Running Late - But Not as Suave as the White Rabbit

I'm running a little late today. I had to awaken DH for a doctor appointment, I had my 45-50 minutes on the treadmill and my shower, and I have already downed my first cup of tea. But, it's the 16th of December, and I don't have Sharon's stuff sent to her yet, I still need to address a couple of holiday cards and get them out, and basically ... I'm feeling behind, even though I'm swimming with my head above the water. 

I'm grateful that I'm not part of LJ Idol any more. At this time of the year, carving out the time to get into a quiet space and write for the competition is simply impossible - I live on slightly more than 6 hours of sleep as it is, extra hours in the day just don't appear in my life. 

The new phones at the shop, however, are up and running and wonderful. I need to do some programming into the main line - a welcome message, an activation of the ability for people to leave messages for us that we can return, etc. But that's far less important that having and actual, functional phone. The final step came on Saturday morning when I called the tech team about the transfer that had "happened" but hadn't happened. It turned out a small typo in one thing had stalled things out, and when that typo was corrected, everything worked as smoothly as silk. WHEW! One thing done. 

So, I'm grabbing a very quite bite to eat, then I'm off to the bank for the store, and then I have to work with DH for the day - never an easy task, but at least he usually stays out of my way. No pictures today - I'm running about a 1/2 hour late so I'm out of here. I'll catch up with people tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

A Dance of Phones - It Was a LONG Day

Yesterday was the day we had scheduled for the new digital phone install, and I got in to the shop early to clean the area where I was going to set up the router and work on the phones. I was under the impression (incorrectly, as it turned out) that physical people would be coming by for the install. WRONG No, it was all via phone on my cell phone, codes and communications from my laptop, and wiring - which we didn't know anything about. 

Apparently I hadn't understood the rather 
cryptic instructions well, and I was no way 
prepared to go ahead with the download 
because the phones and my computer 
weren't talking to each other (no router). 
*sigh* It was a LONG day. 

The first person, from whom I found out that most of my understanding had been totally and completely wrong, was a bit miffed that I couldn't make her schedule. But, if I was doing all of that stuff on my own, that's the way it was going to be. Then I needed the new router to talk to my laptop and they weren't communicating. After talking with another tech, I reached out for help in a different way, ending up with someone who was actually VERY helpful, and signing a maintenance contract with them for two years for laptop maintenance (which I have allowed to get a bit beyond ridiculous). It took more than an hour for the laptop to get cleaned up enough to find the one corrupted file that I had. (The fact that I only had one is a bit of a miracle.) 

The 50 foot cable I purchased was JUST enough length 
to be able to use without adding either of the shorter 
10-foot cables I had available. My modem is on the 
North side of the shop under the TV, the 
router was on the South side of the shop 
near DH's desk. 

My second phone person realized that we needed to wire the router to the modem. The laptop was still doing its' thing and not usable at the time, but we would need to link the router and modem together, and the modem was on the opposite side of the store. DH jumped into things then. He measured, determined that we would need a longer cable then we had available, so off I went to the office supply store to buy a 50-foot cable. I also bought a couple of couplers just in case we were a bit short. I had two ten-foot cables available if we needed to join them to the main section. My laptop was still being cleaned up, file by file, so I didn't need to babysit that. 

Meanwhile, I had contacted customer support at a software 
company who were busy remotely cleaning up my hard 
drive to be sure we didn't have anything nasty lurking that 
would cause corruption of the phone system or of my 
laptop. I now have a 2-year maintenance contract *sigh*, but 
I actually think that will be a good thing. 

I got back to the shop, cable in hand, and DH was busy drilling holes into the floor from the basement level. It's a VERY old building with poured concrete walls in the basement, so it's always a guessing game where a drilled hole will actually be on the main level. After seriously dulling his large bit, and a second spade bit once we had the correct hole(s), we found that the 50 foot cable was just about perfect, and got the cable connected between the modem and the router. I left them to communicate and catch up on the gossip until my next phone guy called me at about 5:30 pm. I think he was actually phone guy number 4. They were all very nice people (except for the first woman who was a bit huffy), and every one of them, were foreign from various countries. I found that amusing. 

For a while, we'll have two phones at each place - DH's 
desk and the cash register area. We'll answer whichever 
one rings. Eventually our phone numbers will be ported 
from Clear Rate (great guys, really) to Nextiva. We'll 
keep one line with Clear Rate - the line that operates 
our alarm system. 

I finally finished the install at about 7:00 pm with the help of this final tech. It will take anywhere from 1-20 days for our phone numbers to be ported to the digital system (that's up to the phone company, not the digital company), so right now, we're functioning with two phones at the cash station and two phones on DH's desk. Whichever phone rings, that's the one we'll answer. When it's the digital phone ringing, we'll know the number has been ported and can get rid of the wired phone. What can I say? Life is an ADVENTURE and I couldn't invent this story - LOL. But, long day behind us, we accomplished what we needed to, and we're ready to step into the digital phone age. Voila! LOL Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday. 

DH is headed to Church of the Assumption this 
morning for the funeral of an old friend. He was 
exactly the same age as DH. They went to school 
together and the parents were close friends with 
DH's folks. He wanted me to come along, but 
realized it was in the middle of the work day. 
So he's heading there himself. He hates going 
to these things, but it was a good friend of 
his youth and the old neighborhood. 

OH ... AND, I HAVE A STORY UP FOR VOTES. I'd love it if you would take a read, and if you like it, I'd really appreciate your vote. We're down to very few of us now, and it's tough competition. EVERY vote counts. Here's the link to the page.  https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=32190. The prompt was “A genius is the one most like himself". Slava Ukraini. 

Now I Get To Figure Out Digital Phones for the Shop - Oh Joy! (Not)

I've got about 15 minutes to get this written and posted today. It's a rare day when I sleep until my alarm goes off (it's set for 3:00 am on swimming days and I know, that's early for most people). But, I'm ready to head to the gym, I've printed the business cards I needed for the shop, I packed up my laptop, and I'm as ready as possible when I return from swimming. I'll contact my treadmill people today to inquire about scheduling the delivery and payment. I don't want to get lost in the sea of paperwork and orders that they get from the MN State Fair. 

I'm getting the top of the line in this version of treadmill. 
I figure if I'm paying for it and using it, I deserve the 
best - one that I can work with until they burn me. This 
seemed like a good choice. 

I get this week and next week before Chickie is gone on a two-week vacation. Well deserved - but still, it will be a royal PITA. Today, however, I get my own version of hell. I need to look into changing our phone system at the shop from a wired one to a wireless one to meet with Federal regulations. Our phones will become inoperable later this year. We use the old wired and push button style - very old school, but that makes sense for a business that's been around since the 1950's. I was thinking about limping along in one way, but DH is actually up to the thought of upgrading the equipment, then taking it home when we close the place so that we can have digital phones at home. I'm all for that. So I have interviews with several digital phone companies early this morning, before I have to open the store. Ick! I hate initial calls like this, but I need more information, and this is the way to get it. 

My only concern about going digital at the shop 
is the security system. Sometimes those get 
a bit picky with a digital system, and sometimes 
they don't respond correctly when the power 
goes off during a thunderstorm or something. 

For home - hell, we really don't use the land line at home either. We rely on our cell phones for almost everything. But there are times when we actually need a land line, and our security system is tied to the land lines. I'll need to contact that company anyway and make sure our security system at the shop will be compatible with a digital phone system. Some of them are more fussy than others. So I'm taking the first steps onto that road, but it needs to be walked, and relatively soon. Just one more thing to do - LOL. 

Any phone system I get needs to be easy enough for 
DH to understand and handle (he's not all that up 
on modern technology - although he likes his portable 
phone). He's very old-school. *sigh*

On that thought, swimming looks like a very good way to get rid of some of this stress. So I'm wrapping this up and heading for the pool. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow - hopefully with positive things to report and a bit more time to write them down. Slava Ukraini.