I am sitting here listening to Todd talk to a tech support person on the phone. He cracks me up. He has a different tone to his voice depending on who he is talking to. He has a very deep voice that softens considerably when he talks to me or his little girl. It's stern when the kids aren't behaving. Gruff and commanding when he is in the deputy uniform. Each voice is very distinct. The tone he uses for talking to tech support people is my favorite. It's a blend of all the others with a professional sounding edge. Sometimes he'll say "Yeah, I am with the sheriff's department". That usually sends me into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Like they are gonna go "Oh shit, this here's a real honest to god deputy! I better take good care of him!" Ha!
Microsoft has one perfectly lovely employee. Her name is Yvonne and she is a goddess. What she is doing at Microsoft I'll never know... but anyway, this gracious creature spent THREE hours on the phone with me yesterday trying to figure out why the license server was reporting that SQL Server was out of licenses. She conferenced in an NT licensing specialist. She stayed an hour late to try and help me. Did the licensing specialist?? Hell no! He was on the phone only about thirty minutes and kept saying my name after every single sentence. Leeeee...SA!
Why can't every company have Yvonne's sitting at their help desks? I know I'm babbling but this is so out of the ordinary. I usually spend hours on hold listening to some god awful music that is sporadically interrupted by an irritating voice that says "All of our technicians are busy helping other customers. Your call is VERY important to us so please stay on the line..." then more horrific music. My favorite is "We are currently experiencing high call volume. Please continue to hold or try your call again between the hours of 8am and 10am on Thursdays when call volumes are lower." Ya know, whenever I get that it is ALWAYS 8:15am on a Thursday. Where was I going with this.... oh, Yvonne. Yvonne is a breath of fresh air. I usually hold thru music and recordings only to get one of the following:
someone who speaks limited english;
someone who obviously chose tech support over an after school paper route; - no offense to you super smart high school kids
someone who doesn't know or even care about the product they are servicing; or
someone who just hates life and everyone in it.
I've become increasingly convinced that some companies pay people to do tech support from their dining room table, armed with a flow chart similar to what 911 dispatchers use for first aid instructions. I think these are the same people who do spiritual/psychic readings for the 900 numbers... which is also done from the dining room table. Sorry to disappoint those of you who call those physic numbers but really... they are routed into the home of a person whose only skill is the ability to bullshit you long enough to keep you on the line past the free three minute reading. Honest. I did that job for a couple of days. Made ten bucks. That's a whole other story.
Anyway, Yvonne and others like you (if there are any) who answer tech support calls in a friendly and professional manner and who truly wish to help those of us who need it.... SALUTE!!
Today has been one of those emotional rollercoaster days that leave a person feeling like a wrung out dishrag. I worked on installing a mail server and learned some new stuff which is always a good time for me. I love learning new stuff... especially geeky stuff. I also spent a great deal of time on the phone with a microsoft tech person regarding SQL Server and learned more new stuff there. I told the boss I'm about ready to ditch the web developer gig and become a system administrator. He groaned so I guess that means I will always be a developer and just dabble in the administrating chores. Doing NT administration is a lot of fun but I can sure see why they make a lot of money. It's enough to make you pluck yourself bald. But when it works you feel so dang smart : )
In other good news it seems as though Kaycee is feeling a lot better. I know that makes for a lot of happy people, myself included.
A year ago today my dad lost his battle with emphysema. In September last year I found him semi-conscious in his living room floor. The six weeks that followed were awfully rough. I spent hours each day at his bedside and watched the rapid deterioration of his health. In that last month he would forget where he was and who I was then he'd come out of it long enough to apologize for scaring me. He called my sister in Arizona to tell her goodbye for the last time. It was difficult for all of us as we wanted to keep him as long as we could. At the same time we didn't want him to suffer so we debated what was best - what to do when and if the time came to make a decision. The night before he passed away my brother and I had supper with him at the hospital. My son went along and took grandpa some Halloween candy and told him about the costume he was going to wear. Dad was feeling and acting better than he had in weeks. Christopher had won a camera in Boy Scouts that night and wanted to take pictures of everyone and everything. I didn't think dad would want his picture taken but he said if that was what the boy wanted to do, then by God he could do it. Grandpa always had the final say in what Christopher got to do. So Christopher took pictures of him sitting in the bedside chair eating and pictures of Uncle Bob. It was so nice to see dad feeling better and moving around. When we left my brother said "We'll see you tomorrow dad". Dad would always holler back "Okay, see you then!" or "I think I'll stay here and wait for you!" That night he said "Love you. Goodnight." Neither of us thought anything of that at the time and walked to our cars talking about how great dad looked and how we might get to take him back home soon after all. The next morning the hospital called and told me that he had passed away.
Today my brother and I visited his grave together. My brother commented that it sure didnt seem like a year had passed. It sure doesn't. I can still hear his voice plain as day if I think about it. He used to call and fill my answering machine tape even though he knew I was at work. He'd yell "Lisa Michelle! Pick up the phone!" then lay the phone down and record my tape full of whatever was on the radio... either old country music or Paul Harvey. The day he died I pulled the tape out of the machine and put it away. A year later I am still not ready to listen to it. I keeping thinking I will and I just can't. Not while I still miss him this much.
I have been incredibly sick most of the weekend. I figured it was either from stress or just coming down with some nasty virus. Tonight on ICQ, one of my friends asks me if I've heard one of our restaurants is closing tomorrow. I hadn't heard that so I asked Todd if he'd heard that. He said he'd heard it at work today.. that the inspectors had come in and found rotten food and that their suppliers had stopped shipping to them. Well how neat is that??? We had four restaurants in town - now we have only three. That's bad enough but the worst part is that I ate there on Friday. I guess that explains the illness. Yuck! Now I won't want to eat out anywhere for a very long time. I guess the good news is that I must be handling my stress pretty well after all. Just hope I feel a whole lot better tomorrow so I can get my work done. Right now I feel like a truck ran over me and backed up just to make sure it got me.
