Susan’s New Bed

Earlier today, I helped Susan set up her new temporary bed.

Susan has been put in charge of a high profile project for the next two weeks. When I was a kid I dreamed of someday being put in charge of high profile projects. Who knew working on high profile projects potentially involved sleeping on an inflatable mattress in a corner of your office?

Along with a camping cot and the inflatable mattress, we also took food, bottles of water, and my dorm-sized fridge up to her office today. For at least the next 48 hours, beginning tonight at 10pm, Susan will remain on site. She’ll be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at work. She’ll be running hourly reports and monitoring the health of the system around the clock, a system that you’ll most likely never hear about unless it fails. Then, you’ll hear about it on the news.

As the kids run around the house and I watch the Olympics and type this, Susan is taking a load of blankets, pillows, and her laptop bag to the car. She’s got an extra jacket since heat to our building was turned off over the weekend, and a box of granola bars in case tomorrow’s incoming snow prevents us from getting dinner to her. We’re hoping that other than the first two days and the last two days she’ll be able to come home at night, but we’ll have to wait and see how things play out. If not, she’s prepared to stay there for the long haul.

I wish the same people who were trashing government employees during last year’s furlough could see this side of the job.