Today’s featured image is of a deer bouncing away from me as I stand in the parking lot of my office in Alpharetta. Apparently, there is a small herd of the critters living in a rather cramped bit of forest in the middle of the office park, and they come out to graze or pee or people-watch or whatever just about every night when I’m getting ready to leave.
Speaking of leaving, I’ll be driving over to Memphis in a few hours to start a 5-day stint setting up a new client there. I am somewhat nervous about this, as I’ll be the only person at the site. It’s an offshoot of a Chattanooga firm, and everyone else on this project (5 people, I think) are going to the Chatty office. My concern is that, while I’m not overly worried about the technical aspects of the job, I’m not entirely sure about the procedures that I’m supposed to be doing. The X-company documents pretty much nothing. You’re just supposed to pick it up from osmosis, I guess. Problem is, I’ve only been on one other project, with one other person, and I really don’t know what’s expected. Guess I’ll find out.
The plan is for me to start doing some off-site work (joining machines to the local domain, getting antivirus installed, etc.) tonight – from my hotel room – and then there will be a down day tomorrow, when I’ll go to the office, physically connect our server to the firewall, set up printers, patch the workstations that I can’t get to tonight, etc. Then I’ll work with the users Tuesday-Thursday (including a training class on Tuesday, for which I have no documentation, though there is supposed to be a PowerPoint presentation somewhere) and hit the road for home after work on Thursday. With the time change, I should get back to Atlanta sometime around midnight Thursday and will take Friday off.
After that, I’ll go BACK to Memphis on Sunday because – I really don’t get this – the office that I will set up this week will be relocating to a new office next week. Why they didn’t just do everything on the same week is completely beyond me, but it’ll be a shorter week for me. I’ll drive out Sunday, move our server and firewall to the new place on Monday, then hang out and help the users until Wednesday, when I’ll again come home. Will take the following Thursday off. Not sure about that Friday. I’ll probably go to work because I know that I’ll have email and old tickets backed up beyond belief by then.
I was made the primary consultant for two more firms over the last couple weeks. One in Baltimore, the other in St. Cloud, MN. Both are problem children and the one in Minnesota is a particular beast. Whoever set them up (from the X-company) did a terrible job, and the firm is paying the price. Their email system was set up incorrectly. A couple of vital software packages were only partially installed. Worst of all, the client opted to go with “cloud only” support, which means that I don’t have remote access to their workstations. So this company is opening probably 20 new tickets a day, most of them having to do with their email or the poorly-installed applications, and I pretty much have to say, “Yeah. Our bad. We’re working on it.”
Did I mention that the project manager who did that job (in St. Cloud) is the same guy who’s leading the effort for the firm in Chattanooga and Memphis?
So yeah. I’m a bit nervous about these upcoming trips.
On the home front, Mary is indeed moving out later this week, though she says she’ll take care of the cats into the first week of December for me when I’m gone. As I said in a previous post, I’m mentally taking back my house and I’m sort of excited about that. Haven’t decided yet if I’ll get a new television, since I’m strongly considering putting the one in my bedroom into my redesigned office, for use as a large monitor. If I do that, I think I’ll be more comfortable working from home once or twice a week. I’ve not done that yet (the offer is on the table) because working on a single screen really sucks when you’re doing the kind of work that I do.
So if I do that, I’ll move the television that I put in Mary’s room (the office) into my bedroom, and then I’ll probably want to put one downstairs. If I decide to do that, then I’ll probably want to get a decent-sized television with all the Roku stuff (streaming channels) built in. So I’m window shopping.
Ironically, I’ve also decided to basically stop spending money, as I’ve decided that 55 would be a great age to shoot for for retirement. I know, I know. It’s too young and blah blah blah. But the fact is that I’m tired of doing what I do. I was happy – and well-paid – in my AT&T gig, and I’m miserable – and making half of my old salary – with the X-Company. By 2021, I’ll have about a half-million in my 401k, about $120K in my AT&T pension (from which I’ll be able to draw around $800/month – I’ve checked); and, assuming I can sell the house, I should be able to buy a few acres in the woods and put up a hovel for cash. I recently visited my friend who did exactly this over the last two years, and – while I’d find better land and put in a few more amenities (a wood stove for sure) – she’s got a pretty sweet setup.
So there it is. It’s out there. I aim to retire in 3 years.
In other news, Furman won a playoff game against Elon yesterday. Very close game, and a bit of redemption from the 2nd game of the season, when Elon won a squeaker on a last-second field goal. The reward for the win is that Furman will travel to Wofford next week for the second round. In the 1st week of the season, Wofford beat Furman by 1 point by stopping Furman’s 2-point conversion attempt on the last play of the game. Furman fans are calling these games, “The Revenge Tour.”
Not much else to talk about these days. I get up before dawn, go to work, come home after dark, and go to bed. Not depressed. Not elated. Just sort of bored.
Maybe Memphis will give me something to write about.