Life is getting back to normal after the year-end break.  The Daily Show is out of reruns; traffic has picked up; gas prices are going up; and I had four conference calls today.

What wasn’t normal was having all but one call end early; usually, all of my calls run over (and start late because the previous call has run over), but today, that wasn’t a problem.  Even the call that ran late didn’t cause me any problems.

And having big blocks of unscheduled time is letting me make progress on cleaning up “stuff” at work, as well as planning what I need to do this year. 

I know it won’t last, but I’m enjoying it so far.

Things are definitely getting back to normal at work; I had my first conference call of the year today, and, of course, it was at lunchtime.

IBM changed their health plans for 2006; they no longer offer a $150 “rebate” for not smoking; instead, they’ve taken that money and made it available to employees who go through a “Preventive Care” assessment and commit to taking at least some of the actions recommended. It worked on me; the assessment reminded me that I needed to schedule a physical (well, a screening) with my doctor, and I did so.

They also offer a $150 rebate for following an exercise program for at least ten weeks; the requirements were very low last year, but they’ve beefed them up a little bit for this year. You either have to exercise four days a week or exercise two days a week and do an online assessment and coaching. The required “exercise” is not hard to attain — 20 minutes a day is sufficient — but I’m doing the assessment and coaching, too. So far, it hasn’t been as effective at changing my behavior as the Preventive Care one was.

Tomorrow, my schedule features four conference calls. It was nice while it lasted…

All of the roofers I’d called over the holiday have returned my calls, and I had the one who called back first examine the roof. The good news is that the old shingles and the ridge cap came off cleanly, not ripping holes in the plywood, and so he thinks we aren’t in immediate danger of leaks, and repairs for the damage over the weekend won’t cost too much. The bad news is that many of the shingles seem to be brittle, and all of the ridge caps probably need replacement in any event, so we’re probably looking at a reroofing job sooner rather than later.

I don’t have the warranty which applied to the shingles on the roof, but I looked at the warranty for current purchasers, and came away unhappy. The warranty has clauses which make it very difficult to fix the roof in a timely manner and still collect on the warranty:

HOW CLAIM WILL BE HANDLED: Within a reasonable period of time from receipt of the claim, copy of warranty card and proof of purchase of the Shingles, ELK will review your letter and may ask for samples of the Shingles, such other shingles, and photographs showing the extent of the problem. You are responsible for providing these items, and any other materials reasonably requested, at your expense. You must allow reasonable time for investigation, including roof top inspection by an ELK employee and laboratory testing of the suspect Shingles.

ANY CLAIM FOR SHINGLES WHICH HAVE BEEN REPLACED PRIOR TO ELK’S RECEIPT OF WRITTEN NOTICE, SAMPLES, AND ON-SITE INSPECTION CONSTITUTES SPOLIATION AND WILL BE DENIED. If the investigation reveals manufacturing defects covered by this Limited Warranty, ELK will provide, within a reasonable period of time, a settlement in accordance with the conditions of the Limited Warranty.

I don’t know, of course, whether the warranty had similar clauses in 1988, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t. Still, it’s worth a toll-free call to see what they’ll do for me.

Today’s Merc brought news of the mainframe haikus recently submitted as part of the IBM Student Mainframe contest. I showed the article to Diane, since she works on mainframes. She wondered if the two haiku printed in the Merc were the best, which moved me to compose my own haiku on the subject.

If those were the best
they should have used EBCDIC
they would be no worse

After looking at the broader collection on the website, I didn’t think the ones the Merc printed were the best, so my haiku was somewhat unfair — but it may be the first time “EBCDIC” has been used as part of a haiku, so I decided to post it anyway.