The seven day students have de-boarded, bound for spring break, which means the faculty are on vacation. As such, things are pretty quiet at work this week.

By some twist of climatic alignment, the temperature hit 73 yesterday. So it’s not Cancun or Bali. I have ducks and geese and a nice pond to look through the windows.

I reached page 220 with the top down handwritten edits, and should finish tonight. Friday I’ll print out the revised manuscript and start over at page one again. So far, the cuts total about 1500 words. Not too shabby. Unless I really missed a cue, the final length will clock out just north of 92,000 words. Team Eagle-Eye is a crucial arbiter of that, however.

On a personal note, Buddhapuss and Electra are at the vet for an annual Senior Wellness Exam. Suddenly my cats are geriatric. Perhaps we can collect Social Security. The vet scheduled a MRI scan for Buddhapuss, because it’s impossible to feel his organs through all the…fur.

Oh, to have a TV.

Utah, Gateway to Nevada.

Atop the Mormon tabernacle is Moroni, a wood statue plated in gold. If his horn blows, start running, because it’s the end of the world. And that’s about all I remember from living in Salt Lake City. The therapy must be working.

Got nothing on this cat.

Original image available here:

http://ljplus.ru/img/d/a/dashing/060226_cat.jpg

A call came in this morning from a student’s parent about a phone issue that led me down a customer service odyssey. First, some context. The school owns the phone equipment, and uses a third party vendor for technical support and maintenance work; I reference them as TPV.

Sam: Got a student extension that is sending all calls to voice mail, except when I disable the send all calls to voice mail feature. Then it doesn’t ring and rolls immediately to voice mail.
TPV: Let me research this.

Four hours later…
TPV: OK, there’s nothing wrong with the phone, except the system shows it’s off the hook.

One hour later…
Student enters my office. They can’t dial out using their PIN. I agree to walk over to the dorms and hang the phone up for them.

Five minutes later…
Discover phone is on hook. I dial the students number from my cell. Now it rings five times before kicking over to voice mail, as desired. Verify student can’t call out with their PIN. Another call to TPV.

Sam: Can you check on a student PIN for me and make sure it’s active? PIN number XXXXXXXX.
TPV: That PIN is deactivated.
Sam: It was just issued yesterday. Why is it off?
TPV: We show an overdue balance of $9.59.
Sam: Can you carry the balance forward to next month’s bill and reactivate the PIN?
TPV: I’m not authorized to do that. I’ll transfer you to customer service.

Two minutes later…
Sam: Right, can you please reactivate PIN number XXXXXX. I understand there’s a balance on the account. Please push the charges to next month.
TPV: What balance? There’s a credit. $9.59.
Sam: Why was the PIN deactivated if the account shows a credit?
TPV: It’s active.
Sam: It doesn’t work. And I was told by a tech the PIN is inactive for overdue payment.
TPV: No, it’s definitely active. Give me a second. ( Modem pops and clicks in the background ).
Sam: Are you dialing into the switch?
TPV: Yes.
Sam: And is this exactly the same switch the last tech looked at?
TPV: I can’t say for certain. ( Long pause ). Oh yeah, this baby is active. Give me a second, though, I’m making an adjustment.
Sam: If it works, what’s to fix?
TPV: There we go. Yep, it’s active now.

The twice activated PIN works now, and I had a good laugh. I feel more entertained than lied to.