Happy New Year

Image by designwallah via Flickr

As I came to write this, I really wondered what I would say. Or, what graphic would or could say it all for me (and save me from having to write something). Of late, many assessments from bloggers, pundits, and various talking heads on cable have come in for these last 10 years. Some counting and coining The Naughties as a decade, '00 - '09, with its shades and inferences counting all the way back to Y2K (remember that one?), while others insist it can only encompass the years '01 to '10 to be a true decade. I'm happy with the former, but I don't begrudge the latter. And most appraisals seem only too happy for this period to be over. I can't say I blame them. Perhaps, the start of this span should have been a warning to us (or me). Exactly ten years ago, I had to drop everything (including those things I thought I'd enjoy on my evening at home on December 31, 1999) and rush back to my office just after 8 PM. Needless to say, she-who-must-be-obeyed was none too happy about that return, at all. And, she had a good reason to be that way.

My wife was only into her first month of sleep deprivation and motherly exhaustion due to the brand new, 4 weeks off the lot, baby girl in our midst. Add a 4 year-old older brother none too happy about the new situation (and addition) and her dismay at my news was understandable. The fact of the matter was, she was looking forward to a little spousal help going into the New Year's holiday. Having 'the help' come home (looking like a perfectly normal human being, too, didn't assist matters with my postpartum wife), take exactly one diaper change and eat a little dinner (not anywhere near the same time, mind you), before telling her I had to go back to work didn't engender much wifely pity. The Y2K scare, at its height with worry and over reaction (let alone over-spending) even had her job a little miffed she wasn't actually at work that very same day, to boot. But, no one there had the guts to tell that to this second-time mother. I would have paid $$$ to have seen someone attempt that one.

Regardless, having our file server pick that moment in time to have an issue was one right out of the Murphy's Law book. The entire Medical Center (where both of us worked) was already on high alert due to the fear of a technological meltdown attributable to the rollover of internal clocks from x99 to x00 across computer and clinical engineering systems. I had already completed my remediation and testing on our clients and that lone server. I was set to monitor it remotely from home, clink bubbly glasses with my wonderful wife at midnight, and call in with a thumbs-up report. Or, so I thought. Scurrying back in like a rat going the wrong way on a sinking ship, to fix a failing mirrored drive, definitely seemed like the wrong way to start a new year, or decade, or century no matter how you counted or cut it. Still, I did what I had to in record time and arrived home before midnight to share the crossover with my family. So, conceivably, there was still something to look forward to.

Of late, it seems people are coming out of the woodwork to list all sorts of bad things about this period of time. And no matter how notorious the last ten years were, it's been my wife and kids that have gotten me through that chapter. I'm so grateful for them, and I remain hopeful. I look at my family (especially my children) and can envision all sorts of great things with this set of people. And knowing that that thought extends to others, I found this:

Image by the jof via Flickr

Happy New Year everyone.

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