Tag: work

To Do List

I am trying to make a to-do list for today. I want it ordered so that the things I most want to do are at the top of the list, and the things I least want to do are at the bottom of the list.

Going to work falls just behind getting slammed in the face by a sledge hammer. It still ranks higher than being killed in a nuclear holocaust, but not that much higher.

Wish me luck.

Crud.

When Responsibility Sucks

Sometimes doing the right thing sucks. Know what I mean?

Like when you’re eating dinner with your beautiful wife and you get a call from work and then end up spending the next three hours working even though you are not on call and you are not part of the 2nd shift staff.

That like totally sucks.

But what can you do? Helping out is the right thing to do, even if it does mean you’re Friday night is kind of down the crapper.

Nothing, as Usual

I’ve got nothing going on tonight. I had another painfully long drive to work this morning, followed by another surprisingly fast drive home. Weird.

I had a breakthrough on a project I’ve been working on forever and that is good. The Red Sox magic number is 10 and they have the lead against the team trailing them, Tampa Bay, at this very moment and that is good too. Might the magic number be 8 before I fall asleep tonight?

There is one thing though that is better than all other good things.

After a long, painful wait, my step daughter’s braces came off! That in itself is awesome news, but ever better than that…

SHE CAN EAT POPCORN AGAIN!

All hail her favorite food!

You Know it’s September When…

It’s definitely September. Last week my average commute time was about an hour. Both rides on Friday were more like 50 minutes. It was flat out glorious.

This morning, the first commute in September, was close to 90 minutes.

It is definitely September now.

New Office

Today is our first day in a new office. How far was the drive?

photo

42.9 miles.

How long did the drive take me?

photo

One hour and 18.6 seconds. That’s during the late summer though, I expect to add 20-30 minutes to that once school starts.

Yippee.

Random Flickr Pic

The work day is ending. I’ve wrapped up what I was working on. My wife is on her way here so that we can drive together to get the kids. I am in a complete state of terror that my phone will ring before I can sign out for the weekend.

Here’s a random Flickr Pic to help keep my mind off of the phone.

It’s Niagara Falls. Sure it’s only been a few weeks since we visited, but I wouldn’t mind going back with the kids.

Untitled

Three minutes until I can punch out.
Two minutes until I can punch out.
One minute until I can punch out.

One Work Day Left

Only one work day left until we can go and get the kids at camp. Please, programmer/analyst gods, let them take it easy on me today. Please no screaming customers, please no critical issues, please just let me keep hammering away at the stack of tasks already assigned to me, please don’t kick my ass (professionally speaking). I just want to get through today in one piece and then finally go and get the kids.

Oh and if you can swing it so that my wife and I can drive to camp together, that would be nice too. I don’t think that falls under the programmer/analyst god’s jurisdiction though. It couldn’t hurt to try, right?

4:30 Got Here Quick

One of the customers that I support has a project going on today. In normal cases such projects require that a programmer for each application be assigned an on call for the night. In this case the project is considered minor so instead of an on call they have asked for the site’s programmers to work a swing shift and be in the office from 7-3:30 instead of 9-5:30.

The upside is that I expect a little less traffic this morning, and I get to leave the office two hours early.

The downside is that I had to get up at 4:30am. Wow, did 4:30am get here fast!

I have been wanting to get up well before sunrise and drive to the ocean for a sunrise photo opportunity. This time of year that would pretty much mean getting up at 4:30am. I thought that today would be practice, and then I would do it for reals tomorrow.

I telecommute tomorrow so I don’t have to get ready as if for work, and I don’t have to spend the hour plus on the road. I could do the sunrise tomorrow…

But I think I’m sleeping until the last possible second, thank you very much. The sunrise can wait for another day.

Vacation Question

I have a question about vacations.

Is it possible that the horror of the first day of work following a week long vacation actually outweigh the benefits of the week long vacation? As I try to get myself ready for work this morning, I’m not anymore rested because of my week off. I actually feel more exhausted than before we left. Today I’m going to have a full week’s worth of problems dropped on me at once. I’m going to have five times the stress and frustration of a normal day. Is it worth it? If I’d asked this one week ago I would have said yes, it is worth it. Today? I’m not so sure.