Working from home – practice run

My wife’s car tire had a slow leak so we had to take it to the tire company last night. They had already closed, so we had to leave it overnight which left us in a pinch trying to figure out how to get both of us to work today. We work about 15 minutes apart but she does not work 8 hours on the days she goes to the office. We realized that I am working on projects that I can work on from home. A little bit of code change and a bunch of documentation. So I gave her my car and stayed home.

My mom is our babysitter when my wife is at work. She stayed all day and I barely noticed the kids. It looks like one of the negatives of working at home would not be an issue if the opportunity arises on the project I mentioned.

I did have trouble with two other things though. First, it is hard to get motivated working away from the office. Second, my computer room gets really, really cold in the winter and I don’t think it ever got about 35 degrees today. I had to move up to my bedroom after a few hours but working in my bed has its own issues. I kept nearly falling asleep.

I think I can get over both of those issues with a little practice. I probably was not any less motivated than a normal day at work and I can keep my feet warm by remembering to wear my slippers when I am in the computer room.

I was able to get our son off the bus this afternoon and could have put him on the bus after lunch if I did not have to go to the tire store. Our daughter goes to school 3 days a week in the morning. If today had been one of her school days, I could have taken and picked her up. All of which only take a couple minutes and would be very nice breaks. Hearing them playing in the house is much more pleasant than listening to people crumble about who is holding them back from completing their project. I could get used to the working from home thing, I think.

Something else very nice happened during the day. We had taken the car to the local Discount Tire. They discovered a nail and patched the hole. When I picked the car up, I asked what I owed them. I have had tires patched in the past and paid somewhere under $10 each time. They told me that it was free. A nice little surprise and a very smart business plan. Guess which tire store will be the first place I check for prices when I need new tires in the future.

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