The Non-Euclidian Staircase

The week wasn't as productive as I'd hoped, as the descent into Chaos that was beginning when I left for my week off had deepened a fair bit, significantly undermining my main project and collapsing a big old sink-hole in the middle of my co-worker's. I think we've halted the bleeding and even started on the path toward more order, but over half the meetings I'd come down to attend were not even held and those that were held were simplified, reduced, or under-prepared-for (including the one I was facilitating... I hadn't even managed time to review the topic prior to the meeting!). I finally came out of the last meeting a minimal 5 minutes left before my shuttle to the airport, scrambling to have something to hand in for an expense report (I will need to mail one receipt, which will add 2-3 days lag before I get my check <sigh>), wrap up the "drop everything" project I was given late yesterday (but which no one I asked to provide inputs for considered of nearly so high a priority), finding that the computer run I'd done to support that had produced an unacceptable result (with no time to revise and retry), and I'd managed to spill (just a little, praise be!) my drinking water into my tote bag of papers and books. ARGH! On the plus side, that last meeting that ran somewhat later than I'd like was a quite positive (if vague on specifics) annual review (my first such in three years due to management shuffling and other similar excuses). It's nice to know I'm appreciated (which my boss has always been good about sharing regularly, actually), but it would be nicer to see what numbers get put behind the words. We'll see if those show up before the end of the month, as they're supposed to.

And the whole of my work output for the last three years remains threatened by a group of zealous but (IMO) misdirected state regulators who, in response to complaints from some companies who don't sell the type of products I specialize in designing, are attempting to change the law to massively increase the costs associated with such products, not just for future sales but retroactively to all such sales over the last two years (that is, since the last time they re-wrote the law in this area). Which means all the time we've spent planning the next generation(s) of products are cast into doubt, and I may well have far, far more work to do to try to repair/refit/revitalize pretty much everything in response to the new rules over a very short timeframe. I don't see much free time in the near future if the vote on the new regs passes.

Meanwhile, on the plus side, I was finally able to coordinate times with my step-brother, for the first time of my nearly a dozen trips to NC. We were able to do dinner and conversation, which is always a welcome change for another night in the hotel.