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And a day, and a day, and a day. (Groceries; work; random other musings.)
Last night, I woke in the middle of the night to cool air (from the open window) and the sound of thunder, in the distance and near distance but not really close. I tugged the blanket over myself, pulled my robe up under it with me so it would stay warm for the morning, and fell back asleep, content - had I been more awake, I might've enjoyed the weather a bit, but I was really tired and just went back to sleep. This morning, I wondered if it were only a dream - sometimes I dream totally plausible nighttime happenings, but they didn't happen - but according to my morning radio, we did indeed have a lot of thunder-and-lightning last night (and, in a nice surprise for the dry season, I haven't heard that it lit any big fires yet).
I had a good day at work today. I got a lot of things done, and got the "go-ahead" on the mockups for the latest project. Which, as the schedule called for achieving that by next Friday, at the latest, with a planned start day of yesterday, is great in my book. (I actually started on Thursday, but an early start is a completely legitimate path to an early finish....) I sent another design off, using that info, and when I get comments will write the final (this one had questions in, and those are never final). I'm very pleased as this makes it likely we'll get more than a one-week jump on the start time. The estimates of completing it presently assume, to determine calendar time, that we'll perform on the worst-case track of man-hours for every item (unlikely) with no interruptions (very unlikely). We'll see what wins out. I wrote this today while waiting for the computer to finish installing its security updates, because it amused me:
The art is in picking the right "worst" case. One you REALLY doubt you'll slide past, but one that you also won't beat by so much that management thinks you were just trying to make sure you'd look good no matter what. My estimates usually involve a worst-case that is about 3 times as long as the best-case when they force them out of me before the technical research can be done (which is usually what happens - they can, after all, always get the refinements as they occur, but it gives them a starting point).
Really, what we call "worst-case" scenario isn't, anyway. It's the worst plausible case, the worst likely case, or the worst case we're willing to admit to. Because management never listens when you state (however accurately) that the worst-case scenario is that a full-scale nuclear war terminates development by destroying the human race. (Actually, any number of worst-case scenarios, all involving at a minimum the death of the programmers and preferably the whole human race - lest other programmers be hired - are possible. Management doesn't like any of them.)
...
On the way home, I stopped to get groceries. I went to the new Albertson's for the first time (it's been open a week or two?). Yay, a store near my house that is not Lamb's Thriftway. Watch me do dances of joy allllll over the room. Metaphorically. If I did them literally, you could watch me nursing various injuries from colliding with the mess I haven't cleaned up yet. Heh.
Albertson's is, as they usually are, quite nice. Good selection of almost everything (what is it about poor selection for soups in this town? - but Lamb's is worse). They carry Dell Math Puzzles & Logic Problems! No one has had those in ages, I wondered if they had been discontinued, but Albertson's had one. YAY! They are a bit more expensive, alas. I expected that; I may get some things (snack foods, such as muffin bars) that I used to get at Lamb's either there or at Target, though, because really, I don't want to pay extra for them if I can help it. Probably Target - they have it, they're on the way home, and I really dislike Lamb's. The big annoyance is my milk. I drink Lactaid - lactose-free milk - and I get the non-fat type. Lamb's is the only store in the area that sells this in quart sizes, and that's still true. Fred Meyer's carries 2 percent in quarts, but not fat-free. Albertson's doesn't carry any of them in anything smaller than a half gallon. This is really dumb. The stuff goes off - it's labelled as going off - a week after you open it (it'll last for a month, month and a half if you leave it closed, but what good does it do you if you never open it?). And since it's sweet by its very nature (even moreso than normal skim, in my experience), telling when it's just started to go off is not easy. So, at the week mark, I ditch it. I can't go through a quart in a week, forget a half gallon. So I'll be filing a comment with Albertson's begging them to change their stock a bit. If I'm lucky, they will. If I'm not, well, I'll figure something out. Subsidizing Lamb's once a week, I suppose. Albertson's has their "preferred club" cards. They weren't making you fill out the app - they hand you that and the card, give you the discount, and tell you to file the application the next time you're in. Good idea. They just opened, and I'd hate to see how the lines would back up if they were NOT doing that.
Also amusingly, when I stopped at Albertson's, there is a Starbucks "coming soon" there. Good GRIEF we are a HORRIBLY over-caffeinated town. There is a Starbucks next to Lamb's (probably, what, 4-5 blocks away?) and another in the Argyle Square shopping mall at the North Wilsonville exit (which is more like a mile from the next-nearest Starbucks so at least makes somewhat more sense). Good grief.
On the way home, I was stuck - along with a vasty line of other people; I was in the middle - behind someone who did 15 mph in the school zone. The speed limit there is 35, unless children are present at the schools, in which case it's 20. Not only is school out for the summer, and the signboard by the school says have a nice summer or somesuch, but the school's parking lot is being redone and is all torn up and there are big plastic pipes (like, the kind little kids walk into and get yelled at by their parents) stacked in one part of it. School could not be less in session without removing the building. However, the stupid speed-warning sign the city put in displays your speed; it flashes if you are doing over 25 or so, whether school is in or out: it flashes on snow days, it flashes on Christmas, it flashes at 9 at night, and some people think that means, you know, that they have to slow down. The signs say "when children are present". I wish they said "when light flashes" as at least then the implicit and explicit messages would be consistent. Actually, I really wish that instead of spending a lot on a permanent you-are-going-x-fast sign, they'd just PUT a flashing light on that was only on when, you know, you should slow down. And maybe put it back at the start of the school zone, instead of up by the school, halfway thru, which is where this one is.
Yesterday the high hit about 95. Today was "only" 85 but the house was still miserable until the AC hit. I'd hope for tomorrow to be better, but really? It's supposed to be more like today. The weekend's looking better, though, and thank heavens for AC at least.
I had a good day at work today. I got a lot of things done, and got the "go-ahead" on the mockups for the latest project. Which, as the schedule called for achieving that by next Friday, at the latest, with a planned start day of yesterday, is great in my book. (I actually started on Thursday, but an early start is a completely legitimate path to an early finish....) I sent another design off, using that info, and when I get comments will write the final (this one had questions in, and those are never final). I'm very pleased as this makes it likely we'll get more than a one-week jump on the start time. The estimates of completing it presently assume, to determine calendar time, that we'll perform on the worst-case track of man-hours for every item (unlikely) with no interruptions (very unlikely). We'll see what wins out. I wrote this today while waiting for the computer to finish installing its security updates, because it amused me:
The art is in picking the right "worst" case. One you REALLY doubt you'll slide past, but one that you also won't beat by so much that management thinks you were just trying to make sure you'd look good no matter what. My estimates usually involve a worst-case that is about 3 times as long as the best-case when they force them out of me before the technical research can be done (which is usually what happens - they can, after all, always get the refinements as they occur, but it gives them a starting point).
Really, what we call "worst-case" scenario isn't, anyway. It's the worst plausible case, the worst likely case, or the worst case we're willing to admit to. Because management never listens when you state (however accurately) that the worst-case scenario is that a full-scale nuclear war terminates development by destroying the human race. (Actually, any number of worst-case scenarios, all involving at a minimum the death of the programmers and preferably the whole human race - lest other programmers be hired - are possible. Management doesn't like any of them.)
...
On the way home, I stopped to get groceries. I went to the new Albertson's for the first time (it's been open a week or two?). Yay, a store near my house that is not Lamb's Thriftway. Watch me do dances of joy allllll over the room. Metaphorically. If I did them literally, you could watch me nursing various injuries from colliding with the mess I haven't cleaned up yet. Heh.
Albertson's is, as they usually are, quite nice. Good selection of almost everything (what is it about poor selection for soups in this town? - but Lamb's is worse). They carry Dell Math Puzzles & Logic Problems! No one has had those in ages, I wondered if they had been discontinued, but Albertson's had one. YAY! They are a bit more expensive, alas. I expected that; I may get some things (snack foods, such as muffin bars) that I used to get at Lamb's either there or at Target, though, because really, I don't want to pay extra for them if I can help it. Probably Target - they have it, they're on the way home, and I really dislike Lamb's. The big annoyance is my milk. I drink Lactaid - lactose-free milk - and I get the non-fat type. Lamb's is the only store in the area that sells this in quart sizes, and that's still true. Fred Meyer's carries 2 percent in quarts, but not fat-free. Albertson's doesn't carry any of them in anything smaller than a half gallon. This is really dumb. The stuff goes off - it's labelled as going off - a week after you open it (it'll last for a month, month and a half if you leave it closed, but what good does it do you if you never open it?). And since it's sweet by its very nature (even moreso than normal skim, in my experience), telling when it's just started to go off is not easy. So, at the week mark, I ditch it. I can't go through a quart in a week, forget a half gallon. So I'll be filing a comment with Albertson's begging them to change their stock a bit. If I'm lucky, they will. If I'm not, well, I'll figure something out. Subsidizing Lamb's once a week, I suppose. Albertson's has their "preferred club" cards. They weren't making you fill out the app - they hand you that and the card, give you the discount, and tell you to file the application the next time you're in. Good idea. They just opened, and I'd hate to see how the lines would back up if they were NOT doing that.
Also amusingly, when I stopped at Albertson's, there is a Starbucks "coming soon" there. Good GRIEF we are a HORRIBLY over-caffeinated town. There is a Starbucks next to Lamb's (probably, what, 4-5 blocks away?) and another in the Argyle Square shopping mall at the North Wilsonville exit (which is more like a mile from the next-nearest Starbucks so at least makes somewhat more sense). Good grief.
On the way home, I was stuck - along with a vasty line of other people; I was in the middle - behind someone who did 15 mph in the school zone. The speed limit there is 35, unless children are present at the schools, in which case it's 20. Not only is school out for the summer, and the signboard by the school says have a nice summer or somesuch, but the school's parking lot is being redone and is all torn up and there are big plastic pipes (like, the kind little kids walk into and get yelled at by their parents) stacked in one part of it. School could not be less in session without removing the building. However, the stupid speed-warning sign the city put in displays your speed; it flashes if you are doing over 25 or so, whether school is in or out: it flashes on snow days, it flashes on Christmas, it flashes at 9 at night, and some people think that means, you know, that they have to slow down. The signs say "when children are present". I wish they said "when light flashes" as at least then the implicit and explicit messages would be consistent. Actually, I really wish that instead of spending a lot on a permanent you-are-going-x-fast sign, they'd just PUT a flashing light on that was only on when, you know, you should slow down. And maybe put it back at the start of the school zone, instead of up by the school, halfway thru, which is where this one is.
Yesterday the high hit about 95. Today was "only" 85 but the house was still miserable until the AC hit. I'd hope for tomorrow to be better, but really? It's supposed to be more like today. The weekend's looking better, though, and thank heavens for AC at least.