Hat on Top, Coat Below
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Cranky
December 13, 2012
I’m pretty sure if I checked my archives, I’d find I write at least one entry every December about how stressed I’m feeling. Which is sort of dumb, since compared to so many people, I don’t have that much to stress about. I’ve given up a lot of the holiday stuff, like sending cards and buying gifts and decorating the house either inside or out. I have no children or pets making demands on my time. I have only one job. I can pay all my bills. Yet today I am feeling stressed. I worked from home, which I do about three times a month, a routine I started with the approval of my former boss one summer when the road construction between my house and the office was particularly bad. Saving the two hours (or more) commuting on those days is supposed to help lower my stress level and give me more time for my non-work life. Usually it does, but today it didn’t feel that way. I did get to sleep later than usual, so that was good, but I woke up with a headache, so that was not. Since I sat down at my keyboard, it’s been one thing after another that I didn’t plan on. There was the customer who escalated a support ticket to the level at which all the developers, all the implementers, and all the data center people at Purple Systems get e-mailed. Could he have e-mailed the two of us on the ticket first to inquire about the status? Yes, but he did not. A data update script I thought was going to be straightforward to write turned into an exercise in frustration due to some wonky transactions I didn’t expect. I had to fight with the calendar in Outlook. There were two corporate announcements via e-mail that surprised me; both situations may turn out to be perfectly fine, but there are a lot of questions in my mind at the moment, questions that when the company was smaller I could just walk over to the CEO’s office and get answered. Yeah, yeah, growth is good; I’m just feeling some growing pains right now. All these things would have been annoying if I were in the office, too, but somehow they seem more annoying when they intrude on me at home. Then, when I stepped away from the computer to do a simple task Mr. Karen asked me to take care of before he got home, I ended up screwing it up and damaging something that can probably be fixed but wouldn’t have to be if I were more competent and/or attentive. Bah. I want a do over for the whole day, but since that’s not going to happen, I think I’ll have a glass of wine and try to get myself in a better mood.
On this date in 2011: Emerging from Dormancy
2010: Without Mountains, What’s the Point?
2009: An Apology to My Government
2008: S.O.G. with P.I.P.
2007: WDW Episode IV: A New Hope
2006: What a Difference a Day Makes
2005: 10 Things
2004: Will My Skis Fit in the Overhead Bin?
2003: No entry.
2002: Weight Wait
