Stresses and Successes

Stresses and Successes Ok, stresses first to get them out of the way. Chris's job is to support a production computer environment. Yesterday, a problem came up on a system that he inherited from another group, and the only person who knows anything about the system has left the company. So he spent most of the day and night on the phone working with his team trying to figure out the problem. In addition, his company apparently didn't renew its support agreement with the software vendor, so they didn't have vendor support. The stupid part of this is that his office is not closed off from the main part of the house. And in order to be heard on the phone, he had to shout. So I was pretty much shouted out of the house last night. As if Chris didn't have enough stress, he got a call at 4:30 this morning about another problem. And when he got up for "regular" work today, he's right back on the phone still working on yesterday's problem. It sounds like management has fucked things up at his company. They've let support agreements lapse, they've understaffed internal support teams, and the applications and systems they're developing are slipshod and unstable. "Faster-Better-Cheaper" equates to "Crappier." To add to this morning's stress, ants have invaded our house. The exterminator was just here last week, so either he scared the ants out of their hiding place, or he didn't setup enough of a barrier to keep them out. I called them and they're sending someone out next week. Until then, we do our own spraying. *deep breath* *sigh* I feel better. Thanks for listening. On to the successes! We've made a few improvements to the house in the past month. First is the lattice on the front of the house. Before the lattice: After the lattice: Side note: my camera had a hell of a time taking a picture of the lattice. It kept coming out smeared. The size of the file is almost twice as large as other pictures, so it must have something to do with the pattern of the lattice and all the angles and vectors involved. Another project is to frame all the windows. I forgot to take a 'before' picture, but here's what one of the windows looks like now: I cut all the corners at a 45-degree angle, which turned out to be harder than I thought. I went through a couple extra boards trying to get it right. We're not sure if we need to replace the baseboard or if it's okay as it is. Any opinions? And lastly, Chris purchased and mounted a Weems and Plath ship's bell clock. It dings every hour and half-hour, and the number of dings tells you the time (or in my case, it reminds me to look at the clock so I know what time it is). The next part of the project is to mount a matching barometer.