I knew the forecast. Odds were rain would come last night and I still had the driveway covered with stuff from the garage. Mother Nature had been kind to me and gave sunshine so I could get caught up on work. Throughout the day I would go to the driveway and pull in an item or two. I should have taken 20 minutes and gotten it all in. Last night, Mother Nature watered the remaining stuff. Doesn’t look like anything is damaged terribly. Will let the sun dry things today and throw away anything that took significant damage.
Category: Daily Life
Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.
Back in Business!
Last night while I was putting my machines back in place from our temporary exile to Holiday Inn Express (no, I don’t feel smarter), I awkwardly squeezed under my desk with my chest across the case of my primary development machine, one hand on the front corner, and one hand on the back corner when a strong tingling sensation raged through my body. I said a wordy dird. Cathy responded kindly, "Are you ok?" To which I honestly answered, "No, I’m being electrocuted." She suggested, "you should get up." I explained, "I can’t." And she left the room. Leaving me to die…die! DIE!
And yes, I found the short and have since gotten my development box and servers working. My clients will be happy to know productivity is back!
The day thus far
- 3am, 4am, 5am
- Bolt upright, check on children, try to convince self to work on computer
- 6am
- Admit I will have to work during the day like the rest of the world. Sleep.
- 6:40am
- Jump out of bed. Move Amy from one hotel room to another. Rouse oldest 3 children with sunlight and bright lights.
- 7am
- Head to lobby for coffee. Receive phone call from Tommy telling me the time, that he can’t get into the other room (because I locked the connecting doors so that the oldest 3 would not wake the youngest 2 or Cathy), and that he and Noah are ready. I explain I am heading to the car and that anyone not there can have the front desk hail them a taxi.
- 7:10am
- All 3 older children in parking lot
- 7:30am
- Re-fueling van and waiting to watch a motorcycle vibrate itself off the kick stand
- 7:35am
- 3 eldest children at bus stop
- 7:41am
- After getting to the house, inspecting the current state of a/c repair, and staring at all my junk to figure out what needs to be tossed and howt o neatly fit the rest back into the garage, I realize that Noah and I never discussed his afternoon plans with his mother. I make an executive decision, write a note to allow him to ride the bus home with a friend, then rush up to the bus stop 2 minutes later to find that at 7:43am the high schoolers are gone but Noah gets his note.
- 7:50am
- Drop Noah’s tent off at his friend’s house
- 8am
- Buying anti-migraine caffeine therapy from Starbucks for Cathy (ie. Hot chocolate)
- 8:15am
- Back in hotel looking at 3 sleeping people…well, 2 and 1 pretending…to find the door between the rooms open and the other room’s door to the hallway open. I jump to blame Sarah then realize that the pretender must have been exploring. Egad!
- 9am
- My professional day begins.
From the mouths of babes
Noah asks: "Can our a/c stay broken forever?"
A nice relaxing Saturday in a hotel
Sleep in! Play racquetball! Run the treadmill Get food delivered to the room! Turn the a/c up as high as it goes! Ah, what fantasy!
Reality: Go to a 7am Scout leaders meeting. Rush home and clean the garage for the a/c repairman. Help a friend move. Shop for Tommy’s birthday party. Celebrate Tommy’s birthday. Catch up on two days missed work. Do other personal work, paperwork and financial stuff. Remember to eat. I’ve missed something.
Of Being Dad
Break my heart! Evan needs his afternoon naps! But when I put him into the crib and he protests it makes me cringe. Right now he is sweetly (with increase aggravation) crying out, "Daaaaa Daaaaa DAAAAA!" He wants me, the bad guy that caged him in the first place, to rescue him. You know, if it wasn’t 90°F in this house, he might just go to sleep.
From the mouths of babes
Tommy, exasperated, after playing all day in our heat: "My PS/2 is overheating!" Then stares at me like he wants me to do something…
No A/C Stinks
I’ve been sweating so badly in this shirt that it has started to smell like a moldy tent.
The repair man’s supplier finally came through. We will be upgraded from a 10 SEER unit to a 13 SEER.
Today, it is rare to see systems rated below SEER 9 in the United States because aging, existing units are being replaced with new, higher efficiency units. The United States now requires that residential systems manufactured after 2005 have a minimum SEER rating of 13… [Source]
I rush the estimate to our very kind insurance agent who ala Brazil cannot find my record at first then finds it offering me a Coke and, along with his Oscar winning smile, utters, "uh oh. Bad news." Hold it! When a guy has been in deadly heat for over two weeks and you have just exclaimed, "you’ve been without air for two weeks!" do not follow it with "bad news." Turns out he wrote his last check yesterday. He thought he had another checkbook but said the local claims office will have to get in touch with me and that I should hear from them within the next 24 hours. Yes, story of my life! None-the-less, I am thrilled!
Do as I say…
What is that mantra I repeat to the children? Oh yes. "Sometimes you just have to do something even if you don’t want to. Just get it over with." I have a task ahead that scares me and I can delay it no longer. It now has the highest priority. Breathe. Move on!
Of Being Dad
I love being a dad! You get say great things like:
If you are holding your penis in your hand, you’d better be thinking about what you are doing!
Don’t sweat it friend
It is very interesting to be doing nothing more than typing on a keyboard but to have so much sweat pouring from your body that you fear being electrocuted by your computer.
A 20-year-old student in Shanghai, China, was electrocuted Monday when he opened his computer’s external case while the machine was still on…apparently opened his PC’s case to prevent its central processing chip from overheating — because he didn’t want to turn his air conditioning on. [Source]
Thank goodness all my cases are already open! I kid you not! I am sweating more sitting still than I normally do during a tough workout at the gym or climbing a mountain and we haven’t reached anywhere near peak temperatures today. My project notes are barely readable.
ISDHIGM Disease
I feel like a subject in some psychology experiment. "Let’s see what happens when we make his major project over its deadline, then turn the temperature inside the house to 100°F, and take away all his money (ie. Welcome back to school)."
Today the outside will reach 95°F. Sounds better in Celsius because it’s only 35°C. The inside will either reach equilibrium at 95°F or go 5 to 10 degrees higher. The AC guy is supposed to be here with an estimate this morning and then I’ll run it to the insurance company who is supposed to write me a check on the spot which I will turn around and give to the AC guy who will then purchase the unit and schedule a time to install it provided I have cleaned out the garage enough for him to be able to do his job.
So today I have to make sure that the client on the overrun project has accepted the work or is requesting any bug fixes/last minute changes. I have to make sure that the client who’s project has a late start due to the overrun project has not given the work to another developer. I have to make sure that another client’s designer has made the necessary changes to wrap up that project. I have to create documentation and a plan of completion for another project. I have to talk to another client about scheduling their work. I have to get caught up on my own paperwork including balancing the books. I have to clean the garage. Want to make a jig to finish the repair on the Jeep (and get the battery charged or replaced). Get Noah to karate. Cook dinner. Get Noah to scouts. And do something with my evening.
Update: Newscoma, the famous Newscoma, explains ISDHIGM Disease.
Update: Oh Hell.
A heat wave will grip the Tennessee Valley this week, with temperatures climbing into the mid-90s and heat index rising between 100 and 105 degrees.
The National Weather Service issued a special statement this morning, urging caution when outdoors.
[Source]
August Happiness Challenge
Watching Tommy perform at the STAR annual horse show makes me happy. I am thrilled that he has achieved such success. Seeing him perk up at the winning of a blue ribbon in one category after taking a 5th place in another made me even happier!
From the mouths of babes
Granddaddy: "Tommy, I’m taking Sarah, Noah, Amy and Evan to McDonald’s. Want to go?"
Tommy: "No. I’ll stay here."
They leave.
Dad: "Tommy, please find Molly."
Tommy: "Ok. Is Evan awake?"
Don’t ever be nice, just be nice about it
Stephen R Covey talks about climbing the corporate ladder only to find that its leaning on the wrong wall. Psychologists all over the place have publications explaining why good girls like bad guys. Nice guys do come in last. All my life I have lived very altruistically, and no Dr. Helen, I haven’t wanted anything for my altruism…it’s just a Southern thang. I am generous and kind living by the motto "wrong me once, shame on you; wrong me twice, shame on me." But in business that just gets you used.
More and more I am beginning to believe that I need to quit being nice. I can still be a nice guy without being a chump. Perhaps if I did less for others and more for myself then those around me would benefit more than having me help them directly. The words "not my problem" just do not roll naturally from my tongue. SEP!
