Weeknotes 2022-07

Amongst other stuff at work this week, continuing an on-and-off struggle with a performance issue around some code that captures and stores some error events from network nodes. There are a fair number of them, and they each come with a large log that needs to be stored (but I don’t think it’s the size that’s the issue). I dumped the relevant bits of the live data, along with some of the files containing the events, and thought I’d identified the slow bit by running it locally. I changed some queries, it seemed faster and all the tests still passed, so I deployed the “fix” … and it got even slower. Reverted that and added some fine-grained logging, so now I know for sure exactly which bits are slow, so the next job is to delve into the query plans and try to spot what’s making it so horribly inefficient.

Meanwhile at home the performance problem is draining from the kitchen sink. As usual my approach (after ignoring it for as long as possible) has been to buy tools instead of doing the sensible thing and paying someone else to fix it. Unfortunately neither drain rods from outside, nor one of those rotating snake things from inside, have made any difference (there can’t be much pipe between the bits reached from each direction!). This is on top of the dripping hot tap that for the past couple of years I’ve only been turning on via the isolating valve under the sink when I need to wash up. The mystery of how to get into the taps to replace the inserts only deepened when I realised that the way the extra flexible rinsing hose thing works implies that the actual valves might be under the worktop, in an area that has no obvious means of access.

And now my boiler (which I was recommended to replace in around 2015, but have kept going with a new fan and heat exchanger) has started dripping again. Hopefully just something I can tighten, but it’s beginning to look like time to just get a plumber in to sort out the whole lot at once. Feels like a bad time to buy a boiler though, with gas clearly on the way out but the alternatives maybe not quite ready for prime time. Sigh.

At least I got off fairly lightly from Storm Eunice, with just a half-collapsed trellis (I’d noticed a rotten post a few days earlier), and a couple of small dead branches fallen off the apple tree.

I’ve found recently that when I’m not working, cooking or running I find it hard to motivate myself do do anything more useful than crosswords, TV or general noodling about on laptop or phone. I suspect this is a sign that I need some time off. In other news, I have nine days’ holiday to use up by April, so I guess that works out OK. I randomly decided to start watching Firefly again yesterday (which sadly won’t take long, but could also lead to another run through Buffy and Angel, which is a somewhat longer commitment. I know Whedon’s turned out to be problematic, but they’re still great shows.