This too shall pass; like a kidney stone.
Just follow me on this.
The school is getting a new roof 3 years behind schedule. There is much pounding, stuff falling from the ceiling, drilling and noise. Every day we have to cover everything in plastic before leaving for the day in case of rain or snow (this weekend should cause much wetting everywhere). In addition to that, the school is also going to be remodeled. Given the quick pace of the roof, it should be finished around 2015.
So today, two guys walk in inform me that they are here to replace the fire alarm system. Okay. And would this be the large grey box just over my desk? Of course it is. How long will this take? About a day and 1/2. JOY! I have to clear my desk and I am a secretary without a home.
The guys start yanking out wires and try to figure out where the box is connected to having 50+ electrical breakers to choose from. The breakers are all labeled but none of the labels match anything they are supposed to be connected to. So, they decide to short out they fire alarm. This causes many sparks and smoke to fly out from the wall and around my desk. My stress level is rising as the sparks flicker and die. Then the guys figure out that it's not connected to just one breaker but two and one of the breakers didn't trip. The thing is still live!
The district maintenance guys are called and they have no clue. I suggest several times that the fire alarm is probably connected to the panel of breakers at the other end of the building. No one is listening. I go to lunch.
I came back. Still no clue where the thing is connected. Someone decides to kill the main power breaker at the other end of the building and lo the fire alarm is now dead and safe to work on. Unfortunately, all our computers are dead with it. Not that I could get to mine anyway.
Wait, still not safe to work on? Why? There isn't a grounding wire from the wall. Our brilliant district "electrician" said, "Wait...you want that installed now?" My terse reply, "Yes Johnny, he wants it now. Because I don't have a desk until that fire alarm is replaced." Johnny shakes his head in disbelief. Installing a ground wire should take at least 3 weeks to accomplish and now it's going to take only 1/2 an hour to do a 5 minute job. This means Johnny will have to do something else the same day. How inconvenient!
Ground wire installed, power returned ... except the computers won't connect to the internet so we can do the daily attendance. Oh yeah, now I have to call the computer tech people to come out and reboot the server. Then they have to call the company who is our ISP to tell them to manually restart on their end our school. I now have 6 extra people in our tiny office all talking loudly about 3 different things. There is crud all over my desk. Equipment all over the floor. Time to dismiss the kids for the day without crushing bits of the new fire alarm system.
The whole afternoon was one giant stress ball because my carefully ordered desk area, which now has be dis-assembled because the new fire alarm is huge covering my filing system that is attached to the wall (I don't know how I'm going to get it out and off without it breaking) is in total disarray. I am not good with that kind of chaos. I may hide out in the nurse's office and dole out bandaids all day tomorrow.
The school is getting a new roof 3 years behind schedule. There is much pounding, stuff falling from the ceiling, drilling and noise. Every day we have to cover everything in plastic before leaving for the day in case of rain or snow (this weekend should cause much wetting everywhere). In addition to that, the school is also going to be remodeled. Given the quick pace of the roof, it should be finished around 2015.
So today, two guys walk in inform me that they are here to replace the fire alarm system. Okay. And would this be the large grey box just over my desk? Of course it is. How long will this take? About a day and 1/2. JOY! I have to clear my desk and I am a secretary without a home.
The guys start yanking out wires and try to figure out where the box is connected to having 50+ electrical breakers to choose from. The breakers are all labeled but none of the labels match anything they are supposed to be connected to. So, they decide to short out they fire alarm. This causes many sparks and smoke to fly out from the wall and around my desk. My stress level is rising as the sparks flicker and die. Then the guys figure out that it's not connected to just one breaker but two and one of the breakers didn't trip. The thing is still live!
The district maintenance guys are called and they have no clue. I suggest several times that the fire alarm is probably connected to the panel of breakers at the other end of the building. No one is listening. I go to lunch.
I came back. Still no clue where the thing is connected. Someone decides to kill the main power breaker at the other end of the building and lo the fire alarm is now dead and safe to work on. Unfortunately, all our computers are dead with it. Not that I could get to mine anyway.
Wait, still not safe to work on? Why? There isn't a grounding wire from the wall. Our brilliant district "electrician" said, "Wait...you want that installed now?" My terse reply, "Yes Johnny, he wants it now. Because I don't have a desk until that fire alarm is replaced." Johnny shakes his head in disbelief. Installing a ground wire should take at least 3 weeks to accomplish and now it's going to take only 1/2 an hour to do a 5 minute job. This means Johnny will have to do something else the same day. How inconvenient!
Ground wire installed, power returned ... except the computers won't connect to the internet so we can do the daily attendance. Oh yeah, now I have to call the computer tech people to come out and reboot the server. Then they have to call the company who is our ISP to tell them to manually restart on their end our school. I now have 6 extra people in our tiny office all talking loudly about 3 different things. There is crud all over my desk. Equipment all over the floor. Time to dismiss the kids for the day without crushing bits of the new fire alarm system.
The whole afternoon was one giant stress ball because my carefully ordered desk area, which now has be dis-assembled because the new fire alarm is huge covering my filing system that is attached to the wall (I don't know how I'm going to get it out and off without it breaking) is in total disarray. I am not good with that kind of chaos. I may hide out in the nurse's office and dole out bandaids all day tomorrow.