Recursive Words

The bathroom still isn’t finished. It’s still nowhere near finished. We’ve been without a washing machine, a shower, or a downstairs toilet for a month now. I’m not going to name and shame the company involved. You can imagine how unimpressed we are though.

In spite of the on-going shit show, I would like to say that one of the team – the guy that’s done the majority of the heavy-lifting in terms of tiling and general building work – has been outstanding. Of all the tradesmen that have visited, he’s the only one that’s done a consistently professional job so far.

We won’t talk about the electrician that killed the internet connection. The PTSD is real.

While on a call with work this afternoon I was asked how it was going. I don’t think anybody was surprised when I stated that I would never hire a company to do anything to our house ever again. I also stated that if there was any possibility I could learn something myself, and do it myself, then I would in future – because it turns out if you ever want anything done, you’re far better off just doing it yourself.

One of my co-workers that knows me well started grinning and volunteered that she knew exactly what I was about to say before I said it. I’m the same way with software development. I trust myself to get things done far more than others, and will typically just get the proverbial pick axe and shovel out and start swinging, rather than ask for help.

On about co-workers, on Tuesday evening we walked into town and met up with a number of them – both present and from years past. It’s become a sort of regular thing. Most of us worked together for the better part of twenty years. Some have retired, some have moved on to pastures new, but something brings us back together every so often. It was lovely to see some old faces and catch up with each other.

Of course the universe must have noticed us all having too much fun. A little later it the week one of our number got made redundant. While I would typically say I might miss somebody enormously, that world doesn’t really exist any more. We all work from home – so you can’t really miss somebody that you spend no time with – and there’s nothing to stop us calling each other – perhaps more often than we do at present.

When you work together for long enough, you’re not really co-workers any more. You’re friends.

The events of the week have brought into focus how important it is that I keep the YouTube channel going. It’s always been a sort of accident – not only that it exists, but that it has become moderately successful. That it might provide a parachute when I eventually decide “enough is enough” with software development (or rather, if somebody else decides that for me), is fortuitous really – it’s a good safety-net to have in my back pocket.

In a perfect world I wouldn’t be writing software, or flying pretend aeroplanes – I would just be writing. I’m not entirely sure there will ever be enough opportunities to make money from writing to survive though. I’m also the world’s worst self-publicist. Whenever I set foot in any of the social networks populated by writers, I’m immediately driven away by their incessant torrent of marketing dressed up as engagement and empathy.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to make enough from writing a blog to give up work and just empty your head into the keyboard each day. I suppose you have to actually set foot outside the door to make that workable though – you have have to actually live to have any stories to tell. Just sitting here in front of a computer probably doesn’t cut it.

There’s only so much interest that can be conjured around the same mayhem you’ve been sat in the middle of for the last twenty-something years. Perhaps that’s the goldmine though – extracting empathy from the all-too-common struggle to just survive until tomorrow, and keep doing it.

Anyway…

I’m aware I’ve kind of fallen off the internet this week. I need to try and reach out to friends over the weekend – both near and far – and re-charge my own batteries a little.

The builders are back in the morning – finishing tiling, plumbing, and hopefully getting the washing machine connected back up. The final finishing should happen on Monday. I say “should” because nothing really surprises me any more.