The Time Sink

Well a happy and glorious Monday to one and all. Such as it is. It rained all day Sunday (not scheduled) and it looks to do the same thing today (also unscheduled) and likely into Tuesday (scheduled). "Scheduled" in this case means that Shelley has heard a forecast and integrated it into her plans for the rest of the world, i.e., school, shopping, deliveries, plans for me in my 'off hours' (both of them) and the rest of the things she assists in running.

Sunday turned into a pajamas day for the boys and a fireplace day for the lead feline. I really think the next time it rains and we have the fire going and a window cracked I'll take a series of pictures of Run Tun Tun in his various positions in front of the fire. We're pretty sure he gets up and moves from time to time; we just never see it happen. We'll just glance over and he'll be stretched out warming yet another portion of his carcass.

This week at work I'll find out how well I did last week with half a brain. As I noted last night, my stamina is still shot to heck, but it appears that my brain is starting to kick in. I had a really nice phone conversation with a friend yesterday and it seemed as though my critical thinking was coming back online. At least I seem to be able to write more copy for this space (and two others) somewhat more easily. Last week I limited myself to very routine tasks at the job site and deferred anything complex until today. It should be interesting as I'm working and the task reminders pop up in an apparently random fashion with all the fun stuff I put off!

Hmmm... not as brain dead as I thought. Monday went rather well; I just need to remember that I need to pace myself and not try to do it all in a day. That, and remember the east coast calls before 1600 local time. Sheesh.

Orders got made; a few problems reared their ugly heads (nothing like a manufacture's back order on a product you've just switched to...) Janeen handled that one well, "No one has it; we're back to the old product for at lease a month and Ops can just..." I'll hold the quote at that point.

Computer related things do cross my way from time to time. Of interest: If you have lots of HDD space and keep losing program and game CDs to the dust bunnies, you might check out http://www.farstone.com/. Their Virtual Drive 2000 will create up to twenty-three virtual CDROM drives. Their site claims Win2k/NT/95/95 compatibility. They have a trial version available for download and offer licensing for both standalone machines and home networks. This looks like an answer to those ill-mannered programs that demand their CDs be present in a drive before they'll run. I'll likely try it this weekend; of course, I have to fight through the dust bunnies to get to the CDs.

No you didn't miss an update; Shelley was feeling poorly so I was handling some additional duties and never managed to post.

Computer related site of the day for the NT crowd: http://www.searchnt.com. This is billed as a site for NT users and administrators. They seem strong on news and provide the usual email newsletter if you wish. They're still building the site, but the start looks good.

...and I spent the day torqued at people who just cannot think past their knee-jerk reactions to a situation. I was taught that 'planning' was a verb and an active verb at that. ...and when I run across people who cannot think that additional step past the moment, and will not listen to 'been there, done that' advice, I just go ballistic.

Granted, I over-plan: when Janeen and I moved offices last fall, she ran the measurements on the new area to the inch. I sat down with Visio; made templates of the existing and new furniture to confirm fit; overlaid a wiring diagram for the network, telco and stereo wiring; and presto-pocus, everything looked and worked fine. Then I run across people who just order things with no thought to how this item might integrate with the people who actually will use it or even how it will be carried or stored in the mobile environment. Good grief, do they ever place themselves in the position of the end user? That's one of the reasons I like working with our biotec chief; he's a 'been there, done that, have the t-shirt' type of guy. Janeen too; she's seen enough of the effects of ill planning that she's sensitized to the problem and can often help people dodge that bullet. Enough, I'll turn <rant mode> off and get on with my life <g>.

From time to time, you'll notice the byline "J.H. Ricketson in San Pablo" at the close of a letter to one of the Daynotes Gang. The letter is usually a well worded question to a topic or quite often a 'been there; done that' answer to one of our questions or problems. J.H. and I have exchanged some mail on a topic that I hope to cover this weekend (if he gets his homework done <grin>); and, while we were comparing notes, he wrote a piece on his approach to system philosophy and strategy. It's a detailed and informative piece, enough so that I asked him permission to reprint it "for others to enjoy/review/trash?" He replied that he'd be honored; the piece is located here. Feel free to comment; his email address is at the end of the piece.

...and it was a "girls night out" for Shelley and an old friend. Olivia blew in from the east coast by way of a missions assignment in Mexico; she and Shelley hooked up with another teacher they used to work with and spent the night out at the local pie shop talking every thing but shop. "Sooo...", you say? Well, hmmm, that left Daniel, Bradley and Dan to their own ends for dinner and entertainment this evening. Suffice to say a good time was had by all (the children's Mylanta is at hand for potential use at 0300) and as far as Shelley knows, it was a real quiet evening. Right!