It's Friday.

For as early in the morning as it is, there's a lot of cars parked out there.

Guessing it's the end o' the Chief season shenanigans.

Good riddance.

Would like to live long enough to see the day they just get rid of it and turn it into a week-long training TAD, but I doubt that'll ever happen.

BeCaUsE tRaDiTiOn.

Wife went out again last night, which meant I couldn't do the plaques.

Came clean with my friend that I'd slacked on it but could put in a late night to finish them.

She said there's no rush: Wednesday is fine.

So tomorrow when I get back from the boat, they'll be done.

...As well as a hefty bit of purging of garage crap.

More than a few folk are leaving the office early today for a company luncheon, so... that's awesome.

And then I'll duck outta here around 1230.

Man.

Just not feeling it today.

At least, I think that's what all the traffic was about this morning:

Final Night™.

Last full night of bullshit before they can capstone the season and get back to their regularly scheduled existence.

Didn't make the plaques last night since wife needed to go out and do more things.

And so I was left in charge of being dog chaperone.

By the time she got back, I just wanted to watch Alien: Earth and then go to bed.

...Which I did.

Yesterday was... odd.

Rowdy was in rare form.

We had a meeting scheduled at 1100, and he was sitting at the table five minutes early.

He was actually helpful during the meeting.

And what's more, he pledged that he was going to be "more hands on" going forward.

Which...

I mean, I guess that's... good?

But I'm slightly frustrated that it took a year.

Still, better late than never I guess.

Next meeting at 1300 wrapped up just shy of my normal departure time, which I was also thankful for.

Because it started veering towards... more.

As with most of the meetings here.

We've got a new policy in place that should help shield me from more of boss man's bullshit: before a project goes to QA, it first hits the team leads.

And once it gets pushed to them, I'm not moving it. It'll be up to one of them to move the damn project along.

So their name can be tied to its status.

Man.

Fuck.

Plaques won't take long to crank out when I get home, but... I'd just rather not.

Could refund the money, but this late in the game that'd be a dick move.

And I actually like the person that ordered them, so...

Can't be a dick.

I don't think I'll do them anymore beyond this set, though.

Because medical.

Renewal prescription for Adderall as well as a gamut of different labs.

...And a modification to hypertension meds.

PSM wasn't thrilled about my blood pressure, and I'm hesitant to reveal that I know how to bring it down, but can't.

Because until that 100% disability comes in, I gotta remain broke.

Otherwise, quiet day.

Stressed about whether or not my scheduled email for project updates would deliver (it didn't), and otherwise... just... meh.

Had a chance to dwell on a parting shot from Monday, though.

Suze and site lead pulled me aside to talk about the SNAFU that was the attempted project launch I'd had last Friday.

They asked what happened, I reiterated that boss man had already seen the damn thing six times prior, and he kept finding new things to hate about it each time.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" they asked.

"Make adults be adults and do their jobs?" I replied.

Ultimately, it came down to an ultimatum on my side.

"So I'll just not move forward until I get complete consensus," I said. "And I'll blow everyone up every day until I get it."

It's super fucking petty, but apparently...

That's what I gotta do.

Because Rowdy is one of the folks that I've gotta get consensus from, and every single time I ask him about something, he acts as if I'm completely derailing his day.

Even with this shiny new "promotion" under my belt, I can only imagine the amount of money I get is a pale shadow compared to his salary.

So I shouldn't have to fucking ape on him about doing his goddamn job.

Parting shot from me was that I didn't understand why this launch was being so heavily scrutinized compared with the last one.

Obvious response of "because it's used by folks at the top level of the organization".

Fair.

However.

Why, then, trust junior folks with managing that kind of project?

But further than that: why didn't the leads give it the attention you'd expect from a high profile project?

Both those questions are rhetorical.

Because there's no rationality here.

No order.

Just lawlessness, disorder, and general chaos.

As I've mentioned to Steve, I am eager to be rescued by a job away from this one, but I also have a morbid curiosity to last as long as I can to see everything implode.

Because that's what's waiting.

Just around the corner.

Boss man escalates shit quickly.

But also: don't threaten me with a good time.

That was just one of the many gems that came out of what turned into a fucking ambush of a project demo.

Boss man invited Rowdy to the demo, so I already knew it was going to be a fucking nightmare.

And then Rowdy invited both the new developer and Carl to the fucking thing.

The demo ran for a fucking hour and throughout it, they were relentlessly picking the thing apart.

Finding all kinds of complaints about this thing and that thing.

Shit that I can almost guarantee no fucking user would notice nor care about.

And of course, compounding

All.

Of.

IT.

Is the fact that this is the seventh time that boss man has seen it.

And he's had ALL THIS FUCKING TIME to look at it as it's been in progress.

But nope.

That's not what we do here.

We air our grievances in a fucking public forum.

Needless to say, I was pissed.

And I wasn't keeping it a secret.

Told Rick that I'd have rather eaten a bullet than dealt with that shit again.

And that maybe the fucking popcorn gallery should keep their fucking mouths shut.

Carl was one of the popcorn gallery.

And he sent me a message that I believe was apologizing for "overstepping".

I say "I believe" because I didn't read it.

I saw the notification and just closed the chat.

Because I've no use for apologies.

Had a regularly scheduled meeting after that for a sprint planning session.

One of our developers went to the galley to grab lunch, so it got rescheduled to 1115.

Except nobody was fucking here at 1115.

So it kicked off at 1130.

And then was repurposed from a sprint planning meeting to a design session.

For which I have zero fucking inputs that I'd not already provided.

And which were summarily disregarded.

So I walked out as it hit its hour mark.

And shocker of shockers, got an email from Suze CC'ing our site lead saying I need to communicate better before leaving meetings.

Man.

Fuck this fucking place.

Honestly, the only actual words I remember from the motorcycle safety courses.

The instructors would tell us that when it came time to do an exercise where you ride toward the instructor, getting up to speed as you went.

Your job was not to anticipate the need to stop before you hit them, trusting that they'd tell you to brake just in time.

The point of the exercise is to test your reflexes against surprise. Make sure you don't end up painted onto the car in front of you.

I remembered it suddenly because of drivers' frustrating tendency to anticipate.

On my route to and from work, there are several points where drivers are most likely to do it. Most of them being traffic lights.

Every single goddamn time, they put on their brakes as they approach the light... as if prepping for it to turn red.

Which it very rarely ever does.

And their recovery from the slow down isn't quick.

Which means other cars take advantage of their bullshit and now it's three cars in front of me instead of just the one.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

But.

It's Friday.

Fucking praise the deity responsible for this day.

Which is apparently... Freya.

Friday is named after the Norse goddess Frigg or Freya. The name comes from the Old English "Frigedæg," meaning "Frigg's day," connecting the day to the Germanic goddess of fertility and love.

Praise be to you, Freya. Long may you reign.

Because seriously: it was a short week due to the Labor Day holiday, but shit: it's as if the past few days have done all they could to make the week feel like a regular week.

And they goddamn succeeded.

Had a pretty long conversation with Eli this morning.

...Eli's the name I'm giving to my singular favorite gate guard.

And I knew immediately what he was gonna talk about, because it was on my mind as well: the tarp.

See, military bases have some sort of covering over their gates to help the folks that stand watch... weather the weather.

Usually they're hard coverings, but in the case of this particular checkpoint... it'd started to fail.

And I'm sure that in typical Navy bullshittery, it was only a matter of time before it was catastrophic.

So...

Months ago, they removed the cover before it could squish Eli and his kin.

Which is great.

But it's been that same amount of time since they've had a covering to... weather the weather.

Within the past week, they had contractors out there installing a new one, though. As I'd surmised, it was a tarp. Industrial grade, maybe, but still a tarp.

Steve had mentioned it the other day in that it was stupid to put a tarp up while we're still in hurricane season. I agreed and joked that maybe they were gonna cut slats in it for relief.

Nope.

Got in this morning and it was gone.

"Two days," Eli said. "I didn't think it'd last long, but I kinda figured it'd be more than two days."

We joked about it for a few minutes and crossed our metaphorical fingers for something more resilient.

Got to the office, logged in, and discovered that boss man had a way to give me a grand send off into the weekend: another fucking project demo.

Because fuck me, that's why.

Despite the fact that he's had more personal demos of the fucking thing than any actual customer has, he wants another one.

Fortunately, we deploy it on Monday.

So unless he wants some egg on his face from me sending out a cancelation of the deployment notice of a project that's gotten solid positive feedback from the customers that I've given personal tours to, the worst he can do is get angry.

...Which isn't great consolation.

But... it's Frigg's day.

So fuck it.

Cheers, all.

乾杯.