Personal Update

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jethro's picture

The last 72 hours have been very intense. My body rhythm is a bit our of whack as a result.

Last week I was working 9:30 or 10:00 AM starts through to around 6PM, breaking for dinner, family, sport, time with Jude, and then recommencing work around 10 or 11PM and working through to 3 or 4 AM before going to bed. This cycle works best for me and my clients both local and international.

However Friday night I worked right though and then went to a clients Saturday all day. By 6PM Saturday night I was cactus and snoozed while babysitting the 3 youngest who had a movie marathon while Jude was out with Miranda at a fancy schmancy ladies thing. When she returned around 9:30 I was half snoozing in the kids bedroom while they were going to sleep. Of course that failed miserably once they heard the door open and their mother come home! Being awake I went back to work until Jude stopped me around 2AM and said “go to bed” in that

“she shall be obeyed” tone of voice!

Sunday I woke around 9:30 (after Jude and kids had gone to church without me and started work. I skipped lunch (and going to rellies) and worked through til 5PM when we got smashed by the biggest storm in 10 years. Initially we thought it was just a normal little thunder storm and kept all the PCS and servers running (they are all protected by UPS. However after the power flickered a couple of times and then went out altogether we started shutting things down. Too late for one brand new monitor – it blew up before it even got turned on!

A client turned up to collect some new hardware he had bought and had to stay parked outside for a while – the rain was note even horizontal – it was like being inside a washing machine, The wind was very intense and visibility was literally about 4 metres. You could see the air filled with water and spray being thrown around every which way.

We waited til the rain eased off enough to go and cook on the BBQ in the rain. Ben stayed with us as it was too dangerous to drive for a while. After dinner I snoozed for an hour or so. Then we lit candles and storm lanterns and settled in for a relaxing time with no work to do. After putting all the kids to bed in the living area (camped out) Jude and I played cards by candle light before heading for the sack.

Power was out until 2AM and once it came back on I started working again. It took me 3.5 hours just to clear the emails from the last 2 days and get to the point where some sanity has returned.

IMG_3471 I have been trying to build my new super duper computer. However the mongrel of a motherboard is faulty and as a result I have moved my workstation out to the school room. I have just two monitors running on my old computer while I figure out a replacement motherboard and replace the new dead monitor (that blew up).

Now it is time to settle in for a long hard week of work and I have a lot of comments on this blog to respond to about Excel problems also. These will be dealt with shortly. Thanks for the comments.

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Michael van der Veeke's picture

Hello, I used to work as hard

Hello,
I used to work as hard as you until depression and a I remembered that I had a family. Whats the point in working this hard if you can't spend the time with your family.

Michael

jethro's picture

Hey Michael Having suffered

Hey Michael
Having suffered from depression before I can certainly sympathise with you. However I have a very good work life balance. It is very important for me to make time for the family, exercise, social and volunteer and church commitments. Sometimes I have pressured deadlines (like right now) and the balance gets a little skewed. I have to make sure I twist it round again.
One other really good thing about working at home is the fact I can make time for the family when I need to. I have just been interacting with my 4 year old and her "pet moth" in between emails.
Thanks for the reminder though!