Stuff and things
I know I am far from the only person in a weird state these days. The world is now totally weird and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.
I’ve now hit 6 Months of mostly working from home. (OK, technically the day after tomorrow is 6 months, but today ends the work week, so I’m counting it.)
In those 6 months I’ve been in the office 24 times. That counts times I just stopped by to pick up or drop off something, and the Saturday I had to work a few weeks ago.
So, about once a week on average, even if the actual days are more clustered than that.
In that time I have not taken any time off. This is the first time in more than a decade we didn’t take a week off to spend with our godkids. I can’t lie, I miss that.
And, no other trips. We normally do a lot of day trips to museums or events.
Only one sword show where normally there would have been a dozen or so.
This is the first year that they’ve had the show in Mobile that we won’t attend, and we started in 2002. Our going there would be old enough to vote in the election, but we’re going not going due to Covid shut downs. (The event is still going, which tells you something about why Covid is still an issue here…)
I miss all that too.
I have plenty of vacation time. I could take days off. But, if I’m going to spend a day sitting in front of a computer, why burn a vacation day to do it?
I know, I know, it’s not the same, but I like designing parts. So, if I have the time to do that, it isn’t a bad thing for me.
Meetings, customer presentations and calls from my boss are less nice, but I wouldn’t be able to take those times off anyhow, so all I’d do is cut out the parts of the job I like.
I worry about Covid a lot.
Every time they announce a new risk factor it is something I have.
Over 50? Yes.
High blood pressure? Yes.
High blood sugar? Yes.
Type A blood? Yes.
History of breathing problems? Yes.
Higher percentage of Neanderthal genes? According to 23&me, yes.
So, I watch the numbers and worry about things.
The apartment complex where we live mandated they send someone in and check our smoke detectors and change the air filters.
I questioned them on their health before I opened the door and made sure they were wearing good quality masks.
Then, I kept the windows open with the fan blowing fresh air for two days.
But, I still worry.
I got mad at my boss for sending me into work Tuesday when he has only been willing to go in once over the last 6 months.
It did turn out that the inspector I was supposed to check on was totally looking at the wrong thing, so there was some point to it.
But, I probably could have done it over the phone too…
And, work in general has been horrible lately. The persnickety customer is still mad. We’re not supposed to know that they’re trying to beat our patent and design their own robot to cut us out of the deal. But, all of our suppliers have let us know they’re asking for details about what they provide us, so it’s pretty clear that’s what is going on.
The good news is it is becoming more and more clear that the problems they experienced are not due to the design of the robot.
Another robot was installed so badly at a different customer that it destroyed its own storage racks. The person who installed it is the same person who did the persnickety customer’s one. And, every customer complaint we’ve had for the last two years was from machines this guy installed.
Even my boss has said “Maybe it’s that guy…” when he is very prone to blame me.
The fact I went on an installation with this person 3 years ago and said “He seemed more interested in getting home a day early than running all the tests we were supposed to run” is remembered by no one but me.
I had a 1 hour presentation to my boss’ boss yesterday where he spent most of the time asking “why didn’t you try this?” or “why didn’t you try that?”
My answer was “We did. It didn’t work.” Or “that goes outside the parameters we need to keep.” Or “Yes, we had that same idea, but it doesn’t actually fit in the space we have.”
I don’t know if it’s good or bad to shoot down your boss’ boss’ ideas like that.
I guess it shows we know the details of the unit and have through it through. But, it isn’t a “yes sir!” answer either.
Of course I did it in person with him last week and had reasons for that series too.
Politics:
Black lives matter.
My boss and all three people who work for me were born in different countries on the other side of oceans. Every single one of those folks has had kids here. They are a great bunch of folks and we should have more like them. (Even my boss, who does get to me…)
One of my best coworkers is married to someone of the same gender and they have adopted kids. They seem to be great parents and we should have more folks like that out there.
The Muslim guy who has the office across the aisle from me is one of the nicest, hard working guys in the department. He’s a great asset to our department and it would be great to have more folks like him.
I think plotting to kidnap government officials is a crime and should be treated as such.
I am OK with folks defending their homes, but not with going to some other place to shoot people under the pretense of helping keep law and order. That’s just premeditated murder as far as I’m concerned.
I do not think police should be above the law and they should be prosecuted for crimes they commit. That includes use of lethal force when not in immediate defense of themselves or others.
I have family that work as police at several levels, so I’m not anti-police and am not saying abolish them or anything like that. I do not want them shot, attacked or anything like that.
But, I also think they need to be accountable for their actions.
I do not like either political party or any of the candidates running for president now. But, one side and candidate does seem to fit my feelings much better than the other.
So, when I dropped off our ballots the day before yesterday, that is the side I voted for.
Would I prefer a better choice? You know it.
But, there is clearly one that is far less worse from my point of view.
I know too much history to say this is the worst it’s been on anything like that.
It’s bad. I want it to get better.
There isn’t a lot I can do from where I am, but I am trying.
I’m pretty unhappy with this year all around.
And, I’m certainly hoping for an improvement.
While I was writing this, my company sent out a general email about the Covid situation saying in part:
“the number of positive test results for employees in Europe and the US has increased by 10 employees and is the primary reason for this alert message”
“REMAIN VIGILANT and continue practicing all recommended safety protocols”
“it is very likely that this mode of life will continue well into the new year”
I can still wish for it to get better sooner than that…