Dark, Disappointing, Dirty
Friday night our data center went dark, a necessity for the building UPS upgrade that was scheduled for this weekend. It was the first time in several years it has been shut down which is not great for several reasons. When you have server hardware that has been running 24/7 for years there is always a risk of something failing once it is allowed to thermal cycle. Also turning off everything means synchronization that occurs out to the cloud terminates. Most modern networks don’t respond well to being turned off for prolonged periods of time so I was hoping the original projection of everything being back up by Saturday evening held up. It didn’t.
Supposedly something in the battery cabinet was mis-wired. The contractors left the building about 6:20 and told our guy on site that they were getting needed parts at Home Depot and would return at 8AM Sunday, expecting the work to take another hour to complete. They were already gone when I got this update. I already found myself annoyed that the plan was not go get the parts, come back, and get the work done Saturday night. There did not appear to be much sense of urgency.
So Sunday morning rolls around. The installers are there on time at 8AM but it is now 10AM, and I haven’t heard any update. I call and talk to the project manager, asking what was going on. He said the guy was still trying to fix the issue, evidently it is taking longer than expected. I reminded him of this supposedly only taking an hour and how I was not happy about the data center being down a full 36 hours at this point. When he talked to the guy doing the repair I could hear the stress in his voice so I backed off, I didn’t need to pile on. I got a text at 11:30 that the power was back on finally.
So everything came back up except one thing, the state file server. Unfortunately this is a crucial part of our daily operations and once I couldn’t get it up talking to my guy on the phone I decided to go in there. I took Elsa with since she loves the office. After talking with the states after hours support it was decided to power cycle the server, after doing so all was well once again, although I’m not quite sure why.
By the time I got home the Eagles/Bucs game was in the second quarter. The Bucs were already ahead, dominating early, which continued most of the game. For some reason the Eagles got away from their run first mentality that was the reason they had success in the second half of the year. Getting behind 17-0 by halftime put more emphasis on passing, which is not the situation where this offense shines. Jalen Hurts is a great athlete but he is not a strong armed, accurate passer, so when you get into situations where you need that, the team is in trouble. Hurts was erratic, threw two int’s and really had no answers, despite two garbage TD’s later in the game.
The game was so lopsided I only half paid attention while I ran the carpet cleaner followed by the floor steamer in the house. It had been a while since either chore had been done. The mere fact that the Eagles made the playoffs is a surprise in itself. The fact that they got steamrolled by a much better team should not come as a surprise.
I am off today for MLK. I need to do a few pit stops which will include getting materials to change the oil in the Tacoma, an unfun task. I do want to take Elsa for a walk around the new park and see how she does. She has had very minimal structured walks like that, I think I would like to try to see how she likes them. It might be good for both of us.
We had a SEVERE line of weather roll through Saturday morning, spinning up several tornadoes . It was also the morning of the Naples Half Marathon, a race I timed for many years. The appreciation meter for not doing race timing anymore was quite high this weekend.