Given the "downturn" or "slowdown" or whatever you want to call it, Christie and I have been increasingly leery of returning to Bank of America. The question quickly became, if not BoA, where? We figured I'd have to move at least temporarily in order to find work. Well, if I'm going to move, it should be somewhere I'm already comfortable, so that means Chicago.
I have a ton of contacts in Chicago, and notification of my intent to relocate brought lots of interesting possibilities. The most interesting was at Sky Road LLC, a software company catering to small to medium sized trading firms and hedge funds. Their business model is to wrap up existing software and vend it as an ASP (Application Service Provider) which means their customers don't have to have a large IT department, like BoA or Citadel. The best thing about Sky Road is that I already knew 5 of the 20 employees, so I felt confident I would fit in. Also, with my 10+ years working on financial software they felt confident in my abilities.
Now it is the beginning of my third week at Sky Road. I am staying in an extended stay-type hotel and getting to and from work using their shuttle. I have been looking for apartments and found a nice place 1.3 miles away from the office. My next big thing will be buying a car. I figure we can get a halfway decent car for a few thousand dollars. My commute is short, and beyond work, I just need to get groceries and maybe go to a movie now and then.
At work, I definitely jumped right into the deep end, but was pleased to discover I am a good swimmer. My experience working for banks and hedge funds has already paid dividends because I understand what is being asked of me and can accurately discourse on many topics. My first task is a big one, slated to take 6-8 weeks. I understand how to do this sort of thing, but the challenge before me is to figure out how Sky Road does this sort of thing so that I don't have to throw away my first effort, or heaven forbid, reinvent the wheel.
Christie is holding up pretty well at the ranch. We've got people helping with the feeding right now so she doesn't have to do too much on a given day. It is my hope she can use some of this time to recuperate from the long and difficult winter. Spring is around the corner and with it comes foaling season. Christie has a long list of guests slated to visit this summer, so she will rarely have to handle the ranch all alone.
We've been apart like this before, but during the year I lived in Chicago before working remotely from the ranch, I was able to travel home every other weekend. This time around money is a little tighter so we are jumping into this new adventure not knowing how it will work. One thing I do know, even with so many miles between us, we will figure it out together, and that makes all the difference.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
I'm still standing
Hello dear readers. I haven't been ignoring you (much) I have just been kinda busy being unemployed. They say that looking for work is a full time job. Well, "they" don't know the half of it. By the time you sleep until 10am, eat breakfast, and check your e-mail, it is time for lunch. And, if lunch is at all strenuous, an afternoon nap ensues. It is a good day when I can send out one or two job applications, and I think you know not every day is a good day.
OK, I'll let you off the hook, I'm not really just a shiftless layabout, I'm much, much more. In addition to being a shiftless layabout, I'm also a full time ranch hand right now. If you ask me, and I think you did, or you wouldn't be reading my blog, it could not have come at a better time. Christie didn't get her usual boost in heath this summer, so going into the winter, her tank was running low. When I got laid off, she could barely manage one of the two daily feedings by herself, and none of the other things, like pumping water into tanks or putting out supplements. While I have been doing my fair share of laying-about, I have also been able to take over most of the day-to-day ranch chores.
This week we replaced "most" with "all" as Christie went to Iowa to help out her cousin. I'm doing all the feeding, watering, and supplementing by myself right now. Luckily, all of the new fencing is holding up quite well, so breakouts have been a minimum. There's a weak spot between the Boys and Mamas herds, and some of the more adventurous horses, like Sahara and Ghost are doing some mingling. I'll probably have to trudge out there at some point and make a temporary repair, but it isn't too urgent right now.
On the job front, a couple of interesting possibilities exist, but I don't want to count chickens before they hatch or anything. (Actually, I've never been a fan of counting chickens so I may have a bias.) Anyway, I'll be sure to let you all know if anything "hatches".
OK, I'll let you off the hook, I'm not really just a shiftless layabout, I'm much, much more. In addition to being a shiftless layabout, I'm also a full time ranch hand right now. If you ask me, and I think you did, or you wouldn't be reading my blog, it could not have come at a better time. Christie didn't get her usual boost in heath this summer, so going into the winter, her tank was running low. When I got laid off, she could barely manage one of the two daily feedings by herself, and none of the other things, like pumping water into tanks or putting out supplements. While I have been doing my fair share of laying-about, I have also been able to take over most of the day-to-day ranch chores.
This week we replaced "most" with "all" as Christie went to Iowa to help out her cousin. I'm doing all the feeding, watering, and supplementing by myself right now. Luckily, all of the new fencing is holding up quite well, so breakouts have been a minimum. There's a weak spot between the Boys and Mamas herds, and some of the more adventurous horses, like Sahara and Ghost are doing some mingling. I'll probably have to trudge out there at some point and make a temporary repair, but it isn't too urgent right now.
On the job front, a couple of interesting possibilities exist, but I don't want to count chickens before they hatch or anything. (Actually, I've never been a fan of counting chickens so I may have a bias.) Anyway, I'll be sure to let you all know if anything "hatches".
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Yo Yo Me
I am a human yo-yo, and Bank of America is the inept kid who just bought me at the dollar store.
My contract was to end with 2007, but they managed to extend it for 2 months. Who looks a gift horse in the mouth? Well, on Wednesday the 30th I was informed that Thursday the 31st would be my last day. That's right, 24 hours notice. Very nice. Last year I was ticked because they only gave me 9 days notice. If I'm fallible enough to sign on with them again, I will probably be told after the fact, like "ok, Dave, your contract expired last Tuesday, don't bother filling out a timecard for this week..."
The truth is that I'm not really bitter. When I signed on with the group I worked for in 2007, they told me they only had funding until the end of the year. When they extended it two extra month, it was my hope that would bridge me over into the new budget season so I could find another group. This loss of a month of work is going to hurt, but I can't say I didn't see it coming.
If they come back with another contract in a few weeks, I will probably take it, because working from home allows me to be here when Christie needs me. In the meantime, if any of you out there need a slightly used (aka experienced) Java developer, let me know.
As for toy metaphors, in 2008, I am going to strive to be a Slinky. I will walk down stairs, alone or in pairs. I don't know what that means metaphorically speaking, but you have to admit that making a slinkety sound has its perks.
My contract was to end with 2007, but they managed to extend it for 2 months. Who looks a gift horse in the mouth? Well, on Wednesday the 30th I was informed that Thursday the 31st would be my last day. That's right, 24 hours notice. Very nice. Last year I was ticked because they only gave me 9 days notice. If I'm fallible enough to sign on with them again, I will probably be told after the fact, like "ok, Dave, your contract expired last Tuesday, don't bother filling out a timecard for this week..."
The truth is that I'm not really bitter. When I signed on with the group I worked for in 2007, they told me they only had funding until the end of the year. When they extended it two extra month, it was my hope that would bridge me over into the new budget season so I could find another group. This loss of a month of work is going to hurt, but I can't say I didn't see it coming.
If they come back with another contract in a few weeks, I will probably take it, because working from home allows me to be here when Christie needs me. In the meantime, if any of you out there need a slightly used (aka experienced) Java developer, let me know.
As for toy metaphors, in 2008, I am going to strive to be a Slinky. I will walk down stairs, alone or in pairs. I don't know what that means metaphorically speaking, but you have to admit that making a slinkety sound has its perks.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Let there be heat
Yesterday our wood stove conked out. It filled the house with smoke instead of sending it up the chimney. Smoke was even oozing (can smoke ooze?) out of every little crack and crevice in the stove. It wasn't heating, and we were quickly reduced to opening doors and windows to vent the place. Did I mention it got down to negative 30 degrees up here last night? Ole' Murphy was prosecuting us to the full extent of his law, I can tell you that.
We got a roaring fire going in the fireplace, which helped. Our fireplace has a blower built in so that once the firebox gets heated, warm air can be circulated. It was really nice within about 5' of the fireplace, and the rest of the house stayed just above 50 degrees. We figured it was also a great time to run the self clean cycle on our oven (500 degrees for three hours or so).
Once we had a little heat in the place we tried to tackle the stove. It just started smoking really bad, do we have a green log in there? We took all the burning wood out of it and threw it in the snow outside. Nope, smoke still coming into the house. There's a lot of ash in there, maybe it would breathe better if we cleaned it out. I dug a trench in a snow bank and took 8 big buckets-full of ash out. Nope, still too smoky. Ah, there is a door for removing the ash that falls down the chimney. Took another bucket of ash from there. Nope, still smoky. Well, let's sleep on it, thank goodness for down comforters.
At 5AM this morning, we were awake and decided to try using the shop vac to clean out the horizontal portion of the chimney that goes out the back of the stove. (To do this, I had to get the generator to start in -30 degrees and then find the shop vac out in the garage. Brrrr!!!!) There was about an inch of ash there, but removing it didn't fix anything. However, while shining a light around in there, I saw that there was no opening in the back for the smoke to go up. I got a pole and tested this and confirmed that there seemed to be a blockage.
At 8:01AM we started calling chimney sweeps. It must be the off season for them because of the 4 in the phone book, two were out of town. One was too far away and didn't want to drive all the way up here, but the 4th guy was willing. He got here as the sun came out blazing brightly in complete defiance of the temperature. He agreed that there appeared to be a blockage and hopped up onto the roof with his brushes and poles. There was quite a bit of accumulated ash and creosote in the chimney, so it needed cleaning, for sure. However, at a certain point, his brush got stuck. He hit something metal. A glance inside the wood stove revealed he was banging on the horizontal pipe from above. He figured out that the horizontal pipe had somehow gotten pushed back into the chimney too far and had become closed off by the back wall of the chimney. It is a good thing he was a small man, for he was able to climb halfway into our stove and get a vicegrip clamped onto the pipe. He pulled it out a ways and lit a piece of paper. The smoke went up!!!
Now we have a very clean wood stove and chimney and a nice warm fire going. We stole the big coals out of the fireplace to jump-start the wood stove and now it is warming up in here. My nose is still cold, but there is no longer any frost on my window. We were able to settle out of court with Murphy for about $150, which could have been much worse.
We got a roaring fire going in the fireplace, which helped. Our fireplace has a blower built in so that once the firebox gets heated, warm air can be circulated. It was really nice within about 5' of the fireplace, and the rest of the house stayed just above 50 degrees. We figured it was also a great time to run the self clean cycle on our oven (500 degrees for three hours or so).
Once we had a little heat in the place we tried to tackle the stove. It just started smoking really bad, do we have a green log in there? We took all the burning wood out of it and threw it in the snow outside. Nope, smoke still coming into the house. There's a lot of ash in there, maybe it would breathe better if we cleaned it out. I dug a trench in a snow bank and took 8 big buckets-full of ash out. Nope, still too smoky. Ah, there is a door for removing the ash that falls down the chimney. Took another bucket of ash from there. Nope, still smoky. Well, let's sleep on it, thank goodness for down comforters.
At 5AM this morning, we were awake and decided to try using the shop vac to clean out the horizontal portion of the chimney that goes out the back of the stove. (To do this, I had to get the generator to start in -30 degrees and then find the shop vac out in the garage. Brrrr!!!!) There was about an inch of ash there, but removing it didn't fix anything. However, while shining a light around in there, I saw that there was no opening in the back for the smoke to go up. I got a pole and tested this and confirmed that there seemed to be a blockage.
At 8:01AM we started calling chimney sweeps. It must be the off season for them because of the 4 in the phone book, two were out of town. One was too far away and didn't want to drive all the way up here, but the 4th guy was willing. He got here as the sun came out blazing brightly in complete defiance of the temperature. He agreed that there appeared to be a blockage and hopped up onto the roof with his brushes and poles. There was quite a bit of accumulated ash and creosote in the chimney, so it needed cleaning, for sure. However, at a certain point, his brush got stuck. He hit something metal. A glance inside the wood stove revealed he was banging on the horizontal pipe from above. He figured out that the horizontal pipe had somehow gotten pushed back into the chimney too far and had become closed off by the back wall of the chimney. It is a good thing he was a small man, for he was able to climb halfway into our stove and get a vicegrip clamped onto the pipe. He pulled it out a ways and lit a piece of paper. The smoke went up!!!
Now we have a very clean wood stove and chimney and a nice warm fire going. We stole the big coals out of the fireplace to jump-start the wood stove and now it is warming up in here. My nose is still cold, but there is no longer any frost on my window. We were able to settle out of court with Murphy for about $150, which could have been much worse.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Maybe it'll work THIS time...
When will I ever learn? I keep doing the same thing expecting a different result. I'm going to state a bit of wisdom that you can all feel free to quote back to me until I learn my lesson. Here it is:
Yesterday Christie had to take Cordova (Cory) to town to meet a transport truck. Cory is going to live with some very nice people in Colorado Springs. He was a champ, he even waded through a snow drift to squeeze into the trailer because I backed it into a corner. Trust me, for a half-Arab yearling, that is downright amazing.
I'm sure some of you are wondering why the trailer was parked awkwardly. I'll tell you outright it was because I was too tired to care. But I get ahead of myself. Let's backtrack 4 hours to the time when Christie sweetly asked, "Honey, could you help me hook up the trailer?" I left my desk, knowing I would be right back to work with none the wiser.
We hooked up the trailer as snow fell softly, giving the world a fuzzy aspect. We decided, smartly I thought, to pull the trailer up to the top of the driveway before adding the weight of a horse. I took a run at it, and almost made it too. The truck made it past the steep part, but the trailer didn't and I started to spin. OK, no problem, I'll just back up and a take another run at it, with a little more speed I won't get stuck. Evidently I left my mental capacity in my other briefs, because I managed to back the trailer straight down the driveway, and into our yard. The driveway turned, I didn't, the rest is history.
About this time, I realized it would have been good to have tire chains. So, we decided to put them on. This was a terrible time to try to locate the chains we hadn't used since last winter. Well, we couldn't find them in our garage, but we did find the chains for the Dodge (our ranch truck). These were a little too big for the Chevy, but we decided that with enough bungee cords anything will fit. With some digging, we got the chains around the tires, latched and tightened them. I got back in the truck and pulled the trailer about 6". While I didn't manage to get the trailer back up onto the driveway, I did dig a pair of impressive holes with the back tires.
The chains were slipping and starting to come off the tires, one link snapped under the stress. Since it was clear the Dodge's chains weren't going to work for the Chevy, we decided to use the Dodge. We unhooked the trailer from the Chevy, drove it out of the holes it dug, and took off the chains. Then we repaired the broken link and installed the chains on the Dodge. This was all around much easier, since the chains were meant to fit these tires and it didn't hurt that the Dodge was parked on a nice flat, level section of our plowed driveway.
With chains properly attached, I backed up the Dodge to the trailer and hitched it up. Chains aren't a cure all for bad traction, but they help a lot. After several times moving the trailer a few feet, I managed to get turned back onto the driveway. By then, the trailer and I were pointing downhill instead of up, but that could be remedied. I went down by the barn and turned around. Then, with a mighty roar, the Dodge, the trailer, and I went tearing up the driveway ... literally. Snow was flying everywhere, from the sky and from the tires. When I got to the steep part I didn't hesitate and we made it up onto the road. (I parked the truck and trailer in our turnout, and that is when I backed the trailer into a snow drift.)
Wow, I thought, that was much easier with chains.
If you think you might need tire chains, then you do need tire chains.Wow, when I say it like that it makes so much sense. Of course, if someone had said that to me yesterday, I would probably have dismissed it as hogwash.
Yesterday Christie had to take Cordova (Cory) to town to meet a transport truck. Cory is going to live with some very nice people in Colorado Springs. He was a champ, he even waded through a snow drift to squeeze into the trailer because I backed it into a corner. Trust me, for a half-Arab yearling, that is downright amazing.
I'm sure some of you are wondering why the trailer was parked awkwardly. I'll tell you outright it was because I was too tired to care. But I get ahead of myself. Let's backtrack 4 hours to the time when Christie sweetly asked, "Honey, could you help me hook up the trailer?" I left my desk, knowing I would be right back to work with none the wiser.
We hooked up the trailer as snow fell softly, giving the world a fuzzy aspect. We decided, smartly I thought, to pull the trailer up to the top of the driveway before adding the weight of a horse. I took a run at it, and almost made it too. The truck made it past the steep part, but the trailer didn't and I started to spin. OK, no problem, I'll just back up and a take another run at it, with a little more speed I won't get stuck. Evidently I left my mental capacity in my other briefs, because I managed to back the trailer straight down the driveway, and into our yard. The driveway turned, I didn't, the rest is history.
About this time, I realized it would have been good to have tire chains. So, we decided to put them on. This was a terrible time to try to locate the chains we hadn't used since last winter. Well, we couldn't find them in our garage, but we did find the chains for the Dodge (our ranch truck). These were a little too big for the Chevy, but we decided that with enough bungee cords anything will fit. With some digging, we got the chains around the tires, latched and tightened them. I got back in the truck and pulled the trailer about 6". While I didn't manage to get the trailer back up onto the driveway, I did dig a pair of impressive holes with the back tires.
The chains were slipping and starting to come off the tires, one link snapped under the stress. Since it was clear the Dodge's chains weren't going to work for the Chevy, we decided to use the Dodge. We unhooked the trailer from the Chevy, drove it out of the holes it dug, and took off the chains. Then we repaired the broken link and installed the chains on the Dodge. This was all around much easier, since the chains were meant to fit these tires and it didn't hurt that the Dodge was parked on a nice flat, level section of our plowed driveway.
With chains properly attached, I backed up the Dodge to the trailer and hitched it up. Chains aren't a cure all for bad traction, but they help a lot. After several times moving the trailer a few feet, I managed to get turned back onto the driveway. By then, the trailer and I were pointing downhill instead of up, but that could be remedied. I went down by the barn and turned around. Then, with a mighty roar, the Dodge, the trailer, and I went tearing up the driveway ... literally. Snow was flying everywhere, from the sky and from the tires. When I got to the steep part I didn't hesitate and we made it up onto the road. (I parked the truck and trailer in our turnout, and that is when I backed the trailer into a snow drift.)
Wow, I thought, that was much easier with chains.
If you think you might need tire chains, then you do need tire chains.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
The year is dead, long live the year
New Year's has never really had much meaning for me. It was simply another holiday from work. This year, however, I see the new year in a whole new light. As 2007 was very rough on Christie and I, I see 2008 as an opportunity. This year will be a year of healing for us, a time to get back on our feet and recover from all the shocks of 2007.
What is more, I have the strong feeling that 2008 is going to be a great year for us. For the first time in years we are entering the new year free of debt. Well, there's still the mortgage and the car payment, but everyone has those. I'm talking about unsecured debt, like medical bills and credit cards. For the first time in a long time, none of that is hanging over our heads, and I blessed that we are so fortunate. It was worth the hardship.
In my last post, the glass was definitely half empty. I'm not so manic as to declare it is now half full, let us just say there is water in the glass. It is what it is. Could we have more personal and family emergencies in 2008? Of course. Are we in a better place to handle them when they arise? I think we are.
I wish everyone a safe and gentle 2008.
What is more, I have the strong feeling that 2008 is going to be a great year for us. For the first time in years we are entering the new year free of debt. Well, there's still the mortgage and the car payment, but everyone has those. I'm talking about unsecured debt, like medical bills and credit cards. For the first time in a long time, none of that is hanging over our heads, and I blessed that we are so fortunate. It was worth the hardship.
In my last post, the glass was definitely half empty. I'm not so manic as to declare it is now half full, let us just say there is water in the glass. It is what it is. Could we have more personal and family emergencies in 2008? Of course. Are we in a better place to handle them when they arise? I think we are.
I wish everyone a safe and gentle 2008.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
I want my money back
I may be showing my age, but how many of you have heard Meatloaf's Life is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back? Well, that is how I've been feeling lately about 2007. I sat down to write a this blog post and while thinking about what to write, I found myself humming the song, so this is what you get.
In general I'm not a whiner. I can take my lumps and keep on going, perhaps even better than some. However, this was an incredibly difficult year at the ranch, for a lot of reasons. I won't bore you with every little thing, but a few of the highlights are:
Now, in order to keep my readership, I'm going to end on a good note. In the past few weeks we found a crew of guys at a local temp agency to help rebuild our fences. They have done amazing work, putting up hundreds of yards of jack-leg. The stallion has not escaped in weeks, and Christie and I actually have time to enjoy each other's company. Some of the stress of the past few months is finally starting to dissipate now that we know our fences will hold up.
In general I'm not a whiner. I can take my lumps and keep on going, perhaps even better than some. However, this was an incredibly difficult year at the ranch, for a lot of reasons. I won't bore you with every little thing, but a few of the highlights are:
- I got laid off work with only 9 days notice (two months later, got my job back)
- Christie fractured a vertebra while riding
- An unexpected death in Christie's family
- The Black Cat fire and midnight evacuation of 30 horses
- Wind storms that destroyed our fences in almost every pasture
- I had to manage the ranch alone while Christie was out of town for several weeks helping her cousin
- Two bent axles on our horse trailer
Now, in order to keep my readership, I'm going to end on a good note. In the past few weeks we found a crew of guys at a local temp agency to help rebuild our fences. They have done amazing work, putting up hundreds of yards of jack-leg. The stallion has not escaped in weeks, and Christie and I actually have time to enjoy each other's company. Some of the stress of the past few months is finally starting to dissipate now that we know our fences will hold up.
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