Doh!, calm before the storm
So Saturday was my big test of the timing system. I drug myself out of bed around 4 am or so. We decided to take the van so Nicki could come along and hang out in the back of it. Even though it was 5:15 when we pulled out, I managed to get a big laugh out of Ali as I went to adjust the rear view mirror and have it fall off in my hand. She also found it funny how the radio has developed a mind of it’s own. As we drove down the road the volume would range up and down without any interaction from me. I told Ali I was controlling it with my mind.
We were a bit worried when we first got there as we didn’t see anybody around. After about 15 minutes we finally saw some volunteers and found out where the race was supposed to finish at. Setting up all the equipment took a bit longer than I expected. To get power out for the timing equipment we had to run an extension cord up and over the registration area, tying it off around a security camera, a palm tree, across the ladders used to create the finish line and down to me. Being my first time setting up at a live race it took a bit of time to figure out what should go where. Early on I got the wireless network up and got Ali set up with a laptop by registration so she could enter “day of” runners. I got the equipment up and ran a few quick tests with my 3 test chips that were successful. We handed out those 3 chips to 3 runners we knew and we were all set to go.
I walked down to the start of the race and started the timer on my watch on the GO, to sync up with timing box. I walk back and patiently wait for our first test runner to come through the line. Somewhere around 25 minutes she turned the corner and headed for the line. As she crossed I was anxiously awaiting the confirmation BEEP and her time popping up on the screen. My heart sank as NOTHING happened, no beep, no time….. wtf….
I immediately went over and got the chip from her and read it on the RFID scanner. It showed it expired on 2/22 which would explain why it wouldn’t read, however, the chip read just fine during my pre-race test, strange. Ok well hopefully it was just a fluke, I’m sure the next two will register just fine. The other two runners cross the line pretty close to one another and once AGAIN I get nothing! Shit! I was pissed. It didn’t make any sense. In every test I had done up to this point I never had a problem with a chip read. of course when it matters it fails. Then one of the club members working the finish line saw that one of the power cords looked like it was unplugged. I looked and saw that the detachable cord that goes into the power brick for the timing box was UNPLUGGED! Earlier I had moved one of the laptops around and in the process I must have bumped the cord, which wasn’t in tight enough, and unplugged it. I was a bit annoyed that the monitoring program I was looking at gave no noticeable visual indicator that the timing box was off. Well at least it made sense now. I powered the box back up and then in between runners crossing the finish I ran the chips through and they registered just fine. Son of a bitch. The rest of the race I was kicking myself mentally about the stupidity of the incident. I should have had the ac adapter under the table, out of harms way. I also should have made sure the cord was securely attached to the brick. Oh well, there was nothing I could do about it now. It was a good practice to see how the whole deal would go. Ali got some insight on how things need to change to facilitate getting runners into the computer cleanly in the hectic registration table environment.
During the time period between the race start and the first runners coming through, I quickly took Nicki out to do her business. She dropped a number two. I used my plastic grocery bag to pick it up but was sloppy with my aim and got some dog crap on the outside of the bag. I needed to find a trash can to put it in. I walked over to the shopping center next to the race. This is an ultra-ritzy shopping plaza. As I turned the corner I was greeted by beautiful tile walkways that looked like they belonged inside a mansion instead of being trampled by shoppers. In the middle of the beautiful tile were a line of pristine, spotless stainless steel trash receptacles that looked like works of art. I felt strange irony tossing a bag of dog shit into one of them.
We packed up all the equipment and were out of there by 9:30 or so, not too bad. Once we got home we unloaded the van and then I started right into a few chores. I didn’t really have anything major on the docket for the rest of the weekend. Late in the afternoon after Ali took a nap, we headed for the track for her to do a run. Since I just ran a 5k the day before I didn’t feel it was smart to push it and run again the next day although I almost felt like I could have. So instead I roller bladed while she ran. Ali ran her own 5k. She wanted to try to get ready for the Treasure Run this upcoming weekend, a grueling back and forth run over the highest bridge in Lee County. It turns out she isn’t going to be running it anyway. She had some Phi Mu lunch thing scheduled for the same day, too bad. Oh well I guess I am running it solo. It’s going to be hot (doesn’t start until 9:30) and hard.
Sunday was extremely laid back. I figured once the fence project starts it will be tons of ass busting work for quite a few weekends so I better enjoy calm while I can. In the span of maybe an hour and a half I got almost all of what I wanted to done. The rest of the day we enjoyed the glorious weather and actually spent some time just laying out by the pool, a rarity. Later that night we watched the last Indiana Jones flick. I like the third one a lot, almost as much as the first.
Filling out the permit to build a fence is a royal pain in the ass. You have to fill out several forms as well as two copies of the survey with the fence drawn in and then include a copy of your warranty deed, drivers license and have the form notarized. I can see why people just blow permitting off.
We got some good news from our accountant this weekend, we are getting a ton back from the IRS, more than we ever have before. It was a pleasant surprise. We didn’t know what to expect tax-wise since Ali became a consultant. The benefit is there are a ton of things that can be used towards business expenses.
We had to get toner for our HP Color 2600N over the weekend. The toner costs more than the printer. I literally could save money by throwing out the printer and buying a new one as opposed to replacing all 4 cartridges at once, it’s such a scam.
I had such an annoying experience with Symantec last week regarding problems with Symantec Endpoint. I called Wednesday afternoon looking to talk to someone. I was told the wait was an hour or more and that someone can call me back in two hours. Well two hours would have been 5 o’clock so they said they would call back Thursday morning. Thursday morning came and went, no call. I call back after lunch and ask where my call back was? They apologize and say I will get a call later that afternoon, no call. I call back Friday morning, livid. I tell the phone traffic cop that I have been waiting to talk to someone since Wednesday afternoon and that it is ridiculous. Without apologizing or acknowledging my complaint, the person drops me into the “live queue”. After 45 minutes of anger I had to hang up because I had a meeting to go to. So again after lunch I call back again and read the guy the riot act, again he wants to put me in the live queue. I said “Hold, on! I am not going back in the queue and waiting and hour” The guy said the queue was only 15 minutes long. I told him that if I am hold for more than 15 minutes I cam calling back and raising holy hell. An hour and 15 minutes later, a tech picks up the phone. The first 10 minutes of my phone conversation was me ripping Symantec up and down about how stupid their policies were and how frustrated I was with them. The tech had no answers for my complaint but instead wanted to move ahead working on my issues. I was on the phone with the guy for a good hour. A lot of times it felt like I knew the product almost as well as he did. At the end of it all we came up with the general conclusion that many of my problems could be related to my upgrading from the old version as opposed to doing a fresh install. So my latest plan is to uninstall the product and then try a fresh install once I add some RAM to the server. I am so disgusted with Symantec right now. I mean we pay a couple grand a year to them, what the hell for, bad support and bloated, resource swallowing software?
I saw this posted on John’s blog. The cynic in me is skeptical if it is for real. It does however make me feel like my vocabulary needs work.