Tag: telecommute

A Downside of Weekend Work

So there is a hidden downside to working around the clock over the weekend.

There are a bunch of podcasts that I like to listen to during the work week that release new episodes over the weekend. This week I’ve listened to all of them. Now I have nothing to listen to during my actual work shift tomorrow.

Bummer, dude.

Unrelated to work, there was good news today. First, we got to see Bellana for about five minutes. She was passing through town and stopped in to say hello. Second, we had a FaceTime call with Harry! Both kids on a random Sunday! If only I had had a chance to shower and change out of yesterday’s clothes! Also, if I don’t get a haircut soon my head is going to collapse under it’s own weight. Keep an eye on the news. The headline will likely be, “Red Head’s Head Implodes. News at 11:00.”

Second Wind

When I was young and foolish and in my 20s I would occasionally pull an all nighter. I never really had a good reason to do it. I wasn’t a party guy who would stay out until the sun came up. No, I was a guy who had a part time night job who would sometimes come home and just not go to bed.

I can probably count the number of one nighters I have experienced on one hand. Maybe two hands. No, probably one hand. I’m trying to think of what my record is. I’m pretty sure I topped 30 hours once. Did I top 36? There’s a little part of my memory that is whispering 39 to me but that’s probably not accurate. I clearly remember getting to 29 once and being pissed I didn’t reach 30. When I remember 39 I’m probably just misremembering the 29. I wanna say I did 32 once but I’m not sure. 29 is definite, so let’s say that’s my record.

I did not pull an all nighter last night. I got up out of bed a little before 7:00am yesterday and I did go to sleep around 3:30am today. It’s just that as a 50 year old old fart, getting one hour of sleep is about as close to an all nighter as I will ever get again. I am hoping to take a nap at some point this afternoon, but I won’t know if I can definitely get one until I actually get one, you know?

I have been awake for 26 of the last 27 hours and I am in that weird second wind stage. You know, when you’re too tired to think straight but you somehow still feel energized? I just stepped away from work long enough to clean the cat’s litter box. She was giving me that, “clean the litter box now or else I kill you in your sleep” look so I figured I had better make the time. It’s no problem when you’re in the weird second wind state.

Check out the old guy, acting like he’s all young and shit. What a doofus.

Sleep is for Suckers, Boom!

I finished up the routines I needed to run last night at a little before 3:00am. I wanted to go to sleep right away but I was too wound up. I knew a call was going to be coming to start the next phase of the process but I didn’t know when. I wanted to get at least some sleep so I spent about half an hour cooling down and I was able to finally conk out at a little after 3:30.

The text messages asking us to log back in started at about 4:45.

I didn’t actually go to bed. At least not to my bed. My work setup is still in Harry’s room after the quarantinie adventure so I just dimmed the lights a little and laid down on his bed. I messed up his pillows a bit. Sorry about that.

The SleepWatch app tells me I got 70 minutes of sleep. 55 minutes were deep sleep, so I have that going for me. I reached 14% of my nightly goal. Kick ass.

I’ve got a feeling today is going to be one of those “do not operate heavy machinery” kinda days.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

Flashback

I just had an unsettling parent sitting flashback. It probably has more to do with being really tired than anything else, but here’s the story…

There are exactly two drinks that I chose to drink at home. One is Diet Pepsi because regular Coca~Cola (my personal drug of choice) is the primary reason why I am as grotesquely fat as I currently am. The other is grape flavored water. We have a Poland Springs cooler which is amazing. I fill up a water bottle with spring water and then poor some of that liquid flavoring stuff into it. Fruit Punch is good. Lemonade is all right if you get the right brand. Grape flavoring rules all. Unfortunately it’s expensive and I am trying to cut down on how quickly I blow through bottles of it by just sometimes drinking plain old, boring spring water.

That’s the first back story. Here’s the second. During the parent sitting adventure I would take a water bottle full of the delicious grape flavored water. I would also bring a second water bottle, but it would not be drinking water. It would be distilled water for my CPAP machine.

(Pause for a second to check on work. I’m still working. We were supposed to start around 4:00pm on Saturday. We instead kicked off our piece of the puzzle at 11:00pm. It’s 2:10am on Sunday and I’m still going strong.)

Here’s the flashback moment. Since dinner time I have had two 32 ounce water bottles full of the delicious grape flavored spring water. I don’t think I am going to bed any time soon and I was dealing with a little dry mouth so it was time for more water. I decided to go without the grape goop this time and just have boring plain water. I wanted to use a clean bottle though so that I didn’t get that little hint of flavoring left over from the last go-round.

I went out to the kitchen and opened up the cabinet to get a new water bottle. The first one I saw is the one I used to keep the distilled water in on parent sitting nights. I saw it there on the shelf and thought that I can’t drink out of that, it’s for the CPAP machine. Woah, wait a tick. I’m not parent sitting tonight. Sure, I am overly tired and my brain is starting to slip into autopilot, but that was weird. I was 100% positive that I could not use that particular bottle because it wasn’t for drinking.

In protest against the way that the parent sitting experience made me feel I took that bottle, filled it up with clear, clean Poland Springs water, and then chugged the fucker.

(Pause to check on work again. The two current utilities are still cranking along. Good good good)

On a totally unrelated note: I finished Saturday’s 30 minutes of exercise before work took off at about 11:00. Knowing that a lot of what I am doing tonight involves kicking off programs and then waiting for them to finish, and knowing that some of them would likely run for an hour or so, I decided to start Sunday’s exercise as soon after midnight as I could. I’m already up to 21 of my 30 minutes. When one of the two programs running completes I am going to kick off another one, and after I do that I am going to walk that last nine minutes. Well, some of it at least. It would be cool to have my 30 minutes in before the sun comes up. It would not be cool to make that a regular thing, but just this once? Groovy.

Crazier Day

Remember yesterday when I wrote a quick thing about what a crazy day it was?

Today was/is crazier. Hands down, no contest. Today is just crazier.

Tomorrow? Saturday? It’s going to be even crazier still.

Good heavens, what has Robbie gotten himself into this time?

heh heh. May you live in interesting times, babie.

Hosed

Work has been insane this week. Since Friday, really. In:Sane.

I took a minute to check on the Lake Asshole Bucket. It was maybe 15% full. I put the wet vac’s hose into the bucket and sucked all of that shit right up. Bucket:Empty. That worked much better than trying to get the blender out from under the pipe without spilling anything (which was impossible).

The dehumidifier is still cranking away. I had to empty it once. The floor is pretty much dry. Oh happy day.

Two weeks (approximately) until they come to replace the water heater. Two weeks of Lake Asshole monitoring.

Now I will have time to have dinner with the love of my life, watch What If with the love of my life and possibly with my step son (via a watch party), and then add lead guitars to the four songs that are currently ready for them. The finished 50/90 song count is currently sitting at 38. Four more are ready for leads, six are ready for vocals (car music in the morning?), and two barely exist.

Hopefully going to make a push over the next couple of days… assuming work lets me. Have I mentioned work has been insane this week? In:Sane.

Half Over

The work day is half over. I’ve made some good progress on a couple of tasks and all in all things are going well today, but the bad sleep last night is starting to get to me. The SleepWatch data was actually really good, super high heart rate dip, super high restful sleep percentage, there just wasn’t much of it. I’m starting to find it hard to concentrate and I still have three hours and 40 minutes to go.

Yippee.

I just had a customer’s request for a tweak to standard functionality forwarded to me and I really don’t think it’s something we are capable of doing and it’s making me stress out to a huge degree. It’s a big customer. An important customer. A customer who has asked us for things that, in granting their requests, has lead to some huge wins for my team over the last few months. I want to get this for them… I just don’t know if it’s possible without a huge redesign. I’m playing this out in my head and it’s making me sad.

Sad on top of tired. Crap.

On the upside, the kids started school today. Bellana’s junior year is underway. Harry’s freshman year is underway. We have two honest to goodness university students. How awesome is that?

Probably Jinxing Myself

It’s been quiet here tonight. Dad has been okay. He hasn’t gotten out of bed which is good for my stress level but not so good for his recovery. He needs to get some strength back in his legs and staying in bed is not going to get him there. I’ll see if I can coax him up during the odd coffee break tomorrow.

My mother was in a lot of pain when I got here, but after her last round of meds she went to bed and has been sleeping soundly ever since.

I got a jump on the work day by setting up my computer and everything I need for tomorrow tonight. The last blog post was written on my MacBook while sitting in the living room. This one is being written on my work issued HP while sitting at the workspace in the dining room. That cheap little USB fan is running and as always it is glorious.

I still need to set up my CPAP machine in the living room. I will have to do it in the dark as dad is in there sleeping. I’ve heard the odd snore, so he’s definitely asleep. Mostly I am sitting here writing this because I am waiting for my iPhone and my Apple Watch to charge before I turn in. On previous trips here I would setup a power strip near the couch I sleep on and plug everything in there. It’s not easy to do now as we had a hospital bed setup in that room yesterday and all of the places I would sit things on while they charged have been replaced with piles and piles of stuff. I don’t want to sit a power strip or a laptop on top of that stuff as I’m not sure if any of it might be a fire hazard or not. Shoot me for being extra cautions. So now I’ll just use one plug for the CPAP machine and keep my phone next to the machine with an alarm set. Of all the times I’ve been here over the last couple of months, I have never actually needed the alarm. I’ve always managed to be up long before it goes off. That’s not necessarily a good thing.

I thought about trying to write a little music while I sit here waiting. I have the MacBook and GarageBand with me after all. No… I can’t get into it. I feel too uncomfortable with headphones on.

Okay. I am going to start the turning in process now. Wish me luck.

It Survived

When I work at my parents house I am sitting at the dining room table using a massive desk setup that belongs to my brother. Three monitors and the switcher that lets you use them with a single USB C plug, wireless keyboard and mouse, and a USB hub. Lots and lots of stuff. I’m using it every time I work here, but I have not contributed anything to the work space.

Until today.

It survived the trip. I think I am going to leave it here because it’s pretty delicate and I don’t know how many trips back and forth in a backpack it has in it. Still, this little five speed USB sucker is my new favorite desk swag.

Good Morning

Good morning, everyone. How’s your Tuesday going. Hope you’re off to a good start.

I’m at my parents house. My brother is here and he’s working at his desk. He expects to be wrapping up soon so I can hijack his monitors again. I feel like a squatter but it’s okay.

Jen just called me. She’s off work this morning and went out for some errands. One of them was getting the Kia inspected. She had to go into the shop. Pre-Covid that would have been nothing. Now? That’s a huge accomplishment. I’m very proud of her. My wife has some serious guts.

She also set something up for tomorrow that I don’t want to talk about yet that literally took the weight of the world off my shoulders. The relief is so great it’s like a physical thing. Thank you, my love.

Okay, off to work. Happy Tuesday, everyone!