Balls in the air

This week has felt like I have had a lot of balls up in the air simultaneously which is a feeling I don’t typically enjoy.  At work I have been working with updating our internet firewall to a more modern and robust solution.  What we have in place works but is an 8 year old package running on Windows Server 2003 that is missing a lot of the features available with modern internet control devices.

We are moving to a solution called Untangle which is relatively simple to get up and running but allows all sorts of flexibility and protection on multiple levels.  Our old firewall/internet connection configuration is a mess after years of tweaks to make it do what we needed with software that was not designed to do it.  It will be nice to get Untangle implemented but trying to make that transition as smooth as possible has been giving me headaches all week.

The other ball is a perspective deal I have been working on with MyLaps to replace our current race timing hardware vendor, Ipico.   I really had no interest in switching when I was first contacted by the MyLaps sales rep and let him know as much.  MyLaps hardware is quite good but our Ipico timing boxes have been very reliable for the six years plus I have been using them so I felt no pressing need to change.  I am a fan of “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it” in many situations.

Well the MyLaps guy made an offer to basically swap out the hardware on a one for one basis for free, which is something I did not expect.  Their strategy is to give away their hardware with the expectation to make it up on the sale of the single use timing chip devices they are designed to work with.  The deal sounds attractive but there are some other considerations that I was wrestling with.

The club just received 6000 timing bibs for our current Ipico system, if we transitioned those become dead weight and wasted money.  I also had to be willing to learn the new hardware platform which shouldn’t be a huge deal.  Finally the MyLaps set up would require Cindy and I to do periodic bib tag sticking sessions since they do not sell bibs with the timing devices already attached like Ipico does. So anyway I made an offer to MyLaps with terms we would agree to and they have responded with a counter offer that is still attractive.  I think I will be going back with one more counter as I feel like we can get a bit more incentive if we ask again.

This weekend will be pretty stuffed.  I am timing a 5K on Sunday and on Saturday there are chores and race prep to do.  I also need to get into the office to flip the switch over to the new firewall rig.  The fun just never ends.

I was quite glad to sleep straight through the night Thursday without interruption, the first time in several days I pulled that off.