Hi Gents. I've been away for a few weeks. It's been mad here. I have like 4 pages to catch up on.
Mr. Kite, congrats on the new Beagle. You all really make me want to get another dog. But, it's not something I can do, so -- I'll vicariously enjoy yours. And visit my Dad, so I can pet his, and throw a toy for her. Cuz really? Who doesn't like a good squeaky toy? Oh, and I'm glad you got the answers you needed from the polygraph. I hope things fall your way going forward.
Losfer, sorry again about the divorce man.
And Incarnate, I said before you have more strength that I do, you're entitled to a little "fuck it all" now and again, just click on "Cancel"
So -- beginning of February the boss came into the office sick on a Monday. By Tuesday afternoon I was flat on my back with a 102 degree fever and respiratory symptoms. If he'd been to China the week before I'd swear it was you know what. Had me out for a week, then another 2 weeks of coughing. The good part was I couldn't smoke during those three weeks. Not a one.
Which lasted right up to the first week of this month. When all hell broke loose at work. The electricians were replacing the generator at one of the nodes and two days in a row where they promised no power outages, they cut power to the whole rack. Took out a whole distribution node, plus the north and south 40Gb fiber feeds. And on day three I happened to catch it and got someone to the site 4 minutes before the battery backup went dead. That Friday I lost another node when techs were replacing the optics on a backup 10Gb feed that had failed and discovered that the primary link was flakey but not showing symptoms until they touched the secondary. Boom, node down. "Sure looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking."
Working from home these days, which makes the boss nervous. He hates remote work. Made that more than clear when I interviewed and mentioned that I'd been working remote for 15 years. So needless to say he's checking in every few minutes (I exaggerate only slightly) and I'm currently working on plans to prioritize and protect all the village, city, county and state police facilities, fire departments, hospitals, municipal facilities, Universities, K12s, the list keeps growing and growing.
By this time tomorrow I am sure that he will designate fully 75% of our customers as "critical" level. I've told him twice now that if we designate the majority of our customers's traffic as high-priority, it'll be like having no priority at all, but his list keeps growing. I'm afraid I'm going to have to put my department head foot down and start cutting his list back. I don't like conflict.
Apparently I was one of the stupid ones who didn't go hoarding as soon as the rumors started. I haven't had time the last 3 weeks to go to the grocery store, so I got out Saturday. Holy crap, people! Honestly -- WTF?? I started the last roll of TP earlier in the week. There isn't a roll at ANY store in three counties. I have been to them all twice, over 200 miles driving, looking for fucking toilet paper. In Wal-Mart I watched a couple load 5 lbs of bacon into their fully packed cart. The wife looked at the man and said "Is that enough?" "You're tight, they have it" and loaded in another 5 lbs. Now, I like bacon as much as the next guy, but honestly? 10 lbs.? What the hell do you do with 10 lbs of bacon, even during the end of the world? I shouldn't complain though. I've been texting a lot with my friends in Germany the last couple weeks, and whatever we're going through, they've got it worse
Let's see, a week ago, we had a 70 degree day so the "old guyz" took to the road. There was driving, there was spirited driving, there might have been tire squealing on the curvy twisty roads going up and down the bluffs, there were tenderloins the size of a dinner plate, and there was a drive home after dark (time hadn't changed yet). The first time the S has been out after dark since last spring after getting it back from the body shop. It went into storage the end of April for three months for the paint to cure, and then sat pretty much during the summer. I drove it like three days in September when the regular car was in the shop for suspension work, then back under the cover at the end of October for the winter. I have no high beams, and the parking lights are intermittent, and half the backlights on the LCD dash are out. It's been in the shop since this morning and they have the front end and the dash disassembled and still haven't tracked down the problem. Five hours labor at $150/hr so far, and no idea yet.
So, now you're all up to date with the farce that is my life the last 6 weeks.
[This message edited by tbkjcn at 9:01 PM, March 16th (Monday)]