Nasty weekend

I knew this past weekend was going to be a pain in the ass and it lived up to my expectations.  I had to work this weekend because the state was sending some installers in to replace the pc’s that are used for motor vehicle transactions.  We had 26 machines to be migrated and they were only sending three people which seemed a bit light to me.  Well after watching this crew in action for a bit, I knew we were in trouble.

One of the guys on this crew was the geekiest looking guy I may have ever seen in person.  I can’t hardly describe his looks besides saying he would be Napoleon Dynamite’s ugly brother.  There was one woman whom appeared big enough to kick the two guy’s asses.  All three of the installers were smokers and they smoked, a lot.  They quickly developed a pattern of stopping everything and going outside as a unit for smoke breaks every 20-30 minutes.  The people from our office found this annoying as we were inside busting our ass, pulling out old equipment, unboxing and placing new equipment all the while the people that were supposed to be doing it were sucking down cancer sticks.  We worked until 8:30 Friday night and arrived at a stopping point.  Throughout that time the 3 amigos never once acted like they had any interest in expediting this process, it was like a day in the park for them and I am sure that they caught on that the less they did the faster we worked to pick up the slack.  Pretty much everyone from our office that was helping was very annoyed with these poeple by this time.  They said they would be back at 9am Saturday and said it could be “the long day” of 12 hours or so.  Hearing that freaked a bunch of people out, including myself.  We had no expectations of spending that long to get stuff done.

Several of us arrived early on Saturday so we could get a jump on stuff.  I decided to bring Nicki with to work at the last minute. She looked so pathetic when I was ready to go, so I brought her along.  I figured with as much as I had to do, I didn’t want to have to take an hour and a half off to drive home and back.  She followed me around like a shadow all day, it was so funny.

 We jumped right in on doing more of the installers jobs, unboxing stuff, taking out trash and getting more annoyed by the minute.  The installers showed up about 9:15 and didn’t come inside until they all met for a kickoff smoke break outside the door.

The lead installer’s main responsibility was to get the new server online but he was having various issues getting it up.  It was obvious to me that these people had a very limited technical background and work off of a script.  If the script doesn’t go as planned they are pretty much clueless.  The new server was not coming to the sign on screen but instead just hung at preparing network connections forever.  However I discovered I could reach the server from the workstations.  This guy just waited and waited and waited for the server to come online, thinking that it was just slow.  It had been sitting at the same spot for a good 2 hours when he decided that his crew would go do lunch.  All morning they had continued their same casual pace, filled with double digit smoke breaks throughout the morning, it was f’ing ridiculous.  Instead of going out to lunch, we had one guy go and pick up lunch for us and bring it back so we could keep working.

Well while the installers were out dining, I managed to climb into the state network another way and create the user account that was necessary for us to continue to deploy workstations (something the installers had no idea how to do)  After I got this going we were a good hour and half into the 3 musketeers lunch break with no sign of them.  I called the guy up and asked him where they were, I told him I found a way around the current issue and we would appreciate them getting back to the office asap.  He said their food hadn’t come out yet but would try to hurry up.

  Well by the time they pulled back into the parking lot, they had been gone over TWO AND A HALF HOURS.  I was pushing along with the installs, doing what they were supposed to be doing, getting angrier with each passing moment that went by.  They had the balls to once again stop outside and take another smoke break before entering the building.  I let the lead installer get settled in front of his still screwed up server and then I blasted them all.  I told him it was total bullshit for them to take a two and a half hour lunch while we are here busting our ass trying to get this stuff done, I said we already put in our 40 hours and don’t need to work another 25 this weekend because his crew is screwing around, I mentioned how the constant smoke breaks and casual work pace was extremly annoying.  He replied back that the tax collector is supposed to allocate 10 hours for them Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  He said that is where he gets his 40 hours.  I said, so, you are telling me you are deliberately trying to stretch this out to take longer?  Then he backtracked and said he gets paid the same if it takes 10 hours or 40.  The entire time I was on him he refused to look at me.  I was really hot and demanded to know who was responsible for telling us to expect to put in 10 hours a day over the weekend.  He said I should call the project manager (whom I know from previous installs) and I angrily assured him I would.  I went right over to the phone and called him.

I recapped the scenario to the PM, my voice was very angry and he did his best to reassure me that he would handle it.  He said the installers were not handling things as they are supposed to.  The lead tech got a call a few minutes later and low and behold after that the amount of smoke breaks dramatically decreased and their pace quickened.  Sometimes I guess it just pays to just blast someone that is not pulling their weight.. Afterward it felt good to hear the compliments from my co-workers for hammering the installers for f’ing off.  Even with the quicker work pace from the installers, the 12 hour work day predication came true, I didn’t pull out of the office until 7:30 pm, just enough time to go straight to the airport to pick up Ali. Nicki was exhausted from walking after me all day.

Ali was spent from her emotional week with Pop Pop, of course  Nicki was thrilled to see her.  I strategically parked the truck so Nicki couldn’t see Ali. Then I let her out so she could pee in excitement on the concrete instead of on my interior.  Both Ali and I were exhausted from our days and we were both happy to back at home together.

Sunday I busted hump to get 2 days of chores done in a few hours so I could watch the Eagles.  I also had to make a grocery run since I hadn’t had time to do it up to that point.  Before that I stopped for a quick visit with my mom.  By the time I got home I had missed the first 10 minutes of the game and what a game it was.

 For the third time this year, the Eagles suffered a gut wrenching loss.  Before the game I assumed the Birds would be able to handle the Bucs, after all they are 1-4 and are starting a rookie QB.  The Eagles D should have him for dinner.  Well the game did not go as planned.  Donovan buried the team early throwing two horrible int’s that got returned for touchdowns.  Then at the end of the half, with 10 seconds to go, the Eagles had no timeouts but they had time to run one pass into the endzone and if it doesn’t work, kick a field goal. Well instead, Donovan throws the ball to the receiver on the 2 or 3 yard line, he is tackled and the clock runs out, no points. Those points would have won the game in the end.

Fast forward to the fourth quarter.  Donovan has been busting his ass to attone for his terrible int’s by running the ball more than he has in a long time.  They get the score to 17-14, only trailing by 3.  There is is about 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter.  Once again it looks like the defense is going to come up empty.  They can’t stop the Bucs and in fact help push them down the field when Jerome “Bust” McDougle FINALLY does something you never see him do, sack the QB.  But wait, the dumb ass grabbed the face mask of the QB, 15 yard penalty, what is that?  The asshole went and kicked the officials flag and got another 15 yards tacked on???  The Eagles D moved the anemic Bucs offense 30 yards thanks to that big dummies play, putting them in field goal range which the Bucs converted for a 20-14 lead, forcing the Eagles to score a TD to win.

The offense started slowly, doing very short pass plays that did not seem appropriate with less than two minutes to go.  On a third down they throw yet another short pass, at the ankles to Westbrook.  He scoops it up and I am worried that he is going to get tackled short of the first down marker.  He makes a guy miss and passes the marker.  I blurt out, “Thank God for Westbrook”  he makes another guy miss “Thank GOD for Westbrook!”  He makes a few more miss and scores a touchdown “THANK GOD FOR WESTBROOK!”, I scream as he prances in.  I was estatic that the Eagles finally delivered in the clutch, what a great comeback.  I saw there was like 30 seconds on the clock but eh, who cares, the Bucs have that shitty rookie QB that hasn’t done shit all day.

Well the special teams, that used to be good, once again came up small letting Tampa run the kickoff out to the 36.  Then the QB ran for some yards and completed a short pass to get them a little past mid-field.  On a crucial play with time running out he threw an incompletion, leaving only time for one more play.  I assumed it would be hail mary time since the field goal attempt would be a ridiculous 62 yards.  What? They are sending out the kicker?  Ah ok, whatever, they showed Gruden on the sidelines and he has an expression like he knew there was no f’in chance they were making this.  Their kicker had been maligned for being shitty.  As a matter of fact up until this game, the longest field goal he made this year was a lousy 29 yards.  His career long was only 50 yards.  62 yards? Yea right, give me a break. 

Well even though I knew he would be way short, I held Ali’s hand like I normally do when there is a big moment in a game.  We held our breath as the kick was away, waiting for it to fall many yards short.  We watched in horror as the kick sailed low and fast, what the hell, no, it can’t be, it’s GOOD?????  WHAT THE HELL??????????  This guy hasn’t kicked more than a 29 yard field goal this year and he decides he is going to kick the 2nd longest field goal in NFL HISTORY to win the game?????  Unf’ingbelievable.  Ali and sat there stunned, in disbelief that the Eagles actually lost this game that we thought they snatched back.  It was horrible.  It just isn’t their year.  You don’t lose games like that.

My key points from the game:

Ronde Barber made Donovan look like a first class chump.  He played him like a puppet. Giving a team that could generate no offense, 14 points directly off turnovers is inexcusable.  Granted he went all out to get them back in the second half, as he should have.  He doesn’t handle playin in heat well, once again reliving his Superbowl performance with 3 picks and throwing up in between.

Jerome McDougle is a grade A bust.  He was a first round pick a few years ago and has done ZERO for this team.  He has either been injured or inept the entire time.  I heard glowing reviews this preseason about how good he looked, ready to live up to his potential. Hah, he still sucks and had a big part in losing that game with his ridiculous penalty.

The Eagles as a whole just have an undisciplined feel to them.  They make mistakes that a team under the same coach for more than a half decade just shouldn’t do.  The stupid penalties, bad clock mangement, not getting points in a situation where you absolutely have to.  It really is frustrating.

 Their defense is developing a repuatation for coming up small when the pressure is on.  It seems at the end when it counts they get cautious and/or commit a stupid penalty to allow teams to extend drives.

These were 3 bad losses.  All three games were easily in their grasp and they let each one slip through their fingers.  It is very frustrating but I will be cheering them on again regardless next weekend.

Today at work was hectic as I expected it to be.  Lots of little issues to address related to the upgrades but they all got handled. I was looking forward to getting back to the gym for the first time in over a week.  Blow of some steam, get back into my routine, cool.  Well about halfway in , my suspected hernia was really starting to hurt.  I was talking to the one guy that works out there that is a chiropractor.  I described my symptoms and he said he was pretty sure it was a hernia.  There was pretty much nothing I did for the rest of my workout where I couldn’t feel the pain so I quit early.  I made an appointment to go get it checked this Thursday morning.  I can hardly wait…