2013: A Wild Year
28/12/13 05:59
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I think that’s from The Lion King album, but it could apply just as well to our experiences in 2013. Oh there were good times. Getting together with everyone, Family visiting (and we had a LOT of visitors this year - great fun) and such. There were also some terrible times. Windows8 comes to mind. But overall the good outweighed the bad.
First off, 2013 was noteworthy for performances. The first part of the year had me performing on stage in The Memory of Water, a wonderful adventure that I hope to repeat. After that I was in a stage performance of some radio plays at the Ladysmith Little Theatre. That was very different from Memory of Water and also a lot of fun. I did discover a surprising side effect to being on stage. Last weekend I watched The Sound of Music. I had seen the film before but this time when Captain von Trapp was on stage I found myself saying, "I could do that".
Memory of Water
Radio play in Ladysmith
During this time Marsha was volunteering at Frank Ney Elementary School. In addition to reading with the kids, we both did some presentations for her class about fossils and rocks, which was a lot of fun. Each student in Marsha's class even had the opportunity to break open a thunder egg. The kids loved it.
Of course there were some setbacks. In the spring my eye doctor suggested I get cataract surgery on my right eye. This was done during the run of the radio play and I had to appear a couple of times with a black eye patch. I just told anyone that asked that it was an homage to Wiley Post. The surgery itself was simple but there were complications that resulted in delayed healing, several trips to Victoria to have it examined by another eye doctor, and delay to the cataract surgery for my left eye. Finally in November the eye had stabilized so I could order new glasses, well to be honest glass. The new set will only have a correct lens for the right eye. The left will have to wait until the second surgery but unforeseen circumstances have delayed that indefinitely.
A week after my cataract surgery we received a huge shock: a diagnoses of cancer. August and September were a blur of preparations, scans, tests, and finally surgery. After four days in the hospital I recovered at home for another three weeks.
My dad had a saying he’d use when faced with some unexpected setback or problem; “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good”. This was the case with my cancer. I was at home recovering without the stress of work or appointments, or anything else. For the first time in I don’t know how long I had time to think, to reflect. As the Queen said in her Christmas Message this year:
"We all need to get the balance right, between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock."
I was able to pause and think about what I wanted to do. This led me to realize that I just wasn’t enjoying IT any more. I got into it because I liked helping people. I liked making systems work the way users wanted. Now, so much is pushed out from the servers, this isn’t possible. The user just has to adapt. I didn’t get to run around and make things "just work” for them. I did have another reason as well. I’ve installed, maintained, and worked with Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP, 2000, 98, 95 and 3.11 plus MacOS from OS-X all the way back to 6.0.7, ProDOS, Commodore DOS, MS-DOS, Android, iOS, Solaris, SunOS, and others. Some systems were better and others not so good. Some took longer to get used to than others. I however, have no shame, no qualms, no hesitation at all in saying that Windows8 is simply the worst OS ever made. That it is the next thing Microsoft is pushing out and within a couple of years all of our systems would be running it, played no small factor in my decision to walk away from IT. I just don't want to deal with it any more. I went in to talk to my boss in early October about coming back to work. While there I told him the story of a guy that used to be crew chief on a Ducati Motorcycle racing team. One day he just quit and when asked why he said “I just got sick of replacing crappy broken Ducati parts with crappy new Ducati parts”. That’s how I felt about IT. I was just sick of being unable to make things work the way the user needed it to not because of my limitations but because the SYSTEM would not allow it. I got sick of ‘upgrading’ crappy Microsoft systems with crappier Microsoft systems.
Fortunately Inuktun is a great place to work. After discussing my other work and life experience Colin, the CEO, said that they were looking for someone in the Quality Control Department. The difference is like night and day. I get to play with the robots, debug equipment, make sure what we ship will make the customer happy. Even better when I have a rough chemo day I can sit in the back with a micrometer and check parts or write manuals. My new boss is very understanding and supportive. It really is fun to go to work again.
Marsha, also has a new job. She’s with a company doing US Taxes for people living in Canada. She gets to work at home and is really enjoying it. When she’s not at work she’s back teaching reading at Frank Ney school. I suspect I’ll get pulled into another appearance as “Dinosaur Man”. Also both of us have been working on the house. The family room/laundry room is finished as is the new storage room/office. 2014 will, with a bit of luck, see huge progress on the new downstairs suite. We also completed the new driveway.
A lot of other things happened in 2013. Marsha was able to go back to Minnesota for a visit to see friends and family. We got a new car and Mike got a new car. Barbara had to move again but (in line with what my dad would say) ended up in a much nicer, less expensive, warmer place that’s closer to us. I found that my iPod Touch was exceedingly useful at work so we got a second iPad. Really it’s for work. That I can play games on it and write on it, and surf with it is totally accidental. Really.
So that’s a synopses of what happened in 2013. There’s been a few really bad things but overall more good things than bad. To be honest there was a point when I wasn’t sure I’d make it to the new year. Thank you for all of your notes and cards and messages of support. I didn’t realize how many people care about me. It’s helped a lot.
And now we go into 2014. We're looking forward to more adventures, seeing more of you, and of course more silliness such as my traditional Thanksgiving cranberry salad.
Happy New Year to everyone!
First off, 2013 was noteworthy for performances. The first part of the year had me performing on stage in The Memory of Water, a wonderful adventure that I hope to repeat. After that I was in a stage performance of some radio plays at the Ladysmith Little Theatre. That was very different from Memory of Water and also a lot of fun. I did discover a surprising side effect to being on stage. Last weekend I watched The Sound of Music. I had seen the film before but this time when Captain von Trapp was on stage I found myself saying, "I could do that".
Memory of Water
Radio play in Ladysmith
During this time Marsha was volunteering at Frank Ney Elementary School. In addition to reading with the kids, we both did some presentations for her class about fossils and rocks, which was a lot of fun. Each student in Marsha's class even had the opportunity to break open a thunder egg. The kids loved it.
Of course there were some setbacks. In the spring my eye doctor suggested I get cataract surgery on my right eye. This was done during the run of the radio play and I had to appear a couple of times with a black eye patch. I just told anyone that asked that it was an homage to Wiley Post. The surgery itself was simple but there were complications that resulted in delayed healing, several trips to Victoria to have it examined by another eye doctor, and delay to the cataract surgery for my left eye. Finally in November the eye had stabilized so I could order new glasses, well to be honest glass. The new set will only have a correct lens for the right eye. The left will have to wait until the second surgery but unforeseen circumstances have delayed that indefinitely.
A week after my cataract surgery we received a huge shock: a diagnoses of cancer. August and September were a blur of preparations, scans, tests, and finally surgery. After four days in the hospital I recovered at home for another three weeks.
My dad had a saying he’d use when faced with some unexpected setback or problem; “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good”. This was the case with my cancer. I was at home recovering without the stress of work or appointments, or anything else. For the first time in I don’t know how long I had time to think, to reflect. As the Queen said in her Christmas Message this year:
"We all need to get the balance right, between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock."
I was able to pause and think about what I wanted to do. This led me to realize that I just wasn’t enjoying IT any more. I got into it because I liked helping people. I liked making systems work the way users wanted. Now, so much is pushed out from the servers, this isn’t possible. The user just has to adapt. I didn’t get to run around and make things "just work” for them. I did have another reason as well. I’ve installed, maintained, and worked with Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP, 2000, 98, 95 and 3.11 plus MacOS from OS-X all the way back to 6.0.7, ProDOS, Commodore DOS, MS-DOS, Android, iOS, Solaris, SunOS, and others. Some systems were better and others not so good. Some took longer to get used to than others. I however, have no shame, no qualms, no hesitation at all in saying that Windows8 is simply the worst OS ever made. That it is the next thing Microsoft is pushing out and within a couple of years all of our systems would be running it, played no small factor in my decision to walk away from IT. I just don't want to deal with it any more. I went in to talk to my boss in early October about coming back to work. While there I told him the story of a guy that used to be crew chief on a Ducati Motorcycle racing team. One day he just quit and when asked why he said “I just got sick of replacing crappy broken Ducati parts with crappy new Ducati parts”. That’s how I felt about IT. I was just sick of being unable to make things work the way the user needed it to not because of my limitations but because the SYSTEM would not allow it. I got sick of ‘upgrading’ crappy Microsoft systems with crappier Microsoft systems.
Fortunately Inuktun is a great place to work. After discussing my other work and life experience Colin, the CEO, said that they were looking for someone in the Quality Control Department. The difference is like night and day. I get to play with the robots, debug equipment, make sure what we ship will make the customer happy. Even better when I have a rough chemo day I can sit in the back with a micrometer and check parts or write manuals. My new boss is very understanding and supportive. It really is fun to go to work again.
Marsha, also has a new job. She’s with a company doing US Taxes for people living in Canada. She gets to work at home and is really enjoying it. When she’s not at work she’s back teaching reading at Frank Ney school. I suspect I’ll get pulled into another appearance as “Dinosaur Man”. Also both of us have been working on the house. The family room/laundry room is finished as is the new storage room/office. 2014 will, with a bit of luck, see huge progress on the new downstairs suite. We also completed the new driveway.
A lot of other things happened in 2013. Marsha was able to go back to Minnesota for a visit to see friends and family. We got a new car and Mike got a new car. Barbara had to move again but (in line with what my dad would say) ended up in a much nicer, less expensive, warmer place that’s closer to us. I found that my iPod Touch was exceedingly useful at work so we got a second iPad. Really it’s for work. That I can play games on it and write on it, and surf with it is totally accidental. Really.
So that’s a synopses of what happened in 2013. There’s been a few really bad things but overall more good things than bad. To be honest there was a point when I wasn’t sure I’d make it to the new year. Thank you for all of your notes and cards and messages of support. I didn’t realize how many people care about me. It’s helped a lot.
And now we go into 2014. We're looking forward to more adventures, seeing more of you, and of course more silliness such as my traditional Thanksgiving cranberry salad.
Happy New Year to everyone!