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Sunday, April 10, 2005

Improvments

Stardate 58041.0 (4-10-2005)
Visited with my dad yesterday. He complains that he is not making progress. I asked him how physical therapy was going, and he showed me that they make him raise his leg and move it from side to side. I pointed out to him that when he got to the place, he could not make his leg move at all. He is not as strong as he wants to be, but I don't think that will ever happen. If he can get some semblance of an independant life, I think he would be happy.

The wireless router is fully functional now. I am typing this on the old laptop. It does work well for log entries, if little else. At least I can do it while sitting in bed, instead of the basement.

April's lab inspection went great this last week. The inspectors found no deficiencies, which is almost unheard of. April's birthday was Saturday. Friday morning, after taking the kids to school, I fixed her breakfast in bed. Eggs, sausages, bananas, and some rose' wine with coffee. It was visually appealing if I say so myself. I love to make meals like that. I read somewhere that a meal should look as well as taste good. I succeeded this time.

At scouts Tuesday, one of the mothers asked me about my Star Trek jacket. Actually, it was not about the jacket, but if I had ever been to a convention before. I told her that I had been to many conventions. She told me she had booked a cruise, and later found out a Buffy convention was going on the same ship. She worried that people would be walking around dressed as vampires. I told her it was likely. I have no idea why it freaked her out. I guess I see it as fun instead of weird. 

We did more home improvement this weekend. A light and switch was installed in the storage room, the outside lights were replaced, and the hole is getting filled back in. There is much more to be done, but it is getting there.

End of Entry

Friday, April 01, 2005

Progress

Stardate 58040.1 (4-1-2005)
I love it when a plan comes together. The week had mostly ups, and one down. At work, I may be starting another replacement training session soon. The person comes from the analyst end of the business. She has been working on developing the rules that I turn into code. She and another lady had asked about the position before, but I am embrassed to say I blew it off. Not because I thought they were not smart enough, but because I thought they didn't really know what they were asking. They have never done any programming. I figured they were not aware of the tedious and frustrating nature of the job, especially when you are just learning. So I spent four hours going over a typical creation of new code, based on an issue she just handed to me. She admitted it was pretty different from the way she had imagined it to be, and that there was a ton to learn. She is, however, eager to try. 

The managers met to discuss project plans for the rest of the year. The director was surprised that my name is on two other plans. I figure that I am allocated for 50% of my time on the project I currently work on, 50% on training, 50% on project 2, 50% on project 3, and 25% for customer support. Nice to know I am wanted. Project plans have always had an air of unreality to me. According to a plan, I should spend 4 hours a day on a project, but with interruptions and meetings, it never works out that way. Plus no one ever asked me for estimates, so the timeline is a best guess. I do like to see when I am expected to have my part of things done, so I can plan on what needs to be done when. They are useful for that.

I did ship back the package back to Home Depot Online. They claimed for weeks now that they had requested UPS to pick it up. I am unhappy with the customer service. They wanted to put the blame on someone else like UPS or me. A supervisor even implied there was no package to return. I offered to take it to a UPS shipping point, and was met with an emphatic NO! Here we have an bottleneck: I want a refund, and they won't give it to me until they get the package, but they won't let me ship it to them. I understand they want it tracked with a specfic number so it does not get lost in the thousands of packages they receive and ship, but I don't think the process should take a month. After a long discussion, I convinced them to mail me the return label. I have the tracking number, so I am going to see when they get it. Needless to say, the company has not done much to endear April and me as customers. 

Wednesday I went in to see my dad. He was not doing well. He could not walk, and he said the pain was worse than it ever had been. I called the case worker the next day with my concerns, and talked to the physical therapist. The guy knew that day was bad, but said he has rebounded since then. The guy also told me that my dad doesn't ask for pain medication, and the nurses don't always remember to give it to him. My father's attitude has worsened in the time he has been there. He just wants to go back home to his routine. 

Lastly, the posts for the deck railing are in my hands. I need to set them up, measure the distance between them, and I should have the rest of the railing soon. There is finally progress. 

Lots of other tasks yet to do, though.

End of Entry