Well done...

As in brain fried, emotions fried, physically fried well done. I suppose I could say job well done as well.

Yesterday was my last day at the job. I think it's been clear I didn't want to go and the people I was working with didn't want me to go. Contracting rules made the decision for me.

In four and a half days I did my best to hand over what I've been doing for the last 20 months to two of the best men I know: the boy and another guy. The other guy has been working with me since February to help with the data analysis, so he's got an idea of what is going on.

The boy (who will get a post of his own tomorrow or Monday when I don't start crying every time I think about him) has been... willingly and unwillingly... picking up the daily stuff I do. Since he's so process driven, he nitpicked everything I was doing to understand the how and why of it. He got ahead of himself in some ways ('be patient,' I'd tell him, to which he replied 'I don't have patients, I have victims.') Hopefully he understands it and remembers it when he comes back next Wednesday.
He's also going to look at automating this as much as possible. He's got some experience in Access database management, and his wife is an Access whiz who could, for a week or two of work, come in and build a database that could hold all the data long term.

I told both of them to call me with questions, things they need explained, and that I'm willing to come up for refresher courses if they need.

What doesn't help matters any is that the project manager is done next Friday as well. Her contract is up and she's moving to a different project in the company. That leaves the boy essentially in charge. He's got a big mouth and is willing to use it, so we'll see what happens.

The people I talked to this last week were amazed that the VP's and others were not willing to make this happen. They are talking to their bosses (who have some power and pull) to go kick the VP in the butt. It simply comes down to the fact that I saved the company at least $1.4 million in recycled licenses on two applications alone, and who knows how much will be recycled when the analysis is finished on the other four applications.

Meanwhile, I'm tired, physically and emotionally. I put in 12+hour days the last couple weeks, and Thursday and Friday were long.
I've already been in to donate platelets this morning and hit the farmer's market on the way home. I need to go eat lunch so I can go to my martial arts class, then go to Whole Foods for groceries. Then I am coming home to sleep and relax for a a while, put my nose in a book and forget about things.

Maybe then I can pull things together to get on with the rest of my life.