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Showing posts from July, 2019

"Past it"? On (Maybe) Losing a Step

I'm a 40 year old working software engineer. I'm not a program manager, project manager, team lead, architect, business analyst, sytems analyst, or whatever other term means "Doesn't code anymore." I make my living by telling machines what to do so the company I work for can make money (alot of it) and pay me money (a little of it, but an obscene amount still). As I sit here, I'm 2 days away from ending a three year stint with one team, and picking up with another within the same company.  The reasons aren't complicated, but it's impolitic to go into them.  Suffice it to say, I've been looking around for about 6 months internally and it took about a month to get through the transition.  Monday is 'Go' day. So I ponder: How many more of these do I have in me? If I think really hard--then give up and look at my CV--I have had these jobs professionally: IT support (scripting, custom apps) for a group of 200 mechanical engineers Pr

Middle Age: Where I Actually Go Blind

I'm scared I won't be able to see when I'm 50.  If I make it to 50. I've always had poor vision, especially in my right eye.  My misshapen head grew disproportionately on the right side, so my eye sockets elongated....blah blah blah.  I'm functionally blind without glasses.  Have been since I was 8. I learned to deal with it.  I wore glasses reliably through all of my school (including college) and finally got a set of Toric contact lenses when I was 21, and I was had actual peripheral vision  until I dispensed with the contacts around age 32.  They were just too much trouble. Fast forward to last year.  Thirty nine years old, and "Wow, you have a HUGE cataract!" I'd noticed I had zero depth perception, and I increasingly just could not see  at work.  The last straw was a trip to KY where driving at night was, well, a nightmare .   My eye dominance was effectively 95% left and 5% right.  The Opthamologist was almost gleeful; I'd need surgery