Finished restoring the company files today. The Server died on Saturday, at the shop. Thought it was a hardware problem. It sure was, but not as simple as I originally believed. Since the last ice storm, the Server had been rejecting keyboards. I made an appointment to have the people who sold it replace the keyboard controller, and I figured I would spend maybe an hour there, drive back to the office and have everything back up and running before noon on Saturday. On the third reboot for the new motherboard drivers, the second of the striped disks died.

Never configure a mission-critical server with striping. No, never configure ANY server with striping.

Eight hours later, short one harddrive the server was back in the Dungeon, and I spent Sunday with my boss rebuilding from various backups done on Friday. We missed one program, everything else was perfect! Since this is the first time that I have ever had to be completely responsible for the backup and restore situation, I feel very comfortable with what happened. I am unhappy about the Server's condition, but with the new drive coming in next week, I will set it up the way that I feel is the best for protecting the company data.

Well, I suppose it will all return to normal. Soon.

The party last night was fine. I sat with my boss and her sister, which was a very good thing. She teased for a food fight, but because we were front and center just below the head table that idea died. The food was good, and the roads were only wet, not slick.

Went by the office this afternoon and rebooted the server with a different keyboard. It worked. For now. I cannot wait until I get this machine into the shop.

Hhmm. Something is amiss in the code. This is a test.

Woke up to snow this morning. This is the third time in 10 days. Since 12/4 we have had over 6 inches of snow, 1 inch of ice, and several inches of rain, and my pond is still pitifully low. Some people just got their power turned back on yesterday. For this part of the world this is very severe weather. I wonder what the rest of winter will bring.

One of the casualties of the storm seems to be the server at the office. It has rejected two keyboards and loses the mouse often since the power out. No one had seen fit to have any sort of alarm for the UPS kicking in, and after 12 hours, the whole setup died. It all rebooted, but the server has been fussy about I/O devices since. The data is OK, will try another backup tonight.

At every location that I have visited in the last 2 weeks the VPN worked well, and all drives have mapped. I am starting to feel like this project will survive. Need to get 2 more locations up, and then Phase 2 begins. (Of course, the ED does not realize how long this will take, or that there even are more than 1 phase to the project, the sales rep from the telco who sold it is long gone.)

*Company Christmas Party tonight!*

Today was pretty good. Drove to C. City, and did updates at two locations. Everything worked, and the VPN is still humming. After all the power outs last week, and coming in and finding the Server dead this morning, I wasn't sure.

I have learned so much out in the field that textbooks just cannot hope to cover. Things like User Errors, or "Ooops, I think that I clicked the wrong option. Can you help me?" asked from 60 miles away. Umm, no. I cannot see down the phoneline, and you just toasted the VPN connection, so I will have to drive there tomorrow on Company Time, and fix it.

Last week went to B., and finally got the network drive to map through the VPN tunnel. I had been to that location four times previously, and tried two different machines, uninstalled and reinstalled all the software, and nothing worked. This time I brought along a telco technician, and the Magic worked! (Don't ask what we did differently, we don't know)

Tomorrow is three locations, SR, RW, and FF. Hope everything goes as well.

School is over for now. I graduated last Thursday, May 16, 2002. It was a nice evening. Now I start the Search for Work, or something like it. Actually, if things work out well, I will start a new job on June 3.
Something that I have not done for a while was plant a garden, this year I did. I figured that I needed to start it before school finished, or it would not be very productive this summer. I have a few small green tomatoes and peppers so far.
Need to catch up on my writing, and let my brain wind back down to a normal level of activity.
Talk to you again soon!

Hi again. Life stays busy. In a few weeks, I will finish my degree in Business Adminsitration. (include large sigh of relief) I have been working on this for 4 years, and I am tired, slightly frustrated, and not quite comprehending that this goal is in reach. I am keeping firmly focused on my studies because I have a 4.0 average with which I want to graduate.
Then comes the really scary part- job hunting. I cannot even think that far yet.
I guess this was just a note to let you know that I am still alive, just in the home stretch and focused.

:) Happy! I passed the CompTIA Exam today! Network+ is now mine. Celebrated after with my mother at a pizza shop in the Mall. Nice day. :)

Hello again. The last month has been incredibly busy. Michael had been sick repeatedly and we spent much time in doctor's offices and the hospital. He seems OK now. Since he has rarely been sick in his life, just an incident every few years, I cannot complain.
Monday I passed the Cisco Semester One Final Exam, and start class on this coming Monday! I had the books for just over three weeks, and crammed 15 chapters in that time. I think my head will eventually recover. But just in case, tomorrow I am going to Sherwood (about a 3 hour drive) to take my CompTIA Network+ Exam. Will spend the rest of today studying that. (Note to self - Look up definition of masochism)
We had our first snow fall Saturday night. Woke up Sunday to a slight coating of snow that had melted by noon. It was pretty.