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My Week from H E Double Hockey Sticks
15 years ago
General
Sigh... What a week...
Monday. Have the day off as a holiday for New Years cuz NYD was on a Saturday.
So, knowing that I have a doctor's appointment sometime in early January, I decide I will swing by the office to confirm when it is. Got out to get in my car... and it won't start. Turn the key, lights, radio, airconditioner all come on fine, but it won't turn over. It won't even click. Oh great. Now, in addition to wanting to swing by the doc's office, there were a few other errands that I had to take care of that day in that area, I could not put them off. So, I borrowed Mom's car, did my errands, and confirmed that my appointment was on Wednesday. I figure, okay, I'll take Wednesday off work cuz of the doctor appointment, take the car to the garage in the AM, go to the doc in the PM. No problem.
Tuesday. First day back to work after Christmas shut down. Over shutdown, the AV system in the Boardroom was given some major upgrades. It is also my first day in a (technically) new job. I was transferred from one division to another , so I have much new paperwork and technical "stuff" to do as a consequence. Among other things, I don't yet have my new insurance cards. I call the benefits center, and am told, here is my number, just give that to your doc, it'll be enough. For prescriptions, just tell them you are CVS Caremark, you are in the system, won't be any problem. Okay. Continue to work on stuff. Then, at about 10 AM, just as I am starting to get to work on all the stuff, I get a call, the install techs are here to finish the work, and I need to escort them. So, I take them up to the boardroom to do their work. BTW, there is a "test" of the new system at 3. But, the system is not working. We manage to jury rig something to get it working for the test, but it is still not right. Well, the two techs work hard to fix it, and at 8:30 PM, it is all fixed, and we go home. I also decide, that since there is another test tomorrow, that is very important, at 11 AM, after I take the car to the garage, I will go into work to cover the test. That should make me look good.
Wednesday. Get up and call AAA to take my car to the garage. Tell them to send a flatbed. I drive a 1995 Caprice Classic station wagon with a really LONG wheelbase, and do not want it dragging the ground on a standard tow truck. "That'll cost $25" No problem. I want it. Okay, I will be called when the truck is 5 minutes away. About half an hour later, I get the call, the truck is 5 minutes away. Twenty minutes later, I call AAA. "Where's the truck? You called me 20 mins ago to say it would be here in 5." Well, the dispatch computer says he's there.. He's not... Whilst I am on the phone with AAA, the truck arrives. It is a flatbed, and it's already got a car on it. Uhm... How you plan to tow my car when there is already a car on your flatbed. Easy, put it on the hook and tow it behind the truck. Uhm... NO! I called for a flatbed, and I am PAYING extra for one, this car goes ON the flatbed, not on the hook. Your car is rear wheel drive, you don't need a flatbed. I WANT a flatbed! So, he finally pulls out of the driveway to take the other car off the flatbed so he can put mine on and tow the other. I say I'll see you at the garage. Takes him quite a while to get there, he apparently dropped off the other car wherever it had to be first. So with all that done, I finally go to work. Message is waiting for me, the boardroom is broken. I check it out, and it has the SAME problem that we were there till 8:30 fixing. The test is supposed to happen at 11. The tech is arriving at 11. Gets in at 11, and we put off the test till 11:30. He can only half fix it, but it's enough to demonstrate that the system works. After the test is over and all the big wigs leave, ANOTHER tech comes in to fix the problem. At 2 PM, I have to leave to go see my Doctor, so I turn the room over to a co worker. Go to Doc, and am told, Oh, gee, your appointment is on February 11th. Not today. Uhm, I was here on Monday, and was told today. No, it's February 11th. Your doc isn't even here today. Well, okay. Oh, BTW, I'm not Bluecross anymore, I am not Cigna, they said I should give you this number. "Well, what is your policy number, that's just the group number." Uh.... At this point, I start looking around for Rod Serling, as nothing makes any sense anymore. I got back to work, remember, I was supposed to take this day off, and take back the boardroom from the other guy. Well, at 4PM, the boardroom is pronounced fixed. So, I got back to my office, and try to make some sense of the new time reporting procedures that I am supposed to use. Well, I think I understand them, but the codes they gave me don't work. I eventually figured that out, and went home. BTW, I still have not checked all my e-mail from Christmas shutdown, let alone this week. Went to pick up my car, the starter was bad. $400.00
Today. I get to work, try to get through some of the backlog of stuff related to my transfer. I make some progress, call my regular doc, (the one I've been trying to see is my ankle surgeon, this was follow up to determine if I have any lasting impairment for Worker's Comp) to refill an RX. They will call it in to CVS. Get a call from Security. "Since you transferred, you no longer have a security clearance, please come get a new badge." Uhm, okay, but my clearance was supposed to transfer. It hasn't yet. Must be a snafu. As soon as it comes it, we'll re-classify you as having one, but in the meantime, you don't and you can't support anything classified. Okay, sure, no problem. BTW, we also have to take your other badge for the special area, cuz, well, you don't have clearance. Don't worry, we won't destroy it, and we'll give it back when your clearance is re-cleared. Sigh... Okay, sure. We gotta do it that way. No prob. Back to office to try to get more stuff done. About an hour later, I get a call from the special area, can I please come over and sign something, cuz, well, I don't have a clearance anymore. Yeah, okay. I'll be right over. (The special area is in another building on the other side of town. So, I head over, take care of that, then go back to the office to try to get more stuff done. Then at 1:30, I head up to the boardroom to activate the system in advance of the President's staff meeting at 3:00. Well, the system is broken again, with the SAME problem we have had twice before. I am able to manually get the data up onto the screens, but the phone interface is totally out of whack. So, I grab one of my Polycom conference phones so they can make there call. Get it working. Then I remember that I have satellite mics for the thing, making it even more useful. I go get them. One of them does not work. I determine the problem is the chord, not the mic itself. Go to the phone guys, but, they don't have the specific ends this cable needs to fix it. It uses the same smaller ends that you'll see on a handset unit on a regular phone. Neither to do they have any chords with the ends, except for a 12' coil cable, like the ones we used to have on our phones back in the 70's. Looks ridiculous, but it works, and I've got the two satellite mics working. BTW, my new boss's boss is in the room for all of this. Anyway, during all of this, I call the install/service techs to get someone in to fix the durn thing, cuz there's an even BIGGER important meeting on Monday. Well, they can get someone in tomorrow at 12:30 to fix it. Great. I also want someone in on Monday just to make sure, cuz I have no confidence anymore that it can be fixed properly. No problem, they will have someone in. So, tomorrow, at 12:30, I will be escorting the service tech to fix the thing, hopefully for good. Go to the pharmacy to get my RX, and they charge me full price. Uhm, wait, what about my insurance price. I am on CVS Caremark. Well, you are in the system, but not "fully." Here, keep this, and the receipt, and when you get your card, come back, and IF the system says you were in the system all along, we'll refund the difference. Ugh....
Did I mention that tomorrow is supposed to be an "off Friday?" That means I am supposed to have tomorrow off.
And of top of all this, there is still all the stuff I need to get done related to my transfer. Needless to say, this has NOT been my week.
Anywhoo... How is everyone else today?
:)
Kevin
Monday. Have the day off as a holiday for New Years cuz NYD was on a Saturday.
So, knowing that I have a doctor's appointment sometime in early January, I decide I will swing by the office to confirm when it is. Got out to get in my car... and it won't start. Turn the key, lights, radio, airconditioner all come on fine, but it won't turn over. It won't even click. Oh great. Now, in addition to wanting to swing by the doc's office, there were a few other errands that I had to take care of that day in that area, I could not put them off. So, I borrowed Mom's car, did my errands, and confirmed that my appointment was on Wednesday. I figure, okay, I'll take Wednesday off work cuz of the doctor appointment, take the car to the garage in the AM, go to the doc in the PM. No problem.
Tuesday. First day back to work after Christmas shut down. Over shutdown, the AV system in the Boardroom was given some major upgrades. It is also my first day in a (technically) new job. I was transferred from one division to another , so I have much new paperwork and technical "stuff" to do as a consequence. Among other things, I don't yet have my new insurance cards. I call the benefits center, and am told, here is my number, just give that to your doc, it'll be enough. For prescriptions, just tell them you are CVS Caremark, you are in the system, won't be any problem. Okay. Continue to work on stuff. Then, at about 10 AM, just as I am starting to get to work on all the stuff, I get a call, the install techs are here to finish the work, and I need to escort them. So, I take them up to the boardroom to do their work. BTW, there is a "test" of the new system at 3. But, the system is not working. We manage to jury rig something to get it working for the test, but it is still not right. Well, the two techs work hard to fix it, and at 8:30 PM, it is all fixed, and we go home. I also decide, that since there is another test tomorrow, that is very important, at 11 AM, after I take the car to the garage, I will go into work to cover the test. That should make me look good.
Wednesday. Get up and call AAA to take my car to the garage. Tell them to send a flatbed. I drive a 1995 Caprice Classic station wagon with a really LONG wheelbase, and do not want it dragging the ground on a standard tow truck. "That'll cost $25" No problem. I want it. Okay, I will be called when the truck is 5 minutes away. About half an hour later, I get the call, the truck is 5 minutes away. Twenty minutes later, I call AAA. "Where's the truck? You called me 20 mins ago to say it would be here in 5." Well, the dispatch computer says he's there.. He's not... Whilst I am on the phone with AAA, the truck arrives. It is a flatbed, and it's already got a car on it. Uhm... How you plan to tow my car when there is already a car on your flatbed. Easy, put it on the hook and tow it behind the truck. Uhm... NO! I called for a flatbed, and I am PAYING extra for one, this car goes ON the flatbed, not on the hook. Your car is rear wheel drive, you don't need a flatbed. I WANT a flatbed! So, he finally pulls out of the driveway to take the other car off the flatbed so he can put mine on and tow the other. I say I'll see you at the garage. Takes him quite a while to get there, he apparently dropped off the other car wherever it had to be first. So with all that done, I finally go to work. Message is waiting for me, the boardroom is broken. I check it out, and it has the SAME problem that we were there till 8:30 fixing. The test is supposed to happen at 11. The tech is arriving at 11. Gets in at 11, and we put off the test till 11:30. He can only half fix it, but it's enough to demonstrate that the system works. After the test is over and all the big wigs leave, ANOTHER tech comes in to fix the problem. At 2 PM, I have to leave to go see my Doctor, so I turn the room over to a co worker. Go to Doc, and am told, Oh, gee, your appointment is on February 11th. Not today. Uhm, I was here on Monday, and was told today. No, it's February 11th. Your doc isn't even here today. Well, okay. Oh, BTW, I'm not Bluecross anymore, I am not Cigna, they said I should give you this number. "Well, what is your policy number, that's just the group number." Uh.... At this point, I start looking around for Rod Serling, as nothing makes any sense anymore. I got back to work, remember, I was supposed to take this day off, and take back the boardroom from the other guy. Well, at 4PM, the boardroom is pronounced fixed. So, I got back to my office, and try to make some sense of the new time reporting procedures that I am supposed to use. Well, I think I understand them, but the codes they gave me don't work. I eventually figured that out, and went home. BTW, I still have not checked all my e-mail from Christmas shutdown, let alone this week. Went to pick up my car, the starter was bad. $400.00
Today. I get to work, try to get through some of the backlog of stuff related to my transfer. I make some progress, call my regular doc, (the one I've been trying to see is my ankle surgeon, this was follow up to determine if I have any lasting impairment for Worker's Comp) to refill an RX. They will call it in to CVS. Get a call from Security. "Since you transferred, you no longer have a security clearance, please come get a new badge." Uhm, okay, but my clearance was supposed to transfer. It hasn't yet. Must be a snafu. As soon as it comes it, we'll re-classify you as having one, but in the meantime, you don't and you can't support anything classified. Okay, sure, no problem. BTW, we also have to take your other badge for the special area, cuz, well, you don't have clearance. Don't worry, we won't destroy it, and we'll give it back when your clearance is re-cleared. Sigh... Okay, sure. We gotta do it that way. No prob. Back to office to try to get more stuff done. About an hour later, I get a call from the special area, can I please come over and sign something, cuz, well, I don't have a clearance anymore. Yeah, okay. I'll be right over. (The special area is in another building on the other side of town. So, I head over, take care of that, then go back to the office to try to get more stuff done. Then at 1:30, I head up to the boardroom to activate the system in advance of the President's staff meeting at 3:00. Well, the system is broken again, with the SAME problem we have had twice before. I am able to manually get the data up onto the screens, but the phone interface is totally out of whack. So, I grab one of my Polycom conference phones so they can make there call. Get it working. Then I remember that I have satellite mics for the thing, making it even more useful. I go get them. One of them does not work. I determine the problem is the chord, not the mic itself. Go to the phone guys, but, they don't have the specific ends this cable needs to fix it. It uses the same smaller ends that you'll see on a handset unit on a regular phone. Neither to do they have any chords with the ends, except for a 12' coil cable, like the ones we used to have on our phones back in the 70's. Looks ridiculous, but it works, and I've got the two satellite mics working. BTW, my new boss's boss is in the room for all of this. Anyway, during all of this, I call the install/service techs to get someone in to fix the durn thing, cuz there's an even BIGGER important meeting on Monday. Well, they can get someone in tomorrow at 12:30 to fix it. Great. I also want someone in on Monday just to make sure, cuz I have no confidence anymore that it can be fixed properly. No problem, they will have someone in. So, tomorrow, at 12:30, I will be escorting the service tech to fix the thing, hopefully for good. Go to the pharmacy to get my RX, and they charge me full price. Uhm, wait, what about my insurance price. I am on CVS Caremark. Well, you are in the system, but not "fully." Here, keep this, and the receipt, and when you get your card, come back, and IF the system says you were in the system all along, we'll refund the difference. Ugh....
Did I mention that tomorrow is supposed to be an "off Friday?" That means I am supposed to have tomorrow off.
And of top of all this, there is still all the stuff I need to get done related to my transfer. Needless to say, this has NOT been my week.
Anywhoo... How is everyone else today?
:)
Kevin
