It ain’t so bad.

So this is supposed to be a Geek/Design blog, and it’s usually more of one than the other at any given time, but today I’ve got to get just a little personal. Because telling you all about this crappy day is going to make me feel that much better ;-).

First of all, I got up at 4:30 this morning. Why? I just do that. I decided to install IE7 on the extra PC I have, just for testing purposes. I boldly ignored Microsoft’s “please back up your files” warning and proceeded to watch my computer reboot into oblivion. The hard drive chose that time, apparently coincidentally, to fail. I ran every utility I had on it. It’s gone. That was the one that ran my automated house, too. A new SATA HD and a couple of hours of reprogramming the house and all will be well, but it’s a piss poor way to start your day. But that was just the cap on what had been building up to be a magnificently terrible week.

I was bitten by a Brown Recluse spider a few days ago. I didn’t go to the doctor for a couple of days, mostly because I didn’t know what had happened. I just knew my leg was starting to swell up. And then I did go to the doctor, and she gave me two shots in the butt and a bottle of pills I had to take. It worked on the bite, but it also worked a number on my intestines. Then the antibiotics led to a GI Tract infection which then led to an infection that I don’t even want to talk about. All because of one little spider. I’ve been at the hospital more than I care to think about.

In the meantime, I’m doing a job for a client who will remain unnamed for political reasons. The person calling the shots on the job gave us the initial instructions, up until the point where someone else stepped in and mentioned that the first guy didn’t actually call any shots. Up to that point we were on budget and were happy with our work. Then they had us redo the whole thing. Problem was, we gave them a project rate and never got a contract due to certain circumstances. The story goes on, with 2 more complete overhauls, and yes, I did eventually get paid. Damned (unnamed) Republican Party.

Yet, here I sit, contentedly blogging away all my cares. I’ve finished up a whole slew of design projects AND added a few commands and snippets to the TextMate compendium. There’s this strange pattern beginning to develop in my life where clients approve my work, pay my fee and then drop the job and I don’t hear from them for a while. I understand in the case of a direct mail piece, having to budget for mailing costs and everything, but when your web design fee includes a year of hosting, why would you sit on a site that’s ready to go live and just needs a half hour training session? Anyway, I’ll sign off for now, back to nausea and painful, burning itching for the rest of the evening. Just kidding, things are getting better ;-).