PLEASE HURRY HOME, GREY BIRD

Karen and I have apparently broken your blog. It appears as though all of your loyal readers/visitors have flown the coop, along with any sense of couth this blog once had.

Just for you… a techie post.

Yesterday, I was called off site to check on a server that’s two years older than God. It had shut down the other day, after someone had inadvertently “bumped” it. That was the exact description of the event as recounted by the unfortunate individual who somehow had walked into the server as it lay crouched in its computer “room”. I say “room” because in truth, its a closet. They crammed the hubs, patch panels, wires and even the phone blocks into this closet. Then, they added outlets. Stuff two Dell servers in, and voila — a computer “room”. The damn door won’t even close.

Anyway, I went over there and tried to power it back up. It just beeped at me. Not a series of beeps that would allow troubleshooting… just beeps. Continuously beeping. I tried to shut it down. It wouldn’t stop. I ended up yanking the power cord out and brought it back to my office. Once there, I opened the thing up. There was so much dust and dirt clotted in there, I expected to see mushrooms growing. I know from experience that if I were to clean the thing out, something for sure would stop working. The dirt and dust eventually become part of the circuit boards… kind of like glue, or even a type of conduit. If you were to remove the dirt or dust, continuity would be gone, electricity would not flow properly and the unit becomes a boat anchor.

That aside, the thing already was a boat anchor. I removed it from duty. It had served in an honorable manner. And in this spirit, I planted ferns in it, and placed it in our lobby. There it gallantly sits, providing life and giving hope to all who trod through our doors.

PS… when are you coming home?