We have a firm date for Dad to be released. Tuesday. We have everything set up for a smooth transition.

However, he's going out of his way to be difficult. Nothing new. He calls me every day with a new emergency that could possibly prevent him going home. He hates it where he is but his obsessive mind is constantly coming up with reasons to prevent any change, however minor.

Meanwhile, he says they have stolen money and his wedding ring. Dad insists that someone took the ring off of his finger while he was asleep. Mom has had her people scour every nook and cranny for the ring and they cannot find it. Mom wants to pursue legal action. I'm really not sure at all how to handle this. Dad has a history of accusing people of stealing from him and a history of saying something has disappeared when it hasn't. On the other hand, we can't find the ring and it is plausible in a place like that that someone did steal it. It's not uncommon.

I've told mom to hold off until he is released. If we decide to pursue this I'd rather he not be there.

I really can't wait to get back to blogging about the remodel.

Having a bad hair day. That is all.

We got Dad moved back into his "home" (assisted living). It takes a village.

The wedding ring that he was convinced that someone took off of his finger while he was asleep because he NEVER takes his ring off miraculously showed up in his bag where he keeps things like wedding rings. I'm shocked.

I hadn't heard anything in a while so i rechecked this blog and sure enough it's been over 3 weeks since rob handed things over to someone else. I remember he said it would be several weeks before they would start but nobody had touched base with me at all.

So i sent them a, um, "suggestion", that it would be a really good idea if someone contacted me to tell me wtf was going on.

Amazingly i got an email about 30 minutes later followed by a phone call from the project manager, mike. Mike arranged a time to meet this Friday. I need to sign some FEMA paperwork before they can start. Mike estimated they would start in 2-3 weeks. Ugh.

Have you ever shared the infamous pub toast with this blog? I feel like most of the readers here won't have seen it, and that's a shame, but I don't want to post it without your OK.

I have no idea what that is...

OK, a little background.

The LC thread in POG (Puzzles and Games) is referred to as the Pub. It used to be a tradition to video pub toasts for everyone to enjoy. The tradition has sort of dwindled but I think folks still do it.

Mcavoy was probably the most polarizing pog poster ever. He's permabanned now (for I think the third time). He spent most of his posting days getting falling down drunk and making bad posts. I always viewed him as Otis of Mayberry. Just lock him up when he gets drunk and let him out the next day. But a lot of people thought he was the reincarnation of Satan so he is persona non grata now. Mcavoy is one of 3 2p2ers that I've ever met in person. Super nice guy. I liked him as a poster and as a person.

I digress.........

Here is my toast.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQF--1i-oaQ

Nice countertops!

lol I wonder if I made it on that list.

Slightly more Texas twang than I was expecting.

Close-up of the bottle? I wonder what it is exactly. Looks darker than whiskey

Lol, nice!

I assume that's Jack Daniels? I'm such an alcohol fish though I should probably not be the one guessing, .

I met Mike today to sign the FEMA papers. Nice guy. The FEMA papers were pretty much what you would expect from the gubberment.

Mike reiterated that it would be 2 -3 weeks before starting but definitely before Xmas. I asked about finishing by the end of February and he indicated that should be no problem.

Had another Match date yesterday. I've sort of given up on this because it's a lot of work and doesn't seem profitable. But I traded a couple of emails with someone that seemed nice.

She was really nice and we had a good conversation. I got the impression she sort of wasn't really that motivated to find a match but if she happened to meet someone that really floated her boat she would go with it. I don't think I floated her boat. I enjoyed her company enough to at least have a followup date but I doubt that happens.

I guess you needed an even bigger boat? :/

If you enjoyed the date definitely see if she wants to do something again.

is it possible that youre opening up your dates with "by any chance do you know how to float and tape drywall?!"

lol i kid, i kid. good luck out there!

Things are sort of slow but not really. Emotional stuff happening but seems sort of boring.

But, I thought I'd ramble about work.

For those of you that don't know, I'm a programmer. Actually I'm really more than that. For many years I was the business analyst, lead developer, and project manager all rolled up into one. That was sort of the norm many years ago. I would talk the the users, find out what they need, and manage other developers to get it done. I was damn good at it. There are many systems out there still being used that either I wrote myself or I led a team that developed it.

Times have changed. Most large IT shops have an entire department of business analysts as well as project managers. Programmers are sort of relegated to just coding. I could rant about how bad this is but I won't. My job now is mostly administrative. I rarely code. Granted my organization is much much more screwed up than most but this is still the state of IT now.

I find myself being almost incompetent now. I am constantly making mistakes. I can't remember so many things. There is a part of me that doesn't care because I find the job pretty meaningless. But I am getting concerned that my mind is degrading. I used to be "the guy". The one everyone went to for advice. I could always do everything faster and better. But now I'm probably the least effective person on the team.

I'm sort of at a loss on how to analyze this. One theory is that I grasp programming and design concepts well but administrative stuff not so well. Maybe I don't care enough to do everything correctly. However, I'm sort of leaning towards the fact that my mind just isn't what it was. It's sort of a scary thought.

Sort of battling a bit of depression aorn. Made contact with my therapist who I haven't talked to since I moved to Florida. I'm really trying to keep a happy face on but sheesh, sometimes it seems like nothing is working right.

I assume it's like that because most programmers (you could very well be the exception) may just completely suck at "business analyst" (and project management)?

That's definitely been my experience. Having a programmer who can do all three well is somewhat of a unicorn or extremely expensive. In most ways it's just easier to get people who are good with clients and understanding business goals, people who are good at managing timelines and logistics of projects, and letting the coders code.

Have you been part of a team with a good team of business analysts and project managers?

As for your own possible degradation, do you stay sharp in any way with any sort of hobby or activity that you are more passionate about or that is more fun? I mean, you won't be as sharp as the 20 something or whatever in terms of coding, but experience can make up a lot I believe. My Dad was/is programming into his 70s and learning new languages. He is certainly not as sharp/fast as he was, but in some ways he can be more methodical and do a better job with tricky programming issues b/c of his experience.

Also, keeping a happy face is good and all but yeah, having someone who is a professional and can help you talk through things while you figure things out for yourself is really a good idea.

I've worked with good business analysts but there is always something missing in analysis if you don't understand how systems work. A very small minority get that part of it. And I do agree that it works the other way too. A lot of programmers can't communicate with a business person properly.

PMO is just a paradigm that I firmly don't believe works with software development. Maaaaaaayyyybbbee if it somehow helps organizing external resources but it is has become the driving force and is almost always detrimental to creating good software.

The programming I can do just fine. It's remembering details about things. Not code or design. Just other things.

Yeah, this therapist is phenomenal. When I first started seeing her I had a pretty big brick wall going on but she was relentless. Even if I'm not really trying to work things out I just enjoy talking to her. She is so frickin' smart about things I'm not (people, emotions, etc). I mean, that's her job but I've seen enough therapists to recognize she's elite.

So, I've waited 3 weeks since the last time the contractor told me "2-3 weeks". Actually it has been 5 weeks since the first time they told me this.

I sent them a not so nice email. It makes me sad but I think I might have to hire a lawyer. Ugh.

On a personal front. Before I made the move to Florida I had really sort of melted down. Actually, it was a complete meltdown. There were a lot of factors but it just came down to nothing in my life seemed to be satisfying. The more I worked on things, the less successful I seemed to be at anything (relationships, work, etc.).

The move was wonderful. A new start at everything. But once again everything seems to be falling apart again. I'm not quite at complete meltdown but I see the signs. I think I might be better able to fight this now but I'm sort of concerned that nothing fundamentally changed and I just haven't figured things out.

Geez, didn't want this blog to be this. I guess I just need to vent or something.

Almost immediately Keith replied that he was in the process of confirming with a crew leader the start date. It will be this Monday, 14th. Woot!

I'm now feeling pretty bad about the threatening email.

I was going to say that shifting timelines could b totally standard for them. It likely means nothing except they aren't as good at setting up timelines they can stick to as they should be. I can barely remember a client who had some strict timeline, that we hit, where they didn't clearly waste time at some point they easily could have avoided.