The Columbo Effect

Today was the big kickoff at the new client... a full day started with a presentation, went into a walkabout, and ended with heavy heavy geek talk. It's a little interesting the arrangement: My boss is out for 6 weeks with replacement knee surgery. My main go-to guy is turning into an over-allocated resource (and was deathly ill today), so it's looking like I'll be doing a lot of the work myself, which is just fine. Because not only did I take this gig to get closer to the delivery of patient care, but I also took it to refresh my tech geek chops.

And refreshed they're being: I spent an hour at a whiteboard outlining data replication and storage network connectivity: Turns out the initial plan had some flaws which I kindly pointed out, and we designed a better solution together. Moments like that, I live for. Not to be the 24/7 geek, but rather to be the high-level project guy who sweeps in Columbo-like and asks "there's just one thing I don't understand..." and the nerds realize that I HAVE been tracking all along... I love it.

But a day like today makes me realize -- for the next few months I could easily be doing 50+ hours a week between the two clients. Could be a lucrative summer... if I can keep the home life balance going.

Speaking of home: Pamela was solo with Isaac for a couple of hours today, and wasn't gravely injured. Her range of motion keeps getting better, she really is turning a corner. She had a rough night last night - the Vicodin tried to get its talons into her and didn't take kindly to her decision to give the stuff up. She had some mild withdrawl, with wild tossing and turning. She wound up on the couch (her decision, not mine! Poor DEAR!!!).

Isaac started raspberrying like crazy this week, crawling around making motorboat sounds. I got some video of it, and it's been making us giggle pretty much nonstop. Bella has been playing with friends a lot - it's going to be a play-hearty summer. Today was a humid afternoon, and late afternoon, the clouds opened up with a warm downpour. In an expression of pure kid-joy, Bella and Casey ran outside, got soaking wet, played on the playset, had water fights, and laughed wildly. It was a pleasure to see them out there connecting to the world!!!

At Bella's age, there's a lot of willfulness. LOTS. And I'm reminded of a tale I was told about my own youth. As a little boy (3? 4?) one clear January morning, I walked to the door in shorts and a tee-shirt. Mom said no, it's way too cold for that sort of outfit. But the kid-tv weather guy "Wallace the WeatherBear" had said it would be a beautiful, sunny day. And so I told mom what Wallace had said, and that yes, I WOULD be going out in this. After arguing the point, Mom said "ok, go on outside". I proudly marched out, got to the end of the porch and realized... it's sunny, but COLD. I turned around and pounded on the door: Mom let me in, but only after coercing a confession: Who would I believe? Mom or Wallace? MOM.

Now, before I had kids, this was just a funny story. When I had an infant, I confess, the story sounded just TERRIBLE - who could do such a thing? That's just NOT FUNNY!!!!! But now I have a 4 year old, and the story sounds just about right. I can't say I would have played that one differently than Mom in the end. Especially if little Jim was half as willful as Bella is (and Isaac is shaping up to be).

It's off to bed now - It's been a successful day at work, and at home, so my rest will be just.