Friday, July 14, 2006
 

(Post title with apologies to Dorothy Parker)

One of those nasty Southern summer storms did a number on this area last night. When I got to work this morning, I discovered that every server we have (public internet, Horizon-- our checkin, checkout, etc. system- program, card catalogs, everything was down, down, down.

Our director / systems admin was on a plane to California at the time.

We have no second in command.

The situation was not pretty.

We couldn't let the hungry users on the computers, and the natives got VERY restless (we're the only free internet access in the county), and we were back to manual checkin-checkout, which is a tremendous pain in the butt.

Every time something goes wrong with the computers and the systems admin is gone, it gets dumped on me. It's like everyone around me disappears and leaves me alone with server boxes. That's what happened today. I finally ended up on the phone with our systems people. Because I was talking to a man, he assumed that I was just blind when I kept insisting the network panel wasn't in the server room. Finally, he just said he'd come.

Well, lo and behold, the panel isn't in the server room. Huh, how about that.

It turns out to be OUTSIDE, in the boiler room, which isn't exactly the best place for it, and I had no idea it was out there. Long (long) story short, it did get fixed. I went home at one (with no lunch for either the second or third time this week) with a killer headache and a rotten attitude. It's been a week from hell; I've had to be the Nasty Circulation Manger a LOT, have gotten into it with patrons and coworkers (and I never do the latter-- as for the former, they start it), and I just feel nasty and mean and evil all over. Or maybe that's the headache talking.

Thank goodness I don't work tomorrow. I'd have to drown myself in the big puddles in our poorly-designed foyer (puddles courtesy of aforementioned storm).

One more thing: I put the following sign, using a fat Sharpie, on 11x17 paper on our front door. It read:
THE INTERNET IS DOWN. WE DO NOT KNOW WHEN IT WILL BE BACK UP.

A man walks up to me, reads the sign, and says (really): "Does this mean I can't use the internet?"

I should do something constructive now. (unlikely)

Reading: One of the Dead books by Charlaine Harris, forget which one. They're deep and memorable like that.
Listening: nuthin'
Current Obsession: You'll never believe this one, but . . . have I mentioned that I'm FAT?
Alice: Is, unlike me, a good-natured cutie who rolls with the punches. Her zen life escapes me.

Labels: Alice, books, computers, fatness, library

Elvisette philosophized at 9:15 PM