It’s Tough to Stay Upbeat Working on Horrible Code
Today I got tossed into having to work with my nemesis project today. This is the code that I can never seem to get rid of, and will most likely follow me as long as I'm here. It's painful. Well, today I thought that I wouldn't have to implement a certain change because another project (written by a co-worker) was going to take over this part of the code, which has been the goal for a while, but I just wasn't aware that now was the time.
So I talked to the guy doing the work on the new project, and realized that he wasn't anywhere close to getting it done. This meant that I needed to do the work if it was going to get done in a timely manner.
So back into the muck and crud I went... I spent about half a day on it, and in the end, it's working, and should work just fine, but it's left me feeling very un-Christmas-like. Very.
It's been a very tough couple of months - November and December. Liza's been sick with migraines, and work has been end-of-the-year stressful, as it can be. I'm not feeling like I'd like to feel, and yet there's really no time to just say "Timeout!" and get into the mood. I've got a few days, and I'll be working on Christmas Eve because I'll be taking time off for a family vacation the week between Christmas and my birthday.
I know there's no way to outrun this codebase. There just isn't.
I also know there's no way to get the other members of my team to get their stuff done faster. They're doing the best they can, it's just not as fast as I can work. I get loaded down at the end of the month because I hit all my objectives, which is another reason it's stressful. I just wish I knew that I'd never have to work on this codebase again.
But I know better.
Sigh.