T'was The Night Before Upgrades

by Diane Carlisle


This month's prompt:
Home for the Holidays (not associated with the real Holiday).

This one is broad: write about a holiday memory. It can be fiction or non-fiction, and the choice of holiday is yours (fictional holidays are okay too). Perhaps you can invent an annoying relative.

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I'm going with a poem this time. Before I became a Developer, I was a Systems Administrator to the home of several AS400 systems. An upgrade can make you feel so alone in the world because they had to be performed when nobody was using the systems, mainly at the early hours after midnight. Since it's supposed to be a holiday blog, I'll try and keep it to the beat of Twas the Night Before Christmas.

T'was the night before upgrades
No developer in sight
The server backed up
Tapes locked away tight

With the coffee pot on
And I fraught with jitters
Had stayed for the evening
Left behind by the quitters

At the strike of midnight
I looked at my plan
To remind myself
How important I am

The lights were all dim
The cubicles bare
My own sense of doom
Cried out in despair

Let one thing go wrong
Just one little glitch
Your career will be over
Before the first pitch

I took a deep breath
And opened the door
The room lit up
No motion ignored

I loaded the drive
And it whirred with a noise
I stood back and waited
Patience and poise

When it was over
And my pride was restored
I knew right then
Why I never get bored

Life is not easy
While at the helm of the ship
It's better than jumping
At the crack of a whip

A holiday message
From me to you
Always have pride
In the things that you do

Happy Holidays all! Please add a four line verse from your own life and share it in the comments! I would love to hear about a slice of your life. Have fun with it!

Other Holiday Participants and Posts:

orion_mk3 (link to this month's post)
Ralph Pines (link to this month's post)
pyrosama YOU ARE HERE
AbielleRose (link to this month's post)
writingismypassion (link to this month's post)
Domoviye (link to this month's post)
Areteus (link to this month's post)
Alynza (link to this month's post)
SuzanneSeese (link to this month's post)
robeiae (link to this month's post)
MamaStrong (link to this month's post)
kimberlycreates (link to this month's post)
darnzen (link to this month's post)
LilGreenBookworm (link to this month's post)
Cath (link to this month's post)
AuburnAssassin (link to this month's post)
Diana Rajchel (link to this month's post)
SinisterCola (link to this month's post)