Upgrade

Started: 2010-11-14 14:27:44

Submitted: 2010-11-14 15:06:32

Visibility: World-readable

On a normal weekday, I spend very little time directly responsible for Calvin. I'll occasionally watch him for a few minutes during breakfast while Kiesa showers, but she's principally responsible for getting him up, feeding him, dressing him, and getting him to daycare so she can work. When she finishes work, she picks him up from daycare and spends the afternoon watching him, which often involves going to the park. By the time I get home (usually around 18:00), Calvin is eating supper. Kiesa usually gives him a bath before bed (while I do the dishes and clean up the kitchen), and my only dedicated responsibility is to put him to bed ("night-night"), because we observed that he seems to fuss less when I put him to bed than when Kiesa puts him to bed. In the past month Kiesa started cooking the next day's supper after Calvin goes to bed so she didn't have to cook while trying to watch him in the afternoon, which usually results in Calvin complaining bitterly at the injustice of the situation.

Though Kiesa works only part-time, it's easier to pay for full-time daycare for the extra flexibility in Kiesa's schedule. It's easy enough to ramp up to her working full-time without involving too much extra effort on my part, but last week provided a special challenge, as she needed to work overtime to facilitate a major system upgrade in the integrated library system she cares for and feeds for her day job. (This is apparently the result of the underlying database losing support and needing a major upgrade to work around the newly-reserved keywords in the new version.) The library was closed on Veteran's Day, which was designated as their Flag Day for the upgrade. Kiesa started working full-time on Wednesday, to make sure the ground work was in place, then took the library system down at 19:00 to begin the backup ahead of the migration.

On Thursday, Kiesa got up and left early in the morning, leaving Calvin to wake me up a few minutes before 07:00 and get him and me ready for our respective daily occupations. I got him up and let him wander around my bedroom while I showered, then took him downstairs for breakfast. At my request, Kiesa wrote a detailed packing list and manual for taking care of Calvin; I followed the manual and packed his backpack for daycare and finally managed to get out the door after 08:30. (Calvin has a small, toddler-sized backpack with a pull-out handle and wheels that doubles as a miniature rolling suitcase. He enjoys pulling out the handle and dragging the backpack around with him, so it's become his daycare bag, being just barely large enough for a change of clothes, his lunch, and an array of Nalgene sippy cups.)

I made up for getting to work late by leaving early. I stopped to pick up takeout at my favorite Asian fusion restaurant in Longmont, then picked Calvin up at 17:45, with fifteen minutes to spare before daycare closed for the night. While I was feeding Calvin his sesame tofu, Kiesa arrived, exhausted from her day but having accomplished her objectives: The new system mostly worked.

I got up earlier Friday morning, which helped me get ready in time to leave at a more reasonable hour. Kiesa was still working on getting the extra systems that use the integrated library system up and running, so responsibility for Calvin fell again to me. I managed to get him off to daycare without any mishaps, and felt like I had accomplished at least something for having done so. For her part, Kiesa thought perhaps she wouldn't really mind working full-time, at least if we could get takeout more often.