teeth and work

Lisa finally got the permanent, hard liner for her dentures, and they fit properly again. The process took a few hours, so I dropped her off at the dentist and had a few hours alone before heading off to the airport.

At a car rental company, I replaced the PC in the same workstation twice this week; first on Tuesday and then again on Friday.

On Wednesday or Thursday, somebody replaced all of the laser printers with counter-top thermal printers. It took a little while to figure out which of the hundred or so nationally networked identical printers to use, but after a few minutes I had it.

Interesting (to me, anyway) is a similar error in both work orders. You see, the individual PCs are named using a convention that incorporates the location; in this case TPA for Tampa.

On Tuesday, the work order told me to go to the Tampa airport and replace a computer that should be in Richmond, VA. It took me two hours to find out exactly which computer needed to be replaced. Nobody there knew of any computers that were down. As it turned out, a woman was using the allegedly troubled machine. She logged out and let me do my job.

For the Friday work order, I was to go to Tampa and replace a machine that should be in Baltimore, MD. Not wanting to spend a couple of hours hanging out in the airport talking on the phone, I made calls and sent emails ahead of time. They pay me for a minimum of four hours; if I can get things straight beforehand, I can get in and out of there in time to beat the traffic. And I'd rather do that stuff at home, comfortably dressed and drinking coffee.

The manager at the airport was able to tell me over the phone that the machine in question was the one I had installed Tuesday. The one I had named with the correct TPA name, not with a Baltimore BWI name. Oh well. At least I wouldn't have to hunt for it. The serial number on the work order was correct; only the name was wrong. When I asked the manager what was wrong with the computer I had installed a few days prior, she said "it's defective." Well now, that explains everything!

Odd, perhaps, that I should have to replace a machine twice in one week, but the one I installed on Tuesday was obviously a used unit. They sent a "real" new machine on Friday.