Fire Drill - RonO's Ramblings

I went through a bit of a "fire drill" this afternoon. Since it turned out to be a fire drill, I'm here instead of sitting at O'Hare getting ready to leave to Boston

There is a problem at work that has been brewing due to some decisions made by a team in Lowell that were in direct contrast to what the higher level boss had told them to do. There was a meeting this morning, and the higher level boss (my boss's boss) basically told my boss that the solution was now his responsibility.

So my boss tasked his two technical leaders to go to Lowell and learn how the system is really put together and figure out how to fix it (or at least be sure that the fix is really the fix). I'm one of those scheduled to go. After some discussion, we determined that the only time for the two of us to go next week was Monday and Tuesday, so we started working on the arrangements.

However, when my boss told his boss he was sending two guys out next week, his boss said "Why wait till next week." So we scrambled around and got reservations from Chicago to Boston at 8:50 tonight for the two of us. I then left the office to go home and pack.

In parallel to all this, I was calling Tara and getting her to make arrangements (which consisted of having her Mother come in from Rockford tomorrow morning early) so she didn't have to disrupt her schedules. I also had put a call and an e-mail into the Technical Director at the Church to let him know that I'd miss this evenings rehearsal, but not Sunday's services.

As I was about 80% home, my boss called me. There had been a bunch of additional e-mail, and the manager in Lowell convinced everyone to wait until Monday. So the trip was put off until a Sunday departure and a Tuesday return. Which, overall is much better.

However, I'm half-convinced that the Lowell manager wanted the trip put of so that he could "hide the bodies" before we got there and started poking around.

The real irony, is that I will now fly from Chicago to Boston on Sunday, fly back on Tuesday, and back out again on Friday for SMOFCon. I will also now miss the first of three JuJutsiu seminars at my Karate School. But at least I don't miss the department lunch on Thursday (which was a risk), nor the concert I had just bought tickets to next Thursday (Third Day and Jars of Clay, should you be interested).