elfs | First thing in the morning...

My morning office

I have a pretty good set-up. I get out the door by seven, and to the office around eight. It's a murderous commute, one that seriously eats into my writing time because no decent King County Metro route will handle the multiple demands of my commute in a timely fashion.

If I'm early, and I frequently am, I wait for the office manager to unlock the door by sitting out on the pier that juts into Lake Washington and hacking. There's an open WiFi there and usually I'm the only person on the whole subnet, so bandwidth isn't bad. My laptop with a three-hour battery, good weather, an amazing view, good bandwidth, and a cup of coffee aren't bad ways to start the morning. Sometimes I have to share my "office" with an elderly English gentleman who does his Tai Chi.

When the office opens, I get the bigger monitor and the hardline, and work solidly for six hours. I eat lunch at my desk-- I know, that's a big no-no, but it's not a full eight hours, and there are compensations. My office companions are some of the most awesome people I've worked with. (Truth, though: I could say that about Spry and Isilon, both of which I was in at the "Twelve people or less" stage. I could not say that about F5, where I was employee #86. By that time, bureaucratic sclerosis had already started.)

About 2:30pm, I head out to Kouryou-chan's school, where I pick her up and head home, then plug back in and work for another hour and a half to two hours, depending upon how much time I spent at the office.

About 5:30pm, I'm usually done for the day. Sometimes, depending upon the mood and evening arrangements, I'll cook or someone else will.

It's not the world's greatest arrangement; I spend upwards of two hours commuting every day, time that is utterly and completely wasted no matter how you slice it. But it has its compensations.

In case anyone is curious, I use Project Hamster for my time-tracking needs.