4 weeks to go…

So it’s down to the last four weeks. On the Apple side of the world, we keep trying to turn over responsibilities and do training and making sure stuff is cleaned up and a new coat of paint the like.

The current plan is to spend the week lecturing more, and trying to get some admin scripts written, and whatever else we have time for; Friday will be my last day actively touching the system (in theory) or handling questions or requests. Then next week is an “on call” vacation, where I drop out of sight and we see what breaks (my hope: to get the path to the hot tub landscaped); then I come back one more week to manage that special project the wanted me around for and to go over what the week MIA brought up, and work to get it resolved.

And then I’m gone. And whatever that means. Currently, Laurie and I are planning a “get away from here” trip, and we’re both seriously looking forward to it. One where I don’t check email first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and the cell phone stays in the hotel room. I admit I’m looking forward to some serious quiet.

While I don’t regret the decision to extend out — it was good for the project and good for my finances — I’m starting to feel some serous short-timer disease. I can see the end, I wish it’d hurry. We keep plugging away, closing action items or handing them off. My only real regret is that it prevented me from getting to Vancouver for that Haida art display before it closed; but it was worth it. I think.

Looking for what’s next continues; I spent five hours Friday interviewing with one group; I came away feeling good both about the situation and about how I presented myself; we’ll see how they think. That makes two companies where there seem to be solid possibilities that have gone beyond “let’s talk and see if this makes sense” — both really good technical situations for me, both very different environments that’ll make for an interesting challenge in deciding should it come to that (one company is large, one is really a startup; one is joining a team, the other being the team, but with a chance of building one over time). A couple of other situations. A couple of other situations are at the “talk at lunch/talk on the phone” stage, and we’ll see how it develops. One is — really intriguing but complicated.

The one thing I’ve committed to myself is to not hurry into a new situations; I’m not going to remotely worry about “finding a job” until January or later; on the other hand, if I think the situation is right (job, package, commute, stress levels, people) I’d love to settle this sooner than later.

If there’s one thing extending at Apple has hurt, it’s building a portfolio (and working on sharpening skills); It hasn’t hurt (much), but I think it’d be very useful to have non-trivial sample code pieces for people to evaluate, and — look at www.plaidworks.com — and tell me that’s a worthy site to show folks as an example of web programming and web design (hint: not remotely). Artists and designers and photographers have done portfolios for years; I think programmers, especially where there are user-facing aspects to the code, should have one, too. This is one way being involved with open source projects can serve multiple masters, too — return to the community AND create samples for people to look at.

Right now, I think it’s 60-40 that the search will be settled before the trip. that puts me much further along the path than I expected to be, even without the extension at Apple. Given what I’ve seen others go through in job searches, I’ll count my blessings and be happy.

(update: imagine my amusement when is at down and looked at a calendar and realized it’s not three weeks, it’s four. TWO weeks to Labor Day, the labor day week off, then the week back for the special project and final cleanup… Well, having two weeks to clean up my todo list actually makes me a lot more comfortable, but on the other hand…. sigh… and have I mentioned that monday morning’s suck, especially when you wake up early with pounding sinuses?)

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