Welcome to Knoxville

Hello from Knoxville, Tennessee. I'm sitting at a Starbucks outside of downtown, enjoying the sun and plugging away on my computer.

So how did I end up here? Well, don't panic - I'm not moving down south for good. I'm merely here on a one day work related trip, in which I happen to be the only one here from my company. It's actually quite refreshing to be out of the office, in a new place (where it's warm), and yet get paid for it. Unfortunately, in about three hours I have to earn my pay by giving a 30 minute presentation to a hospital regarding some number crunching work I did for them. I was here two years ago, but with another co-worker, so it's familiar yet different. It's nice to have the down time, yet I'd rather get the presentation over with.

As you fly into Knoxville, you start to see how spread out the city is. Everywhere there are contrasts - fancy golf courses next to run-down residential homes, with mansions on the other side of that. There are quarries, a river, hills, and overall it's quite a nice town. They have a beautiful baseball park in the downtown area along the river, and I can imagine it being a nice place to see a game.

The airport is not bad, either. There is stone around the entrance to every gate, and there are stones and waterfalls between the ticketing counter and security station, making you feel like yo are some place other than Knoxville. The people are friendly, and near every airport window is a rocking chair, which usually has an older person sitting in it, rocking away.

It's days like today where I like my job, because this is a nice opportunity. However, it's the other three hundred and some days out of the year where I feel like I have no opportunities, and that's where the disatisfaction comes in. I'm really on the fence - do I stay or go - but I've currently laid the path for both routes and I know I will somehow find the appropriate one to take when the time comes. I just need to be patient.

Also on a good note, the back continues to improve. Saw an x-ray of my spine for the first time since the surgery on Thursday, and it's pretty, well, daunting. There's a LOT of hardware in there right now. It makes me feel like I'm slowly morphing into a machine or something. But, everything looks really great and the leg pain is diminishing a little each day, so that's something to be happy about.

I'm off to get a bit to eat and then head to the hospital; I hate being late.