So - I got to work this morning - and found all the terminals in one building dead, 5 printers not working, and people jumping up & down telling me about the big lightning strike that happened after I had left yesterday. Of course no one had phoned me to warn me of what was waiting for me. Plus our internet connection was down.
So I've spent the day screaming at Time Warner to come out and replace a dead internet modem/router while replacing print servers, wiring, and routers. It seems that the highly talented folk in the building with the dead terminals had decided not to move the surge protectors when they remodeled the office. So the surge fried all the print servers and routers - which were plugged directly into unshielded wall sockets. Printers in other buildings all had different problems - which gave me hours of fun swapping out cables, servers, power cords, etc to try and diagnose the problem. Our idiot accounts payable clerk tried to print checks on a non-functioning printer - and instead of telling me it didn't work just wandered up & down the hall chanting "the check printer, oh the check printer."
We then had to reboot the main server to re-initialize all the ports & hardware - so I announced over the intercom for everyone to turn off their terminal. Our resident idiot (the ONLY reason he still has a job is that he is bilingual) pulled the plug on his computer, leaving 4 active terminal sessions that needed to be individually killed - just when the Time Warner guy arrived with the new modem.
We now have internet access. All printers are working. Surge protectors are in place. I used up all the spare hardware and have ordered more. One network cable is still wonky, but I just moved the clients to a neighboring router - slow but functional. At this point I just don't care. I'm going home now to drink every Guinness in the frig and watch for today's storms to roll in. With the current weather pattern in place until September, it's going to be a long summer.
Oh, did I mention the boss's son having a temper tantrum at lunch when I had the nerve to close my office door for 10 minutes for lunch instead of rushing out to help him try to print invoices that were already canceled and no longer in the system? He's threatened to go to dad "to fix things." I've taken the prudent step of assembling several empty boxes in my office in case I walk out tomorrow.
Now this was a vent & rant extraordinaire!
for listening!