Follow-Up: EAR of Doom!

A few weeks ago, I presented this post for your delectation and delight. I thought now would be a good time to follow up on the events outlined in this entry, in case y'all were waiting anxiously to find out how things came to pass.

Frankly, it was a bit anticlimactic.

The EAR is done; I no longer have it looming over my head. It is out there being used and, I assume, must be working adequately enough that no one is flipping out about it yet. Of course, we put so many anti-EAR triggers in our procedures, tossing in loopholes and obstacles to ensure that it is never used that, perhaps, it will never be used. (Start at 7:02 for the pertinent section.) (Bonus: Tune in at 3:14 for the "Incompetent Bad Guys" scene; one of my favorites.)



It took more than a year to accomplish, for what boils down to less than five pages (in the EAR and in the procedures) of writing. It feels good to have it done. But the elation I thought would come with it's completion isn't there. But that's to be expected, as I'm not the kind of guy who gets really excited about stuff anyway. I'm just a boring, even-keel kind of guy, most of the time, and this was one of those most of the times.

We are going to do a potluck in December to celebrate, but as it's coming so far after the fact and so close to the holidays, that, too, will feel anticlimactic. But that's okay. At least the EAR is done and I don't have to worry about it any longer until it gets used and somebody figures out it's broken. Not that such a thing will happen. What's more likely to happen is that we'll find out one of the loopholes or obstacles is broken and that the procedure will have to be re-jiggered. That's fine, because I do not own the procedures.

The EAR will stand like a rock; just like the Response to Fire EAR I wrote a few years ago. That thing was so tetchy beforehand every time they used it we had a rewrite. No more. That took about six months and six iterations and a lot of drilling, but we've finally gotten it to the point it's the favorite drill EAR we've got because it works so well and the operators respond so well. That's a good feeling. The only way we know that what we write works is if we never hear about it again.