Blogging from bed

I should be sleeping, it's after 11.  But the mind just won't shut off.  It's been a Monday.  Not a horrible one, but a somewhat overwhelming one.  My workload has increased exponentially in the last few months.  And now I'm frankly not sure if projects will get done on time for the first time since I've worked there.  This month is my eight-year anniversary there.  When I started we had three testers and one writer.  Now we have 16 or so (I've lost count) testers and one writer.  They tell me they've put in the budget for another writer come July but there's no telling if the position will be approved.  So I told my boss we'll just have to start deciding which projects won't get their needed documents.  I'm keeping my sense of humor about it, though.  There's much to laugh about.  One day I will devote an entire post to acronyms - the IT world loves them.

My problem today was all my good plans got shot to hell.  I prioritize my work carefully.  I keep copious notes on my projects and where I am at any given time as there are too many of them to keep in my head.  Many things need to keep moving forward simultaneously, and I have to change gears constantly.  We have a number of deadlines hitting in the next couple of weeks and I have been finishing off several and turning loose from them.  Unfortunately, it seems they don't stay finished.  We're going to change just one more thing.  Oh, by the way, the same thing will apply on this other project, too.  Or, can we add some explanation here about this thing.  Or we're changing the look of this one little thing on the screen which just happens to appear in a dozen screen shots, so you'lll need to set up all the scenarios to grab those again.  And of course write up all the changes for that.  And so it goes.  And yet another says, Becky, have you started on my project yet?  And today was the day and I feel badly because it didn't happen -- because all the finished projects weren't finished after all.  I ended the work day by writing down what I needed to do to finish two projects that have now been finished a half dozen times each.  Will it stick?  I don't know, but I need to move on.

After work I met with the landscaper and we walked around the yard and talked about what I need done next.  The sprinkling system I have is a disaster and I've limped along with it for four years now fixing it as best I can on my own.  Alberto said we can just fix it or we can replace it.  I'm going to get the bid on the full replacement and then decide if the budget can stand it.  He talked about heavy duty pipe that won't break so I don't have to worry about shutting off the water supply all the time.  And a drip system to the trees and bushes so as not to waste water.  Sprinkling grass and the consolidated areas of flowers.  Still water-wise.  Good quality sprinkler heads that won't leak or break and set low enough in the ground I won't run over them with the mower (the mower - another issue I need to deal with).  New valves and a timer to manage the watering for me.  It will seem like heaven if it all really happens like that.  But I have a lot of confidence in Alberto since the first work he did for me.  I'm hoping the bid is something I can manage.

Oh he's going to do more clean up and bring in more bark.  And will plant a couple of trees for me too.  Last year's lasagne gardening experiment in the myrtle is a failure as the grasses have invaded throughout and there is no hope of saving the myrtle.  Well half of it will be saved.  But the other half will go to bark like the rest of the yard.  So that I'm doing for sure. 

All these things are rolling around in my head now instead of allowing me some peaceful sleep.  So here I am blogging in bed and approaching midnight with the alarm set to go off at 5 a.m.  But it feels better to have just put some words down, however disjointed they may be. 

In closing I just want to mock that phrase management is so foud of throwing around: Work smarter, not harder.  Hah!  If I work much smarter, my brain just might explode!