Tag: work

Four for Four

Well, that’s all of us.  My step son’s school district has shut down for two weeks.  They are going to take a couple of days to try and setup some remote learning systems and start having online classes on Wednesday.

So Harry has high school classes at home, Bellana has college classes at home, Jen has work from home, and ol’ Robbie has work from home.  All for at least the next two weeks.

It’s going to be tough having all of us trying to work at the same time.  We’re going to get in each other’s way and we’re going to get on each other’s nerves, and if everything works out the way we want we will look back on this and see it as a successful waste of time.  A little sacrifice today will lead to an easier time for our health care professionals in the coming weeks.  That’s the goal at least.

We’re all in this shit show together, and we are up to the challenge.

Work

We start our extended work from home on Monday.  Today is supposed to be our last day in the office.  This is what the basement of the garage looked like when I arrived.

195/365

Okay, full disclosure. I was about 30 minutes earlier than usual, and a lot of people normally work from home on Fridays. Still…

We were just informed that during our (estimated) two weeks out of the office the operations staff are planning on disinfecting the holy hell out of the whole building. We were told to not leave anything on our desks. I can do that.

The Telecommute Call

The telecommuting call for my company has been made.  It will be for at least two weeks and it will start Monday.  That’s actually good as there is something I need to do at my desk tomorrow.

In our house, Jen is already telecommuting.  Bellana will start remote classes on Wednesday.  I will start telecommuting on Monday.  All we have left is Harry’s high school.  What’s it gonna be, high school?  Are you going to jump on the resource management bandwagon or are you going to keep insisting you know better than all of the experts who actually study how to handle this sort of situation?  Are you going to make a small sacrifice that might make life easier on our soon-to-be-overtaxed health care industry, or are you going to keep letting large groups of people meet and contribute to the infection spike which will potentially put our soon-to-be-overtaxed health care industry into a state where there are more patients than beds and supplies?  What’s it gonna be?

Two Items of Note

Two tiny landmark events happened tonight.

First, it was my first work day of 2020 where sunset happened after my quitting time of 5:30. Unfortunately I didn’t get to enjoy it because I stayed a little late, but it’s still worth celebrating

Second, my Flickr Photo a Day project is now over 50% complete. There are 366 days this year. Yesterday was exactly half way. Today, day 184, is more than half way.

Kick ass.

184/365

Is This a Bad Sign?

I was running around like a nut today, all kinds of busy, getting stuff done, meeting deadlines.  My mind was wandering and I really wasn’t paying attention, but when the thought, “it’s been a long day” popped into my head I had to stop and assess the situation.

I looked at my watch.  5:50am.  I had literally only been awake for 50 minutes and I was already thinking that it’s been a long day.

That is a bad sign, right?  I am in serious trouble today, for sure.

At least it’s the last day before a long weekend, and the kids are at our house for the whole thing.

Bright side, babie.  Bright side!

Popularity

The company I work for has traditionally thrown a company wide Christmas party on Christmas eve.  We would work a half day and then the few thousand of us all pile into one building and listen to a live band while eating catered food and trying to not step on each other.

This year, for the first time in forever, we’re not playing that game.  Instead we are getting Christmas eve off.  As nice as the company party was, I prefer it this way.  We host a party at home on Christmas eve, so this will give me more time at home to get ready for it.

The result of the cancellation of the company wide party is an increase in smaller work group parties.  We’ve always been a part of a yankee swap.  A few years ago our large group was split into two smaller groups, but we still all get together for the yankee theft.  That’s still going to happen this year.  There is also a lunch get together for all of the groups under my direct manager.  We started that two years ago and it’s one of those interesting things where a big group of programmers try to be social.  Just get us talking about Star Wars or Back to the Future and we’re fine.

This year though there is an added wrinkle.  A third Christmas party has been added.  This one includes everyone under two different directors.  Over 150 people.  That’s a lot of people getting stuffed into a conference room.  Craziness!

But here is the real catch.  This large group Christmas lunch gathering actually conflicts with the yankee swap lunch gathering.  I don’t know what to think?  I have never been this popular in my entire life!  Two parties happening at the same time that actually invited me!  It’s like, woah!  Or maybe more like Woah Ho Ho!  (see what I did there?  how’s that for a disgustingly bad holiday pun?)

No!!

Going to work yesterday after the four day weekend was brutally difficult. For some reason though, going to work this morning seems 100 times worse.

I need a vacation.
I need a long vacation.
I need a 60 year long vacation (at least).

Where is that Powerball winner I’ve been promising myself?

Busy Day

Today was one of those days that started off busy and got busier as the day wore on. I’m still feeling sick, but I’m a little better. I was pretty run down by the time 5:30 rolled around. It’s good to be home. The only way it could be better is having the love of my life home with me, but that can be said about every situation I’ll ever find myself in for the rest of my life. It’s always better when she’s around.

Not sure what I want to do with my time tonight. I’m thinking of just sacking out until bed time. I’m feeling pretty beat. At least I can sort of breath through my nose now. That’s all sorts of win.

It Continues

Am I still sick?

Oh yeah, you betcha.

I feel about the same as yesterday. Cough, sneeze, stuffy, runny, the whole kit. I am going to work today though, but I’ll work from home. We are always short handed on Friday afternoons so I was going to be punched in this afternoon even if I was in the hospital. I figure I can suck it up for the full day and then go back to bed when I punch out at 5:30.

I slept a little during the day yesterday, and then went to bed about 8:30. I was planning on just putting the Bruins game on the radio and vegging until sleep claimed me, but they were playing so poorly that I switched to music. I was still awake when the kids went to bed at 9:30, but not much after that. I woke up a few times during the night, but only for a minute here and there.

I expect this weekend to be a washout. I hear it’s supposed to rain the whole time anyway. I suppose getting sick during bad weather is preferable to getting sick in good weather. Probably not, but let me have this delusion at least.

Speaking of the Bruins. They played a generally sucky team last night and lost. They also lost Zdeno Chara for 4-6 weeks with (I believe) a knee injury. I was worried that the lofty expectations were going to bite us on the ass, as they did with the Red Sox, and here we are… a 4-5 record and our best defenseman out for a month or more. It’s going to be a long year.

Hopefully I won’t be sick for the whole thing.

Could be a Fun Day

Last night after work I got a text asking if I could cover for a site that was dealing with a big system failure.  Sure, I said.  They were hoping to have users back on the system at 8:30.  Works for me.  By 10:30 my phone hadn’t rung so I was feeling optimistic.  I should have known better.  The phone rang at 1:30 this morning.  By 2:30 I was told I could go back to bed.  That was good then, but not now.  Some of my co-workers heroically worked through the night, but difficulties persist.  That leads to Robbie and his group having an interesting Friday.

Oh weekend, you are so close yet so far away.  So much stands between us.