POW/MIA Ceremony

I did not get to see it, but the veteran I spoke to at The Wall told me I could see the performance on YouTube. It is a ten minute video.    Lorain High School Army Junior ROTC - POW/MIA Table Ceremony.   The show was a couple of hours before we arrived that day. (The YouTube video is NOT at the Tuscarawas county location I was at that day.)

We also missed a huge group of bikers who were showing their respects to one of the members who died on the first day The Wall was on display.  He was coming to join in the biker rally for The Wall. I pass the spot where he was killed a couple of times - there is a POW/MIA flag, wreath and flowers.

The above display has 37 panels. One for each soldier lost from Tuscarawas County.

A moment for Tommy

The photo above is my seven year old great nephew pointing out one of the names that my brother-in-law searched for at The Wall. Let's take a moment for Tommy.

After his service duty, my brother-in-law went on to marry, work and raise a family. The American dream. He now has grandchildren. He brought his grandson to see The Wall and to thank Tommy. Because of Tommy, some of us live the American dream.  The lucky ones. Thank-you Tommy. On this day, you were not forgotten.

http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/19831/THOMAS-O-GREEN

Knock, Knock

"Honey, would you see who is at the front door?"

I figured we may need something a little lighter today - it's Friday!

And, I know it is an optical illusion, but doesn't that look like a bare leg sticking out from behind the grill on the right?  You will have to click the picture to see it.

LOL!

You will always be a HERO

Looking for Jan

She had been kneeling there a long time and I was drawn to her. I went over and asked her if she had found the name she was looking for. She shook her head no, silently.

She had the correct panel, she just could not locate the name. I have circled his name - it is at the bottom right of the panel she is searching. I helped her locate the name. She would only tell me he was a friend. I did not ask for more. She did not want to talk and I let her be.

http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/37599/JAN-H-NELSON

Names

Over 58.000 names. My brother-in-law had a couple of names he wanted to search for. They give you a paper with the panel that the name is displayed on. There are two sides: East and West. His card would say W8, we would find the 8th panel. Then the name is number 124. There are dots on the side to count by tens. We counted down 120 and then you only have ten names in that section. The name you are looking for is number four into the section, but there are still so many it is easy to get lost in the sea of names.

We found the first one. My brother-in-law and I and his seven year old grandson. My brother-in-law told me the boy was 18 (the name we were searching for). He had to walk away and his grandson asked me where he was going. I said "It is very hard for him." My sister could not even come over. She said it took her husband a long time before he even talked about Viet Nam. She said that it was far too emotional for her to handle so she stayed back with the three year old grandson.

The above photo I made by taking a picture of the shiny granite display of three servicemen. It was facing the wall. I was able to capture the wall in the reflection and surprisingly - no people in the frame. The crowd had dwindled by this time.

Speaking to an organizer of the wall he said that an entire military group failed to show for the event. They were the ones who were supposed to guard the wall at night.

I have more pictures and more stories. These are too important to throw into one long post. I want to give each one a little bit of time and space here.

Intense

Thr Travelling Wall

Going here today.  Not to the real one, the traveling one.

It started yesterday. Sister 1944 wanted a sister to go with her to the genealogy picnic. I said "Sure". I wasn't doing anything. I got myself up and ready, made my calico beans and went. I don't know what has happened to me over the past few years but I have become a super-charged extrovert. This is a 180 from when I was growing up as a shy, bashful introvert. How does that happen? I have no idea.

Regardless, my medication (that I have taken for maybe a  year, now) has exacerbated the extrovertism. Ha, that isn't a word. But,you get the idea.

Gabapentin is the generic name. Here is a list of side effects.  I seriously think it would have been easier to print things that it "DOES NOT" do.

Hyperactivity. Oh, yeah. I got that one covered. It started about 11 o'clock. It did not stop until I was by myself in the car on the way home at 4:30. Sometimes I wonder if my brother-in-law just wants to tell me to shut the f@ck up. My sister laughs with me. I think he just tolerates us. (Seriously I think he really enjoys his wife laughing and having a good time. She is under a lot of stress right now). I certainly am the one to entertain.

I was the bingo caller at the picnic. When they said they were going to start the bingo game I automatically got up to call. Sister 1944 asked me how I knew I was going to be the caller, I just gave her my incredulous look. Like "Seriously? Who else would do it? Who else has this big of a mouth?"

We stopped on the way home to visit another sister and brother. The laughter did not stop. Sister 1944 was getting a headache from laughing so much. The movie "The Mask" with Jim Carey comes to mind. When he spins and says "Somebody stop me!"  That is truly what I feel like because I feel like I cannot stop myself. I am like a runaway train or a bouncing ping pong ball.

In the car by myself,  I do calm down a little bit. Not much, though. I crank the music and sing. Maybe I should begin to cut the caffeine intake. Sigh.

Anyway, sister 1944's husband was a marine in the Viet Nam war. They said they are coming to my neck of the woods today to visit with their grandson and if I wanted to go. I said "I'm not doing anything,  I'm in!"

We will go today and I will definitely be curbing my hyperactivity today. When I read that there would be clergy and counsel available I began a slow panic. Oh, no. I can't handle the crying. I am going to be bawling like a baby and I don't know one soul who passed away in the war. None that I can think of anyway. No cousins, either. Oh dear. The other side effect to the medicine:  Over-reacting too quickly, and too emotional. Oh, dear, dear, dear. I am done for. Focus, I  must focus. I need super glue for my mouth because I know I will be going up to people, hugging them and asking them to tell me all about their lost loved one.

I'm talking complete strangers, here. I have no fear. If somebody is freaked out by my actions, I read the environment, back-pedal and move on to the next victim..err, person.

The vocation of counseling does run in my family. I have three relatives in the therapy area. We seem to know what to say and when to listen. The drawback is we fall victim to the emotional vampires. People (co-workers) who unload all their problems and issues onto us. Then they feel better and we become depressed - zapped of our energy. They sucked the energy right out of us when they go on and on about their problems. How does a therapist do it?

Relaxation

This photo was taken last month. I was visiting my "north" friends (previous co-workers). This friend has had this little camper on the lake for maybe more than 15 years. She was going to sell it once but I am so glad she did not. It is a beautiful spot by the lake.

Across the way there is their big shelter house. The president of the board of this campsite had a son getting married. The wedding party arrived in big decked out golf carts. The photo is dark, but you can see them a little bit parked on the lakeside of the big white tent.

This day was hot. The weather today won't reach above 65º Fahrenheit in my neck of the woods. I have an outdoor genealogy picnic to attend. My jacket is clean and ready.

I have made my calico beans that a lot of my family enjoys. Here is a similar recipe to what I use for my calico beans.  I am running behind or I would look up my recipe and post it. Gotta go!

Passing time

Sitting in my car while waiting for my daughter to get her lunch break at work. The parking lot across the road is Walletmart. My daughter works at the national gaming store. It suits her.

This day was extremely hot.

That is not the case, today. The cold front and rain has moved in. I am so surprised I have no headache or sinus pressure. A lot of folks were complaining yesterday.

It is weird that sometimes I will get it and other times - nope.

I am going with sister 1944 tomorrow to a genealogy picnic. I guess I need to wash my jackets and wear one of them. Brrr.

I get blood drawn today. I drank so much water yesterday I had to get up during the night three times! Drinking lots of water makes it easier for them to draw blood.

Connected

Three hours in the hotbox yesterday. I had to stand on a chair. My back was about to give out. I grabbed an empty desk from the hallway. The secretary was more than nice and accommodating. I was about to kick the custodian. I guess his cleaning supplies were in the filing cabinet that I had to stand in front of to access this network.

He kept coming in while I was standing on the chair, opening a drawer getting a spray bottle out, then he would come back two minutes later and put the bottle back. Another few minutes there he was opening the drawer again, getting out (I swear) the same bottle. Then yep...two minutes later putting it back.

Finally I snapped at him, "Why don't you just pull out the whole drawer?"  He said "No, that's okay. I'll just work around you."

Once I obtained the desk and sat a little away from the filing cabinet he never came back. What a dork!

Then the speech therapist who was in the little room behind where I was working felt the need to tell me her life story. I heard all about her yellow jacket stings while she was mowing, all about her dogs, all about her daughter...it went on and on. I try to be polite but gee whiz!

I did take one five minute break and went out to the car and turned the A/C on me full blast. It saved my sanity, I think.

Anyway, I finally had success. I moved on to the next site after that and it was warm in the room, but at least there was some form of A/C running because this school had the equipment in the secretary's office. The secretary and principal there were also very nice.

I went home hot, dirty and sticky - but happy. Oh, the dirt accumulates over the years on this equipment. Needless to say nobody cleans it because they are kind of afraid of it. Or, I think that is the reason.

My chunky dog

Chong (a.k.a. Chunky) gives me a grin as I snap his picture yesterday.

I think I am going to be in a sweltering "hot box" today as I am scheduled to travel to a tiny elementary school where the only A/C is in the Principal's office and that is not where my equipment is.

To top it off, I have to stand on a chair to reach my equipment. Some insightful person perched the equipment high up on the wall behind a large row of filing cabinets. We may be talking "hours" and I don't think I am going to fare very well. I am certain the sweat will be dripping down into my eyes and to stand on a chair for a couple of hours is not the best position to be in for a lengthy period of time.

And I have to use my personal cell phone. I am thinking I will tell my home office I cannot get "service" out there. As I take this elementary down (dis-connect it from the Internet) they lose their building telephone service that requires the Internet to work. That part may last only a half hour or so, but the other stuff - more intense configuration will need me to converse with my home office and I don't believe the school will let me have their cordless telephone for that length of time.

I will see what "mood" I am in when I get out there and how much my back can take while I teeter on a chair and try to work in this hot box.

It will be me and grumpy cat today. I can already feel the headache begin.

My office is anxious to have this resolved so I cannot postpone it until Friday when the forecast states the temps will be in the mid-60's. Rats.

They missed

Local technology meeting today, where I faced the firing squad again.

If they aimed at me today - they missed. I had my shields up. The elephant in the room (filter) was not even mentioned. I don't know if they felt sorry for me or did not have the balls to mention it. I was ready. I was keeping my cool until I walked into the building.

I was loaded for bear.

Big sigh of relief. I did not have to use my ammunition. I spoke little and smiled a lot.

When I walked into the meeting room they did say "Peruby, you are walking into a hostile environment."  I thought to myself,   'Sigh. Here we go.'   I smiled and said  "I'm used to it."  They said "Oh?" I said "Yeah, nineteen years - I think I can handle hostile."

I smiled and sat down. The subject was changed and the meeting commenced.

I had to leave the meeting early to attend to another matter so my going out to lunch with the crew was avoided. I was not going. It may be a long time before I go again with them.

I'll stick to my ladies night out. Forget the tech guys. I am not the only girl in the tech group, a couple of other gals try to make it but for the most part - it's the boys club.

Nyet!

Up against it again

I will be up against a firing squad at a meeting again tomorrow. The sh!tstorm that happened over the past month has stalled out and is left sitting right in my lap.

My organization has me taking care of other stuff besides the filter these days. I am running around from school to school trying to get them connected to fiber (all this was supposed to be completed two years ago) but the telco took their sweet slow time.

Now the schools are screaming - and they are being charged for the fiber but we don't have them connected. So, as you can see - me getting out there and connecting them is kind of dire.

I am going to work all morning on my mental state. I must be positive. I must not falter one iota and get upset. I will just smile and take notes and tell them I will "Look into that".  That is the best I can do. They don't care that I have other stuff on my plate. They only see their predicament. Well, some of them. Two or three that are like fire truck sirens. Me, me, me! I'm coming through - I have an emergency!

We all have emergencies. We all have fires that need put out.

Get over yourself.

If I even go to the meeting. I plan on it - because I don't want them saying I was afraid to face them and ducked out. I will go with my head held high. I never shrink away.

The only thing that will keep me from the meeting is if I get direct orders to skip it and go to a school, which just may be the case with all this fiber going in.

I want (need) to show at this meeting. I need to show them they do not win. Not on my watch. I will be there supporting myself and my work. It is imperative that I show them I can take it.

Busy at work

 

 Been busy at work trudging through the mountain of e-mails that I tried to ignore over my vacation. I took care of the little and quick things all morning yesterday and then drove to a school to make a connection.

I (and my superiors) are not responding to the sh!tstorm about the filter at this time. I am letting all the users who like to jump and point fingers get everything out of their system first and then I will calmly analyze the situation. Once the dust settles.

Right now there is just too much going on.

I've been reading a book in the evenings. "Sisterland" by Curtis Sittenfeld. It is okay. It was hard for me to get into it, now I just want to finish it. 

I read the first two books in the "Jack Reacher" series over vacation but I can see how they can get repetitious. There are 18 in that series and if I judge by the first two, it is really the same story being spit out over and over again. I have not see the movie, yet. I find it funny that Cruise was chosen to be the huge bulk of a man - Reacher. Sigh - Hollywood.

A simple choice of words

tam·per

¹ [tam-per]  verb (used without object)

 

1. to meddle, especially for the purpose of altering, damaging, or misusing (usually followed by with  ): Someone has been tampering with the lock.

 

2. to make changes in something, especially in order to falsify (usually followed by with  ): to tamper with official records.

 

3. to engage secretly or improperly in something.

 

4. to engage in underhand or corrupt dealings, especially in order to influence improperly (usually followed by with  ): Any lawyer who tries to tamper with a jury should be disbarred.

****************************************************************************

A simple choice of words. In an e-mail.

.....due to the fact that the resources that we're pushing are constantly being tampered with.    

The pen is mightier than the sword. Is that what they say? The blue line above is lifted directly from an e-mail message complaining about the filter (that I manage at work).

He had to use the word "tamper".  A simple choice of words.

He said in the next sentence that he is 100% certain that it is not on purpose. Well, he should not have used the word tamper, then. Because tamper means that something improper is being done. Something underhanded.

This is the third message this guy has sent about the filter and how unhappy he is.

He continues to mention that he appreciates my work etc... but this line right here. That blue line indicates that he has accused me of something. Whether he meant to do it or not. He must be thinking it to write it.

Feeling so tired....err, BLESSED!

I can barely move. My head aches a little. I have a kitchen full of dirty dishes. (I do not return to work until Thursday and I have no plans in between!)  I am exhausted. But it is a happy, content exhausted.

Yes, my lower back hurts - but I did ask for help. My daughter and her beau unloaded the car for me last night when I could barely get myself out of the car and into the house.

I was at the park from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.  http://www.newphilaoh.com/html/tuscora_park/index.html

The morning and early afternoon were okay temperature-wise but it became very, very hot in the afternoon sun. There was a breeze that kept us cool earlier in the morning/afternoon  - but either it disappeared or just turned hot along with the air temperature.

The pool was a BIG  hit. As were the rides. Not so certain if the grandparents did okay. I know my sister wanted to visit more but she had her two grandsons and they were all GO, GO, GO!  :)

We had three precious babies under the age of one.

We had two toddlers.

We had four rowdy young boys.

I had all my sisters and one brother (with  pieces and parts to their families) show. I had 32 total. Two brothers rarely show at family functions. That is okay. I am going to try to get to them and visit soon. I love them and miss them dearly.

I am so full of thank full thoughts right now. I don't want to sound sappy.

The nephew that I am very close to (1977) brought his family. By close I mean I cared for him A LOT when he was young and he and I grew very close as we grew older. Many times I wished for him to find a girl and happiness. Well, that girl finally came a long. He met a girl who already had a little boy. He just turned 7. His imagination astounds me. They recently had a little baby girl. (her picture is above).

My sister (his Mother) is a sweet thing (when she is sober) but she has been out of the picture a lot during his life. There may be some regrets and resentment between the two of them but they are very close and I respect (and love) that they are.

She told me he never has left the little baby with ANYBODY before. Well, except for the baby's mother of course.  His girlfriend had already retreated to the pool with her seven  year old boy. They had forgotten towels. I lived just over the hill and he asked me if he could go over and get towels. I said "Sure!" I had his little baby girl at the time. Wow. You could tell he was so hesitant to go. After much butt kicking from me, he finally went. When he came back he headed straight for me and the baby. She was fine and I told him "Go! Go! Go!" And, down the hill he went to the pool.

He was gone for two hours! My sisters and I had our hands full with the little girl. She was rarely out. This was her second outing. My nephew had given me explicit directions on how to fix her bottle. There were packets of breast milk in the cooler. He had brought a thermos of hot water. A Rubbermaid container to pour the water into so I could heat the packet of breast milk. A portable "point" thermometer to test the temperature of the water and how to assemble the bottle etc..

The bottles I used 20-some years ago were simple glass or plastic things with tops. This one had a plastic bag you had to put into the bottle, fill it up, etc..

I did all of this while the little one was screaming her head off. LOL! Talk about feeling the heat. I chuckle about it now but we were all trying to get her to calm down. Next to being hungry we think the wee little one was just hot and miserable - like the rest of us.

My sister was so proud. She took the baby under the trees and got her settled down. A proud moment for "Grandma".  It made me feel good to know and understand how important it was for my sister to be successful in getting the baby to calm down. And she did it. She came through with flying colors.

By the time my nephew and the rest of his family returned his little baby girl was lying in her little hammock-bed with big bright eyes and completely content. She was minus her little polka-dotted top but they didn't seem to mind.

Nobody got hurt. The children were exhausted and from what I am hearing coming back to me via Facebook is that all were asleep before hitting the bottom of the park hill when they were being driven home. I hope so - I hope that all the parents and grandparents had a welcome respite and quiet drive back home. They deserved it.

The picnic was a success but I am going to aim for end of September next year. Aw, maybe not. Both the pool and the rides will be closed. I'll have to check with family. See if they prefer it that way - the kids won't be "begging" to ride or swim (costs money).  Maybe they will be content with the swings, slides, feeding the ducks, etc.. all free stuff.

Scents

I left this photo in the biggy-size in case you want to zoom in to see the texture of the flower itself. I have a lot of these this year. Whew. Even early this summer I was straining to see. See if I had any show of a sprout. Oh, they sprouted. How one plant can get so big after starting out smaller than my thumb is a wonder of nature.

The Datura inoxia is the closest I can come to guessing what species I have.

I have my family picnic today. I am so excited. I am not anxious (like I am when it is at my house). I refused to allow myself to go overboard this year. I am supplying the hamburgs, hot dogs, buns, calico beans and macaroni salad. On the side is a cooler of children's drink boxes, water, watermelon, table cloths, cups, plates, big pan spoons, utensils - stuff like that.

My older sister is bringing all cutlery and napkins. I think she is bringing the plates, so I'll just have a backup bunch.

So many did not r.s.v.p. but I hope they show anyway. I am 80% certain I have 25 showing up today. At the very least. I am hoping another ten come. Of course if another 25 show up - that is okay with me, too. I have 48 hamburgers and 48 hot dogs. I have one vegetarian. So everyone will get to eat - that is for sure.

I thought the Italians had the market cornered on feeding their friends and relatives, but I am giving them a good run for their money. As far as I know I don't have a drop of Italian blood in me. I am Austrian on my father's side. On my Mother's side I am a mix of English, Irish, Scott. I think. I have not read back in the genealogy files for a while. I must remedy that.

I have always focused on the Austrian part (since we found out we really weren't German) - Austria is so much more romantic. It is a beautiful country.

Danger, danger!

Some folks just don't know when to quit. My organization serves approximately 45 school districts. Two district techs keep complaining over and over again. Now they think we should make a global change in an application that I manage. (you know, the filter).  Since when is 2 out of 45 the majority?

Musication

Music. We all love it. Or some form of it.

While setting that valley school up with an increase in bandwidth last week, a staff member (female) came up behind me and said    "This means we can play Pandora again, right?"

Last year I told this tech at this school (who was constantly complaining that he never had enough bandwidth) to block Pandora because when I checked there was a lot of Pandora traffic coming from his network.

I noticed a few months later that he had done so.

Now, this lady.

Sigh.

I turned to her and said "Is it educational?"

They hate that.

"It helps me keep my sanity!"

I said "Then bring in a CD, an mp3 player, or play it on your phone!"

Sheesh. Why should the tax payers have to pay to keep increasing a school district's bandwidth for more, more, more just so that staff can stream audio to their desktop?

Right?

Much more happy

I get to see this wee tot on Saturday. YAY! I love that the flower is almost as big as her head. And her expression appears to be saying ....what? I can't tell.

The green link light

The green link light can be a beautiful thing. This will (hopefully) be the final post about this valley fiasco.

The new cable/module came to my house at 10:30. I went home to retrieve it.

The valley tech told me they were running the cable that day.

I drove out at 3:30 as scheduled and placed fiber ends on both devices. Nothing. Nada. I called the telco. He said he needed about thirty minutes to re-build the connection.

Okay.

After twenty minutes the telco called. Nothing. All black. No lights.

After about ten minutes of minor panic, the telco trying this and trying that, my co-worker (former manager) had the bright idea for me to pull the larger fiber cable module apart and switch the two plugs. (Transmit and Receive).

I did that, plugged it back into the interface...and - voila! Green light.

Blessed relief.

All was well.

What an ordeal.

I hope this valley school gets all the bandwidth that they need and then some.

Now, the next phase gets juicier, too.

Since I had to spend so much time on this project, my filter emergencies have escalated.

Ugly things are being said - it is the same two techs (one is this valley tech) about how unhappy they are with our organization's service and how we never listen to them.

Oh my.

Now, my supervisor is coming to visit a superintendent today.

The tech wrote a scathing e-mail to my manager and it went beyond slamming my filter this time. This time if slammed their overall service. Note:  the tech praises me, says this rant is not about me and my work is fantastic. It is the appliance (filter) that is the problem - not me. Hmmm.

Now it's time for my superiors to fight. These techs have badgered me for two years and I got nothing. But now he has crossed a line. He has slammed their behavior and their territory.

Sigh. It's gonna get ugly folks.

But, I am moving on to brighter things to post about.

My family picnic is this Saturday. Am I thrilled?

I AM!

Chin UP!

...continued from yesterday (and the day before).

I found this picture and I just had to at least use it at some point during this epic tale. :)

During all of this back and forth with the cable and the valley school, I had other things that are falling behind. We were hit with a massive mess this year. My filter had issues and the tickets were coming fast and furious.

A few techs take to the distribution lists (all point bulletin) to complain about the filter and this valley tech takes this day to pipe up and slam my filter yet again. He has cried for two years that he wants another filter. I took  a vote at one conference and the majority said to keep the present one.

Back to the cable. I take the cable back to my office. Seems I was out of (phone) range as my home office was trying to reach me before I left because they wanted me to leave the cable there. Their research had dug up a module that they can order and we can still use this LC/LC cable.

Too late. I was back to my office before I saw the message.

I told my co-worker (former manager) and my current manager I would contact the valley tech to see if he wanted me to run the cable BACK out to him or just bring it on Monday when the module would arrive.

He said he wanted it that afternoon so that his maintenance guy could run it very early Monday morning.

I took the cable out and all the way I am thinking to myself "Just pretend like you did not even read his slam on the filter".  Chin UP! Chin UP! And I did just that. I was in such a good mood. I chatted with the secretary. We laughed and told a few stories back and forth. (After hours - school students and most staff long gone).

Then I took the cable back to the valley tech. I smiled sweetly at him and asked him if he wanted me to come Monday as soon as I got the module or wait until after school hours at 3:30. He said 3:30. I said "You got it!" I smiled even more and went back to the main office. I chatted with the secretary a bit more, then told her I did not want to waste any more of her time - and I went home. Secretaries are very busy.

My co-worker (former manager) told me that the shipment was being overnight-ed to my (home) address on Saturday. He sent me a copy of the order by e-mail. (He did not send the Fed Ex tracking number). I scanned over the message (making sure they had my home address correct) and closed the e-mail.

I was busy on Saturday. I was busy here and busy there. I had a party that evening. I got home at 10:30 p.m. and looked on my front porch and in my mail box. Nothing.

I double-checked Sunday morning when it was daylight. No package, no note.

I e-mailed my co-worker (former manager) and my current manager that no shipment had arrived. By any chance did they have a Fed Ex tracking number?

By this time I was certainly hoping they had not expected me to stay home and sign for anything. I knew I had a busy Saturday and I would certainly have remembered them asking me to do that or at least mentioning that it would need a signature.

A little later I got their e-mail. According to the Fed Ex tracking number it was sitting in Indianapolis IN. Ah, well. Nothing I could have done, then. I had not missed the shipment.

I did send another e-mail and said that I really did not need the part until 3:30 on Monday. Because the valley tech refuses to take the Internet down until then.

I just realized I forgot a big part to this story.

The valley tech told me my home office told him he had to wait until I returned from vacation before he could do this switch over. I returned from vacation on Tuesday the 20th and was given the orders to go to the valley school on Thursday the 22nd.

That ticked me off. I am the first to volunteer to go out of my district and help the others. Nobody could bother themselves to come out to my area and cover while I was on vacation.

I was shocked and I told the valley tech that. He said he knew that everybody deserves a vacation but was a bit surprised that we were "allowed" to take them when schools start. He was very upset because he said if they had sent somebody to cover me then they could have discovered the "mistake" a week or so ago and could have started the steps to correct it while I was on vacation.

I imagine a rule will be created. No extended vacations the second half of August. They did this about fifteen years ago. I am guessing they will try to enforce it again.

Here is another interesting tidbit. This valley tech is a big guy. Not tall. Just very, very big.I am portly. I have mentioned this before. I am not slim. Not even close.

My current manager said to me over the phone "Tell (as he mentioned valley tech by name) to get his FAT ASS up on a ladder and run the cable." Of course he was "kidding". He really didn't want me to tell the guy that. Sheesh. At least I hope not.

It was our mistake that this was all screwed up and my current manager was saying this. AND I am heavy. What does he think or say about me?

Stay tuned. I am so far behind now in work, and I have two vacation days scheduled for the end of this week and two after the Labor day holiday. All approved months ago.

Just for the record. I can climb a ladder. (I clean out my own gutters.) I can run cable. I may make people nervous (being so big and up on a ladder) and I may not smell the best after I begin to sweat but I am agile. My back will hurt but I can do it if the job needs me to. I just take more Advil.

So...what will this week bring? Will Peruby get to take her vacation at the end of the week? Will Peruby solve the major filter problem before she takes more time off? Will Peruby get three more schools on fiber this week? Will Peruby get her objectives and Professional Development goals all written up before the end of the week?

We shall see...

Discouraged

....continued from yesterday.  Still - very long post ahead.

Discouraged. Okay, that is the word I will describe for the techs FIRST reaction to this news. Here is the type of cable that will need to be run over 200 feet between pieces of equipment. (We had not measured it yet by foot, but he had an idea of how long - it is his building).

Except the picture depicts a cable that is not near long enough.

An hour of this tech calling the telco and my former co-worker ensued. I spoke with both to tell them what I saw. We are using my personal cell phone (the one that work provided for us six years ago is total crap).  I do have my work's phone number included in "My family plan" so the minutes I spend speaking with that number (regardless of the extension) are unlimited.

On and on it went.

At one point my co-worker (this is the honest to God's truth) told me that the valley tech will have to run a cable between the room where the electricity comes into the building and the wiring closet. He asks me a couple more questions about the gbic fiber ends on the telco side. I start explaining to him that they were the big kind. He wasn't following me. (The gbic module he gave me for OUR equipment was the little mini gbic). He got confused.

At one point I said to him "the fiber cable that the tech will run between the room where the electricity comes into the building and our wiring closet. He said (and I am not lying) "Who told you to do that? The telco?" 

My eyes popped open in disbelief. I said "You just did!"

He said "No, I didn't."

That is when I knew I was going to be talking in circles with this over-worked co-worker. He was panicking because he knew he had messed up and he was trying to get his ass out of hot water. Needless to say my co-worker (former manager) said "I am in a meeting, I will have to think about this and call you back!"  He realized that he was digging himself into deeper hot water.

Like I said, after an hour the valley tech and I were measuring the distance between rooms with our feet. My co-worker (former manager) finally conceded (to the valley tech - not me) that he would over-night a 300 foot multi mode fiber cable LC/LC to my office and I would run it out as soon as I got my paws on it.

Note the LC/LC. Ugh.

The tech was not real happy with the fact that he and his maintenance team had to run the cable over the ceiling etc.. And school had just started. By the time I left that day - this valley tech looked pretty much like this:

I will back track a little bit. Forgive me for rambling on and on - but this blog is really therapy for me. I can't imagine anybody reading this and trying to make sense out of it. Sheesh!

This valley tech (as I mentioned before) is my nemesis. He has disapproved of almost everything I have ever done. He prefers to work with my "male" co-workers. He will tolerate me and we get a long really well sometimes, but a lot of times,  he does not even acknowledge me and always has something smart ass to say about the organization's filter system (which I manager). 

You are going to have to forgive me for this next paragraph. Try to remember I am only human. But I laughed. I laughed and laughed about this. I know. I know. It may sound horrible when you think of the cost and the extra work some will have to do - but I was there to see the "what comes around goes around" scenario.

One aspect of this story tickles me because my co-worker (former manager) has a chip on his shoulder about losing his management position. Okay - who wouldn't? That is understandable. But the way he handles it (to myself and my co-worker in another city) is he will get fed up with something and just throw some of his work he has done for years (with no documentation of how to perform it) at us and tell us, here - you guys take care of this from now on.

Now, the first few times he did this - my co-worker and I tried our best to take care of it. We were all on the same work level now, right? It was our school district and this "former" manager should not have to do it anymore since he was now considered a regular worker just like us, right?

We were so stupid. We struggled, we tried. Really we did. Then our co-worker (former manager) went ahead and did the job himself a few days later without telling us! It was maddening.

I can go into more detail - but you get the idea.

So, I laughed. I laughed at his fiasco. I laughed at the valley tech who gives me a hard time. They were both panicking and I was going home to my wonderful home with my wonderful dogs. It was sheer icing on the cake.

Ahhh. Is that wrong of me? To feel that way?  Maybe a little.

Yuk, yuk, yuk.

But it gets better. Oh, it get SO much better. (For me, that is).

I get the cable at about 10 o'clock as promised. I am in such a good mood. I have about four pressing help desk tickets I was working on between my start time 8 o'clock and when the package came. I finished them the best that I could. Yes, I did. While that orange 300 foot multi mode LC/LC fiber cable sat wrapped up in a box at my feet.

Sigh. I called the valley tech to tell him I had received the cable and was on my way.

I. took. my. sweet. time.

Yes, I did. I stopped to get gas. My tank alert light was glowing.

I smiled at everyone. I drove like the world's safest little old lady on the streets.

The valley tech called my home office wondering where I was.

They called my personal cell phone, but I don't answer when I am driving. I keep my phone on my dash (it has a rubber cover and does not slide off - uh, very often LOL!) and I could see who was calling and I laughed and laughed.

Did I say Screw you?  Why no, I did not. I used the "F" word. Yes, I did. I really did. And then I laughed.

I got there at 11:30. He was anxious to see me.

My co-worker recalled what I had said about the gbic module on the telco end being "big" and he told me to check the ends to ensure they would work before they ran the cable.

The valley tech must have talked to him because when I arrived, he knew it was not going to work. It wasn't.

The equipment the telco had put in was using a larger gbic module. I had tried to tell my co-worker (former manager) this the evening before. Oh - another thing. We have to do the switch over after hours because the valley tech refuses to pull the Internet down during regular school hours.

Now the tech looks like this:

Oh, you KNOW I am having a field day with the pictures I found on the Internet. Yeah, baby.

Did I laugh. Not in front of the valley tech.

He handed me back the fiber cable and said "I may as well give this back - it won't do me any good."  I said "It will probably sit in my office for the next ten years."

Who in the world ever needs a 300 foot multi mode fiber cable? We didn't even know they pre-made them that long. It would have been even worse (funnier) if they had pulled the cable and discovered that the distance weakened the signal or something. No, no it wouldn't. Because then I would feel bad for the maintenance man that had to go to all that work and pull the cable. I had nothing against him.

I made the remark "Now, I have a $300 dollar Halloween wreath."

Always throw in  humor to defuse a tense situation. That is my motto. It worked to a certain extent.

My valley tech did chuckle at something I said. I told him he was handling things pretty well for what was happening.

He said "Oh, I am ready to explode. I am just trying hard to remain professional."

He had admitted that none of this was my fault because I did apologize to him for this mess.

To be continued...

Oops to the nth degree

This post may be a long one. Depends on time and how much emotion I can purge out through this miracle of miracles "the keyboard".

The incident I am about to post is work related. I am going to try to keep things as inconspicuous as possible.

I will call this tech/school my valley nemesis. I have posted about this tech before here  and here.

Big breath. Okay.

This valley district tech has determined that his school needs three hundred Mb/s of bandwidth. Most of my schools run on 100. A handful are moving to 200 this year. I know that may not register with some of you but just an idea. Most have 100, he wants 300.

That is okay. It is do-able.

My co-worker (who used to be my manager and was demoted) set up the order. He used to do all of this as a manager and now he still does this work. Since I was hired in 1995, the home office techs rarely have to go to a school in my area any longer. Note that this co-worker (former manager) still gets the same pay because they cannot take money away in our system. I bet they can if they really want to, I'm just stating the fact about him and his role.

He has not been to this valley district in years. Years and years. To move to 300 Mb/s this valley school needs to switch from an rj45 cable to a gBic module. If you worked with your Internet equipment you may be familiar with the rj45 cable. It is the big clip cable that looks like the old phone cables (actually the phone cables are rj11) but are bigger. If you do not have wireless, they are the patch cables that connect your PC or laptop to the Internet modem/router or a switch/hub.

The factory-made ones are very nice with their moulding that covers the clip so it does not catch on stuff and snap off. My hand made ones are not nearly as pretty and most all the clips have been snapped off. LOL!  Here was my cabling bible for years.  (For anyone who crimped cables, sing it with me!  Each three syllables:


Orange/white, orange,
green/white, blue,
blue/white, green,
brown/white, brown!


UGH!

My fingers began cramping up with sympathy pains just writing this from my nightmarish memories.

To move to 300Mb/s they need to convert to THIS type of cabling. Fiber optics.

 

I won't go into single mode and multi-mode here. Now, at the time I was told to go to this school and perform this switch over, I had no idea what lay ahead for me. I knew the configuration of our equipment. I figured the rj45 cable would plug into the gBic module with an rj45 interface (hole in layman's terms). I really thought it would look like this:

 

I would go to the school, simply unplug the rj45 cable from one interface (port or hole - whatever you want to call it) and plug it into the new "fiber" interface. The hole where I would insert the above pictured module. When I plugged it in I noticed the module had a  fiber interface on it and not an rj45. I looked at the tech (if you read the links I displayed above, you will know that this guy is not amicable). 

I asked him if the telco had pulled fiber to this room. He looked at me incredulously. "No."  I said perhaps I brought the wrong gBic module. My co-worker (former manager) had handed me six in little brown boxes but never told me that they were different. I had assumed they were all the same. There was no writing on ANY of the boxes. I sighed thinking I would have to fly back to my office and look at the four I left there (I had brought two. I did think ahead enough in case one was D.O.A.).  They were both gBic modules for fiber.

The tech called my co-worker (former manager) and asked him about the module he had given me. This is where it started to turn sour. This co-worker (former manager) was in a meeting. He has been given the duties of moving their home office into a new building. The amount of work this entails is enormous. He has stated several times that he does not feel he is qualified to perform this job. Yet, he is still doing it. In some situations you do it the best you can. His stress level is beyond enormous.

My co-worker (former manager) told this school valley tech that it HAD to be fiber optics. Now, at this very moment the tech and I did not know the distance between this wiring closet we were currently standing in and the electrical room of the building. We measured it with our feet (walking and counting) later and discovered it was about 230 feet away. 

In other words my co-worker (former manager) was telling this valley tech that they needed a fiber cable run from the electricity room to our wiring closet for this to work. My co-worker (former manager) since he had not been in that building in years did not realize that the telco equipment was that far away from our equipment.

Now you see where the Oops comes in.

To be continued....

Mixed Nuts

You are going to have to excuse my ignorance about this one. At the time I read it, I did not know that there was a difference between a peanut (legume) allergy and other "real" nuts. I did not know that somebody allergic to peanuts can safely eat other nuts. Sometimes.

But why would you even take the chance?

Before I was educated on peanut allergy (forgive me for not knowing) the wording of this recall just cracked me up.  I was like "Really?!"  To me it was obvious that anybody with a peaNUT allergy would steer clear from a package of mixed nuts. Oh, contraire!

Well, here's hoping that all packages get out of the consumer's hands safely and anybody who has an actually peanut allergy can eat anything called "mixed nuts" safely.

I go here at least once a week:  http://www.recalls.gov/     and choose "Recent Recalls" and catch up on many different types of recalls. Cars, tires, childrens' toys/clothing, food etc...

Swan towels

I always try to tip the help very well. Not just on my last day at the place where I stay but each morning. The first tip got me the display above.

The next morning I checked the box that I did not need service at all. I had plenty of towels and barely moved while I slept so the bed did not need to be made.

They bumped me up to a King with a hot tub and fireplace for the same price as a double.

My grand nephew enjoyed the hot tub as I did the first night (my aching feet) but did not use it again. I am not a "hot tub" or a jacuzzi person. I do not like the heat because it can bring on a headache.

I turned the fireplace on once, but did not feel any heat. My niece told me I needed to adjust the fan at the top. It wasn't near cold enough - I was just investigating.

I found this place (C0urty@rd M@rri0tt) to be very accommodating.

Spray

Splash from the Whirlpool Rapids at the White Water Walk - Niagara Falls, Canada. I cannot believe I did not take one photo of the falls this trip. WTH?

Well, good thing I took plenty of shots in 2007. You can see them by clicking on the link "See more of my photos" on the right bar of my blog underneath "About me".

Legs (calves and shins) very sore from so much uphill/downhill walking. At least in Key West all was flat walking. Huh!

It only hurts when I bend my knees! That left some funny looks from people when we would crawl out of the car at a rest stop and walk stiff legged into the restroom or restaurant. Do the robot walk - old school! LOL!

On the line

My daughter's current beau works in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant. His brother also works there. His brother is younger - nineteen while my daughter's beau is 21.

The brother was in the hospital four days last week for his back problem. Neither one have medical insurance of any kind. Their father (still do not know which one is their biological - they have had several step dads) is out of the  picture. Neither son gets along with current step dad and their Mom kicked them out as she prefers her current husband over any child she bore. Three siblings share an apartment in town.

The brother is small in stature. His diagnosis was spinal cord trauma. His brother said it is from lifting large vats of chicken, grease etc... One is supposed to ask for help when lifting them but some people are stubborn and get an attitude of  "I don't need no stinkin' help!"  Or mostly, there is no available body to help. Sadly.

So, he left the hospital with a prescription of Vicodin. How American. He is back to work. There was talk of him filing for workers compensation, not certain if he is or did. Maybe his employers talked him out of it. He is supposed to be doing light duty, but we all know how that goes, right? When you are young and you have no parental backup, you have to take what you can get.



My daughter's beau is working 12 hour days. This upscale restaurant cannot keep help. Listening to the way he tells it, the managers and supervisors are all screaming at each other and people just leave. The turnover is tremendous.

My daughter's beau is applying for two other jobs this coming week. We are hoping he gets it. Twelve hours Friday, Saturday and Sundays really stink.

I always crowed about how "good" the food was at the restaurant. But at what price? At least I don't hear any horror stories from my daughter's beau about slimy food or bad food. That all seems to be on the up and up or he just does not speak about it.

If it wasn't for their darn bleu cheeseburgers (picture above is stolen from the Internets again - not in any way affiliated with the restaurant) - which are to DIE for, I would ban that place. Aw, have mercy.

Just a side note (if anybody cares) my daughter's father was never in the picture, either. I preferred it that way. (I only owe her an explanation). I never have accepted one dime from public assist or any man. I made certain I had a good job with good insurance and was able to care for a child all on my own before I decided to have one. Call it a trust issue, call it what you may.

Regardless, I give my daughter full support when she is having work issues. She is still covered  under my insurance (thank heavens for that law) and is very close to going full time at her job with her own benefits. I would advise her against working in an establishment that was so careless for their personnel that they would suffer in such a manner. She has my total support.

I feel for those young adults (and any person for that matter) who do not have health insurance. The stress of deciding whether or not to go to the doctor or the hospital is a huge risk.

I hear him getting ready, now. It is 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning. Another twelve to fourteen hour day coming up. And, he goes. He grumbles, but he goes. I have never seen him drink caffeine of any kind. I would imagine it won't be long until he leans on that crutch as most of us do. I ask him if they feed him. It is a restaurant, of course they do. I advised him to stay hydrated. He said "yeah." Sigh.

Rain Pain

I used to love a good soaking rain. These days it is all about pain. Before the rain began last evening I was almost ready to throw up with the sick headache. It was not bad enough to take a migraine med, but I felt absolutely lousy. I was okay in the house with the A/C.  I needed quite a few things, so I did a "quick" run to the drug store. Heh,  heh. I needed a LOT of things.

I had actually been taking the migraine med about every other day (I know about rebound headaches and am not doubting this may be part of the problem).

I got into the store and I got sick. I made the mistake of picking up my daughter's prescription near the end of my trip and they had to prepare it. "This will take about twenty minutes." UGH!

Why didn't I stop at the pharmacy counter first? WHY?

I had everything in my cart except for the milk, so I sat down and waited. I really started to feel lousy. I could feel the sweat start all over my head. I had to wipe it away several times on my forehead. What is wrong with their A/C?  I can only imagine what the other customers thought. "God, she IS sick. I hope her medicine she is picking up works." 

When I went outside to put my purchases in the car, I realized that the drug store DID have their A/C running. You could have cut the air with a knife. It was so humid and thick. My head pounded.

The A/C in my car gets  a work-out.

I arrived at home and I unloaded the car. I tried to relax.

About an hour later (no medication involved) - poof! It was gone. I was typing away on the computer etc.. Before bed I took the dogs out and it was pouring. I stepped off the porch in an effort to get the timid boxer out and into the rain. He thinks he is a sugar cube. I let the rain just pelt me. I knew I shouldn't get this wet this close to bedtime but I didn't care. He did follow but he didn't dally around. He quickly peed and zoomed back onto the porch.

I just stood in the rain and wondered about headache pain and the weather.

Random

I closed my eyes and picked a picture from the archives. This is what you get. Vegetable beef soup. Or beef vegetable soup. Whichever way you want to phrase it. It is a winter dish. I made pot roast with potatoes and carrots this past week end but I did not get any pics of that. It went way too fast. :)

Mangers lie

I am trying to figure out why my manager lies in this fashion. This is about the third time this has happened.


In this circumstance the school districts want a service from us that will tell them and help them control what is eating their precious (expensive) bandwidth.

Sites such as YouTube and gaming can sap all the bandwidth, thus leaving nothing available for actual work.

Where are the teachers? I don't know. I have been in some situations where there is no teacher to be found and the kids are really going to town on the computers and the Internet.

I think a lot of teachers treat the computer lab as a babysitter. Plop the kids down in front of the TV computer and go to the teachers' lounge.

Back to the application. We (as a department) have been talking about such a program for a year. We have a program in place that monitors our equipment and lets us know when a device loses connection, etc. We can investigate - did the building lose power, did a janitor unplug the equipment, what happened? Stuff like that.

This application has a sister app that will tell the district what their traffic is. For example: Pandora. If you are not familiar with Pandora - it is a streaming music application.  Streaming radio is a huge hit with office personnel. I can't tell you how many times I will go to work on a secretary's computer just to find she has the radio streaming to her PC, but the volume is turned down low or muted - she forgot it was running.

Big bandwidth sucker there. Another one - video. YouTube. If a computer lab teacher tells students to watch a video and 25 end users all go to the same video and watch it - wow. Bandwidth usage skyrockets. The teacher is supposed to stream it to an overhead projector so all the class can watch it at one time. Thus only one machine is viewing the video and streaming it down the Internet pipe, instead of 25.

Or, the teacher is out of the room and some kid finds a great dirt bike video and the kids around him see him watching it and they in turn, look it up and watch it.

Chaos.

Anyway. This post is already getting too long.

I told my manager that I was very interested in working with this program when we get it.

Now, I am not a perfect employee. I slack off now and then. But there I was sitting around this summer, knowing that I have three huge projects looming. I am always waiting for something. Somebody to get this ready, somebody to order that. I sigh. I fear that everything will come at me at once. It usually does and then I do things half assed because I don't have the proper time to work with it.

Don't misunderstand. I call or communicate many times asking my co-workers or managers who I am waiting for, if there is anything "I" can do to speed up the process.Can I make some phone calls, can I come to the office and physically install equipment? Can I do the legwork?  ANYTHING! Nope. Zilch.

I get anxious and I decide to download the evaluation copy of the program. I try and do not succeed. I am naive and try to run it on my stand alone laptop with just adequate CPU power and memory. The program (even the evaluation part) needs a server with more power than my piddly laptop.

The company that sells the program contacts me and is very anxious (salesmen) to get me using this. I am stalled but at our staff meeting at the end of June my manager tells me we have it and he needs to install it on a VM (virtual machine) then I can begin to use it.

I am beside myself with excitement! Okay! I ask "Can I tell the techs about this program?" 

And this is how I remember this incident vividly.

He meant to say "You will want to play with it for a while first" instead saying something like "Play with yourself".  Well, that was all me and my delinquent co-workers needed. We started laughing and making jokes. That kind of conversation sticks with you, you know?

A month goes by and - nothing. Just e-mails back and forth where he says "Next week, I can get that done." I began calling him "Next week Andy".  Not his real name.

I sit and try to think of a way that I can be proactive instead of bitching about how much of a slacker my manager is. He is not a slacker, I am sure he works his ass off. But I found myself grumbling because I was anxious to go and here I was - waiting again.

I heave a big sigh and I decide to use an old server that was given to me a few years ago to "play" with. It may not have the power, but I have to do something. I had installed Linux on it (my Linux playing days) and decided next time I was in my organization's home office I would ask for a Windows Server disk and install that OS so I could download and work with the evaluation copy properly.

I was there on Wednesday for training. My manager was at lunch. I asked a co-worker for Windows Server disks and he began looking through a tray of disks. Another department co-worker asked me what we were looking for. I explained the situation to her. She said "I can have you a VM up and running in 30 minutes."

My heart sank. Really? I explained to her that the manager has been promising me a VM for weeks. She said "I'll do it." I gave her the specs. I told her that this was an evaluation copy and after 30 days we hoped to roll it over to the real program. The company that sells this product told me we could do that.

By this time our manager came back and got in on the conversation. I told him and he said "We haven't bought the program, yet."

I just looked at him. Somehow I knew this. Deep down I suspected as much.

I should have called him on it right then and there.

But to tell you the truth, I was so damn happy to have a VM to work with and they had just purchased me a new laptop I did not want to spoil my good luck.

I have been told many times that I have a "bad attitude" so I try very hard to never say anything negative.

I like my manager. I have to believe that he does not mean any harm when he lies like this. I am trying to figure out why he tells me they bought the program (remember the play with yourself conversation - I did not imagine that) when they did not.

Some things that come to mind are - he does not want to disappoint me. Or maybe he likes to make me happy. That is my "positive" thinking. What he does not realize is that he jeapardizes his integrity with every lie. When I discover the lie, I think less of him.

I am just trying to understand. There are many reasons I never take a management position when it is offered to me and it happens at every job I have worked at.

I was an "office manager" in my early twenties and really just managed myself. I didn't have big staffs or have to decide pay raises, etc...

I would not want to be a manager. Just like I would never want to be the president or the mayor.

I am a worker bee. I do best working by myself. Managers need to delegate and make hard decisions. And lie, I guess. For whatever reasons, managers need to lie and I have to tell you - I'd have more trouble with that than anything else.

Oh, woe is me

I had some training at my home office yesterday. When I got there they hand me a brand new laptop. One that swivels and can be used as a tablet. I am off for a long week-end Friday, Sat and Sunday. I am scheduled out (that same school construction site) on Monday.

Wah! I only have today to work with my new toy and then maybe I can get back to it on Tuesday. I am going to try to force myself NOT to work over the week-end. There is so much to do before schools start up again this year.

I have three new projects and I want to give them all my time (but there is not enough of it).

Sigh.