Womack Report

Orchid blooming

My little orchid is blooming again.  I post this mainly to taunt the family member who gave it to me originally.  When my parents bought a new house, my mother lost her window box, and consequently had to get rid of a few plants.  Which she mostly did by pawning them off on me.  She received this particular orchid as a gift at some point.  It was blooming when she got it, but after those blooms fell off, it never bloomed again for her.  She had it for years.

In MY window box, it has bloomed roughly twice a year for the last seven years.  And always 4+ flowers at a time.  It’s in the running for best houseplant ever, because it’s incredibly easy to take care of.  I dump water on it every three weeks or so, and it just plugs right along.  The leaves are trying to escape the pot, but that seems to be normal orchid behavior.

As of now, I am officially searching for employment.  Prior to this, I spend six years working for Door Pro Systems as their IT manager.  And a fine six years it was, too.  Good group of people there.  Leaving was not an easy choice, and if you ever need to buy doors, door frames, or hardware for a commercial building, give them a call.

Still, there’s a right time for everything to come to an end.

When I started with Door Pro in 2009, they were running off of obsolete Windows 2000 servers, Exchange 2000 email system, a totally inadequate and flaky backup system, and a generally creaky network infrastructure.  I don’t know all the details, but a little bit of armchair forensic history tells me that, once upon a time, someone did a very good job setting up their systems, and then they coasted on that setup for a decade, through a whole string of IT managers.

By the time I arrived, there was a lot that needed to be updated, but I don’t want to undersell that accomplishment.  Setting up rock-solid foundations for the company to spend a decade building atop is no small thing.  I wanted to make sure that I put the company’s technology on just as good a footing during my time there.

And, frankly, I think I did.  Moved to a virtualized server infrastructure, which gives a lot of options and flexibility.  Updated the domain itself to current standards, upgraded the email system to accommodate modern needs and technology changes, put in a new ERP system and new backup systems.  I don’t think the company should just coast for the next ten years on their current technology, and I hope they don’t, but I’m confident that they could.  And I’m proud of that.

And so, it’s time for a change.  Exit when you’re on top.  I liked Door Pro, I liked working there, but I had reached the limits of what I could achieve.  It was stable.  The routine tasks were automated.  The unusual events were rarer and rarer, because I worked hard to prepare for and prevent any serious problems I could foresee.  It was just not as interesting anymore.  It’s trite, but I like challenges, and I ran out of them at Door Pro.

So, now I’m looking for the next thing.  And, I think it’ll be good.  I’ve got momentum right now.  It’s important to keep moving forward, keep pushing, keep growing.  Door Pro was great, but I had no more room to grow there.