Of Phone Support and Cat Litter
Today was a rather typical day at the office. I am not really in technical support any longer, but until our support office in Germany opens, a few of us take phone calls on Mondays and Thursdays. This is fine, but I was really not in the mood to talk to customers, as I had so many loose ends to wrap up from previous research. And, of course, I had the important task of failing to get our CEO's overly cute USB mouse to work with his laptop (running Linux).
While on the phones, I talked to this poor gentleman for the 12th time in the last few weeks. He is an incredibally patient man, if not clueless. At first I found him and his iBook very trying, but he has earned my respect, simply due to his willingness to make mistakes and learn from them. For a person not very familiar with Linux, he is trying his with all of his might to install it on an entirely (officially) unsupported machine. I agreed to help him, on a whim, a few weeks ago. I have almost never regretted any decision more. Together, we have worked and worked on getting his machine running with a combination of my own research, emails back and forth, and telephone conversations. I have his registration code memorized.
Today was wonderful, because after this man's 4th re-installation, following all of my directions, (and adding a couple other experiments) he called me up to thank me for my help and to let me know that everything was working perfectly. It is the best feeling in the world to be appreciated by a random person who you don't really know. It made my day much better.
After going through hell on the phones and writing some much needed documentation, I realized I still had the keys to the company car. (Insert evil grin here.) This was a perfect opportunity to buy an economy-sized bag of cat litter, a big bag of cat food, some cats (not really), a sandwich, and some guitar picks. I also topped off the petrol in the company car. I did this because I can then claim the 112 Miles I drove the car yesterday, on an expense report at $0.325 a mile, and make some money off of the deal. (I do realize what a sneaky person I am.)
I am now looking forward to going home and cleaning out the litter box. Perhaps I will drink some Guinness while I am at it. Cat litter plus Guinness can make for a wild and unique evening!
I have to get things reasonabally prepared and cleaned, as I will be off to Santa Cruz to see the Mermen and
Estradasphere at Palookaville tomorrow evening. It should be a pretty fun weekend. I get to spend it with a wonderful man, so I am not complaining at all.