New York City Transit Strike – Day 1

10:19 PM

Just finished pumping up my tires for my expedition tomorrow morning. All this would be a lot more fun if it weren’t for the 30 degree weather. In the summer this would just be a jaunt to Manhattan, but in the winter it’s a possible frost bite excursion… well at least cold hands… that reminds me, I need to find my gloves for tomorrow!

Good night everybody, sweet dreams.

6:49 PM

Phew! Done and done. Looks like my first day working from my underground lair seems to have worked out pretty well. The unfortunate part of the whole affair is tomorrow I have to go to work… DOH! The plan is at the moment that I will be biking over to a fellow brooklyner’s house 30 minutes away and we will drive into the city together. I will have to dress warmly, but it seems like the best solution by far.

How this will all work out is anyone’s guess.

One service which I found particularly useful today was my Free FolderShare account. Which allowed me to access all my computer files from work with absolutely no set up! That’s right, even a monkey on barbiturates could set up an account and share files. It made those “Oops I forgot the jenkins file” worries a thing of the past. I just went to my work computer and downloaded the files I needed.

Why haven’t I done this sooner?

As for the strike, I am officially pissed at the TMU for not working this out. While I’m all for unions and for the little man getting what he deserves, the TMU is absolutely out of their minds! This crap about pensions and what not is absolute bollocks. These guys make $47k a year starting salary! I make less than that and I went to College for 4 years! Plus they get benefits, healthcare, and half pay after retirement at age 55! Fifty-five?! I’ll be lucky if I can ever retire!

The fact of the matter is that the union reps should take a good look around at what us riders have, because they are getting no sympathy from me.

12:20 PM

Aside from the fact that my office assumed I would be coming in this morning, all is going pretty smoothly from the home office. I think it’s a testament to our offices use of online management tools that I can work sufficiently from home and not really feel much discomfort… if only my dad would get the hang of AIM[AOL Instant Messenger] then the system would be perfect.

(Off to Lunch.)

8:50 AM

This computer is so not set up to be worked on from home for my purposes. I just tried to open one of my files to see if I could open it and I have none of the fonts installed… I guess today is going to be 90% setting up this computer as a work station.

(fun)

8:30 AM

Crap! Just checked 1010 Wins and heard that the strike is on and I now have to work from home. I never thought I would say this, but I really wanted to go to work today. I have so much to accomplish before the holidays hit and now it looks like I wont be getting all that I had hopped for, done.

The Times’ article Transit Union Walkout Follows Collapse of Contract Talks is not raising my hopes that this will be resolved any time soon.

Need some tea.