moral of the story - don't get speeding tickets

I guess my customer was tired of listening to me complain about my computer not working. Or maybe they just like rescuing damsels in distress. Or maybe the head of IT is pissed that his new computer was allocated to me until mine is fixed...

At any rate, at noon today I was getting more and more pissed that the help desk hadn't called me back so the gov agency I'm working for decided to take action to help me. The help desk had told me my company didn't have an office in Calgary but one of the gov guys said "I know I've seen the logo on a building near here". They used this app that scans the city from the top and they looked through the blocks until they found the building with my company's logo on it. I had a location to go to. Progress.

Then they went through one of their databases (don't ask) until they found the name of a guy who works at that building (think he got some speeding tickets and that's why he was in there). One of the gov guys I work with called him and said "we have a fellow employee here that needs help with her laptop and you're going to help her". I talked to the guy on the phone, explained my problem, and he agreed to help me. But, he said he had to leave the building at 4 pm and he wasn't sure my badge would work to get in. My customer got back on the phone and said "she's in a meeting with us until 4 so you'll just have to wait until she gets there".

This poor guy ended up waiting for me for an hour because I got my streets and avenues confused. I was supposed to be at the east end of town (the office was a 15 minute walk from my customer site) but I accidentally walked to the opposite end of town and then had to double back (luckily a kindly gentleman gave me directions). Four miles after initally setting out I arrived at my company's building.

An IT guy came down 5 minutes after I got there. I said "you're the only person in Canada who works after 5 pm" and he laughed. We then attempted multiple experiments to bring my computer to steady state, one of which caused my laptop to fall off a desk and the plastic corner to break off of it (don't ask - really, don't ask - it had to do with cycling the power to clear the something or other).

On top of the other issues with software, my hard drive is emitting a loud whistle (that was happening before it fell off the desk so don't blame me for that). The IT guy said "um, that's bad". He's going to rebuild my laptop tomorrow and I should have it back in the afternoon. I have to think of something nice to do for that kid. Poor thing was with me in the office until 730.

The best part of the story is the Canadian computer image is different than the US version and uses different drivers. So he's going to have to manually tweak it because the OS won't run on my computer as is. Also, I'm wondering if my spell check is going to be some fucked up Canadian US english/UK english thing. Then I'll be writing cheques instead of checks.

The good news is I got a ton of data into my customer's database last night and knocked their little socks off at the demo I did this afternoon (my meeting until 4 pm). It's not easy to be a rock star, but someone has to do it.

And now I'm going to open a bottle of garnacha de fuego and toast the kid fixing my computer even though he's not here (he better still be in the office fixing my laptop).

Why is wine so expensive here? Oh yeah, canadians only drink beer...