Yesterday was a complete clusterf**k in every sense of the word. I did get a great swim, two loads of laundry done, and my groceries purchased, but ... but ... but.
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I run an ancient computer system for my cash register and inventory. When I wanted to upgrade, they quoted me $15,000! Well, that was a firm "NO" from me - we simply didn't (and don't) have that $ available. So we've been limping on with computers from the 1990's that run Win 98. |
I had purchased mostly frozen items from Whole Foods, so I put them in my Chiller box in the trunk because I was going to continue buying my fresh produce, etc at my neighborhood grocery before heading home to start my second load of laundry and work on whatever I had planned for the day. On my way home from the store, however, I had a quick look at my phone when it went "tweet" and immediately pulled into a nearby parking lot to take a closer look. DH was at the shop, had turned on the computers, and was receiving a "Blue Screen of Death" that I had never seen before. I texted that I was on my way and reversed my direction.
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I've never seen this particular Blue Screen of Death before. It said "VFAT Device Initialization Failed" ... "A device or resource required by VFAT is not present or is unavailable. VFAT cannot continue loading. System halted." |
As it turned out, I couldn't do anything with that screen either, so I called my Computer Guru, Dale, and described things to him. He had me try several things, but it was a no-go. It just didn't work. So, we were going to be stuck with handwritten sales slips until the computer could be repaired. I disconnected the main computer, loaded it into my car, and drove it into the northern suburbs to Dale's home. The computer was nestled between my two large bags of groceries and my chiller box.
So Dale set it up on his bench and tried a lot of things, also getting nowhere. He felt he was accomplishing something, though, and I had frozen items in my trunk that were going to start defrosting, so I finally left him around 1:30-2:00 pm and returned home. He continued working on my hard drive in the meantime.
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I run Windows 98 2nd Edition on my store computers. It dates from the time I had my third store at the Mall of America. It's really hard to fix older systems like this - the information is buried so deep. |
My groceries survived the experience quite well, which amazed me. I was able to start my second load of laundry and get my first load into the dryer. I was home for maybe 1-1/2 hours and Dale called, said he'd gotten things up again. I had already gotten my first dryer load put away, but hadn't had a chance to make anything with the food I had. But I put everything back into the refrigerator and headed back north. I picked up the computer and paid him (a very reasonable amount of money), then headed to the shop.
When I set up the computer, suddenly although it was turning on correctly, etc, it wasn't communicating with the slave computer which is our computerized cash register. After another hour on the phone with Dale, I told him I was packing both computers into my car and bringing them over to him. He asked me to bring the software and documentation, so I grabbed a bag of floppy disks (yes, the computers are THAT old), both CPU's and headed back north. Now it was 5:30 pm and I had already missed my phone call with Aearwen and most of my day. I was with Dale until shortly after 7:00 pm, and my computers are still with him. Hopefully he can find some time today to get this resolved. No guarantees.
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I had two containers of Nada Moo in my chiller box, along with other frozen items. They actually survived really well, despite being in the car for more than four hours. |
I finally got home shortly before 8:00 pm. DH said he'll work for me today so that I can have an actual "day off:", and I really appreciate that because I'm a wreck. I need the computers to hang on for the rest of the year, and there's no guarantee they can do that. They still work, but they have to communicate within the sales register program. We should be getting a shipment from a vendor into the store today, and we won't be able to receive it or generate price tags, do price changes, or check product history without the computer. I suspect you could hear my sileng "ARGH" to Toledo, Ohio.
I really need my "day off" today, and I really need to work off some of this frustration in the pool today, so I'm wrapping this up and heading out to the gym. I really hope you have a great Thursday, and if all is well, I'll have better news for tomorrow's blog. Be kind, think peace, and do a random act of kindness today. We all need that.
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