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March 7, 2000 |
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I walked to work today… in a round about sort of way. I walked to a
nearby building only a few blocks away; I then took a shuttle from that
building to mine. Normally, I would drive to work but I had dropped off
the car at the dealer last night.
The service shop didn't need the car overnight, of course, however, the
chances of my waking up in the morning to drop off the car are pretty slim.
I'm not a morning person. Mornings hate me. Whenever I take the car for
any kind of significant service, I drop it off the night before, with the
help of one of my friends. It also gives
me a reasonably good excuse to get home at a reasonable time.
The walk to work was actually quite pleasant. It wasn't the typical
Seattle weather that pins you into the persistent state of melancholy. The
sun teased you with a promise of the way things could be… but never on
a weekend. It was almost inhumane to watch the way it toys with us, much
like watching a cat play with its prey. It gives us this false sense of
hope. The gloom will someday fade. One day we may step outside and find
that it is actually warmer outside than it is inside. Today is
just a promise of what Seattle can be, but often isn't.
Did I mention that I'm not terribly fond of Seattle?
I do eventually make it to work. It is a relatively lax day at work. Not to say that there's nothing to do, but there aren't any problems that require immediate attention. I'm a software engineer or a computer programmer, whichever seems to make more sense to you. I was a test engineer for years before becoming a design engineer. They each have their pro's and con's. No matter what anyone will tell you, both are equally valueable in a development team. I've done both.
As far as work is concerned, I'm a grunt. Granted, I'm an educated grunt with some specialized skills. I don't get to make any real important decisions. Somebody else points and I run. Okay, maybe not quite that drastic, but you get the picture. Don't get me wrong, it is a fun job and everything. I wouldn't want to do anything else for a living, but it certainly has its downs. Lately we've been maintaining some crazy schedules when it comes to some of the products we're doing.
Naturally, it also has its perks. Today I was one of two people in the group to get a speedy new machine. This will happen on occasion, but the one I got was a pre-release ultra-fast machine, an Itanium if you must know. I felt privileged to get it. There is a good reasoning for this, I'm slated to work on this new project that requires this machine. There had been some talk about our getting these machines and when we could start our development work, and now here it is.
The only real problem is finding room to store it. My office is not exactly known for being spacious (or neat for that matter). Finding space to put a regular computer would be a difficult task in my office. Thank goodness that I have a swithbox in my office; it allows several different computers to share one mouse, keyboard, and display monitor, so I wouldn't have to find additional room for these. The size of this computer's case resembled furniture intead of computer equipment; it truly is bordering on intimidating. And it is mine. [Insert evil laughter here!]
Well, first I needed a new cable to attach this sucker to the keyboard, mouse, and monitor. I sent some mail out to Brenda to see where I might track one down. She sent me mail shortly after telling me where I could track one down. She's cool. Now I just had to get the thing started properly.
I have been exchanging phone calls with Mike, the one from the Honda service department that is coordinating all the work for my car. Originally, it went in for a routine service and a little bit of a clutch problem. It seemed to grind when I put it in reverse, which was starting to worry me a little.
There is also a slow leak from one of the window seals in my car, so when I drive it occasionally drips into the interior, onto my lap to be more specific. On rainy days I would be walking around with wet spot on my jeans, which certainly looked a little weird, but fortunately it was not in a spot where you might deduce other things. It was close to my knee. Okay, maybe you can deduce that, if you assumed that I was exceptionately well endowed. They said that it might take days to fix and I simply didn't have that kind of time. I suppose I'll have to continue walking around with wet jeans.
They also found problems with my power steering pump and suggested I change the timing belt because it was about due. The power steering didn't seem to be giving me any problems, and trust me, if you're power steering ever starts to fail, you'll feel it. Those of you who have dealt with faulty power steering systems know what I'm talking about. I was becoming a bit dejected with the collection of little things that were going wrong with my little car. [Sigh] Meanwhile, he was explaining precisely what a timing belt does, which I knew, of course, being an engineer and having worked on my car in college for so long, but I was pretty amused.
Mike asked if I wanted to get these things done. After confirming that it could all be done today, I gave him the green light. I also asked how much of this was still covered by the warranty. He wasn't sure, but said he would double check.
As it turns out, the power steering and clutch problems were covered by the warranty, minus the $50 deductible. It would be a few hours still, until the car was ready. My friend, Christian, agreed to help me pick up the car. We were chatting a bit on the way to the dealer, I'd tell you about what, but then I'd have to kill you… and I don't really want to kill you.
When I got to the billing department, they only charged me $50 total. I wasn't going to complain about that one bit. Actually, I think that they may have made some error on their part, but I wasn't about to point it out to them. I was pretty sure that the warranty did not cover the timing belt (since it fell under normal wear and tear). I was pretty sure that it didn't cover the oil change either, but I wasn't going to question it.
They also washed the car, which made me feel so much better. After having a filthy car for months, it feels so refreshing to have it washed. Granted I can certainly go through one of those drive-thru car washes, or pay someone to wash it for me. However there's a part of me what believes that you should wash your own car. Having someone else wash your car almost feels like having someone else breast-feed your kids. And no, I do not have kids, and if I did obviously I wouldn't be the ones breast-feeding them.
March 7, 2000