Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Without warning

The end of my time at Lockheed has snuck up on me. My last day is tomorrow, and it's basically a half day.

On Monday, my coworkers treated me to a farewell lunch. They had all signed a poster and we had a good time.

My heart is getting a little full with it all. I started getting misty as I piled up a year and a half of notes and file folders, ready for the memory hole. I've been finding things in my desk that remind me of people. There are about twenty people on the team, so I have already started wondering if I've seen some of them for the last time. I hope they'll email, but I don't know.

I had this guitar in my garage for several months and I told our janitor lady that she could have it. I finally brought it in today, but I didn't see her. We talk whenever she comes around on her rounds. I'll leave it with someone if I don't see her.

The transition has been incredibly fast. It is an off season for the relocation company, so the movers are coming tomorrow. They take our car on Friday and we fly out to Seattle on Saturday. And I start with Amazon on Monday. Our house is in disarray. Alex seems to be worn out and irritable because of all of it. Sarah is working hard as usual.

In a way, I feel like it's better than the alternative, so I won't be pining away after my colleagues while I take vacation on a beach somewhere.

I'm a little nervous about the job, but I am eager to dive in too. My new manager sent me some reading material on software metrics, so I've been dusting off my data mining skills and learning about what makes a useful metric.

I'll be working downtown in the Columbia Center, whose parking rates are highway robbery, so I'm considering taking the bus instead. From my parents' house, the 132 is pretty direct all the way into downtown. That would make home less accessible in an emergency, unfortunately. Maybe I can find a cheaper garage. Amazon would subsidize my parking to some degree, but I don't know what the rates are like.

Give me a mail if you want to see me after we're settled in.

I'm also thinking about starting a technical blog now that I'm outside the Lockheed Martin firewall.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We're looking forward to seeing you guys!

As for taking the bus to work and still having access to home in emergencies: When I worked downtown, my employer made taxi vouchers available for times when we needed to stay late or had to leave suddenly for an emergency. It wouldn't surprise me if you arrived at Amazon Monday and found that they did something similar.

Anonymous said...

I worked in Seattle for a summer and LOVED taking the bus - I highly recommend it - especially if you are able to read without getting car sick - it is great decompression time on the way home after work and good meditation time on the way in.

Dan Lewis said...

Thanks guys. Yes, I will definitely prefer the bus with those backup plans I think! And I remember many bus trips with Lord of the Rings. I was commuting to UW on the bus for a while in there.

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you, things are a little crazy and we disconnected our internet yesterday. We'll be homeless as of today sometime.

Have a nice Friday!

Average Joe said...

You took many bus trips with the Dark Lord Sauron?? Who knew that he took the bus to UW? I suppose he was studying metallurgy.

Dan Lewis said...

At first I didn't know who he was. I mean, there were so many, tall, faceless, helmeted types brandishing what have you and riding the King County Metro. He was always talking to himself, not a great talker.

Apparently he was obsessed with, get this, taking over the world. Me and the other wizards on the bus all scoffed at that. We were young and stupid, of course. We had no idea what he was really up to.