Thursday, January 14, 2010

Can leave you waiting for the hammer to fall

I feel good.

Well, I feel alright.

I mean, my head feels good. My body, not so much.

Before I go on, let me extend another ask for a small bit of your money. What's going on in Haiti is unspeakable. World Vision has a plane on the ground in Denver. It's loaded full of tarps, blankets, hygiene kits (month's supply - for a family of five - toilet paper, sanitary pads, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, body soap, laundry soap) and cooking kits. It's waiting for the OK from the FAA. Flights in and out of Haiti have been limited due to a limited supply of fuel at the airport and roads around the airport that are impassable. We also already had supplies in Haiti because it was approaching hurricane season, but those supplies are running low. We're hoping the first plane will get out tomorrow. We've also had great response from Salesforce, IBM, Yahoo!, Verizon and many other companies encouraging their employees and customers to help. If you've not helped and can spare $25, please help.

Yeah, so... almost feels weird coming back to me after that. It's been a weird week. Monday was pretty normal, I think. I can't remember. Tuesday at work was mostly ok, a little busy, by midafternoon stuff was starting to break loose. By Tuesday night, we were all feeling cruddy and I wondered if I'd make it into work.

I ended up not going in, planning to rest up. Of course, when there's something like Haiti going on, you get pulled back in very quickly. I spent much of the day and night in front of the computer as it seems did many of my colleagues. I've never seen so many people sending emails that late. It was actually kind of impressive and I was proud of all of the people not in my group who put in long hours. Sure, I was proud of my teams, but it's pretty much expected. Some of the others, I wasn't expecting.

It's been very fast-paced. I've set aside over a hundred emails that aren't related to Haiti that are just going to have to wait. Same with requests for new work. In fact, we've pretty much nearly ground to a halt on all our regularly scheduled work. I saw bits and pieces of work going through by the team which was cool. Everyone's working so hard and to see them doing that was pretty amazing, especially as I felt like I was flinging work at people left and right all day. It's amazing how much can be done when we eliminate some of the red tape and go full out.

I've also processed about 3 times the normal amount of mail, probably close to 500 pieces yesterday and today. (That's my term for dealt with and stuck in the folder next to the trash can.)

I felt a little better today. I took a fake Airborne this morning and some Fakeqwill but I didn't take anymore when it ran out and I didn't use any of my cough drops today. (Yesterday it hurt to swallow or talk.) Still can't talk a lot today, but I still probably made or took more calls today than I normally do in a month.

So we've all been sick and it's put everything in disarray. This evening I got home late again, but I'm feeling good now. I feel like it's time to re-take the fort. Everywhere I can, I'm grabbing something that's out of place and putting it where it belongs or getting it closer to where it needs to be. It's been overwhelming. We will be able to get back to resetting the living room every day (that's easy to get back to, but also easy to skip a day or two) and we're close to de-Christmasing the dining room. Lori's been keeping the kitchen pretty good and I have to admit I've been doing a little less. Laundry.. ugh.. it's stacking up. But I've got some in now and I'll get some more started before bed. I'll get it all washed. Getting it all put away is a little more of a challenge. But we'll get it.

Like I said, I'm feeling good. Even if my body isn't.