March 27, 2003
Dear Everyone:
“Jeannie’s” cat, bless her fuzzy little heart, is back at home and happy to be there.
As for me, as nice as it was to have a small, furry houseguest for a week; it’s also nice to be able to leave an article of clothing lying on the bed as I dash out of the house in the morning; and know that it won’t be covered in cat hair when I get home. On the other hand, it was nice to have someone waiting for me when I did get home.
I had thought I might do my taxes last weekend, since “Jeannie” was out of town and we wouldn’t be getting together. But then I realized that having records and files spread all around would be too much of a temptation for kitty to want to spread out on herself. Plus she’d either be rubbing her chin on the keyboard shelf, or yelling at me for not paying exclusive attention to her.
So I decided to take this coming Monday as a “Personal Choice Holiday”. Everyone in the Company gets a Personal Choice Holiday, or “PCH”. This is a legacy of the last merger we went through back in the mid ‘80’s. While one company observed Veterans’ Day, the Other Company observed Good Friday. To reconcile the two, both “holidays” were dispensed with and everyone was given the choice of either day, or any other day, as long as it didn’t impact the work group.
So you could take your birthday off, if you wanted to. Or any other day. It boils down to an additional vacation day. As it happens, this Monday is fortuitous as it coincides with “Jeannie’s” long awaited 6-hour appointment at the dentist. I can take care of my taxes and still be finished in time to pick her up and take her home. After 6 hours in the dentist’s chair, no one should be allowed behind the wheel of a car.
In other news…
My telephone operators have again expressed some concerns about being left alone tomorrow, with both their lead and supervisor being off that day. So I’ve volunteered to work in “Pleasanton”, no hardship for me. And, just by coincidence, I have more candy to take with me.
Does this mean they’ve figured out, “If we complain about using the system, she’ll come back to help, bringing more candy”? Can people who can’t remember the difference between closing a window and minimizing it be that devious? As long as their boss is willing to pay me to hold their hands, who cares?
However, the Global Document Management System project is taking off and will be requiring more of my time.. I’ve had two one-on-one training sessions this week and may be scheduling some classroom-style training in the next week, or so.
And Corp “Winks” still wants me to spend as much time as possible on their boxes. The current department that I’m working on is a total hodgepodge of stuff. Instead of large groups all going to one new department, it’s one box goes here, the next box goes there, the third over that way, etc. So it’s slow going. I even set up the computer last Sunday and worked on it for a couple of hours during the Academy Awards. After you’ve seen the dress, the jewels and the shoes, who cares what the actress has to say.
Finally, “Jeannie’s” computer. After four trips back to the computer store, they were supposed to uninstall and reinstall everything. When I set it up on Sunday, I discovered that they had failed to install anything except the initial operating system. They even forgot to install the modem drivers. The physical modem was there, but the computer had no idea that it even existed.
This was the last straw. I made an appointment with a computer doctor in “Livermore”, one I’ve used before. “Jeannie’s” PC is currently at the clinic, waiting for the doctor to get back from a business trip. If he can’t figure out what the geniuses who put it together did wrong, then it really is an $800 paper weight. However, I have confidence that he’ll be able to set things right and the computer will be on the road to recovery.
Keep a good thought. And here’s hoping “Jeannie” and I can make it to the movies this weekend.
Love, as always,
Pete
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