What happened to last week?! Is this really Saturday? Okay. Struggling to keep my anxiety in check today. I need to accomplish something tangible today. That means either a) work on the walls in the garage or b) clean my desk. I think the garage is going to be my focus. Home Depot, here I come!
Category: Daily Life
Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.
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Odd day
Today was a strange day. Felt like I spent most of it adding some functionality to someone else’s code that I’ve helped support since 2004 or 2005. In reality, I spent 5.5 hours on it and a good deal of that was figuring out that the original programmer crippled the code in such a way that it will only ever work on MySQL4 and PHP4 without major revisions. I wanted to spend the day playing with my children but was tethered to the computer. I’m going to meditate about tomorrow and then go to sleep. I’ve got to decide between sales and marketing or framing and drywalling.
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Filed Under: Things I Never Expected To Do
I just rubbed a half a tube of Neosporin onto one of my dogs because the other dog won’t quit licking her wounds. Next step: petroleum jelly and if that fails, the Collar of Shame!
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Today’s Kill
A cat is a cat is a cat.
I don’t have to like that.
She gives me gifts
I’d prefer not to have.
Extinguished life.
Birds, mice, chipmunks and bats.
My bloodstain stoop
Her trophy case.
Today she stood proudly over a wren.
I think that’s what I buried. -
Gas man answers
Use 100% gas. Okay to fuel with tanker.Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterli.
Replies. mp3
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What kind of babysitting is this?
Cathy is touring the high schools, the older boys are out of the state, the 7 year old socialite is at a friend’s house, and I’m downstairs trying to work which leaves the teenage girl babysitting the 4 year old boy. So why is the bathtub running? I dread going upstairs to see what mess they are recovering from but I must know!
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Week 2 – no work
A major project culminated on Saturday July 25. I did something unusual. Instead of jumping into another project or lighting a big fire under my sales and marketing hat, I spent a week tending to long neglected personal things. This was both necessary and cathartic. I feel human again.
Today I did some final testing on some client code and got final approvals and sign-off closing out yet one other project. I now turn my energies to patch a little code as a favor to an old client of mine and this afternoon I have a scheduled conference call to complete some research for a bid for what may be my next project. Hopefully by the end of the week I’m off overhead and back to billables. So far, I think it is a good idea to add a week of "no work" after an extensive project for tidying up loose ends and making up for neglected areas in my personal life. However, if by the end of this week I am not back to billable hours, I will declare it a failed experiment and begin working on a mental breakdown.
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And we’re off…
Cathy is out getting to tour all the area high schools with the respective principals. Today she has appointments to tour Karns High School and Bearden High School. We’ve sent the older two boys to Indiana to paint their uncle’s house. The two little ones are playing while the sleeping teenage girl babysits. I need a day at my computer without distraction. Perhaps it is time to wake the teen. If you don’t see another post on Reality Me, she ate me.
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Last week I caught up!
In the name of prioritization and business, I have spent the past several months neglecting many things in my personal life. Last week I was able to catch up on many of these things. I am a much happier person! The trade-off of taking personal time to get caught up is that this week I have no projects scheduled since I did no marketing last week. I strive to keep my schedule booked out 2 months so it is odd to have nothing. Obviously I need to strike a slightly better balance between business and personal life.
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From the mouths of babes
Me: "Evan, watch me pull my finger off."
Evan, 4 years old: "Do it again and pass it to me. You got to break it off and put it in my hand."
Me: "Wise acre." -
Today’s Status Report
Today is far from over but I feel a status report is in order. My wife had important meetings today that would keep her out of the house most of the day and early evening so I’m in charge. She left, two neighborhood children joined our horde, and I attempted to meet my goals. Of course, the older two children were off doing their own things all day so I had no true backup. My goals were simple: write a business proposal in the morning and walk a client through the changes I’d made to their application in the afternoon; if time permits, prospect for more work.
We had no causalities on my watch, but the collateral damage is awesome! Only one dog was so muddy that she needed a bath. Only one child needed a midday bath. We had only 1 temper tantrum and associated bout of tears, otherwise a happy day. There was lots of laughs and much bouncing on the trampoline. I realized that my yard needs to become a much higher priority. I failed to get the proposal done. The chat with the client went well but didn’t end with the "all done" that I’d hoped. I did, however, get some long overdue to do items off my list, such as ordering the dogs’ flea preventative, and that felt great! Now I need to cook dinner and see if I can begin digging our house out of the rubble.
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From the mouths of babes
Looking down at the trampoline I see one child drawn and quartered by four other children. They waddle to the edge of the trampoline and start rocking the captive child back and forth as if to throw her from the trampoline to the ground. Then they release sending the captive nearly to the other side of the trampoline with a flop.
Me, opening the window and softly calling down into the valley: "Hey Noah! Do me a favor and make sure we don’t go to the hospital. I don’t have time for that today."
Earlier it was:
Me: "Evan. We have guests. They don’t want to see your penis."
You know.. there should be a book they give to new parents titled, "these are the ridiculous things you will say" with a list of the absurdities you will utter. I’ve said them all!
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Today is marketing and sales day
As a freelancer, I wear many hats. I am a programmer, quality assurance engineer, project manager, gopher, sexy intern, accounts receivable, accounts payable, technical support, information technologies (IT), customer service, human resources, facilities manager, accountant, marketer, and sales person. I’m sure I forgot a few. Today I am wearing my marketing and sales hats. I have committed myself to getting a proposal out the door by lunch.
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From the mouths of babes
Evan, 4 years old: "Dad, wassit?"
Me: "It’s called a Slinky."
Evan: "WHOA! Cool!"