"All your life is Time Magazine. I read it too. What does it mean?"
So, in case you've been wondering what's going on:
I had a wonderful visit with Pete on Saturday. Then my week started at 4:30 PM on Sunday, when I found out that the power supply in our primary domain controller (the one computer that makes all the others able to talk to each other) had lost its power supply, the part was proprietary, and one could not be found in the state of Arizona. I spent the remainder of the evening on the phone with my boss and our network admin helping do research and make arrangements to get one the following day. And since they'd worked all day that day, I drew the early shift the following day.
I was up at 5:30 AM on Monday, calling someplace in Missouri, talking to someone who hadn't had his coffee yet, and convincing him that I really did need something shipped faster than next-day service. After half a dozen phone calls back and forth, that was arranged and I went into work where I helped field the minor but widespread fallout from having switched onto our backup systems. Yes, boys and girls, our PDC is, at this point, a Dell desktop that is approximately six years old.
At about 2:30 PM, my boss sent me home as having become useless. My cognitive functions had gone all to hell and everything was shiny and hard-edged with a fatigue that has nothing to do with hours-awake and everything to do with screwing around with my metabolic patterns. I went home and took a nap, and then stumbled through the rest of the day. And couldn't sleep at night. I was answering e-mail from my boss at 1 AM. It advised that after arrival of the power supply and replacement, the good news is, the power supply works. The bad news is, the computer won't find the hard drives. It is reasonably likely they (or some attendant part) cooked as the power supply failed.
Today I find out that it's probably not worth trying to replace the dead drives, and we may just continue to run in this configuration. We now have an additional six-year-old Dell desktop configured as another backup. This is not quite as bad as it sounds--we moved the file serving function of the old PDC to a bigger, buffer server, and the new PDC doesn't really have to do much except keep track of who's who on the network.
Then, five minutes before 5PM today, I heard the sound of a computer turning on from my office. My computer. Spontaneously shutting down and re-starting. Repeatedly. The power switch does not affect this process. My professional diagnosis is possession. I call Dell's tech support and tell the tech so. He listens, we team the problem, and the longer we work, the more he becomes woefully certain that I'm not being an asshole, I really am as good as I say and the problem really is as weird as I describe. We finally get it running (through no effort of our own) to the point where we can run diagnostics, which take over an hour. I get a case number and vow to call back tomorrow with the results, and get myself home an hour late.
And then . . . there's Rites. Pete can't go. If my brother can't either, odds are fair that I'll spend a chunk of time woefully depressed. I e-mailed him (the brother) begging once more for him to tell me if he can give me a ride, and if not, to send me the e-mail addys of some other folks who go out there so I can try to find a damn ride, and a city that's not Albany to fly into. If I fly into Albany, it's about $100 more for the ticket, and I'll have to pay for a hotel room the night before I fly out. If I have to pay for a bus and cab, too, we're talking $400-$500 dollars. That's on top of what I've already paid for pre-reg. Not only can I not justify it, I really, really don't know if I can turn off my sensible-gene long enough to actually buy the ticket.
So there it is. I may have to write to the organizers and tell them my transportation fell through, and see if they'll refund most or all of my money. At a time when I could really use the spiritual boost. And I've been memorizing things to share, either with the vikings or at a fire circle. At the time of cancellation, it'll hurt a little, but I could at least console myself that maybe Pete and I could go visit my friends in Durango sometime this summer. But when that week actually rolls around, and everyone else is there, and I'm not . . .
Ow. It hurts even to think about it.
I had a wonderful visit with Pete on Saturday. Then my week started at 4:30 PM on Sunday, when I found out that the power supply in our primary domain controller (the one computer that makes all the others able to talk to each other) had lost its power supply, the part was proprietary, and one could not be found in the state of Arizona. I spent the remainder of the evening on the phone with my boss and our network admin helping do research and make arrangements to get one the following day. And since they'd worked all day that day, I drew the early shift the following day.
I was up at 5:30 AM on Monday, calling someplace in Missouri, talking to someone who hadn't had his coffee yet, and convincing him that I really did need something shipped faster than next-day service. After half a dozen phone calls back and forth, that was arranged and I went into work where I helped field the minor but widespread fallout from having switched onto our backup systems. Yes, boys and girls, our PDC is, at this point, a Dell desktop that is approximately six years old.
At about 2:30 PM, my boss sent me home as having become useless. My cognitive functions had gone all to hell and everything was shiny and hard-edged with a fatigue that has nothing to do with hours-awake and everything to do with screwing around with my metabolic patterns. I went home and took a nap, and then stumbled through the rest of the day. And couldn't sleep at night. I was answering e-mail from my boss at 1 AM. It advised that after arrival of the power supply and replacement, the good news is, the power supply works. The bad news is, the computer won't find the hard drives. It is reasonably likely they (or some attendant part) cooked as the power supply failed.
Today I find out that it's probably not worth trying to replace the dead drives, and we may just continue to run in this configuration. We now have an additional six-year-old Dell desktop configured as another backup. This is not quite as bad as it sounds--we moved the file serving function of the old PDC to a bigger, buffer server, and the new PDC doesn't really have to do much except keep track of who's who on the network.
Then, five minutes before 5PM today, I heard the sound of a computer turning on from my office. My computer. Spontaneously shutting down and re-starting. Repeatedly. The power switch does not affect this process. My professional diagnosis is possession. I call Dell's tech support and tell the tech so. He listens, we team the problem, and the longer we work, the more he becomes woefully certain that I'm not being an asshole, I really am as good as I say and the problem really is as weird as I describe. We finally get it running (through no effort of our own) to the point where we can run diagnostics, which take over an hour. I get a case number and vow to call back tomorrow with the results, and get myself home an hour late.
And then . . . there's Rites. Pete can't go. If my brother can't either, odds are fair that I'll spend a chunk of time woefully depressed. I e-mailed him (the brother) begging once more for him to tell me if he can give me a ride, and if not, to send me the e-mail addys of some other folks who go out there so I can try to find a damn ride, and a city that's not Albany to fly into. If I fly into Albany, it's about $100 more for the ticket, and I'll have to pay for a hotel room the night before I fly out. If I have to pay for a bus and cab, too, we're talking $400-$500 dollars. That's on top of what I've already paid for pre-reg. Not only can I not justify it, I really, really don't know if I can turn off my sensible-gene long enough to actually buy the ticket.
So there it is. I may have to write to the organizers and tell them my transportation fell through, and see if they'll refund most or all of my money. At a time when I could really use the spiritual boost. And I've been memorizing things to share, either with the vikings or at a fire circle. At the time of cancellation, it'll hurt a little, but I could at least console myself that maybe Pete and I could go visit my friends in Durango sometime this summer. But when that week actually rolls around, and everyone else is there, and I'm not . . .
Ow. It hurts even to think about it.
posted by Journey | 9:31 PM
1 Comments:
OH man thats terrible.. I know how much you look forward to this every year.. Erik was just saying the other day how he envies you being able to do such fun things all the time. Too bad he couldn't come share the expenses with you & go as your best friend.
I hope the weekend goes better & your able to relax some. Hugs
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