Good Weekend - Bad Monday

Boy did we have a full weekend. I would have posted about it yesterday, but it was one of THOSE days. You know the kind. I had several things go wrong before lunchtime. I got Josh to preschool early and was feeling good about myself until I saw the other kids. They were all wearing costumes. "Why is everyone wearing a costume?" I asked, dreading the answer. The answer was obvious. "It's costume day." Doh! Fortunately we live close enough that I was able to get Josh home to get his Spiderman costume and get back only a few minutes into class. And the first part of class is free time at the various learning stations. So, no big loss, other than my rhythm for the day...

So, I ended up getting to work a little later than planned because of the detour. I arrived too late for the first safety makeup meeting. No problem. I would just go to the one at 10:30. I had other stuff to do, anyway. For instance, I needed to go through the cables I had sorted and divide them amongst the test carts. Yes. The cables. The ones that were still sitting on the floor of the office at home in my haste to make sure Joshua wasn't late for school. Crap. Well, there was no time to go get them now. I would just go home after I played basketball at lunch. In the meantime, I puttered with other things until the meeting.

As I headed over to the meeting, I got a bad feeling. The director of our department, who had to go to the meeting was walking back from the room in which it was to be held. A few other of the meeting delinquents headed back. "It was at 10:00!" they complained. I checked my schedule and they were right. The confusion arose when I sent a message to the safety coordinator to confirm the meetings. "We still on for Monday at 8:00 and 10:30?" I wrote. I don't think he read my message closely as he replied, "Still on for Monday." So, he held a special meeting for our department at 10:45. I explained the situation to the director and he was very gracious about the error. Still, I was 0-for-3 thus far in the day.

At lunch, I stunk at basketball. (Yes, Jay. Worse than usual.) I couldn't hit a shot and my passes were awful. Still my defense was good and my team ended up winning all but the last game. I thought maybe the day was turning around. I headed home, showered and grabbed my box of cables. I made it back to work and still had a good block of time before my laser was going to be available. Andnow there were two lasers that had the software and interface I needed. Even better! My day was turning around.

The fates can be cruel sometimes. They lull you. You think things are turned around. They are merely toying with you so that when the day does fall apart, it really catches you off guard. That was how it was yesterday. It was just about time for me to use the laser. Then a coworker came over and let me know that one of the two lasers had died and she was not done with her release testing. The release, being Tuesday, trumped my needs and I was bumped from laser access. She took the laser I was going to have and nobody was around to fix the other one. It's just as well. There were two RS-232 to RS-422 serial converters in the lab that were not port powered. I needed one of them for my testing. They are both missing. And nobody knows where there are any others. I can get one for a mere $95, but it will take a couple of weeks to come in. Thbbbt!

Today has been better, but just as I was about to get access again, I got bumped. The release was all set to go out and then they found a showstopper. Three more days of testing on the laser I was supposed to use. Bollix.

Well, this has gotten long. I think I'll save the good weekend for my next post.