Flash

Photo courtesy of niece. I did not attend these back-yard fire works. I don't usually feel safe when "amateurs" are letting off fire works. I love my nephew and I hope he is always safe.

My sister-in-law is home from the hospital and doing well I am told. I will probably go visit her later today or tomorrow.Or, I may just wait and call instead. I like to give people time to rest and adjust. She did have all of her stomach removed and we are hoping that the cancer does not return somewhere else.

Very quiet around here. I did nothing yesterday. There is a big festival in town for the week-end, but I don't go any longer. I don't need that food that I love so dearly and I don't need the noise.

Weather has turned cool here in Ohio, so just keeping windows and doors open instead of running the air is enough.

A beautiful bird had decided to build her nest on the top of my front door porch light. It is one that sits on the side of the door. I did not realize it until I went out after dark the other evening to retrieve the mail and she went nuts when I went to go back into the door.

I had no idea what the hell was going on and I thought I was under attack. Hearing the flutter of the wings I realized it was a bird and I figured she must have built a nest on my light. I wasn't looking up, I was holding the mail over my head. I felt like Tippi Hedron! I believe I twisted my neck - it was hurting all the next day.

I go out the back door and around the house to sneak into my mailbox, now. It is on my front porch wall. I move slow and she and I just eyeball each other the entire time. No sudden movements!

Bits and Pieces

Just a quick post to jot down what is going on around here, so that when I re-read this post five years from now I will remember.

My sister-in-law is having surgery today. I may post more about that at another time. It is cancer. The photo above was what I sent to her on f@ceb00k.

My neighbor's basement wall collapsed the night before last under all this rain. A crew started water-proofing their basement on Monday. What do you think? Co-incidence or was the crew responsible? Tough situation to be in. I am going to double-check my wall on that side of the house. A few years back I had a company come in and put two big braces on that wall using steel anchors that lead to a brace ten to twenty feet out into the yard underground. Water has pooled in the little ditches between our houses for years.

My daughter's car broke down. Same thing that happened about a year ago. It was a piston then, sounds like a piston, now. She said it is doing the same thing. When I told my appliances (that were breaking down) not to let word slip out to my car in the driveway that I was spending money on them, I guess I forgot to tell them that also includes my daughter's car. Cripes.

I had to go out to a couple of schools yesterday and work with my hands instead of my brain. It was hot and muggy in the wiring closets. The schools are not keeping their equipment cool AT ALL. I was sweating up a storm and guess who forgot to put on deodorant yesterday? Yep, that's right. Not a pleasant morning.

I won (sort of) four tickets to the Pitt$burgh z00. I visit a radio station's web site to read their lost & found (pets) and when they designed a new one, I could not find the l&f. I sent them a message asking where it was. They assured me it was coming and since I commented, they wanted to send me 4 tickets to one of three places. I chose the z00.

My work is switching from 26 pays to 24 this next month. I know it is easier for them to do, but I really looked forward to those two "free" pays every  year. Sigh.

Cool Air

I had to have a new controller card put in my furnace/air conditioner. I now have cool air again. I hope I will have heat this winter.

Two months ago it was the gas hot water heater. Yep. One has to have hot water, don't they. Kind of hard living without it.

I could have lived without A/C this summer, but can't do without heat. Living without A/C would not be pretty. Of my four dogs, three are black and they are always hot. They park themselves in front of the A/C vents and the fans if they can.

Then, there is me. I would be a "hot mess" to quote Chelsea what's her name. H@ndler? I've even read one of her books.  I can watch/listen to her in small doses. She is a bit over the top.

It seems to be a rainy summer so far here in my part of Ohio. I have huge puddles in my yard as I dragged my garbage cans out this morning in the pouring rain. Somebody did not do that task as I asked them to last night. "I will."  Sigh.

Oh, to be 22 again.

Cake

I think most people like cake. Some are either a cake person or an icing person. I am an icing person. I eat the icing and leave the cake.

I went to a party yesterday for a one year old. The parents did the traditional act where they give the little baby an entire little cake to devour or smash or throw or wear as they wish.

Then they clean her up and finish the party. Me? I'd save the cake smashing/wearing for last.

The icing was MUCH too sweet even for my taste. Whew!

I watched the movie "The Railway Man". It was hard to get into it at first. So boring. I am NOT a fan of Kidman or Firth. Both fine actors but YUCK! Something about them makes me cringe. Fortunately, a lot of the film was set "back in time" when Firth's character was young and a prisoner of war.

Based on a true story, the tale depicts how this man survived (barely) the torturous beatings and actions of the Japanese army only to meet his enemy forty-some years later. His life was full of misery as he re-lived his beatings almost daily and suffered severely what is now known as post traumatic stress syndrome. He discovered that the Japanese officer was giving tours at the place he was held captive - now a museum of sorts. He sets out to confront the man.

Nobody knows what they would do given the same circumstances. Do you torture them? Do you kill them? Do you forgive them?

April 31st

I had a vacation day today and I am off tomorrow. I killed some time on Pinterest this morning and this is what I found that tickled my funny bone.

In my early twenties, I used to get asked a lot "When are YOU getting married?"

Finally, I got fed up. I began to tell people "April 31st." 

The look on their faces. I never explained it to them. I figured to myself that they could figure it out - or not.

Usually, I got "What?!  Oh!"  ....then they would laugh. Some just look puzzled.

Needless to say I do not get asked this question any longer.

What prompted this post though, was at a dinner last night we talked about the one lady who is retiring. Somebody said "What are you going to do? Get married?" 

Sunk to a new low

First it was Fr!nge a couple of years back. I caved into what my sister kept pestering me about. Watching Fr!nge. Then it was Bre@king B@d about a year or so ago.  I don't recall who got me started on that one. Perhaps it was the site I visit often that said this was one of the best rated TV shows. Then it was D3xter at my daughter's insistence.

I hate fantasy. I did not like the books by J.R.R. To!kien and I did not care for the movies. I despise the entire fantasy/middle ages theme. So, G@me of Thr0nes looked horribly wrong for me.  And, it is. But I watched all 4 seasons. Much to my disgust. It's like eating an entire pie at one sitting. You know you are not supposed to do it. You know it isn't good for you. It doesn't even taste that great after the second piece. You just lose track of time and boop - gone.

That is my experience watching G@me of Thr0nes. I can barely stand any of the characters and I am quite delighted when they get killed off. Good. Next!

So, Cheyenne  - there you have it. That is where I have been. I got lost watching stupid shows and get addicted to them.

More babies

8 boys, 3 girls. My Mom's great-grandchildren. Nobody is currently pregnant that we know of. Youngest born Saturday. 10 days early. Mother went in for an exam and the doctor said be at the hospital tomorrow morning,  we are inducing. Bam!

Family get togethers are getting interesting. I am trying to choose more kid friendly places that do not allow alcohol. But they bring it anyway. Sigh. Can't even go ONE day without imbibing? They would say they can but they WANT to drink when they get around family. To them it is a celebration. I guess, but they don't remember how stupid they get. Or how ignorant. With all the little ones around now, most of us want the adults to be sober.

Where have you been all my life?

This one is so adorable. Each time I see him I try to grab him and I say to him "Where have you been all my life!?"

He started to answer me. He screams "AT MY HOUSE!"

LOL!

Most of the time I get a hug and a kiss on the lips from him.  Pure sweetness!

Spring

I could not resist posting another one of this little grand-niece (or great-niece).

By the way - the furnace/Air Conditioner people have NEVER called me with a quote on a new system. It has been mostly cool here in this part of Ohio this May. We have been freezing in the house.

I talked to some folks at work who gave me some other places that they use. I guess it is time to call somebody else. I figure if the one I have been using for several years does not need my business... well then.

Fur baby

I am not exactly certain what my sister put on this little one's head.  I doubt that she kept it on for very long. I don't get to see the little ones very often. Understandably it is hard for them to travel.

This Sunday is a big family cook-out, though. I hope to be surrounded by the little tykes.

My house is freezing! Last week I came home from work on Monday and noticed that the house was 84º Fahrenheit. My air conditioner had stopped working. I called on Tuesday- another very hot day.

It is the controller board. Thursday the temps dipped drastically. The repairman wired the fan directly and it blows 24/7. I have wooden floors. I have shut every vent that I can and my floors are like ice. This year Ohio is experiencing a very cold/hot month. One extreme or the other.

So, either I spend over $400 for a new controller board or get a new unit. It is central air and the controller board controls the furnace, too. I guess they were put in, in 1995 or so. I suppose I should replace both of them together.


I just made my first payment on my $800 gas hot water heater. So, this is the year all the appliances fall apart. My dish washer leaks (sometimes). My washing machine leaks so that I have to babysit it and when the rinse cycle fills up I have to hold the basin back so the water does not splash behind it.

My garbage disposal has been out for a few months, now.

Ahhh. And life goes on. I hope my car is not listening.

I got nothing

My days are the proverbial "groundhog day". Still training my schools on using the new filter. So, I thought I would share the above photo courtesy of my niece. She and her brother hiked the Shenandoah National Park this past week-end. Or, a part of it. I have not heard an update from them since they got back but it looked like they had a nice time from the pics she posted.

I do have on little blip update on the filter. That issue where an administrator was surfing p0rn at a school district and I notified my manager. (Again, it may have been a student using his computer). It has stopped. The reports show nothing more from him that is suspicious in nature.

However, my manager has told me nothing. Zip. Still has not even mentioned to me that he received my e-mail. So, I will never know if my manager spoke with the tech person at the school or if they spoke to the superintendent at the school to stop the incident or if it was just a fluke and it all stopped on it's own.

I have no idea what I should do if I see this type of traffic again. Sheesh. Some management, huh?

The English Language

I guess my energy or my creativity for writing has been zapped the past few weeks. I am doing a lot at work and I think it uses all of my energy and has left me with nothing to write about.

I am (almost) over the coughing. I still am caught off guard from time to time with a coughing fit. Like last evening we were in a burger joint. The thermometer on the wall said 82 º . Holy cow! The waitress said it was actually cooler in the kitchen.

Warmer temps have finally arrived in Ohio.

But that isn't what this post is about. Since I am slowly getting better, I am regaining one of my most important features. My sense of humor.

Working with the filter, I come across words that are flagged as p0rn. Here is a list of some that surprised me.

crest white strips
police car lights flashing

I finally figured out the offending words that were flagged must be "strips" and "flashing". I was like "really"? I questioned this with our representative. He said the list was very literal. Okay, but holy cow!

Then I came across:

Woody Hayes
Woody Harrelson
woody allen movies

and of course, Woody Woodpecker.

Clarinet fingering chart
Anaconda swallows man
nymph creature
water jugs

Bulimia nervosa ....wait, what? p0rn?
Right up above that search was anorexia nervosa and it properly appeared flagged as family health.
Okay, I just did a little research. (Bulimia is affiliated with food p0rn.)

Hmmmm. And, you know I've mentioned before that "To Kill a Mockingbird" comes up flagged as violence.

But the one that was flagged that made me laugh out loud. "Out loud"  was :

summa cum laude.

Take that, filter!

One tequila

This is a bottle of tequila. 110 proof the label said. My niece brought it to the family get together at Thanksgiving, I think. She did not open it and took it back home. Wait. Maybe it was March birthdays. Yeah, that was it. March birthdays.

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, four. I don't sing that song anymore.

Had a relapse over the week end. Still coughing. But was sick to my stomach over the week end. Whatever this is, it has a hold of me good.

Work is crazy busy for me.

Finally, I may be starting to feel like doing things around the house again. Gah.

Way behind on yard work. I don't like it, but I am going to have to refuse family invites to do things. They get kind of grumpy when I do that. I get the guilt trip from some who say "No sense in going if you are not going."  That is such a sweet and nice compliment and I feel very honored to get it. But it also makes me feel pressured and I don't want to let anybody down.

I saw some pics of my sisters who were out this past week end. Let me just say this. I am so glad I quit the bar and drinking scene before the digital photo age and facebook. LOL! Good gawd!

That Oh, sh!t moment

Remember Wednesday when I was jacked up on all that prednis0ne and I worked all day on entering schools into the new filter? Well, it appears that I put them all ON the new filter thinking I had them entered correctly to be ignored. I wanted to have all their info typed in , so all I had to do was take their IP range out of the "Ignore" box and they would be ready to go. I guess it did not work that way.

I was attempting to prepare for next week when we were going to test them.

I drag myself into work yesterday and promptly get a phone call. The tech said a few things about the filter blocking this and that and I knew he was still on the old one. At one point he said the new filter's name and about it's blocking screen and I said "Wait...you are on the new filter?" He said "Yes."  I said
"Your district is not supposed to be switched over until next week!" Then it hit me. That "Oh sh!t" moment when I realized that something had gone wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong and I would be getting (see photo above) a flood of phone calls.

And this was me, if the tech could see through the telephone. Thankfully he could not, but I can imagine he figured how it looked because of the panic beginning to rise in my voice. At about the time I began to figure out that something was horribly wrong, a tech stuck his head around the corner and said "Did you block our e-mail?"  Oh, sh!t.

The Treasurer came into my office and asked me if I had blocked something because our grant writers had a dead line to get this grant in and they could not access the site. Oh, mega sh!t.

I spend the next hour in a total panic (actually I was pretty calm) and as quickly as I could began to repair my damage. I was prepared mentally for something like this to happen (as a big move or change like this always has the potential for unwanted chaos and alarm). Mentally I was prepared. I answered calls, I apologized and my fingers did their magic.

It took me about another hour to answer and explain everything in e-mails, all the while my manager calling me every twenty minutes or say saying "Instead of switching EVERYBODY over at once next week, why don't we do them in groups?"

I smiled. My error was a blessing in disguise. Every cloud has a silver lining. The schools can relax, now. We won't throw them all at the same time into the deep end and make them wait until we slowly pull them out one by one. We will be smarter about it, more organized.

It was a little far fetched thinking we could move them all at once, but I am like 'Hey...either way - somebody is going to have a painful experience out of it. That is inevitable."  Most of the time, it is me - but I have had many. I am a veteran. I just need to be prepared and carry the right attitude. That I can do.

There are many things happening "behind the curtain" that at 53 (gawd, almost 54) years old, I know that there is not much I have control over. For example, when my organization decided to perform this test, I began immediate plans. I wrote e-mails, I asked for this, I asked for that. Things I would need to make this switch over possible. I needed to be prepared. I needed to be ready.

Alas. The waiting game. I get my answers four days before we perform the switch over. The districts are scratching their heads saying "You guys are not very prepared."  Yeah, well. It may look that way but know this. Some things were just out of my control. To gripe and whine to them when they speak of it just makes myself look like I am making excuses. All I can tell them is I asked for information that I needed to make this change as easy as possible, and I only received the data at the last moment.

And then there is the issue of them being told what is to be expected of this change. I wrote my part up weeks ago. My manager was to send out the message. He did this yesterday. Yesterday. And the language was all new filter language and the techs did not understand what he (we) wanted from them so they did not answer him. 8 out of 40 answered him. When he re-messaged them, one tech gave him a nasty message berating him for his complicated questions that she had no idea even of what he was speaking.

Granted, she does not come to the monthly meetings (where we speak about this) but it is not OUR fault she is too busy. And round and round we go.

That is okay. SNAFU.  I am ready and prepared for the change. I am geared up. Thank goodness for this prednis0ne. (Another silver lining?) Who knows. Just back off and get out of my way. I am working here! With the over-worked management on one side of me, and the stressed and burned out techs on the other side - I am the bridge that will support them and bring them together. Yay. Go me!  LOL!

Meds

By the power of prednis0ne and Azithr0mycin, I am standing (sitting) strong. Sure, there is the coughing. Still the sputtering (it has to get out somehow) but the energy is outrageous. What is in this stuff? Reminds me when I dallied in speed in my 20's. Yes, I did. Loved them. Stopped them. I never took more than 1 at a time. Eh  - not what this post is about.

Anyway..I probably overdid it yesterday. I worked from home all day. Manager will change my sick day to a "work from home" day. I have a lot on my plate right now and am so very thankful I can do so much of it from home.

But, I kept jumping up and cleaning this and cleaning that. My mind was racing. I plowed through and actually worked about 12 hours on the computer yesterday for work. With several breaks in between to sweep the floor, washed all the pots and pans (the kids will do the dishwasher etc... but I don't put my pots and pans in the dishwasher so they were all dirty).

I was shaking. It was either the prednis0ne or the Azi - or both. I was able to eat (but not like before on the prednis0ne.). And I recall reading that somebody said they can't sleep when taking prednis0ne, so great. Now, I can't sleep. LOL!

I just read a page of side effects. LOL! Most of them I already had, but this one cracked me up. "shortness of height".  Wait, what?

Day two of the incident where I reported the p0rn. Not one word has been said. In fact, there is an enormous amount of work that I am doing regarding the filter, but my manager has not said one word that he even received my e-mail about the report. What would it hurt to say to me "I received your e-mail and report, we will look it over and decide what to do."  Who-ever "we" are. That would be the least I would expect. He could say "Let me know if you see anything else suspicious."  Or, he could say "This is not what we intended when we purchased this product, please mind your own business." (probably too scared to say THAT to me). But what? To ignore it completely? WTF?!

There is a big meeting on Friday and I am certain the filter will be the main topic because we are making a huge switch over on Sunday. I plan to be working 24/7 next week. And the prednis0ne will be gone by then. But that is okay - at least I might have the chance to sleep.

Since I can't sleep, I made my coffee and am drinking it. I pulled a dog hair out of my coffee and no lie, 1 minute later my phone dinged. I checked the message and it was a comment from "Dog Hair in My Coffee". LOL! And, hey - by the way 'welcome back!'  I thought she had done gone "off the social media grid".

Discreet

I may have mentioned a week or so ago about some techs having issue with a new feature our organization's filter has. It is a reporting feature. A school tech can run several reports to see what is going on in their network. At a school district you want to stay on top of things.

Here is my dilemma. I have to learn about the report features so that I can tell our techs that they have this, this and that available to them. So  I run plenty of reports to see what they are.

In doing so, there is one school district, the end user is logged in as an Administrator and several hundred hits are searches for p0rn.

Now, this is where I have to be discreet. The first thing I did was to run a report on just that end user for the past seven days and hand it over to my superior.

Remember - this could be an Admin user who is not logging off of their machine and a student is doing all the searching. Or, the student may have stolen the login credentials. The searches are very young-ish school age searches. The age of the girls searched for etc.

Now, what will be interesting to me is to see what my superiors instruct me to do. Of course, I am not the person to do anything as far as the school goes, but do they want me to continue to turn over this type of report or am I to turn a blind eye?

I mean - nobody was doing this for the dozen or so years before we purchased this feature. This feature was not purchased to do this. It was purchased to make the lives of our district techs easier. The tech should be the one pulling this type of report but this is all new - we are still in a testing phase.

Every end users signed an Acceptable use policy.

Here is my view. If the admin is viewing p0rn during school hours on a school owned computer - they need to stop and possibly be reprimanded. If a student is using the computer under the Admin's login - that needs to stop. Either way - to me - it needs to be addressed.

What I will really hate (and this is what I expect) is that it will be totally ignored. As if I did  not even send the message. Time will tell.

Insomnia

This is pretty much how I feel this morning. I have been awake since 2:30 a.m. I got up at 3:00 and started on the computer. Mostly work stuff. I had Thursday and Friday off. Thursday there were a few filter issues and I am responding to them today. Get out of my way.

I added some links to our Tech web page for the new filter and I am raring to go. Except for this cough. I have discovered that holding my stomach while coughing helps me a bit. At least the headaches seem to be gone for now.

My daughter has run the gamut on this one before. She said "You have this now? Okay, this stage is next." And she is spot on. Now comes the drainage. As if the dry hacking cough didn't do enough to rip out my throat and break my ribs, now the coughing and sputtering.

At least I can go into the office today with very few people working. Most have the day off. I will probably take my Clorox wipes with me and wipe down the phone, door knobs, the mouse, the keyboard, the microwave handle - all things I touch today.

I slept most of the day away yesterday. It was beautiful outside. I did manage to get a chair and let the sun beat down on me for about 15 minutes and get some fresh air into my lungs. It was quite heavenly. I had let the inside house temperature soar to 74º Fahrenheit. I immediately opened windows and doors and turned the fans on to cool it down and get the stale air out.

I am very short of breath with this cough. It is the kind where you start a slow panic when you can't get your breath. I would hate to suffocate. When I get short of breath I have to sit down and have a fan blowing directly into my face or I begin to get light headed and my limbs begin to turn to jell-o.

I don't know if you know what I mean by that feeling, but it is very unnerving. It makes me start to panic and I have to give myself a mental shake and remind myself to breath. Just breath. I can only imagine this is what it must feel like to be asthmatic.

There. I have regained some of my useless babble for the blog. Nonsensical stuff that gives me the chance to purge. Now that it is time to feed the critters and get into the shower, NOW is the time I would like to go back to sleep.

Ouch. One of my cats just nailed me a good one. She is impatient. She knows it is her feeding time and she stretched up and clawed my leg a good one. It hurt and I brushed her off. She got pissed and ran over under the table hissing at me. Hissing! I turned my chair around and glared at her. She glared back. Oh, she is a stinker that one.

Now, she has jumped up on my computer tower under my desk and I reach down to pet her and we are fine again. She licks my hand as if saying "Sorry."  I re-assure her and say "I know, I will feed you soon." I pet her some more and she is soft and furry and ...OUCH!! The damn thing bit me.

Color me miserable

I know I've used this photo before. I am in agony. Each cough brings SO.MUCH.PAIN. My sides ache so bad and my head hurts when I take a coughing fit. And it is one of those gut-wrenching, rib-clutching, horse coughs. I am surprised I have not ripped out my vocal chords.

When I feel a cough coming on I groan and I want to cry. Attempting to stifle the cough only makes it that much worse and twice as painful as the body reacts violently to the attempt.

My breathing whistles and rattles. My daughter wants me to go to the doctor, now. She went.  That is when the doctor sent her over thinking she may have pneumonia.  She went and they told her it was not pneumonia and that  they could do nothing for her. She had to ride it out.

I can still walk around and do things. Although I quickly run out of breath and have to sit down. I find myself not being able to catch my breath. I get restless sitting in my TV chair all day. It drives me nuts.

There will be no dinner today. I am far too sick to place myself in any body's house in this condition and I have not been grocery shopping in ages. We have been surviving on hot dogs, mac & cheese and take out pizza. The two "kids" I live with could care less about ham and potatoes and deviled eggs and any other Easter dinner treat you can think of.

Me? Oats and scrambled eggs. And Popsicles. And Gatorade. I don't like Gatorade. I went back to plain water.

I have sinus pain and pressure on top of the cough and my lower back hurts along with my back where the lungs reside. I don't want the "P" word and I don't mean pneumonia. A guy at work had pleurisy last week. I remember this ailment all too well. I have had it so many times I know the symptoms and I don't feel them yet.

Well, it is off to find the acetaminophen for what good it does. Do you purchase name-brand or generic over the counter medication? I seem to have a mental issue where I feel the generic does not work as well. It irks me because of the monetary issue involved with buying name brand products.

Cranky

I've got the coughing, head achy, sides sore from coughing blues. Restless. Headache not responding to acetaminophen which is what I take now. I have been ibuprofen-free for a couple of weeks. Acetaminophen has the same results as Pez candy.

My doctor thinks ibuprofen may be the reason for my heartburn. Not. I still have a lot of heartburn. I am on a daily medication of  PPI (proton pump inhibitor),  too. The pink stuff was my best friend last night.

Anyway - the cough. My sister had it and my daughter still has it. The doctor sent my daughter to the hospital for chest x-rays etc... she thought she might have pneumonia. She didn't (doesn't). No medication for viral infection.  Just acetaminophen or ibuprofen. They both ran a temperature. I didn't. I never do. I cannot recall ever having a temperature higher than 98 or 99. This could be what the acetaminophen is doing for me.

How convenient that this malady should strike exactly on the four days I have off from work for a long week-end. I don't have to take any sick days off. That is contingent on the fact that this illness is gone by Monday.

Let's see. What did I watch? A movie? I can't recall. My day was a blur yesterday. Oh - I watched a bunch of documentaries. So easy to sleep to. I wake up, glance at the TV - learn me something then drift back into a fitful sleep. It was "Return of the Plague - TB", "The Elegant Universe - String Theory",  and "Photographing Africa".  String Theory is especially a good show to put you to sleep. Trust me on this one.

Rambling on

I have bits and pieces to post about today. Above is a photo of a vehicle of some sort I was following a month or so ago. It is stopped - see the tail lights. We were sitting in construction traffic.

The new study on marijuana smoking. Or is it new?  I always used to say "They should just legalize marijuana."  I don't smoke it. I figured it was not much worse than alcohol. Maybe better. Now that I am in my 50's I see older people who have smoked for great lengths of time and it ain't so pretty. I now personally believe the smoking has had a negative impact on their lives.

I was in a meeting on Monday. I had taken a survey of what various educational organizations around the state of Ohio used for filtering their school districts' networks. A tech was rambling on in his negative view of the product our educational organization uses. He is always negative. I feel he has a personal vendetta against me, but I could be right. (!)  He blabbed out that only 2 organizations in the state uses such and such. I corrected him and said 12 did. There are a total of 23 educational organizations in the state of Ohio.

He stopped and asked me "12?"  I nodded and confirmed "12." I had sent out e-mails asking the directors of the organizations what they used and 22 out of 23 places had responded to me.

And, the others in the meeting would have believed him had I not been there. He did not take a survey. He was just spouting off negative blabber.

This is only one incident. This guy "grandstands" at almost every meeting. What do you do with somebody like that? He is poison. He has a "posse" of other guy techs that gravitate around him. Four at least. I say they "drink the kool-aid" that he is dishing out. The sad part (for me) is the other 4 techs - two at least - are very good in their own right. They are strong techs that work well with me at other times. I guess they just gravitate to him. I may not ever understand why. Maybe if they sit next to him, he will do all the talking and they won't have to.

When he does have a network problem, I approach each incident as fresh and new. I do not keep the negativity on my back when I deal with him. I am polite to him and cordial. He gets the same attentive response I give every other tech that asks for my help. I make sure of that. I won't sink to his level or let him get me down.

But, each new incident where he thrashes my work or my organization's work knocks me back a bit. Some of the female techs are beginning to ask me "What is his problem?" 

Sigh. He is just one of those experiences in life, I guess. The human psyche. Unbelievable.