January’s come and gone, and I must say it was eventful. One thing I’ll mention is an emergency trip I took to diagnose problems at my mom’s office. As you probably guessed, everything there is Microsoft, from workstations to servers, so given my, ahem, connections to said place, I’m usually on point for looking into issues. This one I couldn’t figure out from Redmond, so I went back to Michigan to check it out.
The problem was simple: workstations could not log in or connect to anything related to the domain. Workstations could still see the Internet, however, and the server had no errors in any logs that I could think to look at while on the phone. I flew out thinking perhaps Active Directory had some corruption or something, and things needed rebuilding. Luckily, after a few hours of looking things over and testing things out, I expanded out to other possibilities, and discovered that a network switch was to blame.  I must admit, flying out over a bad switch kind of stinks, but I’ll take a bad switch over server problems any day.
So key takeaway: if there are network problems, don’t forget the switch.
Now, of course, this trip means I earned more WorldPerks miles, and it meant another round of being reminded how apparently stupid society is, which brings me to the post’s title. Apparently I’m not intelligent enough to hold handrails. It starts the second I walk into the airport. “Welcome to Sea-Tac. As you use the escalators ahead, remember to hold a handrail, and to hold small children by the hand.” Ok, got that. Now, into the train thing that, well, moves. “Please hold on to a handrail,” followed by, “Please hold on. Next stop, S gates.” Phew! I almost fell down. Upon arrival at Detroit, I sometimes use the tram, and am greeted with, “Please hold a handrail in preparation for departure.” And what would the ride in the Avis bus be like without a reminder to hold a handrail if I’m standing. Yes, I know, if they didn’t say that, then people could sue if they fell down and blah blah blah, but sheesh, hearing that over and over every few months – it gets old.
The groundhog didn’t see his shadow, so I figured why not do a little spring cleaning. Some Pine-Sol and Windex and Pledge, and things are a bit cleaner around here. Hard to believe, but I’ve been here a year now. Yep, there are still boxes that need unpacking. Soon I’ll be saying it’s been two years, then five years… travelling life’s journey is fast, I just need to remember to hold a handrail.
