So You Work With Computers Part III

Our office is about to embark on a relocation...a whopping three blocks away. Distance doesn't really matter when you move, does it? Any moving sucks.

Unlike the office move I had to do pretty much by myself at my previous company, the firm is flying out no less than a dozen people to assist. Some of these people are on the office admin side and some are on the technology side. They started arriving today.

Our first visitor is with the VoIP phone company that we use. He showed up, the receptionist instant messaged me to let me know he was here and I went out and introduced myself. We chit chatted and then I took him over to the new building, thinking the project manager was there. He wasn't. So we walked back in the rain. Upon our arrival at the old office, we decided to set him up in the conference room so he could get some work done while waiting for the project manager to show up.

He started stammering on and on about our proxies and firewalls (the software/hardware that controls your ability to reach the internet) and how his laptop is new and had never been in one of our offices. Could I go ask one of the guys in IT what the proxy settings are so he could remote into his company's network?

Did you read that last sentence carefully?

Being the effective (!) communicator that I am, I reiterated his request back to him to be sure we were on the same page.

He replied, "Yes, just go ask one of the guys in IT for the utility or what the proxy settings are. They'll know what I'm talking about. Just ask one of the guys in IT."

I stood there looking at him (again with the "you just arrived here from Mars look") and said:

"I AM the guy in IT."

Dad Update

My mom called to tell me that my dad made it through the six hour surgery with flying colors. There was no evidence that the cancer had spread beyond the prostate, but we'll know for sure when we get the pathology results.

Big sigh of relief...

So You Work With Computers Part II

It was decided that the tax department, due to their stationary nature and the kind of detail work they do, should have 19" monitors to supplement their puny laptop displays. Great idea, although it took some convincing on my part to get them to see that while they would give up desk space, they would gain "real estate" and not need as much desk space.

The displays finally show up and I set about installing them and giving the users orientation. Let's keep in mind here that this is to supplement the laptop display. Laptops are placed in a docking station, where all the cords and such plug into (including the monitor), so it's very simple, really.

After giving this particular user an orientation to his new set up, he turns to me and says:

"So, if I don't have my laptop, will the monitor and keyboard still work?"

I look at him like he's just dropped in from Mars. The trip from outerspace obviously deprived him of oxygen required for coherent thinking.

After a full minute of me staring at him like the village idiot that he is, he says "Oh, I guess not, huh?"

Ya think?

Ok, ok...I'm still here!

Sorry about the lack of posting lately. I even had a nice one started and somehow it disappeared. Before I get too far into this latest missive, can someone PLEASE tell my why the archive section over there on the right says 2006? And the wrong month no less? I can't figure it out. Maybe it's another victim of the early Daylight Saving Time that's been forced upon us. Anyway...

What have I been up to? Let's see... hubby miraculously managed to not be included in the boat's latest six week underway/trip, so it's togetherness to the nth degree for the next two months or so. It's been nice having him home, especially last week when I was so sick I thought I was going to drown in my own mucus. Lovely thought, no? He came back home February 16th and as of that date had spent a whopping 8 days home the whole year. It's a nice change, but now we are trying to find a hobby or something to do together and my DVR is getting overloaded. And no, sex is not a hobby, as much as he may disagree.

Sunday my father departs for Seattle to go back to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center where he will be undergoing a prostatectomy that Tuesday. But this isn't your regular run of the mill surgery, noooo...this is cutting edge medicine done with a robot! The surgery should take approximately 6 hours due to the nerve sparing aspect of it. That's a lot of time on the table, but if it allows the patient to return to normal function, I suspect it will be worth it. Barring complications, he should be back in the 'aina the following Wednesday to start his month long recovery. Keep him in your thoughts if you would.

As you can see life has been rather uneventful lately. We're trying to figure out when our summer trip to the mainland will be and what Cali spots we'll be stopping at on the way to Nebraska and on the way back to Hawaii. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts with the boat's schedule and my stepdaughter's chock-full summer, it's looking like August this year and Nebraska in August is hotter than Dante's fourth circle of hell, so I'm not overly thrilled.