Really AWFUL IT Day at the Festival...
Before I get into the BAD news, I do need to mention the GOOD news! Yesterday my insurance renewal papers came in the mail. I'm looking these over, and see that for the VERY FIRST TIME I can actually do this process online! I was pretty excited -- but nervous, too...
Anyway, I set up an account and did the renewal. It seemed to go very well, but I was uncertain. So I decided I'd call and check to see it I did things right, or not. This morning I'm on hold (a 20 minute hold) -- I had my phone on speaker and was actually moving around the upstairs working when a person finally came on. I tell her my concerns (that maybe I've done it wrong), and she takes my info and looks me up. The good news??? I'm RENEWED until February of next year!
Usually it takes more than 30 days to find out the results, so it's pretty awesome that they've streamlined the process so much. As I've said before, the state of Oregon is truly a guideline for the rest of the country when it comes to health insurance.
As for the rest of the work day? Murder. Really, really rough -- all day long.
Katie had shared with Marilyn that we're currently in a Mercury retrograde period, which I honestly know nothing about. However, we've been having a bunch of unexpected IT issues at the office, and we had SEVERAL today!!! Here's what Marilyn read and shared with me (well, part of it, anyway):
Mercury retrograde periods are notorious for causing computers to crash and for machines, appliances, and other electronic devices to show signs of wear, requiring urgent repair. Backup your computer in advance of any Mercury retrograde period. If you had planned to install new software on your personal computer (or, if you work in IT, on your network), wait until the retrograde period is over to do so. Weird things happen during these periods. For example, you may suddenly discover that you were sold a defective hard drive, even though it may never have given you problems in the past, at least not until you created that vital document and your whole system went down.
Poor Donn! I was so freaked out about the issues on my BRAND NEW MACHINE that I was giving him a pretty hard time. Suddenly the software I needed to use is 'corrupted' -- and then when I'm trying to get it to work, it appears not to be installed at all! And when I try to re-install it, I get the message that I don't have Administrator rights!
Try to understand that I am the Administrator at our office, as IT Manager. I have full Administrator rights for everything. But not on my new computer, running Win7... (sigh)
Plus I couldn't log in to our PHONE SERVER using Internet Explorer for whatever reason (!!!). I had to go to my old computer (which was thankfully still there) in order to move Katie's phone from one spot to another.
We were moving a bunch of computers around. Kate's computer (she was Carol's assistant last year and is coming back again as a seasonal this year) was moved from the L location to M. Katie was moved from her current spot to where Ashley used to be (right next to Rich). (Yesterday was Ashley's last day.) And Christine will now move into the second area at the front desk in place of the spot that faces forward when someone enters the door into our lobby. That spot is perceived to be our receptionist -- and Christine is actually our Office Manager. We will be getting our seasonal receptionist any day now. We used to simply move Christine to the second spot and the seasonal would work on her computer until she departed. But it was Marilyn's idea to permanently move Christine -- and her computer is the better computer of the two, so...
After waiting around TWO YEARS to get my own new computer, you'd think I'd be thrilled to finally have it. But it's been frustrating, to say the least! Yesterday I was nearly in tears because my own monitors wouldn't work with the new tower -- and I could barely see at all on the temporary monitors! What a mess. Donn will be able to get adapters to fix the issue, thankfully. And for today, I changed some settings that made it okay -- barely.
I had Kris at the office for lunch. We went to the Turkey Place. He's been living together with his current girlfriend for a year now -- but she's suddenly started asking him about marriage, which is NOT something he ever wants to do again. And the company he works for was SOLD in November, so he's probably going to lose his current job. He went on an interview this morning for another possible job...
I had a pile of work I was never able to touch, as things were so crazy (and so busy). Not sure if I'll try and do it this weekend or not... Or maybe I'll just wait until next week.
I really WANT to try and catch up all the stuff that's been going on recently! I can't believe it's been almost TWO FULL WEEKS since I last blogged!!! And so many things happened during those weeks. Yikes.
I missed blogging Christmas. And the New Year! And discussing all the weather issues we've had.
Sue and I got a hair appointment this past week (for next week). And I went in for labs at my clinic (I have an appointment to see my doctor on the 20th). Marilyn's been still fighting her bug for WEEKS now. She's only just getting over that terrible cough! (She's going in to the doctor next week again.)
I may try to go back and blog a day here and there. Or just try to cover whatever I can remember happened in one big blog. Not sure, as yet.
But I certainly didn't mean to end my year that way. Or start a NEW YEAR without blogging! Good grief.
Marilyn had a major iPad crash, by the way. Jeff has authorized me to buy her a new one (the festival will pay for it!). She bought her own iPad last time around, so this is pretty big.
Henry seems better. He's been pretty miserable for weeks now -- and his eye was bad again. It was like he had a virus (cold?) or something. Winter is very hard on him -- and it's been a difficult time, with these terrible low temperatures!
I made both cats miserable yesterday -- but NOT on purpose! I was home (because of the labs). Sue took me to the clinic first thing. I came home and took down our outside Christmas decorations and then was working on the feeding station, and getting nectar for the hummingbirds (their feeder was frozen!). I was in and out and had my jacket on a lot. So it wasn't until late in the afternoon that I realized I'd never turned up the heat all day long! Poor cats.
Right now it's hard. We're running water all day long (so annoying). We just don't want frozen pipes (of course). And we don't turn the furnace off at night (partly for the same reason -- the plumbing). But both Marilyn and I HATE having the furnace running all night long. We get way too warm for sleeping! It's quite a balancing act, anyway...
Gosh, were we BOTH tired after work today! She had an intense (and long) meeting at one point. She also had a lot of work to get done -- but had people in her office and meetings and the usual difficult stuff. And I had the IT nightmare day from hell.
We stopped at Safeway on the way home and got a few things. Then headed home. It was around 7:30 when we got here, pretty beat. And we just ate a bunch of stuff. I made bean dip, for one thing. But we'd picked up summer sausage and were eating that, too...
I remember taking a nap around 10:00-ish, but getting up at midnight.
Colin is here in the office with me. Sweet boy! He's been following me around a lot lately...
We're expecting BAD, BAD WEATHER this weekend (starting around noon tomorrow). Weather that might run into the first of next week. (sigh)
Jeff is away right now until Sunday...
Donn was going to come in and work over the weekend, but I told him to rest up for next week. We have so damn much to do!
I think snow would be okay -- but I hope we don't get FREEZING RAIN!!! (ugh)
By the way, things were good once we got home. It's always nice to BE HOME after a long day at work! (smile)
I've been pretty random. Sorry! I hope all is well with all of you. Happy New Year (belatedly)!!!
Off to bed...
Anyway, I set up an account and did the renewal. It seemed to go very well, but I was uncertain. So I decided I'd call and check to see it I did things right, or not. This morning I'm on hold (a 20 minute hold) -- I had my phone on speaker and was actually moving around the upstairs working when a person finally came on. I tell her my concerns (that maybe I've done it wrong), and she takes my info and looks me up. The good news??? I'm RENEWED until February of next year!
Usually it takes more than 30 days to find out the results, so it's pretty awesome that they've streamlined the process so much. As I've said before, the state of Oregon is truly a guideline for the rest of the country when it comes to health insurance.
As for the rest of the work day? Murder. Really, really rough -- all day long.
Katie had shared with Marilyn that we're currently in a Mercury retrograde period, which I honestly know nothing about. However, we've been having a bunch of unexpected IT issues at the office, and we had SEVERAL today!!! Here's what Marilyn read and shared with me (well, part of it, anyway):
Mercury retrograde periods are notorious for causing computers to crash and for machines, appliances, and other electronic devices to show signs of wear, requiring urgent repair. Backup your computer in advance of any Mercury retrograde period. If you had planned to install new software on your personal computer (or, if you work in IT, on your network), wait until the retrograde period is over to do so. Weird things happen during these periods. For example, you may suddenly discover that you were sold a defective hard drive, even though it may never have given you problems in the past, at least not until you created that vital document and your whole system went down.
Poor Donn! I was so freaked out about the issues on my BRAND NEW MACHINE that I was giving him a pretty hard time. Suddenly the software I needed to use is 'corrupted' -- and then when I'm trying to get it to work, it appears not to be installed at all! And when I try to re-install it, I get the message that I don't have Administrator rights!
Try to understand that I am the Administrator at our office, as IT Manager. I have full Administrator rights for everything. But not on my new computer, running Win7... (sigh)
Plus I couldn't log in to our PHONE SERVER using Internet Explorer for whatever reason (!!!). I had to go to my old computer (which was thankfully still there) in order to move Katie's phone from one spot to another.
We were moving a bunch of computers around. Kate's computer (she was Carol's assistant last year and is coming back again as a seasonal this year) was moved from the L location to M. Katie was moved from her current spot to where Ashley used to be (right next to Rich). (Yesterday was Ashley's last day.) And Christine will now move into the second area at the front desk in place of the spot that faces forward when someone enters the door into our lobby. That spot is perceived to be our receptionist -- and Christine is actually our Office Manager. We will be getting our seasonal receptionist any day now. We used to simply move Christine to the second spot and the seasonal would work on her computer until she departed. But it was Marilyn's idea to permanently move Christine -- and her computer is the better computer of the two, so...
After waiting around TWO YEARS to get my own new computer, you'd think I'd be thrilled to finally have it. But it's been frustrating, to say the least! Yesterday I was nearly in tears because my own monitors wouldn't work with the new tower -- and I could barely see at all on the temporary monitors! What a mess. Donn will be able to get adapters to fix the issue, thankfully. And for today, I changed some settings that made it okay -- barely.
I had Kris at the office for lunch. We went to the Turkey Place. He's been living together with his current girlfriend for a year now -- but she's suddenly started asking him about marriage, which is NOT something he ever wants to do again. And the company he works for was SOLD in November, so he's probably going to lose his current job. He went on an interview this morning for another possible job...
I had a pile of work I was never able to touch, as things were so crazy (and so busy). Not sure if I'll try and do it this weekend or not... Or maybe I'll just wait until next week.
I really WANT to try and catch up all the stuff that's been going on recently! I can't believe it's been almost TWO FULL WEEKS since I last blogged!!! And so many things happened during those weeks. Yikes.
I missed blogging Christmas. And the New Year! And discussing all the weather issues we've had.
Sue and I got a hair appointment this past week (for next week). And I went in for labs at my clinic (I have an appointment to see my doctor on the 20th). Marilyn's been still fighting her bug for WEEKS now. She's only just getting over that terrible cough! (She's going in to the doctor next week again.)
I may try to go back and blog a day here and there. Or just try to cover whatever I can remember happened in one big blog. Not sure, as yet.
But I certainly didn't mean to end my year that way. Or start a NEW YEAR without blogging! Good grief.
Marilyn had a major iPad crash, by the way. Jeff has authorized me to buy her a new one (the festival will pay for it!). She bought her own iPad last time around, so this is pretty big.
Henry seems better. He's been pretty miserable for weeks now -- and his eye was bad again. It was like he had a virus (cold?) or something. Winter is very hard on him -- and it's been a difficult time, with these terrible low temperatures!
I made both cats miserable yesterday -- but NOT on purpose! I was home (because of the labs). Sue took me to the clinic first thing. I came home and took down our outside Christmas decorations and then was working on the feeding station, and getting nectar for the hummingbirds (their feeder was frozen!). I was in and out and had my jacket on a lot. So it wasn't until late in the afternoon that I realized I'd never turned up the heat all day long! Poor cats.
Right now it's hard. We're running water all day long (so annoying). We just don't want frozen pipes (of course). And we don't turn the furnace off at night (partly for the same reason -- the plumbing). But both Marilyn and I HATE having the furnace running all night long. We get way too warm for sleeping! It's quite a balancing act, anyway...
Gosh, were we BOTH tired after work today! She had an intense (and long) meeting at one point. She also had a lot of work to get done -- but had people in her office and meetings and the usual difficult stuff. And I had the IT nightmare day from hell.
We stopped at Safeway on the way home and got a few things. Then headed home. It was around 7:30 when we got here, pretty beat. And we just ate a bunch of stuff. I made bean dip, for one thing. But we'd picked up summer sausage and were eating that, too...
I remember taking a nap around 10:00-ish, but getting up at midnight.
Colin is here in the office with me. Sweet boy! He's been following me around a lot lately...
We're expecting BAD, BAD WEATHER this weekend (starting around noon tomorrow). Weather that might run into the first of next week. (sigh)
Jeff is away right now until Sunday...
Donn was going to come in and work over the weekend, but I told him to rest up for next week. We have so damn much to do!
I think snow would be okay -- but I hope we don't get FREEZING RAIN!!! (ugh)
By the way, things were good once we got home. It's always nice to BE HOME after a long day at work! (smile)
I've been pretty random. Sorry! I hope all is well with all of you. Happy New Year (belatedly)!!!
Off to bed...