Huge snow accumulations and frustration working with a software developer

On Monday, my area got a blizzard warning and a lot of snow. 

Snowfall estimates were bumped up to between 40 to 60 centimetres. Toronto got 47 cm. Oshawa got 55 cm. Where I live is midway between the two. I'll take the median and say that we got 51 cm. It was a lot!

I don't think that my street has been plowed yet. It's so quiet. One neighbour tried to drive on the road and was highly unsuccessful.

I got annoyed with a software developer yesterday for a few reasons:

• He sent me a Word document that was on his personal SharePoint site. I couldn't access it because he didn't share it with me. I told him to send the file to me as an attachment.
• The details in his document were vague. I had to ask him about specific parameter names. Some had global as a prefix. Others did not. Highly inconsistent. He said to follow what the old parameter names were as a guideline. Um, no. That's not how it works. If you give me a list of new parameters, I assume that they apply to all hyperlinks that you have mentioned in the same section.
• I asked which software releases these changes were for. He guessed at it. I asked him to confirm.

As patient as I am, I got more annoyed with the number of questions that I needed to pose because he took shortcuts to give me in the information. Horrible! If I have so many questions because the content provided is unclear to me, how is a customer going to understand the information that I am writing about?

I let him know that details need to be more explicit in future. Telling me that he can have a call to explain stuff was ridiculous. Just give me the correct details right off the bat and save us both time and frustration.

Here's hoping that I'm not snowed in on Tuesday.

Lazy Sunday mornings and workouts

I like lazy Sunday mornings. I slept in till 10:40 am. I made corned beef hash, sauteed mushrooms, and an omelette with corned beef hash inside. Good eats.

For the last two weeks at least, I have been working out again. I alternate between cardio, weights, and pushups.

I am still not at cardio levels that I used to be at. I exercise for 15 minutes on a glider these days. I used to easily hit 35 minutes.

Baby steps.

What I didn't do back then was pushups. I can easily do twenty now. Two weeks ago, five of them was a challenge to do.

It's a good thing that I have exercise equipment to keep me going these days. I feel good.

Figure it out!

I worked from home on Wednesday. I realize that a number of my colleagues can't figure out things on their own. They simply ask questions and hope that someone like me will hand them these answers on a silver platter.

I am tired of this mentality. I figure out answers on my own. Why can't they do the same thing?

My manager is a part of this group. He can't do work himself. It is that part of management that I don't want to aspire to. I don't want to look or be incompetent.

Anyway, that's my little rant. I'm off to bed, hoping that Thursday will be happier and far more promising.

Snow and a chat about retrieving a leather paddle

On Monday, we got a ton of snow. It started at noon. I advised my small team to go home and continue working from home under safe conditions.

It's just past midnight. It's still snowing. I'm guessing that there is at least fifteen centimetres of snow outside.

Such a snowy day reminds me of the nicer weather in Dallas. It was nice to be in bed with my guy, chatting.

"I need an implement to spank you with," he insisted.
"You can use your hand like you did the other night," I pointed out.
"No, I want less work. I want an implement," he said.
"I brought my leather paddle," I said.
"Where is it?" he asked.
"In my suitcase," I replied.
"Go get it," he said.
"You're closer to it, lazy guy," I said.
"It' seems weird to be going into your suitcase," he noted.
"That has never stopped you before. You have retrieved a paddle, condoms, and lubricant from my suitcase. I always come prepared," I pointed out.
"True. I like exerting little energy," he said, smiling.
"I know. It's called being a lazy boy. I can almost call you a sofa," I joked.

We chatted some more. Eventually, he did manage to go get the paddle, likely because he knew it was time to spank me.

Switching fitness trackers and enticing my guy to exercise for money

A few weeks ago, I noticed that my Pebble watch was not recording my steps correctly. The app that helped track my steps was not working properly.

Fitbit bought Pebble. All support for Pebble pretty much disappeared.

I love my Pebble watch, but I needed to track my steps. I went back to my Fitbit One. The downside was that the band that I had purchased to wear it around my wrist wasn't comfortable. The Fitbit One is normally worn clip-style. However, I broke several of them, which prompted me to try wearing it as a wrist bracelet.

The One is accurate and reliable. I determined that I wanted the best of both worlds -- a fitness tracker that provides some alerts that I love, such as phone calls and text messages, and accurately track my steps.

I settled for the Fitbit Alta. It is stylish and comfortable. You can actually change the bands. Mine is purple, which is my favourite colour.

The Fitbit Alta is equally as accurate as my One. The difference is that the Alta has to be charged after nearly a week. My One can last for two weeks before I need to charge it. The Alta is still better that charging my Pebble Time Round watch every night.

I do love my Alta. It buzzes when I have an incoming call and when I receive text messages. I don't have to deal with the various notifications that I can customize on my Pebble.

At work, we got fitness trackers. I didn't like it because you have to physically get a battery once it dies. My guy put it away after trying it out for a month. He told me that I am polite for not calling him lazy. I simply said that he got bored with it.

Well, I told him about our health program at work. You exercise in three months periods. Depending on how many points you accumulate, you earn money towards getting a prepaid credit card.

I told my sweet guy, whose nickname is Cheap Bastard, that we get money to spend on whatever we'd like when we reach certain fitness goals. He perked up. 

He's sweet. He is my Cheap Bastard.