I’ve written before about our experiences with doctors and so I’m pretty sure most of you know my general feeling about the health care ‘industry’ at this point. That feeling does not translate to individual doctors who do their job. I absolutely love the OB/GYN that Andrea has been going to see for the last 6 years. He is patient and pleasant to talk to. I also love our pediatrician. We can sit and talk with him like a friend and he listens to us–and has even CALLED AND APOLOGIZED PERSONALLY for not listening well. They are exceptional doctors and make our lives better.

But I can’t say this about our general experience with “Health Care” — and I don’t think it has anything at all to do with our insurance and has a heck of a lot more to do with their fear of being sued. There is almost no point in calling the pediatric nurses after your first child unless you want to be told that you need to bring the child in to be looked at. When you have your first child, there are many occasions when talking to the nurse keeps you from bringing the child in because it is a common problem. Then you learn what to look for and you call for “bigger” problems. Instead of working on the phone to try some things and give you clues about what to look for, you get told to come in.

And when you get in, the doctor says “she looks fine. Not much we can do. Come back tomorrow if she’s still bad off.”

Thanks.
For.
Nothing.
You.
Prick.

Now, many of you will say “at least you have peace of mind.” But where I’m annoyed is the lack of enabling patients to help do work themselves that CAN be done themselves. The nurse could have easily given us specific things to look for in the situation yesterday with Rachel vomiting. She could have told us dangerous signs of dehydration. She could have told us LOTS OF OTHER THINGS. But she didn’t. Their practice is so afraid of missing the little things that they ask for $100 for a doctor visit where the doctor doesn’t listen to my wife’s concerns and says “bring her in if she continues to vomit and is lethargic.”  You mean like she’s doing RIGHT NOW?

All this gives me a GENERAL distrust of doctors and Health Care and makes me want to avoid them as long as possible which is NOT A GOOD THING! Doctors need to be the person you’re ready to turn to, not the person you avoid.  Affordable healthcare is the healthcare I can pay for (during office hours, for a 30 minute visit) WITHOUT insurance.   It’s a $20 well check–no insurance required.   It’s a helpful nurse.   It’s doctors that aren’t afraid of being sued when they give you all the information you need and give their recommendation.  It is keeping people out of the hospitals and doctors’ offices when they don’t need to be there.

We don’t need “Obamacare”–but I don’t care about the ’socialist’ propaganda that’s all over the media.  We need reform of a deeper and more rudimentary nature–providing health care the RIGHT way, not just figuring out a way to pay for what’s broken.

Last week we had our “first annual” kidlympics. We had been watching the Olympics quite a bit over the last few weeks and the kids were into it. Most of what it entailed was daddy making up “events” that were cleverly weighted toward Timothy and Bethany’s various strongsuits.

We had a figure skating event where we twirled to music in the living room, races back and forth to the fence, a bouncing contest of endurance, speed “skating”, hockey and the kids favorite : flip flop races (doing flips across the living room).

All in all, a great evening. We all had fun and I can see having lots of fun like that in years to come. But the best part was the bonus that they slept very well

So, “Mama” might have been her first word, but “Hi” is her favorite. She says “Hi” to animals, hi to stuffed animals, hi to mommy, hi to daddy, hi to the wall. She just says hi and waves at everything… it is A-FREAKING-DORABLE.

Note the excellent choice of apparel.   Also, this is how cute she is when she has been running a fever and coughing all day.  Imagine a NORMAL day.

For the last 4 years, at several different jobs, I’ve worn a Hawaiian Shirt nearly every Friday to work for “Hawaiian Shirt Friday.” I can count on one hand how many times someone OTHER than myself has worn a Hawaiian shirt, so I’m pretty used to going it alone. After a while it simply becomes something funny/quirky. Everyone has come to expect that I’ll be wearing some Hawaiian shirt or another because that’s what happens on Fridays. When I accidentally miss, I get comments ALL day long about it.

Well, today several of my coworkers wore Hawaiian shirts and brought me donuts that included a note: “Thank you, Mark, for all your work! You’ve made Red Zone¹ Awesome!” I can’t tell you how much that meant. It’s not often that you get thanked in any job, but that is especially true when you are a knowledge worker of any kind. When something is broken you hear about it, but usually the best compliment you get is not hearing anything for a while.

I don’t think I’ll see any more Hawaiian Shirts for a while now, but it is good to know that a few people appreciated work I was paid to do enough to thank me personally and participate in my little quirks.

Here’s to more oversized, ugly shirts

¹Red Zone is our internal tool used to help automate business processes.

We had snow today!  It was incredible to get to play in the most snow I’ve seen in Austin since I moved here.  The kids ran around all day.  We made a little bit of a snowman–but he melted quickly.  Hot chocolate, snow ice cream, muddy paws and daddy working from home… is there a better mid-winter day in Texas than “Snow Day?”

My daughter is supersupersupercute now. This morning she was trying to say “wow” with me.

You have to admit that is just so precious.   And so neat to see how we learn.

Gotta love watching the big game with some guy friends.  Something nice about hanging out and bonding without your spouses.  What’s funny is that even though I don’t care one bit about the game, I still find myself screaming at the screen.   Why is that?  Go Colts!  Ouch that looked like it hurt!   Holy crap!

Anyway… Pizza + Oreos + Dr. Pepper + guys + football = a good friggin time.   Don’t underestimate the value of that.

As a side note… the commercials suck, but are better than last year’s from what I remember.

A friend of mine who owns his own business says “Two can do more than three times what one can do.”

Read it again.   Two people can do more than three times the amount of work that one person can do in the same amount of time. It doesn’t make sense, but it does.

At the beginning of January, I pair programmed at a professional level for the first time in my life.   We got done in a week what would have taken me the whole month.  The code had a full test suite, was solid, had a great API, was relatively clean, and we had complete confidence behind it.

Why were we able to do with two people in a week what would have taken one person 4? I think it is ultimately a biblical principle, applied to business: We spurred one another on.

• Instead of getting distracted by the latest Google search, Facebook update or Blog entry (like I am at the moment), we kept programming.
• Instead of allowing ourselves to make bad coding choices and hope nobody was looking, we called each other on the carpet and said “that feels gross… let’s do it right.”
• Instead of skipping the tests, we took it upon ourselves to write hard tests that would be difficult to make pass, but ultimately got us closer to our goal.  As a result, we had better tests *and* better code.

All that to say, pair programming isn’t something you can do 40 hours a week.   I think it makes whatever hours you’re able to do it MUCH more productive, but it is draining and intense.  You certainly have to limit how much you pair program if you’re an introvert.   Do it 4 days a week in the mornings… getting things rolling… then move on and keep the momentum going on your own in the afternoons.   You’ll see your personal productivity go up then too, and you won’t feel like you’re ready to climb into a hole when you get home because you need some “alone” time.

That’s not a slam against my programming parter (the ever awesome Chris Johnson)–just a quality I noticed in myself.   Having quiet, code-free downtime is important for me to stay sane in the rest of my life, but going without pair-programming would reduce my productivity to levels that are way too low.   There simply has to be a balance.

The power of two is not to be underestimated.  Used properly, it will make a world of difference.