This was my first course: Surviving at Sun. Almost 9 years ago. I forget what it was about. I just remember the title. Almost every year I have been at Sun there have been layoffs. Sometimes it felt as frequent as every quarter. Every quarter that Sun didn't make it's numbers, there was a layoff. It seemed to be going along, not really growing but it would never regain the stature that it had during the dot-com boom years more than a decade ago.
But then the financial meltdown of 2008. The greed and risks that the financial institutions took finally caught up. It was a serious time. Business made the necessary cutbacks and adjustments. There were layoffs, but the situation felt very different from any other time in the last 10 years. Call it intuition, but I smelled smoke. Then in March of 2009 the rumours of IBM acquiring Sun. But the deal fell through, and within weeks Oracle came into the picture and the deal was done. But then it took 9 months to get worldwide approval and finalize. On Jan 27th, Sun finally went down. Oracle officially acquired Sun.
Working at Sun has been a lot of fun and great experience. It will always be a big part of my life and the people I've had the pleasure of working with have helped shape my career.
And today was my last day as a Sun employee. It was a tough day, watching emails pour in from all over North America. The farewells from folks that had been with Sun for 20+ years. I'm going to miss the friends and colleagues that were laid off today. All of them very smart and capable people and I wish them all the best. Take it easy, enjoy your much deserved break. Re-energize and I'm sure another door will open.
Business is business. A job is a job. What can you do? You can only control what is in your power to control. You can't worry about the stuff you can't. What happens now for me? Going to wait for the dust to settle and move on. Look for the positives and opportunities, in this next era without Sun Microsystems.
Getting prepared to go cross country skiing. The Oro kids went last weekend for their first lessons (part of an 8 lesson package) and Kieran was wanting to go. So we booked a private lesson this weekend and it was his first time xc-skiing. He's downhilled last year and we wanted to get him into it this year.
And this is how we warmed up. By throwing the kids in the snow banks along the driveway. We'd just been watching a dinosaur documentary on how the veloceraptor eat their prey while it's technically still alive on National Geographic.
2 kids down. 2 to go.
This is Roy. Kieran's instructor. The private lesson was $32.00 + $12.00 for the rentals. It was for an hour and he gave him the basics and took him on the trail. Tresa and I did the North Green trail minus Guether's Grind and Fox Run. We were back in time to see Kieran come back from his lesson with the instructor on the West Yellow trails.
It was warm out. About 0 deg C. And slippery. I had put on some wax on my skiis, but I was having a hard time getting any grip. I was picking up the rear and working my butt off just to stay with in sight of Tresa and my brother. Of course I'm the only one with the wax skiis. Kieran was practicing the technique of ski jumping like Dedek.
But was more like the agony of defeat.
Good thing the hill was small.
He got the hang of it pretty quick. So we took him on the Green North trail for a short run.
The instructor said he didn't need any more lessons this year, just to bring him out to practice. So we'll come up more often to hit the trails. Wonder if he'll be able to do all of the North Green trail. The uphills might be tough. But I'm wondering about the downhills....he seems to like those. I'll get him a helmet. Just to be on the safe side.
Tresa's needing a new pair of XC-skiis. Then we'll see who's slip sliding all over the place. Those skiis with the addidas running shoes clipped onto them belong in a museum back in Finland.
I'm sure they'd be happy to have these in their museum of natural history. To show the kids of today what the original settlers of their country used to get around.
They're even cracked at the back end of one of them. Time to let go of these and put them in their rightful place beside these ones here.
Her skiis were the next generation of these ones on the wall of the chalet. Almost the same, except for the paint job.
Then it was time to hit the hills and slide down the drifts. Why pay for a ski pass when this is all they want to do?
It's free. Besides you don't get all these parents that just bud in front of you just because they are in a hurry to get their kids rentals. Hey..we're all waiting for the same thing. Get to the back of the line and wait your turn. Twice it happened. Once to pay and then again when we were getting Kieran's skiis. Geezus Murphy. What's wrong with people. We took up XC because the downhill yuppies with their 2.1 kids and shiny Karbon outfits were a pain, now they've made their way to XC too. Go learn some manners.
Hey it's still Christmas in the Ukraine. So this isn't late. Who needs Rudolf? You can spot this house in a blizzard.
This house was in the Toronto Star paper and directly across from McCormick arena. It had so many lights it's spilling over to the next house
I'd like to see their hydro bill. Maybe it's a grow-op and this is a way of covering their tracks.
We still have our slim-pickin's IKEA tree which is dead. I forgot to cut the bottom to help it suck up the water in the bowl. The branches are drooping under the weight of the glass balls and the lights. It's as good as kindling. It's going to landfill tomorrow.
Mother Nature was back! I beat the snow. That was my goal. I think Mother Nature sensed that I was done my project and opened the heavens and let it snow. We had a green Christmas. It was wet too. It was cold but no snow. What had fallen before was a light dusting and melted a day later. Yesterday the snow came and stayed. It started snowing on Sunday, when I was cleaning up the basement laundry room preparing for the reveal. And snowed more on Monday. Looking forward to skating at the park and riding my bike on the trainer indoors. Too bad the Junior's lost in OT, otherwise it would be icing on the cake. But hey they got the silver and have won it 5 previous years. Gotta break the streak sooner or later.
And check this out. It's like Haley's comet when you see one of these on the road. It's a Chevette. The last American icon car that was built with any sort of quality. They don't make em like this any more.
I finally gave Tresa the laundry room back. I've worked almost every day and weekend since I started, but a little more than 2 months later I'm pretty much done. Well by definition of done. I'm not 'Done'. I still have to install the sink, laundry basin, toilet and wall cabinets. But the major construction is complete. It's all finishing work now. No more soldering, mudding, taping, sanding, priming or painting. I just have to install what Tresa chooses to bring home from some designer place.
I did the last bit of plumbing this morning. I installed all the shutoffs for the fixtures that need to be installed. I hadn't done any plumbing since November. And I set off the smoke alarm again. But it's done. No leaks. I was thinking about doing it late last night. But I didn't want to wake up to a flooded basement. It's always good to see if your solders are nice and secure for a day before going to sleep. This gives you some daylight to fix any problems. But all was good.
It was a clean up day today. I dirtied up the laundry. I cleaned it up. Cleaned everything. Even behind the furnace and hot water tank. Wiped down all the pipes of dust. Scraped the floor of small drops of paint. I even spilled a quart of primer on the floor. I accidentally knocked over the can when I was looking up and checking my painting job. I didn't scrape it up and throw it out. I used my roller to sop up the primer and apply it to the walls. Then it was pretty much like a coat of paint on the floor. I got an old rag and wiped it up, it was like Sham-WOW. Only with a dirty rag.
It's done. I even get to be the first to clean up in the shower of our spruced up laundry. It was so clean. I was so tired of dust. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I started this project on Oct 21st. That's when I got my supplies. Construction is done. Sort of like a move in state. I cut all the jams for the windows. Tresa has to see what trim she wants. I haven't nailed it in. I was going to wait until she selected all the baseboard and window trim and do it all at once. This gives me a break for a while. I'm ready to call the eco-audit guys back to do our follow up and apply for the eco-grants/rebates.
It feels pretty good. You definitely save money doing this yourself. But that's not the only reason we do them. Anyone can pay someone else to do the work. I'm sure they'll do the work just as good if not better and, for sure, faster. But this is our house. I know the blood and sweat that went into doing this reno. I have a new found respect for those that do this stuff professionally. I have before. But it gets reinforced every time I take on a project.
It's not like we knew how to do this work when we started. I learned as I went along. I learned before I started. I asked questions in order to plan. I asked experts - contractors and friends who did similar work. Ultimately, I want to set a good example for Kieran that you can do anything if you set your mind to it. Even when you run into roadblocks. Ask someone for advice and/or help. I didn't do everything by myself, but 95% was done with my two hands (and head when I held up the drywall on the ceiling), I've got the cuts on my hands to prove it. My bro helped me with a lot. Billy was my plumbing consultant and Mike got me on the road to selecting the pot lights). Ask a whole bunch of people, check online, see how others did it (search YouTube and Google for how-to's). And see if it'll work for you. Then try it, make a mistake - figure out what went wrong and try again. It's learning, it's what life is about. I could watch reno shows on HGTV all day long. But if I don't pick up the hammer and make that first hole in the wall to start the work. I'll never really learn. You have to do it yourself to experience it. If you are afraid. Ask yourself why. If you're afraid of making mistakes. Read this paragraph again.
It's not rocket science. It just takes some gumption and believing in yourself. Letting yourself make mistakes. Asking lots of questions prior to reduce mistakes. Checking your work before you move to the next thing. Seeing it through to completion, is the best reward.
I was hoping to get this work done before Christmas but I needed another week. This was my gift to her. It's always nice to see her expression when things turn out well. I can tell that Tresa believes in my ability. And it feels good. It's better than any gift she could ever buy for me.
Every project I take on gets bigger and bigger. You can't just go from never picking up a hammer to redoing the kitchen. Little by little I'm learning skills to help us redo other parts of the house. What better way to learn to insulate and drywall than say ripping out the closet? That's what I did. It's a closet. Any mistakes, no one will ever see. That closet helped me to do the back bedroom. And that experience helped me for this laundry room, which will help me for the next project.
Tresa's got a good eye for style, I don't think we need a designer, we just need to have a vision and agree on how it's going to be executed. There's compromise sometimes in the design, but it always ends up looking sharp. I like bringing her vision to life, because it's her choosing the colours, tiles, pieces, lights. Her decision makes it all her design. She's the one who makes the decisions that turn out looking really good in the end. I just do the grunt work. Any one can hire anyone to do the work for them.
Me too. Turned out better than I thought. The pot lights make all the difference. Part way through framing Tresa asked if we could put in pot lights. I planned this project for months. Initially we weren't going to do it. But the Eco audit rebate is good plus this room will now be much warmer. However I knew it was going to be a ton of work. But I really underestimated the work. I took a week off thinking I'd be done in a week. Man it took a few days just to begin. And I had a road block right away. But it's done. If I can do it anyone can do it. Plus it helps to know people who can help you or ask questions when you get stuck.
I need a day off. I'm exhausted. Got a cold from going in and out of the house. and Kieran always wants to wipe my glasses when they're steamed up.
But I feel so relieved. I can focus on other things now.
This was my first course: Surviving at Sun. Almost 9 years ago. I forget what it was about. I just remember the title. Almost every year I have been at Sun there have been layoffs. Sometimes it felt as frequent as every quarter. Every quarter that Sun didn't make it's numbers, there was a layoff. It seemed to be going along, not really growing but it would never regain the stature that it had during the dot-com boom years more than a decade ago.
side.
Take care!
Sat Jan 30, 08:52:00 AM EST
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