Saturday, February 24, 2007

Another Saturday, another work day : Part 2

Here it is, another Saturday, and I'm at work again. Ick.

Well, at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and it probably isn't the headlamp of a locomotive. We have one week from Monday to complete the software, and then it will all be over ... except for all the problem reports that the customer will write when they find the bugs we didn't find.

And they will find them.

But at least then I'll be able to relax at home on the weekends, doing nothing. Nothing except a basement remodel, some yard cleanup, winter damage control, etc.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Another Saturday, another work day

Adam is taking his ACT today. I think this is the second or third year he's taken it. By the time he gets to taking his "real" ACT, he's going to have his test-taking skills down pat. Along with his Jedi mind skills, his videogaming skills, his liger skills...

I've got three weeks from Monday to finish up this project at work, so we're in full-blown panic mode. Working 60-hour weeks. Lots of time in lab trying to deal with flaky hardware. Lots of last-minute documentation.

And there's still slushy snow out on the roads.

Sometime next week, I've got to go in and have more X-rays done. The doc wanted me to come in some time mid-February, probably hoping it would all be cleared up, but truth is I'm not feeling any better right now. Still hurts to pull air in, like when you breathe in super-cold air and your lungs scream. Still coughing a bit, but at least not to the point of nausea. Slowly working up to being able to carry kids up a flight of stairs (at bedtime) without falling over from hypoxia, and am almost there.

The kids are feeling good, apparently over all the fever and coughing and stuff. Except Mary is still having some ear congestion. I think she's got an appointment this coming week, so we'll run the hearing test again.

I can't wait til we're all normal again...

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Blizzard

It's a nice Sunday morning with a foot or two of snow on the ground, and the State Police have issued a "strong suggestion" that everyone stay off the roads, and worship service was cancelled, and the thermometer is telling us that the -14 degrees announced by the weather man is not too far off the mark.

So we're here at home, enjoying the quiet morning, resting, relaxing, staying warm, reading the paper, updating websites...

Oh, yes, Adam finally got his epic update for his part of the website done. Twenty pages! With lots of pictures and descriptions of his current game obsession. I am quite proud of him for doing all that work. But then when it comes to games in general, he is always working, always planning, always dreaming. I hope his dream of becoming a game designer comes to fruition; he certainly has the drive for it.

My drive and/or initiative is just about gone. This pnuemonia has drained me of energy (and breathing ability); I'm winded by walking upstairs. The doctor said it would be a few weeks before I feel back to normal. Meanwhile my ribs are still aching from occasional coughing. But at least my sleep patterns are back to normal!

Yesterday I had to work, along with most of the other people on my team, but it was also the first day of the blizzard, so out of thirty people, only five of us showed up. And the company was buying us lunch! We stuck around til nearly four o'clock, but then the conditions rapidly deteriorated - blowing snow reduced visibility to less than fifty feet, and drifts were piling up on the roads - so we all skedaddled home where it was safe and warm.

Getting home was fun. Couldn't see hardly anything on the roads, no lines, no edges, so it was a good thing I already had the route home memorized. It helped that there wasn't much traffic. But the radio news announced two 50-car pile-ups on some major roadways, and several freeway closures, so there had been traffic at one time, it just wasn't moving anymore.

Got home, and there was a three-foot drift in the driveway to plow through on the way into the garage. That was fun! Cheryl figured (rightly) that there was no point in clearing the driveway just yet, with all that snow still coming down and more tomorrow. We'll just stay cozy and warm in our little house and wait it out.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Someday my updates will come...

Yes, I'm working on updates for the website(s). Actually, Adam is working on updates for the website. He's all gung-hu about this Battle for Middle Earth game - the one he's been playing every single morning from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. (and still manages to get all his stuff ready for school!) - and has written up a commentary or description or something about it, and is just waiting patiently for his pokey Father to hurry up and get it posted.

Maybe tonight.

In the meantime, I'm trying to finish up a software baseline that absolutely has to be done by Monday morning. And there are four-foot snowdrifts outside, with blinding wind-blown snow everywhere, and who in their right mind would go to work on a day like today???

Well, they did promise to buy me lunch...