Well, the Swede called in sick again yesterday, which put a mild crimp in training. Trying to keep up with the old job while trying to learn the new one is a bit inconvenient and since my mobile phone does not pick up in the Inc Mgmt office, I tend to miss calls (which is not good if you are to be available 24x7). I ended up spending about 25% of my time in the IM office and the rest in mine. The TL of the IM group is OK with moving to an outer office so I can get better reception (he has good reception anywhere in this building with Sprint...me and my wife use Cingular/AT&T), so we are looking for either two offices next to each other or a big office we can share. The problem is that neither is available that I can tell. I guess I will just have to rough it or make the company spring for a Sprint phone for work...something they normally do not do.
It was generally slow incident wise, but the other part of my old job was rather steady. It slowed down in the afternoon so I was able to finish some company mandated online training. I still have about 6-8 hours left but I can squeeze that in a little at a time...maybe an hour a day.
Part of my day went to an employee webcast outlining the state of our business unit. Things overall (company wide) are good, but we are still operating at a loss in my division. Cuts are coming. They are going to do some realigning of people to areas where there are open req's, but if that fails...layoffs are coming. My guess is that we will see news in September. Nothing ever changes.
I got home to find my wife doing about 12 things at once...imagine that. Since I normally do not know how to keep my mouth shut in situations like this, I decided to try keeping silent for a change. For the most part it worked, but we did not get done with cooking, eating dinner, and cleanup until almost 8:00 PM...3 hours after I got home. Of course that was not the end of it...my wife wanted to take all three dogs (and me) on a two mile walk, since the weather was nice (it had stopped raining and the clouds had moved off...mostly). Walking all three dogs (it is amazing how they feed off each others bad behavior) was a real chore and it took us just under 60 minutes to walk two miles. The dog we are pet sitting is very spirited and while by herself she is only a minor irritation, adding two other normally mellow dogs to the mix can be fun.
By 9:00 PM we were back home...tired. We watched some MMA (mixed martial arts) and then hit they hay...both of us were tired. I stayed up to watch it all while she zonked out at about 10:30 PM.
The alarm went off and at first I did not know what it was. I finally got it turned off and grabbed Little Man for his morning walk. I made a trip around the block with him and when I returned, my wife was up and she handed me Jazzie. Not being 100% awake and trying to walk her is a challenge. I was not going to walk her, but simply put her in the back yard for a couple of hours, since it had dried up some, but my wife had other plans.
When I returned from the short walk with Jazzie, I found my wife had set my coffee implements out for me She has not learned the art of brewing coffee the way I like it so I prefer to do that myself. I forgot to thank her for setting it out...I need to do that when I get home...maybe a small bouquet of wild flowers will help ;) .
My wife, while rested has been stressed over things at church. She volunteered to coordinate serving the "tweenagers" their meal on Friday nights a few months ago. At first it was okay, but now that the group now includes the teens as well as the tweens, there are a lot of people to serve. She has had a great deal of trouble finding help and it is beginning to drain her.
When my wife got done with her laundry list of items this morning, she fired up her laptop to check e-mail. She headed over to the bank's web site to check on a few things and was very surprised at our balance. I told her that we had about $300+ more expenses than I had budgeted for (and the cost of gasoline does not help our bottom line) and our buffer is very, very low. I told her I was very thankful that we both got paid today since the mortgage already came out BEFORE my check went in (hence the very low balance this morning). She was not happy and asked me why some bills were paid early. I told her that our bank has been a bit hit and miss when it comes to the payments going out checks they write and I was worried about the payments being late. She reminded me that the house has a 10 day grace period for payments...something that gets used too much in our case. I am trying not to worry, knowing that God provides for those who are faithful, but sometimes logic kicks in and pushes faith to the side...not a good thing.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Better Than Expected
Yesterday turned out better than expected, at least at work...home was a different story.
The Swede called off yesterday so I was still doing mostly my old job and learning bits and pieces of the new. I even helped out in a positive way a couple of times and that was a moral booster. I interacted with some of the local customer management and the end result was positive.
I stopped off at the store before I got home to get some sandwich rolls, sandwich wraps, Sobe Lean drinks (they were on sale), and some ice cream (on sale...I needed a little boost...and Ben and Jerry's will usually will do it). After I pulled in and removed my gear and the groceries, I attended to the dogs. I normally do not have too much trouble with our two, but we are pet sitting a very spirited 2 year old yellow Lab and she is a handful. I let them all out to answer the call of nature and then spent 15 minutes wiping them down before I let them in (it was raining). Reason #1027 why I like having a garage.
After that little adventure I fed them...which was much easier than letting them out. Once they had been fed (in order of dominance...(The Golden, Little Man, and lastly Jazzie) it is important to do that when you pet sit... I ate a couple of Nathan's Famous hot dogs and a banana then balanced the checkbook. The weather was holding (it had stopped raining) so I thought I better at least try to walk the pooches...separately if possible. I grabbed the terror twins first (The Golden and Little Man) and got most of a block in...they did their business so I headed home. After drying them off, I grabbed Jazzie and we headed out. She was an absolute terror to walk...she hated the gentle leader and we were plagued by a small pack of harmless dogs...all males...Jazzie is a female. She finally did what she needed to do and we headed home. The pack followed us and I was getting a bit frustrated. I am sure the neighbors enjoyed my little show as I tried to dry Jazzie and chase the three male "whore dogs" away. I am sure glad Jazzie was not in heat.
After that wonderful adventure I checked e-mail and since nothing was outstanding, I flipped on the TV and waited for my wife who was at a bible class. I was getting tired (I am not sure what the problem is...outside of a few meals most of my diet is good, but I feel run down all the time)...so much so that I actually went to bed at 9:30 PM, shortly after my wife got home. I slept straight through the night, only getting up once to empty a very full bladder :-) .
When I got up, I realized my wife was already up. She had fed the dogs and let them out to use the bathroom, but they still needed a walk. I grabbed Jazzie first (might as well get the hard part over with) and walked her around the block. When I returned, I grabbed Little Man (my wife wanted to take The Golden out later herself) and we walked until he did his thing, then we returned. While I was gone my wife had all my coffee stuff ready for me to brew and while it was brewing I helped her with the clothes in the dryer. I found out she got up at three and had been working on stuff all morning.
I finished my routine in the normal way, even though it started in a slightly different manner. By the time I got out of the shower, my wife was headed back to bed...she now was very tired. The woman works hard around the house and at work.
Having the extra dog around (especially as hyper as she is) really wears you out. It is like having a 2-3 year old ADHD kid who needs constant attention living with us...more than we are used to...but we will manage. June 14th is so far off (the date in which the owner returns).
I got to work and checked on everything I needed to. I still have to go check in with the TL of the new group I will be working with so I can continue training. That should monopolize my time. We shall see.
The Swede called off yesterday so I was still doing mostly my old job and learning bits and pieces of the new. I even helped out in a positive way a couple of times and that was a moral booster. I interacted with some of the local customer management and the end result was positive.
I stopped off at the store before I got home to get some sandwich rolls, sandwich wraps, Sobe Lean drinks (they were on sale), and some ice cream (on sale...I needed a little boost...and Ben and Jerry's will usually will do it). After I pulled in and removed my gear and the groceries, I attended to the dogs. I normally do not have too much trouble with our two, but we are pet sitting a very spirited 2 year old yellow Lab and she is a handful. I let them all out to answer the call of nature and then spent 15 minutes wiping them down before I let them in (it was raining). Reason #1027 why I like having a garage.
After that little adventure I fed them...which was much easier than letting them out. Once they had been fed (in order of dominance...(The Golden, Little Man, and lastly Jazzie) it is important to do that when you pet sit... I ate a couple of Nathan's Famous hot dogs and a banana then balanced the checkbook. The weather was holding (it had stopped raining) so I thought I better at least try to walk the pooches...separately if possible. I grabbed the terror twins first (The Golden and Little Man) and got most of a block in...they did their business so I headed home. After drying them off, I grabbed Jazzie and we headed out. She was an absolute terror to walk...she hated the gentle leader and we were plagued by a small pack of harmless dogs...all males...Jazzie is a female. She finally did what she needed to do and we headed home. The pack followed us and I was getting a bit frustrated. I am sure the neighbors enjoyed my little show as I tried to dry Jazzie and chase the three male "whore dogs" away. I am sure glad Jazzie was not in heat.
After that wonderful adventure I checked e-mail and since nothing was outstanding, I flipped on the TV and waited for my wife who was at a bible class. I was getting tired (I am not sure what the problem is...outside of a few meals most of my diet is good, but I feel run down all the time)...so much so that I actually went to bed at 9:30 PM, shortly after my wife got home. I slept straight through the night, only getting up once to empty a very full bladder :-) .
When I got up, I realized my wife was already up. She had fed the dogs and let them out to use the bathroom, but they still needed a walk. I grabbed Jazzie first (might as well get the hard part over with) and walked her around the block. When I returned, I grabbed Little Man (my wife wanted to take The Golden out later herself) and we walked until he did his thing, then we returned. While I was gone my wife had all my coffee stuff ready for me to brew and while it was brewing I helped her with the clothes in the dryer. I found out she got up at three and had been working on stuff all morning.
I finished my routine in the normal way, even though it started in a slightly different manner. By the time I got out of the shower, my wife was headed back to bed...she now was very tired. The woman works hard around the house and at work.
Having the extra dog around (especially as hyper as she is) really wears you out. It is like having a 2-3 year old ADHD kid who needs constant attention living with us...more than we are used to...but we will manage. June 14th is so far off (the date in which the owner returns).
I got to work and checked on everything I needed to. I still have to go check in with the TL of the new group I will be working with so I can continue training. That should monopolize my time. We shall see.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Back On The Chain Gang
Well, Monday was a real day off (I was on call but no one called me) but Tuesday has come and it is time to get to work. I was expecting to get to train with my TL but the guy I switched jobs with called off, so I need to cover it. Oh well.
I slept well and was ready to get up when the alarm went off. I took two of the the three dogs out but only walked one of them. Jazzie is very hyper Lab but she is sweet. My wife got up to give me a hand...I am not very alert at 5:00 AM so the help was greatly appreciated. I made coffee and washed dishes, then got my shower. I did not really have time to check news, weather, and e-mail.
After the rest of my routine was finished I drove to work, greeting my TL and my boss. I ran the reports I do (out of habit) and checked the ticket queues, then realized I had a voice mail on my office phone. It was left on Saturday and it was from my former dotted line mgr in Sweden. He was a bit upset that the guy I am switching with pawned an issue off on him (I was aware of the issue but told switch boy that it was not something that needed to be "escalated". I think that made him mad and that is why he called my boss). Why my boss called me to comment, I am not sure. The odd thing was that he did not call the hotline (there are no calls in the call log on the hotline), but my desk phone directly...on a Saturday. I am not in the office on Saturday. Oh well.
I slept well and was ready to get up when the alarm went off. I took two of the the three dogs out but only walked one of them. Jazzie is very hyper Lab but she is sweet. My wife got up to give me a hand...I am not very alert at 5:00 AM so the help was greatly appreciated. I made coffee and washed dishes, then got my shower. I did not really have time to check news, weather, and e-mail.
After the rest of my routine was finished I drove to work, greeting my TL and my boss. I ran the reports I do (out of habit) and checked the ticket queues, then realized I had a voice mail on my office phone. It was left on Saturday and it was from my former dotted line mgr in Sweden. He was a bit upset that the guy I am switching with pawned an issue off on him (I was aware of the issue but told switch boy that it was not something that needed to be "escalated". I think that made him mad and that is why he called my boss). Why my boss called me to comment, I am not sure. The odd thing was that he did not call the hotline (there are no calls in the call log on the hotline), but my desk phone directly...on a Saturday. I am not in the office on Saturday. Oh well.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Nothing To See Here
5:30 AM - Alarm goes off. It is a holiday* so I turn it off and fall back to sleep.
6:30 AM - I climb out of bed and give The Golden a brief walk. It has been raining off and on for several days and finding a rain-free window of opportunity is difficult. The radar maps become my friend.
7:00 AM - I fix a light breakfast of biscuits and honey, washed down with a couple of cups of coffee. A banana and a yogurt round it out.
7:30 AM - I check e-mail and enter a few receipts into AceMoney. My wife announces she is going to the gym to work out.
8:00 AM - Daily bible reading.
9:00 AM - My wife goes to work out and I babysit Little Man. He is suffering from separation anxiety and licks/chews his paws if left unattended. I have to get him to follow me wherever I go to keep him occupied.
9:30 AM - Wash dishes.
10:00 AM - I begin to do some opining regarding my relationship with my ex-wife. I have not spoken to her in years and I would like to put all the drama behind us. I spend the next hour thinking about how badly we screwed with each other.
11:15 AM - My wife comes home and we have leftovers for lunch. I am amazed that I have not been called on the hot line yet.
Noon - I watch a little TV. It has been raining off and on all day. I cannot do any yard work and I am not motivated to do anything inside. My wife works on laundry and I assist.
1:00 PM - My wife and I check e-mail then take a nap.
2:10 PM I get up (my wife had gotten up 20 minutes before) and park my butt in front of the TV. This is the laziest I have been in a long time.
4:00 PM - My wife starts getting ready to go pick up Jazzie (the dog we are pet sitting for two weeks).
4:30 PM - I hit the shower.
5:10 PM - We arrive at Jimmy and Collette's house to pick up Jazzie.
6:00 PM - Go back home and drop off Jazzie while my wife and I grab a burger at Scotty P's.
7:00 PM - Return home and take all three dogs on a two mile walk.
8:05 PM - Return from walk with two clean dogs and one very muddy Jazzie. I take care of the clean dogs, my wife gets to clean up Jazzie...outside.
8:30 PM - Watch even more episodes of "The Deadliest Catch" on Discovery.
9:30 PM - In bed updating this blog and checking the news online.
I feel so guilty about being lazy today but I know that from here on out life gets harder for me...I guess days like this need to be relished.
*Holiday or not I am still required to be on call.
6:30 AM - I climb out of bed and give The Golden a brief walk. It has been raining off and on for several days and finding a rain-free window of opportunity is difficult. The radar maps become my friend.
7:00 AM - I fix a light breakfast of biscuits and honey, washed down with a couple of cups of coffee. A banana and a yogurt round it out.
7:30 AM - I check e-mail and enter a few receipts into AceMoney. My wife announces she is going to the gym to work out.
8:00 AM - Daily bible reading.
9:00 AM - My wife goes to work out and I babysit Little Man. He is suffering from separation anxiety and licks/chews his paws if left unattended. I have to get him to follow me wherever I go to keep him occupied.
9:30 AM - Wash dishes.
10:00 AM - I begin to do some opining regarding my relationship with my ex-wife. I have not spoken to her in years and I would like to put all the drama behind us. I spend the next hour thinking about how badly we screwed with each other.
11:15 AM - My wife comes home and we have leftovers for lunch. I am amazed that I have not been called on the hot line yet.
Noon - I watch a little TV. It has been raining off and on all day. I cannot do any yard work and I am not motivated to do anything inside. My wife works on laundry and I assist.
1:00 PM - My wife and I check e-mail then take a nap.
2:10 PM I get up (my wife had gotten up 20 minutes before) and park my butt in front of the TV. This is the laziest I have been in a long time.
4:00 PM - My wife starts getting ready to go pick up Jazzie (the dog we are pet sitting for two weeks).
4:30 PM - I hit the shower.
5:10 PM - We arrive at Jimmy and Collette's house to pick up Jazzie.
6:00 PM - Go back home and drop off Jazzie while my wife and I grab a burger at Scotty P's.
7:00 PM - Return home and take all three dogs on a two mile walk.
8:05 PM - Return from walk with two clean dogs and one very muddy Jazzie. I take care of the clean dogs, my wife gets to clean up Jazzie...outside.
8:30 PM - Watch even more episodes of "The Deadliest Catch" on Discovery.
9:30 PM - In bed updating this blog and checking the news online.
I feel so guilty about being lazy today but I know that from here on out life gets harder for me...I guess days like this need to be relished.
*Holiday or not I am still required to be on call.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Idea
In September I will take my annual pilgrimage to WV to visit family and a few friends. This year will be different because "Block" will not be there. He has moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Now while Memphis is on my way to WV, it is very inconvenient for me since Block lives with his sister and her boyfriend. I doubt they have room for me and I am not going to spend money on a hotel. I am not cheap, I just really need nothing more than a safe place to park the van while I get some sleep during the trip.
If I do not stop and see Block, he will be hurt, but stopping in Memphis to visit, then driving in the dark to the camp that normally fills up quickly is not appealing, either. I think I have a solution, if I can get Block to agree. I can have him meet me at the camp.
The camp is about 100 miles from where Block lives, give or take. Yes it would take him a couple of hours to get there, but he could spend the night which would give us time to visit before I left the next morning. He may not go for it, but I will at least give him the option.
If I do not stop and see Block, he will be hurt, but stopping in Memphis to visit, then driving in the dark to the camp that normally fills up quickly is not appealing, either. I think I have a solution, if I can get Block to agree. I can have him meet me at the camp.
The camp is about 100 miles from where Block lives, give or take. Yes it would take him a couple of hours to get there, but he could spend the night which would give us time to visit before I left the next morning. He may not go for it, but I will at least give him the option.
Maybe A Real Day Off?
Monday is a company holiday for our customer as well as us, at least in the US. My colleagues in Canada and Latin America will be working, as will as the Europeans. I am never really "off" but I am only going to be available via the hot line tomorrow, unless something drastic comes up.
Yesterday afternoon/evening was non-eventful, for which I was very grateful. After my wife got home we did little more than eat dinner which I made (penne pasta with a tomato cream herb sauce and crawfish...sort of Creole-Italian...not bad, really. I even cleaned up my mess, much to my wife's surprise) and watch TV. We watched Discovery until my wife fell asleep and then I patiently waited for IFL Battleground to come on. I watched it up until the ring girl competition, then I turned it off. In my bad old BC days (Before Christ), I would have watched, but now I just ignore it.
This morning when I got up I was very sore...mostly from laying on the floor while I was watching TV. After about an hour of moving around, I felt better, but far from perfect. I completed my normal Sunday routine and headed to church to teach my first Sunday School lesson in several months. I felt prepared but soon realized that I was not the ready...I felt a little intimidated because several people in the class are real experts and I have so little working knowledge that I found myself stumbling over words and ran out of material before I ran out of time. I hope that I can do a better job next week.
After service my wife and I went to grab a quick bite to eat. I did not really care where we went so I made a few suggestions until my wife said, "Okay". Shew decided she wanted a salad from Burger King and I set my mind on a fish sandwich. The meal was edible but I would have preferred Wendy's. No worries...as long as my wife is happy.
Towards the end of the meal the Swede called. I could not understand him at first but eventually I deciphered what he wanted. He was calling me to get the phone number of a former colleague we both worked with. He has not spoken to "Yvette" in quite some time...I am sure she will be surprised to hear from him.
We got home and decided on a nap, a Sunday tradition at our home. After the nap I called mom and walked Little Man. As usual, he did not want to use the bathroom, but before we reached the end of our walk, he finally did a #1.
After my walk, I had some leftovers and some fresh pineapple. A big glass of green tea washed it all down and my wife and I watched a little Discovery (Man Vs Wild) until I got tired of sitting in the living room watching the idiot box. I excused myself and grabbed the laptop to browse a few news web sites and update my blog.
I had a bad feeling today that Dakboy would be correct in his prediction about my work situation. The Swede is either going to fail, or he is going to do something else to cause me to have to try to do both jobs. While I initially dismissed the comment from Dak, my gut tells me that he more than likely will be right. The Swede has issues and I am sure they will bleed over into his new role when he officially takes it on. I will not try to concentrate on it and let it consume me, but I am going to keep my ears and eyes open.
Yesterday afternoon/evening was non-eventful, for which I was very grateful. After my wife got home we did little more than eat dinner which I made (penne pasta with a tomato cream herb sauce and crawfish...sort of Creole-Italian...not bad, really. I even cleaned up my mess, much to my wife's surprise) and watch TV. We watched Discovery until my wife fell asleep and then I patiently waited for IFL Battleground to come on. I watched it up until the ring girl competition, then I turned it off. In my bad old BC days (Before Christ), I would have watched, but now I just ignore it.
This morning when I got up I was very sore...mostly from laying on the floor while I was watching TV. After about an hour of moving around, I felt better, but far from perfect. I completed my normal Sunday routine and headed to church to teach my first Sunday School lesson in several months. I felt prepared but soon realized that I was not the ready...I felt a little intimidated because several people in the class are real experts and I have so little working knowledge that I found myself stumbling over words and ran out of material before I ran out of time. I hope that I can do a better job next week.
After service my wife and I went to grab a quick bite to eat. I did not really care where we went so I made a few suggestions until my wife said, "Okay". Shew decided she wanted a salad from Burger King and I set my mind on a fish sandwich. The meal was edible but I would have preferred Wendy's. No worries...as long as my wife is happy.
Towards the end of the meal the Swede called. I could not understand him at first but eventually I deciphered what he wanted. He was calling me to get the phone number of a former colleague we both worked with. He has not spoken to "Yvette" in quite some time...I am sure she will be surprised to hear from him.
We got home and decided on a nap, a Sunday tradition at our home. After the nap I called mom and walked Little Man. As usual, he did not want to use the bathroom, but before we reached the end of our walk, he finally did a #1.
After my walk, I had some leftovers and some fresh pineapple. A big glass of green tea washed it all down and my wife and I watched a little Discovery (Man Vs Wild) until I got tired of sitting in the living room watching the idiot box. I excused myself and grabbed the laptop to browse a few news web sites and update my blog.
I had a bad feeling today that Dakboy would be correct in his prediction about my work situation. The Swede is either going to fail, or he is going to do something else to cause me to have to try to do both jobs. While I initially dismissed the comment from Dak, my gut tells me that he more than likely will be right. The Swede has issues and I am sure they will bleed over into his new role when he officially takes it on. I will not try to concentrate on it and let it consume me, but I am going to keep my ears and eyes open.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
T Minus 2.5 Hours And Counting
I have been productive, but that is not hard to do when you start your day at 6:30 in the morning on your "day off"...not that I really get days off (yet).
I kept waiting for the Swede to call, but he never did, so by noon I turned off my laptop. Up until that time I had been vacuuming the house and stripping the bed. I got a bit winded (I had not eaten yet) so I stopped to read the magazine our small city publishes and was shocked...our son the soldier had a "thank you" article published with two photos...one of him and one of me and him...although the pic of me makes me look a thousand years old. It was a pretty good article that he wrote (not professional writing, but not bad) and it really made my day. I have already requested extra copies so I could send them to family. As soon as the article goes on line I will download it.
After I got that shock, I waited for my wife to get home so we could eat lunch before she went to the ladies tea at church.
After my wife left to go to the tea party, I finished vacuuming and then started on my Sunday School lesson. It took a couple of hours, but I think I have a good start...I am not going to teach it like the regular teacher does...I want to make the people think.
Well, if I can hold out for a few more hours, I should be in the clear with regards to work. That is no guarantee I won't get called after 6:00 PM, but at least the only reason I SHOULD get called is if some local issue crops up. It would be nice to finish up this with minimal disruptions.
The weather forecast calls for storms up until Wednesday. Joy. When can I mow my grass or fix my patio door?
I kept waiting for the Swede to call, but he never did, so by noon I turned off my laptop. Up until that time I had been vacuuming the house and stripping the bed. I got a bit winded (I had not eaten yet) so I stopped to read the magazine our small city publishes and was shocked...our son the soldier had a "thank you" article published with two photos...one of him and one of me and him...although the pic of me makes me look a thousand years old. It was a pretty good article that he wrote (not professional writing, but not bad) and it really made my day. I have already requested extra copies so I could send them to family. As soon as the article goes on line I will download it.
After I got that shock, I waited for my wife to get home so we could eat lunch before she went to the ladies tea at church.
After my wife left to go to the tea party, I finished vacuuming and then started on my Sunday School lesson. It took a couple of hours, but I think I have a good start...I am not going to teach it like the regular teacher does...I want to make the people think.
Well, if I can hold out for a few more hours, I should be in the clear with regards to work. That is no guarantee I won't get called after 6:00 PM, but at least the only reason I SHOULD get called is if some local issue crops up. It would be nice to finish up this with minimal disruptions.
The weather forecast calls for storms up until Wednesday. Joy. When can I mow my grass or fix my patio door?
It Really Doesn't Have To Be This Hard
I left work at 3:00 yesterday since it was very slow there. I still came home and logged on remotely and of course I had my cell phone on but at least I was home. My wife was taking care of an issue with Little Man at the vet (we think he may have some real medical issues) so the house was empty except for me and The Golden. The next three hours of "work" are uneventful.
My wife comes home and we ate what she had made in the crock pot and after dinner I encouraged her to tell me about what is on her mind and she did. Towards the end of the conversation, the phone rang. It was the guy who I am switching roles with. He is on call until 7:00 Saturday morning and has "an issue". He proceeded to tell me about it and in his broken/scattered way of describing things, I am completely lost. All he really wanted was the global esc mgr's phone number. I told him that the issue did not sound like something that the GEM should be involved with but the Swede insists on it. I reluctantly give it to him. The primary problem it would seem, was that the way this case was started does not fit the process and the Swede was struggling to find a solution. I offered one and he said it was good, as well as accepted by the customer, but it seems that it was never implemented (scratches head). Even more bizarre is that according to the Swede, the right team has the case and should be able to resolve it (even though the ticket has not been updated to reflect this yet)...why are we making such a big fuss about this? And even MORE bizarre is that this issue does not impact our customer, but one of their suppliers...someone we do not directly support.
Two hours later I got a call back from the Swede. He told me that nothing would be done until morning hours, Swedish time...when the GEM is available. I suddenly got another lump of ice in my stomach. While the GEM would love to be involved, it is local issue (only affecting my region) but not something worth an "escalation" per se.
My wife and I watched a little TV and went to bed. Sleep would be very welcomed at this point.
I woke up at 6:30 dreading what the day potentially held. I had planned on going to the airport to welcome home soldiers returning from Iraq, but I do not feel comfortable being away from home in case this case (or another) is handed to me.
I guess the reason I am a bit miffed at this is that the Swede I am switching with appears to be sabotaging this transition. He is not comfortable with moving into a role where he will be required to be very PC (politically correct) since he is a very "by the books" guy who demands the processes be followed. I know that all his knowledge will not be as useful in his new role as it would be in his current one, but that is not my call. We are to do what we are told.
So I sit checking e-mail, updating my blog, and monitoring stuff at work. I have nothing to go on except on ticket and a name. I by no means want to open a can of worms by calling/e-mailing/IM'ing people. I learned my lesson about that a long time ago. I can be confident that if I need to be notified, I will be...that is one thing I can be assured of. The unofficial motto seems to be, "When in doubt, call everyone you can".
Well, I think I need some bible time (and I still need to get my lesson ready for Sunday School).
My wife comes home and we ate what she had made in the crock pot and after dinner I encouraged her to tell me about what is on her mind and she did. Towards the end of the conversation, the phone rang. It was the guy who I am switching roles with. He is on call until 7:00 Saturday morning and has "an issue". He proceeded to tell me about it and in his broken/scattered way of describing things, I am completely lost. All he really wanted was the global esc mgr's phone number. I told him that the issue did not sound like something that the GEM should be involved with but the Swede insists on it. I reluctantly give it to him. The primary problem it would seem, was that the way this case was started does not fit the process and the Swede was struggling to find a solution. I offered one and he said it was good, as well as accepted by the customer, but it seems that it was never implemented (scratches head). Even more bizarre is that according to the Swede, the right team has the case and should be able to resolve it (even though the ticket has not been updated to reflect this yet)...why are we making such a big fuss about this? And even MORE bizarre is that this issue does not impact our customer, but one of their suppliers...someone we do not directly support.
Two hours later I got a call back from the Swede. He told me that nothing would be done until morning hours, Swedish time...when the GEM is available. I suddenly got another lump of ice in my stomach. While the GEM would love to be involved, it is local issue (only affecting my region) but not something worth an "escalation" per se.
My wife and I watched a little TV and went to bed. Sleep would be very welcomed at this point.
I woke up at 6:30 dreading what the day potentially held. I had planned on going to the airport to welcome home soldiers returning from Iraq, but I do not feel comfortable being away from home in case this case (or another) is handed to me.
I guess the reason I am a bit miffed at this is that the Swede I am switching with appears to be sabotaging this transition. He is not comfortable with moving into a role where he will be required to be very PC (politically correct) since he is a very "by the books" guy who demands the processes be followed. I know that all his knowledge will not be as useful in his new role as it would be in his current one, but that is not my call. We are to do what we are told.
So I sit checking e-mail, updating my blog, and monitoring stuff at work. I have nothing to go on except on ticket and a name. I by no means want to open a can of worms by calling/e-mailing/IM'ing people. I learned my lesson about that a long time ago. I can be confident that if I need to be notified, I will be...that is one thing I can be assured of. The unofficial motto seems to be, "When in doubt, call everyone you can".
Well, I think I need some bible time (and I still need to get my lesson ready for Sunday School).
Friday, May 25, 2007
Official Notice
The reg acct mgr sent out the official e-mail regarding all the position changes coming up in the near future. While he was trying to sound positive, the way he worded the announcement made me laugh:
----Original Message-----
From: Regional Account Mgr
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 7:11 AM
To: Everyone on the $Customer Account, America's Region
Subject: Org Changes in Ops Mgmt Team within $Customer Account - Americas
All:
In order to meet the changing requirements of the $Customer Account and to continue to ensure that our employees are challenged with new opportunities, the following changes in the Ops Mgmt organization for the $Customer Account in the Americas region will take place effective 28 May, 2007.
$Swedish Colleague will exchange positions with El Gee in assuming the Reg Esc Mgmt role. El Gee will assume responsibility as a member of the Inc Mgmt (IM) team under $Swede's team mate. This will provide both the Swede and $Swede's team mate with new challenges and provide the account added depth in both the Inc Mgmt and Esc Mgmt areas.
Please help support all of our operations personnel in the new roles!
I am glad to see that the guy I am switching with and my new TL will be challenged by this switch. I had no idea I was such a burden ... :-)
----Original Message-----
From: Regional Account Mgr
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 7:11 AM
To: Everyone on the $Customer Account, America's Region
Subject: Org Changes in Ops Mgmt Team within $Customer Account - Americas
All:
In order to meet the changing requirements of the $Customer Account and to continue to ensure that our employees are challenged with new opportunities, the following changes in the Ops Mgmt organization for the $Customer Account in the Americas region will take place effective 28 May, 2007.
$Swedish Colleague will exchange positions with El Gee in assuming the Reg Esc Mgmt role. El Gee will assume responsibility as a member of the Inc Mgmt (IM) team under $Swede's team mate. This will provide both the Swede and $Swede's team mate with new challenges and provide the account added depth in both the Inc Mgmt and Esc Mgmt areas.
Please help support all of our operations personnel in the new roles!
I am glad to see that the guy I am switching with and my new TL will be challenged by this switch. I had no idea I was such a burden ... :-)
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Well, Now For Something Completely Different
Well, it looks like I will not be working on my sliding patio door tonight...a storm is heading this way. I guess I will just have to wait until next week.
Work has been interesting...my colleague never did show up at the office, opting instead to work from home. Several issues occurred at once, none of them super critical, but the total volume of them caused him to panic...enough so that my boss and his boss asked me to help him. I still have not been trained on the processes, and there are a lot of them...lots of little processes the global team expects to be followed 100% of the time.
I started working on one issue, which quickly multiplied into two. The second one required a degree of research and after finding my answer, I moved on. All of this ate into my lunch hour (no pun intended), so I took a shorter one when I was caught up. When I got back, I noticed that my colleague had taken care of the issues and had them all closed out or at least in a monitoring status by early afternoon. Things were back to normal. The cases were beginning to drop off of the "threat board" until only 10 remained...several older ones that were in monitoring status and a few newer ones the same way. Nothing appeared to be a show stopper.
Just a few minutes ago I checked the board again and a couple new cases were there (one global one, one for Sweden) but they did not look too bad, at least not at this hour. One was an SQL database that is not responding and the other is for exchange servers in Sweden. Since it is not Swedish office hours, the need for e-mail is a lot less. That will all change in a few hours though. Hopefully the techs will get it taken care of before the issue gets ugly.
The skies are now black and it is thundering outside. I am sure the dogs (at home) are not happy and if it storms too hard, we will lose our broadband connection. That in and of itself is not bad, but when I am supposed to be available 24 x 7, it can mean the difference between working at the office at nine at night or from my house. The office is a lonely place at night.
Work has been interesting...my colleague never did show up at the office, opting instead to work from home. Several issues occurred at once, none of them super critical, but the total volume of them caused him to panic...enough so that my boss and his boss asked me to help him. I still have not been trained on the processes, and there are a lot of them...lots of little processes the global team expects to be followed 100% of the time.
I started working on one issue, which quickly multiplied into two. The second one required a degree of research and after finding my answer, I moved on. All of this ate into my lunch hour (no pun intended), so I took a shorter one when I was caught up. When I got back, I noticed that my colleague had taken care of the issues and had them all closed out or at least in a monitoring status by early afternoon. Things were back to normal. The cases were beginning to drop off of the "threat board" until only 10 remained...several older ones that were in monitoring status and a few newer ones the same way. Nothing appeared to be a show stopper.
Just a few minutes ago I checked the board again and a couple new cases were there (one global one, one for Sweden) but they did not look too bad, at least not at this hour. One was an SQL database that is not responding and the other is for exchange servers in Sweden. Since it is not Swedish office hours, the need for e-mail is a lot less. That will all change in a few hours though. Hopefully the techs will get it taken care of before the issue gets ugly.
The skies are now black and it is thundering outside. I am sure the dogs (at home) are not happy and if it storms too hard, we will lose our broadband connection. That in and of itself is not bad, but when I am supposed to be available 24 x 7, it can mean the difference between working at the office at nine at night or from my house. The office is a lonely place at night.
A Good Time and I Live To Serve
I went home after a mostly non-eventful day at work (I still have not been able to start training in my new job or to start training my colleague to do my old one) to find a short note from my wife asking me to do a couple of things for her while she was out. Since drying/folding the clothes and feeding/watering/letting the dogs out is not a huge undertaking, I gladly obliged. Once all that was done, I took care of some family financial admin stuff and waited for my wife to come home. It was Care Group night, actually the last (official) one until fall and my wife was cooking the main course, grill salmon with a Caribbean Jerk marinade (my mouth waters even as I type this). The host couple was handling everything else except for dessert, which was handled by "Toni".
The meal and subsequent fellowship was good. We chatted about several different topics, sometimes separated by gender (the gals talking about one subject and Jimmy and I talking about another). We were short a couple of people and it felt odd not having them there, but sometimes things happen for a reason.
We (my wife and I) agreed to watch Collette and Jimmy's "spirited" Retriever while they are out of town and Jimmy agreed to go to a local watering hole with me in July...not to drink, but to watch a UFC match that looks very promising. One of the pluses to Jimmy going is that if there are a lot of drunk ruffians wherever we go, I will be reasonably safe from them...Jimmy is one very tough 50 year old martial artist.
MY wife and I got home and walked our adoring pooches and then watched the episode of "24" that we missed the other night. As usual, we were not disappointed. While it is getting very predictable, it is still entertaining. once "24" was over with, we hit the hay...we were both very tired.
I got up and completed the normal routine, including checking my e-mail from the previous evening. One, from client of mine, I found rather amusing. "Don" is a rather eccentric guy about my age or so who lives in a condo in Dallas. As a matter of fact, I was doing a job for him when my truck got broken into last Christmas. He is a computer neophyte and only has dial-up...no broadband. Any work I do at his place is a lot harder than at most people's homes because of that (and other things), but I kinda feel sorry for the the guy, so I do my best. Anyway, the e-mail from Don was a request for a couple of things. The first was to have 5 CD's burned with a small group of freeware. Most of the things he is looking for are programs I use, so getting those is not problm but one of the items I have not heard of nor can I find a freeware version of. Don is requesting a tag editor for .wmv, wma, and .mov files ... I was not aware the "tags" could be edited and have no experience with them, so I posted a request on my favorite freeware newsgroup, nntp://alt.comp.freeware and hopefully someone there will have a suggestion.
His second request was a bit more exotic. He is asking me to find him all the music used on the TV show, "Hee Haw" in SEQUENTIAL order, burned to CD. Well, I am not going to break the law for anyone so I replied back to him with a link to the DVD's he can buy. What he does with them is his business.
I was a bit surprised that Don wanted 5 CD's made with the exact same thing. While he told me that he would reimburse me the CD's...that is not point. It is my time that I am more concerned with. I also do not think that he understands that I charge him a very low rate for the work I do not to mention all the software I have put on his USB thumb drive for him to use. Well, nonetheless I am going to call him later to let him know what I can and cannot do for him.
Well, my colleague stated he will not be in until later today, if at all. No training for me (or him), I guess.
I just remembered that tonight is the night one of the older teens from church is coming over to help me with our patio door...at least if the weather holds..it looks like a storm is brewing. I think one of the brass wheels on the door has worn out and needs to be replaced. I replaced one of them a couple of years ago while our son was still at home and now it looks like the other is going bad or is broken. The door is dragging at one end and will not close unless you lift it up before you latch it. I cannot replace it myself because of the size and weight of it...not to mention my weak back. I felt blessed that the associate pastor's son offered to help me since our son is not in country at the moment.
On a side note, moving to the side of the building that has the better cell reception has its trade offs. I now have to deal with a lot more hallway conversations than I did on the other side of the building. So many, that I have to keep my office door partially closed more often than not. Oh well, that too will soon change.
One last thing...my wife has been having premonitions lately...something that does not happen often. One of them has already come true. She shared one with me last night and I find it somewhat intriguing. Her premonition was that we would be moving out of Texas, most likely to a southeastern state like Georgia. Interesting.
The meal and subsequent fellowship was good. We chatted about several different topics, sometimes separated by gender (the gals talking about one subject and Jimmy and I talking about another). We were short a couple of people and it felt odd not having them there, but sometimes things happen for a reason.
We (my wife and I) agreed to watch Collette and Jimmy's "spirited" Retriever while they are out of town and Jimmy agreed to go to a local watering hole with me in July...not to drink, but to watch a UFC match that looks very promising. One of the pluses to Jimmy going is that if there are a lot of drunk ruffians wherever we go, I will be reasonably safe from them...Jimmy is one very tough 50 year old martial artist.
MY wife and I got home and walked our adoring pooches and then watched the episode of "24" that we missed the other night. As usual, we were not disappointed. While it is getting very predictable, it is still entertaining. once "24" was over with, we hit the hay...we were both very tired.
I got up and completed the normal routine, including checking my e-mail from the previous evening. One, from client of mine, I found rather amusing. "Don" is a rather eccentric guy about my age or so who lives in a condo in Dallas. As a matter of fact, I was doing a job for him when my truck got broken into last Christmas. He is a computer neophyte and only has dial-up...no broadband. Any work I do at his place is a lot harder than at most people's homes because of that (and other things), but I kinda feel sorry for the the guy, so I do my best. Anyway, the e-mail from Don was a request for a couple of things. The first was to have 5 CD's burned with a small group of freeware. Most of the things he is looking for are programs I use, so getting those is not problm but one of the items I have not heard of nor can I find a freeware version of. Don is requesting a tag editor for .wmv, wma, and .mov files ... I was not aware the "tags" could be edited and have no experience with them, so I posted a request on my favorite freeware newsgroup, nntp://alt.comp.freeware and hopefully someone there will have a suggestion.
His second request was a bit more exotic. He is asking me to find him all the music used on the TV show, "Hee Haw" in SEQUENTIAL order, burned to CD. Well, I am not going to break the law for anyone so I replied back to him with a link to the DVD's he can buy. What he does with them is his business.
I was a bit surprised that Don wanted 5 CD's made with the exact same thing. While he told me that he would reimburse me the CD's...that is not point. It is my time that I am more concerned with. I also do not think that he understands that I charge him a very low rate for the work I do not to mention all the software I have put on his USB thumb drive for him to use. Well, nonetheless I am going to call him later to let him know what I can and cannot do for him.
Well, my colleague stated he will not be in until later today, if at all. No training for me (or him), I guess.
I just remembered that tonight is the night one of the older teens from church is coming over to help me with our patio door...at least if the weather holds..it looks like a storm is brewing. I think one of the brass wheels on the door has worn out and needs to be replaced. I replaced one of them a couple of years ago while our son was still at home and now it looks like the other is going bad or is broken. The door is dragging at one end and will not close unless you lift it up before you latch it. I cannot replace it myself because of the size and weight of it...not to mention my weak back. I felt blessed that the associate pastor's son offered to help me since our son is not in country at the moment.
On a side note, moving to the side of the building that has the better cell reception has its trade offs. I now have to deal with a lot more hallway conversations than I did on the other side of the building. So many, that I have to keep my office door partially closed more often than not. Oh well, that too will soon change.
One last thing...my wife has been having premonitions lately...something that does not happen often. One of them has already come true. She shared one with me last night and I find it somewhat intriguing. Her premonition was that we would be moving out of Texas, most likely to a southeastern state like Georgia. Interesting.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Our House, a quasi "Chronicles" entry
Shortly before lunch, Dakboy and I were talking about his WIP (work in progress), aka as Casa Dak. The subjects changed a few times from my job and his to the "villiage" he lives in and the suburbia where I currently reside. Finally we started chatting about our parents home and that made me think of some interesting"fun facts" about my neighborhood. Some of these may have been mentioned in my "Chronicles", but in case they are not or you don't care to read them, I will mention them here.
The neighborhood I grew up in was well established. Some of the houses were over 100 years, but there were some that were much newer...those were built in the 50's 60's, and 70's. The old homes were hard to spot. They had been renovated so many times they scarcely resembled the original design, which in many cases was a basic 4-5 room home used to house coal miners...a popular, albeit dangerous profession practiced at the turn of the 20th century in my home town.
Being that my home town was the base camp for coal miners, it never really became affluent. The neighborhood was set far on a hill and the elderly or poor of health had trouble navigating it at times. While there were several older people that lived on the hill, most were born there or moved there when they were quite young. Native West Virginian's tend not to move for the sake of moving. My parents lived in the same home for over 30 years before they decided to get off the hill and move to a home on flatter ground.
The houses in my neighborhood were rather close together. This was not the grand plan of some money hungry developer...it was that way to make the most use of the hilly space that was available to build upon. Our lots were rather large as far as neighborhoods go, but they were long and not very wide. My guess is that most lots were three or four times as long as they were wide. This tended to make houses with large back yards, small from yards and not much space on either side. The space on each side of most homes was about the same as what I see today in the North Texas area.
As previously stated, most of the older homes were pretty basic four and five room dwellings. As families grew, so did the house. It was very common to go out and play on a Saturday morning and see you neighbor adding room on to the back of the house, which was about the only place to add one with the lots laid out the way they were. Moving into a bigger home was an expense most in my neihgborhood were not willing to incur. Our house, in the 30+ years my parents lived there had 2 rooms added on A utility room and my sister's bedroom) as well as a back deck. This of course does not count the constant remodeling my father did to every room in the house. One of the more unique features our house had (a HUGE closet that sat in between the master bedroom and my room) was divided up into three smaller closets. One for my mom, one for my dad, and one for my sister, who inherited the room after me and my brother left home.
Interiors were replaced in each room while I lived there, each time going from plaster walls (the original covering from the mining days) to wood paneling, my father's wall covering of choice. Paneling was so popular where I grew up it was not until I was 24 that I recall seeing a home without it.
The biggest change for the house came after I moved to NC. My father decided to finally put a hallway in to allow access to the laundry room in a normal manner. You see up until the hallway was was put in, you had to go through my room (later to be my sister's) to get to the laundry room. To remedy that, my father move the kitchen sink to another wall and the open area where the sink was became the hallway (after the wall was opened up and the old doorway was closed up). It was a big project for my dad and mom. He was in his early 50's and not in great health. I was impressed with the workmanship of the final product. The diagram to the left is an idea of what was done. I know it is not very good, but it will do until I can get a better one up.
There were other houses in the neighborhood that went through interesting transformations. The most ingenious one that I can recall was performed by my neighbors on the street above us. They had a small house that was in very bad shape that they inherited from a deceased family member. They did not know how bad off it was until the decided to renovate. Once they started tearing out walls, plaster and flooring, they noticed that the whole house was in very bad shape...as a matter of fact, too bad of shape to fix. This posed a problem since they had already sold their old home and were planning on using the money to fix up the current one. Then the father got an idea. He moved the family into one half of the house as he tore down the other and rebuilt it. While the living arrangements were cramped, it allowed them to remain in the house while completely rebuilding it. One of the other benefits of him doing it that way was he only needed a building permit to do this. Tearing down the old house, hauling away the debris, and building a new house required many more permits and a lot more red tape.
One of the most spectacular transformations was the house right next to the ingenious one mentioned above. The home of the "cute as a button" Denise Palmer was pretty much like many of the others in the neighborhood until her father, a local contractor, got started removing the raised front porch, pouring a concrete front patio, installing columns, lowering the door and making the steps going up inside the house instead of out. It was truly one of the most interesting things I have ever seen. The man had talent. He and his brother (who lived a few doors down were both pro's but Howard, Denise's father was clearly the better of the two, if you compared homes. Donnie's house looked like little more than a mobile home. As a matter of fact, he rented it from the elderly couple who lived in the house below them.
My buddy Knightmare Duck (of "30 Days of Linux" and "Pictures From West Virginia" fame) lived in a house that used to be two separate apartments. Back in the 20's through the 50's, it was common to see a larger house divided up into two or more apartments. Many times this was done when children moved on and the houses were too big for the older couple to take care of. KD's parents bought the fixer-upper when I was a tweenager and gave the upstairs to their two kids. It would have made a small apartment, but cozy if not for the room that used to be the kitchen. It had fallen into a state of disrepair and if memory serves, had a bad leak in the roof. The room was closed off and that left 3 bedrooms, a TV/game room and a non-working bathroom. Many of the families were poor and could not afford to make some repairs and since KD's dad was not much of a handyman (though he had many other useful skills) they were never completed. Once KD's family moved out KD moved in with his girlfriend and some repairs were completed, although not all of them.
Thanx to Dakboy, I have really enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Maybe this will prompt others to think back a few years to their childhood homes.
The neighborhood I grew up in was well established. Some of the houses were over 100 years, but there were some that were much newer...those were built in the 50's 60's, and 70's. The old homes were hard to spot. They had been renovated so many times they scarcely resembled the original design, which in many cases was a basic 4-5 room home used to house coal miners...a popular, albeit dangerous profession practiced at the turn of the 20th century in my home town.
Being that my home town was the base camp for coal miners, it never really became affluent. The neighborhood was set far on a hill and the elderly or poor of health had trouble navigating it at times. While there were several older people that lived on the hill, most were born there or moved there when they were quite young. Native West Virginian's tend not to move for the sake of moving. My parents lived in the same home for over 30 years before they decided to get off the hill and move to a home on flatter ground.
The houses in my neighborhood were rather close together. This was not the grand plan of some money hungry developer...it was that way to make the most use of the hilly space that was available to build upon. Our lots were rather large as far as neighborhoods go, but they were long and not very wide. My guess is that most lots were three or four times as long as they were wide. This tended to make houses with large back yards, small from yards and not much space on either side. The space on each side of most homes was about the same as what I see today in the North Texas area.
As previously stated, most of the older homes were pretty basic four and five room dwellings. As families grew, so did the house. It was very common to go out and play on a Saturday morning and see you neighbor adding room on to the back of the house, which was about the only place to add one with the lots laid out the way they were. Moving into a bigger home was an expense most in my neihgborhood were not willing to incur. Our house, in the 30+ years my parents lived there had 2 rooms added on A utility room and my sister's bedroom) as well as a back deck. This of course does not count the constant remodeling my father did to every room in the house. One of the more unique features our house had (a HUGE closet that sat in between the master bedroom and my room) was divided up into three smaller closets. One for my mom, one for my dad, and one for my sister, who inherited the room after me and my brother left home.
Interiors were replaced in each room while I lived there, each time going from plaster walls (the original covering from the mining days) to wood paneling, my father's wall covering of choice. Paneling was so popular where I grew up it was not until I was 24 that I recall seeing a home without it.
The biggest change for the house came after I moved to NC. My father decided to finally put a hallway in to allow access to the laundry room in a normal manner. You see up until the hallway was was put in, you had to go through my room (later to be my sister's) to get to the laundry room. To remedy that, my father move the kitchen sink to another wall and the open area where the sink was became the hallway (after the wall was opened up and the old doorway was closed up). It was a big project for my dad and mom. He was in his early 50's and not in great health. I was impressed with the workmanship of the final product. The diagram to the left is an idea of what was done. I know it is not very good, but it will do until I can get a better one up.There were other houses in the neighborhood that went through interesting transformations. The most ingenious one that I can recall was performed by my neighbors on the street above us. They had a small house that was in very bad shape that they inherited from a deceased family member. They did not know how bad off it was until the decided to renovate. Once they started tearing out walls, plaster and flooring, they noticed that the whole house was in very bad shape...as a matter of fact, too bad of shape to fix. This posed a problem since they had already sold their old home and were planning on using the money to fix up the current one. Then the father got an idea. He moved the family into one half of the house as he tore down the other and rebuilt it. While the living arrangements were cramped, it allowed them to remain in the house while completely rebuilding it. One of the other benefits of him doing it that way was he only needed a building permit to do this. Tearing down the old house, hauling away the debris, and building a new house required many more permits and a lot more red tape.
One of the most spectacular transformations was the house right next to the ingenious one mentioned above. The home of the "cute as a button" Denise Palmer was pretty much like many of the others in the neighborhood until her father, a local contractor, got started removing the raised front porch, pouring a concrete front patio, installing columns, lowering the door and making the steps going up inside the house instead of out. It was truly one of the most interesting things I have ever seen. The man had talent. He and his brother (who lived a few doors down were both pro's but Howard, Denise's father was clearly the better of the two, if you compared homes. Donnie's house looked like little more than a mobile home. As a matter of fact, he rented it from the elderly couple who lived in the house below them.
My buddy Knightmare Duck (of "30 Days of Linux" and "Pictures From West Virginia" fame) lived in a house that used to be two separate apartments. Back in the 20's through the 50's, it was common to see a larger house divided up into two or more apartments. Many times this was done when children moved on and the houses were too big for the older couple to take care of. KD's parents bought the fixer-upper when I was a tweenager and gave the upstairs to their two kids. It would have made a small apartment, but cozy if not for the room that used to be the kitchen. It had fallen into a state of disrepair and if memory serves, had a bad leak in the roof. The room was closed off and that left 3 bedrooms, a TV/game room and a non-working bathroom. Many of the families were poor and could not afford to make some repairs and since KD's dad was not much of a handyman (though he had many other useful skills) they were never completed. Once KD's family moved out KD moved in with his girlfriend and some repairs were completed, although not all of them.
Thanx to Dakboy, I have really enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Maybe this will prompt others to think back a few years to their childhood homes.
Stumbling Blocks
The planned path for me to switch roles with a colleague in our office has been littered with potholes and speed bumps. I am not sure if this is a sign that this is not something we should be doing or if people are actively working against it.
First, an issue came up last week (and has been lingering on for a few days) that has not been fully resolved. The problem has three or four parts and none of them have kept the customer from working, but due to the nature of them, they have been submitted as high priority cases. The responsible party (who happens to be a competitor...no conflict of interest there) keeps telling the web team "just restart XYZ service", which they do and it always fixes the problem. This of course, is a bandage, not a solution and we are waiting on that competitor to offer up an explanation on why this is happening. Every day something happens on this issue. If I do my job, I am going to have to hand this off to the guy who is switching roles with me and handing off an escalation that is quirky as this one has the potential for chaos. I am not sure how well I will be able to do my primary (new) job if I am being pulled back into the old one.
Next, one of our customers has been having a latency issue with an application at three sites. This customer went to a director and commented on it and that director went to one of the delivery managers (one of his subornidates) and demanded one escalation be opened for EACH site having the issue. In my opinion that is overkill and to be honest, I think that the issue is a known one and a solution is in the works, but our processes dictate that our account managers deal with communicating with our customer account managers. So with that in mind, I informed the account manager on the customer side to contact the account manager on our side to discuss the issue and do a discovery phase. My guess is that if I do not hear anything in a week or so they have come to an agreement without opening an time consuming and expensive escalation. Even if this one does come back, I need to have the colleague whom I am trading roles with run this...less to hand off.
Add to that I still have not learned my colleagues job, not he mine AND his team mate is on vacation this week...no on is getting any training done. I know he is not too pleased about this switch but at least he said he will work with me on it. His choice to take an extra day of vacation concerns me, but I guess he felt the need to get extra time in before the window of opportunity grows smaller.
I keep praying that things will work out in the end for all of us. Too many rumors are floating around about who and what...nothing on when.
First, an issue came up last week (and has been lingering on for a few days) that has not been fully resolved. The problem has three or four parts and none of them have kept the customer from working, but due to the nature of them, they have been submitted as high priority cases. The responsible party (who happens to be a competitor...no conflict of interest there) keeps telling the web team "just restart XYZ service", which they do and it always fixes the problem. This of course, is a bandage, not a solution and we are waiting on that competitor to offer up an explanation on why this is happening. Every day something happens on this issue. If I do my job, I am going to have to hand this off to the guy who is switching roles with me and handing off an escalation that is quirky as this one has the potential for chaos. I am not sure how well I will be able to do my primary (new) job if I am being pulled back into the old one.
Next, one of our customers has been having a latency issue with an application at three sites. This customer went to a director and commented on it and that director went to one of the delivery managers (one of his subornidates) and demanded one escalation be opened for EACH site having the issue. In my opinion that is overkill and to be honest, I think that the issue is a known one and a solution is in the works, but our processes dictate that our account managers deal with communicating with our customer account managers. So with that in mind, I informed the account manager on the customer side to contact the account manager on our side to discuss the issue and do a discovery phase. My guess is that if I do not hear anything in a week or so they have come to an agreement without opening an time consuming and expensive escalation. Even if this one does come back, I need to have the colleague whom I am trading roles with run this...less to hand off.
Add to that I still have not learned my colleagues job, not he mine AND his team mate is on vacation this week...no on is getting any training done. I know he is not too pleased about this switch but at least he said he will work with me on it. His choice to take an extra day of vacation concerns me, but I guess he felt the need to get extra time in before the window of opportunity grows smaller.
I keep praying that things will work out in the end for all of us. Too many rumors are floating around about who and what...nothing on when.
Pathways
The past couple of days have been filled with prayer and contemplation. As I reflected back on yesterday's post regarding, "The Good Old Days", I was struck with a thought...maybe one of the reasons I am in the state of mind that I am in is because I do not know what path I am supposed to be on.
As a Christian, I should be guided by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit should gently nudge me in the direction that I should take and if I veer off of it, the Spirit will begin to speak louder. The further I get from my goal the louder the voice of the Spirit should be. Right now, I cannot hear it. I would absolutely love to believe that the lack of a screaming voice telling me to go hear or go there would indicate that I am headed in the right direction, but I somehow I don't think that is the case. It is as if the Enemy has put sound deadening material around the concert hall of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is still speaking, but all the of the sound proofing I have in my life that the Devil has graciously donated is blocking the sweet sounds of my master's voice.
I have taken a regiment to start earnestly asking for guidance on as much as I can. There are a lot of things going on in my life in regards to work, family, home, and church and I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the vastness of change. Do not get me wrong, I like change...change can be very good. However when change comes from everywhere at the same time, even the best can feel a bit overcome by it.
A few years ago my career was on track, but a few changes in the environment have made me question whether or not I am in the right area. While attending a little soirée for the retirees at work yesterday, I heard story after story on how the company we work for was a great place to go and people hate to leave. While I do not doubt that at a high level, the local scene at our site (a small, remote data center for one of our customers) does not have the same spirit. While watching a web cast delivered by the CEO of our company, the speakers expressed the desire to promote from within and encouraged us to update our internal resumes with any data that would allow our company to use us in an area that needs to be filled. With that in mind, I was given hope and a spark of encouragement that maybe I am in the right place and I just need to bide my time. I am reminded that we work on God's timetable...not ours.
As a Christian, I should be guided by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit should gently nudge me in the direction that I should take and if I veer off of it, the Spirit will begin to speak louder. The further I get from my goal the louder the voice of the Spirit should be. Right now, I cannot hear it. I would absolutely love to believe that the lack of a screaming voice telling me to go hear or go there would indicate that I am headed in the right direction, but I somehow I don't think that is the case. It is as if the Enemy has put sound deadening material around the concert hall of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is still speaking, but all the of the sound proofing I have in my life that the Devil has graciously donated is blocking the sweet sounds of my master's voice.
I have taken a regiment to start earnestly asking for guidance on as much as I can. There are a lot of things going on in my life in regards to work, family, home, and church and I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the vastness of change. Do not get me wrong, I like change...change can be very good. However when change comes from everywhere at the same time, even the best can feel a bit overcome by it.
A few years ago my career was on track, but a few changes in the environment have made me question whether or not I am in the right area. While attending a little soirée for the retirees at work yesterday, I heard story after story on how the company we work for was a great place to go and people hate to leave. While I do not doubt that at a high level, the local scene at our site (a small, remote data center for one of our customers) does not have the same spirit. While watching a web cast delivered by the CEO of our company, the speakers expressed the desire to promote from within and encouraged us to update our internal resumes with any data that would allow our company to use us in an area that needs to be filled. With that in mind, I was given hope and a spark of encouragement that maybe I am in the right place and I just need to bide my time. I am reminded that we work on God's timetable...not ours.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
The Good Old Days
As I get older, I tend to think back and reminisce about times gone by. I did that today during my lunch break. As I write this I have been in Texas for a tad under six years...about half the time I spent in North Carolina. There are a lot of contrasts and comparisons that I could make but what had been on my mind was my quality of life on general. Was my time in NC really "good", especially compared to my time in Texas.
I met the love of my life in NC, but she was born in Texas. I became a Christian while living in NC, but only took my faith seriously after we were in TX for a couple of years. The best job I ever had was in NC, but after I moved to TX, I ended up supporting via another company. I make more money in TX, but the raises have been much smaller. The first house my wife and I ever owned was in NC. It was not fancy, but we liked it. However in TX we have a nicer (albeit smaller) and newer home and we have lived in it longer than any single place we ever did in NC.
Why do I keep thinking that the "good old days" were my years in NC? One part may be that I have never really acclimated to the north central Texas lifestyle. When I moved to NC, within two years I was positive I liked where I was. almost six years of living in Texas and I still want to leave. It is sort of the reverse situation that one of the telecom guys I worked with went through 7-8 years ago. He was originally from Texas and was transferred to NC.Less around two years later, he was back in Texas. He did not like NC and never "bonded" with the state. I am much the same with Texas. While there are things about it I like, I still cannot call it home.
Now before all you native and/or converted Texans start shooting me, hear me out. I am not disparaging Texas in the least. Texas has a lot of rich history, fantastic culture, a diverse population, awesome food, and so many different topographies (desert, foot hills, plains, coastal, and pine forests) that it appeals to a large number of folks...just not me. Not in the same way that NC does...or at least did. I guess NC is closer to what I was used to when I was growing up...sort of like if a state and person were to grow up at the same pace, NC is a mature version of WV, my state of birth.
I guess another reason why I look back at NC more favorably is that my employment made more sense. The work was more consistent, at least in the last five years. I started at the bottom (for the most part and worked my way up. Upon relocation to TX, I took a supervisor's job that only lasted eight months and went way downhill from there. Of course that happened right after the dot-bomb, and by that time I was so used to a certain standard of living that taking a lower paying job was economic suicide. I stayed at with the company until I was picked up (as part of an outsourcing deal) by the company I work at today...supporting the first company. That whole process has left me a bit of a sour taste in my mouth towards IT and outsourcing, especially as I see more and more work being shipped to other countries.
The "good old days" of IT, before the 2001-2002 bust...paychecks were healthy, bonuses were common, and jobs were plentiful. I guess when I look at the big picture, my despondency with Texas life is greatly influenced by the path my job has taken. Since that first big RIF (reduction in force) I was part of in early 2002, my job roles have been all over the map: Help Desk agent, NOC (network operations center) agent, project coordinator, encryption software specialist, junior unix admin, and escalation manager. Not to mention the new role I take on in a few weeks, incident manager. Back in the "good old days", I worked Monday through Friday with weekends and holidays off but I still had the option to work (and get paid for) overtime. I had one primary job role a large part of those years (help desk team lead/supervisor/manager) even though I took on all kinds of additional projects. I was busy, but I was happy. I only became despondent towards the end. I guess being forced to relocate was the primary reason.
Not too long ago as I was discussing this with a friend, the comment was made, "Well, if you are that unhappy, then why don't you just quit or move?"
I was a bit floored by that comment. I have not "quit" a job in a long time (11 years) and that was only because a better job was practically handed to me. Quitting is not something I am used to doing. Maybe it is ill placed, but I never thought much was to be gained by quitting.
In regards to moving...well before I could ever do that again, I would need the buy in from my wife. We all (me, wife, son) all agreed to move when I took this job. I will admit that my wife (and son) was not overly thrilled with the idea, they both agreed. Besides, the cost of selling a home and moving is not cheap. I was only able to do it six years ago because my former employer had a sweet relocation program.
As each day comes to an end, I ask God to show me what he wants me to learn and to give me insight to his plan that he has for me. He brought me to TX for a reason and I want to fulfill that. First and foremost I need to honor God in all I do. If it is not in his plan for me to change jobs or locations, then far be it from me to work against him. I would rather work with him and have short period of displeasure than work against him and take 2-3 times as long to get the same desired result.
I met the love of my life in NC, but she was born in Texas. I became a Christian while living in NC, but only took my faith seriously after we were in TX for a couple of years. The best job I ever had was in NC, but after I moved to TX, I ended up supporting via another company. I make more money in TX, but the raises have been much smaller. The first house my wife and I ever owned was in NC. It was not fancy, but we liked it. However in TX we have a nicer (albeit smaller) and newer home and we have lived in it longer than any single place we ever did in NC.
Why do I keep thinking that the "good old days" were my years in NC? One part may be that I have never really acclimated to the north central Texas lifestyle. When I moved to NC, within two years I was positive I liked where I was. almost six years of living in Texas and I still want to leave. It is sort of the reverse situation that one of the telecom guys I worked with went through 7-8 years ago. He was originally from Texas and was transferred to NC.Less around two years later, he was back in Texas. He did not like NC and never "bonded" with the state. I am much the same with Texas. While there are things about it I like, I still cannot call it home.
Now before all you native and/or converted Texans start shooting me, hear me out. I am not disparaging Texas in the least. Texas has a lot of rich history, fantastic culture, a diverse population, awesome food, and so many different topographies (desert, foot hills, plains, coastal, and pine forests) that it appeals to a large number of folks...just not me. Not in the same way that NC does...or at least did. I guess NC is closer to what I was used to when I was growing up...sort of like if a state and person were to grow up at the same pace, NC is a mature version of WV, my state of birth.
I guess another reason why I look back at NC more favorably is that my employment made more sense. The work was more consistent, at least in the last five years. I started at the bottom (for the most part and worked my way up. Upon relocation to TX, I took a supervisor's job that only lasted eight months and went way downhill from there. Of course that happened right after the dot-bomb, and by that time I was so used to a certain standard of living that taking a lower paying job was economic suicide. I stayed at with the company until I was picked up (as part of an outsourcing deal) by the company I work at today...supporting the first company. That whole process has left me a bit of a sour taste in my mouth towards IT and outsourcing, especially as I see more and more work being shipped to other countries.
The "good old days" of IT, before the 2001-2002 bust...paychecks were healthy, bonuses were common, and jobs were plentiful. I guess when I look at the big picture, my despondency with Texas life is greatly influenced by the path my job has taken. Since that first big RIF (reduction in force) I was part of in early 2002, my job roles have been all over the map: Help Desk agent, NOC (network operations center) agent, project coordinator, encryption software specialist, junior unix admin, and escalation manager. Not to mention the new role I take on in a few weeks, incident manager. Back in the "good old days", I worked Monday through Friday with weekends and holidays off but I still had the option to work (and get paid for) overtime. I had one primary job role a large part of those years (help desk team lead/supervisor/manager) even though I took on all kinds of additional projects. I was busy, but I was happy. I only became despondent towards the end. I guess being forced to relocate was the primary reason.
Not too long ago as I was discussing this with a friend, the comment was made, "Well, if you are that unhappy, then why don't you just quit or move?"
I was a bit floored by that comment. I have not "quit" a job in a long time (11 years) and that was only because a better job was practically handed to me. Quitting is not something I am used to doing. Maybe it is ill placed, but I never thought much was to be gained by quitting.
In regards to moving...well before I could ever do that again, I would need the buy in from my wife. We all (me, wife, son) all agreed to move when I took this job. I will admit that my wife (and son) was not overly thrilled with the idea, they both agreed. Besides, the cost of selling a home and moving is not cheap. I was only able to do it six years ago because my former employer had a sweet relocation program.
As each day comes to an end, I ask God to show me what he wants me to learn and to give me insight to his plan that he has for me. He brought me to TX for a reason and I want to fulfill that. First and foremost I need to honor God in all I do. If it is not in his plan for me to change jobs or locations, then far be it from me to work against him. I would rather work with him and have short period of displeasure than work against him and take 2-3 times as long to get the same desired result.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Ain't That A Shame
Maybe things will not be so bad after all this week...
I talked to my boss about the escalations that I was made aware of and I told him that it would be a good idea if the process was followed (customer calling the account manager and some discovery taking place) and while he did not seem too thrilled, he agreed we should be using the process. I also told my boss that running three escalations on for the same issue (for three separate sites) was a bit overkill and he agreed. So when the guy who e-mailed me initially finally called me back, I let him know what was going on and he told me that he would make a few phone calls. Besides being the proper way of doing things, I need to find a way to get my replacement's feet wet on this. I rally do not want to start this one because these types of escalations are long and drawn out. The last one I did like this was open for two months.
The other issue that my replacement wanted escalated appears to have been resolved, so we are going to let the process run its course and see how things go. We may be surprised...you never know.
Lunch turned out to be a bust today...I ate but at my desk and did not leave at all. Hopefully this pattern will end soon.
I start teaching a new Sunday school class next Sunday. This lesson is on books of Judges and Ruth in the Old Testament. I have glanced at the material but not studied it yet. I have five more days to do that. I figure if I can read a bit each day and put together the lesson on Friday or Saturday, I should be okay. This is a big step for me.
I managed to bang my toe on the corner of the hallway and the living room (I am not sure how I pulled that off). While it is not broken, the rough texture of th corner cave me what looks like a carpet burn. The bad thing is that the scrape is in between my toes so the skin is constantly moving. and will not form a good covering. I have to keep a sock on at night to keep the plasma from staining the bedding. Fun.
I talked to my boss about the escalations that I was made aware of and I told him that it would be a good idea if the process was followed (customer calling the account manager and some discovery taking place) and while he did not seem too thrilled, he agreed we should be using the process. I also told my boss that running three escalations on for the same issue (for three separate sites) was a bit overkill and he agreed. So when the guy who e-mailed me initially finally called me back, I let him know what was going on and he told me that he would make a few phone calls. Besides being the proper way of doing things, I need to find a way to get my replacement's feet wet on this. I rally do not want to start this one because these types of escalations are long and drawn out. The last one I did like this was open for two months.
The other issue that my replacement wanted escalated appears to have been resolved, so we are going to let the process run its course and see how things go. We may be surprised...you never know.
Lunch turned out to be a bust today...I ate but at my desk and did not leave at all. Hopefully this pattern will end soon.
I start teaching a new Sunday school class next Sunday. This lesson is on books of Judges and Ruth in the Old Testament. I have glanced at the material but not studied it yet. I have five more days to do that. I figure if I can read a bit each day and put together the lesson on Friday or Saturday, I should be okay. This is a big step for me.
I managed to bang my toe on the corner of the hallway and the living room (I am not sure how I pulled that off). While it is not broken, the rough texture of th corner cave me what looks like a carpet burn. The bad thing is that the scrape is in between my toes so the skin is constantly moving. and will not form a good covering. I have to keep a sock on at night to keep the plasma from staining the bedding. Fun.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Next Week Should Be VERY Interesting
I left work just a tad early Friday since it was so slow. I figured no harm, no foul since I tend to work through lunch 50% of the time. When I got home, something told me to log in to work and check my e-mail. When I did, I noticed that I had one from the guy whom I will swap jobs with and one from one of our customers (who happens to be a mid level manager). The one from the guy I will be swapping jobs with informed me that an issue that we had thought was resolved has reared its ugly head again...and he wants me to run an escalation on it. Interesting. In two weeks, HE would be the one running the escalation.
The second one from our customer is a request (handed down from their higher level mgmt) to have THREE escalations opened for the same issue. The reason he wants three escalations is that he wants one escalation for each site that is having the problem. At this point, the very vague e-mail gives me only a slight clue what the problem is...performance of a certain application over the WAN. The last time I ran an escalation on this was near Christmas and it was open for two months. I guess my replacement will be running this one. I am not going to start it and have him take over half way. He will be involved from the beginning. Needless to say I have CC'd several of my mgmt staff the e-mails I received so far. I wonder what they will suggest?
Oh, how I look forward to Monday!
The second one from our customer is a request (handed down from their higher level mgmt) to have THREE escalations opened for the same issue. The reason he wants three escalations is that he wants one escalation for each site that is having the problem. At this point, the very vague e-mail gives me only a slight clue what the problem is...performance of a certain application over the WAN. The last time I ran an escalation on this was near Christmas and it was open for two months. I guess my replacement will be running this one. I am not going to start it and have him take over half way. He will be involved from the beginning. Needless to say I have CC'd several of my mgmt staff the e-mails I received so far. I wonder what they will suggest?
Oh, how I look forward to Monday!
A Few Beach Shots
As promised, here are some photos from our little beach excursion. These and more are on my picasaweb page. I tend not to take lots of photos because I get so caught up in where I am I tend to forget. I have missed the chance to capture a lot of great moments because of that.
The beach house we rented at Emerald Isle, NC.
View from the deck.
Rough surf due to a tropical storm off the coast.
Me and my lovely wife at the aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.
One for my son, the soldier. This is a photo of the PX at Fort Macon, NC circa World War II.
Photo of the coast from Fort Macon.
Main Street Beaufort, NC
Lighthouse at Cape Lookout (accessible only via boat).
Navy ship being prepped for scuttling near Beaufort, NC
Walk In Faith
It has been a long (far too long) time since I have spent any time on this blog. He is a far braver man than I.
BTW, Conga-rats to the happy couple. I wish you blessings beyond imagination.
BTW, Conga-rats to the happy couple. I wish you blessings beyond imagination.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Old Faithful
After thinking about what to do (see the "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" post), I decided to use the memory out of the nicer laptop in the older laptop and just hold on to the older one and see if a battery turns up. The old laptop has been pretty faithful so far.
I chatted with the other member of the Inc Mgmt team to let him know what is going on with his partner in crime. Once the partner came in, we all chatted about it. We did not really reach any conclusions, but at least we talked. I start training with the senior guy on Monday and will finish up with the guy who is switching jobs with me later in the week when the senior guy is off. The following week I need to bring the other guy up to speed so he can replace me. He is not too happy about this and is threatening to go to HR about it.
My wife and I are serving the youth at church tonight. It has been a while since we have done this and I am looking forward to it.
"Sean" had posted a comment in response to a post I had made a while back that included some comments I had made about the program "Nevitium" that I had tested in Linux. I should have followed up that post with newer comments after I had completed my testing of the program. Part of my earlier comments were my ignorance of Java programs in the Linux environment and part were my biases on how programs should be packaged (the version I tested packaged both the Windows executables and the Java jar files together, which in my opinion was a bit lazy). It would have been nice to have an installer that removed the files that were not needed, but again, that is just my preference. In fairness to the author, I removed my original negative comment(s).
Well, it is lunch time. Off I go.
I chatted with the other member of the Inc Mgmt team to let him know what is going on with his partner in crime. Once the partner came in, we all chatted about it. We did not really reach any conclusions, but at least we talked. I start training with the senior guy on Monday and will finish up with the guy who is switching jobs with me later in the week when the senior guy is off. The following week I need to bring the other guy up to speed so he can replace me. He is not too happy about this and is threatening to go to HR about it.
My wife and I are serving the youth at church tonight. It has been a while since we have done this and I am looking forward to it.
"Sean" had posted a comment in response to a post I had made a while back that included some comments I had made about the program "Nevitium" that I had tested in Linux. I should have followed up that post with newer comments after I had completed my testing of the program. Part of my earlier comments were my ignorance of Java programs in the Linux environment and part were my biases on how programs should be packaged (the version I tested packaged both the Windows executables and the Java jar files together, which in my opinion was a bit lazy). It would have been nice to have an installer that removed the files that were not needed, but again, that is just my preference. In fairness to the author, I removed my original negative comment(s).
Well, it is lunch time. Off I go.
Careful What You Wish For
Work related, but not a rant, per se.
Yesterday towards the end of my shift, I was shooting the breeze with one of the Swedes when my boss came in my office. He asked "The Great Swede" to leave so he could have a private chat with me. I knew that most likely meant trouble.
My boss told me that I needed to trade jobs with someone else on the account. I thought that was odd then he told me who it was. He told me that EVERYTHING that I do would go to this guy and I would only be working on Incident Mgmt. This is to take place in two weeks...I we start training Monday.
Why is this happening? It seems that the guy I am switching with is "the bad cop", so to say. He is part of a two man team for North America (there are 2 more for South and Latin America) and people have been complaining that when he is handling issues, he is rude. He has been doing this job for about 4 years and before that, was an employee of mine. I like him but he has a lot o baggage and a monkey or two on his back. If he is considered "the bad cop" performing the role he is in, the customer is gonna love him in his new role...my current role. He needs to be ultra pc when handling escalations.
For me this will be good and bad. The good news is that I will have a set schedule on the days I work and will actually have days off. I should actually have a holiday off every now and then and some weekends. The down side occurs on the weeks I am on call...that team is rather busy during that time. When you are on call any issues that are not resolved are carried over to the on call person...end of month and busy times can get bad. Still, actually being able to be off at least every other week sounds good.
For "the bad cop"...well, he inherits my life. That means he does not get any days off. He is scheduled to answer a hotline from 10:00 AM-6:00 PM, seven days a week, including holidays. "Bad cop" likes to unwind and have a brew or ten every now and then and this will not be possible when we switch jobs. He also has family in east Texas, and since he has to be available to manage certain issues and answer phone calls, he will not be spending any time there. "Bad cop" also is not a healthy man. He is sick a lot and that makes it impossible to call off work. The one time I was sick I had to work from home...not easy, but better than trying to make it to the toilet at work every hour or so.
While neither of us is happy, I have a couple of things to look forward to... mainly time off. "Bad cop" is not going to be as busy as he was, but when issues get sent his way...he is going to be stuck with them for a while and he will not have a life of his own. If he misses any calls, he will hear about it. If he is not PC enough...he will know.
I have been itching for someway to actually have nights and weekends off for a long time now and it looks like I am going to get my wish...at a price. Too bad that finding a job that pays as well as my current job is hard to find...
Yesterday towards the end of my shift, I was shooting the breeze with one of the Swedes when my boss came in my office. He asked "The Great Swede" to leave so he could have a private chat with me. I knew that most likely meant trouble.
My boss told me that I needed to trade jobs with someone else on the account. I thought that was odd then he told me who it was. He told me that EVERYTHING that I do would go to this guy and I would only be working on Incident Mgmt. This is to take place in two weeks...I we start training Monday.
Why is this happening? It seems that the guy I am switching with is "the bad cop", so to say. He is part of a two man team for North America (there are 2 more for South and Latin America) and people have been complaining that when he is handling issues, he is rude. He has been doing this job for about 4 years and before that, was an employee of mine. I like him but he has a lot o baggage and a monkey or two on his back. If he is considered "the bad cop" performing the role he is in, the customer is gonna love him in his new role...my current role. He needs to be ultra pc when handling escalations.
For me this will be good and bad. The good news is that I will have a set schedule on the days I work and will actually have days off. I should actually have a holiday off every now and then and some weekends. The down side occurs on the weeks I am on call...that team is rather busy during that time. When you are on call any issues that are not resolved are carried over to the on call person...end of month and busy times can get bad. Still, actually being able to be off at least every other week sounds good.
For "the bad cop"...well, he inherits my life. That means he does not get any days off. He is scheduled to answer a hotline from 10:00 AM-6:00 PM, seven days a week, including holidays. "Bad cop" likes to unwind and have a brew or ten every now and then and this will not be possible when we switch jobs. He also has family in east Texas, and since he has to be available to manage certain issues and answer phone calls, he will not be spending any time there. "Bad cop" also is not a healthy man. He is sick a lot and that makes it impossible to call off work. The one time I was sick I had to work from home...not easy, but better than trying to make it to the toilet at work every hour or so.
While neither of us is happy, I have a couple of things to look forward to... mainly time off. "Bad cop" is not going to be as busy as he was, but when issues get sent his way...he is going to be stuck with them for a while and he will not have a life of his own. If he misses any calls, he will hear about it. If he is not PC enough...he will know.
I have been itching for someway to actually have nights and weekends off for a long time now and it looks like I am going to get my wish...at a price. Too bad that finding a job that pays as well as my current job is hard to find...
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
I have been trying to replace my spare desktop (733 mhz, 256 RAM) that runs Xubuntu linux with a laptop, but all the ones that we had in storage were all pretty much only useful for parts. The other day I found an HP Omnibook 6000 (700 mhz, 512 RAM) it looked it pretty good shape except for a couple of minor things (small crack on the wrist rest, and one of the PCI slot doors is broken, plus the docking bay connector has a flip door that will not stay closed) but it looks very clean and nearly scratch free. I was very excited when I saw it, but then I realized it only had a floppy drive and no power supply. I found a DVD-ROM and a power supply in the extra parts bin and hooked them up. The laptop booted up just fine. I toyed with the idea of throwing Solaris 9 on it, but then I decided that I would rather use Xubuntu instead. About 5 minutes after I started the install, I noticed the battery charging light had changed from yellow (charging) to red (no battery present or battery has a fault). Puzzled, I waited until the install of Xubuntu was finished, upgrade the BIOS to the most current version, removed the battery and reseated it and powered it up. Exactly 6 minutes later the same thing happened, the LED changed from yellow to red. Many of the Omnibooks take the same power supply, so I find a known working PS and try it...same thing. So it appears that one of two things is wrong: Either it has a bad battery or the charging circuit is faulty. Of course the bad battery is the most likely answer...too bad I cannot find another one to verify that. The sad thing is there were several of these batteries a few months ago but they were sent off to be recycled because no one thought we had any need for them.
Here is the rub. I have a Omnibook 4150b (650 mhz, 256 RAM) that works but it has a rather scratched up display, but at least the battery still works. I even have a spare, albeit only works for 20 minutes... still enough to allow me to move from one place to another in the building. Do I continue using the old one (and swap the RAM with the 6000 to make it a tad beefier) or do I start using the 6000 and live without battery? I am leaning towards the RAM swap and then keep my eyes open for a working battery for the 6000...a long shot but at least the old machine would be faster. Of course it looks like crap (it looks like it has been dropped a few times and the display is scratched) but it does work, and it has a battery. To bad the 4150 and the 6000 do not use the same battery!
What to do...
Here is the rub. I have a Omnibook 4150b (650 mhz, 256 RAM) that works but it has a rather scratched up display, but at least the battery still works. I even have a spare, albeit only works for 20 minutes... still enough to allow me to move from one place to another in the building. Do I continue using the old one (and swap the RAM with the 6000 to make it a tad beefier) or do I start using the 6000 and live without battery? I am leaning towards the RAM swap and then keep my eyes open for a working battery for the 6000...a long shot but at least the old machine would be faster. Of course it looks like crap (it looks like it has been dropped a few times and the display is scratched) but it does work, and it has a battery. To bad the 4150 and the 6000 do not use the same battery!
What to do...
Why?
This is a work rant. Proceed with caution.
An issue came up Tuesday evening regarding a piece of middleware that our customer uses and is not supported by us, but by another company who just happens to be a major competitor of ours. The middleware was not processing outbound messages but inbound messages seemed to be working very well. The issue was reported by one customer who stated that it was the same issue that had happened the previous week. The customer then proceeds to give the help desk the ticket number. Armed with this knowledge, the help desk calls the Incident Mgmt team to request this as a high severity case. It was then assigned to the team who previously "fixed" the issue before and they are notified. The team quickly sees that it is not the same issue. As a matter of fact, the issue will have to be handled by another group. The team lets the Inc Mgmt team know about this and the IM team contacts the "responsible" group to let them know that they have a high sev ticket that needs attention. The following morning, the "responsible team" rejects the ticket, stating that they feel the hardware (which is my company's responsibility) should be rebooted. This is an old trick that they have used before when they do not feel like troubleshooting. Hoops are jumped through, red tape is untangled and we get the server rebooted. Now I was very skeptical that the server needed rebooting because it is a rather new Sun (Solaris) server...rarely does a Sun box need rebooting. Kill and restart processes, sure...that needs to be done on any OS. But Unix is a pretty darn stable OS. We have workstation in my office that have been on for tens of months without rebooting.
Okay, the server has been rebooted. The customer was contacted and guess what, the problem is not fixes. Surprise. Inc Mgmt team is scrambling to get people to look into the issue and still NO ONE ELSE has reported a problem. The middleware has several interfaces and normally a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth occurs when something like this goes down. Our competitor is contacted again and they tell us they will look into it. Our hopes are not very high at this point...the clock has been ticking and they have about 2 hours to resolve it or it will miss target resolution time.
Inc Mmgt calls the tech to check on it and they are informed that another team is looking into the issue parallel with the competitor. It seems that this middleware is deeply tied to an SAP system module that is acting up. The team only took this seriously after another messaging service that uses the same middleware was reported as not working. Since we had the SAP team looking into this, we were sure that a solution would be had soon.
At 5:00 PM I decided to go home, but planned on checking on the status once I got home and logged on my laptop. When I got home and took care of the dogs, I logged in and noticed that all the messaging was now working. The only real complaint the speed. Things are moving very slowly. That is understandable since a lot of messages most likely are queued up. Since in bound and out bound messaging is working, I feel safe in going to Care Group with my wife.
Care Group goes well, but my wife and I are dog tired. We leave a bit early, go home, walk the dogs, and go to bed. We both wake up early, but only she gets up. I remain and drift in an out of a dreamless sleep until my alarm goes off. I get up and go through my normal morning routine and go to work.
I arrive at work and check on the issue and notice no new notes. I check my e-mail and see other things are happening related to the issue, but they are not what the original complaint was. The case gets very messy and I am confused why the original case is still open when the original complaint was resolved.
It appears that ORIGINAL complaint was our customer was not receiving any inbound messages. After that was fixed, then they had trouble with outbound messaging (different issue, but on the same ticket...clock still ticking). That was fixed and then the customer complained about slowness. That is normal and should clear up in 12 hours or so. Now I see that a NEW complaint has been added TO THE SAME TICKET. The complaint is that a partner of our customer cannot see the portal to the middleware. To my knowledge, the messages (inbound and outbound) are processing, but the interface they use to check on them is down...a completely separate issue.
This case gets more complicated as we dig into it and it is starting to get me a little angry. Why are the processes not being followed? I am on my way to the Inc Mgmt teams office to check on the status of the issue. I am most likely going to have to get medieval on someone...
*** Update ***
After my meeting with the Inc Mgmt team we gleaned that there were 4 separate issues, 3 of which were dumped on one ticket. That ticket may have missed its deadline and if it did, the group that was responsible for support of the application heavily influenced that. I plan on getting to the bottom of this early next week. This crap has to stop.
A second ticket was opened for the front end interface that our customer uses to check on submitted jobs. It is intermittently failing and the tech thinks it is a corrupt database. The whole interface is too complex for me to wrap my head around and I hope the teams can get this sorted out. It is not a show stopper, but without this interface, the customer and their partners cannot check the status on transmittals.
An issue came up Tuesday evening regarding a piece of middleware that our customer uses and is not supported by us, but by another company who just happens to be a major competitor of ours. The middleware was not processing outbound messages but inbound messages seemed to be working very well. The issue was reported by one customer who stated that it was the same issue that had happened the previous week. The customer then proceeds to give the help desk the ticket number. Armed with this knowledge, the help desk calls the Incident Mgmt team to request this as a high severity case. It was then assigned to the team who previously "fixed" the issue before and they are notified. The team quickly sees that it is not the same issue. As a matter of fact, the issue will have to be handled by another group. The team lets the Inc Mgmt team know about this and the IM team contacts the "responsible" group to let them know that they have a high sev ticket that needs attention. The following morning, the "responsible team" rejects the ticket, stating that they feel the hardware (which is my company's responsibility) should be rebooted. This is an old trick that they have used before when they do not feel like troubleshooting. Hoops are jumped through, red tape is untangled and we get the server rebooted. Now I was very skeptical that the server needed rebooting because it is a rather new Sun (Solaris) server...rarely does a Sun box need rebooting. Kill and restart processes, sure...that needs to be done on any OS. But Unix is a pretty darn stable OS. We have workstation in my office that have been on for tens of months without rebooting.
Okay, the server has been rebooted. The customer was contacted and guess what, the problem is not fixes. Surprise. Inc Mgmt team is scrambling to get people to look into the issue and still NO ONE ELSE has reported a problem. The middleware has several interfaces and normally a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth occurs when something like this goes down. Our competitor is contacted again and they tell us they will look into it. Our hopes are not very high at this point...the clock has been ticking and they have about 2 hours to resolve it or it will miss target resolution time.
Inc Mmgt calls the tech to check on it and they are informed that another team is looking into the issue parallel with the competitor. It seems that this middleware is deeply tied to an SAP system module that is acting up. The team only took this seriously after another messaging service that uses the same middleware was reported as not working. Since we had the SAP team looking into this, we were sure that a solution would be had soon.
At 5:00 PM I decided to go home, but planned on checking on the status once I got home and logged on my laptop. When I got home and took care of the dogs, I logged in and noticed that all the messaging was now working. The only real complaint the speed. Things are moving very slowly. That is understandable since a lot of messages most likely are queued up. Since in bound and out bound messaging is working, I feel safe in going to Care Group with my wife.
Care Group goes well, but my wife and I are dog tired. We leave a bit early, go home, walk the dogs, and go to bed. We both wake up early, but only she gets up. I remain and drift in an out of a dreamless sleep until my alarm goes off. I get up and go through my normal morning routine and go to work.
I arrive at work and check on the issue and notice no new notes. I check my e-mail and see other things are happening related to the issue, but they are not what the original complaint was. The case gets very messy and I am confused why the original case is still open when the original complaint was resolved.
It appears that ORIGINAL complaint was our customer was not receiving any inbound messages. After that was fixed, then they had trouble with outbound messaging (different issue, but on the same ticket...clock still ticking). That was fixed and then the customer complained about slowness. That is normal and should clear up in 12 hours or so. Now I see that a NEW complaint has been added TO THE SAME TICKET. The complaint is that a partner of our customer cannot see the portal to the middleware. To my knowledge, the messages (inbound and outbound) are processing, but the interface they use to check on them is down...a completely separate issue.
This case gets more complicated as we dig into it and it is starting to get me a little angry. Why are the processes not being followed? I am on my way to the Inc Mgmt teams office to check on the status of the issue. I am most likely going to have to get medieval on someone...
*** Update ***
After my meeting with the Inc Mgmt team we gleaned that there were 4 separate issues, 3 of which were dumped on one ticket. That ticket may have missed its deadline and if it did, the group that was responsible for support of the application heavily influenced that. I plan on getting to the bottom of this early next week. This crap has to stop.
A second ticket was opened for the front end interface that our customer uses to check on submitted jobs. It is intermittently failing and the tech thinks it is a corrupt database. The whole interface is too complex for me to wrap my head around and I hope the teams can get this sorted out. It is not a show stopper, but without this interface, the customer and their partners cannot check the status on transmittals.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
New Vice
I have found something that I am highly addicted to: Ben and Jerry's "Dublin Mudslide" ice cream. Bailey's Irish Cream Liqueur ice cream, chocolate chip cookie pieces and a fudge swirl. I had a pint of it last night after I got done with all my chores. Needless to say I scarfed it down in record time. So much for diets.
Long Day Comin'
Ever since we came back from vacation, we have been running on all eight cylinders. Yesterday after non-eventful day at work I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things. My wife had her women's bible study and had at least one yard to mow.
I got home and let the dogs out (The Golden can be let out on her own now without being tethered to one of us now that her leg has healed from the ACL surgery she had in early spring), watered and fed them, and ate the deli sandwich I picked up for dinner. The fridge was bare (my wife and I were both very busy the past few days) so a sandwich was the best choice. While doing all that, my mobile phone rang. I did not look at the number, only the name on the caller ID. I saw that it was someone's mobile, so I answered it. It was a customer of mine who I do work for on the side. He is a nice guy, but a bit eccentric (I was at his condo when my van was broken into at Christmas time...I have not been back to his place since) and doing work for him takes a special degree of patience. He just wanted to touch base and tell me that his PC is still running smoothly (which is should as long as he continues to use good common sense) and wanted me to download a few things for him to burn to CD (he only has dial-up). I asked him to follow up the call with an e-mail so I would not forget and he said that he would. With that, I said goodbye and hung up.
I changed into grass cutting clothes (loose fitting shorts, old t-shirt, old tennis shoes, old baseball cap) and got my grass cutting gear (mower, gas, lawn bags, trimmer, edger, blower, and a half gallon of Gatorade) together to start on my neighbors grass. As expected, it was high...I prolly cut down six inches in most places and eight inches in others. Just doing her yard alone took two hours and 3.5 lawn bags. Since I had a little daylight and 1/2 a bag to fill, I decided to cut our small backyard as well. At least we would not lose the dog in the jungle that our yard had become. I finished just as it was getting too dark to see...around 8:15 PM or so. Since my wife was not yet home, I decided to walk the dogs (yes, BOTH of them) before I got cleaned up. I was pretty hot and sweaty and managed to drink 90% of my Gatorade in the two and a half hours of cutting.
Once I got back I jumped in the shower and scrubbed the crud off of me and then went into the office to pay some bills online and finish entering in the vacation receipts into AceMoney. I had just finished that (as well as updating patches for Windows...joy) when my wife pulled in. It was almost 10:00 PM and we decided to watch the Law and Order that was recorded yesterday that we did not get a chance to watch. After that was over we watched the Law and Order that was recorded that evening and then dragged ourselves to bed...bone tired.
I got up at 5:00 AM, the usual El Gee start time and grabbed Little Man for his morning walk. After we came back I went through my normal ritual and headed on into work. A quick check of the threat board showed no issues to worry about yet, so I started running and compiling my reports and dispatched the tickets that came in overnight.
I got to thinking about how busy this week has been so far and how busy it will be the rest of the way out. We have Care Group tonight, I have to finish mowing our lawn tomorrow, Friday looks clear, but Saturday I think is the Men's Breakfast at church and I need to give the house a good vacuuming since it has been almost two weeks since it was done last. Sunday is of course church and our day of rest (which we will really need by then. I just hope I do not get called for anything at work this weekend. I will need that day to recoup.
My wife has been trying to get the laundry caught up and she will want to go to the grocery store to stock up on all the things we have run out of. She also works two days a week so on those days she cannot do the things around the house she wants to do and that can cause her some stress as well.
Maybe this should have been entitled, "Long Week Comin' "
I got home and let the dogs out (The Golden can be let out on her own now without being tethered to one of us now that her leg has healed from the ACL surgery she had in early spring), watered and fed them, and ate the deli sandwich I picked up for dinner. The fridge was bare (my wife and I were both very busy the past few days) so a sandwich was the best choice. While doing all that, my mobile phone rang. I did not look at the number, only the name on the caller ID. I saw that it was someone's mobile, so I answered it. It was a customer of mine who I do work for on the side. He is a nice guy, but a bit eccentric (I was at his condo when my van was broken into at Christmas time...I have not been back to his place since) and doing work for him takes a special degree of patience. He just wanted to touch base and tell me that his PC is still running smoothly (which is should as long as he continues to use good common sense) and wanted me to download a few things for him to burn to CD (he only has dial-up). I asked him to follow up the call with an e-mail so I would not forget and he said that he would. With that, I said goodbye and hung up.
I changed into grass cutting clothes (loose fitting shorts, old t-shirt, old tennis shoes, old baseball cap) and got my grass cutting gear (mower, gas, lawn bags, trimmer, edger, blower, and a half gallon of Gatorade) together to start on my neighbors grass. As expected, it was high...I prolly cut down six inches in most places and eight inches in others. Just doing her yard alone took two hours and 3.5 lawn bags. Since I had a little daylight and 1/2 a bag to fill, I decided to cut our small backyard as well. At least we would not lose the dog in the jungle that our yard had become. I finished just as it was getting too dark to see...around 8:15 PM or so. Since my wife was not yet home, I decided to walk the dogs (yes, BOTH of them) before I got cleaned up. I was pretty hot and sweaty and managed to drink 90% of my Gatorade in the two and a half hours of cutting.
Once I got back I jumped in the shower and scrubbed the crud off of me and then went into the office to pay some bills online and finish entering in the vacation receipts into AceMoney. I had just finished that (as well as updating patches for Windows...joy) when my wife pulled in. It was almost 10:00 PM and we decided to watch the Law and Order that was recorded yesterday that we did not get a chance to watch. After that was over we watched the Law and Order that was recorded that evening and then dragged ourselves to bed...bone tired.
I got up at 5:00 AM, the usual El Gee start time and grabbed Little Man for his morning walk. After we came back I went through my normal ritual and headed on into work. A quick check of the threat board showed no issues to worry about yet, so I started running and compiling my reports and dispatched the tickets that came in overnight.
I got to thinking about how busy this week has been so far and how busy it will be the rest of the way out. We have Care Group tonight, I have to finish mowing our lawn tomorrow, Friday looks clear, but Saturday I think is the Men's Breakfast at church and I need to give the house a good vacuuming since it has been almost two weeks since it was done last. Sunday is of course church and our day of rest (which we will really need by then. I just hope I do not get called for anything at work this weekend. I will need that day to recoup.
My wife has been trying to get the laundry caught up and she will want to go to the grocery store to stock up on all the things we have run out of. She also works two days a week so on those days she cannot do the things around the house she wants to do and that can cause her some stress as well.
Maybe this should have been entitled, "Long Week Comin' "
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Resistance Is Futile, You Will Be Assimilated
Well, I am on day two of being back to work...back to the daily grind of dealing with other peoples "emergencies" as a lone gunman for North and South America (this sounds so familiar...circa 2.5 years ago). I am finally caught up with e-mail, the back log of ticket research, reports, and the one open escalation that I started almost a month ago. It only took 1.5 days ... not too shabby I guess.
Yesterday of course was busy. I came in at 7:45 and left at 5:15, working through lunch. When I got home, my wife, who was busy trying to get the unpacking done, had dinner waiting for me even though she had a meeting at church to go to at 7:00 PM. That gave me enough time to get ready for MY meeting at church at 7:00PM.
I am not sure what time my wife got home, but I did not get home until 10:00 PM and that point I needed to walk Little Man. The Golden had already been walked and my wife was exhausted from her long day so she did not have the energy to take LM out...so I did it for her. She is worth it.
I got back and my wife and I watched the episode of "24" we recorded, then we hit the hay about 11:30 or so. Morning would come soon enough and we needed all the sleep we could get. It was a heck of a way to spend our fist day back home from vacation.
The alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I was mostly awake, although I was still very tired. I guess I got spoiled sleeping in until 7:00 AM every morning while I was on vacation. I did the normal El Gee routine before I left at 7:00 AM for work.
Once at work I was happy to see that not a whole lot was waiting for me. Of course that was not true on Monday, when it took me all morning just to get my head above water. Today was a nice slow start for me...one that I greatly appreciated (Thank You Jesus).
After lunch (leftover spaghetti and broccoli), I closed out the last item hanging over my head. Now I can focus solely on being reactive {smirk}.
When before I go home, I need to stop at the store and get the basics (bread, milk, fruit, yogurt, lunch meat, etc), then once I get home and eat, I need to cut my neighbor's lawn...it looks like a jungle. Ours does as well, but I can let ours go a couple more days....besides, she pays me to cut hers.
Now that I have been back for a couple of days, I can tell that I am burned out of doing this job. While on vacation, I did not have to worry about a ringing phone, working all weekend, or international phone calls at all hours. I did not constantly check the time (I ate and slept when I wanted to) and actually enjoyed myself for the first time in seven months.
It is no secret I spend more than my share of time on the web. My job is reactive and I tend to get periods of time where nothing is going on...a perfect time to update my blog or read other blogs and news sites. Today, I noticed that ufcjunkie.com (one of my favorite UFC web sites) has been blocked from out customer's network. I have noticed that more and more items (Google Docs, Picasweb, and many photo/file sharing sites) have been blocked by our customer. I know they have been cutting down the bandwidth they give us (we support their LAN from a building they used to lease, now we lease it. The LAN was left intact for us to maintain) and I cannot say I blame them.
I only hope that the next couple of weeks are a bit slower than they were before I left. Coming back from vacation into a chaotic environment is bad...a busy chaotic environment is much worse.
Yesterday of course was busy. I came in at 7:45 and left at 5:15, working through lunch. When I got home, my wife, who was busy trying to get the unpacking done, had dinner waiting for me even though she had a meeting at church to go to at 7:00 PM. That gave me enough time to get ready for MY meeting at church at 7:00PM.
I am not sure what time my wife got home, but I did not get home until 10:00 PM and that point I needed to walk Little Man. The Golden had already been walked and my wife was exhausted from her long day so she did not have the energy to take LM out...so I did it for her. She is worth it.
I got back and my wife and I watched the episode of "24" we recorded, then we hit the hay about 11:30 or so. Morning would come soon enough and we needed all the sleep we could get. It was a heck of a way to spend our fist day back home from vacation.
The alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I was mostly awake, although I was still very tired. I guess I got spoiled sleeping in until 7:00 AM every morning while I was on vacation. I did the normal El Gee routine before I left at 7:00 AM for work.
Once at work I was happy to see that not a whole lot was waiting for me. Of course that was not true on Monday, when it took me all morning just to get my head above water. Today was a nice slow start for me...one that I greatly appreciated (Thank You Jesus).
After lunch (leftover spaghetti and broccoli), I closed out the last item hanging over my head. Now I can focus solely on being reactive {smirk}.
When before I go home, I need to stop at the store and get the basics (bread, milk, fruit, yogurt, lunch meat, etc), then once I get home and eat, I need to cut my neighbor's lawn...it looks like a jungle. Ours does as well, but I can let ours go a couple more days....besides, she pays me to cut hers.
Now that I have been back for a couple of days, I can tell that I am burned out of doing this job. While on vacation, I did not have to worry about a ringing phone, working all weekend, or international phone calls at all hours. I did not constantly check the time (I ate and slept when I wanted to) and actually enjoyed myself for the first time in seven months.
It is no secret I spend more than my share of time on the web. My job is reactive and I tend to get periods of time where nothing is going on...a perfect time to update my blog or read other blogs and news sites. Today, I noticed that ufcjunkie.com (one of my favorite UFC web sites) has been blocked from out customer's network. I have noticed that more and more items (Google Docs, Picasweb, and many photo/file sharing sites) have been blocked by our customer. I know they have been cutting down the bandwidth they give us (we support their LAN from a building they used to lease, now we lease it. The LAN was left intact for us to maintain) and I cannot say I blame them.
I only hope that the next couple of weeks are a bit slower than they were before I left. Coming back from vacation into a chaotic environment is bad...a busy chaotic environment is much worse.
In My Dreams
I usually do not remember my dreams. I would say that I rarely dream, but that prolly would not be accurate so I will just say that in the morning, I have no memory of what went on in my mind the night before. Last night however, was different.
I am not sure if it was one dream in two parts or two separate dreams. Both revolved around me and an online acquaintance, Dakboy (blog link is on the right). Both had us at near the same age (I have Dak by at least 12 years). Both dreams involved a father (mine in the first, Dak's in the second). Both had us living in the same area (Dak is in NY, I am in TX).
The first dream (or first part of the dream, you chose) was short. In this part, Dak and I were both late teens (16-17 years old). Dak came over to my parents house to do something...it may have been to pick me up, I am not sure. Anyhoo, before he arrived, I had a run in with my father. He had been drinking (that much is true...Dad did not know how to safely deal with stress) and was rather verbally abusive. I did not want Dak to see my dad in that condition so when he knocked on the front door (we did not have a doorbell), I rushed to answer it and quickly maneuvered myself and Dak away from the house.
"Problem?" asked Dak.
"Dad's not in a great mood. He had a pretty rough day at work", I fumbled, trying to give a feasible excuse to get us out of the area.
"He drinks, doesn't he?" Dak said in a sympathetic tone.
"Yup", I respond.
"My dad used to have a problem like that, but he is a lot better now", Dak sincerely answered.
Fade out.
Second dream, or second part of the same dream (your choice):
I was on my way to Dak's parents house. It was bigger and nicer than mine, but not overdone. Tasteful is the word that would best describe it. As I knock on the front door, I am greeted by Dak's dad, a 40 something medium sized man with a sturdy frame. He was bigger and younger than my dad (who was a strapping 5' 6" 175 lbs) but had less hair. I was ushered into the house and was greeted a few seconds later by Dak who, like his father, was wearing Army BDU's (Battle Dress Uniform -- "Fatigues" as they used to be know). I looked down and realized that I was wearing a Marine combat uniform (gift from my half brother). We went into the basement and begin assembling a survival/assault pack to take with us. We were going after a "bad man" and needed to make sure we were prepared for anything.
After we had packed all of our gear, Dak's father hands me a small automatic assault weapon (KG-99) and fully loaded pack. We then walked to an abandoned building to hunt for our quarry.
Dak and his father went one way and I went another, hoping to flush out the person we were hunting. I had not been looking too long when I heard weapons fire. I double timed over to where the noise came from when I felt pain, then heard more shots. I had been hit.
The next scene was odd (as if the dream is not odd enough as it is...). The best way to describe it was an out of body experience. I was looking over my dead body and the body of "the bad guy" we were hunting.
"Sucks, doesn't it?" said a voice to my right, near the body of the "bad guy".
I look over and see a ghost-like form that looks just like the man we had been hunting. Beyond him, about 50 meters down the hallway, I see Dak and his father, talking. I cannot hear what they are saying, but Dak's dad is gesturing in my direction. They begin to walk toward me and things go black.
Odd.
I am not sure if it was one dream in two parts or two separate dreams. Both revolved around me and an online acquaintance, Dakboy (blog link is on the right). Both had us at near the same age (I have Dak by at least 12 years). Both dreams involved a father (mine in the first, Dak's in the second). Both had us living in the same area (Dak is in NY, I am in TX).
The first dream (or first part of the dream, you chose) was short. In this part, Dak and I were both late teens (16-17 years old). Dak came over to my parents house to do something...it may have been to pick me up, I am not sure. Anyhoo, before he arrived, I had a run in with my father. He had been drinking (that much is true...Dad did not know how to safely deal with stress) and was rather verbally abusive. I did not want Dak to see my dad in that condition so when he knocked on the front door (we did not have a doorbell), I rushed to answer it and quickly maneuvered myself and Dak away from the house.
"Problem?" asked Dak.
"Dad's not in a great mood. He had a pretty rough day at work", I fumbled, trying to give a feasible excuse to get us out of the area.
"He drinks, doesn't he?" Dak said in a sympathetic tone.
"Yup", I respond.
"My dad used to have a problem like that, but he is a lot better now", Dak sincerely answered.
Fade out.
Second dream, or second part of the same dream (your choice):
I was on my way to Dak's parents house. It was bigger and nicer than mine, but not overdone. Tasteful is the word that would best describe it. As I knock on the front door, I am greeted by Dak's dad, a 40 something medium sized man with a sturdy frame. He was bigger and younger than my dad (who was a strapping 5' 6" 175 lbs) but had less hair. I was ushered into the house and was greeted a few seconds later by Dak who, like his father, was wearing Army BDU's (Battle Dress Uniform -- "Fatigues" as they used to be know). I looked down and realized that I was wearing a Marine combat uniform (gift from my half brother). We went into the basement and begin assembling a survival/assault pack to take with us. We were going after a "bad man" and needed to make sure we were prepared for anything.
After we had packed all of our gear, Dak's father hands me a small automatic assault weapon (KG-99) and fully loaded pack. We then walked to an abandoned building to hunt for our quarry.Dak and his father went one way and I went another, hoping to flush out the person we were hunting. I had not been looking too long when I heard weapons fire. I double timed over to where the noise came from when I felt pain, then heard more shots. I had been hit.
The next scene was odd (as if the dream is not odd enough as it is...). The best way to describe it was an out of body experience. I was looking over my dead body and the body of "the bad guy" we were hunting.
"Sucks, doesn't it?" said a voice to my right, near the body of the "bad guy".
I look over and see a ghost-like form that looks just like the man we had been hunting. Beyond him, about 50 meters down the hallway, I see Dak and his father, talking. I cannot hear what they are saying, but Dak's dad is gesturing in my direction. They begin to walk toward me and things go black.
Odd.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Nature Of The Beach
As promised, a daily account of our vacation. I am sure I have missed a few things, but I failed to journal once the weather got better. Enjoy!
Day One and Two
----------------------
Unlike most people, I do not take a summer vacation. Instead, I take 2 vacations every year, one in spring and one in fall. On May 4, 2007 me, my wife and our two dogs began a road trip to the Emerald Isle, NC. It is a long drive (20 hours) that encompasses 7 states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina). Why on earth did we, a) drive, b) take two dogs with us, and c) do this in May? Well to answer them in order:
a) Driving allows you to see a lot more of the US...especially the 2 lane highways near the coast. Also, the cost is much more to fly (we would need to rent a car once we landed) than to drive, even with gas and hotels incorporated in to the equation.
b) We take our dogs because they both are very much a part of the family. They do not respond to boarding very well and suffer from separation anxiety if at least one of us is not with them. Dogs are pack animals and their instinct is to remain with the pack...we are their pack. Besides, the beaches in NC are pet friendly as long as you clean up after them and keep them on a leash.
c) The beaches are far less crowded in May and usually the weather is cooperative.
We hit the road around 7:45 AM on Friday, May 4th. Work had taken its toll on me (my blog is proof of that) and the weather had been stormy every week. We were looking forward to leaving all this behind...at least for a week.
Our plan was to drive to Birmingham, AL (about 12 hours away with stops) and spend the night at Drury Inn. We have stayed there many times and have been pleased with them. They even allow pets! The drive is not a bad one...the biggest part is I-20 from Texas to Alabama. It was cloudy the entire trip, but it did not rain. Clouds are better than hot sun when driving.
We arrived in Birmingham around 7 PM and were met by my wifes friends, JoJo and Nancy, who are twins. We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (Nancy paid for dinner...she is so generous) and chatted until about 11:00 or so. After we took care of the dogs, we fell fast asleep.
We woke up to...rain. Sigh...this is getting old. We left the rain yet it appeared that it followed us to Birmingham.
We grabbed a bite to eat from the free breakfast bar that was offered (one of many nice perks at Drury Inn) and got packed and cleaned up. While I waited for my wife, I checked my e-mail (free high speed internet at Drury Inn) and after a quick scan of the news, I loaded up the van and we hit the road.
The trip to NC was a bit depressing. Rain plagued the last 3 hours of the drive (which seemed to drag on forever) which made driving difficult. We were on I-20 until Florence, SC where we picked up I-95 north. We stayed on I-95 for about 1.5 hours then we turned onto NC 24...a very long stretch of road that is alternates between two and four lanes. After we drove for a very long time, I pulled over to get gasoline at a BP station. Once we refueled the van, we continued on in the rain...a miserable wet drive. On a side note, gas prices were about the same all along our trip as they were in Dallas.
We finally pulled into the town of Emerald Isle around 10:00 PM local time. We were tired and ready to get off the road...but we still had to pick up the keys for the house we were renting. It was after business hours on a Saturday night, but we had made arrangements to pick up the keys at the police station across the street. Once we found the right building, we drove a few more miles into town and located the house. It was not on the beach, but it was very close. The only thing that separated us from the dunes was a narrow street (more of an alley) and a row of houses. We could walk to the beach in less than one minute.
The house was a duplex and the west (left) side of it was occupied...by pet owners if the large poodle staring out the windows was any indication. We quickly gave the place a quick inspection...much nicer than the shack we rented at Indian Rocks Beach, FL last year. Other than only having one bathroom. it was not bad at all. TV/DVD players in both bedrooms and in the living room and a kitchen with a built in table that would seat eight people. While it would be a cramped week, the place had four double beds, so theoretically the house slept eight. Right.
I unloaded the van while my wife set up the bed we would be sleeping in (to save money, we chose to bring our own linens) and took care of the dogs. Once all that was taken care of...it was time to sleep and dream.
Day Three (Sunday, day one at the beach)
----------------------------------------------
The rain had stopped but it was still very cloudy and the wind had picked up considerably. I checked The Weather Channel and the forecast was not looking good. A tropical storm was brewing just off the coast and things were looking dismal. There was little chance of an real damage but storm surge was a possibility, so we kept our eyes open. Local weather predicted rain every day with the exception of Friday. Joy.
After that bit of good news, I went out to survey the area and met the people in the other half of the house. They were from Tennessee and visit Emerald Isle every year. They were disappointed that the weather was not cooperating and hoped we brought good weather with us. I told him the weather that we left was not what he wanted to have at the coast. North Texas had been plagued by storms the previous month.
After a walk with my wife on the beach (the wind made it a bit strenuous but we survived) we came back and she started on lunch. While we planned on eating out some, we wanted to eat at least two meals a day at the beach house. While my wife was working on lunch (spaghetti), I fired up her laptop and tested the dial up that TWC offers for people who travel. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I gave up trying to dial up. On a whim, I turned on the wireless, hoping to borrow a connection to check e-mail (I normally do not do this...but I was desperate) and I was very surprised to see a live link. I launched the browser and came to a wireless access page for TWC. I was getting very excited and typed in my TWC user ID and PW. Nothing. I learned that TWC offers this wireless service for $10 a day to those who wish to pay for it. While that may be great for them...it sucked for us...we are TWC customers and we cannot even use the service when we travel.
Lunch was done and I was frustrated. We ate and decided to go for a drive. We killed a few hours driving into Morehead City and Beaufort, checking out things. Most of the restaurants appeared closed...mostly because this was the off season. That really did not bother me because the really good places stay open all year long for the locals to enjoy.
We stopped at Captain Bill's for dinner (A wasted $50 IMHO), Food Lion for some groceries, and then drove home. I flipped on the TV and checked the weather. The storm was slowly (VERY SLOWLY) moving south and the worst of it would miss us. We still were going to get rain and wind, but the forecast was looking better. My wife and I watched cable TV, something we do not do much of when we are at home. She was depressed about the weather wanted sun...all we had was wind and rain...the same type of weather we left in Texas. Since she was not in a great mood, she went to bed early and I watched The History Channel.
Day Four (Monday, day two at the beach)
---------------------------------------
I woke up to another cold and dreary morning. It was not raining, but the wind and cold air was rather dismal. The highlight was a walk (a long, cold walk) that was punctuated with stinging sand being blown at us at 20-50 mph. The dogs fur was caked with it and it took a very long time to get it all out. The sky was gray and the storm was not moving fast enough for me or my wife. We came back and had sandwiches and chips for lunch (left overs for dinner) and watched even more TV ("IFL" and "24"). I had to admit that even I was getting stir crazy. There is only so much History Channel a person can watch before they need to do something else.
Day Five (Tuesday, day three at the beach)
----------------------------------------------------
The cold had dissipated but the rain had returned. During my morning walk I noticed that Little Man was having trouble with the steps leading up to the beach house. There were only nine of them, but he just appeared to be having trouble making it up them. Actually this is not very surprising. Little Man is 13 years old (around 75-80 or so in human years) and up until recently, he has been a very spry beast. Lately however, he has been slowing down. He does not appear to enjoy his walks at all and tends to walk behind me. Yes, my buddy is getting old.
The rain cleared up by noon so my wife and I decided to go to the NC aquarium after lunch. We decided on sandwiches for lunch but we had other plans to go out for dinner. I was in the mood for an NC tradition, Bojangles. It has been 6 long years since I have eaten there. Similar to Popeye's, only much better.
We stopped off at Food Lion again to pick up a few more things (including ice cream for dessert) and then home. We watched our normal Tuesday TV shows (Law and Order - SVU and Law and Order - CI) before going to bed. Since we were on the east coast, the shows came on one hour later than we were used to so we both were tired by the time they were over.
Day Six (Wednesday, day four at the beach)
---------------------------------------
The weather was much better Wednesday. The sun was shining and the walks along the beach were much more enjoyable. We had been able to average about 3 miles of beach walking per day, despite the poor weather. While it may not sound like much, when you have to fight the wind the walks are a bit more strenuous. Since it was the off season, the beaches were not crowded and we did not have to worry about the dogs bothering anyone.
After a morning walk and a check of the weather, my wife cooked lunch which consisted of chicken, pasta, and green peas. We had plans to go to Fort Macon State Park in the afternoon and get some pictures while we were there. We had a really good time and even walked along the beach there. There were more people there than where we were staying, but it was not crowded. Pictures will be posted a bit later on my Picasa web page when I can carve out some time.
Earlier in the week, we met a couple on the beach (dog owners as well) who told us that "The Crab Shack" was a pretty good place to eat so we planned on eating dinner there. They were not wrong. While dinner still cost $50 (with tip) it was very good and fresh. I plan on marking this down as a place to return to. After a great dinner we drove home to watch the season finale of "Jericho". and took a late night walk on the beach. My wife said it was spooky, but I liked it. Very peaceful.
Day Seven (Thursday, day five at the beach)
---------------------------------------
By the time Thursday rolled around, my wife was in much better spirits. It was a lazy day for us but at least we were not stuck inside like we were the first few days.
We ate leftovers for lunch after a long but refreshing walk on the beach. We got cleaned up and spent the afternoon in Beaufort wandering in a few of the open shops and walking along the waterfront. After that got boring we noticed Clausen's was open, so we had burgers for dinner. While known for great seafood, Clausen's has a pretty good burger. It is not cheap, but it is good.
After a hearty burger for dinner we drove back to the beach house (my wife joked that maybe we should have pushed the van back to burn calories) and took another long walk. We walked a couple of miles with the dogs and then walked back. We did not have anything that we wanted to watch on TV so we just turned in early, enjoying the sound of the the surf in distance. Sleep was peaceful.
Day Eight (Friday, day six at the beach)
---------------------------------------
Typical morning walk, breakfast and lunch (sandwiches).
Friday was the day we had slated to drive over to Harker's Island and take a water taxi/ferry to Cape Lookout to see the lighthouse. I had only been on a ferry a couple of times in the past so I was a bit tentative about getting on a small boat with 16 other people for a 15-20 minute ride to an island, but I went anyway. While it was not as bad as I thought it would be, the ride was "hard" and was not very comfortable, but it was fun, nonetheless. We arranged with the ferry/water taxi to pick us up at 4:15 PM. That gave us two hours to wander the island and see the lighthouse. The lighthouse was not open to the public at this time so we were unable to go inside, but I did get a few pics of the outside.
We wandered the windward side of the island and one of the first things I saw when we topped the dune was a blanket of Styrofoam on the dunes. Later on we heard about a boat that lost some packing material and it had washed up on the shore. While it did detract from the overall beauty of the isolated beach, you still noticed how clean the beach was.
After our two hours were up, we caught our water taxi/ferry back to Harker's Island and then made the 40 minute drive back to the beach house. Before we made it all the way back, my wife decided to pull over to a brightly colored roadside "beach food" joint called "The Shark Shack". While it looked fun, I was not so sure that it would be worth our time, but my fears were unwarranted. The menu had what i was looking for, Grouper sandwiches and the prices were very reasonable. Our food was served up hot and very quickly and the portions were huge. I would have had enough food with my order to have a snack later if I had not been hungry enough to eat it all in one sitting. I made a note to come back to this place again the next time were were in town.
We left "The Shark Shack" and made it back to the beach house before it got too late. Since the dogs needed a walk (well we all did), we headed down to the beach for the last evening beach walk we would be able to take this year. We walked slow, savoring the sounds and the smell of the surf...we were going to miss it. By this time my wife was asking me if there was a way we could stay a few more days. While I would have loved to, I could not afford to be off work any more and our budget for travel was near its limit.
After watching Law and Order, my wife and I conked out and slept like babies.
The Ride Home
--------------------
We woke up on Saturday and took our last beach walk. We found two whelk shells (very good condition) on that walk and picked them up. In all our years of going to the beach (20 or so) we have never found whelk shells in this good of condition. Most of them are broken but these were in great shape. Add those to the NEAR PERFECT starfish we found and we had a nice trove of goodies to take back home.
After returning and cleaning up, we packed our bags and loaded everything into the van. We had a long drive ahead of us and I wanted to get started as soon as possible. Before we could leave the island, we needed to drop off the keys to the rental agency and check out. The process was quick and we were on the road in record time.
Since we were retracing the route we took to get to the beach (and it was not raining), I could see the houses an d the scenery that I missed driving at night in the rain. Small town coastal NC is quite charming...a great place to vacation.
We made it into Birmingham a lot later (7:30 PM) than I hoped but still within reason. We had not eaten yet and my wife's two friends again greeted us at the hotel. I really was not trying to be anti-social but I did not want to be out, so I just let my wife have a "girls night out" without me. I stayed back and caught up on a weeks worth of personal e-mail.
About 9:00 PM or so, my wife came back to the hotel room with a fantastic hamburger from a local steak house. It was a tad overcooked for my taste, but it was very good otherwise. I gobbled it down and browsed web pages until my wife returned. When she was done chatting with her friends and they had left, my wife and I walked the dogs and then FINALLY got to bed. I was exhausted.
We woke up at 6:30 AM on Sunday. I took Little Man for a long walk (he was not really into it but he humored me nonetheless) and after I returned, I grabbed a bite to eat at the breakfast bar while my wife walked The Golden. After we both cleaned up I loaded the up van and we hit the road. This leg of the journey was easier, but we did not leave the hotel until 9:30 AM so the best we could hope for was a 7:30 PM arrival home. While the trip was generally easier, a storm in Atlanta slowed us down. Once we got into Texas, we hit more slow/stopped traffic due to construction but it moved along. We arrived back in the Dallas area at 8:30 PM, 30 minutes later than I expected. We could have made it quicker had the weather, traffic and a few extra stops for food not slowed us down a bit. I really didn't mind all that much. I realize that the close to home I get the antsier I become. One of my many faults.
We pulled in and I began unloading the van while my wife fed the dogs. The lawn was high, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I still will not be able to mow it until at least Thursday, but it is going to take a while. I doubt I will get both lawns done in one night.
Day One and Two
----------------------
Unlike most people, I do not take a summer vacation. Instead, I take 2 vacations every year, one in spring and one in fall. On May 4, 2007 me, my wife and our two dogs began a road trip to the Emerald Isle, NC. It is a long drive (20 hours) that encompasses 7 states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina). Why on earth did we, a) drive, b) take two dogs with us, and c) do this in May? Well to answer them in order:
a) Driving allows you to see a lot more of the US...especially the 2 lane highways near the coast. Also, the cost is much more to fly (we would need to rent a car once we landed) than to drive, even with gas and hotels incorporated in to the equation.
b) We take our dogs because they both are very much a part of the family. They do not respond to boarding very well and suffer from separation anxiety if at least one of us is not with them. Dogs are pack animals and their instinct is to remain with the pack...we are their pack. Besides, the beaches in NC are pet friendly as long as you clean up after them and keep them on a leash.
c) The beaches are far less crowded in May and usually the weather is cooperative.
We hit the road around 7:45 AM on Friday, May 4th. Work had taken its toll on me (my blog is proof of that) and the weather had been stormy every week. We were looking forward to leaving all this behind...at least for a week.
Our plan was to drive to Birmingham, AL (about 12 hours away with stops) and spend the night at Drury Inn. We have stayed there many times and have been pleased with them. They even allow pets! The drive is not a bad one...the biggest part is I-20 from Texas to Alabama. It was cloudy the entire trip, but it did not rain. Clouds are better than hot sun when driving.
We arrived in Birmingham around 7 PM and were met by my wifes friends, JoJo and Nancy, who are twins. We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (Nancy paid for dinner...she is so generous) and chatted until about 11:00 or so. After we took care of the dogs, we fell fast asleep.
We woke up to...rain. Sigh...this is getting old. We left the rain yet it appeared that it followed us to Birmingham.
We grabbed a bite to eat from the free breakfast bar that was offered (one of many nice perks at Drury Inn) and got packed and cleaned up. While I waited for my wife, I checked my e-mail (free high speed internet at Drury Inn) and after a quick scan of the news, I loaded up the van and we hit the road.
The trip to NC was a bit depressing. Rain plagued the last 3 hours of the drive (which seemed to drag on forever) which made driving difficult. We were on I-20 until Florence, SC where we picked up I-95 north. We stayed on I-95 for about 1.5 hours then we turned onto NC 24...a very long stretch of road that is alternates between two and four lanes. After we drove for a very long time, I pulled over to get gasoline at a BP station. Once we refueled the van, we continued on in the rain...a miserable wet drive. On a side note, gas prices were about the same all along our trip as they were in Dallas.
We finally pulled into the town of Emerald Isle around 10:00 PM local time. We were tired and ready to get off the road...but we still had to pick up the keys for the house we were renting. It was after business hours on a Saturday night, but we had made arrangements to pick up the keys at the police station across the street. Once we found the right building, we drove a few more miles into town and located the house. It was not on the beach, but it was very close. The only thing that separated us from the dunes was a narrow street (more of an alley) and a row of houses. We could walk to the beach in less than one minute.
The house was a duplex and the west (left) side of it was occupied...by pet owners if the large poodle staring out the windows was any indication. We quickly gave the place a quick inspection...much nicer than the shack we rented at Indian Rocks Beach, FL last year. Other than only having one bathroom. it was not bad at all. TV/DVD players in both bedrooms and in the living room and a kitchen with a built in table that would seat eight people. While it would be a cramped week, the place had four double beds, so theoretically the house slept eight. Right.
I unloaded the van while my wife set up the bed we would be sleeping in (to save money, we chose to bring our own linens) and took care of the dogs. Once all that was taken care of...it was time to sleep and dream.
Day Three (Sunday, day one at the beach)
----------------------------------------------
The rain had stopped but it was still very cloudy and the wind had picked up considerably. I checked The Weather Channel and the forecast was not looking good. A tropical storm was brewing just off the coast and things were looking dismal. There was little chance of an real damage but storm surge was a possibility, so we kept our eyes open. Local weather predicted rain every day with the exception of Friday. Joy.
After that bit of good news, I went out to survey the area and met the people in the other half of the house. They were from Tennessee and visit Emerald Isle every year. They were disappointed that the weather was not cooperating and hoped we brought good weather with us. I told him the weather that we left was not what he wanted to have at the coast. North Texas had been plagued by storms the previous month.
After a walk with my wife on the beach (the wind made it a bit strenuous but we survived) we came back and she started on lunch. While we planned on eating out some, we wanted to eat at least two meals a day at the beach house. While my wife was working on lunch (spaghetti), I fired up her laptop and tested the dial up that TWC offers for people who travel. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I gave up trying to dial up. On a whim, I turned on the wireless, hoping to borrow a connection to check e-mail (I normally do not do this...but I was desperate) and I was very surprised to see a live link. I launched the browser and came to a wireless access page for TWC. I was getting very excited and typed in my TWC user ID and PW. Nothing. I learned that TWC offers this wireless service for $10 a day to those who wish to pay for it. While that may be great for them...it sucked for us...we are TWC customers and we cannot even use the service when we travel.
Lunch was done and I was frustrated. We ate and decided to go for a drive. We killed a few hours driving into Morehead City and Beaufort, checking out things. Most of the restaurants appeared closed...mostly because this was the off season. That really did not bother me because the really good places stay open all year long for the locals to enjoy.
We stopped at Captain Bill's for dinner (A wasted $50 IMHO), Food Lion for some groceries, and then drove home. I flipped on the TV and checked the weather. The storm was slowly (VERY SLOWLY) moving south and the worst of it would miss us. We still were going to get rain and wind, but the forecast was looking better. My wife and I watched cable TV, something we do not do much of when we are at home. She was depressed about the weather wanted sun...all we had was wind and rain...the same type of weather we left in Texas. Since she was not in a great mood, she went to bed early and I watched The History Channel.
Day Four (Monday, day two at the beach)
---------------------------------------
I woke up to another cold and dreary morning. It was not raining, but the wind and cold air was rather dismal. The highlight was a walk (a long, cold walk) that was punctuated with stinging sand being blown at us at 20-50 mph. The dogs fur was caked with it and it took a very long time to get it all out. The sky was gray and the storm was not moving fast enough for me or my wife. We came back and had sandwiches and chips for lunch (left overs for dinner) and watched even more TV ("IFL" and "24"). I had to admit that even I was getting stir crazy. There is only so much History Channel a person can watch before they need to do something else.
Day Five (Tuesday, day three at the beach)
----------------------------------------------------
The cold had dissipated but the rain had returned. During my morning walk I noticed that Little Man was having trouble with the steps leading up to the beach house. There were only nine of them, but he just appeared to be having trouble making it up them. Actually this is not very surprising. Little Man is 13 years old (around 75-80 or so in human years) and up until recently, he has been a very spry beast. Lately however, he has been slowing down. He does not appear to enjoy his walks at all and tends to walk behind me. Yes, my buddy is getting old.
The rain cleared up by noon so my wife and I decided to go to the NC aquarium after lunch. We decided on sandwiches for lunch but we had other plans to go out for dinner. I was in the mood for an NC tradition, Bojangles. It has been 6 long years since I have eaten there. Similar to Popeye's, only much better.
We stopped off at Food Lion again to pick up a few more things (including ice cream for dessert) and then home. We watched our normal Tuesday TV shows (Law and Order - SVU and Law and Order - CI) before going to bed. Since we were on the east coast, the shows came on one hour later than we were used to so we both were tired by the time they were over.
Day Six (Wednesday, day four at the beach)
---------------------------------------
The weather was much better Wednesday. The sun was shining and the walks along the beach were much more enjoyable. We had been able to average about 3 miles of beach walking per day, despite the poor weather. While it may not sound like much, when you have to fight the wind the walks are a bit more strenuous. Since it was the off season, the beaches were not crowded and we did not have to worry about the dogs bothering anyone.
After a morning walk and a check of the weather, my wife cooked lunch which consisted of chicken, pasta, and green peas. We had plans to go to Fort Macon State Park in the afternoon and get some pictures while we were there. We had a really good time and even walked along the beach there. There were more people there than where we were staying, but it was not crowded. Pictures will be posted a bit later on my Picasa web page when I can carve out some time.
Earlier in the week, we met a couple on the beach (dog owners as well) who told us that "The Crab Shack" was a pretty good place to eat so we planned on eating dinner there. They were not wrong. While dinner still cost $50 (with tip) it was very good and fresh. I plan on marking this down as a place to return to. After a great dinner we drove home to watch the season finale of "Jericho". and took a late night walk on the beach. My wife said it was spooky, but I liked it. Very peaceful.
Day Seven (Thursday, day five at the beach)
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By the time Thursday rolled around, my wife was in much better spirits. It was a lazy day for us but at least we were not stuck inside like we were the first few days.
We ate leftovers for lunch after a long but refreshing walk on the beach. We got cleaned up and spent the afternoon in Beaufort wandering in a few of the open shops and walking along the waterfront. After that got boring we noticed Clausen's was open, so we had burgers for dinner. While known for great seafood, Clausen's has a pretty good burger. It is not cheap, but it is good.
After a hearty burger for dinner we drove back to the beach house (my wife joked that maybe we should have pushed the van back to burn calories) and took another long walk. We walked a couple of miles with the dogs and then walked back. We did not have anything that we wanted to watch on TV so we just turned in early, enjoying the sound of the the surf in distance. Sleep was peaceful.
Day Eight (Friday, day six at the beach)
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Typical morning walk, breakfast and lunch (sandwiches).
Friday was the day we had slated to drive over to Harker's Island and take a water taxi/ferry to Cape Lookout to see the lighthouse. I had only been on a ferry a couple of times in the past so I was a bit tentative about getting on a small boat with 16 other people for a 15-20 minute ride to an island, but I went anyway. While it was not as bad as I thought it would be, the ride was "hard" and was not very comfortable, but it was fun, nonetheless. We arranged with the ferry/water taxi to pick us up at 4:15 PM. That gave us two hours to wander the island and see the lighthouse. The lighthouse was not open to the public at this time so we were unable to go inside, but I did get a few pics of the outside.
We wandered the windward side of the island and one of the first things I saw when we topped the dune was a blanket of Styrofoam on the dunes. Later on we heard about a boat that lost some packing material and it had washed up on the shore. While it did detract from the overall beauty of the isolated beach, you still noticed how clean the beach was.
After our two hours were up, we caught our water taxi/ferry back to Harker's Island and then made the 40 minute drive back to the beach house. Before we made it all the way back, my wife decided to pull over to a brightly colored roadside "beach food" joint called "The Shark Shack". While it looked fun, I was not so sure that it would be worth our time, but my fears were unwarranted. The menu had what i was looking for, Grouper sandwiches and the prices were very reasonable. Our food was served up hot and very quickly and the portions were huge. I would have had enough food with my order to have a snack later if I had not been hungry enough to eat it all in one sitting. I made a note to come back to this place again the next time were were in town.
We left "The Shark Shack" and made it back to the beach house before it got too late. Since the dogs needed a walk (well we all did), we headed down to the beach for the last evening beach walk we would be able to take this year. We walked slow, savoring the sounds and the smell of the surf...we were going to miss it. By this time my wife was asking me if there was a way we could stay a few more days. While I would have loved to, I could not afford to be off work any more and our budget for travel was near its limit.
After watching Law and Order, my wife and I conked out and slept like babies.
The Ride Home
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We woke up on Saturday and took our last beach walk. We found two whelk shells (very good condition) on that walk and picked them up. In all our years of going to the beach (20 or so) we have never found whelk shells in this good of condition. Most of them are broken but these were in great shape. Add those to the NEAR PERFECT starfish we found and we had a nice trove of goodies to take back home.
After returning and cleaning up, we packed our bags and loaded everything into the van. We had a long drive ahead of us and I wanted to get started as soon as possible. Before we could leave the island, we needed to drop off the keys to the rental agency and check out. The process was quick and we were on the road in record time.
Since we were retracing the route we took to get to the beach (and it was not raining), I could see the houses an d the scenery that I missed driving at night in the rain. Small town coastal NC is quite charming...a great place to vacation.
We made it into Birmingham a lot later (7:30 PM) than I hoped but still within reason. We had not eaten yet and my wife's two friends again greeted us at the hotel. I really was not trying to be anti-social but I did not want to be out, so I just let my wife have a "girls night out" without me. I stayed back and caught up on a weeks worth of personal e-mail.
About 9:00 PM or so, my wife came back to the hotel room with a fantastic hamburger from a local steak house. It was a tad overcooked for my taste, but it was very good otherwise. I gobbled it down and browsed web pages until my wife returned. When she was done chatting with her friends and they had left, my wife and I walked the dogs and then FINALLY got to bed. I was exhausted.
We woke up at 6:30 AM on Sunday. I took Little Man for a long walk (he was not really into it but he humored me nonetheless) and after I returned, I grabbed a bite to eat at the breakfast bar while my wife walked The Golden. After we both cleaned up I loaded the up van and we hit the road. This leg of the journey was easier, but we did not leave the hotel until 9:30 AM so the best we could hope for was a 7:30 PM arrival home. While the trip was generally easier, a storm in Atlanta slowed us down. Once we got into Texas, we hit more slow/stopped traffic due to construction but it moved along. We arrived back in the Dallas area at 8:30 PM, 30 minutes later than I expected. We could have made it quicker had the weather, traffic and a few extra stops for food not slowed us down a bit. I really didn't mind all that much. I realize that the close to home I get the antsier I become. One of my many faults.
We pulled in and I began unloading the van while my wife fed the dogs. The lawn was high, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I still will not be able to mow it until at least Thursday, but it is going to take a while. I doubt I will get both lawns done in one night.
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