What A Difference A Week Makes!

The earlier part of this week was horrible for me. I usually deal well with stress and pressure but an ugly combination of physical exhaustion and some extraordinary spikes in pressure brought on a brief bout of despair that I would fail miserably on almost all fronts. Lack of sleep brings on excessive stress, excessive stress brings on a lack of sleep. Not good.

Persistence, luck and blind fortitude have paid off, however. The after-hours engagements of Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday all passed on schedule and without excessive drama. The work-related tasks were tackled by simply working on each issue as it arose and forcing some items back up the managerial food chain to be reassigned or additional resources allocated. The extra workload brought on by other team members being on vacation will be resolved when they return on Monday. The corporate-wide disaster recovery exercise will be done by Sunday. While many items still remain to be resolved, they're all easily managed and are scheduled with appropriate padding to ensure success.

All is not entirely bliss, but at least the residual headaches are within my margin of tolerance. I'm sleeping much better now.

What A Difference A Week Makes!

The earlier part of this week was horrible for me. I usually deal well with stress and pressure but an ugly combination of physical exhaustion and some extraordinary spikes in pressure brought on a brief bout of despair that I would fail miserably on almost all fronts. Lack of sleep brings on excessive stress, excessive stress brings on a lack of sleep. Not good.

Persistence, luck and blind fortitude have paid off, however. The after-hours engagements of Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday all passed on schedule and without excessive drama. The work-related tasks were tackled by simply working on each issue as it arose and forcing some items back up the managerial food chain to be reassigned or additional resources allocated. The extra workload brought on by other team members being on vacation will be resolved when they return on Monday. The corporate-wide disaster recovery exercise will be done by Sunday. While many items still remain to be resolved, they're all easily managed and are scheduled with appropriate padding to ensure success.

All is not entirely bliss, but at least the residual headaches are within my margin of tolerance. I'm sleeping much better now.

Planning Ahead

I just finished making hotel reservations at the Ramada Inn, Lake Harmony, PA, for March 30-April 1, 2007. We'll be running to Lake Harmony for the 15th annual square dance fly-in of the Independence Squares of Philadelphia.

Callers this year are the twins Anne Uebelacker and Saundra Bryant, along with Glenn Matthew. I don't know Glenn at all so I'm looking forward to dancing to him as a possible addition to DC's roster of fly-in and dance callers.

Planning Ahead

I just finished making hotel reservations at the Ramada Inn, Lake Harmony, PA, for March 30-April 1, 2007. We'll be running to Lake Harmony for the 15th annual square dance fly-in of the Independence Squares of Philadelphia.

Callers this year are the twins Anne Uebelacker and Saundra Bryant, along with Glenn Matthew. I don't know Glenn at all so I'm looking forward to dancing to him as a possible addition to DC's roster of fly-in and dance callers.

Work-Related Twist

Our office has a disaster recovery exercise this weekend. I, alas, have to work a 1-10 PM Saturday shift.

I just received an e-mail naming me 'issues manager' for my shift. I'm supposed to receive all issues reported by business users or UNIX admins, record them, prioritize & dispatch them to minions colleagues and perform any required follow-up, such as creation of after-the-fact work tickets.

Well, it'll keep me from getting bored.

Work-Related Twist

Our office has a disaster recovery exercise this weekend. I, alas, have to work a 1-10 PM Saturday shift.

I just received an e-mail naming me 'issues manager' for my shift. I'm supposed to receive all issues reported by business users or UNIX admins, record them, prioritize & dispatch them to minions colleagues and perform any required follow-up, such as creation of after-the-fact work tickets.

Well, it'll keep me from getting bored.