Skip to main content

The Last Day...

Well, here it is, my last day working for the State of Utah. Everything's been packed up and taken home except for a few miscellanous things I can carry in my brief case. I've converted all of my "keeper" email to rtf and copied them to a dvd. (Jim will be so happy to get the drive space back from my email account!) I've written my "farewell" email and sent it out; several people have wished me well. All that's left is to turn in my key and badge, and wait for the bus home. Which won't be here until 4:45... almost 4 hours from now.

There are some things I am going to miss. The air-conditioning is the first thing that comes to mind! And having two flat-screen monitors. The friendships with some co-workers, but there are really only a few: Brent, Bob (most of the time), Brett, Ryan, Rachael (but I haven't seen much of her for a long time), Laurie, Kaye, Janet, Bill C. Stealing pretzels from Laurie Lieb. Walking to the Tax Commission cafeteria and getting a mug of soda.

There are a lot more things I'm not going to miss: Powerbuilder for a larger scale application, business rules designed to drive a programmer nutty, phone bills for pennies, living in a cloth cubicle, headaches and high blood pressure from staring at these two monitors for more time than I should, lack of support from DDW, the feeling of "I don't want to go to work today" every morning. Rush bug fixes that shouldn't be.

What I'm looking forward to: spending time with the kids and doing our homeschool. Getting OHPAA fully funded. Organizing my office and library (both the physical, hard copy stuff, and the electronic stuff!) Working on my house (Man have I got a bunch to do on that house!) Being able to walk or ride a bike to work at the Empress. Creating the Oquirrh Hills Performing Arts Complex. Having time to do stuff like lighting for shows.

What I'm not looking forward too: Taking over the budget and household financial management from Amy. Grocery shopping. Amy working 12 hour days. Planning and preparing meals. Working in an office without airconditioning (but only for a couple of months). Taking care of the garden.

What scares me because it's outside my comfort zone: Cold calling potential donors.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Agregate Demand and the US Savings Rate

In my last post, I touched on the differences between the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes and Ludwig von Mises. Immediately aftward, I was directed to this story in the New York Times. It seems that americans are saving more instead of spending the their money on consumer goods. Up until this downturn, about 70% of the US Economy was consumer spending, and in 2005, the US Savings rate was negative 2.7%. The "stimulus" is supposed to stimulate spending to get money moving again. But it isn't happening as planned. Folks are saving for down payments because they don't expect to get zero down home mortgages; they're saving to replenish their decimated retirement and college funds. The austrians believe that the best way to "fix" the economy is to allow the "malinvestment" created by the false signals in the economy (from the open market ops and deficit spending) to be liquidated and the resources repurposed into better investments. It...
Post a Comment
Read more

Haiti Adoption Story

Most of us have seen or read stories of adoptions of Haitian children following the earthquake last month. Some of the stories have had a positive slant (the charity has saved children...) other's have had a negative slant (the "missionaries" who kidnapped and tried to smuggle 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic). At a family gathering yesterday, my wife heard a story about a couple that was "finally" able to adopt a child they've been trying to adopt for about 4 years. As the story was related to me, this couple had originally been matched with this child about 4 years ago, but the adoption was cancelled when the parents of the child took her back and parented her themselves. After about three years of caring for the child, the natural parents returned her to the orphanage because both of them had been diagnosed with tuberculosis; a death sentence in Haiti. (Mortality for untreated TB is about 67%.) The adoption was finalized just befo...
3 comments
Read more

Conventional Wisdom Meets Reality:
There Ought Not to be a Law

The "before" picture of an intersection near Bristol, England: Maximum traffic of 1700 cars per hour and about 300 pedestrians. Commute time for some people using the intersection over 20 minutes in rush hour traffic. The "after" picture: Traffic flow increased to 2000 cars per hour, and still handles the 300 pedestrians. Commute time reduced to just 5 minutes. In the eight months since the change, there have only been two minor incidents, and not a single person (motorist or pedestrian) has been injured in an accident. How did they do it? What new technology did they use to effect this miraculous change? They took out the traffic conrol signals! Yes, you read that right, the traffic lights were removed. By removing all of the red, yellow and green lights, the motorists became more courteous, more cautious, and more sharing of the road way. In complete defiance of the conventional wisdom. This experiment raises a lot of very interesting questions. First, do our pre...
2 comments
Read more