I Didn't Know You Used ALL the Programs on this Machine

This was pretty amusing when Optimus Prime told me about it. I just had to post it to share with all of you wonderful person that reads this blog.

So this IT guy at this hospital decided to take the CPU that Our Software was installed on, back up what he thought he needed to back up, re-format it and then pop a new machine in its place for the end user, who had no idea this was going on. I mean, why check with the actual user of the computer before switching it and completely repurposing the old machine? She got into work the next day and found that Our Software wasn’t there at all. The IT guy came out and tried to re-install it, but part of it won’t work now primarily because he didn’t know how the program worked so he didn’t know that a) it needed to be saved and b) what part of it he needed to save. What did they do next? Call us to fix it. Oh, and it needs to be done NOW.

So, naturally, we did what we could with this, but really, it wasn't going to work without a reinstallation. And since this program is fairly customized from place to place, he'd better hope that he backed up the right parts of the software or we're talking a cost to the tune of no less then $500 depending on how customized it was and how much time it will take to get it going again. But hey, he was proactive in keeping the end user on an brand new, updated computer.

Now, this was an older product, and I think Prime talked the end user into exploring the newer version of it since they were going to have to pay anyway. That newer version is much easier to maintain for them and us.

This whole scenario is akin to you changing out my car while I’m sleeping and putting a new one in its place. The new car is great and all, but you didn’t move the locks over and you don’t have a new key to give me because you threw those out thinking they weren’t needed anymore. To top it off, I can’t even have my old car back because you sent it to the scrap yard and now it’s a big square paperweight. Let’s call Ford. I’m sure they can fix this.

Because They Can

As I stood on the eighteenth floor of the building I work in looking down on the world, I saw a FedEx van pull up in front of the gas station across the street. He didn't park in a designated parking space, though. Instead, he parked longwise across three spaces. I knew immediately that this guy was there for a delivery, as opposed to just stopping to get a Coke. I knew this because delivery trucks often park illegally to make a delivery because "they'll just be there for a second." Trouble with this picture is that it's a convenience store. Everyone is "just there for a second." Why do they park this way? Because they can. It's how they operate and we know this.

It got me to thinking about how a lot of people live their lives. How many times do people break rules because they can? Now, the rules are not always hard and fast laws such as the parking scenario. On a screenwriting board I'm a part of, someone asked about a writing convention we refer to as "we see." They asked if it's okay to write like this. Of course, you're welcome to write however you think will tell the story, but I responded saying that "we see" is generally a lazy way to write a screenplay because there are better ways to write whatever you're trying to write. This led to the overblown discussion of how other people do it, professional scripts, competition winners, yadda-yadda-yadda. It's a frustrating discussion to read, and I'll spare you the headache. My point was simply that despite what other people do, that doesn't mean it's the best way to write it.

Another situation is at work. I get to review these service tickets to make sure they're correct before sending them to another department. Two reasons: that department is just that picky and a lot of people don't want to follow the requirements if the other department will just take them. It's the latter part of that statement that I deal with more than anything else. I commented once that someone left out a required piece of information, and I immediately got a remark that the other department will take it without that info. This may be true, but it didn't change that the information is required according to the guidelines. Just another instance of someone trying to do less than they should because they can.

Yet another instance is the off hours at church. I've been to a couple outside of service hours, and what usually goes on is people park in the handicap spaces. Am I aware that no handicapped people are likely to show up and need the space? Of course. But there is a law that gives requirements for parking in handicap spaces, and from a Christian standpoint, we're obligated to follow the laws of the lands so long as they don't violate God's laws. There is a parking lot full of spaces. Why break the law? What is that saying? You don't want to walk a dozen more steps?

I strive fairly often to be the best I can be at whatever I do. This involves often going beyond the requirements, but I always start by meeting the requirements, following the rules, or doing what is right according to established guidelines. All of these examples are very, very minor things. And yet, in each of these examples someone is being less than their potential best in favor of making things a bit easier for them. But what would it hurt to start with that extra step? Park the FedEx truck correctly and leave the spaces open. Alter the "we see" descriptions to something else. Follow the ticket guidelines. Park in a non-handicap space if you don't meet the guidelines. I do all of these. It doesn't hurt me at all.

What part of you does this boil down to? Character. Character is defined by what you do when you're alone. If Jesus were looking over your shoulder every minute of every day, would you do what you're doing now? Oh wait. He is.

The Circle of Life

So my last post had to do with a funeral, and this one is no better. Kind of sad I come out of a hiatus on here to post about another death in my family, but while the last was the Queen's great-great aunt from Arkansas, this one was my maternal grandmother, who was also my last grandparent. The last death in my family occurred in 1993, so it's been quite a while, and this one obviously hit me a little harder. Right now, I'm basically disacknowledging it, but the Queen has noted that I look very tired lately and my back felt very tight. I may be keeping a lot in.

Strictly speaking, I don't show a lot of emotion. It's not necessarily a matter of choice. I just don't emote very much. I had an initial cry when I learned she died, and again when I told the princesses. The Queen had to finish telling them because I couldn't.

In her life, my grandmother had seven children, which leaves behind a legacy even now as most of the children had at least 2 children, and easily half of those had given her at least 2 grandchildren. I say at least because (for instance) my mother had three children, but of the three of us, I'm the only one with children, but I have three. My mother's older brother had two, and each of them have had two as well. The estimation is probably close given how variable life really is. Bottom line is that her service will be crowded.

For my part, thinking about her, I only knew tidbits of her life. The most prominent trait I remember is her attitude. She was very insistent on making sure things got done and mostly done her way. If she had an opinion, you knew it. Unfailingly. This created a little tension, as you can imagine, between her and several people, but as she got older, she mellowed considerably. She suffered the majority of her adult life from rheumatoid arthritis, but it never slowed her down. She had some special gadgets to help her do life on her own since her husband (my grandfather) died back in 1978. Hence, she spent her senior years without her partner, and yet, she was never really alone. Not with her considerable family around.

We saw her a couple times a year usually because she lived in Edmond, which is outside Oklahoma City in a house that could best be described as being reminiscent of a really, really long trailer home. Now, this was a permanent structure, but it amounted to a long hallway with rooms down on side of it. I believe there were four rooms in the main house, but when you crossed an area referred to as the "breezeway" (because it wasn't always walled in), there were two more rooms over the garage. The house was built from a reptile house that (I think) originated from the Oklahoma City Zoo back in the 60's. It was moved out there, given a foundation, built onto, and made a home for a growing family (I can't remember whether mom said her youngest twin sisters were born at the time).

She came around a few times since the Queen and I were married, including Ladybug's first birthday. The only times I'd seen her over the past few years were family reunions, but we could see her health deteriorating as she allowed herself to be taken about in a wheelchair. A part of my vacation was devoted to going to the assisted living center where she spent the last days of her life so the girls could see the woman they had in their prayers every night since I started praying nightly with them. While her body was frail, her mind was no less than it ever was. She still asked for things with the same authority of a woman who firmly raised seven children. She struggled with nothing when we were there.

Last Thursday, we heard that she had wheeled into her room and backed her wheelchair up to the desk in her room. She planned to walk across her room to her bed and lie down, but the next thing she said she remembered was waking up on the floor. She was rushed to the hospital where they found she had a broken femur, a bump on her head and a bruise on the brain. The doctor believed that her bones had grown so brittle, that as light as she'd become, her leg had broken under her own weight. They wanted to do surgery to set the leg so it could heal, but her heart was too erratic to do anything. She was going to stay in the hospital until she was stable enough to take care of the leg.

That evening, her doctor had a conversation with her and told her that she would be unable to return to the assisted living center because she no longer had the strength to take care of herself. "I know," she told him.

On Friday morning, at around 5am, her heart stopped. But she wasn't done yet because it started back up. She was advised at that time that in order to control her heart rate, they would need to put in a pacemaker. Firm and stubborn to the end, she told the doctor that she only wanted the pacemaker that God gave her, and wasn't interested in another one.

One of my cousins had recently given birth to her second child, and realizing the gravity of grandma going into the hospital the previous night, she prepared to go to Oklahoma City that morning so that her daughter could at least meet her grandmother for just a second. She stated on Facebook that she had just gotten out of Claremore (Northwest of Tulsa) when she got the call. She was too late.

Just before 9am, my grandmother's heart stopped again.

Carmelita Ruth (Shane) McCoy: October 8, 1929 - November 6, 2009

The dash between her dates was filled with life, love, and family. The church will be crowded.