Diary of a Network Geek

The trials and tribulations of a Certified Novell Engineer who's been stranded in Houston, Texas.

10/21/2005

Omen or Just Odd?

Filed under: Criticism, Marginalia, and Notes,Deep Thoughts,Dog and Pony Shows,Geek Work,Life, the Universe, and Everything,MicroSoft,Personal,The Dark Side,The Network Geek at Home,Things to Read — Posted by the Network Geek during the Hour of the Rooster which is in the early evening or 6:14 pm for you boring, normal people.
The moon is Waning Gibbous

I don’t normally post twice in one day, but…
But, well, this has been an odd week and I had to cancell my therapist appointment last night, so you’ll have to do, eh? As you regular readers know, I was so sick Monday that I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Alas, I lived through my brush with whatever that particular plague was and had to finally go into work Wednesday. Wednesday, I also found out that I had a quickly approaching deadline to get my house refinanced before we had to start the entire process again. Thursday seemed fine. Until lunch.
Normally, I take my lunch in the backyard and eat while the dog runs and plays. After lunch, I read under my covered porch and let Hilda get some squirrel/bird chase time in. (Relax, tree-huggers! She’s only come close once that I’ve seen and, besides, she’s just doing what dogs do. It’s her nature and a force of evolution. What’s unnatural is the way she loves to eat off my plate!) So, Thursday, I’m sitting there finishing I Heard You Paint Houses and the dog starts to get all strange. I look up from my book just in time to see this giant, bird-shaped shadow sliding over the lawn as the biggest damn bird I’ve ever seen in person starts to make a landing by my ponds! Without any exageration at all this bird must have had a wingspan as large as my outstreched arms! (That’s over five feet, for those of you who haven’t met my manly physique in person.) Of course, I exclaim loudly, which startles this monstrosity into landing on my garage instead. I could hardly believe I was seeing this thing. I mean, I’ve seen big birds before, but, as a rule, even in Texas one does not expect to see a giant, black turkey vulture swooping into one’s backyard.
Now, what got really unnerving about this is that the thing just sat there looking at me. Not scared, really. At least, not of me. Frankly, the dog looked at me as if to ask, “Uh, Dad, care to fill me in on just what the hell is going on here?”, so I doubt the feathery beast was all that intimidated by the dog, either. Anyway, I decided I didn’t like the way this thing was eyeing the pond, or either of us, and I sort of shouted at it to try and scare it away.
It blinked at me.
So, I waved my arms and shouted.
The damn thing just glided up to perch on my chimney and blink at me. It just sat there, this huge ebony carrion-eater with wings, and blinked at me as if to say,”Yeah, and, your point would be, what, exactly?” Then, being bored with me, it looked down the chimney. So, I start looking for small rocks to throw at this thing to scare it off. The first two shots encouraged it to move to the far side of the chimney and, yes, blink at me. Then, I noticed the second one. Oh, great, a mated damn pair of enormous black harbringers of death in my backyard. Looking for a new home, no doubt. I bend down to find more stones to throw and I hear a loud thump. I check and, sure enough, that one on the chimney is looking down inside. At this point, I’m sure I let loose with a string of expletives that would have made a sailor blush because I’m convinced that the damn thing as dropped a dead animal down the chimney. I start looking for more suitable rocks to throw, but when I find them and go to assault the dirty birds, they’ve gone. Just as quietly as they arrived.
Well, at this point Hilda and I look at each other to confirm that the other has seen what we thought we did. (Yes, I know she’s a dog and has limited communication skills, but it’s the best either of us could do on short notice.) Then I start laughing, put her inside, and head back to the office. Once back to the office, I call a friend of mine who happens to work in the Houston Zoo in the bird department to check on what I’ve just seen. He confirms the guess of turkey vultures, expresses a little surprise at the proximity to “civilization” for that kind of encounter, and then he says “Impressive birds, aren’t they?” Um, yeah, sure, “impressive”. Just the word I would have used. Not freaky. Not menacing. Not down right frightening. Nope, impressive fits the bill just right. And then, the day turned ugly.
That’s about when I got the call from our Bellechasse office that they were having problems with the network. After a minute or two of troubleshooting, I can’t see an issue, so, since I’m dealing with a Windows 2000 server, I figure a reboot is in order. Now, see, this is where that black omen comes in. The reboot ends in a Blue Screen Of Death. Hmm, well, that would be a problem, wouldn’t it? So, we kill the power and try again. No joy. I try Last Known Good Configuration with the same results. I try doing the automated recovery, but again, end up with a BSOD. Mind, at this point it’s 4:55pm so I end up calling to cancel my therapy appointment, much to my chagrin, since I had some things to talk about this week. Finally, after all that, I get into the Recovery Console, run chkdsk and repair the error and get back to the original problem. Yeah, I spent 3 hours dealing with a secondary issue only to come back to the original problem. Again, after waiting for someone to come back to that office after making his appointment, which was for a HAIRCUT, and some more troubleshooting, I finally determine that the hub has gone out. The damn hub had died. No moving parts to fail and no power-spike, but the damn hub had failed. And, finally, I drag my sorry butt home at 8:00pm.
This morning, they get some new switches in place, which is no small feat in Katrina-damaged New Orleans area, and, like Network Geek Magicâ„¢, they’re up and running.

Why all the effort not to travel? Because, Monday I have to get a certified file copy of the warranty deed from the Harris County Clerk’s office so I can refinance my house on Wednesday. All so I can save $150 per month. If I stay in Houston past next year. Can anyone, given that turkey vultures landed on my house, the likliness of another hurricane striking Houston, and the not always so great economic outlook for IT guys here in Houston, give all that, can anyone give me three good reasons to stay?
Damn bad-luck black birds.

7 Comments

  1. Birds freak me out – thanks to Hitchcock. I have shivers from reading this.

    I’ve gone through the same thing with several of my offices. I’ve learned that lesson about hubs and routers. “Do you see blinking lights?” and “is it plugged in to the wall?”

    Comment by sass — 10/24/2005 @ 7:23 pm

  2. Yeah, actually, I did all that. Freakishly, all the lights were green. In fact, that’s how we finally caught it. The lights stayed green even when we unplugged cables! Though, I do keep over-estimating the IQ of the guy in the remote office. I can’t imagine him actually passing the A+ cert he was studying to take.

    Normally, I’m okay with birds, but birds with wingspans that are as big as me that are all black? Yeah, I was debating on getting my .357 to just shoot the damn things.

    Comment by the Network Geek — 10/24/2005 @ 7:47 pm

  3. As an official treehugger (yes, I’ve got the t-shirt), I don’t have any problem with your dog chasing squirrels. It’s not like they are or will ever be endangered. Now, if you were tracking down Bobcats and shooting them for the sport, then you would earn my disdain.

    If they’re entirely black, they are Black Vultures. http://www.visitwimberley.com/ourbirds/vulturemain.htm
    Just a bird-geek point. I’m afraid that doesn’t help your birds-of-ill omen case, as Black Vultures look much more ominous that those goofy Turkey Vultures. Carrion birds landing on your roof…sounds bad. But in thinking about what you’ve been through in the last year, I think they’re just late for the party. Either that or your ex didn’t leave a forwarding address. ;*) Damn, that felt good!

    Comment by Paul — 10/26/2005 @ 9:35 am

  4. Actually, they looked just like “Daryl” on that website, which should make them turkey vultures, if I read the caption right.
    And, yes, since this happened, I have occasionally wondered if they weren’t looking for the bloated corpse of my marriage, which, as you hinted, currently resides in Glendale, Arizona, a recently blighted suburb of Phoenix. Interestingly enough, the carrion eaters, whatever their stripe, did, in fact, seem to be headed West.

    As for the dog, well, it always used to upset my ex-wife when Hilda would chase anything. Never mind that it’s in a dog’s nature to do things like that. Especially since she’s part Terrier and squirels are basically just tree-rats anyway. Oh, I should mention she chases “sky-rats” (pidgeons), too. My dog, that is, I have no idea what my nutsy ex-wife does for fun these days and I’ve never been more thankful.

    Comment by the Network Geek — 10/26/2005 @ 9:46 am

  5. “recently blighted suburb”!!! You’re killing me! I must say that it is an honor to be associated with someone with such liguistic skills; both lethal and hilarious. Cheers!

    Comment by Paul — 10/26/2005 @ 11:43 am

  6. Are you judging people who post more than once a day?

    Comment by Thomas — 10/28/2005 @ 1:38 am

  7. Never! At least, not out loud…
    Actually, sticking to the “not more than once a day” blogging rule is what has kept me so prolific over the years. One day, I might write up three or four items and post them over several days.

    Comment by the Network Geek — 10/28/2005 @ 6:02 am

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