March 15 I fly out from Manchester to San Diego and on to Guam.

I am really looking forward to this. I will stay with Charley Noble and my sister at various times while in the south. It will still be cold and I will have to remember not to wear my shorts and sandals.