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Originally published at Customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I managed to make it into Tampa on Sunday night, around 20:00 or so.
The cabbie ended up charging me extra for the luggage, as I suspected, and I could have dealt with that in itself.
But things really started getting interesting once I got to the airport.
I managed to get assistance, and found out that it would cost me $80 to $100 to check each individual bag over two, so I decided to carry the rest onto the plane.
When I went through security, they asked me if I could take my shoes off by myself or if I needed someone to do it for me.
Then, they had to take the laptop, because they had to run some “tesses”.
Their words, not mine.
needless to say, I was getting worried at this point.
Once I headed for the plane, the person assisting me told me that two of my bags would not fit under the seat, and that he was putting them in overhead storage, and that I should ask about them once I got to Charlotte.
OK, fair enough.
But when I got to Charlotte, and asked about my bags, there was no sign of them.
I also missed my connecting flight, and so had to wait until almost 18:00 to catch the next flight.
I’ve been trying to find them ever since.
Everyone with the airline seems to have developed a case of the stupids, so I’m calling the Greenville airport today.
I’m missing my laptop, and the suitcase that has all my non-work clothes, along with other vitally needed things, like undergarments.
I hate people.
I really really do.
Now, it looks like I’ll have to go buy new clothes for the time being, which really pisses me off.
The laptop was about to get retired, so while I’m not happy about it being missing, I can deal with it.
While I’m here I can use my aunt’s computer, and I’m sure I can get some things worked out as far as email is concerned.
The clothes, on the other hand, are a different story.
On top of all that, my favorite person in the whole wide world is extremely ill, and I can’t be there to take care of him.
But on a lighter note, the people I’m working with are very nice, and work is going well.
More on that, and everything else, later.

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Originally published at Customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

Given that it’s so hot down here, I’ve found that taking a siesta, or afternoon nap, is not an option but a requirement.
It’s starting to cool off now I think, so hopefully the house will cool down.
I’ve probably sweat off a ton, and I don’t see that changing any time soon unless we’re talking temporary, which means a cold shower.
We’re having grilled hot dogs for supper, which definitely smell good.
My uncle is a great cook, and that’s always something to look forward to.
I wonder if, after eating supper late for the last month, I’ll go home and still keep to that schedule.
I’ll probably switch back eventually, but it’ll be different for a while.

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Originally published at Customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

Today was long but productive. I got two tons of document’n this
morning, which I’m grateful for.
One of my coleagues, Kim, has apparently spent the last three years
collecting and organizing everything she can get hold of.
All of that will come in handy, and I look forward to adding to
that.
The plan is to start a collection on one of the company drives to
store all the information, and then give copies to new trainees on
portable storage.
I talked to the airline today.
They’ve started a corporate investigation in order to find my
missing laptop, and I’m really hoping they find it.
They’ve said they’ll replace it if they don’t find it, but in order
for them to do that, I’ll have to get a copy of a six-year-old
receipt from Gateway.
That should be fun.
I have to call my bank sometime this week to find out if I’ll be
able to make a deposit from Florida to a North Carolina account.
If I can’t, it’ll be do big deal, but it would be nice to have some
extra money while I’m down here.
I plan to go to Radio Shack while I’m down here and get a
directional mic so I can start podcasting.
I think that would be fun.
More later.

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Originally published at Customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

In the midst of importing/exporting all my data from Outlook to come back and forth from work to my aunt’s house, i’ve managed to get all my calendar and contact data deleted!
Man, that really sucks.
I hope I can replace it all when I get to work.
I deleted the ActiveSync partnership from my aunt’s computer, and can easily recreate it.
I guess I’ll just have to export everything when I get to work in case the screw-up manages to delete all the data from that system as well.
I’m sure this is easily fixable, but I’ve managed to create a major inconvenience for myself.
Yay for dumbassery.

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Originally published at Customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

When I got back to my aunt’s this evening, I decided to see if I would get lucky enough to find the file I needed to restore my contacts in the recycle bin, since for some reason, the sync operation at work managed to delete the contacts on the work computer as well, which everyone (Jim, myself, and Cory) agree should not have happened.
Anyway,where, in the recycle bin, so everything’s restored.
For once, the damn thing came in handy.

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Originally published at Customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

I left work yesterday with Joe and his wife, who gave me a ride over to Wil and Denise’s apartment, which is where I’m staying for the weekend.
We’re going out with most of the rest of the people from Tech Support later on to a place called Cody’s.
Last night, Will, Denise and I went to a place called the Ail House, and we had a ball drinking pitchers of beer and eating these things called “zingers”, which are these boneless chicken wings with hot sauce on them.
We had a good time joking around.
I even learned a new slur for sighted people: Light slaves.
I think it definitely fits.
Tomorrow, we plan to go to Radio Shack to pick up the mic and adapter I need in order to podcast with the PacMate.
We also plan to consume more beer.
I’ve started taking calls at work, and I’ve gotten used to being on the phone.
They’re still monitoring me, and apparently there are some things I still need to be trained on, but other than that things seem to be shaping up.
I think they could have had this training done in two weeks, but what the hell.
It’s off to breakfast for me, (coffee and muffins), but there’ll be more later.

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Originally published at Customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

Today is my last day of training/working on-sight, so Denise sent in some
chocolate chip and pican cookies.
They are really good, and I’m going to try to make it a point to take some
with me.
I’m leaving to head home for Greenville on Sunday, and hope to start working
as soon as possible.
The airline still hasn’t recovered my laptop, but there’s a complaint in,
and one of the supervisors I’ve spoken to has kept in touch via email.
It’s been kind of slow today since everyone’s headed to either the ACB or
NFB convention.
I plan to spend tomorrow packing and lazing around since I’ll have to leave
early Sunday morning.

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Originally published at Customerservant.com. You can comment here or there.

Today is my final day down here in Florida.
I leave for Greenville tomorrow, to start making preparations to work from
home.
I don’t know when I’m supposed to get the new computer, but I plan on
calling Division of Services for the Blind Monday morning to get them to
bring by the loaner.
It looks like I’ll be working from 10:30 to 19:00, but I’m going to see if,
when the days start getting shorter, I can manage to either work different
hours, or work from 8:30 to 19:00 on most days and have Fridays off due to
Shabbat.
I’ll also look into getting as much advanced notice for Rosh Hashanah, Yom
Kippur, Sukkot, and Simhat Torah.
It’ll be nice to spend the holiday season as it was meant to be spent,
instead of spending it at work and thinking from time to time that, “Hey,
it’s the *th Day of Sukkot” or something like that.
I’m hoping to be able to get a scanner, and OpenBook, so I can scan my mail
and maybe even some books.
That would be nice.
The future looks a whole lot different from here.
If anyone had said I might have a different job that would be so drastically
different and a lot more satisfying even six months ago, I probably would
have done something close to laughing at them, if not outright laughed at
them.
Sometimes life can change in unforeseen ways.
I just finished reading Street Lawyer by John Grisham, which is about
a lawyer who gets held hostage by a homeless man in the conference room of
his firm, and ends up quitting his job and working for a legal clinic for
homeless people.
All of this happened within one month according to the book.
It was a good one, and was a good example of how life can change so quickly.
It’ll be interesting to see what the future brings, and while I’m guaranteed
nothing, I can still be thankful for what I’ve been so generously blessed
with, or for the cards I have been unexpectedly dealt, however you want to
view it.