New office

I got switched to a new project at work last week, and along with that came a new office. I'm on the 9th floor of a building near where I used to work. It has a nice view of the highway and NRG (formerly Reliant) stadium that I can enjoy while I try to figure out what I'm doing.

 

 

You can also see a TV station and the med center. I'll be here about six months before we all start moving onto the new campus, where nobody will have offices anymore.  

Phone pics

I found some pictures on my phone that I'd forgotten about.  Here's a pic I took on our way to church in November of last year.

I call it "Mark of the Beast... Extreme Edition"!

When I worked in a 5th-floor office overlooking a highway, I used to post interesting pictures from my window at work.  After a brief stint in a small windowless office, I moved to a slightly less small office around the corner with a view of an alley.  Not quite as cool as my old view, but I tried to keep up the tradition.

Here's some snow from when we got our annual fluke snowstorm last year.

Oh oh, and here's an exotic city bird paying me a visit.

Maybe this feature will have to wait until I get a new office.

Windowless Office

It's been a while since I've blogged. That's not particularly noteworthy, except that this time I have a list of things to blog about, I just haven't had a computer.

On Monday of this week I transferred to another position at work. For the last 6 months or so, I was working in a department that didn't really need me, I wasn't doing what I wanted to do, and I had a hard time scraping up even that kind of work to do. When my supervisor left for a position working closely with the developers, I told him to put in a good word for me and a few weeks later I received notice that I was moving. Overall, it is a very positive move. I'm going to be doing software development, I have plenty of work to do, and there are 3 other BYU grads in my group. I think I'm going to be much happier here.

There are some trade-offs, however. The temporary problem is that my move requisition wasn't filed in time, so my computer has been at my old location for about a week now (I should get it tomorrow). For the first few days I could only read documentation when a workroom computer was available, rearrange my office, and try not to look awkward sitting around with not much to do. Just like old times. Luckily, I've been able to borrow a laptop from the team lead so I can now do at least some work from my office.

The office is another drawback. I no longer have my 5th floor window office. Many of the office at this location have windows, albeit small ones, but as the newbie to the team I got the inner, used-to-be-a-storage-room office. I can't complain too much, seeing as how I don't have to share it with anybody and it has a door, but I miss seeing the rainstorms come and go... ...and watching the cars drive by (and get pulled over)......and seeing random things like a guy climbing around on his fire truck
Perhaps the worst part is that I now have a 50% longer commute, spending about 45 minutes on the road in each direction. Thank goodness for our hybrid. A lot of that is on the highway where speeds average around 60 so I'm getting above 48 mpg.

PS - The first picture is one I took during a lunch on the top floor of a very tall building downtown, not the view from my office unfortunately.

COPS

I looked out the window today in time to see a car driving very slowly with a cop car, lights on, directly behind it. I assumed it was a routine traffic stop as the car slowed down, until it tried to turn into the Chevron station and didn't have the momentum, stopping in the lane. The cop got out and talked to the driver, then several people, including the cop, pushed the car the rest of the way into the gas station parking lot, after which the cop drove off. It's nice to see a friendly situation like that every once in a while.

Visitor

Crash

This happened on Tuesday, but I wanted to get the pictures off my phone before I posted it:

I heard some squealing tires today and turned just in time to see a white car in the leftmost highway lane tip up slightly on two right wheels, then veer sharply to its left, smashing into the concrete barrier. Its forward momentum nearly caused it to roll, but it straightened out and came to a stop facing forward in the left shoulder. You can see it on the right here:

As we all rushed to the corner office for a better view, a Camaro hit a piece of road debris and pushed it until stopping in the shoulder. The debris looked like some kind of ladder or sawhorse that the white car had tried to avoid, causing the accident. The Camaro disentangled itself and left the debris on the shoulder as it drove off.

Within minutes the fire truck and ambulance were there, with the police and tow truck vultures not far behind:

All in all, the driver did not seem to be seriously hurt, and it was an interesting distraction from work.

The View

I have another "window office" post to make, but before I do, here's a picture I took using my cell phone that I've been meaning to post for a few days now to give you a frame of reference:

I'd rather see fender benders

I looked out the window and what did I see? Someone perpetrating battery.

All joking aside, it was actually kind of disturbing. I happened to look out my office window as a young couple was walking across the parking lot of the hotel. They were both black and dressed, you might say, stereotypically. He was wearing baggy shorts and (appropriately) a wife-beater and had cornrows, and she was wearing heels and white pants and had her hair done up.

Very soon after I first saw them, he took a swing at her, hitting her in the upper body. They grappled a little and he managed to hit her a few more times in the head and body until she fell to the ground with bag, shoes, and her ripped-out hair extension scattered around her. She got up, not intimidated, and layed into him verbally and they scuffled a little bit more before he walked off the direction they had been going. She continued her verbal tirade, and he eventually turned around and went back the direction they had come from, kicking curbs and punching the air in anger. After picking up her things, she followed back after him, staying some distance behind.

I wasn't sure what to think. Violence like that is just so foreign to me. I considered calling the police, but it was over quickly and frankly, I wasn't sure some white cop interfering would help more than hurt. And they both took it in stride such that it almost seemed normal, like 12-year-old boys getting over their differences. I hope their walk home lets them cool off a little bit and nothing worse happens. But I still can't imagine what was so bad that he had to hit her. So foreign. It was all a bit surreal watching the silent action from my insulated perch five stories up, but it made me realize what a nice, pleasant life I lead.

Vulture Towing

I actually had some fun work to do today and was thusly engrossed when I heard a crash coming from the highway area. My window looks north, and I could see that the cars on the southbound feeder road (to my right) were slowing at the T intersection of the east-west road that my building is on. (I should really just post a picture of the view some day) The cause of the disturbance, however, was on the east side of the building, and I couldn't see it. I finished my programming thought and went to join the crowd in the conference room on the southeast corner of my floor to see what was going on.

There was a car, facing the opposite direction in the middle lane of the three-lane (one-way) feeder road, its front end all smashed up. There were no other cars involved, so it looks like the woman driving turned right from the road my window looks over onto the feeder road and for whatever reason didn't turn completely and crashed into the guardrail on the opposite side, bending the guardrail in, sending two of the wooden supports flying, spinning her car backwards, and probably totaling it.

The woman appeared to be ok (the airbags had gone off), but perhaps the most interesting part of the "show" was that within minutes of the accident, there were at least 7 or 8 tow trucks waiting like vultures to tow the car away. When the cops were finished with the accident scene, they all gathered in a circle and drew straws to see who got the carrion. The winner bounded away to get his truck in position and the others all drove off. I had no idea they did that.

Window Office

At my job here in Houston I have a window office on the 5th floor that faces north and overlooks I-45 and a 3-story, long-term hotel. My colleagues with south-facing windows have tried to make me jealous because they can see the interchange with Beltway 8 and all the accompanying accidents, along with the police stings that go on in the empty field on that side. Apparently, the police like to set some nice 'rims' up in the back of a truck by the field and see if anyone is interested in 'borrowing' them. Fortunately, I have had a fair share of interesting things to look at that I will share with you. Some of them are fairly regular:

• Frequent police presence at the hotel. It's one of those hotels with full kitchens and weekly rates, but apparently they have a fair amount of crime because they not only have security guards monitoring the building, but there police cruisers driving through the parking lot all the time.
• Funeral motorcades. Everybody gets to see these, because there is a cemetary on the south side across the freeway. So the motorcades have to go north along the highway, then u-turn under it and come back right by me on the southbound feeder road.

And within the last week or so there's been some excitement on the highway:

• A four-car fender bender, early in the morning. The dumb people didn't move their cars out of the center lane, so it backed up traffic as far as I can see. It didn't look like anybody was hurt, and only one pickup truck had major damage (a crumpled hood). Still, it was fun to watch the fire engines and ambulances come and block traffic so the cars could get to the side of the road and the tow trucks could get them out of there.
• A blown tire. Just this morning, I heard a loud bang and looked in time to see the remains of a big rig tire flopping around the road. A few cars nicked it until it settled between lanes. The truck drove too far before pulling off, so I don't know what happened to it.

OK, so it's not that exciting, But it's probably more exciting than describing what I actually do at work, so be prepared for further updates!