Has there ever been a bigger month for celebrity deaths? The King of Pop, the Queen of Pinups, the Prince of Sidekicks, the uh, Grand Duke of Fake Asians. Elvis better watch his back, it could be his turn any day now.
So back at work we're having a bit of a problem. When The Boss was designing the phone system without my input, there was a big emphasis placed on redundancy. We can't be going without phones, say, if a power surge takes out some random piece of equipment. On Thursday we had a bit of an electrical storm in the area, and power went out at one of our sites. Somehow the UPS let a surge through. The switch was acting wonky, but was cured by a reboot. That site also has an analog gateway, since we don't want to be putting nice IP phones in residential units where the kids will smash them for fun. That random piece of equipment turned out to be a problem.
Phones on the gateway would ring when called, but had no dial tone and couldn't place calls. This was all a bit baffling. The Boss popped over and confirmed all this was happening. We got our consultant on the phone, and I sent Mr. Angry there so we could test things. Mr. Angry discovered that the phones were not, in fact, ringing when called. The Boss hadn't actually checked anything, just showed his face and parroted what the receptionist (who works in a different building) told him. Once we knew that, the problem was rather obvious. The gateway was not passing power to the phones.
"Thees eez note a prooblem", the consultant told me. "You haf zee war-and-tea, I weel order a neew one. Just poot een your spare."
"We don't have a spare", I told him.
"What? How do you note haf zee spare?"
Well, you see, The Boss thought it was a waste of money since we have a warranty on the equipment. The replacement will be here some time this afternoon. If it's before I go home, that's four days of no phones for those buildings. If it's not, five. Have a fucking spare.
On the home front, there's a storm brewing over the new business. Now that it officially exists, The Wife is objecting to things for which she had plenty of warning before I sent my articles and a check to the state. It'll cost about what she spends on social outings each month. Hearing that just made her accuse me of secretly resenting how much time she spends out of the house. This puts me a in tough position.
I had a potential business partner flake out on me ten years or so ago. I decided not to go it alone, as I needed someone else for certain things. I just gave up on the idea. Now there's lots of people making lots of money at what we were planning. While the new business has nothing close to that sort of potential, I'm simply not willing to give it up for want of a couple of trips out each month. I suspect she'll give in, but I know I won't. So if I'm wrong there's some major fireworks coming.
So July needs to be better.
So back at work we're having a bit of a problem. When The Boss was designing the phone system without my input, there was a big emphasis placed on redundancy. We can't be going without phones, say, if a power surge takes out some random piece of equipment. On Thursday we had a bit of an electrical storm in the area, and power went out at one of our sites. Somehow the UPS let a surge through. The switch was acting wonky, but was cured by a reboot. That site also has an analog gateway, since we don't want to be putting nice IP phones in residential units where the kids will smash them for fun. That random piece of equipment turned out to be a problem.
Phones on the gateway would ring when called, but had no dial tone and couldn't place calls. This was all a bit baffling. The Boss popped over and confirmed all this was happening. We got our consultant on the phone, and I sent Mr. Angry there so we could test things. Mr. Angry discovered that the phones were not, in fact, ringing when called. The Boss hadn't actually checked anything, just showed his face and parroted what the receptionist (who works in a different building) told him. Once we knew that, the problem was rather obvious. The gateway was not passing power to the phones.
"Thees eez note a prooblem", the consultant told me. "You haf zee war-and-tea, I weel order a neew one. Just poot een your spare."
"We don't have a spare", I told him.
"What? How do you note haf zee spare?"
Well, you see, The Boss thought it was a waste of money since we have a warranty on the equipment. The replacement will be here some time this afternoon. If it's before I go home, that's four days of no phones for those buildings. If it's not, five. Have a fucking spare.
On the home front, there's a storm brewing over the new business. Now that it officially exists, The Wife is objecting to things for which she had plenty of warning before I sent my articles and a check to the state. It'll cost about what she spends on social outings each month. Hearing that just made her accuse me of secretly resenting how much time she spends out of the house. This puts me a in tough position.
I had a potential business partner flake out on me ten years or so ago. I decided not to go it alone, as I needed someone else for certain things. I just gave up on the idea. Now there's lots of people making lots of money at what we were planning. While the new business has nothing close to that sort of potential, I'm simply not willing to give it up for want of a couple of trips out each month. I suspect she'll give in, but I know I won't. So if I'm wrong there's some major fireworks coming.
So July needs to be better.
| < I never expected to be defeated by a cup of tea | Just to be clear. > |
Post to Twitter
