The man in this photo isn’t me, but I can tell you what happens next. I drove to work this morning with my tall styro-foam cup of coffee riding on the toolbox of my truck. It didn’t take me too long to notice, but by the time I did it was too late. The cup was on its side rolling around in the wind. There are now streaks of coffee running down the side of the truck bed - cream and sugar included. Nice. I had to drink crumby work coffee today. It’s the worst.
Have you ever seen those people on the news scratching their head after they built their home right on the edge of the sea - on a foundation of sand? They can never quite seem to figure out why their house fell into the ocean one day unexpectedly.
This is the kind of day I’m having at work. Multiple failures are occurring across many computers affecting hundreds of applications. Everyone seems befuddled that so much stuff is broken or unavailable. There is a common denominator at play here. We trusted a shared disk that supports dozens of computers (maybe hundreds). This is our version of a sand foundation. Once it becomes unstable, our whole house of cards starts tumbling down very quickly too.
I now find myself wishing I’d taken two weeks off, not one.
I saw a show about the Dugger family on the Discovery Health channel last night. This family has seventeen children. Can you imagine? Just think about the enormity of that size family. Their family’s tax stimulus payment this year will be something like this:
$1,200 - per married couple
$300 - per child under 17 years old (15 Duggers qualify I think, 2 are older)
Totaling $5,700.00 in economic stimulus for that one family.
This amount probably covers only a couple of trips to the grocery store for this crew. To think I can get overwhelmed with just three kids sometimes. Just something to reflect on.
I’m back to the grind after a week off. Camping was fun, but no picnic. The woods were very dry and dusty, nearly choking both boys. They suffer with asthma like symptoms and croup cough upon occasion. We’re never too far from a nebulizer, and probably used it a dozen times over vacation. Anyhow, it was great to remove ourselves from the house and get away.
I’ve returned to 300+ unread emails and over a thousand Google Reader items. I’ll very likely be flushing the Google Reader using “mark all as read” to relieve the pressure. Don’t worry, I’ll read your posts.
I guess the multiple days in the woods, void of television and modern amenities could be to blame for our latest splurge. My lovely wife and I went on a shopping date Friday night and ended up purchasing a new 32″ LCD television for our bedroom. Man, have TVs gotten complicated since I’ve last bought one! We sped through a weeks’ worth of Big Brother and American Idol in practically no time.
Here’s to being back in the land of water pressure, cable TV, Internet, and air conditioning! Time to go delete some email.
