Weird Wednesday, Weird Work Week

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that Wednesday is my Tuesday with my current schedule. So far, the week is getting off to an unusual start.

For one thing, apparently Monday was extremely busy, which isn’t very typical in the summer. I’m calling it a preview of the start of fall semester next month. Everybody needed doors unlocked, and people kept locking their keys in their offices.

And then, the dead calm of the IT Department’s power surge causing the phones and internet to fail. It was handled, but some of the phone features were still being repaired as late as this morning.

Today, I was working on a special project that involves calling people to update information. Recalling that a few weeks ago I made an outbound call from the main line and when that call lasted more than a few minutes it prevented other callers from being able to dial in (it shouldn’t have – there are multiple lines on that phone, plus another phone it can feed into, but someone was getting a busy signal) I decided to use another of the five front desk phones.

Why do we have five phones? There is the main line, which actually has two lines. Then there is the emergency phone, which is strictly for emergency calls. Then there is a phone right next to the emergency phone, which is great for calling to trouble shoot any issues with NCIC/FCIC. There is a phone that the public can use, which is located on the counter by the door, and then, the fifth phone – a phone that is conveniently placed next to one of our alarm monitoring systems, presumably for the purpose of calling to trouble shoot alarm system issues. It was this final phone that I decided to use.

I typed myself out a script first, because secret? I always feel a little uncomfortable about making outgoing calls. I compiled my list of phone numbers. I looked down and thought to myself, “Boy, this phone is dusty! Maybe I should wipe it first.” Then I felt something brushing on my leg, and I looked down and made a sound that made my supervisor think I’d spotted “the office rat.” (We’ve had some sort of rodent in the building in the past couple of months.) No, it wasn’t a rat.

It was a HUGE bug. A black bug. A roach or a palmetto bug. And IT WAS ON MY LEG.

So, here is the weird part – after knocking it off and watching it scurry behind the computer panel by the floor, my thought was, “DAMN. I should have taken a picture!”

What the Hell is wrong with me?

Priorities. Next time I’m getting that bastard with my cellphone camera. I know, hopefully there won’t be a “next time.”

And no, it was NOT a pretty beetle like this one!

Computer failure

The phones and Internet all went down at school/work today because of some sort of catastrophic failure in IT. It was over 30 minutes before any phones worked – we had to call the county dispatch and give them the department back up cell phone.

The internet was down for an additional hour or two, depending on where you were on campus. The main website was down for nearly four hours. I feel bad for any of my classmates who were trying to take the final in programming or turn in the critique papers. I was exempt from the final (woo hoo!) and I managed to turn in my paper (with some minor problems with the drop box – I had to email it to my professor) Saturday night after work.

I did a little Uber driving Sunday. I spent a good chunk of time waiting for a rider to request a ride. While waiting I got some really fun photos of a grasshopper on my window/rear view mirror.

Katydid the bug photographer…

Today I snapped some ladybug photos while walking the dog.

In between those two days, I captured the extent of the porch leak our landlord can’t  be  bothered to repair…

I need a real DSLR camera and soon. I may be photographing a wedding soon.

And that’s my story for the last few days.

Tomorrow is Weird Wednesday.  I’ll  try to come up with something other than videos of people dressed like large penises. Because that seems to keep popping up. All puns intentional. Even the ones you caught that I may not have intended.