I got it done! I missed the deadline by a day (didn't get it out till Thursday), but the customers seem happy. Besides, the other half of the system (being developed by an outside contractor) is MIA.

The upside is I put so many hours in that I get to take today off. The downside is I have ignored my email and voicemail since last Friday so I have a boatload of backlog to work through on Monday :-(

I think I'm gonna start gettinp up at 5:15 every day. I get a lot done between 6am and 9 when the droids show up and start hounding me.

I learned the basics of C++ from a "C++ for Dummies" book published in the mid 1990s. The book wasn't half bad for a complete OO neophyte like I was, but that isn't what I want to talk about. The book started each chapter with a cartoon called "Real Programmers". I remember one said something to the effect that "Real Programmers" would focus on tiny little details until the deadline got close then they would finish the bulk of the project in a 72 hour marathon hackfest right before the deadline.

I'm in hour 16 at the moment.

How in the hell did people live before tax software.? I cant imagine wading through all of the forms that my tax software printed out for me.

I know why programmers change jobs so often now. In a small company like mine we often work on small projects alone. When the small project is done we move to the next and so on. The problem is eventually the old projects start to need TLC.

I'm getting to the point where I'm doing so much TLC on old projects that I hardly have time to work on my current project.