The Falling Blog

offsites

I miss my garden today. Being away from home is not fun or exciting after a while. Once the novelty of road warrior working wears off? It’s just tiring.

I missed my son’s birthday yesterday. He turned two. I kid myself that it’s ok, because he won’t remember. I will though. 

It’s quiet and boring in hotels like this one. The nice thing is that the kids and my lady wife will be joining me this weekend. I guess I’m just used to seeing them every day and singing my babies to sleep. 

praise

today i heard from my bosses boss how they feel about how i’m doing my job. 

they said that they were impressed with what i’ve been doing for the last two years.

i cannot relay easily how much that small statement has made my day. 

it’s not age discrimination, you’re just too young

Somebody said that to me once, when I was very young in the biotech industry. I was working a tremendously difficult job with varied and challenging workflows. I was hitting my deadlines and scoring my deliverables very consistently. But I could not get promoted. It baffled me. So, my friend laid that chestnut in the title on me. 

Looking back now some 9 years, I see why. The successes of that younger man defined who I would become. It shaped my work ethic, and it shaped what I am able to put up with. It also taught me when to call it quits, and it showed me when to strive harder to achieve goals. 

I work for a pretty fantastic place now. they recognize effort and delivery. They also seem to appreciate going the extra mile (or two) with genuine praise and not some perfunctory “atta-boy”. 

Rambling. But I guess what I’m trying to get out of my head, is that if you find yourself struggling, and cannot see the point of it, realize that this struggle will ultimately lead you to where you will be. And if you find yourself struggling and you cannot see yourself getting where you want to be, use that information to better your situation rather than getting discouraged. 

Working like crazy and car trouble.

This week has been a little interesting, and it’s only Wednesday. 

Last weekend my brother in law Britt came down with Alice to babysit my kids while Kate and I went on an honest to God adult outing. Catherine and I went wine tasting and got a massage and went to lunch. Fantastic. 

Then we all ate and drank and watched the Superbowl and got to watch the Packers win a really good and fun to watch game. 

Then Monday came. 

Monday started out with oversleeping, dashing to the frozen car and driving like a madman to get to Frederick to pick up an international coworker who was here to assist with some of my work. Car is almost out of fuel, I notice but consider I will fuel up after picking up my associate. I hear a bell and think it’s the fuel alarm, but in fact it is the overheat alarm for the engine. 

OH Noes! I’m in the speed lane doing like 75-80 and have to essentially cut across 3 lanes of traffic to get to the breakdown lane and turn the car off. Amazingly this goes off without a hitch, I shut the car down and stared blankly at the dash. “WTF is this?” I think. 

Mind you, it’s really cold. I’m on route 70 and there are semi’s going by at 80 mph. I’m not getting out of the car to check this here. I call my boss and appraise her of my situation, and ask if she can get hold of my associate who is waiting for me. She does and asks if I need pickup. I initially say no, because Kate will come and get me no problem. I hang up and call kate. 

Kate has left the house with the equal oversleeping furvor as I did, and has forgotten her cell phone. CRAP! I call her mom, who is luckily still at the house and let her know that I am stranded. She tells me that Kate left the house like two minutes ago, which means that kate will be gone for at least 15 minutes. I tell mom to tell kate to call me and hang up. 

Dead car. On the side of the frozen Maryland highway. I am surprisingly calm given that my vehicle has screwed up my entire day. I smell the car air, it does not smell of oil or gas, and the vapor coming out of the hood is not billowing opaque white. I turn the car back to “on” and the heat has normalized. I look out of the dash and see the exit sign for New Market, about a mile ahead. I say to hell with it and start the car. It fires up. I put on my flashers and drove at 45 mph to the exit got off and got to a gas station and shut off the car. woohoo! But after talking with the attendants it turns out that there are no garages in new market. BOO HOO!

Kate gets me on the phone and we start talking logistics of car towing. She hangs up and my boss calls me to tell me she’s coming to my rescue. I go get coffee for everybody. Kate makes the connection with the towing company and takes the car to my guy, and my boss rescued me and we got to work about an hour late. 

Car cost me $229 bucks for complete repair. Turns out the old coolant reservoir just decided to die. No fuss. No new engine, no new radiator, just a 200 dollar plastic bucket and a new head light (completely unrelated). 

On top of this craziness, I’m managing to complete all my work as well as get to meetings and complete the separate tasks that are appointed to me. I haven’t broken a sweat yet.

When did I become a grown up? It’s freaking weird.