More Nostalgia and a loss

My wife's father died in Florida. She spoke to him on the phone about
a before but never got the closure of being there when he was in the hospital.

It reminded me of the 4th of July 2 years ago when we nearly lost our son to an
'opportunistic' infection. 2 Years agao we spent 4th Jult on an ambulance
from Tawas St. Joseph to U of M in Ann Arbor.

I still remember Dr. Caird. She came to his room that evening and very gently
unwrapped his bandages to look at his foot. He was moved up to first in line
for surgery the next day...

His foot still looks funny, but he can run, walk. He could so easily have died from
septicemia.. It's going to be a joyous 4th just because we're past all that!

Old Friends rediscovered

I guess I was feeling nostalgic, as I had come back from a DR drill in Philadelphia,
where I worked when I first came to the US in 1983.

I had a friend who worked in British Rail in Scotland before I came here.
He won't mind if I say he was a 'train fanatic'. Imagine my surprise that I
'Googled' his name and 'Rail' and found that he still works on the railways
in Scotland.

There something to be said for that kind of presence. I didn't have much luck
looking for any of my other friends.

(Not)On Vacation

I was on vacation this week. I thought I'd take the time to drive down the the office that is closing and move my old workstation , plus one for a client to the raised floor.
It's Spring Break here, so I took my son to help with the heavy lifting.

Imagine my surprise (not!) to discover half way there that no one had completed
the paper work to allow me to move the equipment to the raised floor. Even worse,
when I got to the office, my badge would not work on the room where my workstation
was.
Many frustrating phone calls and runarounds later, I was told that I could temporarily
store my equipment in an area in the old building that was not immediately closing,
but I was given phone numbers for people who were out as contacts. also, no luck on getting into the room where my workstation was located. Everyone kept telling me 'authorization is required - you have to go to so and so...' no one was listening.
I HAD authorization - some idiot deleted it for some reason...

I even stayed over night at a relatives and it was 'same crap, different day' the next day.
Eventually, I located a FRIEND who had access and who was going to the office the next day to get my equipment and move it for me...

Why does this stuff have to be so hard? This is crazy!

April Fools again

Nice weather in the MidWest this week.
70s today and maybe low 80s tomorrow.
Still holding my breath in case there's the usual Easter
Surprise Snow Storm. We might miss it this year...
Have to clean out my office next week.
My employer is closing buildings and making
almost everyone work from home.
They don't pay for Internet either... :( Cheapskates!

It works out for me, but I need a real desk at home.
It would be nice to keep my old clunker of a J5000 ,
but I know my wife will freak if I try to bring that home.
It was/is a very good workstation. Never gave me any trouble,
except when they did 'generator tests' at work and power cycled
the building every 3 months.
I used to have a little trouble because they shut off the A/C
at work at night and on weekends, so I had it moved to a
'computer room' that had 7x24 AC and Power.
Now they are closing the building.. {sigh}

Talking about saving money, they are making me and about 10 other people spend a week
at a DR site to do stuff that could be accomplished easily from home. What a waste!
But some bean counter gets to check a column in a spreadsheet some where.

Bored

Nothing much happening.
Happy Valentine's Day to anyone who's reading.