This leaves us with ... hmmm ... something like 8 major projects that are just hanging there, with "verbal commitments", and the paperwork (and checks) in process. Needless to say, things are going to be insane at work once these start hitting the tarmac ... but it is also a pretty good (hopeful) bet that the current "working for next to nothing" modality will shift to "paying us what we should be getting" once some of the checks clear!
{If anybody knows any SL builders/scripters/machinimists or good LSL coders in the Chicago area, let 'em know that Simuality.com is going to be hiring like mad very soon!},
I had a very bad "transit" night last night ... nobody was able to give me a lift over to the train, so I popped out to take the Pace bus ... there is supposed to be a 6:55 bus, for which I headed out (for the half-block walk to the corner) at 6:45 ... and I waited, and waited, and waited (in cold and breezy conditions) ... finally getting a bus at 7:27 ... now, either the 6:55 had gotten there more than 10 minutes early (unlikely), or it was running a half-hour late (the following bus is due at 7:25) ... but I was grumpy and cold and sore. So, we then get to the Davis St. el stop at 7:37, just in time to miss the southbound Purple Line. I go upstairs and wait (in the cold and the wind) and wait ... with the next train not coming at 7:47, but 7:57 (total "standing in cold and windy conditions" wait time so far, 1:05). At this point my various "car crash bits" were not happy with me (knee, hip, ankle) and I decided that I really didn't feel like climbing 2-4 flights of stairs at my usual stop, so went down to Chicago/State where there are escalators all the way up. I was hoping to catch the #36 bus there, but just missed one. At this point I really couldn't face another 15-30 minutes of "cold and windy" and opted to "Igor" it up the six blocks up the street (when my "car crash bits" get cranky it's funny to watch me try to walk). THEN when I get home I'm being yelled at for being so late ... I'd tried to call around 7pm, but the damn cell phone never keeps a charge and was dead ... so that was just lovely too. Total door-to-door time for the return commute last night: 2:20 ... which really sucks.
The whole day was not a "transit" fuck-up though, I had gotten a bit of a late start in the morning (my commute is one of those "butterfly wings" situations, lose a couple of minutes on one end and it tends to make me substantially late on the other), and missed my regular 8:11am Evanston Express, which typically dooms me to a half-hour wait at Davis for the next bus. However, yesterday morning, the later train got in to Davis at about 8:49 which gave me just enough time to scoot down the stairs and out to the bus, which was just closing his doors as I bolted out of the station (the driver of the 8:50 is a cranky old coot who I suspect likes nothing so much in life as having people unsuccessfully chasing his bus down the block)., which got me in to work at my usual time.
Needless to say, when they start paying me like a Director of Communications, all these hassles will by less of a pain ... where at this point they always feel like "insult to injury"!