[Monday: 3.5 miles; today: hills, 3 miles]
I’ve been neglecting my blogging duties recently!
I did a little work on the weather station after it dropped off of my local network. I think maybe it is having trouble renewing the DHCP over wifi. That’s my theory. I put in a little script to run at night and check to see if the network is active, restart it if not.
I changed the capacitors in my spare/standby Delta-44 soundcard-box-interface-thing. There was one hiding, so my parts order didn’t include that guy and I didn’t change him. He wasn’t the one that looked bulgy, so probably is OK.
I’ve been doing some contemplating about a small construction job at my parent’s house: levelling the shower floor.
We are having a block party for our little neighborhood on Saturday. Tonight we bought ingredients for homemade ice cream and baked beans. The menu will also include BBQ, cole slaw, and various drinks… (those are the ones I know about) and unknown dishes other people decide to bring.
We were able to unload our new cat via Craigslist. Video from the new owner shows all are having a fine time. Happy ending there!
We didn’t buy the sailboats last week, but someone did. The better one went for more than a thousand dollars. I was surprised. I have watched a few sailing videos on YouTube. Having never been out on the ocean, I can’t say for sure I would like it. But I think I might. Knowing my bent toward slobby housekeeping, I probably don’t have what it takes. Not to mention paying the bills while doing. We missed our rowing on Sunday evening too: went to the mall in Tupelo to carry my wife’s shopping bag.
I’ve been looking at jobs on monster.com and linkedin.com. I patched up my resume and have sent it a few places. Nothing happening yet. I think I am still in the stage of sending it off to “wow, wouldn’t that be interesting” positions instead of the stuff I already know how to do. I will hit my 20th anniv at the current place at the end of August and my 57th birthday in November. So… I’m thinking that is my best window to move ahead. I can convince myself that 56 sounds like “mid-fifties” while 57 sounds like “almost sixty”. But my expertise in this area is nil. (Boss, if you read this, no offense, but my clock is ticking and I don’t see any movement to provide a softer landing if I stick around to the lights-out of my position.)
In my architecture-student days I listened to this album a lot. I don’t feel the angsty angle applies to me, but I like the music and the fancy lyrics. (I don’t know why, but sad music kind of cheers me up.)
5 replies on “Running behind”
I think your resume would look impressive. Technical things. (Mine would be “I do stuff” – which is why if I lost my job I’d just retire, probably. Sell everything and move to Asia.) You’ve already proven you can work remotely, which broadens the opportunities w your having no geographical constraint. I know someone where I work who moved to Hawaii a few years ago to a very rural area that turns out to be five miles from the area evacuated owing to lava flows. As long as he’s connected he can work. He flies back a couple times a year for meetings. Its more accepted these days…
Thanks! But I feel about the same about mine: I do stuff. I’m thinking yours would be “These people counted on me to do these things…” and that would seem pretty impressive to the right people.
I think it is a problem with age: at a certain point a person has done so many things in the past that it is hard to focus on a few high points and say “I do THAT”. More like, in this realm of operation I would fit in good on the range from X to Y and not so good in these other things. I find it hard to convey that idea in a resume.
I’m surrounded by accountants who don’t know or care to know about relational databases. So thats my value. I got a few people up and running w Excel pivot tables, which are magical. Every once in a while someone in a related group will leave (one w a post it note – true story) and I’ll fill in. I’ll see how they did things and marvel that they got anything done at all. It’s a thing. We once had a manager years ago who spent weekends doing things – so hard working and dedicated! Turns out she was wasting her time using primitive methods.
War stories. I’ve plenty.
But it doesn’t pop on a resume.
Post-it note! That made me laugh. Reminds me of our revolving door of employees and potential employees. They just disappear after slogging through the entire interview process, or if they make it through a day or two of actual work, never to be heard from again.
Around here there are so many positions going unfilled it’s quite an opportunity for someone to get in on the ground floor if they have a questionable background or lack of experience. They just need a bit of drive to get started somewhere. Unfortunately, when I encourage someone who has lived on the dole – but is youngish still – to get out there and spread their wings, they are hesitant and instead see if there are more “programs” they haven’t tried to get on yet. They just don’t get it that they’ll have a better life if they count on their own abilities and not government largesse. Makes me sad for them.
As for me, I enjoy my job but would like to be less desk-bound in my next one.
Post-it post script.
That was over a year ago. What ultimately came to light was the department where this happened was unsalvageable. Upper management then let almost everyone go and created a new team. It’s too bad as it was a middle-management issue. They didn’t foster talent. And they never innovated. Doers but not thinkers. At least the new team is in the states. Much of accounting and IT is going to India or Philippines.