14 October 1997: Grumpy Young Man

Tuesday, 14 October 1997:

Grumpy Young Man

So I took my car into Sears today, having gotten a friend to give me a jump. I figured: My battery is four years old. Maybe more. So it's probably just dead and it's time for a new one. I had my alternator replaced a year and a half ago, so it's surely not that.

Sears calls back: Uh, your alternator is completely dead, and the battery's so low we can't even test to see if the battery's any good.

So I take it back to the Honda shop where I got the alternator put in. My battery is so dead I stall out several times, whenever I hit the brakes. (Hint: If you stall out on the highway going 55 MPH, applying some gas will start your car right up again. Well, okay, it did mine; maybe I have a weird car.) But I finally get there and leave it with them.

Honda calls back: Yep, your alternator's toast, all right. And by the way, you could use a new battery.

Gee, thanks. Well, at least they were gracious enough only to charge me for labor for the alternator; that saved me well over $200. But, I got my car back and it seems to run fine, and this should mean it will get through the winter just fine. (Remember, I live in Wisconsin!)

In-between the fun & games with my car, I made a pitiful stab at getting some work done today. It was rather pathetic. I answered a few questions from people, and then got driven slowly and steadily up the wall by the, uh, quirks in our development process, and a general sense of overload; just too darned much on my plate right now.

I'm not by nature a very emotional person; I'm very even-tempered. (This actually may be a serious flaw in my personality, but that's a story for another time.) But I was just fuming in my office. I actually started work wonder if this job is worth it, and if maybe I should quit, which is a sign of just how shitty things have been lately, because I've never thought that before. I finally closed my door and put up a sign that said:

DO NOT DISTURB!

Do not open my door for any reason unless you're asking me to do programmer testing.

DO NOT DISTURB!

I thought about adding the phrase, "or your title has the word 'president' in it", but decided that would be overkill.

At any rate, I'm planning to close my door and telling everyone to bug off except in emergencies for the rest of the week. After all the stress of the last couple of weeks, I think it's the only way I'm going to make any progress at work.

I lived in cubicles for over a year while our building's new wing was being built, and I just can't see how anyone could work in that environment on a permanent basis. It must cut overall productivity in half. Corporate America; what were they thinking?

After work I went to dinner with my friend Karen - who had also had a bad day - and we commiserated somewhat. But mostly I tried to take it easy. I think I need a vacation.

Yeah, good luck, kid.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)