Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Disease Wars
As I posted previously, Hayley missed a Girl Scout campout because she was sick. I was next in line. The attack on me started with a sore throat last Wednesday. That moved to a cough and congenstion on Thursday. So far just a cold -- no big deal. I am not big on preventatives, although many people recommend things from home treatments to new products like Airborne. I usually ride it out with plenty of water and a stray Sudafed or cough drop.
As the years go by, this works less and less often. On Saturday I was convinced to go to the doctor (and take Hayley too as a follow up to asthma that was triggered by her illness). I got an antibiotic and decongestent for myself and an inhaler refill for Hayley. I then spent the rest of the day laying around feeling miserable. I rarely get put down by an illness, but this one did it.
The medicine did its job though. By Saturday night I was feeling better and on Sunday I was ready for the family outing that had been long planned (which ran late -- sorry for everyone that I was supposed to meet online Sunday night).
I have a cough that hasn't quite given up yet. That is actually the worst part of this -- I cough at night which wakes up my wife. Out of courtesy, I often end up finding another room to sleep in for part of the night.
Now both Bethany and Celeste are getting sick. Disease: the gift that keeps on giving.
As the years go by, this works less and less often. On Saturday I was convinced to go to the doctor (and take Hayley too as a follow up to asthma that was triggered by her illness). I got an antibiotic and decongestent for myself and an inhaler refill for Hayley. I then spent the rest of the day laying around feeling miserable. I rarely get put down by an illness, but this one did it.
The medicine did its job though. By Saturday night I was feeling better and on Sunday I was ready for the family outing that had been long planned (which ran late -- sorry for everyone that I was supposed to meet online Sunday night).
I have a cough that hasn't quite given up yet. That is actually the worst part of this -- I cough at night which wakes up my wife. Out of courtesy, I often end up finding another room to sleep in for part of the night.
Now both Bethany and Celeste are getting sick. Disease: the gift that keeps on giving.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
There and Back Again (squared)
Hayley's Girl Scout troop went to Winter Wonderland camp last weekend. It was our family's turn to help with transportation. Unfortunately, Hayley got sick (flu or something much like it) and at the last minute we found out that she would have to stay home. Nevertheless, we were on the hook to help get the rest of the girls up there along with one other family.
The adventure started last Friday. The drive with no traffic is about 2.5 hours one way. We left at 3:30pm on Friday and arrived at camp at about 8:30pm (with a dinner stop and another bathroom stop of about 1 hour total). Traffic was definitely heavy!
Our family plan was to spend the weekend in Temecula -- near camp to avoid driving home and back again. With Hayley sick, that was not an option. Instead, I drove back home. I got home around 11:00pm.
Retrieving them on Sunday was easier. I left home around 8:30am and got back around 2:30pm (including a lunch stop).
I like driving. I like listening to the radio and getting the thinking time. I also had fun playing with my GPS (the one for the car -- not the portable one I use for geocaching, I have gone deep into the GPS thing) to test out different route calculation options and the MP3 player features on it. No complaints for me -- I would have preferred to have my daughter spend a fun weekend, but the drive time worked fine for me.
The adventure started last Friday. The drive with no traffic is about 2.5 hours one way. We left at 3:30pm on Friday and arrived at camp at about 8:30pm (with a dinner stop and another bathroom stop of about 1 hour total). Traffic was definitely heavy!
Our family plan was to spend the weekend in Temecula -- near camp to avoid driving home and back again. With Hayley sick, that was not an option. Instead, I drove back home. I got home around 11:00pm.
Retrieving them on Sunday was easier. I left home around 8:30am and got back around 2:30pm (including a lunch stop).
I like driving. I like listening to the radio and getting the thinking time. I also had fun playing with my GPS (the one for the car -- not the portable one I use for geocaching, I have gone deep into the GPS thing) to test out different route calculation options and the MP3 player features on it. No complaints for me -- I would have preferred to have my daughter spend a fun weekend, but the drive time worked fine for me.
Labels: Family, Hayley, Rob, Scouts
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Go-Live Time
One of the main goals of my current job is to take a customer live. By this, I mean that we help the customer get their software setup, tested, loaded with data, train the users, then set them loose. I have gotten a couple of real problem projects from my company in the past two years. I got them because others were not able to finish them for various reasons. Problem Project # 1 is not technically done yet, but the tasks being done now are small and they have been using the software at some level for around 20 months and fully live on it for over a year.
Problem Project # 2 is in the beginning stages of go-live now. This customer has a number of divisions and locations. Right now we are bringing up most of the functionality for one division at one location and training users in two other divisions at that first location. However, it counts as a go-live. It will take another month or two probably before they are fully live in all locations and divisions. This is a really fun part of the job because the customer is finally getting value from the system (better late than never) and I am less dependent on others to do their work and more dependent on myself for the remaining items.
Software consulting can be VERY frustrating and stressful. The other end of the continuum would be all interesting and fun -- unlikely to ever get there entirely. However, I am much closer to the interesting/fun end right now which feels good.
Problem Project # 2 is in the beginning stages of go-live now. This customer has a number of divisions and locations. Right now we are bringing up most of the functionality for one division at one location and training users in two other divisions at that first location. However, it counts as a go-live. It will take another month or two probably before they are fully live in all locations and divisions. This is a really fun part of the job because the customer is finally getting value from the system (better late than never) and I am less dependent on others to do their work and more dependent on myself for the remaining items.
Software consulting can be VERY frustrating and stressful. The other end of the continuum would be all interesting and fun -- unlikely to ever get there entirely. However, I am much closer to the interesting/fun end right now which feels good.
