So, April 18th

Posted on April 1, 2021 by A Dreamer

Everyone eligible for the vaccine in Virginia. Should be interesting to say the least.

Right now, our county’s 1B’s aren’t close to done yet – 176K waiting on a second dose and 28K waiting for a first dose. We should have all of them to a first dose at least by then, but getting everyone to a fully vaccinated status…that’s gonna take a while longer.

But, one dose is better than no dose, and yet, they’re two dose vaccines for a reason. We are at least over 3,000 second doses a day for the last week, which is very heartening. If we can keep that number going up, I’ll feel better about the idea of getting vaccinated before Christmas, LOL.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy they’re opening it up to everyone – I’m just very… “How?”

I told one of my coworkers about the 4/18 announcement and she’s…not getting vaccinated. It’s probably a good thing she couldn’t see my face, because it was probably something like this:

I’m sorry, WHAT?

I asked if she was worried about safety – and she’s concerned about long term effects, and potential fertility issues. I do genuinely understand that, but you know what also fucks up your fertility? Being on a ventilator. Long haul Covid. Death. (I did not say that to her, but my god, it was in my head.) Her words: “I’ll take my chances.” Which, as she said it, really didn’t shock me – she’s never acted like it was a hoax, but I don’t think she’s ever appreciated how badly Covid can fuck you up, cause she has done some stuff over this pandemic that makes my hair curl. (Totally “allowed” things, but still “oh shit why would you do that?”)

It was just so disappointing because we have another coworker who *cannot* get the vaccine due to medical reasons. (Not a secret. She’s also understandably freaked out about vaccine passports.) So, we all get vaccinated to protect *her* and everyone in the same boat, if not for ourselves, right?

Just disappointing.

Posted in COVID19 | Tagged | 2 Comments

What day is it?

Posted on April 1, 2021 by A Dreamer

It is Thursday, and I know this because I checked my phone and the feature I was testing needed to be done yesterday, which was Wednesday. (Got it done – last person on the team still testing at the deadline, but I got it done!)

But this week has been all mashed together to be sure, and I’m a bit crosseyed at this point.

The good news is, the rest of the week will be relatively easy. (Easy doing a lot of heavy lifting here, but there shouldn’t be any late nights.)

I’ve been thinking more about this new “opportunity” coming later this year at work. I’ll only be the second person to do this for our entire product. (Another module has already implemented the changes.) This is a chance to do things my way, within reason. I will also dig my heels in and make sure other things are taken *off* my plate to offset the hours this will take up. And, I’m going to keep poking about money, cause this *is* bigger responsibility that doesn’t fall into “other duties as required.”

If nothing else, they may regret tapping me for this, LOL.

Time to go grind for capitalism. You have a great day and don’t take any shit.

Posted in Working | Tagged | Leave a comment

Weird ass pandemic dreams…

Posted on March 31, 2021 by A Dreamer

So, last night I dreamt I was down in Virginia Beach for some reason, enjoying the beach and even saw a great white shark. Got word that there was an all ages vaccination clinic at Rexall Drugs (which does not exist any more – no idea where my brain pulled *that* bit from) and I went cause they said it was fine as long as I was a Virginia resident.

Got the shot, was SUPER excited and then realized that if it wasn’t a J&J, I’d need a second one, so I was reading the card and it was some manufacturer I’d never heard of – and even in my dreams, I know we only have three vaccines – J&J, Moderna & Pfizer.

Come to find out that they were giving out flu shots and saying they were Covid shots, cause “well, it’s all the same!” And they charged me $300 for it. The disappointment was crushing.

WHY WOULD MY BRAIN DO THAT TO ME?! Seriously, waking life is enough of a rollercoaster.

Time to go try and have a semi-normal day, since I certainly get any semi-normal sleep.

Posted in COVID19 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ohhh, it’s gonna be a bitch about everything week.

Posted on March 30, 2021 by A Dreamer

Consider yourself warned.

The stuff I’m testing at work was going along at a very good clip and today it just slowed to a crawl. Nothing is broken, thank goodness, but I just hit a hella slow going section of the testing to muck through. I jinxed it by thinking I’d have the whole shebang done today.

Today was so damn draining at work, I took a nap at lunch – and that was the best idea I had all day.

Then I saw this on Twitter – while it is not my exact situation I have at work, it’s realllly close – kinda jelled a lot of what is going on in my head:

And I keep hearing about these vaccine records we’re setting – Bitch, not in my county. We still have 202,000 1B’s who aren’t fully vaccinated yet and we only opened eligibility to the remainder of 1B’s TODAY. Be lucky if I can get vaccinated before the governor decides to drop mask mandates at the rate things are going. (I know, I know, it will get better. But, sheesh.) BUT IF YOU HAVE GOTTEN VACCINATED, I AM GENUINELY AND TRULY HAPPY FOR YOU!

I just want to see a trend line in my county that gets us to full vaccination sometime before December. (Which is certainly better than it was – not long ago it was on track to take until next spring.)

But, tomorrow is another day, and if needed, I can take a nap at lunch again.

Posted in Rants | Tagged | Leave a comment

1 down, 4 to go…

Posted on March 30, 2021 by A Dreamer

The week has actually gotten off to a good start – the thing I’m testing right now is going very quickly and relatively smoothly, so it doesn’t look like I’ve got any 12 hour days on tap this week.

Still a bit deflated by this “opportunity” that is on the horizon. Younger me would have absolutely jumped at it, if not actively sought it out. Older and not nearly as ambitious me is not quite as excited. It’s going to pull focus from what I’m doing now (which I like), it deals with a module in the software I don’t work with much at all, and at the moment, it doesn’t look like there is any money for taking this on. Plus, it’s a fuckton of coordination with folks in the department overseas, which is really fucking hard.

But, I’ll figure out how to make the best of it.

Posted in Working | Tagged | Leave a comment

So, what was that I was saying…

Posted on March 29, 2021 by A Dreamer

About saying “no” more often?

Got a call from my supervisor today, I get to take on more responsibility for no money starting later this year. Yay? (I *did* bring up more money – he stumbled and then went, “Good things are coming!” Suuuuuuure they are.)

I’d be complimented, except that it seems they just really needed a US based body and that is me. (I wouldn’t have picked me for this and I’m not sure why they did other than I was available.)

Who knows, maybe it will be interesting.

But right now, it feels like…IDK.

Posted in Working | Tagged | 1 Comment

I hope this isn’t an omen for the day…

Posted on March 29, 2021 by A Dreamer

Ran up to my Starbucks and the two parking spots right in front of the shop are clearly marked “For Compact Cars Only” (with good reason, it’s an odd section in the parking lot where if you park there, getting out is really an exercise in precision driving. I never try to park there.)

So of course, an extended cab truck parked diagonally across the two spots.

The bit that is going to kick my ass over the next three days at work – that is going to depend heavily on no one parking a truck diagonally in front of me…

At least the task at hand is easily split into 3 distinct parts that should all take roughly the same amount of time to complete – and I have 3 distinct days to get it done.

I just need to avoid anyone who could add additional work to my plate, LOL. I have at least two meetings that I can think of off the top of my head, but I can do what I usually do in those – half-listen and actually do other work through them. (Most meetings I am in, I do not have to be in…*sigh*)

But, there may be a remote session with our security software vendor… I have finally convinced the IT Security folks that the security software *is* the culprit in the issues I’m having with the client VPN. Logs were captured and reviewed and our internal IT folks were, “well, fuck, we gotta open a ticket with the vendor” – maybe they’ll be busy until Thursday. (And IT Security is already IM’ing me about it…maybe I need to remove Teams from my phone. I AM NOT AT WORK YET.)

I suppose I could have worked this weekend to get ahead on these next three days, but honestly, I just did not have it in me. I barely got my teeth brushed this weekend.

But today, I have a very large cold brew next to me, we’ve got a sunny day on tap, which is always good for the ol’ mental energy levels. Hopefully it will not be three 12 hour days.

LET’S DO THIS!

ETA: My day has started with this:

Windows Blue Screen of Death
Posted in Working | Tagged | Leave a comment

*yawn*

Posted on March 28, 2021 by A Dreamer

It is a very grey and dreary spring day here in the mid-Atlantic, with a call for storms to boot. Got all the blinds open and every light on in the living room and it still feels dark as fuck in here. Not exactly the type of weather that makes you jump up and go, “LET’S GET SHIT DONE!!”

Seriously, tho, props to everyone who gets off work, or wakes up on a weekend morning and goes, “This is what I need to do around the house” and then JUST DOES IT.

I have gotten Turbo Tax downloaded and done a first pass at my taxes, which definitely counts as something. (BTW, FU to the GOP for fucking all us non-rich folks over on taxes.)

I’m going to blame work for my lack of activity this weekend, LOL. It kicked my ass last week and the first half of this coming week looks to be pretty brutal. So, I’m…conserving my energy? Yeah, that’s it!

I think what I actually need is a proper 4 day long weekend where I am not spending *any* of it working because someone changed a deadline at the last minute, or cramming in extra hours before or after. We don’t have any holidays until Memorial Day, and taking real breaks is important.

Hell, even our department VP sent out a message saying it was very unlikely we’d have an increased PTO rollover this year, and to please take some PTO cause it’s not healthy to work day in and day out. Granted, he also said he knew it was hard because of Covid…and workloads. Dude, you just admitted in writing that you know workloads are at a place where it’s making taking our use or lose PTO very difficult… Like, maybe you need to do something about that? (In our last flash survey, I unloaded over the whole “we’ve given you time off every pay period, but in no way directed management to take this into account with workloads.”)

So, the other work task this week is going to be figuring out how to get my workload more balanced once I get past this 3 days that are probably going to suuuuuuuck. I wish it was just a matter of being more efficient at work – but really, it’s going to probably require me saying “no” a lot more, and that never goes over well. We’ll see.

Posted in Miscellany, Working | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I feel a very lazy Saturday coming on…

Posted on March 27, 2021 by A Dreamer

I have a to-do list a mile long but I have a feeling that today is just going to be quietly existing. I’m not really tired, but I am utterly unmotivated.

So, I worked late on Thursday to get a particular bug finished off so I could be sure to be able to get off work on time on Friday, and because I found out it was the last thing holding up the version branching, even though the deadline wasn’t until Friday. (It was a bug I tested, then the performance team found a problem, so I had to then retest it…) So, shit happens and sometimes it requires a late night. Finished it off, let the folks on the other side of the world know it was done and went on my merry way.

Logged on yesterday to two very nice notes from our company recognition portal from my team on the other side of the globe calling me out on my passion & dedication. I appreciate it, but really, it’s just my Gen X “Well, fuck, I guess we’re doing this” thing.

I did just realize I do have to go out there and run an errand… Ugh.

But, maybe getting off my ass and moving a bit will motivate me to get some other things done.

A gal can dream.

Posted in Miscellany, Working | Tagged , | Leave a comment

You made it to another Friday!

Posted on March 26, 2021 by A Dreamer

Congrats on getting through all the fuckery, and remember, no matter how many mistakes you made, you didn’t jam a boat sideways in the Suez Canal.

In local vaccine news, our numbers are starting to improve a bit. The waitlist to get an appointment is dropping rapidly, which is great. But, we’ve had 342K register and so far, only 140K fully vaccinated. That’s a lot of folks to still work through before we can move to anything beyond 1B. We’re getting a bit over 2400 folks to a fully vaccinated status a day, but it will take until June to get through those 202K people. January 2022 to get to everyone.

My state delegate is going to be poking the state health department to see about our allocations – parts of the state are already doing all ages vaccinations and we’re only 40% through our 1B group, and we’re lagging behind national averages to boot.

If you’ve gotten vaccinated, I am so truly happy for you – but please, wait for the rest of us before you go understandably nuts so we can try to keep these variants down. Also – GO GET THAT KRISPY KREME DONUT! Or any other vax card bonus/discount/freebie you can get your hands on. (Seriously, KK did a silly, nice thing and I have zero time for the fatphobia cloaked in concern trolling.)

On to super neat things – Octopi may very well dream when they sleep! How cool is that?

We’ve got a half day today and it actually looks like I may get to take advantage of it. Mind you, I worked very late last night to make it happen, but hey, still should be able to enjoy the afternoon. I still can’t figure out if I’m just shit at my job, or overtasked. I am going with overtasked, because I get the impression that no one on the team on the other side of the world will ever admit something took longer than scheduled and never challenge the estimates. Gotta figure out how to get them to rise up and say, “NO, THAT WILL TAKE LONGER!”

Have a great weekend!

Posted in COVID19, News, Working | Tagged , , | Leave a comment