As I alluded to before, I’ve been doing a lot of traveling the last few days. Saturday and Sunday I went to Georgia with my father in law to pick up this handsome fella:

This is Rocky (I know it’s a stereotypical name. I didn’t pick it, so don’t @ me). He’s an eight week old Boxer and he’s as cute as can be. Especially since I don’t have to train him.

That was Saturday and Sunday. I got home last night around 7:30, took a shower, and promptly fell asleep.

Only to have to wake up this morning at 3 A.M. to catch a flight to Detroit for a customer visit. I’ve been workshopping with my team and the customer all day, and just now got to my hotel room. I’m waiting on my team to get settled, then we’re going to get dinner, and then I plan on coming back and passing out again. I have to get up tomorrow at 7 to catch my flight home. I’m fine with that since I’m usually up before then. I’ll be glad to get home so I can spend time with my wife and puppies and sleep in my own bed again

My agenda for the next several days:

• Today: Drive to Georgia with my father-in-law to pick up a puppy.
• Tomorrow: Drive home with said puppy.
• Monday: Fly to Michigan for a customer workshop.
• Tuesday: Fly home again.

So yeah, it’s going to be a busy few days.

Like much of the tech industry, my employer has had a bit of a rough patch lately (although exactly how rough is a topic of debate). I just started there in November of last year. My role is DevOps Consultant in the part of the company that basically does consulting (hence the title). The result of doing consulting work is that it can be… inconsistent. I had the misfortune to be hired right as the pipeline of new projects dried up, so I spent more time “on the bench” than would normally be expected for a new hire. As a matter of fact, I didn’t get my first independent assignment until March. I’m pretty sure that was just in time to save me from getting laid off.

Needless to say, it’s been stressful.

But on the bright side, it seems that the project pipeline is picking back up. Not to jinx it, but I’ve been requested for several new projects even though my current project doesn’t end until mid-June. That’s a big change from January and February when I was spending most of my time trying to make myself busy with learning and internal projects. Apparently my skills (web development, specifically) are in short supply.

So anyway. It is nice to be wanted.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning. Not exactly the ideal way to start what will be a very long day. We’re planning to drive out to see my mom and sister in Floyd this afternoon. That’s a six hour drive. We can’t leave until after noon because I have a meeting then, so the best case scenario is arriving there around 6 p.m.