For some it’s Hump Day

Posted on June 23, 2021 by A Dreamer

Here, it’s Fuck Me Wednesday. I gotta figure out how to get out of this 7:30 meeting, LOL. Theoretically, it will end soon as it’s for features on the version we’re about to release in a few months, so hopefully, this will not be permanent.

The 8AM meeting that my dumbass scheduled – that will be rotated to 8PM at some point, cause it’s only fair that the folks on the other side of the planet get to do 8AM for a while. That is, if I can’t get myself out of it completely. (Still super salty about all of it, and would prefer to spend the time testing vs. herding cats.)

I mean, fuck, last week, I ask, “so, did you have that meeting w/management about possibly dropping anything from the next version?” Get a rather annoyed, “Oh, I updated the feature page.” After the meeting I dug into the notes on the feature page – there were no updates to anything. I mean, fuck, just say “yeah, had the meeting, nothing is getting dropped” vs lying and saying you’ve made some update to make me look like I don’t know what is going on even more so than I already don’t know what is going on.

Feel like I am going to have to have a come to Jesus with the product owner on this about how as much as she probably doesn’t want me involved here, I don’t want to be involved either. We are on the same fucking side here.

At least this is a very small part of my overall job, because JFC, it’s driving me up a fucking wall.

It’s gonna be a multi-coffee day to be sure.

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1 down, 4 to go

Posted on June 22, 2021 by A Dreamer

And yesterday, not too bad at all for a Monday. With about a half hour to go in the day, I literally ran out of things to do. Everything on my to-do list was sitting with developers. And the regression environment that was supposed to be ready yesterday for testing, well, wasn’t cause of the holiday, which is all fine and well, except for the fact that the regression testing still needs to be finished by COB Thursday…

And the Padres beat the Dodgers!! Of course, this 3 game series is all 10PM game. I’ve resignd myself to the fact that I will only see the first few innings each night. These games make me miss grad school, LOL.

In car news, we have had our first bird poop incident. Had to happen sometime. It also made me realize, I need to figure out how often you should wash a car. The old Jeep, well…I think the dirt was part of what was holding it together. Both local gas stations have car washes, and I fill up the car about once a month, so – I guess when I gas up, I’ll get it washed?

I will say, the inside is still PRISTINE. I got a little rattan basket that is in the passenger footwell for garbage, the side door compartment now holds Starbucks napkins, hand wipes in the center console, and extra straws in the glove box. WHY CAN’T I HAVE MY SHIT TOGETHER LIKE THIS WITH THE HOUSE?!

Well, time to go do all the things I couldn’t do yesterday. You have yourself an excellent Tuesday.

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Another day in which to excel

Posted on June 21, 2021 by A Dreamer

Or some such nonsense. Yes, we’ve found ourselves looking down the maw of yet another Monday. Even with a three day weekend, I am not ready for it. I don’t hate my job (OK, I despise a few very specific bits of it) – I just don’t feel like it today, LOL.

Retirement can’t come soon enough. I’m looking at another 10-15 years of the grind. The upside is that the last 15 years kinda flew by (last 15 months notwithstanding) – but I did sit down and crunch numbers this weekend and upped my 401K contribution…

I’m trying not to think about how much closer retirement would be if not for all the fucking money I’ve thrown at my dentist in the past 10 years… I swear, if we do not get dental wrapped into medical insurance in my lifetime.

Brush and floss and vote progressive, kids!

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Well, we’ve got ourselves a new holiday

Posted on June 18, 2021 by A Dreamer

Happy (Observed) Juneteenth, everyone!

On the whole, this is a good thing. Juneteenth is a very important day in the Black community in the United States, and it should be recognized and CRT panic be damned, be taught in schools. (And it’s been a state holiday in Texas since 1980 – shocked the hell out of me when I found that out.)

Also, I’m not turning down a day off.

But, I am worried that white people & capitalism will somehow fuck it all up.

And, it feels so typically “let’s do the absolute minimum at the very last minute” that Congress loves to do. The holiday is great, but Congress needs to do so, so much more. Symbolic actions and band-aid fixes are simply not enough.

Still shocked that my company was *ahead* of this, since they are a company and do not love paying us for not working. Our D&I group did a fantastic presentation on the history of Juneteenth yesterday, and someone very earnestly asked, “As a white person, how can I appropriately note the day?”

I will not lie, my snarky ass first thought, “Do not put raisins in your potato salad.” But the presenters are better than I am and said to support Black owned businesses or donate to a charity that supports the Black community.

And I’ll add, take a moment or two to think about why we even have to have it, and how much work we still need to do.

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Have a Lily

Posted on June 17, 2021 by A Dreamer
Lily, a black and orange tortoiseshell cat, looking a bit disgruntled
Vaguely annoyed with the loud birds today.
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Ohhh…

Posted on June 16, 2021 by A Dreamer

So, I was thinking yesterday that I wanted the pandemic to be over so everything could stop being utterly exhausting.

Then I remembered – it’s not so much the pandemic as it is just living under extreme capitalism in America. I can’t remember a time in my working life when I wasn’t just totally tired.

It sucks living in a country where you will get used for as little money as possible, while those same forces will suck every extra dollar out of you, and you get to spend your life worrying about getting sick and/or losing your job, and becoming homeless.

My job is as secure as any job can be, but it’s always there in the back of my head, and it always has been.

And the new administration shows zero signs of doing anything about it. Yo, Joe, you gotta do more than vaccines.

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Got wheels.

Posted on June 14, 2021 by A Dreamer

And I think it will be another 18 years before I do *that* again. Even w/the bank “car buying service” – still a massive, stressful, exhausting hassle. But it’s done, I have a lovely car with 4WD, a sunroof, a great color, and a fuckton of safety features. But my god, the process does suck the joy out of it.

But it is done, and I can drive without worry, and that’s not nothing.

Now I have to go do the thing to so I can pay for it.

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Is it 6PM yet?

Posted on June 11, 2021 by A Dreamer

This week has been utterly exhausting.

On the car front – I think I have found the exact, EXACT car I want through the bank’s buying service – color and everything* – in stock, very good price – so I’ve pinged this THIRD dealership and hopefully I will actually hear back.

The other two dealerships – one we keep missing each other (and I don’t think the car I asked about is actually under the bank pricing program, and they’re kinda avoiding me over it) and the second has ghosted me. (I’m 98% sure it was an AI agent that actually reached out from the second dealership, which is why I can’t get any actual answers out of it.)

The third dealership isn’t as close as I’d like, but they actually have the car I want, so… At least once I have the car, I never have to go back again – thank god we’re well past the days of “all maintenance has to be done by the dealer to maintain the warranty.”

I know, having to buy a new car is not really a problem when you can afford it, and thankfully I can, but my god, this is a stressful pain in the ass, even with the internet assisting.

OK, time to go try and work while constantly checking my email to see if the dealership has gotten my request – they open at 9AM. Fingers crossed that by days end I’ve got a test drive setup for tomorrow.

*I know the color of the car doesn’t really matter unless you’re living in Arizona, then you do *not* want black. But I really like the sparkly blue, and I plan on having this car for a very long time, so why not shoot for exactly what I want?

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I am so tired.

Posted on June 10, 2021 by A Dreamer

I need it to be…let’s say two Friday nights from now at this point. By then the car stuff should be done.

Another dealership has entered the mix – and of course, now I’m worried they’ll both be pissed off when I tell them, “you are not the only dealer I am talking to.” At least it’s all online, so somehow that is better? But, I am about to spend a decent amount of money and if the dealership a little farther away has the *exact* car I want at the right price, vs the closest one that has the almost exact car – well, they get to fight it out, and that’s life in the big city and all that.

But it is so oddly exhausting. And it is sucking up ALL my focus. And if I can’t get it done this Saturday – I can’t do anything until next Friday afternoon, cause this Sunday is shot with a wee one celebrating his first birthday, which I wouldn’t miss for anything. (I can’t be the only one who goes, “I have an event from 2-5PM therefore I cannot do anything else that day,” right?)

The upside is the bank draft for the loan is good for 90 days, so there is no rush on that account. But, I just want to be done with it, but I also don’t want to settle for “almost what I want” just so I *can* be done with it.

I realize that as far as “problems” go – this is not really a problem. It’s just…tiring.

You have a great day, and get the oil changed in your car – stay on top of that maintenance, and you too may able to keep that sucker running for 18 years.

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Oh, car buying, yay…

Posted on June 9, 2021 by A Dreamer

The plan – and mind you, this was a pre-pandemic plan – was to acknowledge that the Jeep would not last forever, open a specific “new car” account and start putting money aside, which I did over a year ago. I have been 99% sure I wanted a Jeep Renegade, and I was going to shoot for a used one, and Carmax always had a decent supply of low mileage ones no more than a year or two old.

Well, guess what? Thanks to the pandemic, there is hardly any used car inventory, and what is out there, is rather expensive for being used and the mileages are rather high. (Seriously, found 4 with the features I want, none under 25K miles and all at least 5 years old.)

So…new it is, given that the price differential isn’t that awesome right now, and the used supply is so limited. Jumped on PFCU’s car buying service. Got a little click happy and accidentally said OH YES, CONTACT ME WITH THE PRICE ON THIS CAR. I thought it was just “click through to see car service pricing”…

Within moments, I had a voicemail, email, and text from the local dealership, LOL.

But they have the make/model/features I want, so I’m emailing back and forth with them to find out what the car buying service price is, and seeing if we can do a test drive on Saturday. Financing came through – god bless PFCU, got an instant answer. (Funny thing – when I opened up the auto loan page, it still had all my info from when I got my last one from them – 18 years ago.)

I will say, doing all this online is a fuckton easier. But my lord, it has been an exhausting day.

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