Movin' On Up

Well, I've finally gotten access to all of the places I need to go to do my job, and all of the required databases. Not too shabby, considering that at my last job the physical access would have taken two or three weeks, and even after working there for four years I still hadn't gotten all of the database accesses required. Granted, my current job is slightly more limited in scope, but I still can't help but be impressed by how well everyone seems to know their job or who to talk to to get what needs to be done done. Speaking of knowing the job, apparently I have impressed my coworkers with how fast I'm catching on and instead of waiting until next week to start my normal shift, I've got today off and am starting on tomorrow night. It's a little scary actually, I don't really believe that I'm ready, and working at night I'm not going to have as many people around if I've got a question. But, on the other hand the vote of confidence is inspiring and I'll probably be able to muddle my way through any difficulties that arise. Only time will tell I suppose and the times should definitely be interesting to say the least.

The balloons were back yesterday morning, there must be a park or something nearby where they land or take off. Not sure if there is such a thing as an airfield for hot air balloons, I suppose I'll have to take a look and see what I can find.

The drive was a lot less exciting today, though the collar of my shirt did manage to escape the confines of my jacket. The constant flapping as my collar beat a tattoo against the side of my helmet just about drove me mad. Also once my shift was over at 1700 I stuck around for a bit shooting the breeze with the guys just so I wouldn't have to wade through as much traffic on the way home. Left at about 1730 and though there were a few slow spots, it was nowhere near as bad as the previous day when I might as well have walked home. Ended up getting home just before 1900. Of course now that I've figured out a pattern it is rendered moot due to my change in schedule.

Now begins the test. Can I manage to flip my schedule back around in one day and actually make it through a night at work? We'll soon find out I suppose.

Fire!

Fireworks to be more precise... 5 different houses in my neighborhood had their own little fireworks shows going on. From the awesome, one of my neighbors is an ex-special effects guy and he was launching two inch mortars, and another one who just likes fireworks who lacked the connections for the two inchers but made up for it with the quantity of everything else. To the merely cool, kids with sparklers, bottle rockets, and roman candle wars with some of my more adventuresome neighbors. Was going to go down and see a friend in the Springs, but didn't get in touch with them so ended up staying home and partying with the rest of the block. Rain cleared up right before sundown so it was pleasantly cool and everyone was outside and just talking. Pretty nice and laid back holiday if you ask me.

It's always fun to watch stuff explode. Granted, this was stuff that is designed, and whose only purpose is, to explode so it lacks a little bit of the cool factor. I always secretly keep hoping to see a mortar fall over and fire into someones garage or something. Am I alone there, or does anybody else wish for just that extra little bit of chaos to make the event more memorable?

My computer is at about 95% of the functionality I had before the problems. Just a few programs left to install, but they're not that critical and so will probably wait until I need to use them again. Speaking of which, I still need to get in touch with a few ex-co-workers and recover some of the software/books/music/etc... that I loaned out. Not that big of a problem, it might actually be nice to talk to a few of them again and see how things are going.

I did get a call today from one of my ex-co-workers who just got back from his class trip to Croatia. Sounds like he had a great time. Got a lot of pictures too, so we're gonna have to hang out sometime soon. He told me that they did finally manage to fill my position, but that training isn't going nearly as well as the managers had hoped. Looks like they're starting to realize just how valuable I was... Too bad they fired me, that means they can't hire me back now that they're realizing just how stupid a move that was. I never claimed to be irreplaceable, but I wore some pretty big shoes.

Still going stir crazy. Only one more week, and I get to start working! I've pretty much beaten that topic to death though, so I'll just say that that's where I still am and we'll just have to see how the week goes by.