Category: Life

  • Adversity is the test for strong men.

    Went to lunch at Chang’s Mongolian Grill with Wendi, and the title of this entry is what the fortune cookie I received had to say.

    Hell, it’s not even funny with the “in bed” addendum.

    So the current estimates range from three months to a full year before I regain some semblance of stability and sanity (okay, enough with the annoying alliteration already) after moving away from the only real family I’ve ever known. Of course, once you start getting depressed over one thing, all of your other depressive triggers start to fire… Unworthy, Incapable, Clumsy, Inadequate, Pathetic, Irresponsible and Ugly. Yeah, those are the Seven Dwarves of my negative ego. Gnarly old buggers.

    So, what do I have going for me? Friends who refuse to let me beat up on myself. If that many people care so much, maybe I’m not such a bad person after all.

    Right? Right.

    To wrap this up on an appropriately positive note, on the way to Chang’s we saw something cute: A pickup with black lettering across the tailgate spelling out, “Clifford The Big Red Dodge.”

    Hey, I thought it was funny…

  • Gifts From Afar

    So today hasn’t exactly been the best day ever, but there is one bright spot: I got prezzies!

    I arrived at my office to find a plastic replica RAF compass on my desk, courtesy of our Production Director. (It’s actually rather nifty… I amused myself a few minutes ago by checking out the magnetic fields in my office.)

    Even better, a box from Seattle was delivered today. Inside I found towels and soap, all in a rubber duck motif, as well as some flavored Hershey’s Kisses! Awww… I think she likes me, what do you think?

    So maybe today’s not so crappy after all.

  • Eighteen Hours In A Nutshell

    I was tired by nine o’clock last night. Very tired. I almost went to bed… but then it hit me: I needed to listen to music. These cravings come to me less often now than in years past, but they’re no less powerful when they do. So, on went the headphones.

    (I’m guessing that my mind needed settling after spending a couple of hours visiting the rugrats. Yeah, this separation thing is hitting me a lot harder than I thought it would. Ugh.)

    I finally rolled into bed around midnight-thirty and conked out.

    My phone woke me up sometime shortly after two in the morning. There was a major network problem that required my presence at the office. So, dressed and out the door I went, can of root beer in hand to give me a sugar boost. Turns out the central 39-port ethernet switch that runs the office network had gone on the fritz. Power-cycling it did the trick, and I was back home and in bed by four AM. It took me a bit longer to get back to sleep, of course.

    The alarm went off at seven-thirty like normal… and I finally got up to turn off the alarm when, a few minutes later, it chimed again. Nope, I certainly wasn’t getting up right then.

    My phone woke me up, yet again, at nine-thirty. Turns out the Welchia.D worm was running rampant within the company network, and one of the high mucky-mucks had set a two o’clock deadline for having it eradicated.

    Oh, that’s two o’clock east coast time. So there I was, with an hour and a half to complete a high-profile job, still completely naked and unshowered. Whee! And they were sending a car to retrieve me ASAP!

    Into the shower I went, post haste. I threw on some clothes, grabbed my jacket and phone, but forgot my umbrella until after I was halfway to work. Whoops. Have you seen the weather out there today?

    Thanks to the power of Novell’s ZENworks, I was able to “push” the Welchia removal tool to almost all of the PCs in the building. Getting it to run involved a bit of social engineering, but when you have the weight of the general managers on your side it’s not nearly as difficult as usual to get the rank-and-file to do your bidding. (Bwahahaha. Ahem.)

    The damned worm turned up on three computers, which is two more infected machines than I thought we’d find. Argh. Once I was comfortable with the reduced stress levels, I took off for lunch.

    Because, dammit, that much stress and having my sleep schedule totally screwed up and still dealing with personal emotional crap, all on an empty stomach? Faugh!

    Near as I can tell, though, life has returned to whatever passes for normal in our office building. Maybe tomorrow I can get some real work done.

    Yeah, I doubt it too.

  • Heather In The Sky

    While I was being a lazy bum up in Seattle, Heather was doing this:

    Wow. That’s a whole lot more brave than I could ever imagine being.

    Again I say, wow. I’m impressed. Looks like a helluva lot of fun… for somebody other than me.

  • The move continues…

    This afternoon and evening will be spent, once again, helping Wendi and the kids move into their new apartment. On tonight’s agenda is the electronic equipment (computers, audio-video gear), as well as getting the washer/dryer over to my place and (finally) getting my box spring home.

    The kids are handling things better than the adults, in a lot of ways, though Wendi’s holding up fairly well all things being equal. I worry, but I’m a born worrier so I’m working very hard not to let it show or to let it dictate my responses.

    Tomorrow the heavy stuff gets moved to the apartment, and this weekend we’ll be cleaning the house. Six years and some-odd of detritus and wear and tear need cleaning out and off…

  • North, then South again

    “Why the sudden silence,” you ask? “Again,” you add?

    I took off for the Seattle area early on Friday to visit with Dawn. For the record, I highly recommend train travel over bus travel. Sure, Amtrak is chronically late… but there are fewer annoying people and you’re not packed in like sardines alongside ‘em.

    Anyway. I arrived at the Tukwila station around noon just in time to enjoy a brief rain squall in the middle of a bright sunshiney day. Oh, how I’ve missed Seattle weather. (And by “missed” I mean “managed to blot out from my memory as a trauma defense mechanism.”) Okay, I’m teasing a bit there. Portland weather can be almost as freakish…

    And, ah, by “Tukwila station” I mean “a raised platform attached to the rest of civilization by a switchback series of long, long ramps.” Apparently the real station is yet to be built. It’s kinda neat, really.

    Dawn and I went out to lunch, then pretty much spent the weekend either shopping, hanging out, playing games or eating. Well, okay, we slept occasionally. All in all, I enjoyed the visit and ended the weekend much more relaxed than I’d started out.

    As for not updating when I got home or at any point yesterday… well, I’m a lazy butt. I thought you knew that!