Space Cowboys

Five years ago, my boss turned in a bid to build a massive application server and a database server. He said he could do it in two weeks when all other bids came back with a six-month time frame. It took a team of six of us working around the clock to bring it to fruition, but we did it. One of the team members likes to remind me that I got four days off in the middle of the project. It's true, I did - I had previously scheduled this time to brick the outside of a very large structure we had built adjacent our home. But it was no vacation: 12-hour days of manual labor shoveling sand, mixing mortar and cutting and hauling bricks was quite unlike anything I was used to. The very next day, I worked 24-hours straight on the project at work. We got it successfully up and running, with myself being the most minor member of the team.

Of the six of us, five are with the same company, and two of us once again have our old boss, as our current boss. We're Site Service Delivery Managers now. The old VP at that account is also with us at our new client. Two weeks ago, there was a catastrophic failure at a remote client site they couldn't get fixed. The VP gave my boss a single directive: "Get the old team back together." So...Tuesday after the holiday I'm off to New York for an unspecified duration. "Until it's up and running." Is the only outline I have for a timeframe. It feels just like the movie, Space Cowboys. We're trying to get at least one other of the team members out there as well. My boss has some pull across accounts...And once again, I feel like the least qualified member.


I was just reciting the Shepard's Prayer. Alan Shepard's prayer. Please God, don't let us screw up. Amen.

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FIRSTS

I made my first comment to a post in MySpace. It feels a little dirty.

I've been reading The Hobbit to my six-year-old. He may be a little young, as he gets bored in places, but I thought I'd go ahead and start. It bores my four-year-old to tears, so I stopped reading it to them both.

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Hulking through Dante's lair
(Reminiscent of our own)
Perambulators pushed by bears
Across the thorny stones.

(In response to lehah's post.)



My boss referred to us to as "Team Daedalus" (from Space Cowboys) when he introduced us to the Regional CIO. I couldn't believe it.

cenedrawood