In the Groove

I am just starting to establish a routine here and I know soon it will be over. I have tried to sleep in each morning, knowing I will be up until at least 4:30 am. This is a bit difficutl when Deepak insists on delivering the paper each morning around 9 am. He and the cleaning woman come back later to clean the apartment. I had a hard time getting back to sleep sometimes because I never know when he is going to show back up. It gets earlier and earlier each time. I try to be showered and dressed when they come, so I usually try to do that shortly after he leaves from delivering the paper. Peggy stressed to them today that we only need one visit per day and NEVER before 2pm. We'll see.

After I have my shower and get dressed, I usually get on the computer and check email, update the blog and take care of any work that I can without VPN. I have given up on VPN at the apartment. Working on the computer takes some of the awkwardness out of the fact that there are 2 people in my apartment cleaning and moving my stuff.

After they leave, I try to catch a nap, if possible, and fix myself some dinner. If I fill up on food at the apartment, I won't be tempted to hit the cafeteria at IBM. At 5:00 Peggy and I take a stroll around the apartment complex. It's more for me than for her. I need to get the blood flowing in my legs. At the Sentinel I am always moving and don't spend all day sitting at my desk. Here I am always sitting. I sit in the apartment and work on the computer or read. I sit in the car when we go to work or travel. I sit at IBM and work on the computer. I also try to take breaks at IBM and walk the stairs there.

After our walk it is usually time to leave for work. Ramesh is usually here by 5:30 and we hop in the car. He weaves his way through the Bangalore rush hour traffic with ease and finesse. I always have my camera out because you never know what you might encounter on the roads of Bangalore. Unfortunately some of the things I see pass by so fast that I have trouble capturing them. I have been able to capture almost 700 images in my time here, most from the window of the back seat of the car.

At IBM I stake my claim at the back table. I usually set up at 2 computers: my laptop to give me access to all my files, and an IBM desktop to give me access to Citrix and the Sentinel Intranet. On the ride in, I start checking in with folks at the Sentinel who have just started filtering in to work. Once at IBM I continue to stay in touch with email and IM.

Last night, Wednesday, the class was reviewing more Mac stuff. They were filled with questions and Rishi stressed that I would only be here until Monday so now was their chance to pick my brain. And boy did they! You can tell they are trying to relate the Mac to what they know on the PC. "How do you do an ipconfig on a Mac?" "How do you access the command prompt?" "How do you do a copy and paste?" All very good questions! This team is very committed to First Call Resolution and I get the feeling they will be very disappointed to have to dispatch any incidents. They are playing on the iMac and learning (the hard way) how to uninstall programs! The Photo Booth software inadvertently got trashed on one of the iMacs and the Trash was emptied. I viewed this as an opportunity to show them how to burn a disk. They chimed in that they could copy the file from the other iMac through Bluetooth. I agreed, but then wouldn't have a chance to show them about burning disks and accessing the optical drive.

More stuff is showing up on Citrix for the Sentinel which will give me a chance to share it all before I leave. Tomorrow Naham comes and Saturday Sophie is here! It has all gone by so fast. I am trying to think if there is anything I am missing that they need to know about the Sentinel. Alex has been great in getting all the info on Knowledge Base and I look forward to working with him more on this back in Orlando.