Today's theme: "It's Broken"

For the very first time since I started my job I really didn't feel like going in this morning. Why? Because I was about to spend the day kluding a workaround for a bug in the development platform I work with. This wouldn't have been such an odious thing if it weren't for the fact I was refixing a kludge I spent two days on that broke because of another kludge I spent two more days on related to the same damn bug. So, welcome to day five on one bug... joy. The best part is none of this is a problem in the next version of the software, but that's only in pre-release so I can't use it for a production system.

Nonetheless, it's this isn't so bad because there is free pop, coffee and popcorn to keep my brain working. By the early afternoon things are looking up, I've nearly got everything working like I want and I get a call from Ivana. My car has died. It's sitting on an off-ramp with the hazard lights on after suddenly spewing a copious amount of "smoke" and leaving "huge brown puddle" on the ground. Fine. Clearly a radiator hose has ruptured. Not a huge deal, except I've got zero money for a tow-truck, the car is on an off-ramp and the hazard lights are on. Rush hour is approaching and hazard lights aren't going to keep the car from being towed to an impound lot which I really couldn't afford. Hazard lights also happen to use up battery power faster than you would expect. Ever tried to drive the wrong way on an off-ramp at rush hour to get two cars nose-to-nose for a jump start (I hate automatic transmissions)? So, given that I have to get to the damn car before it gets towed or the battery goes dead so I can make enough of a road-side repair to get the thing home for proper repairs. Not to mention I need to get this all done while there is still enough light left in the day to actually get this all done. So I reshedule an upgrade to the company server to next week and bail out to go home and subsequently retrieve the car.

But when I get home Ivana's not here. Ivana's dad isn't here. I'm annoyed enough that my car decided to die today but I after nearly an hour of waiting around for nothing as I envision my car being towed or the disturbing sound of the started motor going "Mumuuuu... click click click". But luckliy the car is still there when we get to the exit and the hazard lights are still blinking with reassuring regularity. It does, in fact turn out to be a burst radiator hose as I suspected so I preform a arterial bypass with an exacto-knife and a clamp, and refill the radiator with the water I brought along. I get the car home, then drive down to Canadian Tire in it and by a replacement hose with my Friday beer money because while my I'd be happy to drive around with the hose jury-rigged indefinitely there is no way I'm going to let this happen to Ivana and the kids again. I pull the old hose and replace it just as the light is beginning to fade and I'm happy the car is in a state I'm comfortable with.

Then I come in for dinner and my cell phone beeps ominously. Generally the only text messages I get on my cell phone are from my monitoring software, and sure enough, my webserver has gone tango-upsilon. So down to the basement I go to cut over to the backup server so I can figure out what has happened and fix it. So I get that fixed and head upstairs.

Then, after joking about what it going to break next Ivana informs me the the keyboard on her computer has ceased to function. At this point all I can do is laugh. I have a game of Stratego with Connor (yes, he turned five yesterday and he plays Stratego. I have to throw the odd game to keep his interest up, but still, the game is for "ages 10 and up"), eat dinner and head back downstairs to watch Enterprise and tinker with Ivana's computer. Her keyboard is working now. But it is also ten to eleven and I've basically gotten nothing done. So now it is time to get some work done. With luck I might even get some sleep.