The End

Tomorrow is the last day in my old office. On Wednesday I'm moving to brand new digs, and I can't tell you how much I'm salivating with anticipation. My own office, with nice carpeting, french glass doors, the works. A real kitchen with dishwasher and full fridge, board room with full AV system, security system, key card access, first class all the way. I even have a new desk!

Tomorrow is the last day I have to work in the kitchen.

For the past six years my office has been a cramped corner of the kitchen with the other two members of my design team. Our walls are piss yellow, full of holes and old chunks of tape from years of notes and calendars, the furniture is cast offs from the 'main office', it's hard cold tile floor is not only tasteless and ugly, its tasteless and ugly. The power supply is laughable - a couple of years ago a sales rep plugged a tea kettle in and three of my computers shut down. So without the bosses knowledge I had the landlord install new dedicated outlets in there just to support the computers. When we moved in here, there were three computers, now there are nine. Power is a bit of an issue. While the electrician was messing around in the wall the day he installed it all, he let out a yelp and out of the corner of my eye a bright flash immediately caught my attention. The bare wires inside the wall just three feet from my desk touched the steel studding and arced. Needless to say the electrician was not impressed. Neither was I.

No longer do I have to be privy to every meeting. The only common table in our cramped little paradise is in the kitchen, six feet from my desk. This morning I attended a sales meeting without the benefit of an invitation or even wanting to be there. It couldn't be helped.

No longer do I have to listen to every phone conversation in the building simultaneously. The walls are so thin that it can't be helped. Add to that the gregarious nature of some of my workmates, nothing is ever said in private. I fondly remember the day I closed the kitchen door just to be able to concentrate on something, only be be chastised for 'slamming' it. My simply action of trying to gain a slight bit of privacy was taken completely out of context. The person in question accused me of slamming the door. This person was not amused, and refused my explanation that I was simply trying to concentrate. The argument lasted hours. Kinda useless. No more.

No longer do I have the be the only route to the only bathroom. For six years nobody has done any business without me or my design team knowing about it.

Speaking of the bathroom, now that I'm leaving this shit hole I can finally fess up to something - the hole in the bathroom wall roughly the size and shape the door handle is indeed, my handy work. I never lied about it, I was simply never asked! I opened the door a little too violently one day. Back in the old army days, if someone knocked a hole in the wall they always signed their work. It was a mark of pride. Especially if the wall was brick. Yeah, it happened. There was always holes in the basement walls of the armoury circled and signed by the author, and of course, dated. After all these years, there are still some there. At our last reunion we took off looking for them, only to be escorted back to the mess by some annoyed security personel. I thought about signing my hole in the bathroom, but I thought better of it after I realized I'd probably get the bill for the repair. Who cares now!

When the former owner decided to bring his staff into the computer age he decided not to spend any money to accomplish this task. I was given the assignment of wiring the building to accommodate everyone's computers and data links. I was not allowed to do this with any level of professionalism. Hence bright blue and yellow ethernet wires hanging in the corner of every office, strategically duck tapes into the corner so as to appear slightly less noticeable. Still laughable that he deemed this 'professional'. The jackass was quite happy with it all. As long as it didn't cost him anything. All those wire terminated behind my desk to the main data trunk. Which is of course, just as laughable. Eight ethernet wires are bundled together in the corner, taped to the wall, and tie off at the router, modem and four dlink port expanders all tied in parallel to each other. All of this is mounted to a peg board, and shoved in behind my desk. It's a fucking mess. I shoved it behind my desk so I wouldn't have to stare at it all day. I tried hanging a poster in front of it at one point.

I also won't miss the shitty little fridge that measures 2 foot square. Just big enough for a TV dinner. If you're second in, your screwed. I won't miss the recycling guy wheeling the bin through my office once every two weeks. I won't miss the tied off pipe that sticks up out of the middle of the kitchen floor that I always trip on. I won't miss any of it.

But It won't be the same. I love my job, and am lucky to have one. We do have offices in worse condition than mine, cramped, old shoddy, falling apart. Of our five offices we are combining three into one. The remaining two are on the list for refit, but first, ours. Tomorrow I will pack my things, shut the server down, and pull the stuff off the walls I deem worthy of a new home. (The old Apple posters didn't make this cut). When I walk out of there at 5pm I will take one last look before what used to be my office becomes a storage room. With a smile on my face I will take my chair to the new office.

I may even sign the hole in the bathroom wall.

Cheers.

Easter

The bunny has been and gone, the children are content.

The hidden eggs have been accounted for (mostly, I think)

Easter vigils have been observed.

The ham is in the oven, the house is clean and ready for guests.

We're cleaned up and ready for Mass, with any luck we'll be sitting this year.

The sun is shining brightly, the air is fairly warm, easter has finally brought Spring.

This afternoon family will arrive, bringing their appetites for Kim's treats,

We will have a house full, I hope.

That's what Easter is about, family and friends sharing the season.

At the end of the day realizing that it's not about chocolate or treats.

It's about cooking the damn bunny in a pot with carrots and potatoes.

Happy Easter.

Strange Spring

This was taken in our backyard today...

The snow melted off the slide and did its best impression of a fruit roll up. I just thought it was neat. Completely pointless, but neat.

Winter gave us a final (?) blast today, pissed everyone off, it didn't stop until early this evening. Luckily the ground was too warm for much of it to stick, but there was a at least a few centimeters to navigate. Damn I need spring. The only point of the exercise was this picture.

Sigh. I can't wait until it's a child doing an impression of a fruit roll up.

Cheers.

Funky days

Spring is finally creeping in. I've spent the past couple of weeks whining about how shitty the weather is, now that the sun has finally begun to grace us here in lovely Windsor, I thought for sure I'd be happy about it. Then I looked outside. The grim task of reassembling my yard is inching ever closer. Yuck. Tomorrow we're going out there, yard waste bags in hand to start the inevitable task.

Or maybe we won't. We'll see.

On to business.

The economy sucks everywhere; that's not exactly news these days. It seems to be a hot topic of conversation around kitchen tables, between hockey games. Obviously people are scared, some with more reason than others. Some are not affected at all in any direct way, their jobs are safe for one reason or another. Thankfully, there are still people out there who maintain optimism. Hell, someone has to. Around coffee with friends tonight the topic of optimism came up. One overwhelming conclusion is that there isn't enough of it. There isn't enough positive news anywhere. The mainstream media is constantly blabbling on about how bad it is and how bad it will get before it gets better. My advise to CNN, CBS, CBC, NBC and the rest is simply to have a big bowl of shut the fuck up.

Here's the problem in a nutshell - economy goes south, news stations report it, people get nervous and start turning inwards to defend what they have, the news gets worse again, people stop spending based on this bad news, economy gets worse, media reports how bad it's getting, people get scared and stop spending, yadda yadda yadda. There is no good news to report, or at least very little, but nobody reports the good news. Nobody tells the general public that there are companies out there making a difference, they instead concentrate on the news that brings ratings - bad shit. People are sensationalist hens. They follow any train wreck or ambulance they see, and then freak out about the reporting. Y2K ring a bell?

How about a news story that buoys up people's optimism and spirits. How about some fucking hope?

A certain company I know of is just as scared. They aren't making money hand over fist, but there are aspects of the operation that are profitable. The problem is that because of the fear factor, everything is frozen. All spending, hiring, renumeration, expenses, everything. Only the most essential costs may be covered. This company needs a new piece of kit in the profitable operation, in order to make even more money. It can't buy it because of the cuts. Why?

Why does corporate fear ripple down throughout all aspects of the company, even parts that make money? Why not encourage that company to make more, thus increasing confidence in shareholders, increasing confidence from the public, and the debt holders. Make people optimistic again. Make money, make jobs, make the public happy again.

If more companies did this, and the media reported it, what would the result be? Maybe the recession will be in site of ending. Maybe it will put people back to work. Maybe it will at the very least, change perceptions and lead to new hope.

Obviously, many are in no position to even think positive. People are still losing their homes and their lives are in ruin. It's too late for many. The unemployment rate in Windsor is hovering at around 13 percent. It's much higher when you account for those on temporary layoff, social services, or completely unaccounted for by any sort of social net. People are leaving this city in droves, which scares the hell out of the rest of us. Admittedly we have been affected by the downturn; it hasn't been easy, but luckily our situation was of another cause. We can be dropped into the basket with the rest of those affected simply by statistics; we are just one more one-income household. The prospect of job hunting in this economy is a scary thought for our family, just as it is for thousands of other around here. But we'll persevere and move forward. We'll be optimistic, and we'll move forward. We have to be in that mindset, if we don't, fear will take over and we're sunk.

The sun will rise again on Windsor and on our home. It will also rise on the world economy. It isn't the first time we've gone through this, I just think it's the first time that the world has been as closely connected, such that the awareness of every aspect of the situation is under a collective global microscope.

Maybe that connectivity is what can help us all recover. Maybe everyone will band together and see that there is truly hope, and that we can all start enjoying life again.

Cheers.

April Fools

Well it's April. So what. The weather still sucks, the move is barely moving, work is piling up, Spring cleaning looms heavy overhead, all the news is bad, and the cat just bit me.

So I'm starting the day on such a positive note. Maybe it's the weak coffee, but today seems to be the day I just want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head. I'm in a funk again today, and I blame the weather. It's raining and cold outside, and I'm desperate to get out there and feel the warm sun. I so badly want to get out on my bike - the best therapy I can imagine is a long quiet ride (mountain bike, mid life crisis hasn't caused a Harley purchase yet). But I can't really enjoy the ride when ice is forming on my moustache. There's also a burn pile in the back yard that's getting bigger. Any therapy method - burning things. I tried to get that going last week, but everything, including the Christmas tree was soaking wet. I'll try again this weekend.

I have chores to do around here too, I have to fix the back door and fill cracks in the foundation. I'll start simple, the annoying jobs may wait a little longer. That's a list that's not doing much for my funk.

On a positive note, Kim is heading to the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals in Iowa in May. Her team won in her division at the regional competition here in Windsor last weekend. Way to go guys! Now we just have to figure out the logistics of the whole thing. The short time between the two competitions is all part of the problem solving. You only have six weeks to prepare if you win. Now it gets frantic. The team will be taking my car, I really don't mind NOT driving for a week! It's a good opportunity to bike to work. Easier to get into shape when you have no choice!

The move at work is also positive. The problems with Bell are winding down, seems like I actually have everything I need now, and they can piss off for any year or so. I have my Ethernet switch, now I just need the router programmed. Once all that is installed we can move our offices in. I can't wait. My own office, my own door! No more working in the kitchen. Six years of trying to work while others are discussing life around the lunch table five feet away is over.

The joke now about the new office is who's going to be the first to lock themselves in the old vault. The building used to be a bank. We have to get that door disabled!

April is coming in like a lion again, it's raining and crappy out today. With luck this day will turn out well, the birds will sing, the planets will align and all will be good with the world. I'm starting in a funk, I intend to end it upbeat. Maybe that's my April fool's joke. Having everyone think my little grey cloud is still following me.

Cheers.