BlueWolf's Howl

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October 21, 2002

Stop Looking

I'll be resting very peacefully tonight. I can now go to bed and shut my eyes - knowing that I've now seen Everything. I thought before this that I had seen It All, but there was more.

First thing this morning, I got a call that a user was having trouble logging into the network. After checking the account, I took a trip down the hall to investigate further. Just as I thought - no link light. This means that the reason the user couldn't log in was due to not being able to reach the network (read: cable problem).

Okay...next step was to find out which part of the cable from the computer to the server was causing the problem. There are several distinct segments of cable from a user's computer to the servers. Since this user was the only one having a problem, this narrowed it down a bit. One patch cord to the wall jack, one segment in the wall and ceiling, and another patch cord from the punch down to the switch are the only possibilities. The two patch cords are the responsibility of the LAN shop to check and replace, whereas the segment from the wall jack to the punch down block is the responsibility of another section. All I have to do is eliminate the two patch cord possibilities and it's someone else's problem... [This sounds easy, yet it's easier to be responsible for and fix the entire path rather than play "push the peas" back and forth on the plate...]

I started to trace the path of the cable from the back of the computer to find the wall jack. Oh, phoooooey! Yes, I said "phoooooey." The user is a nun, so I used the clean frustration words. I realized that the large desk (with shelving) was right up against the wall jack. My heart sank, my shoulders slumped and a large sigh escaped before I could stop it.

One of the other users said, "Don't worry, we'll just get the desk jack." What? The nun agreed, "Yes, we'll just get the desk jack." Huh? The user returns in less than three minutes with a large hydraulic jack. The jack had a large base - the perfect size for catching both sides of a desk and lifting it just high enough for the wheels to enable movement. (I expected two guys named Jack)

Five pumps of the handle, a couple of tugs and that huge desk was far enough away from the wall to enable easy access. I felt like I had just entered the Twilight Zone.

Okay, I might have seen something like a desk jack if I had worked for a moving company. I wasn't so surprised that it existed. It surprised me that this was a commonly known piece of equipment. What also amazed me was that this desk jack was so well-known that the other user could hunt it down so quickly.

I saw It All when I found a nun in the workplace. (Yeah, made me wonder about the levels of stress there.) Today, I saw a desk jack. Now, I've seen Everything.

Posted by BlueWolf on October 21, 2002 08:34 PM