Monday, June 13, 2011

A Pointless Ramble Brought to You by a Slow Program

I'm watching programs run again, desperately trying to stay ahead of my to do list as we count down to our big roll out at work. Which sort of sucks- I'd rather be in bed, frankly.

But on the bright side, it means I'm writing a blog post tonight, when I thought there was no way I'd have time to do that. Let's just all hope that Petunia's sleep pattern matches recent history, and she doesn't wake up until after midnight....

Anyway, I was struck this weekend by the realization that the old adage "all work and no play makes Jane a dull girl" has a closely related corollary, at least for me- "all play and no work makes Cloud a stressed out girl".

Actually, that is not strictly true. I didn't do any work at all during our big trip, and I wasn't stressed out by that. But in general, I need to cross things off my to do list to feel relaxed, particularly when I have a deadline looming. I am a very bad procrastinator.

This weekend, I failed to cross much off my to do list at all. On paper, it was a wonderful weekend- we had one Pumpkin's day care buddies and his parents over for dinner (pizza and beer- so very low stress) on Saturday night. My sister came over and made us a wonderful lunch Sunday, and then we went to a friend's house to swim and eat Sunday evening.

But I didn't get anything done.

Looking back, it all went haywire Friday night. I was soloing, because Hubby had a work event, and I'd agreed that it would be OK if he went out with his colleagues afterwards. I got the girls to bed a little late (Petunia wasn't in the mood to go to sleep, which pushed Pumpkin's bedtime later, too), but still, I was in bed by 11.

Then Hubby came home at 11:30 and started talking to me. (Why does he do that? If the light is out and I'm lying in bed when he comes into the room, it is a safe bet that I'm not looking to start a conversation.)

Then Petunia woke up more than usual in the night.

Then Petunia woke up at 6:07 a.m., ready to start her day. Hubby, who usually is in charge of weekend early mornings, was not ready to start his day, and asked if I would get up instead. I did, thinking I'd nap with Petunia in the afternoon.

I was a bit of a zombie all morning (I really count on my weekend sleep ins, apparently), but I figured I'd be OK after a nap. Then Petunia wouldn't nap.

There were then some scenes that do not represent my best parenting. In the end, I took Petunia for a walk and she napped- figuring that if I couldn't sleep, at least I could get some exercise and enjoy the beautiful day. But first, I made enough noise to wake up Pumpkin, who was, unexpectedly, napping. (She NEVER naps on weekends anymore.)

In his defense, Hubby tried to get me to do something more sensible. Like let him get Petunia down. Or let him take Petunia for a walk. But I wasn't listening.

I did actually perk up and enjoy the dinner with our friends. Then we all slept like the dead Saturday night. Petunia didn't wake up until 4:30 and then she went back to sleep until 7:40. I was grateful, but a wee bit annoyed that she couldn't have done that the night before. And really, this was supposed to be my big revenge on Hubby, and he got to sleep until 7:10, which was when Pumpkin woke up. That is considered sleeping in here at Chez Cloud.

I did get a little bit of work done during "quiet time" on Sunday. (Of course, no nap from Pumpkin on Sunday! That would be too easy.) But it wasn't nearly enough, particularly since we had to take Petunia to her ENT follow up this morning, so I was late to work.

Hence, I am sitting here, waiting for a program to run so that at least I can start tomorrow with a fairly clean slate. And it is my own damn program, so I can't even blame anyone else for how slow it is.

But- here's the good news- Petunia had her sweat chloride test last week and she does not have cystic fibrosis. Also, she hates having things strapped to her arm. The ENT today looked at her tonsils and pronounced them beautiful, and said that given her young age, he'd recommend we just wait and see if she has anymore bouts of tonsillitis. We only have two confirmed bouts. However, one of those produced a throat culture that grew some strain of Haemophilus influenzae, which my limited googling tells me is prone to setting up persistent infections of the tonsils. So... Petunia may yet have a tonsillectomy in her future. But right now, she is mostly healthy (she has a slight cough, but no fever) and very happy and playful, so we're cautiously optimistic that we'll at least be able to get her to an age at which she can sort of understand the need to drink lots of fluids before we have to do any surgery.

And crap. My program just died. I know why, and it is a stupid reason that I should have seen coming. Grrr. Working at night is definitely not the most efficient way for me to get things done. Ah well, best go fix it....

8 comments:

  1. Haemophilus and Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) both have polysaccharide coats. Many people have difficulty producing antibodies to them. It's an inherited condition, but is exacerbated by lack of sleep.

    People with this problem develop immunity later in childhood than others, and lose immunity earlier in adulthood than others. Talk to an immunologist to figure out your options.

    While babies are developing immunity, they usually get antibodies from the mother's milk. But, if the mother isn't producing the antibodies, they can't pass it on.

    You should probably get tested and your hubby should facilitate more uninterrupted sleep time for you.

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  2. Slow programs piss me off too. Especially when they're my own code. I used to really hate multi-day runs. It was VERY dispiriting to discover problems in a model run after a couple of days... It's why I gave up on physical oceanography modeling!

    Glad to hear positive news about Petunia

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  3. Anonymous4:17 AM

    I spent yesterday running very long programs that kept breaking because I was doing stupid things too...

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  4. So glad Petunia is "mostly healthy" and that you've ruled out CF - hooray!

    The night time may be the right time for many things, but for me, work is not one of them. ;)

    I think it's cool that your DH wanted to chat with you at night; though the timing could have been better, I think that's a little sign of a relationship that works.

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  5. I don't think "sleeping in" will ever be the same until the kids get old enough to move out on their own. I'm with you at being annoyed at the after sleep conversation. Even though I'm generally well rested compared to parents of younger kids, I may never get over the feeling of needing every minute of sleep I can get. But I also agree with Hush that it's a good sign he comes home from a night out wanting to talk to you!

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  6. the milliner6:05 PM

    Yay for the good news about Petunia!

    I know what you mean about not getting at least a few things done. I'm a pretty good procrastinator, but having a little guy means I end up really paying for those weekends where nothing gets done. Pre-DS, I would have just doubled up the following week. But I just don't have the time or energy to double up on stuff on weeknights. Then throw the total unpredictability of kid sleep in there, and wel...

    Usually the best weekends for us have a lot of play and a bit of chores/to do list mixed in.

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  7. So glad to hear the good news about Petunia!

    My husband tries to talk to me in bed when I want to sleep, too. I know he wants to catch up with his wife, which is sweet, but... grrr, I just want to sleep!

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  8. I'm really glad Petunia is doing okay and you all have been able to rule out some scary things. :-)

    Some weekends are just a wash, aren't they? It's so frustrating, but what can you do. Better luck next weekend.

    To me, the only thing worse the the slowness of my own system due to coding is when the slowness is due to the data center which I/my team have no control over. We get all the complaints and we are are just as frustrated. But we can't fix it!!!

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