The weather forecast looks good right up to New Years Eve. And, I'm remembering correctly, the school custodians only wash and buff the floors — no waxing. Seriously, we have had activities stopped cold in the past because the hallway outside the network room at some school had a fresh coat of wax still drying. Once, two of my guys got waxed into a data closet and had to just wait for 45 minutes. No one, unless they are a fool, walks on a custodian's freshly waxed floor. Someone (who is no longer with us, did not work for me at the time, and lacks the sense that God gave a gnat) once walked himself and a troop of interns across a drying floor at Annie Fisher. The head custodian brings that up every time I see him. ...I am seriously digressing.
The overture to the last act came Saturday morning — the only day that everyone was closed. I was in the district central office with two of my guys and the manufacturer's engineer to cut over the network there. We installed two new gigabit switches and yanked three ATM switches (leaving one, connecting to the City network, which will remain ATM for the time being). I got there around 7:20 PM, with everyone else arriving around 8:00. We broke up at 1:20 PM. I have some cleanup to do tomorrow morning; it all looks good, but the real test will come when the users show up for work.
The interesting part was explaining to my relatives that, no I really didn't mind working on Christmas Eve-day. I have, effectively, been planning this day since the fall of 2001. It took three tries to get the funding to do this (each taking a year or more, and with story enough behind them to fill a book). So, being there on December 24th and finally doing it was about the best Christmas present anyone could give me this year.
Amen.
