On top of all the other situations that have conspired to make this holiday a dismal failure, I have been working on an incredibly complicated report for work. We have a situation, without going into too many details, that is rather an unprecedented case, that required analyses that even the regulatory agency overseeing us has never had to deal with. As a consequence, the analysis took longer to finish than we expected. I cannot write a report without the analysis, and I had hoped to make up for the delay in the writing process.

So, despite having to put down two of my beloved pets, despite being so sick I cannot swallow my own spit, despite having my statistics handed to me a week late, I have been working 10 hour (or more) days for every single day this holiday, except Christmas day itself. I have deferred leave. I have propped myself up with massive amounts of pharmaceuticals (now, that’s irony for you), and when I finally had to just admit defeat and inform the client of a one week delay (which, considering the myriad of other factors in their submission package, will not delay  a thing in the ultimate view), they completely, totally, lose their minds.

Unfortunately, they don’t have the breadth of experience for me to try to explain precisely why what we are doing is non-standard, and precisely how the contribution of another contractor adds to the complexity of the issue, so pretty much I just have to suck it up.

With a fever pushing 102, a throat on fire, pain in every large muscle of my body, I have put in a 12-hour day today, and I am completely going to miss Christmas with my family this weekend.

2009 – You suck.

That is all.