It certainly has been a week, hasn’t it? One of those weeks where I just can’t even.
(This applies to work, but especially to the utter shitshow that is our current administration and its Republican enablers.)
So the Shirelles singing “Mama Said” seems
absolutely spot on.
TGIFreakinF
I’ve mentioned that I love candles, and that IKEA is a great source for them.
Well, after my last post on the matter, I discovered that IKEA was having a sale on tea lights, so I placed an order for them, and a few others. I did not feel like schlepping down to Potomac Mills, and pandemic and all, so I just had them shipped.
They do a good job of updating you on deliveries, so I knew when the shipment was coming. But when it did, I was surprised to see a carton big enough to live in:
I mean, I didn’t think I’d bought enough candles to fill a 32” x 17” x 14” container. I wondered what else those Sons of Scandinavia might have tossed in.
Well, no—it turns out they just wrapped the living daylights out of my candles. Here’s the packing material after I unraveled it all:
Here’s the actual haul:
I think I’m pretty well set for a few months.
Ya-hay, folks!
Following my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Monday, I have good news. The plumber did indeed restore hot water to my tub/shower, and he did it without damaging the existing tiles. In fact, the new installation delivers a much more powerful gush of water, and I’m so happy.
At work, we also restored our email deliveries, to the relief of everyone who relies on the information they bring to internal and external customers. There’s no guarantee that this will continue—this delivery system is held together by chewing gum and picture wire, but at least it’s working for now.
And—speaking of workarounds—we have one for internal access to the new hotshot application.
Of course, tonight I’ll be working until 2100
for a call with people in Asia/Pacific. But I don’t guarantee that I won’t have
a slurp of wine in me by then.
So here was my yesterday:
No hot water in my shower. Hot water in the bathroom sink, but not in the shower.
Called plumber recommended by a colleague. He and his daughter/translator came out and basically confirmed what Google told me: I need a new mixer. This requires getting to the access panel, which is in my bedroom closet. I have not opened this closet since I stopped going in to work in March. It had six months’ worth of dust on the floor and I was mortified.
Fixing the issue may require replacing a row of tiles on the tub surround. I hope to God not, because I don’t have enough extra tiles to accommodate that. He’s coming around today to deal with it; please direct a few words to Saint Vincent Ferrer and Saint Anthony of Padova.
Then, at my first meeting of the day, I asked ENG what their plans are for levels of entitlement for company employees to get on our new application. At first, my pal Foghorn essentially asked, “What is this [access feature] of which you speak?” I reminded him that we have multiple tiers of permissions for employees with the current application, which this new one is replacing. He responded with, “Yeah, we’re not doing that.” And I replied, “You’re just going to let everyone on with access to every feature?”
Well, grumble, grumble.
Dude—we spent weeks last October and November setting up the roles and deciding on who should be able to access which function. Not my fault that when you were embarking on your ENG-only plans for world conquest you didn’t think about this. It’s like sending your army to invade the USSR and not supplying them with winter clothes. I may be Poland in your Weltanschauung, but I can still laugh at you because you're an idiot.
And finally, I spent a good part of the day dealing with an issue that turned out to be Office365-related. Seems that the daily emails we send out to thousands of users go through an Exchange server mailbox, which has a 99GB rate limit. And not only do the outgoing emails count toward that issue, but bounce emails do, too. Turns out we were at 110% of our limit because something like seven years’ worth of bounce emails have accumulated there. It took us an hour to purge just 20GB of these things.
All I’ve got to say at this point is: week, you have to do better.
Three wonderful things happened this weekend. First,
my yoga instructor gave my lesson in
my house again, and it was just exactly what I needed.
Also on Friday, my Kiwi friend in the UK, DLF, reached out to me with his thoughts on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Back when it happened 19 years ago, DLF was one of the first people to call to check on me. On that ghastly day, my colleagues in Europe bathed me in support and sorrow.
In the intervening years, we’ve been in contact off and on—he introduced me to both Gmail and Skype. And in job-hunt mode, we’ve acted as accountability partners, typically in bi-monthly video calls.
Well, starting around February, he kind of disappeared, so I was so glad to hear from him. And yesterday we rebooted our video calls, and it was such a joy for me to be able to talk with him again. I told him about my yoga experience, and that reminded him that he’s not practiced in some time, and maybe he should resume.
The third object of gratitude was that yesterday the watermelon fairy paid me a visit. I do not have a photo of the whole melon, because I cut it open too quickly. But here’s half of it.
It was sweet, juicy and flavorful. Exactly what I needed for my Sunday lunch.
I am so blessed.