So, in the last 36 hours, I’ve spent roughly 24 of them working. Legit 20 minutes after I left on Thursday for my long weekend, all hell broke loose – and was in no way resolved by yesterday morning.
Worked until an ungodly hour last night and I could tell our team lead was getting annoyed at my relative slowness and inability to say when it would be done other than “by the deadline you should not have agreed to” – and guess who found something wrong cause she was slow and methodical and looked beyond just “does flipping this switch cause the software to blow up?”
Then today, new set of fixes checked in, special build done, and I’m actually really just looking at the issue at hand and one thing doesn’t make sense – just one thing I could have written off as a fluke – and I look closer, cause I could have jacked up the data setup or who knows what, I’m loopy at this point – and I found another issue.
By this time it was IDK, 4:30 – I wrote it up, sent it to the devs and the rest of my team and logged off – didn’t even wait for thee devs response, cause nothing I’d be able to do today and I wasn’t going to work until god knows when again.
I am sure the team lead thinks I’m finding these out of sheer spite to screw up this incredibly not good schedule – I’m not sure *how* one would go about spite based software testing, but maybe I’ll start a new trend, LOL.
They should be rolling into work here very shortly – and I am just waiting for my Teams notifications to blow up. I felt a little bad cause the thing I found today – it existed yesterday and I just did *not* see it – but no one else found it either.
I’m not exactly holding my breath that the remainder of the week will be calm…
And it’s very overcast this morning, which is making it hard to be all bright eyed and bushy tailed. I did sleep alllll the way to 7AM this morning – that was nice, and I think the 6AM experiment may be done. At least for today, cause the Wednesday meetings are Tuesday tomorrow – and I am just realizing that I had a dream that I totally missed that meeting, LOL.
And in some Teams notifications I couldn’t avoid, I found out that Thursday night it was decided to cram a bug fix for the May release into April, and just now I see that it’s not going well. And I don’t know how much of this is going to be my problem but dammit, maybe I should have been up at 6 today after all.
BBC is talking about a 3x a week test mandate in Chaoyang district in China and folks are terrified of a lockdown – I understand China wants Covid zero – but there has to be a happy medium between everything we’re not doing here in the US and doing a full “nobody leaves the house” lockdown. China has a lot of smart people in it, and I am sure they could *not* go full weird authoritarian on this and still keep things in check.
I still think we can accept that Covid zero isn’t going to happen without just writing off vulnerable populations.
Glad to see Macron won in France, but the fact that over 40% of the electorate decided to vote for a fascist is not great. As much as I keep hearing it was a decisive victory – 40% is a lot and let’s look at how things are around here where we had a fuckton of folks who voted for a fascist prick and are still voting them in at the local and state level.
Of course one idiot on Twitter said that folks voting for Macron solely to block LePen was not healthy democracy – fuck, why do you think I voted for Biden? Wasn’t my choice in the primary by a longshot, but I sure as shit wasn’t going to let TFG back in. That’s kinda how democracy works.
And Ukraine. I know we’re sending more stuff for them, but my god, it feels like we’re waiting just long enough for it to not make a difference so we don’t piss off the Russians but we can still say we helped.
Well, time to go see how messed up things are in the office. You have a good day and maybe skip the news today – it’s a mess out there.
I have a to-do list that is a good 10 miles long, but I have a very large coffee, so at least step 1 is done!
Starbucks was a scene this morning. Getting napkins, I gently picked up two bags right in front of the dispenser so as not to knock them over, fully prepared for someone to get mad*, but instead got, “I’m so sorry!” What? No! Just trying to not knock them on the floor! You’re fine! Lady with FIVE drinks, two bags, and a TODDLER. “Um, do you need help getting all this to your car?”** “Oh, no, she [toddler] loves to help!” Good thing those bags have handles you can just loop over a kids arm. I did at least get the door, cause she did NOT have enough arms for it.
Of course, that nice interaction was followed by a dumbass in the parking lot. Idiot pulled up in front of the shop, blocked 4 parking spaces in the process, got yelled at by what appeared to be his own daughter for it, and got beeped at by the person next to me trying to leave. I had my windows open and just waited for him to move, and as he finally pulled past me, he had the audacity to say, “Sorry for the spectacle”*** and I just replied, “No problem, but you know you can’t park there.” Not sure how he missed my “You are a fucking idiot” face.
Like, my dude, you can’t just block 4 parking spaces
BBC was just talking about how China has reported 39 deaths from Omicron 2. Given how China has been a bit iffy with its reporting, I can’t help but wonder if that’s accurate, but also wonder how much worse it would be if they’d gone with US approach of “let ‘er rip” and really wonder what is in store for us.
We have almost 76% of the county fully vaccinated (Omicron got some folks off the bench, thank god) but our cases are creeping back up again and year over year, we’re higher now than we were in 2020 or 2021 at the same time – and the I would say the big difference now is we have zero structural mitigation beyond “get vaccinated.” And in retrospect, I have to wonder if the big drop we saw last summer after mask mandates were dropped and things opened back up was not so much folks getting vaccinated as the initial variant just burning itself out before Delta hit.
If there is any good news, our breakthrough cases are currently under 5% of all cases – which is shaky data given we have no idea how many unreported home test positives are out there, but it’s something. Not enough to get me up to my bar on a Saturday night (and I so, SO wanted to go last night) – but still something.
I know I’m not alone in really wanting that warm weather drop to show up like we had last year – I’m really starting to lose my fucking mind here. I miss that brief point in time where we were all at least *trying* to be safe. Now I just feel like a fucking weirdo. Sure, I’m an excellent introverted hermit, but even I need to chill out with indoor beer and a few people and food that isn’t in a takeout container every now and again.
Well, I have sat here and vented my spleen and dithered enough as a mode of housework procrastination, so I’m going to go try and knock out some cleaning.
You have a great Sunday, and don’t let the idiots get you down.
* We’ve hit the point in the pandemic where I’m just prepared for everyone to be mad. I liked it better when everyone was just very tired. ** Is that weird? It felt vaguely weird, but she had a lot of stuff and a small child, so I had to ask. *** Not sorry for blocking 4 parking spaces for an extended period of time, sorry for the spectacle of getting called out for it. And yes, it was a mediocre white dude.
Got out and walked near 4 miles and when I walked upstairs to get a shower, I realized I’d totally overdone it, but it was TOTALLY worth it to be out and about in the sunshine. I’m tired as fuck, but my mood is lighter than it’s been since…IDK, last fall.
Every winter I slog through, then spring comes and the weather properly turns and I wonder WHY DON’T I MOVE FURTHER SOUTH?
Lots of pretty flowers and nice quiet moments today.
And all is fairly right in my little world. No real side effects from the Covid booster other than being kinda tired and a sore arm, and I 100% believe the post-shot ice cream cone eaten while sitting in the sunshine helped.
And our local farmers markets are open!!!!! I cannot explain why that is such a huge dopamine hit, but it sure is – I guess it’s the combination of being outside in nice weather and good food and it means that spring is here. We’ve got bread and empanadas and salad stuff!
Om, nom, nom
Plus, there are some new vendors this year – dim sum, fresh pasta, and quiches! I’ll definitely be trying those over the course of the summer, plus the kiwi savory pie tent – it’s not new, but I somehow haven’t tried it yet. For the dim sum one, I legit need to do some research, cause I know nothing about dim sum other than it’s good and I don’t want to just stand there going, “Uhhh…”
Honestly, the change in weather and light and all that just does such wonders for my mood. Plus, empanadas. Fairfax County drives me fucking nuts, and I really should move farther south where there is more light and less winter, but I would really miss our farmers market.
And it’s such a lovely day, I’m gonna take my happy ass out for a walk and keep riding this good weather high I’ve got going.
You have an awesome day.
Here’s the LilyMonster is being rather goofy this morning…
Got to the pharmacy and they asked for my vaccine card and I said with a straight face, “I don’t carry it with me cause I’ll lose it, but I have a picture on my phone” and the gal said it was OK and took down the dates and my hand to god, it did not register why she asked for the physical card until she handed me a fresh one with the booster information on it.
I facepalmed so hard I could have given myself a black eye. Thankfully the tech was very good natured about it and I have a feeling I’m not the first one to do this. But gawd, I felt so fucking stupid.
I did get my ice cream – our local B&R didn’t have the Tax Crunch, but they did have Oreo Cold Brew and it hit the spot.
Yeah, I am way, WAY too dependent on them for, well, everything, especially procrastination. But also with the way tech was messing with me this morning, when I went to take a shower, I half expected the power to go out to boot.
I am sooooooooo petulant about my Covid booster today. I am still mad at the pharmaceutical companies for not being able to figure out to get a vaccine with sterilizing immunity – as though somehow I could have done better as someone who barely passed high school chemistry.
But I will get it. And I will probably get myself an ice cream cone afterwards and I think I may even veer off my usual chocolate chip path and try “Tax Crunch” – coffee ice cream with a fudge ribbon and Rice Krispies. I mean, if I’m not getting a lollipop for the shot, I might as well get *something* good, right?
Off to a rip roaring start this morning – woke up to no cable, no internet, and no cell phone signal. Let me tell you, having zero means of communication beyond going outside and yelling is seriously unsettling.
Was there a solar flare last night? Is it an Earth Day promotion to force folks out to touch grass?
Had to order manually at Starbucks, cause though I did have a cell signal there, mobile ordering was down. OH THE HUMANITY.
Back from Starbucks, power cycled everything and at least got 3 4G bars on the phone. Sloooooowly got the Cox website to load and it’s an area outage with an oddly specific restoration time of 1:38PM. At least it’s not the cable card again.
Good thing I have today off since I wouldn’t have been able to work anyway, LOL. Seems everything went out after 8AM, since my morning BBC news did get recorded.
And I’m kind of an idiot cause I started typing this on my laptop thinking well, I can copy it to Evernote and then pick that up on my phone and pop it into WordPress. All of these steps require internet. That thing I don’t have today. 🤣
Well, I guess I could get some housecleaning done between now and my vaccine appointment… HAHAHAHAHA.
Have a great Friday and I hope all your tech cooperates!
And I kinda half forgot about it. Back at the start of the year, the team lead wanted everyone’s PTO plans and I put a fair amount of thought into the not-beach days and there was a big gap between days off in March and Memorial Day, so I put down tomorrow to make the half day Friday a whole day Friday.
Granted, this was before I took the day for Lily’s teeth cleaning that didn’t happen, but I’m taking it anyway, cause I planned it out to be as close to having 40 hours left at the end of the year, so I’d have slack for sick days or whatever and it was a good call, cause I do need this long weekend.
And, taking the whole day off prevents the half day from becoming an “aw shit, I’m not leaving early today” situation.
And my big plans for the day is getting my Covid booster, wheeeeee. And I need to remember to ask how long I need to wait to then be able to get my shingles vaccine. Wheeeeee.
I’ll admit, the urgency for getting this Covid booster just hasn’t been there – I mean, other than the 2 months last summer when our cases were genuinely low, I haven’t felt particularly safe and it doesn’t feel like getting vaccinated has made any difference or helped get back to “normal” for myself or for the community at large. I totally understand getting vaccinated is about avoiding severe illness/death, but my god, we needed something that provided serious transmission protection. Especially since we’re ditching every other mechanism of transmission prevention, and long covid appears to be an afterthought if it’s thought of at all.
And that judge in Florida who overturned the mask mandate on airplanes… We’re going to be dealing with the damage done by the last administration for generations given the number of unqualified people put on the bench with lifetime appointments.
Well, time to go do the thing for capitalism, cause, well, not like I can do anything else.
Got my BBC news right on my cable!! No casting from the iPad! Took two trips to the cable shop, 4 (maybe 5?) calls to tech support, but it’s all working!
Mega props to the last lady I talked with – she Would Not Give Up. I think the lady before her would have gotten there, but when she was asking me about the tuning adapter…I couldn’t find it. I forgot WTF it looked like and I was envisioning the very small WiFi adapter that came with my old TiVo and looking for that, not the fucking BIG BLACK BOX RIGHT ON THE SHELF IN FRONT OF ME and I had to be “Uhhhhh, I gotta check on this, I’ll call back, thank you!”
But the last lady – and her name now escapes me, dammit – she was great. When suddenly I’m getting audio, then video – I legit hollered – YOU DID IT! And “Tell me what you did so I can write it down in case I need to know again!” The magic bit here was “refreshing the status” cause the new cable card was stuck in “Not Staged.”
All the women I dealt with were spectacular. The gal at the cable shop yesterday – she activated the card in the shop (first guy didn’t) – and chucked out the first card she was going to give me cause she could tell something wasn’t right with it in their system. Also tried to see if she could make our bill cheaper (she couldn’t but apparently if I upgrade our modem, there are deals – why that matters, I know not, but I know what to investigate) The guys…not as much. First cable card wasn’t activated, but he tried hard to sell me security and home automation. Tech support dudes just defaulted to “well, you’re gonna have to have a tech come to the house” – even when it was escalated.
The women know that no one has time to wait around for a tech to show up – not that their techs are bad, but we all know the special hell of sitting around and waiting for a service person when everything on their schedule before you has gone sideways.
Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female. 