In The Now

In lieu of a month-by-month year in review for 2009, I’ve decided to capture memories that strike me from that period. I can’t say that this won’t be the only one of these, but if more memories come up and kick me, I’ll write ‘em down and put them up here. –lj

“They’ve decided not to renew your contract.”

Usually, the end of a job is a bittersweet scene. I have an exceptionally hard time saying goodbye, and an even harder time keeping in touch. Keeping in touch usually just prolongs the agony of parting. With only two exceptions, leaving a job has been more bitter than sweet. The first of these was Intuit, where everyone was already gone and the lack of meaning was the primary reason I left. The second was Accenture.

I will admit, my time at Accenture was not perfect. I could couch that with excuses, maybe even reasons, but I won’t. What I will say is that throughout the last three weeks of my stay there, I worked my ass off in the neighbourhood of sixty hours a week, trying to squeeze a project out the door.

I was not sad to leave. However, with those last weeks being what they were, I felt oddly disconnected and the momentum kind of carried me out of a regular sleeping pattern. Fortunately, having children and a very pregnant wife forced me back to the “day is day and night is night” pattern.

I spent the next couple of weeks playing with Lily. Nick was largely gone during the day, playing at the green shack with summer vacation kids. I would walk around the block with Lily on her bike. I would ride Kim’s bike, with Lily on the back. Those were great days. I felt free. I’d saved up enough that I could look for work at a less hectic pace than I had at the end of Haemonetics: Part One.
Work, however, was not there to be found. The economy had shriveled up into a hard, angry little pea and businesses were holding on to that pea as hard as they could. Two companies for whom I would have been a good fit left me hanging because they could not get budget approval, after having posted the jobs. Fortunately, my Project Manager at Intuit came through for me. He and his partner were looking for programmers to work on a Ruby on Rails project. I had no experience in Ruby, but apparently, that was not required. So, four of us set off on a learning experience, picking up Rails conventions while we wrote a web app for a bronze company.

The summer flew by, with a few exceptions. Olivia came into our lives, hollering and shivering, on July 21, at a quarter to two in the morning. Aside from the obvious, that time is memorable for the time Kim and I spent out on the deck, appreciating a warm summer night. Also for songs on the record player, falling asleep on the kitchen floor between Kim’s contractions, and hauling water.

I swear, I would have made a good farmer back in the day. I haul water really well. (Get it? Well? Water? Heh.)

As summer faded into fall, work on the bronze project wrapped up and I continued my quest for more employment.

Filed under: All In The Family by Liam