Headset Politics

 I never knew something as simple as replacing a headset would serve as a reflection of what happens due to my antisocial tendencies at work.   As I've previously mentioned, prior to recent developments in having new teammates, I was working solo at my Chicago office.   Since my work was separate from the other support teams, I tended to be on my own.    There was one guy that worked in one of the other support teams that happened to be part of the same Salesforce program that I participated in 2021.    But we would only chat briefly before going about our separate days.   He then wound up leaving the company in September 2025.   Oddly enough it coincided with one of our companies recent layoffs so when I saw his account was deactivated, I worried that he was impacted by the layoffs.    But when I reached out to him on LinkedIn he said he chose to leave to pursue another opportunity.    There is one other guy that is generally friendly to everyone who I chat with briefly from time to time.    But any communication to my actual team has to be done via our chat boards since the majority of my teammates are based in Indianapolis.

So Hemingway last month I was telling my manager that my headset had seen better days and wanted to see if I could order a replacement.    She mentioned that there were new headsets ordered a few months back that was distributed to the different managers and that I was supposed to get one.   I had never gotten the memo.   I mentioned I would reach out to that "one other guy" (let's call him Roland).

Roland was so nice about it and mentioned he would look further into it.   He mentioned he would reach out to the manager of the other support group.   However, I later learned that the manager was currently out on paternity leave.    Unfortunately Roland wasn't able to make any headway.   

The sound on the headset worked perfectly fine.   It was just that the ear foams were spilling out which made them look horrible.   I'm sure other folks around me were making fun of my headset.   After a month I finally decided to look through my previous headset order to see if I could find the exact model.   It ended up I had ordered my current headset sometime in early 2024.

Once I got the correct model, I was able to find replacement ear foams for under $10.   Thankfully I ordered the correct ones and I was able to replace it and save my existing headset.

The whole thing had me thinking how due to my lack of socializing with the team, I was overlooked for new headsets.   Maybe if I made an effort to talk to their team, I wouldn't have been ignored.  I never was good at small talk.   But part of it too is that my homebase office is still Indianapolis.   For example, Boston mentioned that the senior leadership team was meeting with Chicago support team.   I wasn't included in the meeting.    It was only later that I realized that it was because of my Home Office.    I get notices whenever the Indianapolis office has meetings.   So it's likely I wasn't on any list when it came time to distributing headsets and nobody thought of me.

The newer team members that are joining my support team will all have Chicago as their homebase.   It may be time for me to officially make the switch.    A part of me wants to stay based in Indianapolis just because it makes my taxes easier.    When I worked at the aviation company and Amazon in Illinois, I had to file both Illinois and Indiana state taxes which was a pain in the butt.   It always felt like I was being double taxed (though in actuality I typically got a refund from Illinois while owing Indiana due to Lake County taxes).   It is possible I'm leaving extra money on the table by not switching but I do like how much easier my taxes are now.    There's no rush though.

Growing Work Spurts

 My company in the last few months have been steadily working to add new employees to the mix.   With the proliferation of AI, my company's stance initially was to continuously reduce head count due to the perceived benefits of utilizing AI.    But AI isn't the end all be all when it comes to providing customer support.   Feedback from a growing number of customers has been the frustration of having to deal with an AI bot before they can connect to a human support agent.   A lot of times the recommendations from AI didn't correctly address the issues that customers were complaining about.  It does appear that the company may have finally heard the complaints and subsequently have decided to temporarily increase head counts.    Of course there's no guarantees that they won't reduce head count again at some point in the future.

One change is that my team is planning to add members to the Chicago office where I'm located.   I have been the solo Chicago member for more than two years.   But that ended when a second member named Boston was added in early July to my team.   Of course since I was the only Chicago member of my team, I was chosen to be his mentor.   Interestingly enough Boston's personality almost mirrors mine.   He is a bit quiet and he also has a tendency to want to retreat to quieter areas of the office.   In fact we don't always sit together.   I didn't interview him prior but I oddly felt like Boston may have reminded my manager of me.   He's a really cool guy and I look forward to him contributing positively to the team.

I also got pulled into doing a few interviews in search of more team members for the Chicago office.   They are wanting to grow our support presence in Chicago.    I hate doing interviews but I have to remind myself it's better doing them on the company side than me on the outside interviewing trying to find a new work home.    I performed three interviews so far (with more coming in the future no doubt).   Only one of the three showed potential promise.  Romero I learned actually is from Griffith, IN which isn't too far from where I live.   He spent some time working at call centers for tech support which I felt would be good for our chat cases.    He did wind up accepting an offer and will start work in Chicago on October 5th (though I'm guessing he may work from home initially that first week).

My manager also mentioned that a fourth person is planning to relocate to the Chicago area.   I met her last week when she briefly visited the office.   I had to meet her in the lobby so she could get a visitor's pass.   My manager wanted to meet with her directly (via Google meet) but was busy with several meetings including an interview.    So since she wasn't available to meet with her, she had me take a photo with Padma.    My manager mentioned that she has some good experience working in Support.   I wasn't clear if she was a current employee or not but at some point she'll be starting work in Chicago as well.

So I've gone from being solo to having three new co-workers.   It'll definitely be an adjustment for me as I've gotten used to being alone.   There's a lot of office politics that I've mostly avoided because I wasn't near my team.   It'll be interesting too to see how the new team members play off each other.   

Surviving Some Dark Times

 As previously mentioned, Northwest Indiana (and a portion of Illinois) experienced power outages after a horrific storm crashed through the area on August 11th.   Some areas like Munster (Don and Juan live there) won't see power again until the 25th at the earliest.    I spoke to Juan on August 18th and he's suspecting it may be later than that given all the damage their area has experienced.   I reached out to Don and Juan since then and they mentioned that they got their power back on the 26th but they are still dealing with home damage and the other damages to their neighborhood.

So our first day after power went out, which was Wednesday August 12th,  I debated whether I should go into work or stay home with Dom.   He was having an aftercare nurse come to the house but she wasn't sure she could make it Wednesday since she was dealing with issues brought on by the power outage.   I decided to stay home and told my manager so I could take that day off.

I helped Dom with setting up the equipment needed for him to get his daily antibiotics.   He was confident that he would be able to take his shot on his own.  Dom was a medic when he joined the Navy in his late 20's so he picked up plenty of medical knowledge from his own experiences.    We set up the IV bag holder initially and he had a powdered form of the eraxis antibiotic.    Dom had to extract a saline solution from a small bottle to transfer to the powdered antibiotic.   Extracting it with the thick needle proved to be a challenge.

After he mixed enough of the saline, he then extracted the mixture from the bottle into a second needle.   He used that needle to connect directly to his IV and then he shot the medicine into his system.

I was impressed that Dom was able to figure things out.   But later that night Dom started experiencing chills again.   We were debating if we should go to the ER but decided to wait until the nurse came in the next morning.   

Dom felt better the next morning.   I wasn't sure if I should go to work but both my work and home phone were dangerously low and in need of charging.   I did not have an AV charging station for my car and I used both my personal and work laptop to charge both Dom and my personal phones.   I told Dom that if the nurse says he needs to go to the ER than he should go.

Since we couldn't flush the toilet, we decided to use grocery bags and a sitz bath to catch our poop.  We used a portable urinal for pee and dumped it in the sink drain.   Once the poop was collected in the grocery bag along with the toilet paper and wipes used to clean up, we took that bag and threw it in a tall garbage bag where we continued filling until it got half full and the flies and nats were finding their way to it.   It was disgusting but we didn't want to clog our toilet anymore than they were already or risk a backed up toilet.   

 I wound up doing sink baths to get ready for work.   I used bottled water for wetting the bath rag and getting the soap lathered.    Afterwards I got ready and also took my personal laptop with me so I could charge the phone.

It was really hard to concentrate at work given all that we were dealing with being without power.   I was still getting tossed all kinds of Sev1's on issues I've never had to deal with before.   I was able to charge my personal laptop as well as my phones.

I tried to call Dom around noon.  He picked up the phone but he didn't say anything.  I said hello and then he hung up.   I waited a few minutes and tried to call back but it went to voicemail.   My mind went to the darkest place thinking something was wrong with Dom.

It took everything in me to get through the rest of my workday.   I wound up leaving two hours early so I could get home sooner.    Since I have to take the train to work, it took over an hour to get home.   It also took longer because at several stations, the crew had to manually go and lower the rail stations.

By the time I got off the train, my emotions got the best of me, and I was crying as I quickly ran the 0.5 miles to get home.   I cried out for Dom when I got in the house and he responded.   He sounded fine but I quickly unloaded that I thought something had happened because he had hung up and didn't answer when I called back.    We hugged as he assured me that he was fine.

It ended up that he had just gotten lunch for himself when I initially called.   He said he did not hear me so he hung up.    He then accidentally dropped his phone and decided not to reach for it when I called back.   He also said the nurse was impressed about how Dom was able to get the IV done himself.   But a step was missed where the antibiotic solution needed to be inserted into the IV saline bag that would need to be supported by the IV bag holder which we forgot all about.    She also said he likely experienced the chills because he took the whole solution at once as opposed to diluting it in the IV saline bag and letting it slowly come through.

Our neighbor Sandra was very nice to provide Dom and I dinner on a couple of the nights as well as ice and even some snacks.   I also provided her dinner on Friday evening.    It showed how neighbors can check in on each other during the hardest of times.

Our evenings after dinner were spent conversing and reading.   I caught up on Mariah Carey's autobiography book called The Meaning of Mariah Carey.    I will say it's been interesting reading about her childhood as a bi-racial girl and the rough road she had to travel.    Now you know why Till The End Of Time was the first song I played when we finally got power again.

It would get really dark after 8pm so there wasn't much else to do but to lay down and eventually drift off to sleep.   I would light up a couple candles to provide a little bit of light to the darkness.   It was so hot and poor Dom was not having it.    He opened two of the front windows as wide as he could much to my chagrin.   I understood it was needed but hated the thought of our neighbors getting views of our home.   A lot of it of course is imagined but still didn't like that possibility.   Plus I was concerned about the bugs (who still find their way in our home anyway...uggh).   

When Saturday morning came I decided to venture to Michigan City (which Sandra and I heard had power) to try and get gas and a few house essentials along with ice if possible.   I kept my car outside the garage since it was still nonfunctional and I had the boards on the other side covering the bottom half of the garage that wouldn't close.

Due to the power outage, there were reports of very long lines at the few gas stations where there was power.   I heard a story of one lady whose car had to be pushed into the station because it completely ran out of gas while waiting.   Luckily I still had a little over half a tank of gas in the car.    As I made my way to Michigan City a little after 9am, I saw one gas station that was open on the outskirts of Chesterton, IN.   It didn't look too full even though every station was taken.   I drove up and waited behind one station before another station next to me opened up.  Luckily there was no other cars waiting so I was able to drive around to that station.

The station was requiring cash since their credit card stations weren't working.   Luckily I had some cash so I gave $30 and was able to fill my tank.    I then continued my way to Michigan City but not before my tire pressure light flashed.   With my experiences related to tires in the past, that of course had me freaking out.   I found myself repeatedly saying "no, no, no, no..." like that maid in the Get Out movie.

After I calmed down a little, I realized that the car seemed fine and I didn't notice it driving any different.   That gave me reassurance as I made it to Michigan City.   Seeing all the traffic lights and businesses with power felt like a different world compared to where I was coming from with dead traffic lights and no power.

I first went to Meijers.   I picked up some snacks like Nutty Butters and Entermann's donuts that we could eat in a pinch.   I also got a few canned goods.   I obviously couldn't get anything that required refrigeration.  I searched for ice but they didn't have any.   I then drove to Gordon's and they also didn't ice.   I was wondering if I would have to venture to Michigan to find ice but decided to make a stop at the Walmart's in Michigan City.   Thankfully they did have a few bags of ice left so I bought 3 with my intention on giving Sandra one of the bags.   She wound up not needing it but she gave me a bottle of root beer and a mango drink.   Both of them were advertised as having zero sugar which was something neither Dom or I drink.    But I figured I would drop them at Church as someone would drink them.

Dom thankfully was still doing fine when I got back.  Dom made a discovery a couple nights back that if you soak macaroni noodles in water, it'll still get soft even without cooking it.   So we wound up having that with marinara sauce for dinner.   Sandra happened to give me some Harold's Chicken wings as well as fries so we had that as a side.

I decided on Sunday to go to Church.   Our Church decided to have a service even with the power out.  They also were planning to cook hamburgers and hot dogs afterwards.   I wanted Dom to go to but he needed to get his IV medication ready so opted to stay home.   

I arrived at Church and got to see other members some of which were blessed to not be affected by the outage.   Some had just gotten power back the night before.   The zero sugar drinks I bought in from Sandra were quickly gobbled up by another member just as I expected.   The burgers wound up being some cheap soy by-products that weren't particularly tasty but beggars can't be choosers.

I took Dom's phone with me to the Church in hopes of getting it charged since it was dead.   I talked to Wilma since she seemed to be in the know about different gadgets.   I wanted to see if she could charge it in her car.   I told her about my older car not having a USB port and she mentioned that I could get an AV charger with an attached USB port that could be used to charge it.   She told me where I could find them for the cheap at Menard's and used her's to charge his phone up to 62%.

I debated whether to go to Menard's to try and find one.  Dome was feeling good the last few days so I decided after eating to head to Menard's.   I didn't find what I wanted there but then decided to make a trip to the nearby Meijer's to pick up some more canned goods.

By the time I got home it was a little after 3pm.   Dom was in the bathroom and I didn't think anything further from it until he started crying out.   I asked if he was okay and he said he needed me to help him.   When I opened the door I found that he had pooped all over the toilet seat.   He was feeling unwell and said he needed me to help him wipe his ass.   I quickly ran to grab some wet wipes and proceeded to clean him up.

He was upset obviously because I didn't come back immediately and he was getting chills again.  I felt guilty because he was fine the last few days and seemed to have gotten a good routine going.   He didn't have his phone (which was useless anyway at that time because it had zero charge) to call emergency.  He had hoped he'd hear Sandra outside so he could shout to her.   He mentioned there were some workers that were nearby checking on power lines but they didn't hear him.

Seeing the situation had me flash back to July 30th when I came home from work to find he had pooped and was feeling lethargic.    I knew we had to go back to the hospital.   It took another half hour (needed time to clean the shit from the toilet that thankfully didn't hit the floor) but we finally made our way back to the ER.   This time the ER was busy and I had to wait a bit for an extra wheelchair to become available as Dom was barely able to move.

He eventually got to see the staff though one of the nurses was rude as she told me I had to wait back in the main ER area.    But eventually I had to return so we could register him once more.   They did more tests while we waited for a room.   I was annoyed briefly because a large family came into the ER for one person and it was already feeling tight in the space.   The patient wound up being an older lady which I'm guessing may have been the matriarch but it was ridiculous that they had ten people with her when one or two folks would've been enough with them then communicating with the rest of the family.  But Hemingway.   

It was getting dark again and Dom was telling me I needed to go home since I had to work the next day.  I hated leaving him especially with that large family looming nearby and I'm sure they couldn't wait to grab my seat.   I tried to subtly suggest I move Dom to a different part of the room away from them but he insisted on staying since he had direct view of the TV and his favorite show Big Bang Theory was playing.   I reluctantly left after 8pm and got home just when it was dark.   I believe I may have just snacked on some canned tuna.

I resigned myself to needing to bring my laptop again on Monday so I could get it charged.  I laid on the downstairs sofa and had a thought of what to do with the melted ice water from the two bags of ice.  I decided I would put both in a bucket along with a bit more of a bottle of distilled water and wanted to use it to flush the shit filled toilet downstairs.   I was able to do just that which provided me some small comfort.

I made my way to the sofa and tried to calm myself to sleep.  I prayed that Dom would at least get a temporary room in the back of the ER away from the main area.   I eventually drifted off to sleep.

Around 2:45 AM on Monday morning I was awakened to the sound of fans going and the lights turning on.   I was pleasantly shocked and I briefly shouted with joy.   I ran upstairs to turn off the lights there and then I adjusted the fridge so it would stop making noises that the fridge had a high temperature (that kind of happens when you don't have power for almost 6 days).

I briefly noted that it was quiet in the neighborhood and I could still hear the generator two houses down going.   I was surprised with all the windows we had opened that I didn't hear someone screaming "Alleluia" in the streets.   Granted it was almost 3am but still.   The only other thing missing was having Dom with me to celebrate.

I decided I would stay home and since I was home, I decided at 6:30 AM to make my way back to the hospital so I could let Dom know.     I was directed to the back where he was staying in Triage 14.   A nurse incorrectly directed me to 13 but luckily I knew how to count and went to the right one.   Imagine me walking into the wrong room and freaking out whoever was in there...*LOL*.   Dom was sleeping and I hated waking him.  I only stayed for a couple minutes but I let him know about the power.

At that time there were still tens of thousands of people that didn't have power.  Some Gary residents, in particular, were quite vocal about the situation which bought Gary, IN to the national spotlight.   I started feeling some survivor guilt with us having power while other areas still didn't.   The power went out again briefly after 1pm that Monday afternoon which had me cursing out.   But it came back again 45 minutes later.   We surmised that they may have put it out again so they could connect another section of the city together before turning it back on.    But having a taste of power again only to have it yanked yet again was too much to bear.

So in the aftermath we needed to get our garage repaired.  That happened Friday and it was done by a sexy Indian guy no less.   We still have branches that need to be removed.   I have to call a roofer to repair the section of roof that caused water to leak through our archways and I would like to have our trees trimmed back again.   I also am working on restocking food that was lost to not having power.   All of that requires money.

But on that front we've gotten a bit of a reprieve.  Dom officially received his first social security check deposited in the joint account.   That monthly check which depending on if disability pays more should help give me some breathing room finally so I can focus on paying down our debt.

We also went to court for the other matter and we agreed to a lower amount which we should be able to pay off in 5 monthly installments starting in October.   Will have to see what the damage is from Dom's recent hospital stay.   But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Either way it feels good to have power again.    You never realize how much you depend on it until it's taken away.   I am also looking into getting a solar generator or two so that we can save our food in the event it happens next time.

Work's Unsung Hero

 In my job I am responsible for putting customer fires out on the daily.   Since I'm part of the Severity 1 team, some of those customers have been international ones from France, the UK, and Asia Pacific, among others.   When I get those cases, the customer usually sends them during the end of their work shift so I'm not always able to connect with them.

If I'm not able to connect with them and they didn't provide a way for me to access their system or enough information about the issue, I'm limited on what can be done.  You would be surprised by the number of cases received that just says the bare minimum with absolutely no details.   The description just says for example, "this is not working".   

In those situations we are responsible for meeting the SLA, or Service Level Agreement.   The SLA simply is the contract between the service provider (my company) and the consumer which defines the expected level of service in the event issues arise.

When we receive Severity 1 cases from those customers who pay for premium service, the service provider is expected to send out an initial response within the hour.   There are automation processes in place that will send you a warning message, if you have less than 30 minutes to respond.    You'll even get a human who will message you and say that you're in danger of not meeting the SLA.    Those messages are always so annoying especially if I'm in the middle of reviewing the issue.   Incidentally if that's the only job those folks have, where do I sign up?  *LOL*.

There are times when it takes time for the case to be assigned and when you receive it, you have less than 20 minutes to meet the SLA.   That's when you have to quickly give a generic response before time runs out.

Once the SLA is met, there's pretty much nothing else you can do for that particular case.   There are plenty of other fires from U.S. customers to keep me busy.    Near the end of my shift, for those cases, I would fill out a template with what little details I received, and then transfer the case to our general queue and directly route it to my European or Asian Pacific or India counterparts.

There are situations though where we are able to reach the international customer and obtain details.   I even had a case this past week, where the International customer opened the Severity 1 case near the end of the day and left excellent details about their issue.   They also gave me access to their system to investigate.   They weren't available to chat but I had what I needed.

I was able to immediately narrow down on the issue but I still needed time to verify that the issue indeed was what I suspected.   This involved testing the scenario in my personal work org.  I also had other fires to put out as well throughout the day.

I finally had some time about an hour before my shift ended.   I was able to confirm my first instincts were correct.    But since the customer was International, I had to decide whether to keep the case in my queue or transfer it to the customer's time zone.    I was certain that I figured out the issue but I felt like the customer may have had additional questions and if they responded on the case and I wasn't available (because it was outside my shift), it would sit there all day during their shift without a response (unless the customer escalated the case, which would be a bad thing).    Best case scenario, the customer would close out the ticket or give permission to close.  

I decided to transfer the case.  I checked on the ticket the next day and the customer did indeed respond that it was fine to close which the current assigned engineer did.   We receive credit on cases when they are closed.   Whoever is the case owner at time of close gets the credit.    Since I didn't own the case anymore, I didn't receive credit even though I was the one that resolved the issue.

During those times I feel like an unsung hero.   I lamented about it briefly to my co-worker Alvin who could relate.  He and I have definitely made a positive connection even though he's in Indianapolis.  He's become someone that I can trust for sure.   

On the flipside I've had some international cases where I was completely stumped and was so happy to pass those off and not have to deal with them anymore.   It's all part of the game.

Latest Lifefront

 One of the senior members of our Church made the suggestion in September to have a monthly birthday celebration for all the birthdays that are taking place for the month.    The folks who had the birthday would be responsible for bringing a cake.    When I heard this I silently balked since I knew my birthday month was coming next.   Another new member volunteered to bring cupcakes for October so at least that was covered.

I honestly don't like to be made the center of attention even for a brief minute.   The most I like doing for my birthday is taking time off for work (always felt I shouldn't work on my birthday with the only exception being when I worked at Amazon since I needed whatever crumbs I could get) and traveling somewhere.   I normally do like to venture out somewhere but this year I chose not to.   It's a good thing too since the air traffic controller shortages that have been happening under Orange's administration.   I did take off from the 15th - 17th.

I do want to go to the Japanese Gardens in Rockford, IL for my birthday.   Since Dom isn't working and I know he has a love for Japanese culture, I thought it would be a good day trip for us.   Plus it would be nice for us to do something together.    The facility opens from 9am to 6pm daily and it would take us 2 hours to get there so we probably want to leave as early as possible.   Dom also wanted to see the new movie adaptation of Kiss Of the Spider Woman.   I had no clue that Jennifer Lopez was in it.    It should be interesting to see how it is.   Maybe we can do that Thursday or Friday.

So this past Sunday was when the October birthdays were being celebrated.    I was reminded last week from the same senior member that my presence was required.    As part of the Church board, our meeting was also being held at the Church as well.   So I opted to go after the service.   I'm so bad.

Of course since Dom and I are a package deal, I was asked about Dom's recent interview.   Unfortunately Dom is having to deal with ageism.    He mentioned that the interviewer was dry and disengaging the whole time.    I feel that the interviewer didn't like that Dom was walking in with a cane and immediately dismissed him from consideration.

It's so frustrating.   There's so many things we have to deal with when it comes to interviewing.   Unfortunately a lot of different biases come into play.   The interviewer made assumptions about Dom, not taking into account Dom's previous experiences.   It's sad that due to that person's preconceived biases they missed out on a great employee.

I feel like at this point Dom needs to reach out to his previous employer and get them to put him in as a substitute.    He tried applying for unemployment and as I expected, the previous employer declined it and claimed that Dom resigned which he didn't.    But I'm thinking Dom is getting a bit tired of dealing with the bull.   He's 61 now and if he waits till next June, he can hopefully collect on Social Security.

I just wish he would slow up on the hobby spending since he has no income coming in.   He did finally try to put some of his dolls on sale but he did it through his personal Facebook site.    He has not had any biters unfortunately so he needs to place his items on Ebay to hopefully get them sold.    

I hope I can hang on somehow to my job and not get sick.   On that front I'm in the process of trying to get a living trust done.    Dom always says that he wants to be the one to die first but life doesn't always go as you plan and I remind him that I could be the one that dies first.     If that happens I don't want Dom to lose the house because I didn't plan properly.    I've heard too many stories especially in the gay world where if the main breadwinner passes, the surviving partner is thrown to the wolves and loses the home, especially with family members taking over.    I'm fortunate in that I feel my sisters would not throw Dom out but I need to get things ready.   I also have other assets that need to be divided.   Fun times.

Mortgage Milestone

 My quest for financial independence took a positive turn this morning.   I forgot about a work bonus that is typically paid twice a year that came at the end of September.   Thanks to that bonus I was able to use most of it to get my mortgage down to an even $10,000.    I wanted to etch an extra hundred to break the 5-figure mark but of course Dom had hobby stuff that stood in the way.   Sigh.   But nonetheless I recognize that we're very fortunate to be close to paying it off completely.   My pay-off amount at least is in the four figures as of today.    If only I had an extra $7600 hiding somewhere.    

I took care of a household issue that I put off for a few months.   I had our regular plumber come over to fix a leaky strainer in the kitchen sink.   That was a $190 hit.   Dom thought it was a bit high.   But given how the cost of everything has gone up, I realized that gone are the days you can get things fixed for $50 or even under $100.

So I have to get our garage fixed yet again.    For years we had the issue where the garage will not close all the way but rather reopen and then we have to struggle to get it to close.   I had it adjusted twice before but I was told that the issue is that garage itself is shifting in one direction which is affecting the door function.   A more long term fix is to adjust the door so that the sensors will pick them up properly.   But doing that would leave a gap on the right hand side of the door.   I wasn't keen on doing that and they made adjustments to the settings to get the door to close.   But the issue keeps returning months later so now I'm ready to try the long-term fix.   I bought a floor strip for the garage that I'm hoping will help cover some of the gap.    But we'll see.   I need to get it fixed before the weather changes for the colder so will have to work on that this month.

In other news Dom had an interview for a teaching position yesterday at a Gary charter school.   It isn't a math role but rather an elective teaching role on career and college preparation.    He said the interviewer was boring and he wasn't sure if he made a connection with him or not.    When Dom has interviewed in the past, he's had it where the staff reaches back to him within an hour after the interview and offered the job.   That didn't happen here but I'm hoping he'll hear something soon.   

He ran into a former colleague that is working security at the school.   He described him as resembling the actor D.B. Woodside when he played Amenadiel on Lucifer.   They bonded over their hate for the same member of the admin team.   Apparently that member screwed Amenadiel over as well.  

Maybe Amenadiel can put in a good word for Dom if the principal asks.   We shall see I guess.

The last time Dom was unemployed was in 2010.   Prior to losing his job, he had already paid for registration to one of his first doll conferences.    He said his parents helped him get a plane ticket to the event.   I found an old tattered sign that he put on his display table back then when he was selling a few dolls.   It looks so sad and sweet at the same time I wanted to share it.

We all have our crosses to bear in life but we find a way to get through and ideally in a better place.  That's life in a nutshell.   As long as we're breathing we have more opportunities to navigate through what gets thrown.   Dom and I are both pushing along. 

Another Layoff Round

 My company chose to layoff several thousand more co-workers last week.  I wasn't let go but given the state of the economy today and Dom not working, it has me more concerned.   I really don't feel very secure and the latest layoffs have me further on edge.    I'm feeling extra stressed since everything is falling on me financially.   If I lose my job we'll be in trouble.   

I already have some expenses that I need to deal with.   Dom is wanting more money for more pre-order doll stuff that's coming in.   I've already had to pay over $1400 for his crap.   That part is very frustrating since it's not a need.   Also I was hoping the money we lost from the hack would be credited.   But I found out that the investigation could take anywhere from 30 - 90 days and then our balance would be credited. So in the meantime I won't be able to make an extra payment for the mortgage.    So that puts me a month behind from the goal I had to pay off the mortgage.

I have a couple household expenses that I need to pay for as well.   One for a leaking sink and another for a garage door that won't close properly.   I also need to start paying for the new fridge we had to get.   I'm very stretched right now.

I usually plan a birthday trip but I haven't planned anything and it's probably a good thing.  I really can't afford to spend more money for a hotel and flight.    It's good at least we did Mackinac Island this year though now I have to hear how Dom wants us to retire there...LOL.   He's insane.   Plus he doesn't understand the concept of saving money so I don't know how he plans on paying for it.   That's right, I have to.   The hell I do.   But that's another rant.

But yeah I'm struggling financially and sadly I may not be able to pay my credit card balance in full this month.   My total balance is over $3200 already and I still have 9 days left on the billing cycle.   I'll have to pay interest fees for the first time since 2023 if I can't pay it off.   I may just have to dip into my dwindling savings which is now below $12K (and sinking).   

It's depressing to think about.   But all I can do is pray and hope I can hold on to my job.   And maybe win a small fortune...LOL.

School Haze

The 25-26 School year officially kicked off on the second week of August which was on 08/11.   The school system Dom worked at unfortunately has been playing games and Dom was not set up to select substitute jobs on the system.   So he hasn't been working for almost three weeks now.

Let me back up a bit to explain what led to this mess.   Back in April Dom sent an email to the administration of the school saying that he was looking into possibly becoming a sub teacher for the 25-26 school year.   Towards the end of the year, Dom thought about and changed direction and mentioned that he wanted to return as a teacher.   A member of the admin team which Dom clashed with in the past said that since he sent a letter to the admin expressing looking into being a sub teacher that they would consider the letter to be a letter of resignation and he would not be returning as a teacher.   Dom was livid.

He was weighing out his options all summer and decided that he would come back to the school as a sub.  So there was no preparation done by the admin to allow him to pick up sub positions and that is where we're at.

The first day of the new school year, Dom reached out to the principal and they talked about the letter.   Principal claimed to agree with Dom that the letter he sent was not a resignation letter.   He mentioned that the school board was having a meeting the next day.   The principal stated that during the board meeting they would discuss reinstating Dom as a teacher.

It just so happened that the board meetings are recorded on YouTube.   We both watched the video and there was no mention of Dom at all.   Nobody from the school reached back to Dom and he still isn't able to sign up for sub classes.

So he applied for another teaching position at a different school and he's been getting the run around from that place as well.   Supposedly they are "desperate" to fill the position.    He reached back to the admin of the new school a few days later and they said that the principal would need to schedule a time for the interview.

Dom's planning to head to the unemployment office today to see his options.   The thing is he wasn't fired from the job, they just chose not to set him up for subbing or reinstate him as a teacher.   So I'm not sure what the unemployment office will be able to do.

In the meantime Dom's had a bunch of his expensive doll orders coming in that I've had to cover.  It's been frustrating but I thank goodness that I'm able to (for now).   But he is really needing to stop doing anything else or actually sell some of what he has until the job situation is resolved.   Preferably he should stop even after getting a job and try to save more.    But I know that won't happen.

Thank goodness I'm not a huge spender and do not spend my whole paycheck.   If we both were spenders we'd be in trouble.    But it is nonetheless frustrating.

Power Played

 I had a customer that was working my last nerve on one of my Severity 1 cases that wasn't really a Severity 1 case.     He was one of those that talked and talked and wouldn't allow me to get a word in edgewise.   Then everything I suggested he was not open to trying.   The customer's homebase was in London and I inherited the case when the customer insisted on wanting to work with an AMER engineer since the EMEA's shift was ending.

To make things worse he would not allow me to get access to review his issue deeper.   Not only that he was demanding I resolve the issue in 30 minutes and get a manager on the call as well.   This customer was definitely a piece of work.

That whole ordeal with the customer lasted nearly an hour.   I did some initial research with the limited information provided.   I spoke to the Sev1 Swarm lead and he agreed to join the next call.   So he joined the call and then he invited a friend of his to join as well.

That call ended up being for nearly two hours.   In the midst of the call, I heard a sound like a soft pop and then my work laptop shut off.   I quickly found my work android and let my swarm lead know the laptop went out and I was going to rejoin by phone.

In the meantime I struggled to get my work laptop working again.   Finally after a couple minutes I got it to come on again.   I discovered that my charger was not working at all.   I did switch back to the nightmare meeting from my phone back to my laptop.   The call finished and then knowing that I only had so much time before my battery would die, I raced to get my General Hand-Off notes together for the two Sev1's, including this nightmare on, going before it died.    This all happened on 07/02.

So when I got home, I discovered that my backup charger was not working on the one Type-C USB port but it worked on the second Type-C USB port.   Then I discovered my work charger also worked on it as well.   So I let the laptop charge for the rest of the day.

I decided I wanted to go in the office for a fourth day this week.   My original intention was that I wanted to work 4 days to get an extra banked day in case I decided I wanted to work two days in the office one week.   But with my charger issue, I decided it would be good to go in so I can work with tech support in case I had issues.   I also wanted to find out about the USB port.

So fast forward to 07/03.   I was in the middle of a team meeting (about 2 hours after I logged in for the workday) when I heard the soft pop and my laptop shut off again.   At that point I decided to meet with the tech support team.   After reviewing the issue, they concluded that the issue was with the charger.   To confirm this he tried it with a different charger and the battery charged fine.   

I was frustrated because I had bought a replacement charger in March 2024 so it only lasted about 15 months before conking out.   Tech support was suggesting I get a new charger (which tech support does not supply).   I also wanted to get a newer laptop.   Tech support mentioned that the laptop would not really be new but rather the same version of my existing laptop.   Plus they would need a valid reason for replacement.

My keyboard letters have faded into oblivion which made it difficult to see what I'm typing.   The guy working tech support was not sure if that would be a valid enough reason.   But after thinking about it, I told him that I wanted to try and get a replacement.   Even if it's not a newer laptop, my hope was that it would be a functioning laptop.

So they went through the process of putting the order replacement in.   I got a confirmation email that the replacement was in the process of being shipped.   I also decided I needed to go home since I only had so much time before the work laptop would die.

It did save me from getting any new Sev1's that day, including potentially getting that nightmarish customer again.   I looked at the case history and the customer was already demanding to speak with me since EMEA's shift was ending again and clearly was not open to the suggestions from EMEA.   I saw that another team member ended up with the customer with disastrous results.   The customer again was being overly demanding and not willing to listen to suggested workarounds.

Knowing that I didn't have much time before my laptop died again, I decided to head back home.  I stopped at a local restaurant a few blocks from our home and ordered lunch for Dom and I.   I got home just before my team meeting.

In the end I was pretty much dead in the water without my laptop.   My manager suggested I just take the rest of the day off.   I decided also to order a new charger for the work laptop even though the replacement should be coming as well.  I want to see if I can at least get a charger that will work again.

Then as if to add insult to injury, my charger on my personal laptop decides to act up as well.   So I basically have to order another replacement cord for that one as well.   Luckily my backup charger actually works for my personal one.   So that's what I'm using until my replacement charger comes in. 

Both chargers are out for delivery and are expected to arrive sometime today.   You got to love technology.

Role Call

 I've been a mentor to several newer co-workers during our company's last hiring wave in the summer of 23.    It's been cool seeing each of my mentees grow into the support role and it's nice to commiserate about the crazy cases and customers we have to deal with on the daily.

 In the last couple years our company has also done a lot of layoffs.   Also with the push of utilizing more AI in our work lives, there's the concern that AI will slowly take more jobs away.   Management has been encouraging the teams to cross-train in many different areas.   In other words make ourselves more versatile and potentially more valuable to the company.

But if there's anything I've learned, no matter what you do, if a company decides to let you go, it makes no difference whether you're a star performer or a dud.   They will let you go if it helps their bottom line.

One of my mentees recently interviewed for a different role within my company.   This role seems to be focusing more on honing more business analytic type skills with of course still having that technical acumen.   

So Alan, my mentee who interviewed for the role, let me know that he was offered the role and he accepted.   I was definitely happy to receive the news.   The team he will be joining is a newer team that is being formed.    He mentioned that the customers in the new role will be internal.    Since the team is new, he mentioned that the team was looking for another team member and he wondered if he could throw my name in the ring.

I admit when he mentioned that I was taken aback.   I have thought about looking around for other roles but the thought of interviewing has left little to be desired.   I mean, I've done "so well" when interviewing in the past...LOL.   

But at the same time I do realize I've been in the same role now for 3 1/2 years.   It may be time for me to branch out.   With the departure of Roni last March, I'm the only original team member in my manager's team.   Everyone else either left the company or moved to other roles.   

Am I ready to meet my Achille's Heel, the interview?   I even hated having to give interviews when we were on the hiring blitz and I was on the preferred side.   Also with it being a new team, would I find myself first on the chopping block should another round of layoffs occur?   Even Amazon is letting go of people in their warehouses due to AI so it may not be as easy to even fall back to that (if I had to).   Not that I want that.

I'm not ready but I told Alan yes to give them my name.   At some point I'll need to review my resume and make some tweaks.   I'm nervous about telling my manager about it but I know if they decide they want to interview me, I would need to let her know.   Hopefully she won't be too peeved.   At the end of the day she did say our team needed to be flexible and if new opportunities presented itself to go for it.   If anything comes out of it, I'll keep you posted.    

The Case For AI

So one of the things my job has been pushing for the last year or so is for our team to pick up on their AI skills.   We've been required to take a lot of training so we could keep abreast for any issues customers may be experiencing.   I saw the writing on the proverbial wall during my company's quarterly all-hands meeting in April 2023 when the predominant topic was all about embracing Artificial Intelligence in our day-to-day lives.   I studied to obtain Salesforce's AI Associate certification and was able to achieve it in September 2023.

When I got that cert, I was ahead of the game with our team being one of the first to obtain it.  Almost a year later, they required everyone of the team to have the AI Associate cert.   In addition they wanted us to get the next level cert of AI Specialist which is having a name change to be Agentforce Specialist in conjunction to Salesforce's rebranding of Einstein GPT.    They required both AI Associate and AI Specialist by the end of 2024.   I studied to obtain the AI Specialist and was able to achieve it in November 2024.

Now there's a push to have our team get the current highest level AI Salesforce cert of Data Cloud Consultant.   I'm scheduled to take my first attempt at this cert on 03/22.   To top it off I'm taking some additional training on learning about Email Deliverability troubleshooting and I still have to handle existing cases and probably still assist in other engineer issues.

It does seem like there's a lot left for me to learn as I continue through what I call my 2nd and final act in my working career.   I wish I could just lay low and collect my check.    But if I want to keep my job, I need to stay open to learning more and more.   Even that of course is no guarantee that I won't be laid off from my current role down the line.

It is interesting reading up on the history of AI which has its earliest mention in the 1940's.   It started with the creation of the first digital computer which of course was a humongous machine.   There was a workshop at Dartmouth College in 1956 where the future leaders in the research of AI were in attendance.   But it seemed the next couple decades proved to be a challenge in any advancements from the U.S.

The Japanese took the lead in AI advancement in the 70's which reinvigorated the U.S.   Investment in AI hit the billion dollar mark by the 80's.   Investment continued to boom and one of the first real cumulations of it came in the form of ChatGPT in 2020.

I've actually used ChatGPT to research various topics and it's interesting the responses that I receive.  Of course ChatGPT is only as good as the information that gets fed into it.   Who better to ask how ChatGPT gets its information then to ask ChatGPT itself?

I asked ChatGPT the following question:  "How does ChatGPT get the information to be able to answer any questions we may have?"

It's answer: "ChatGPT gets its information through a process called pretraining, where it learns from a vast amount of text data, including books, articles, websites, and other publicly available written material. During this process, it learns patterns in language, concepts, facts, and general knowledge.

However, it doesn’t have real-time access to the internet or any proprietary databases after training. So, while it can answer a wide range of questions based on the knowledge it learned up until its training cutoff (which in this case is September 2021), it doesn't "know" things that have happened after that time, unless provided with that new information during the conversation.

In short, ChatGPT’s answers come from the knowledge it was trained on, which covers a huge range of topics, but it's not always up-to-date with current events unless it's connected to specific tools (like a web search) or if you give it the latest info. Does that answer your question?"

It's crazy how AI has taken over the fiber of our world.   There is a fear that AI will be the cause of a lot of tech workers losing their jobs.   I will admit I do have that concern sometimes.   But I am open to learning what I can about it.   I do hope it's enough to keep me employed while I continue to work towards my goal of financial independence.     We shall see.

 

Roni Out

 Just last week I posted about my lazy co-worker Roni and his latest antics at work.   He has caused lots of havoc in the team with how he handled cases and his lackadaisical way of working.   It's been quite the morale buster seeing how he got away with a lot of things.   But I know my manager has been documenting everything that he's done whether it's been his lack of responses on cases or his lack of participation in some of our team building activities.   I noticed too that his name was not on any of the new trainings that were being offered to the team.

I ended up with one of Roni's nightmarish cases because he was supposedly studying for a Data Cloud certification and couldn't concentrate on that and his existing cases.   I was complaining about it to one of my colleagues and imagine my shock when my colleague mentioned that Roni's account was deactivated.   I was on the train on my way home when we were communicating by phone so I didn't see the deactivation right away.   I didn't believe it at first since this same colleague who I'll call Alvin and I joked that it would be another five years before he was let go.

We were disgusted because several good employees were let go last month and we couldn't believe that Roni was still there.   But maybe that may have been the catalyst that set things in motion for his firing.   I knew my manager was documenting everything when she asked me to make a public comment on our work channel to mention that Roni did not reach out to me to meet after I tried to schedule a meeting with him.   With that said I don't wish ill-will on Roni.   I just wanted him to do his fair share of work.   As I said before, he definitely bought all of this on himself.   I do hope he learns a lesson from all this and if he's given the opportunity again, he makes more of an effort in his next role.

As for the nightmarish case, I unfortunately have my hands cut out for me.   The documentation left on the case has been lacking.   The customer on the case has been complaining almost non-stop about the lack of support received.   Roni created an investigation but unfortunately didn't leave much information and sent it to the wrong team.  That team wound up rejecting the investigation and I'm left starting at square one.   To top it off Roni lied to the customer and said the investigation is being reviewed still.    I will probably have to call the customer to introduce myself and get clarity on some examples I can share.  I no doubt will have to hear the customer complain.   But this too will pass.   The silver lining is that my manager said if the customer leaves a bad review, that she would be able to absorb the rating.   I got this.

Caught In The Track

 I talked about my co-worker Roni who drives me crazy with his lazy ways.   The rumor is he has been on several PIPs and somehow has managed to come out of them.    I suspected that my manager has been documenting all his behavior in hopes of having enough evidence to terminate him.   I got confirmation of this indirectly.    Roni reached out to ask for assistance on my team's channel on a case after it got escalated by the customer.   The case in particular is a bit messy and even I would need help on it.    

I messaged Roni and invited him to a meeting to discuss the case further on Friday.   My plan was to have him drive most of the investigation with me guiding along in the background.   My hope was that he would learn more on how to handle these types of cases.   But he never responded to my meeting invite.   He also purposely stays offline so you never know if he's there or not.

So his case got escalated again on Monday.  My manager reached out to the channel leader and myself to help Roni out.    The funny thing is our team is encouraged to assist each other on the channel but a lot of times it winds up falling on my channel leader or myself (as backup) to assist on the majority of the cases.   There are times when the channel leader asks if anyone else in the channel can assist.   He initially did so on Roni's issue.    I wound up looking at it because I knew nobody else would.   Hours later Roni's direct messaging me asking for help.  I wanted to scream.   But I did give some initial feedback and asked for Roni to follow-up with the customer.   I checked on the case that Friday and saw that the customer was getting more agitated.   That's when I reached out of Roni for the meeting.

So after my manager posted the message on our channel, I direct messaged my manager privately saying that I did try to meet with him Friday but he didn't respond.   So then my manager told me to mention that directly on the channel.   It then hit me that she wanted to have someone mention Roni's inaction so that she would have more evidence to share on Roni's incompetence.   I mean why else would she want me to mention it in the channel if not to have a paper trail.

Roni does get on my nerve but I still felt guilty calling him out on the channel.   But I went ahead and mentioned it.   I honestly wanted to cover my own tail and not be accused of not wanting to assist which was why I messaged my manager initially.  Roni of course in his Roni way did not react to my message.   But everything that's happening to him, he's definitely bought it on himself.   Last week my manager reached out to me to give an initial response to the customer on one of Roni's cases because it was in danger of not meeting the SLA.  She tried to reach Roni but he was not responding.   That is yet another of several examples that I'm sure she's documented.

Now it may be a long while still before he winds up getting terminated.   Another colleague joked that it would probably take five more years before anything happened.   I mean he started at the same time I did which means he's been employed for over 3 years now and nothing has happened yet even though folks have known about his ways since 2023.   But yeah we're all being tracked for sure.   Thankfully so far though I'm on the right track.

Commissioned Out

 Dom has been missing a lot of work these days.    He's already been counting the days till his retirement.  As a high school math teacher, he's been complaining on the daily about misbehaving students who do not understand even the basic math equations.   He's been dealing with a lot of health issues as well which has caused him to missed days.   For the third or fourth school year in a row, he has maxed out on his allotted sick day time off so each time he misses a day now, he doesn't get paid for that day.   He's also started ordering more doll crap based on various shows like Wednesday (every company that makes a likeness of the Wednesday Adam doll, he has to order) and of course Wicked.   He's been pissing me off there because he's had me stay home on certain days because he doesn't want his packages staying out in the cold too long.   Of course I have to juggle my home days with my return to office mandate that dictates I have to be in the office 3 days a week.   It's so stupid since I can do my job at home but I need the paycheck especially since I'm responsible for the majority of the household bills and for both of our health insurance costs.   So I gotta play the game till they decide to lay me off or a better opportunity comes along.

So I'm home today for work because of more packages (I went to the office Monday & Wednesday so far and will go in tomorrow to make my 3 days).   However he wound up staying home too because he's been experiencing pain in his left shoulder and his hands continue to ache from carpal tunnel.   I would've went in to the office today but I woke up a little later and didn't feel like rushing to get out of the house.  I had already set up my makeshift office as well.

I hate that he's back to spending money unnecessarily (in my opinion),especially since he's not working full-time.   He keeps talking about slowing his spending and decluttering his collection.   I continue to feel frustrated seeing how cluttered our whole house is.    Every room is full of junk.   I just imagine if he didn't spend the little money he has on this stuff, we could've had the mortgage paid off by now.   Even if he gave $200 a month to put into the mortgage, that would quickly add up over time.   But I'm managing to pay the necessary bills each month and continue to pay off my credit card bills.   I was glad to keep my total credit card payments to just under $2000 this pay period.   $3000 is the goal I usually have (this includes gas, insurance, food, transportation toll fees, and other miscellaneous items) so I exceeded my goal.   Last pay period I was slightly over $3000 so that varies.  

Speaking of credit cards, he still doesn't know yet that I canceled his one card.   I will probably add him back again.   I was just extremely frustrated at that time how he used the card for a non-emergency expense and didn't bother to tell me.  

Dom was told he would need to have carpal tunnel surgery on both his hands to alleviate the pain he's experiencing.   He was hoping to push that off till June but he's thinking he may need it sooner.   He's been wearing hand braces at night to try and help ease the pain.    But it doesn't always help and he also is noticing weakness in his shoulder muscles. 

He also mentioned Tuesday that he had a kidney stone that caused him to not be able to pee initially.  He was going to head to the E.R. but luckily he was able to push the stone out.   I too may have had a small stone a few weeks back as I was experiencing weak urine flow.   But that has since passed.  The joy of being older, right?   We're continuing to push through this thing called life.   I just needed to vent again.

More Layoff Blues

 I found out today that my company did yet another round of layoffs.   It gutted me to learn that two of my colleagues were impacted.    I saw an article last week from a random business periodical mentioning my company was letting some resources go.   

I had my weekly one-on-one with my manager scheduled for today.   She initially messaged me with the cryptic message of joining a meeting in 9 minutes.   I thought she was referring to our one-on-one initially.  But then she mentioned moving the meeting to another time because she didn't receive responses from other team members.   I then asked if our weekly team meeting was being moved to Tuesday.   She gave the affirmative but I never saw a link.

She wound up meeting with me one-on-one afterwards.   She didn't say anything right away but I could tell her mood seemed off.   I went over my list of topics unaware of the layoff at that time.  I then mentioned the article that I saw and asked if we would be impacted.   That's when I learned of the team members that were already impacted.

It just makes me sick to see how these companies just willy nilly let people go to save money to cover the higher up salaries and make stockholders (which I guess I am part of) happy.    Our Orange leader tried to mess up the stock market with his stupid tariff wars on Canada and Mexico.   Those were cancelled but not before China retaliated against tariffs on them with their own tariffs.   What a mess.

It's hard to believe a year ago I was celebrating a promotion.  That came a year after additional layoffs.  One of my colleagues affected was also someone that got promoted at the same time I was.   What both my colleagues had in common was that they were fully remote employees with long-time tenure at the company.

I'm really praying I can get my financial life in order before I get impacted.   I was hoping to make it at this place till 2033 but I may not last even through 2025 the way things are going.    My manager did say that this seemed to be the last of it.   But we truly do not know.  It's the last for now but who knows what the future holds.  Uggh.

January 31, 2033

 I started my current job journey as a support engineer on January 31, 2022.   I already documented the journey it took me to get from analyst to picker to now an engineer.   Having the word 'Engineer' in my job title was one I never thought I would have.   There were many majors back in my college days (oh how I miss the 90's..well some of it...LOL) related to engineering like Electrical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineers.   I didn't phantom back then that offering technical support would be another form of engineering.

So the job is definitely stressful at times.   But I remain grateful that I was given the opportunity to prove myself.   It has afforded me the opportunity to get my financial life back on track and resume work towards my goal of financial independence.

I'll be celebrating 3 years at my present job today.   Hard to believe how fast time is flying by.  I'm nearer to the retirement finish line now as well.   I find myself thinking a lot more about retirement these days.   It doesn't help that Dom is targeting his retirement from being a teacher to be in August 2026.   He's been very vocal about it with the way kids act today.   On the daily he shares horror stories from his classroom.   Also school shootings continue to be a thing in this country.  He is ready like yesterday to get away from the madness.

I also have a lot of acquaintances that have recently retired and seem to be enjoying life.   It adds to my wanting to have that life as well.

With that said I have a date in mind for when I would like to retire.   That date is January 31, 2033.   I'll be 60 years old at the time.   That date assumes that I'm still alive (LOL big one there),  my mortgage will be paid off (still on target for June/July 2026 for that to happen), no major expenses left (though life throws a lot at you), I still have a job without interruption (i.e. layoffs), and that I have a nice healthy amount of cash saved.

I did have a stretch goal of retiring at 55 (January 31, 2028) but I feel that's not realistic.  I anticipate needing to get another car in the next year or so.   The way prices are on cars these days is a mess.   I watched one Youtube video that normalized a good car deal at $58K.    Granted it was a Ford-150 or something along those lines but paying over $30K for a car is insane to me.   That's like a mini-mortgage to me.

In addition to the car, there's a few things that need to be fixed/replaced in our old house.   We need windows replaced throughout the house for example.   We have an old radiator that thankfully is hanging on but at some point it'll need to be replaced.   Plus the radiators in a couple rooms are not working properly and would need to be fixed.  Insulation is needed in a couple of rooms that tend to stay cold.    We have old wiring that needs to be changed as well.   I'd love to change our flooring in the main rooms to be hardwood flooring and there's of course plenty of painting and refacing that needs to be done.   All of that will cost money.

In terms of home upkeep, I pretty much am the one financially responsible for 99.94% of it.  So I would have to hope I'm able to take care of a lot of it and have it paid off before my retirement date.

Of course I could work till the standard 67 years old (January 31, 2040) or heaven forbid 70 years old (January 31, 2043).   It's scary thinking that future is really not far away at all.   

Also who knows what our health situations will be like.   That factor can quickly ruin any plans that are made.   But at some point the trigger has to be pulled whether by your choice or forced (layoffs anyone).   So for now I'm manifesting into the universe that I will be officially retiring on January 31, 2033.   Mission accepted!

Zero To Shitty

 

As a support engineer, some days at work can be so crazy.    There are times when you get crazy issue after crazy issue.   The customers have little decorum at times, demanding someone reach out to them right away or else.   To top it off I still have to assist others on their own nightmares.   There are days that I'm so busy I barely get time for lunch.   

The worst is when a day that is seemingly quiet turns into what I recently coined "zero to shitty".   It's enough to make me want to scream.   When I'm in the office it's terrible because I can't even scream.  I may have an outburst but I have to keep it in check.  It sucks too since my immediate team is in Indianapolis while I'm in Chicago.

One of the shitty issues I received last Friday was from a customer who was checking on a "promised" fix to a bug that they found.   They referenced the previous case where the claim was made.   The only thing, there was no documentation proving that an investigation was made or another acknowledging the issue and scheduling a fix.   The customer had an angry tone and said they did not want to get called to ask about the issue.

I reached out to the previous engineer and his excuse was that he was a newbie at the time.   I involved my manager who reached out to that engineer's manager.    The engineer gave me a webex video of the call which helped me narrow down the issue.   I was able to repro the issue on a demo org and document the steps.  It would be a matter of me "swarming" the issue with a different channel to verify on it and create an investigation where our Research and Development team could confirm on the issue.

I then forgot that the specific issue gets handled by a different team.  I put in a "swarm" request to the dedicated channel.   The leader of the channel declared that the channel was only for those who handled that specific skill set and to transfer the case to their team.   They basically gave me an out.  Woo hoo!

So I transferred the case.   Of course I checked on the case to see who ended up with it.  Later on I saw the new owner reached out to the previous case owner and basically made them take the case.   I probably should've done the same but I hate when engineers try to pass the buck just because you may have worked on an issue a year ago.   I've had it happen to me.  I honestly may not have remembered the issue.   But in this case since the mistake made by that engineer was so blatant, maybe it was justified.   It'll definitely be a case I'll keep watching periodically to see where it goes.

In the end a lot of the issues eventually get resolved but the journey to get there is a shitty ride.   Is Blackberry stock at $20 yet?   LOL

Almost A Wrap

 My trip to Detroit thankfully was uneventful.   I was Abe's Secret Santa.   He made it easy for me by requesting several baseball caps.   He's a cap person.    Trina wound up being my Secret Santa and she got me a three month subscription to Universal Yums.   They send out a monthly box with treats from a different country.   Dom discovered the company a few years back and we enjoyed a box or two from various countries.   The box actually arrived at my home on the 24th (guess it was good that I stayed home a day) and I decided to take it with me.   She also ordered Mariah Carey's 2020 autobiography that I had on my wish list.  I started reading a bit about Mariah's early life.   She's had it rough but she managed to use adversity to eventually make a name for herself.

Tasha brought over dinner for our Christmas meal that as always was delicious.   We spent the evening watching trashy, badly acted Tubi movies.   

Eugene and I hung out for a bit grabbing lunch at Sweetgreen restaurant, an organic outfit that serves environmentally sustainable meals.   After lunch we went shopping at Nordstrom's (well I did...LOL).  I picked up a new jacket for me and some shirts for Dom.

I decided to drive back home on Saturday after stopping by the cemetery to see Mama and Papa.   Trina, Tasha, and I shipped in to get a bed of flowers for their tombstone and also a wreath for our "Grandma" and hubby as well as "Grandma's Dad" who we knew as "Uncle".  I tried to look for "Uncle" where I thought he would be but had no luck finding him.

My Sunday was spent doing laundry in the morning and then a quick trip to Meijer's in the afternoon and a side trip to Chipolte's for our dinner.

I managed to irritate my nose this morning using the CPAP machine.   I wound up going to the office even though I wished I could've stayed home.  I found myself blowing my nose and sneezing all day.  Fun times.

My New Year's Eve is going to be a quiet one.  Dom and I will keep a low profile enjoying some steak and shrimp (well I will enjoy that).   The plan is to ring in the New Year watching one of the countdowns and praying the crazy folks don't shoot bullets at our house.

It's so hard to believe 2024 is coming to an end.   I will say that I am glad that I continued to blog about various events that have happened throughout the year.   With this post I'll have made 50 entries which is 10 more than I made in 2023.   The big highlight for me workwise was getting my promotion, which was my first promotion at a job since 2006.   Work has been nutty as usual but I'm pushing my way through it best way I know how.    I was happy that Dom and I managed to take a couple trips this year, one related to my work and the other related to his hobby.   It is nice that we were able to travel together and try to enjoy life.

For 2025 I do hope I continue to work towards paying off our mortgage.   At the same time I need to start thinking about getting another car.   I hate the thought of a car note (it's been nice not having one for a couple years) but I know Dom has a hard time getting into my Passat.   I'm thinking about the mini-SUV's like the Subaru Forester or the Mazda CX-5.    There's a few other crossover SUV's that I'm looking at as well.    I'm going to have to try to juggle that with getting the mortgage paid off.   I hate to replace one bill with another but I know it's about time to think about it.   I've been blessed that my Passat has been hanging in there since March 2014.    Cars are so expensive these days as well.   We shall see.

Perhaps my stock Blackberry may help me in achieving one or both of the financial goals.   They've had some good news in recent weeks that seems to have helped the stock recover some.    Their product QNX may finally be ready to start making the stock profitable again in 2025.    They plan on featuring QNX heavily at the upcoming Las Vegas held Consumer Electronic Show on January 7, 2025.   I'm very hopeful that things will be looking up there.

Here's to a happy, healthy 2025 for us even with the uncertainty of America's future.   

The Holiday Shuffle

 I was "roped" into driving to see Dom's Mom and family this past weekend.   I hoped Dom would drive but his minivan currently is in need of a thermostat replacement and he didn't want to risk the 4 hour round trip drive.   To be honest Dom scares me when he drives especially when he starts getting aggressive.  I do know it's in defense of the crazy drivers out there but he is constantly yelling and swinging his hands in frustration which gets me riled up.   I really wasn't feeling driving but I find it less stressful when I drive.    

On the flip side he freaks when I drive because he feels like I don't react quickly enough to cars breaking.   I'm aware of the other cars and do react in time but in his mind I cut it close.    What it comes down to is that neither of us are in control when the other person is driving and that is scary.   As much as I didn't relish driving since I'll be more driving in the near future, I felt it would be better if I did the driving.   

I caught a really bad cold last Wednesday as well.   Part of the issue could be that I'm not getting enough sleep as Dom reminded me.  I have been commuting to the Chicago office three days a week and typically I force myself to get up by 4am (alarm goes off at 3:50 am) and then I'm out the door before 6am so I can catch the Southshore train to get to downtown before 7:30am and in the office before 8am.   I then make every effort to leave the office by 3:30pm so I can catch the 4:05pm Southshore train that manages to get me home around 5pm.   I need to go to bed before 10pm but typically I go to bed or fall asleep watching TV after 11pm only to have to repeat the cycle (though for the days I work home I get to sleep an extra 2 hours if my bladder doesn't wake me up around 4 to pee...LOL).

My schedule has been rough on my body and of course I'm in my 50's.   That and the flip flopping weather has wreaked havoc on me and most likely led to my cold.

So I was recovering from my latest cold and didn't want to spread anything to his Mom who's currently battling cancer.   I was starting to feel better last Saturday when we originally was planning to visit but decided to just do a half day trip on Sunday.   I also decided to wear a mask while visiting.

Dom's sister Marie and her family including all the grandkids and great-grandkids were already at Dom Mom's house when we arrived.   For the most part the visit when well though the addition of the great-grandkids was taxing on Dom's Mom.   The great-grandkids were 7, 4, and 2.   For the most part they were behaved but they are a lot of energy.

Marie's husband and daughter bought back KFC for a late lunch.   After the family did some quick gift exchanges, their brood took off for another house and a "pizza" party leaving Dom and I to be alone with his Mom and Lexie (Dom's younger sister Marina's daughter - R.I.P.).  Marina's other daughter, Ava and her partner Ronnie were at work.   They both work retail at a small Mom and Pop store so have to work all kinds of hours.   I don't miss my retail-like days at Amazon.   At least I didn't have to deal with customers...LOL.

Dom's Mom calmed down a lot once the great-grandkids left.  She was stressing seeing them moving and hoping about.   Basically it was too much stimuli for her to handle.   They were well behaved for the most part but kids are kids.   It was much quieter once Marie's family left.

We stayed for another 2 hours before Dom and I headed home.   Before doing so we made a dinner stop at Chili's where we both ordered various combo meals that were filling.   I wanted to get a molten lava cake so ordered that to go.

So now I am prepping myself for the longer drive to Detroit.   I was originally planning on going today (12/24) but decided last night that I needed today to relax.   I worked from home yesterday but the new process the company is pushing on us in handling customer issues has been stressful.    In a nutshell they are turning my role (Tier 2) into a Tier 1 role.

As a Tier 2 engineer, cases that I received are either ones created previously by the customer or it was after they "chatted" with a Tier 1 engineer to get the additional details.   Tier 1 engineers typically "chats" live with the customer initially to get details of issues which if the Tier 1 is not able to resolve, gets a case created that gets passed to the Tier 2 engineer (me).    Now they are wanting us to "chat" with the customers as well in the hopes of getting issues resolved faster.   If I were a Tier 1 engineer, I admit I would be worried about my role.   Hell even as a Tier 2 I'm concerned.

As I mentioned previously, they have closed an office which resulted in a number of engineer roles being removed.   Plus the company has no plans to hire for additional engineers in 2025.   Again that's why I am trying so hard to focus on cutting costs in my home.   Then who knows how truly fucked things will get once Trump and his cronies get into office less than a month from now.   That's all the more reason to get my personal house (which includes Dom) in order.

So getting back to work, I just needed a day today to relax and recover before venturing out again to Detroit.   I now am planning to go on Christmas Day.   Thankfully the weather looks like it'll cooperate for the most part, including the typically risky weather locations of New Buffalo and Kalamazoo that I pass through.

I plan on staying till either Saturday or Sunday.   It'll likely be Saturday as I'll want to have Sunday to relax and prepare for my work reality next week.  I also will be working from Detroit on Friday the 27th.   I'm praying that it won't be too busy.   We shall see.   

D.C. Memories

 Dom and I were in Reston, VA a few weeks ago for another one of his doll conventions.   He said it would be his last one but I'm skeptical.    The cost to have a second person attend the conference was a bit too high since it wasn't something I enjoyed.   So instead I had the few days to myself enjoying the D.C. area.

I spent half of Day 2 traveling in the Metro to Washington D.C.   My final destination was the National Museum of African American History and Culture.   Free tickets to the museum could be obtained online by selecting a time and adding some minor personal information.    There was quite a crowd of folks at the museum.   It was a surreal experience seeing the history of slavery and freedom from 1400 onwards.   

There were many interesting stories but one that stood out was the story of an enslaved woman named Belinda.   Of African descent, she petitioned the Massachusetts legislature in 1783 for her freedom.   She shared her harrowing story of being kidnapped in Africa and sold into slavery.   Her story moved the legislative group into granting her a pension, which served as one of the earliest recorded examples of reparations for being enslaved.

It was also cool reading brief snippets of free slaves who managed to make lives for themselves post-slavery, including the purchase of property.

There was also a replica of a segregated train car from the 1940's via Southern Railway Company.   Of course the whites-only sections were more spacious including for any suitcases whereas the colored-only section spaces were cramped and smaller spaces for suitcases.   There were also separate water coolers for whites vs colored.

There were also highlights from the 1960's, 1970's, and beyond that were on display.   There was a dedicated section for Barack Obama, the United States first black president.   Overall it was a good 1 1/2 hours spent.

After the museum, I walked a bit around D.C. before hopping back on the Metro and heading to Pentagon City Fashion Centre mall directly off the Pentagon City Metro Stop.  Being at the mall bought back memories of my time living in D.C. in the mid 90's.   I was pleasantly surprised the mall was still there.   I'm guessing being a direct stop on the Metro no doubt helped its longevity.

I texted Sally a picture of the mall and she quickly remembered it as our old stomping grounds.   Sally and I first met at our alma mater University of Detroit Mercy.    We met during both of our last semester.    I was obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science while Sally was obtaining Master of Science in Computer Information Science.    We both had a mutual friend which was how we met.    Our meeting in a computer lab was our only meeting.

Little did we know that we both would end up working for the same now defunct consulting company and sat next to each other during our two month long orientation.    We befriended a few folks including a lady named Blanche (her real first name).   She was starting her "second career" as a Programmer Analyst.   She retired after 25 years working at Ma Bell.

She became a "mother figure" to Sally and me.  I have many fond memories with Blanche when we both were contracted at Bell Atlantic in Maryland.   Our old company had the habit of forcing employees to "relocate" since it was cheaper for them than paying for a hotel short-term.   They would tell us that a project was 3 months (the minimum time that relocating was required) only to find out that the contract ended after a week or two.   

Blanche had a harrowing experience where she was told by her project manager that there was a project in New York.    She was not thrilled about going there since NY is pretty expensive.    They told her that the project would be 3 months and she needed to break her lease with the apartment she lived in.   They placed her in a motel with hourly rates.   She was horrified and demanded her project manager place her in a proper hotel.    That was rectified but the experience left her stressed.    What was worse was the project fell through so she had no place to go.    Luckily her apartment in Maryland was still available so she was able to move back in.

I remember during my time at Bell Atlantic, the manager there wanted to offer me a job.   Accepting a job with a client is a no-no and could get you in trouble.   I remember talking about it with Blanche in one of the two smoking areas (she smoked).    While we were discussing the situation, the manager in question decided to come out for his smoke break.    Blanche remarked afterwards that the manager must've been trying to listen in since he normally smoked in the other section...LOL.   I ended up not accepting the job offer as I wasn't sure I necessarily wanted to live in the Maryland/D.C. area.   We soon found another place to have private chats.

When I eventually found a new job (the one I stayed at for 20 years before being laid-off and bitched about in my old blog...LOL), the project manager was very pissed at me since he said he had another assignment for me.    He said that I would not get paid for my time-off that I didn't use.   I actually had  a lot of time-off I didn't use up to that time.   I remember thinking they could fuck off and I didn't need their money.   But Blanche was instrumental in convincing me to fight for that since I earned it.   She suggested I write to the president and chief financial officer of the company and ask for my money, explaining all that I've gone through during my time there.   Writing that letter worked and I got paid for my time-off.

Another funny story was when Blanche, Sally, and I were traveling to Detroit in Blanche's car.   We needed to stop for gas a little more than halfway through our trip.   For some reason I only decided to get $20 worth of gas which only filled the tank about halfway.    When I told her what I did, she snapped and said 'boy, you better fill that tank'.   I was shocked but laughed since I knew she was right.

After Sally and I left that company, I believe Blanche stayed on with the company.   She sadly passed away in 2000.   I still smile though when I think about that time in my life.   Visiting the D.C. area definitely bought back memories.

My third day in the area I decided to check out the MGM National Harbor casino.   It was interesting seeing the area around the casino seemed ghetto.   I saw security bars on a lot of the first floor buildings which was all I needed to know.   But the casino itself was nice.   I enjoyed some lunch at an Asian fusion restaurant called Ginger.   The food was pricey (though what isn't these days) but good.   I donated to the casino of course but it was okay.

Dom meantime enjoyed his time at the convention.   The only bad part seemed to be the food.   Basically a lot of it was dry and flavorless.   I'm glad I had some delicious meals including a lobster roll.   Overall it was a good trip for us.  

My next trip will be to Boston to hang with Eugene.