Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Strange days….

Did you ever have a day that had one strange occurrence after another?

At first I thought it was just the cold I’ve been fighting for the past few days… but now, I’m not so sure.

It started this morning as I was checking my email, and like most folks in the business, I have a lot of things to check.

First there’s the requisite update of all the filters that attempt to sift out the 100’s of spam emails I get daily, while I’m nailing about 85 or 90% of them, I update the rules daily to keep it there.

After that I check the feedback forms from my websites for new contract leads, and the occasional note from an old friend who just stopped in to say hi. There it was a note from a person I knew a few years ago, but haven’t been in contact with for several years.

If she hadn’t left her real name in the form I would have though it was my imagination.

The next place I go is the folder for the blog comments (my favorite part of the day!) and there, and I almost missed it, is a comment from a woman I haven’t heard from, or spoken to in close to 30 years. She was my lifeline while I was in the service; in fact she and I met at a party while I was home on leave after boot camp, she and I dated regularly until I got shipped overseas.

Things went south between us when I came home early, unexpectedly, though, it seems she’d found another guy and was moving on with her life, and I moved on with mine.

I’ve wondered over the years whatever happened to her, and now, thanks to this place I at least know she’s alive, and drops in here.

If that wasn’t enough strangeness for one day… I downloaded the latest data file from D&B, only to find it was totally screwed up. Again, at first I thought it had to be ‘me’ and the fog this cold has my brain in… but no, it was truly messed up, from the data returned to the format of the file. Something went very wrong somewhere in the D&B code stacks for sure.

Mind you this was all before 7:00am this morning.

The first two ‘contacts’ were strange enough… D&B, a company known for data integrity, screwing up a simple match file return was off the hook weird!!

I’ve got the file in rework and the team at D&B will stay on it until they get it back to us, and 100% correct, but this totally screws our early delivery schedule, and may even make us late!! Those of you who are regulars know that I hate delivering anything late, my fault or not!! Hopefully they can get everything back at some point before the close of business on Friday and I can wind up my processes and have the file ready for mainframe load first thing Monday morning.

If that happens… we have a shot at making the deadlines.

So there you have it, I’m gonna call it a day computer-wise before I create any strangeness!! I apologize to all of you for not being around your blogs the past few days, but between trying to keep this cold at bay, and not fall behind with the project I haven’t had much time for visiting.

7 comments:

Chloe said...

I love when the universe throws a surprise our way by bringing back someone from the past. I ran into a friend at the bookstore in March after 5 years of no contact and the thing I remember most is the feeling of not being bitter, of just being genuinely happy that he was doing well. I'd truly let it go. That was nice to experience.

Kim said...

Hi Bill, I've just finished reading this post and the last couple. You have been in such a reflective mood of late, it's been a pleasure to read your thoughts. I was left with a sense that confirms for me that everything happens for a reason, not so much in the spiritual way, but in the way of self exploration. I'm glad you've had these last few weeks of introspection and think they will serve you well. Hope you are feeling better health wise, and will be back again soon. Hugs and hi to Maryan!

Bill said...

Chloe - Yeah, me too... it's a test of how we've dealt with our past for sure! I'm not feeling bitter either, and that's a good thing as for a while there I was really hurting... Life does indeed go on :) Maryan's been a real gift in my life, every step along the way got me to her front door.

Kim - You're right, I have been very reflective. Throwing out the remains of a couple decades of my life has that effect on me!! :)

I think looking back, sometimes, if for no other reason than to relate it to where you are, can be a very good thing indeed!!

It's good to see you back, up and running again!! How's the new PC?

RealLady - Baby, thank you... I just don't know how to quit, even when every indication says I should... it's a blessing, and a curse, I'm just glad you find value in that aspect of me.

Ben O. said...

Get better dude -

Ben O.

Spirit Of Owl said...

Like Kim I've just caught up on the last few posts. It's incredible how much progress you make, how many aspects of life you keep working at, every day.

It's fantastic that there are fantastic surprises mixed in with the daily drudgery of life, even if they do leave you feeling a bit freaked out! I hope that you get over the cold quickly, and good luck with getting your project on track. Fingers crossed. :)

Patrick M. Tracy said...

Bill,

No worries about the contact. It's hard to have this meta-community to tend in addition to all the normal life tasks, and being a bit under the weather doesn't help. I know that I sometimes don't have the time to visit with as many people as I'd like in the blogsphere.

I've had these weird days, yes. Sometimes with computers, others when I feel like everyone on the road is trying to punt me into the weeds. I think it's best to just duck down and wait for the hex to wear off.

Bill said...

Ben - Thanks, I'm feeling much better today!

Spirit - It was more like 'stunned' than freaked out... but you're right, one of the great joys in life are the unexpected surprises... some are more fun than others though!

Thanks man... sometimes I feel like I take two steps forward, and three or even four back... the past week or so though has been mostly forward!

Firhawk - I know what you mean... I have a couple of terms for it:

"My turn in the box"
"It's just the universe fuckin with me"

I rarely duck though... it's kinda hard to see things coming with your eyes closed!