Just my luck...

So, for the past two months, I've been working on this project for HR... excuse me, I mean HC. Now this project is somewhat special because it was a test for hiring outside contractors to do the programming so as to relieve the regular programmers from having to do the coding for this project. Instead we're on conference calls to New York trying to convey to the contractor and the project lead enough about our internal databases and processes so that they can do the coding that I could have had done in half the time.

But at least I don't have to do the coding.

Now, this is following closely on the heels of two of our six person development team leaving the firm, the departure of each resulting in me taking up half of each's workload. Also thrown into the mix is my having to train a new person hired to replace just one of the former team members. He knows our programming environment, but not our internal infrastructure and processes.

But at least I don't have to do the HC project coding.

Simultaneously with the above, our Sharepoint specialist is rolling off the near two year effort to upgrade all the disparate Sharepoint sites in the firm to one server running the latest and greatest version of Sharepoint (well it was the latest and greatest when we started, but that's a whole other post).  While she was a fine programmer when we were using classic ASP, during the two years we had moved on to ASP.NET and so she needed training in that. By virtue of her being a regular member of the team, she knows our internal infrastructures and processes, so at least I didn't have to cover that.

But at least I don't have to do the HC project coding.

Then I learned that we're going to hire a contractor to take over the big staffing project that was the main responsibility of one of the departed team members. He too needs to be trained on all of our internals. His arrival coincided with the new guy just caught up on our internals and having started with his projects (needless to say, that took some of the load off me, but not all of that half that he's destined to take over).

But at least I don't have to do the HC project coding.

So now my little story has almost caught up to the present. I arrived at work this morning to find that the head of HC has announced via a firm-wide email that the HC project that I haven't been bothered by having to actually code over the last few months will be launched tomorrow and that there will be an introductory presentation at the weekly Friday morning (tomorrow).

One marathon coding sprint later via a flurry of emails and tag-teaming the source repository later, things are beginning to look like we will have the end-user facing piece ready for tomorrow and can finish up the rest of the reporting next week. As my boss starts making noises like this is good enough and I can depart, I realize that while I'm not going to make the 6:25 train, but I can still go to North Station, grab a stool at the bar there, and savor a well-deserved Scotch (neat) while I wait for the 7:35.

Of course, what do I find when I get to North Station?  That there's a Bruins game tonight and that the bar is packed.

I need a drink.