The Last Candle

I thought today was going to be the day when I’d cut across the finish tape for this grueling marathon of a busy season, but disappointment sticks to my heels these days like a shadow.

By mid-morning, my work load was looking to be clear of any urgent deadlines for the first time in four months. All of my products had been closed off on my side and just needed to be checked by the co-workers in charge of the respective products, after which one of my managers would OK the final result and fire the software into the great digital beyond for our customers. After the software is available online, any subsequent updates are made only at the behest of our user base. That means that a busy seasons quickly turns into a slow season, since I might be only spending a couple hours out of the full work week fixing any bugs that arrive.

Today was penciled-in as the beginning of the slow season. Like I said, the last of my products were sent out of my control by mid-morning, and the only business left was for the analyst and the manager to tick the boxes and push the last button to free me from my months of 70+ hour workweeks. As morning turned into afternoon and the software was out of my hands, I found myself massaging my wrists, as if shackles that had constrained and bound me to servitude for years had been broken away and cast off.

The imminent release was a lovely feeling in itself. New software is usually uploaded to the Web site at about 3 PM, so I just needed to sit back (figuratively speaking) for the happy news to roll in.

At 2 PM, as a grand, antagonistic gesture of divine teasing, a squirrel in the vicinity must have let a large nut slip out of his buttery paws, bonking the top of and fatally disturbing an electrical transformer in the area, because our building’s power abruptly cut out.

And that was all Friday typed, er, wrote — us programmers and analysts were all kicked off the premises, not being able to ship a single product.

The products will be shipped out on Monday instead, but the delay bugs me for another reason besides that the bloody things are still in-house and unreleased, like the presence of relatives or baked goods that have outlived their welcome and expiration date, collectively.

During this busy season I’ve learned that my analysts, kindly folks all, have a habit of spending the spare days or hours between fixing an initial bug and release by looking for more bugs. This bug-hunt is akin to squeezing a tomato for ripeness, except that the tomato has been heartily squeezed and squashed so many times already that the juicy guts of the luscious fruit is bursting out of its skin. What’s worse is that, after this busy season’s example, I have suspicions that the analysts conspire to coordinate their attack, sending the respective bug lists over my way neat, successive intervals just to make my life a living hell. (I don’t really believe that, of course, but I had wondered about it during the most hectic bits of the season.) In any case, I fully expect to have more little things to remedy come Monday morning.

But I also really enjoyed leaving work today three hours early today instead of, y’know, staying late four hours. Always a slice.

Somewhere in the middle of the last few paragraphs was a vague excuse — you may have to squint a little bit to make out the excuse, or, if that doesn’t work, throw back a couple of stiff drinks and quietly mutter aimlessly to stir up the right mood — about why the second part of the 2007 music line-up is so durned late. It’s late because I worked nearly 80 hours in the past bloody week, that’s why.

But hey, here’s part two now!

Pop-up player.

Now, if you’ll excuse me — and you WILL excuse me — I’m going to go pass out. See, I’ve got a little bit of catching up to do at the office tomorrow, and an elongated siesta will be necessary to muster the energy for the trip into work for just one more goddamn Saturday.

Argh!

Saturday update! I didn’t go to work today after all. Nyah ha!