It is 3:43 PM on Wednesday, November 22nd 2017.
Ever since I got out of bed around 6:30 AM things have been going wrong. The first problem came when I tried to log into my work computer but the password wasn’t accepted and I ended up getting locked out.
This nonsense actually started the day before when I had to change my password. I did so and my laptop said it had updated successfully and worked just fine. However, my Blackberry (yes I still use it because our IT isn’t very good and Blackberries seem to have the least problems) wouldn’t accept the new password. After many re-tries I ended up getting locked out of my account completely. So I called the “Help Desk” which in the past was extremely unhelpful (outsourced to India).
Let me take a minute to tell you about the Help Desk. You’d be connected to a call center in India and speak to a “Tom” or “Bob.” You’d spend thirty minutes with them only for them to tell you at the end they’ll have to open a ticket and someone will respond back to me, usually about three to four days later. Well, last year they finally brought “the help desk” stateside and we can actually get things resolved pretty quickly. One would go absolutely out of their way to not have to call “the help desk” in the past and they earned the name “the helpless desk” amongst my colleagues.
So anyway, I called the Help Desk and they were successful in resetting my password and it worked for both my laptop and Blackberry. However, what they did did not synch completely with the security on my laptop. What this meant is that if I shut down completely I couldn’t get back in which lead to me being locked out AGAIN this morning.
This drives me absolutely insane, not because I don’t think there is an easy fix but rather my hatred for the previous “help desk” still lingers and I would do absolutely anything to not have to call them even though the help desk is much more helpful these days. IT problem, there goes half a day and it won’t be fixed for three! However, I explained the problem and even though the IT tech had to open another ticket like the old days and had to expect a call back the second level actually called me back within the hour!! I was absolutely astounded!
While I was waiting for that callback other things went wrong. I went to juice wheatgrass and for some reason couldn’t get one of the parts off. I was twisting it the wrong way!! Then my son came into the garage and said he couldn’t find me so had gone upstairs and had woken up the rest of the household. Now, I really value my quiet mornings and if my son wakes up then that is fine but I don’t want him waking up everyone else. Well he did and soon the wife and other son were soon downstairs much too early. I was peeved and told him he is no longer allowed upstairs in the mornings if he wakes up before everyone else.
So far, three things have gone wrong. One thing about me is I like to wake up early, put away dishes, clean any dishes still in the sink, make the coffee, meditate and workout all before everyone wakes up. I hadn’t done any of these things this morning before the entire house came downstairs. Anyway, did all of these things and then went outside to clean my wheat grass juicer. I wasn’t paying attention and cleaned it with my fish tank filter sponge (I clean fish poop with it!) and not my clean wheat grass only sponge. Now I’m really in a bad mood.
So I go inside and my son asks to use the Nintendo DS and I tell him to go ahead. I then get a call from the IT guy and get my work computer fixed. Not long after that I hear my oldest son crying very loudly. I go back inside and it seems the wife is mad because oldest son wasn’t supposed to be playing the DS. So son is mad, wife is mad and now I might even be in trouble because I’m the one who let him use the DS. At this point I just want to cancel Thanksgiving and go somewhere far away by myself.
Things do calm down and we go to the mall as planned to get pictures taken with Santa. We are the first ones there but it turns out that Santa and Ms. Claus had trouble getting the camera and computer working. So we go to a restaurant just outside the mall and before I can order I get a call for work that I had to take. It wasn’t a big deal but took about 10 minutes to resolve.
We finish lunch and go back to the Santa booth and Ms. Claus is still on the phone. We had assumed the camera/computer still wasn’t working but it wasn’t that; it was that there was a death in their family and Ms. Claus was informing her relatives. I spoke with Santa letting him know how sorry I am – it is the same Santa every year and I feel like I know him well. I let him know there is no rush at all and we make general conversation about life, family and passing away. The death was expected, the deceased was 90 years old, and so Santa and Ms. Claus were prepared for it. I really like our Santa/Ms. Claus that we see year over year and can tell they are just great people. I hope we get to see them for many years to come and I’ll be very sad that first time I walk to their spot and see a different Santa/Ms. Claus instead.
At this point with so many things going wrong in the day I just want to get home and stay still so nothing else can go wrong. We all take naps and so far nothing else has gone wrong.
The only other thing to report which is peculiar is that I needed to update my install of WordPress. Now WordPress always names their updates on jazz musicians and this update was named “Tipton,” the last name of an old girlfriend of mine. It would make a better story if we had had a bad breakup but we did not. I just thought that on a day when many things haven’t gone right or have been strange that WordPress chooses that name.
It is now 4:17 PM and I need to study a bit for the big day tomorrow. It is on me to cook the turkey, make stuffing and create a fabulous gravy from scratch. I am not a good cook but I can follow directions and having made Thanksgiving dinner for the past couple of years have made my own instructions. These are in addition to the recipes and tell me what to do when so I don’t make mistakes.
