Murky Saturday

The weather here is Boston has been cloudy and rainy for at least two weeks straight. People tell me that this is what the weather is like in Oregon most of the time. I guess it is not surpirizing that the suicide rate in Oregon is among the highest in the country.

We are all in a foul mood. Everyone you meet is light-deprived and grumpy. I feel like going downtown and looting a big 48 inch plasma TV and spend the rest of the weekend watching Hi-def sporting events, and drinking beer.

But it is not to be. The inlaws have come to town for the gala family wedding celebration. The weather is not cooperating and our plans for some crisp Autumn leaf-peeping have been drenched. Most of the out of towners are sitting in the hotel, by the heated pool, pretending that they are in Florida. Perhaps tomorrow the rain will cease and we will at last get some light.

I was back to work this week on Tuesday. The new PM did not show-up. I found out on Wednesday that he had decided on a career change. This would have been disconcerting, in the light of other recent defections from the project team, if I were an employee who was invested in the successful outcome of this project.

This is the advantage of being a contractor: We do not take credit or blame for any outcome. We are viewed as leased lawnmowers. They bring us in for a specific purpose. Like a lawnmower, we are seen as work tools. Start it up, push it and it mows the lawn. When you are done with it, shut it off and put it in the shed.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, I really like this arrangement. I get paid a lot and the works is easy. I just have to comment on it because it is a totally ineffective way to manage a work project. People are not like interchangable parts. And the "lawn" is more like safari grass than Kentuckey blue fescue. This is why nothing happens on time and under budget.

I got a call the other day from the Micromanager from phase 1. He has been asked to stay on and run the project thru the end of the year. Great, it will be nice to have some continuity, I said. But I was thinking, oh crap, here we go again.

Will this rain ever stop?