Settling in as well as I can in my second week, and being proactive in setting my route forward.

Shipped

The original plan was reasonable enough: explore the code, ask questions, meet the immediate team one-on-one, expand outward to stakeholders, and then start contributing. Instead, at the end of last week there was a pivot. I was put on the team about to launch a new internal application across several labs in two states, and they were scrambling to meet the deadline. They’re the first team to launch an application on a new platform built entirely in-house, and there’s a lot riding on its success.

So the previous plan went out the window. I rolled up my sleeves and jumped in to start smashing bugs, adding a few late-breaking features, and smoothing out the infrastructure. My git activity heat map is already glowing white-hot. I think I successfully grabbed that baton and took off at full speed.

Read

Code, Jira tickets, wiki pages, HR policies, and more code. It will be a while before my pace reading that stuff slows down, and even then it will just be replaced with writing it all.

I have made it a point to dive back into Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’d been slow getting into it, not because of anything wrong with the book itself but maybe just my own wariness about how the story was starting to play out. I finally got past that and now I’m having a hard time putting it down. This is the second book by Tchaikovsky I’ve read that features an all-too-relatable mentally ill robot, and I’m starting to wonder how he knows the inside of my head so well.

Played

We had plans Saturday to go to the Firefly Lantern Festival, an event at a city park along the river downtown where people make and wear light-up costumes and puppets. Unfortunately, it got rained out.

That morning, though, it was beautiful. We drove to a neighboring town where an old-fashioned doughnut shop sits on the town square. They were out of my favorite item, apple fritters as good as my gold standard from an even older bakery in Union, Missouri that my buddy Scott and I would stop at before our college classes at the county community college our senior year of high school. I’ve been chasing fritters that good for thirty-five years and finally found them in Jefferson, Georgia. Have to get there earlier than we did, apparently.

We took our coffee and doughnuts to a nearby cemetery that goes back to at least the early 1800s, full of giant gothic memorials with names of families still present in the area. I love looking at the stonework, especially when it is covered with a couple centuries of moss and lichen.

Cooked

We swung by a local brewery for OysterFest, mostly an excuse for my favorite local restaurant, Seabear, to bring out their mobile oyster truck. I had a dozen, raw on the half shell, while my bemused daughter watched. Also had a pint or two of a lovely oyster-themed stout they made for the occasion, which I do not think contained any actual oyster. Went quite well with them, though.

Noticed

While looking through the company savings benefits at the new job, I noticed a discount for Costco. One opened up in Athens a year or so ago, but I never bothered to get a membership. With the discount, though, it was a no-brainer, so Sunday Juniper and I picked up my card and she got to experience her first Costco and, of course, the obligatory $1.50 hot dog. I am hoping I can wean myself off the bulk subscriptions I have set up through Amazon in favor of a more responsible retailer.

Thinking About

Upcoming travel. As part of the software launch, I will be traveling on-site to San Carlos, California and Austin, Texas. Most of a week in San Carlos for testing, then two weeks later the same in Austin, then two weeks later back to San Carlos for the real launch, and then two weeks later the final deployment in Austin. I enjoy travel, even if the act of traveling is pretty terrible. And it has been ages since I had done anything at this frequency. It required changing around custody schedules, working around some important events, and a fair bit of calendar Tetris, but I think it will all work out.

I did notice that my passport expires in four days. Not essential for domestic travel, but I am glad I caught it when I did because online renewal was painless.

What’s Next

My eldest graduates from college in a month, with a shiny new degree in computer game design. Super proud of Vivian and all the work they have put in, the challenges they have overcome, and the accomplishments they have achieved. Almost to the finish line.

Vibe Check

Baton grabbed. Sprinting.