I’ve been horribly remiss in writing in the last few months, I’d blame attempting to enjoy what little sunshine we actually got this year in PDX or being busy with work, but really I’ve just been lazy. Because I know at least one person in the world is curious…the house was finally finished, mostly.

The siding is up; we painted kind of a greenish tan color, with bright white trim. It was only completed because my little brother gallantly came and helped after I fell off a ladder attempting to paint some of the higher up points and broke my foot. Oh yeah, that’s my other excuse for not writing for months, I was recuperating from a broken foot. I highly recommend never doing that.

Still haven’t painted the bathroom, maybe this winter, maybe. We’ll at least do it before selling the house in the next decade or so. Probably.

I work from home. I love it; I really do, though it does get quite lonely sometimes. Pajamas are my friend, my car rarely gets driven and I’ve turned into quite the home body.  I also tend to get a little out of the loop; I rarely have to pay attention to the weather reports anymore and shopping from home is my friend. Really, I’m just becoming a bit of a recluse.

A couple of weeks ago we were watching Stephen King’s The Stand (it really hasn’t held up to the test of time, but that’s another story) and it got me thinking–if the apocalypse were to strike would I even notice? I mean honestly, those are the kind of things that pop into my head these days, I have a bit more time on my hands than I used to and the silence of the house makes you think odd things, but it’s a valid point. I can go a week or more without stepping a foot outside, unless I want the mail. I wouldn’t actually physically talk to other people if I didn’t live with someone. Unless the cable or power goes out I wouldn’t really notice what’s going on. I think, unless my house actually blew up or zombies broke in, I’d likely survive whatever is going on just due to sheer obliviousness, at least until my next Safeway delivery didn’t show up.

If the apocalypse strikes it won’t be the gun nuts or the people who stocked up on supplies who survive, it’ll be the telecommuters.

I’ve always been a fan of Wimax, back in the day I did some work for Wimax Forum and have always felt that the technology is impressive (as are the people working on it); I’ve been pretty gung-ho to check it out since it become available in Portland. Since I’d been having problems with my Comcast service (endless modems dying) I decided, why not? Well, I’ve learned that lesson.

If only it was just that I couldn’t get much of a signal in my house (despite being in a sea of dark green, supposedly a strong signal area) it would be forgivable, really. However, when I could get a signal, even a strong signal, I was lucky to get speeds of .5 mbps, dramatically different from the 6 mbps they talk about. Okay, no harm, no foul. The technology just isn’t perfect yet. I live in the suburbs not in the city core so it, perhaps, just isn’t an option for me.

Tragic, but hey the sales guys were nice, they thought I was an idiot (I had to break down the cost of paying for a modem vs. leasing it for them as they kept trying to convince me paying $5 a month forever AND signing a 2 year contract was really the better deal than just paying $50 upfront), but nice. I just had to bring the modem back and they’d get me all sorted. At least that’s what they told me. But wait a minute, that’s just what they said when I asked about the return policy, you know, when they wanted to make the sale. The moment I actually tried to return it I was told I had to contact customer care.

Oh, but when I contacted customer care I got a long long run around where they demanded I try and increase the signal, it just must be a problem with where I’m placing the modem (really, I have a laptop, was I supposed to leave it sitting in the bathroom in the hopes of getting .6mbps rather than .5?). I should try tilting it differently in the USB port. Maybe unplug it and replug it. Did I try rebooting? Maybe I have a virus slowing my computer down and that’s why the speed was so slow (um trust me, I don’t). No, I just wanted to cancel! Oh? Well actually I didn’t contact the right department (silly me, following the instructions on their website), I needed to call x, click x at the menu and oh yeah, it’s already past their support hours so I’ll have to call tomorrow. Can I just email them? I mean they don’t even advertise their contact number if you’re logged in as a customer, you have to hunt for it. No, I need to talk to them. Odds on whether or not that’s so another retention specialist can try and talk me into keeping my service?

So are you thinking about trying Clear? Well if you know someone who raves about it, try theirs. Because trying to get rid of yours if it doesn’t work out…well if I ever manage it I’ll let you know.

The course of true love never did run smooth and neither does the course of making a couple small updates to your house.

Over a month ago we started down the path of updating our siding. The old cedar shingles were slowly rotting and the paint was peeling; the idea of replacing more shingles and once again painting the house (something we did just a couple years before) just seemed like a waste. So enter a project to update to fancy HardiePlank Fiber Cement siding. Then, because hey the majority of the labor for replacing the windows would be done with the siding job we decided to get rid of our old, falling apart, drafty, leaky, horrible, aluminum windows and replace them with über energy efficient ones. And hey while they’re at it I’d wanted a new kitchen floor for ages…. It was already adding up.

First, they found rot under the siding. Then, they found mold under the rot. Then, the windows didn’t fit as perfectly into the interior trim as we’d hoped necessitating replacing that AND one of the windows arrived from the manufacturer broken (still waiting on the glass guy to repair). Meanwhile, while replacing the kitchen floor it was discovered that the previous owners (dating back to the 50s) had never actually removed flooring, they just kept putting layer after layer after layer on top of each other (it was like a time machine even including avocado green at one point) so there was no way to actually get the floor level with the rest of the rooms without a huge job at triple the cost (let’s just say it’s not level now and I’m happy that way, probably how all those past owners ended up with layers of floor not removed). All in all it’s been an…experience.

My, should be done in just a couple weeks, project has already spanned a month and we still have to tear the bathroom down to the studs (the location of the black mold discovered under the rot!) and put in new drywall and a shower surround.

You never learn this stuff as an apartment dweller. Up until we bought our house a few years back apartments were all I knew. It’s been a real eye opener! Next time I’m taking my projected budget and tripling it, would probably be closer to the reality!

Is this what it’s always like? There are still other small updates I’d like to make, not to mention the dream of adding a second bathroom. With the way this project has gone I can’t help but think that buying a new house would be less hassle!

The house, once upon a time:

The house, a month ago (well okay, a couple years ago right after we finished painting last time):

The house, right now:

I still have to decide what color to paint. Decisions, decisions! Any suggestions?

When I was 16 I just kind of fell into the web. No, not some giant spider web, but that great world wide one that people keep blathering on about. It was the good ole dot com days, where anyone who knew what a <p> tag was could get hired. I’d always been a bit of a computer geek, it was a source of endless fascination with me and I remember many a childhood hour whiled away typing in DOS commands or other mindless pursuits. But I never really planned on being a professional geek.

By the time I was 18 I was already on the path to a career and a jagged hop through an assortment of gray cubicals, large corporations, small companies and everything in between. I’ve been a designer, a developer, a webmaster and a code monkey (not my official title, but really, it should have been). It’s been a dozen years and until recently I never really stopped to think, is this what I want? It just was what it was. The bills were paid; some days my mind overflowed with excitement and ideas, and other days my feet had trouble moving I was so numb from the drudgery. It was work, basically. It wasn’t until a few years ago when I really sat down and thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up and even that didn’t go further than a constantly changing idea of “what could be” and an unused bachelor’s degree achieved while still working the same sort of jobs.

When I was a kid computers were always there (despite it being the early 80s), but they weren’t my overriding passion. From the time I was 6 I wanted to be a doctor (before that I wanted to be an actress/singer, I’d still take that job, if only for the paycheck). First a pediatric cardiologist (try asking most 6 year olds to pronounce that much less explain it!), then later a research biologist (but still a medical doctor) once someone introduced me to medical laboratories and let me play for a couple of days with centrifuges and other assorted equipment. The mysteries of the universe opened up before me, it was thrilling.

Now though, now I don’t know. I’m rushing towards 30 and I still don’t truly know what I want to be when I grow up. I can keep following the path I’m on and will likely continue to grow and enjoy my career or I can put on the breaks and completely change paths now, while I’m still young enough that I’m not that set in my ways.

So how about you? Are you doing what you’ve always wanted to do? Or did you fall into something that you really enjoy, but wasn’t an overriding passion or an intentional decision? What would you do if someone handed you 4-8 years worth of living expenses and said “go to school and study your heart’s passion, you just have to come out of it with a paying job and support yourself after”? What would you study?

Me, well I still don’t know. I know I’d miss what I’m doing now, it has become a passion. Maybe not my first passion, though. When do you give up on the what-ifs and what-could-have-been kind of thoughts? Is it when you finally grow up?