Finding It

Motivation, that is. I got up around 6am this morning. I had gotten into the habit of sleeping in since I don't have to leave for work till around 9 now. Even when unemployed I had gotten up at 6, so sleeping late was indicative of how I had let myself get run down. I have been taking my supplements, eating more if not more healthy (that will come), and working on tying up the loose ends and stressors. I am still letting some major things go, but all in good time.

I wanted to write about my work day yesterday, and since I didn't do it last night I guess I will do it now. I do Dell field service. I print out my calls that are emailed to me at home, go down by the airport and get the parts, turn in the parts from the previous day's calls, call my day's clients to tell them I'm coming and head out. Last week we were down a tech since one of the guys got a real job and left, so I was running a bit harder than I like. This week has settled down. I only had 4 calls yesterday, which is more or less the norm.

I started out at TSU - Tennessee State University - in their athletic department. It is one of those places I would never end up if it wasn't for this job. Nice lady and an easy call, just replacing a LCD panel in a laptop. It worked when I was done (doesn't always if they didn't troubleshoot it right over the phone with Dell), and I walked back out still early in the day. Then I headed north, off Hwy 12 to someplace called New Visions. I found the side road and headed down it. I was surprised that some commercial place would be so far off the beaten track. Then I saw lots of brick buildings, which surprised me. Then, I saw tall fencing and barbed wire. Holy ..... I was at the front of the penitentiary that I see from the back on Briley Parkway. Turns out New Visions Youth Development Center is apparently the youth jail. I wasn't feeling warm and fuzzy, but after some mis-communication that had a uniformed guard saying that I'd need to inventory all my tools, etc. (I carry a LOT of tools), I took in only the screw drivers I needed and the parts. When they realized I was there to make the Superintendent's computer work again, things suddenly smoothed out. Again, an easy fix, a motherboard and power supply replacement in a desktop machine, and I was out the door.

Headed up to Clarksville and their school district IT dept. I had been there the day before and replaced a LCD in a laptop, but it hadn't solved the problem. Called Dell and they had sent a motherboard for me to put in today. The woman who is my contact there is nice and the only strange thing is they have a TV on all the time. I don't watch TV, so I find it distracting. The previous day I had to ask them to change the channel because the movie they had on - Face Off (?) was too disturbing for me. I have a problem watching movies, and I definitely couldn't concentrate with fights and some guy crying and dramatic music and such. Both of them had already said they had seen the movie. This time the motherboard fixed the problem, and by 2:30 I was again out the door. Headed to AO Smith in Ashland City (they make water heaters) and had a call to replace a hard drive in one of the largest desktop models Dell makes. Dell sent 2 hard drives, so I wasn't sure if I was headed into a raid, or if they just duplicated the order as they sometimes do. It turned out to be an easy single drive. I'm still a bit unsure swapping SATA drives, but it all went easy. I was home by 4. I thought how I had served the youth of the area from college age to grade school, ones who had issues with the law, ones who had made it to University, and also helped them stay clean with hot water. It was a good day.