Finally back at work, so I can goof off and write into this blog. It's been an adventure and I am not loath to tell it. Where to begin, where to begin.
I guess pandemic is where to start. I was locked out of my job here at the laugh academy for about a month. They were in lockdown, no one in or out as they had a number of cases of the fever and unless you were here to take care of someone, you were not allowed in. Computer work was apparently not essential, although I did manage to get in one day but left early when they found out I was here. Seems I got here before the bosses and no one on staff wanted to tell me I was not allowed to be here, so I worked for a couple of hours until they saw me and then had to leave.
Good news is, I did not catch it. Bad news is, I did not catch it. But I suppose, overall, that is a good thing. I wanted to spend some time in isolation but with my robust health and cheery attitude, it was not to be. None of the kids have had it either, or anyone else that is living with us. Although, Anna claims to have had it for a week before she moved in but I have not verified that story and did not care enough to look into it. I am sure it is all true and she suffered greatly but let's just say, I have drawn a different conclusion. But not to worry, not to worry. It's all good.
I got a lot of other jobs in the meantime. I can't remember most of them but I have been working non-stop for a couple of months now, up until this past week when the floods came and swept everything into the ocean. But I am getting ahead of myself and will address that later, if it doesn't start to rain and I have to swim for it.
I do recall the Petbarn job. A nightmare. The first day, they told me to be there early, around 7:30. I said no problem. When I get there, the building is still being built. I am there to install some servers and cash registers and all kinds of new equipment. The building is still be wired for electricity. No networking stuff has been run, no cables, no ports, no desks to put anything on. But, that is not the worst part. In addition to that, no equipment to install. I looked around, through all the building materials and workers putting up cross beams and walls, and could not find anything resembling computer equipment. I asked the foreman. He said there wasn't any. I called the contact number I was supposed to work with. He said he was in charge of building material and had nothing to do with IT equipment. I called the people who sent me to the job. They said the equipment has been delivered on Friday and was there somewhere.
Three hours later, still no equipment. It was finally decided that it was a waste of my time to sit around and wait for them to find the equipment. I agreed. I did find out later that they never did find the equipment, and I am tired of typing that word as I misspell it every time, and they had to ship a whole other set to the new site. I was put on hold while they did this and it screwed up several other jobs I could have been doing waiting for them to decide when I needed to go back.
And as a final paragraph on this job, this was the worse planning for IT work I have ever seen. They want me to run all the cables for the sales positions through the desks they had specially designed to be trendy and functional. These are where the customer pays for everything. A normal task you would think but the desks were designed in such a way that you could not run a cable from the monitors on top to the computers underneath. The computers were designed to attach to the monitors but someone decided that did not look good, so they put them underneath. Again, normal operating procedure, but the desks were in three parts. There was the main part with the monitor on it. The computers did not go into this part. That is where the cash drawer went with no access to anything except the cash drawer. The rest was hollow but with no doors or holes. Attached to this, was an angled piece. Hollow but with no access from the top or sides, just basically a square, or triangular box. Attached to this, another cabinet. This is where the computer went, but this was at an angle to the whole setup. What it means was that you had to drill holes in each part of the desks to allow cables to be run from one to the other. Again, not unusual. But the people that drilled the wholes were the people who put the desks together. They were not computer people. They drilled a hole in the top for the monitor. Another whole through to the cash drawer, but not in line with the monitor hole. They drilled another hole through to the triangular piece near the front of it, but the hole to the final cabinet, they put in the back of the cabinet. None of the holes were big enough to put your hand threw. They were barely big enough to fit all the cables through. What it meant was, you had to run the cable from the top of the desk, to the front of the cabinet into the triangular piece and then back to the back of the cabinet to get it to the computer cabinet. They suggested I use a cable puller to route all the cables through so they would fit. A cable puller does not make two right hand turns in one length. It did not work. I gave up. They had to take the desks back apart so I could run the cables through them and then put the desks back together with the cables attached. It was a long three days to get it all together. I was sore, tired, and with cuts all over my hands trying to push cables through.
I have to go now, one of the nurses is screaming. And, I have to go home. So hope to get back to it soon.
I'm back. It's now Wednesday of the next week. Turns out the nurse was screaming because someone found a mouse behind the printer. Not sure if it was alive or dead. I ran out of there because I had to get to another site to pick up a hard drive. Long story, but not that long. I had installed it on a server a few weeks ago and now had to retrieve it and send it to headquarters. Stupid job but it pays well.
I think I spent way too much time on the Petbarn story. I should go back and edit or delete it but that would require me to go back and read it. Not going to happen.
The Petbarn story does lead into what I am doing today. I have been working on a project to upgrade all the hardware for an employment agency called Tursa. Supposed to take a month and a half but looks like it will go longer than that. Its steady work for that time, although I am exhausted by the time I get home each day. I do the Tursa project Mon - Thur and then do Prinz Willem on Friday. Prinz Willem is the nursing home and yes, that is spelled correctly.
I am at a Tursa site today. And like Petbarn, no equipment. Have spent all morning trying to find out where it is. I am told it will be delivered within the hour, which means I have half a day to do what I was supposed to do in a full day. I don't see how it can be done but I am told to get it done.
Have to go again, so probably will not get back to this before Friday. So it will be more time between entries. And I have not even mentioned the kids or the floods or the pandemic. I have a lot to cover. We will see when I get back to it.
I am back again. It has only been 5 minutes. I have about 30 minutes before the equipment arrives. I'll see what I can do.
We have had floods in Brisbane. They also had floods everywhere else on the east coast but I live in Brisbane. All my work was shutdown for a week as you could not go anywhere. Most of the roads were flooded. We were at the shops when it was beginning to happen and we had already seen the creek behind the mall was flooded all the way up to the road. While we were in there, they announced that everyone should go move their cars out of the parking lot as it was beginning to flood and the mall would be evacuated as soon as possible. There was water across the roads on our way home. Nothing very deep so we could make it home but in some places, it was too deep to cross.
The Brisbane river which runs through the CBD was flooding. We saw all the news about boats washing down the river from north of the river and they were taking out docks and piers all along the way. Several of the city cat water taxis were destroyed by debris floating downstream. Maeghan's school was closed as well as William's. Most of the trains and buses shutdown. The trains were down for almost a week as several tracks were underwater and then they had to ensure there was no damage before they could open them. I have not been on a train since then but I am told they are back to working as normal. Maeghan takes one into town for her school.
It was a fun week and now, I am reading that they expect more rain tonight. Of course, they have predicted that every night for two weeks and we have not seen any but they keep telling us there is more flooding coming.
I went across a bridge yesterday that one of the rivers runs through. There used to be expensive docks and boats along the river but seeing it yesterday, all you can see are the posts that the docks were built on sticking out the the water and the metal stairs and paths that led down to them are all twisted and washed away. There was not nothing left and I am wondering where the actual boats went as they were big expensive ones.
I think I will leave any other news for another time. Probably Friday when I am at the nursing home. Too much about to start happening and I need to make an entry so people don't think I gave up on this.
So, until next time
Later
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