top o' the mornin'®
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:12 am
I'm posting this message from my new "refreshed" computer. The technicians arrived yesterday afternoon, earlier than anticipated (they weren't supposed to get here until this morning). But that's only part of the wonderful day that I experienced yesterday. It was one of those days when I should have stood in bed.
1. The morning began with a frantic call from one of our regional offices (higher headquarters) wanting to know about a $13 billion award that we made and didn't report. After some diligent searching it turns out that we didn't make any such award, but someone had erroneously added some zeroes to one of the items on the award, and because of the way our system works (too complicated to explain) it wasn't picked up when the award amount was displayed. I devised a solution, which was to modify the award to change the amount. However in the middle of that...
2. A user came to me and showed me a screenshot of an error message indicating that Microsoft Word had failed to initialize while she was working. As she was explaining this problem to me my own computer locked up. Turns out that something had happened to the network. Whatever it was affected not only our district but a number of districts in the eastern U.S. Probably someone with a backhoe cut a cable (it's happened before).
3. After three hours of not being able to access anything the refresh technicians came in and started doing their work. It was then that we discovered that all the work we had gone to to be sure that people got the equipment they wanted went for naught. Our specialists were supposed to get notebook PCs with docking stations, monitors, keyboards and mice. Some of them did, some of them got only a notebook PC. Further, several people who didn't even request a notebook PC got one (and all of the other parephenalia as well). And the technicians couldn't do a complete install as long as the network was down, so they did what they could, but couldn't complete the task. The network finally came up around 4PM so they were able to finish. I left the office late but managed to catch the bus to where elwing picks me up for our regular Tuesday visit to the fitness center. However...
4. I waited thirty minutes but no elwing. Not surprising because she sometimes has to work late and gets caught in traffic. Just as I'm about to call her my cell phone rings. It's elwing, telling me that she has...are you ready for this?...run out of gas. She's driving a hybrid vehicle that gets umpteen miles to the gallon, an alarm that rings when the tank gets close to empty, a digital gauge that blinks when it's time to refill, and she runs out of gas. The battery system would have been enough to get her to a station had she been close enough and had she not encountered a fairly steep incline. The car just wouldn't go, so she had to call AAA and have them bring her some gasoline. By the time all that got resolved, it was too late to get to the fitness center, so we ate dinner and then went home.
1. The morning began with a frantic call from one of our regional offices (higher headquarters) wanting to know about a $13 billion award that we made and didn't report. After some diligent searching it turns out that we didn't make any such award, but someone had erroneously added some zeroes to one of the items on the award, and because of the way our system works (too complicated to explain) it wasn't picked up when the award amount was displayed. I devised a solution, which was to modify the award to change the amount. However in the middle of that...
2. A user came to me and showed me a screenshot of an error message indicating that Microsoft Word had failed to initialize while she was working. As she was explaining this problem to me my own computer locked up. Turns out that something had happened to the network. Whatever it was affected not only our district but a number of districts in the eastern U.S. Probably someone with a backhoe cut a cable (it's happened before).
3. After three hours of not being able to access anything the refresh technicians came in and started doing their work. It was then that we discovered that all the work we had gone to to be sure that people got the equipment they wanted went for naught. Our specialists were supposed to get notebook PCs with docking stations, monitors, keyboards and mice. Some of them did, some of them got only a notebook PC. Further, several people who didn't even request a notebook PC got one (and all of the other parephenalia as well). And the technicians couldn't do a complete install as long as the network was down, so they did what they could, but couldn't complete the task. The network finally came up around 4PM so they were able to finish. I left the office late but managed to catch the bus to where elwing picks me up for our regular Tuesday visit to the fitness center. However...
4. I waited thirty minutes but no elwing. Not surprising because she sometimes has to work late and gets caught in traffic. Just as I'm about to call her my cell phone rings. It's elwing, telling me that she has...are you ready for this?...run out of gas. She's driving a hybrid vehicle that gets umpteen miles to the gallon, an alarm that rings when the tank gets close to empty, a digital gauge that blinks when it's time to refill, and she runs out of gas. The battery system would have been enough to get her to a station had she been close enough and had she not encountered a fairly steep incline. The car just wouldn't go, so she had to call AAA and have them bring her some gasoline. By the time all that got resolved, it was too late to get to the fitness center, so we ate dinner and then went home.
