Things are hard lately.
Well, I want to just cover quickly what all has happened in the last 2 months or so. I'm really hoping to find the light at the end of this tunnel.
Well, here's a quick run down of events (may get out of order, it's getting fuzzy):
1) Few days before Christmas, step Dad Larry goes into hospital with pancreatitus.
2) Day after Christmas, they send him home.
3) Snow hits, and my car goes in the ditch.
4) 2 days later he goes back in. By the time he gets out, he's had 16 days in the hospital. They had to take out his gall bladder to get him well.
5) Employer has a critical computing system fail, could halt delivery of products, causing millions in penalty charges from customers.
6) Almost a day later, got basic needed functions restored, products can deliver. We're hero's. 2nd level boss says to us heros (team of 3), "If there's anything I can ever do for you, just let me know!"
7) We are tasked to make a redundant failover system to prevent such a disaster in the future, meanwhile, continue restoring the rest of the original systems functions and data.
8) We get ~3 months of normal work done in just 8 days. Hardware acquisition, datacenter space, network hook-up, OS loaded, all software installed, all data replicated to failover system, nightly updates of the replicated data, back-up silo connectivity, software licensing. Team now 3 SA's + Managers to push through red tape. We're awesome, but little sleep.
9) Meanwhile, in Everett Gotham City, biological Dad has his surgery to implant a pain drug pump into his abdomen, this is to alleviate his back pain from spinal stenosis.
10) Day after Dad's pain pump surgery, my Aunt, who lives with him and much of my family, is taken to the hospital... something is wrong. Is it her heart?
11) No, it's cancer... 4th time, too. And this time, she purposely let it go because she wasn't going to fight it anymore. Can't say I blame her, her fight cost her the use of her arms, caused her small strokes, caused serious depression and altered her personality into a very unhappy person, and even weakened her bones so they break too easily.
12) While still dealing with Boeing's critical issue and lack of sleep, I visit Aunt Wanda in the hospital. The morphine made it so she wasn't conscious, but almost... in and out, not making sense.
13) A day or two later she passed away in the middle of the night.
14) Family tensions are high, my recovering Dad was made executor of her estate... and I'm sure you all know how stressed things can get when kids want to lay claim to things un-evenly. He's having to mediate between them, deal with the lawyers for the estate, the burial (still hasn't happened yet), and so on...
15) Now Dad (biological one, pain pump, executor...) has his stitches out... his wound begins to leak later that day and fill with fluid. Back into the hospital.
16) Biological Mom goes into the hospital... her gall bladder just gave out due to stones... She's married to the guy that just had his out for the same thing, which had aggravated his pancreas. Is it something in their well water?!? How odd!
16) My car goes into the shop for repair... Insurance books Enterprise to get me a rental. Enterprise says they won't come pick me up, I'm too far from all their branches (smack dab in between them all). They pass me from branch to branch. Oh, and they don't have any cars... If I want to pay an $11/day upgrade, I can get a van or SUV. NO!
17) Mom gets her gall bladder removed, starts improving and sent home.
18) Day and a half later, tired of fighting with Enterprise and having to ride my scooter in the rain to take Sarah to school, I call the insurance company. Fix the situation! They do.
19) I get a rental van from Enterprise, they come pick us up in a Hummer H3 (environment killers!) and I do NOT have to pay the upgrade fee. Get snide remark when looking the van over for damage before I take it, "No one gets a van for $23 a day... no one." I replied, "I just did." So insurance is covering everything, yay!
20) Dad's out of the hospital, new stitches and I think some treatment to prevent infection.
Oh crap, I forgot to mention, but don't want to renumber all this... My work re-organized us right at the beginning of all this... I'm now in a group that's like three sub-groups. Windows folks, ticket statistics gathering folks, and then just a 3 man group for Virtual Machines like VMWare and Linux on the mainframe. There are many horror stories about our new boss from the people who re-orged out from her group. I'm scared.
21) Darb, take Linux off your company laptop! Or you can kiss telecommuting good-bye and your laptop good-bye. WHAT?!? It doesn't support our new whole disk encryption for Windows. So? I can use Linux disk encryption. It's not a standard, we don't trust it, so no. Bye bye Linux. Bastards. Hey 2nd level, remember when you said if I ever need anything? Oh, but not this? Bastards. So much for being your hero.
22) Emergency all hands meeting at work. We're X amount over budget for the year because our budget was cut. Lay-offs, outsourcing, all of it is being looked at. We should know soon. But likely expect one or both. My job is at risk! Well crud, I loath what my job turned into with all the re-orgs, sure... but it's work! It's pay!
23) Second emergency meeting, my group and a sister group, and our second level. Clarification of stuff, and yes, layoffs and outsourcing is possible, even likely. They have run out of non-labor things to cut from the budget. Oh, but you can't cut service level to the computing customers. Bastards.
24) By the way, Darb, it's your week to be on call.
25) I hear Aunt Wanda might be getting cremated today. Funeral date still not yet set.
26) My car should be ready sometime today. How to get the van back? Will Enterprise drive me back? *sigh* Too tired to start that battle.
So... Would you folks pray for me, my family, and co-workers? Please?
Things I could use right now:
1) A new job, one hopefully with Linux and not all the political BS of a Boeing sized company that eats at my soul every day. Pays well.
2) Healthy parents. Stop getting sick! Please! I am so worried about all of you!
3) A vacation.
4) A burrito.
5) And I'm not above asking for hugs. Just be aware at any hug, I might crack and cry, but I'll do my best not to.
But, I'm getting my car back today, right? Maybe this is the beginning of the turn around I needed... maybe things will start turning out for the better now.
Peace,
*Darb
Well, here's a quick run down of events (may get out of order, it's getting fuzzy):
1) Few days before Christmas, step Dad Larry goes into hospital with pancreatitus.
2) Day after Christmas, they send him home.
3) Snow hits, and my car goes in the ditch.
4) 2 days later he goes back in. By the time he gets out, he's had 16 days in the hospital. They had to take out his gall bladder to get him well.
5) Employer has a critical computing system fail, could halt delivery of products, causing millions in penalty charges from customers.
6) Almost a day later, got basic needed functions restored, products can deliver. We're hero's. 2nd level boss says to us heros (team of 3), "If there's anything I can ever do for you, just let me know!"
7) We are tasked to make a redundant failover system to prevent such a disaster in the future, meanwhile, continue restoring the rest of the original systems functions and data.
8) We get ~3 months of normal work done in just 8 days. Hardware acquisition, datacenter space, network hook-up, OS loaded, all software installed, all data replicated to failover system, nightly updates of the replicated data, back-up silo connectivity, software licensing. Team now 3 SA's + Managers to push through red tape. We're awesome, but little sleep.
9) Meanwhile, in Everett Gotham City, biological Dad has his surgery to implant a pain drug pump into his abdomen, this is to alleviate his back pain from spinal stenosis.
10) Day after Dad's pain pump surgery, my Aunt, who lives with him and much of my family, is taken to the hospital... something is wrong. Is it her heart?
11) No, it's cancer... 4th time, too. And this time, she purposely let it go because she wasn't going to fight it anymore. Can't say I blame her, her fight cost her the use of her arms, caused her small strokes, caused serious depression and altered her personality into a very unhappy person, and even weakened her bones so they break too easily.
12) While still dealing with Boeing's critical issue and lack of sleep, I visit Aunt Wanda in the hospital. The morphine made it so she wasn't conscious, but almost... in and out, not making sense.
13) A day or two later she passed away in the middle of the night.
14) Family tensions are high, my recovering Dad was made executor of her estate... and I'm sure you all know how stressed things can get when kids want to lay claim to things un-evenly. He's having to mediate between them, deal with the lawyers for the estate, the burial (still hasn't happened yet), and so on...
15) Now Dad (biological one, pain pump, executor...) has his stitches out... his wound begins to leak later that day and fill with fluid. Back into the hospital.
16) Biological Mom goes into the hospital... her gall bladder just gave out due to stones... She's married to the guy that just had his out for the same thing, which had aggravated his pancreas. Is it something in their well water?!? How odd!
16) My car goes into the shop for repair... Insurance books Enterprise to get me a rental. Enterprise says they won't come pick me up, I'm too far from all their branches (smack dab in between them all). They pass me from branch to branch. Oh, and they don't have any cars... If I want to pay an $11/day upgrade, I can get a van or SUV. NO!
17) Mom gets her gall bladder removed, starts improving and sent home.
18) Day and a half later, tired of fighting with Enterprise and having to ride my scooter in the rain to take Sarah to school, I call the insurance company. Fix the situation! They do.
19) I get a rental van from Enterprise, they come pick us up in a Hummer H3 (environment killers!) and I do NOT have to pay the upgrade fee. Get snide remark when looking the van over for damage before I take it, "No one gets a van for $23 a day... no one." I replied, "I just did." So insurance is covering everything, yay!
20) Dad's out of the hospital, new stitches and I think some treatment to prevent infection.
Oh crap, I forgot to mention, but don't want to renumber all this... My work re-organized us right at the beginning of all this... I'm now in a group that's like three sub-groups. Windows folks, ticket statistics gathering folks, and then just a 3 man group for Virtual Machines like VMWare and Linux on the mainframe. There are many horror stories about our new boss from the people who re-orged out from her group. I'm scared.
21) Darb, take Linux off your company laptop! Or you can kiss telecommuting good-bye and your laptop good-bye. WHAT?!? It doesn't support our new whole disk encryption for Windows. So? I can use Linux disk encryption. It's not a standard, we don't trust it, so no. Bye bye Linux. Bastards. Hey 2nd level, remember when you said if I ever need anything? Oh, but not this? Bastards. So much for being your hero.
22) Emergency all hands meeting at work. We're X amount over budget for the year because our budget was cut. Lay-offs, outsourcing, all of it is being looked at. We should know soon. But likely expect one or both. My job is at risk! Well crud, I loath what my job turned into with all the re-orgs, sure... but it's work! It's pay!
23) Second emergency meeting, my group and a sister group, and our second level. Clarification of stuff, and yes, layoffs and outsourcing is possible, even likely. They have run out of non-labor things to cut from the budget. Oh, but you can't cut service level to the computing customers. Bastards.
24) By the way, Darb, it's your week to be on call.
25) I hear Aunt Wanda might be getting cremated today. Funeral date still not yet set.
26) My car should be ready sometime today. How to get the van back? Will Enterprise drive me back? *sigh* Too tired to start that battle.
So... Would you folks pray for me, my family, and co-workers? Please?
Things I could use right now:
1) A new job, one hopefully with Linux and not all the political BS of a Boeing sized company that eats at my soul every day. Pays well.
2) Healthy parents. Stop getting sick! Please! I am so worried about all of you!
3) A vacation.
4) A burrito.
5) And I'm not above asking for hugs. Just be aware at any hug, I might crack and cry, but I'll do my best not to.
But, I'm getting my car back today, right? Maybe this is the beginning of the turn around I needed... maybe things will start turning out for the better now.
Peace,
*Darb