I dreamed about work last night

To set the scene, this week for the first time I have been fully exposed to the release and deployment process at work. For most of my time as a developer my job was done when I checked in my code, passed the unit tests, and requested a merge. This week, I found out what happens after that. I did 50 hours this week.

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In my dream, there was a small fire developing on the wood floor, which I stamped out. There was a wire poking out. The homeowner – who was really pleasant and nice – asked me what that was, and I said “maybe a network cable”, but I knew it wasn’t a network cable. After a moment, I corrected myself and told the truth. “It’s the lights”. One of the strings of programmable LED lights that I has run through this room. The end of the strip, where I had wired the connection, had gotten hot enough to light the wood.

With slowly dawning horror, I looked around the room. It was a big, split-level affair, I think trophies on the walls. Wood panelling. Lovely wood floor. I had run LED light strips all around the room – along the cornices, around the architraves, down along the skirting boards. The place looked fricking awesome.

And at each point where there was a join in the run of lights, at the corners where I had put in a wire to connect them, there was a small fire developing. Dozens. “Oh shit.”, I thought. “I am going to have to tear the whole lot out. It’s all got to come out right now.”

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And that’s what work is like.