Catching up with Jerigone
Hey, folks! Today is my second wedding anniversary. (Love you, Honey!)
I lucked out and have a day off from work on the same day. Steph's folks have bought us a new washing machine for our anniversary - guess what day it is being delivered? Yup - I get to sit here for the next four hours waiting for the truck to show.
I thought this might be a good time to play a little catch up. Last I wrote we had just gotten moved into the house, then I told you I would be going on a series of trips for work. Boy did I ever!
The house gets better by the week. Little things change and everything seems better. We bought a bunch of tools between my trips. We got a cordless trimmer. We don't own a lawn mower yet, but since we have a collection of weeds and not a real lawn, this isn't a problem. We bought a pair of hedge clippers as well. I'm not a professional gardener, but the side yard looks a sight better than it did when we moved in. More to come there.
The front yard is a different story. The fencing is still there, we think we have a way to get rid of it, but I'll leave the details of that for another post - probably after I fail to get rid of the fence. I dismantled the dog house that was there - they make a crow bar called a Gorilla Bar. Yeah, I had fun with that. Imagine a heavy metal bar, about a meter long, with a couple of nice hooks and a chisel point or two. That dog house didn't stand a chance. I took a lot of my frustrations about this house out on that dog house - I feel sorry for the next thing I rip apart. I think by the end of the year the front yard will be much better.
We bought a set of power tools, but I'm getting ahead of the story. This house is a piece of crap - I'm sure I have said that before. It has apparently had a succession of whacks living in it - we are merely the latest set. Somewhere along the line, one of those whacks was a lock-smith or simply a door closure junkie. Every door in this house has at least one additional lock. Some doors, the bathroom for instance, have a lock and a sliding bar. None of these locking mechanisms are all that well built, installed or maintained. Most are just there for looks at this time.
The front door is the worst example of this. I'm not convinced that the lock is original to this house - I think it was recycled from a previous house. Considering this place was built in the 40's - that's saying something. The lock did not work well at all - you could lock it from the inside, but not from the outside as it will not release the key in the locked position. We were forced to use the rickety back stairs and go through the garage door on a daily basis - this did not make me happy. I've nearly killed myself half a dozen times on those stairs, and I'm waiting for them to give way under one of our weights, I think the cats might weigh enough to do it! I would bet that a lock smith could fix the front lock, or at minimum install a new one.
As I said, someone was a lock-jock around here and they left behind a whole collection of odd bits. As I doing some cleaning, I ran across a full, new, never used dead bolt set and keys. Now, if I knew anything about doors or locks or carpentry, I could have installed this no sweat - but I didn't even have the tools nor know how to use them. Steph and I got to talking, Home Depot had a deal where if you bought a new door and installation, they would throw in a $99 lock set for free. This sounded like a plan.
The doors we looked at were very cool! All of them made of steel, lock holes predrilled and ready. We found one we liked with a simple built-in window. All told between the door and install it would have cost around $500. Mind you, this would be a $1000 improvement as far as we were concerned, but we just don't have the cash. As we looked around, Steph found a neat kit. It had the two drill bits needed to carve a door for a modern lock. It was a good price, too, $10. But we didn't own a power drill. We solved this problem with a neat-o kit from Black and Decker (we bought the cordless B&D lawn trimmer the same weekend - we were a walking commercial for Black and Decker!). The kit has one base unit, and three modules; drill, circular saw and router. It's a 12 volt cordless, certainly not top of the line, but for $70, it was a place to start.
I've been working these 4x10 weeks, which leaves me with an extra day off during the week - that is I've been doing that when not traveling. So, it worked out that I had a Monday off, rather like today. I grabbed the drill and gave a shot at the door. I measured and remeasured. I started cutting into the door. We have a pretty heavy door, so I had to cut from both sides. Sure enough, I screwed up somewhere. I came out with one chunk of wood, but it wasn't very centered. However - the dead bolt we found went in like a dream! I guess they figure dolts like me will be installing these things and they build in a margin for incompetence. The harder part turned out to be putting the hole in the door frame for the bolt - the screwdriver I used as a chisel will never be the same! But, by the time I was done, I had a working dead bolt. All told, for tools and all, $80 and less than two hours work. I guess I know more about doors, locks and carpentry than I thought! We'll still probably buy the other door at some point - just not immediately.
As for all the traveling, that started, what, in July? I went to DC for two days and learned the real meaning of the word "humidity"! Mother! Those people swim to work every morning! I could barely breathe. My hotel was two blocks away from the office and it looked like I had showered in my clothes by the time I walked those two blocks - I don't know how they do it.
Then, I went to Maine for a week for a family reunion. Now, I planned to work a few hours here and there because I didn't have enough vacation time to take a week off. The reality was that I spent most of the week waiting by the phone or answering email. My father-in-law, bless him, signed up for an Internet connection so that I could do this. I was pretty hacked about not being able to take time away from work, but this only got worse. I ended up with vacation time to spare after all the hours I worked.
The next week I was back in DC for a voicemail system install. With the problems of the install, problems back in Seattle, viruses taking out my systems in Chicago and Hong Kong, and the DC building having a planned power outage the weekend of the cut over (that I knew nothing about until the day before), I put in 72 or so hours for the week. Sunday, after the power came back up, the voicemail system was still flaky. We were able to get it up and running and I was able to do all the things I needed to do to make the system part of the network. I walked out of the building at 2 AM, knowing that tomorrow morning no one would know or care how much work I had done but proud of what I had accomplished. That week I cannot count the number of times I nearly quit - but my boss did come through with kudos and praise from him and those above and managed to keep me from walking. Damn him!
It took me two days to get home from DC. My original travel plans had me immediately going to the office in Portland, OR for their voicemail system install as them moved offices. As it turned out, they changed the date of their move by three weeks. I wish they hadn't - looking back I wish that I had been able to just get it over with that weekend. This was the second of five trips to Portland, about three too many if you ask me. On this trip, it was going to be about $700 to change my destination to Seattle. They figured it was cheaper to send me to Portland, put me in a hotel overnight, put me on a train the next day and pay me for the privilege than to just change the ticket. So, in Denver, I switched planes. I got off the plane headed for Seattle and waited around for two hours for the plane to Portland. By the time I did get home, I was really ready to just be done with Perkins. But, ah, this was merely the beginning. The Install that would not End hadn't ramped up yet!
I'll cut this boring, annoying thing down to just this: I hate the Portland office. That install, now done, was three of the worst weeks of my job at Perkins. It paled only in comparison to DC. In all, the last three months have been the worst I have endured at this job. In the coming months, we have an install in Anchorage, one in Chicago, a theoretical install for our three California offices and two Super Secret installs I can't talk about or that may not happen. I have never worked at any job as hard as I am working at this one. I have never had this much responsibility. True, I have never been paid this much, but I'm starting to think that it's not enough.
The phone just rang. The delivery people are going to be as much as an hour later than originally planned. Lovely.
I lucked out and have a day off from work on the same day. Steph's folks have bought us a new washing machine for our anniversary - guess what day it is being delivered? Yup - I get to sit here for the next four hours waiting for the truck to show.
I thought this might be a good time to play a little catch up. Last I wrote we had just gotten moved into the house, then I told you I would be going on a series of trips for work. Boy did I ever!
The house gets better by the week. Little things change and everything seems better. We bought a bunch of tools between my trips. We got a cordless trimmer. We don't own a lawn mower yet, but since we have a collection of weeds and not a real lawn, this isn't a problem. We bought a pair of hedge clippers as well. I'm not a professional gardener, but the side yard looks a sight better than it did when we moved in. More to come there.
The front yard is a different story. The fencing is still there, we think we have a way to get rid of it, but I'll leave the details of that for another post - probably after I fail to get rid of the fence. I dismantled the dog house that was there - they make a crow bar called a Gorilla Bar. Yeah, I had fun with that. Imagine a heavy metal bar, about a meter long, with a couple of nice hooks and a chisel point or two. That dog house didn't stand a chance. I took a lot of my frustrations about this house out on that dog house - I feel sorry for the next thing I rip apart. I think by the end of the year the front yard will be much better.
We bought a set of power tools, but I'm getting ahead of the story. This house is a piece of crap - I'm sure I have said that before. It has apparently had a succession of whacks living in it - we are merely the latest set. Somewhere along the line, one of those whacks was a lock-smith or simply a door closure junkie. Every door in this house has at least one additional lock. Some doors, the bathroom for instance, have a lock and a sliding bar. None of these locking mechanisms are all that well built, installed or maintained. Most are just there for looks at this time.
The front door is the worst example of this. I'm not convinced that the lock is original to this house - I think it was recycled from a previous house. Considering this place was built in the 40's - that's saying something. The lock did not work well at all - you could lock it from the inside, but not from the outside as it will not release the key in the locked position. We were forced to use the rickety back stairs and go through the garage door on a daily basis - this did not make me happy. I've nearly killed myself half a dozen times on those stairs, and I'm waiting for them to give way under one of our weights, I think the cats might weigh enough to do it! I would bet that a lock smith could fix the front lock, or at minimum install a new one.
As I said, someone was a lock-jock around here and they left behind a whole collection of odd bits. As I doing some cleaning, I ran across a full, new, never used dead bolt set and keys. Now, if I knew anything about doors or locks or carpentry, I could have installed this no sweat - but I didn't even have the tools nor know how to use them. Steph and I got to talking, Home Depot had a deal where if you bought a new door and installation, they would throw in a $99 lock set for free. This sounded like a plan.
The doors we looked at were very cool! All of them made of steel, lock holes predrilled and ready. We found one we liked with a simple built-in window. All told between the door and install it would have cost around $500. Mind you, this would be a $1000 improvement as far as we were concerned, but we just don't have the cash. As we looked around, Steph found a neat kit. It had the two drill bits needed to carve a door for a modern lock. It was a good price, too, $10. But we didn't own a power drill. We solved this problem with a neat-o kit from Black and Decker (we bought the cordless B&D lawn trimmer the same weekend - we were a walking commercial for Black and Decker!). The kit has one base unit, and three modules; drill, circular saw and router. It's a 12 volt cordless, certainly not top of the line, but for $70, it was a place to start.
I've been working these 4x10 weeks, which leaves me with an extra day off during the week - that is I've been doing that when not traveling. So, it worked out that I had a Monday off, rather like today. I grabbed the drill and gave a shot at the door. I measured and remeasured. I started cutting into the door. We have a pretty heavy door, so I had to cut from both sides. Sure enough, I screwed up somewhere. I came out with one chunk of wood, but it wasn't very centered. However - the dead bolt we found went in like a dream! I guess they figure dolts like me will be installing these things and they build in a margin for incompetence. The harder part turned out to be putting the hole in the door frame for the bolt - the screwdriver I used as a chisel will never be the same! But, by the time I was done, I had a working dead bolt. All told, for tools and all, $80 and less than two hours work. I guess I know more about doors, locks and carpentry than I thought! We'll still probably buy the other door at some point - just not immediately.
As for all the traveling, that started, what, in July? I went to DC for two days and learned the real meaning of the word "humidity"! Mother! Those people swim to work every morning! I could barely breathe. My hotel was two blocks away from the office and it looked like I had showered in my clothes by the time I walked those two blocks - I don't know how they do it.
Then, I went to Maine for a week for a family reunion. Now, I planned to work a few hours here and there because I didn't have enough vacation time to take a week off. The reality was that I spent most of the week waiting by the phone or answering email. My father-in-law, bless him, signed up for an Internet connection so that I could do this. I was pretty hacked about not being able to take time away from work, but this only got worse. I ended up with vacation time to spare after all the hours I worked.
The next week I was back in DC for a voicemail system install. With the problems of the install, problems back in Seattle, viruses taking out my systems in Chicago and Hong Kong, and the DC building having a planned power outage the weekend of the cut over (that I knew nothing about until the day before), I put in 72 or so hours for the week. Sunday, after the power came back up, the voicemail system was still flaky. We were able to get it up and running and I was able to do all the things I needed to do to make the system part of the network. I walked out of the building at 2 AM, knowing that tomorrow morning no one would know or care how much work I had done but proud of what I had accomplished. That week I cannot count the number of times I nearly quit - but my boss did come through with kudos and praise from him and those above and managed to keep me from walking. Damn him!
It took me two days to get home from DC. My original travel plans had me immediately going to the office in Portland, OR for their voicemail system install as them moved offices. As it turned out, they changed the date of their move by three weeks. I wish they hadn't - looking back I wish that I had been able to just get it over with that weekend. This was the second of five trips to Portland, about three too many if you ask me. On this trip, it was going to be about $700 to change my destination to Seattle. They figured it was cheaper to send me to Portland, put me in a hotel overnight, put me on a train the next day and pay me for the privilege than to just change the ticket. So, in Denver, I switched planes. I got off the plane headed for Seattle and waited around for two hours for the plane to Portland. By the time I did get home, I was really ready to just be done with Perkins. But, ah, this was merely the beginning. The Install that would not End hadn't ramped up yet!
I'll cut this boring, annoying thing down to just this: I hate the Portland office. That install, now done, was three of the worst weeks of my job at Perkins. It paled only in comparison to DC. In all, the last three months have been the worst I have endured at this job. In the coming months, we have an install in Anchorage, one in Chicago, a theoretical install for our three California offices and two Super Secret installs I can't talk about or that may not happen. I have never worked at any job as hard as I am working at this one. I have never had this much responsibility. True, I have never been paid this much, but I'm starting to think that it's not enough.
The phone just rang. The delivery people are going to be as much as an hour later than originally planned. Lovely.
posted by Jericho Brown at 10/06/2003 02:31:00 PM
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