This will be my last week on-call for $OLDSYSTEM. I am not going on-call for $NEWSYSTEM until after I come back from Kaleidoscope. I will miss the pager pay, but will not miss people pestering me. I'm going to start leaving the laptop at work. Even when I go back on call, it'll only be one week in three.
I snuck out this afternoon and went for a walk along the shore of gooseshit pond here at work. I picked up a pile of big goose feathers (found feathers have always seemed a little magical to me). I walked past a heron wading aroudn the pond, and found a couple dead fish. I had no idea there were *fish* in there. Well, I saw two dead ones, so perhaps there isn't, anymore, but that does expalin the heron. It's nice to get a little bit of connection to nonhuman life.
There is talk of *not* having us all stay until 7:30 pm tonight. And next week should be back to normal hours.