New footwear, and apathy.

As it happens I got the new tires on the Super Wagon just in time for the big "winter storm".  A whopping, what, 3 inches of snow?  In typical bizarre snow-removal fashion, the smaller streets were fine, but the bigger streets -- Olive, Chesterfield Parkway, service roads - were all but untouched.  Fortunately the Super Wagon merely howled its turbo and drove along with aplomb.  A few four-wheel drifts around corners, but nothing a little all-wheel-drive throttle couldn't keep under control.  That's the awesome thing about all-wheel-drive...if you start to slide sideways, you just feed it more gas and it goes where you want.  Good times.  If it weren't for all the other drivers - many of whom are sadly clueless - I would drive all over in the snow for the sheer psuedo-rally-driving joy of it.  Happily the new tires are miles ahead of the stock tires in all respects.  Dry traction: yes.  Wet traction: yes.  Snow traction: yes.  And they're quieter to boot.  An interesting aspect of stickier tires is how much more effort it takes to trip the ABS...the car can stop HARD now.  Before, I thought the ABS was overly-sensitive...but no, it was just the crappy stock tires losing grip at the drop of a hat.

In other news, apathy for work is rampant.  It's getting harder and harder to drag myself into work, knowing that myself and 3/4 of the people around me will be out of jobs in a month or two.  Today was a great example of "colleague non-engagement" as the managers would put it, as a full 1/2 of the site decided to use the dusting of snow as an excuse to stay home.  I went in for a solid four hours, and felt pretty good about it.

In other other news, my post-employment plans seem to be coming together nicely.  I've been batting around the idea of freelance consulting with a friend of mine for the past year or so.  He co-owns an established custom laboratory robotics company out of Earth City, and we've known each other for years.  Worked together at my first post-college job...which is forever and a day ago.  He seems pretty keen on letting me freelance under his corporate umbrella.  I don't know if there will be enough work in the area, but there's only one way to find out.  Hopefully between St. Louis, Columbia, Jeff City, KC, and Chicago I ought to be able to pay the bills.  Maybe Nashville, though I'm not fond of that drive.  If only Monsanto would buy a pile of Tecans for me to program...

Scinomix, by the way, is packed full of geniuses.  If you need a robot that doesn't exist, they can build it for you in no time at all and for a reasonable price.