Long Past Due

Well, it’s been a LONG time since I posted here last. It’s been nearly 3 months, and they’ve been incredibly eventful… though from this post it may not seem to be. Busy, mostly.

After my trip to New Jersey, I was immersed in my work… far too immersed. My associate’s (“Tom’s”) departure in mid-November tripled my work load, and much of these past months has been spent trying to figure out just what it was he did… not that he didn’t do a lot, but he did so much, and left most of it undocumented.

We hired a consultant in December to assist me in the process of getting caught up to date with all the work, and to help me troubleshoot issues that arose with Tom’s processes and databases.

At the same time, as the Christmas season progressed, I helped produce, direct and perform in a reader’s theater presentation at church that took most of my spare time.

Then, during the first week of January, our company announced our future. We acquired or merged with a competitor this month, and some employees were not going to be continued in their positions as a result.

In the cheery words of my manager “there is no position for you in our end state.” This means that I move from the database management team to the Integration Team for a period of 12 – 18 months, after which I will no longer have a job with my company… the company I’ve worked for these past 10 years. Que sera, I guess.

I was pretty devastated by that news… in spite of actually kind of hoping for it… the dream and the reality are often two different things, eh? It’s taken most of January to return to some sort of equilibrium.

Of course, I don’t have to stick around for a year. But they’re dangling an awfully tasty carrot in front of me to keep me going, so unless something tremendous comes along, I’ll stick it out.

But it’s not all been hard work and stress… my honey and I have just returned from a 6 night cruise from Galveston, TX, to Cozumel, Belize City and Costa Maya. I kind of don’t want to go back to work tomorrow!

We got back last Thursday night. The first news from our roommate was that the upstairs toilet had sprung a leak. Friday, when we pulled the stool out, we discovered the leak has apparently been ongoing for years, as the hardwood floor under it is mostly rotted away by the moisture. We replaced the wax ring, but that wasn’t the problem… the problem is the gasket between the tank and the bowl, and naturally THAT has to be special ordered, so we’ll be without a toilet for 2 weeks. That leaves 1 for 3 men. Ick.

Then, while we were out of the house on Friday, one of our roommate’s “friends” entered my office and stole our digital camera. Thankfully I’d already downloaded all our cruise pictures.

And THEN, Saturday morning at 3:30 a.m. we got called by the church’s security company. We got to the church to discover the place surrounded by cops, the fire dept, and a K9 unit. Seems a homeless guy broke through a window, then proceeded to cook himself up over 5 whole chickens over the open fire of the stove!

And that brings us up to date on my life as of today. I’m going to TRY to get back to writing more here. But, no promises!