“Remoted” Workday 165 / Day 246 (Tuesday)

Tuesday began slightly better than Monday in that there was no dog poo on the bedroom rug and no dogs barfed in the home-office. The day's issues were primarily technological.

The computer was fired up and the email volume was a refreshing and normal level of around 20 messages to start the morning. The volume was better, but every email sent from outside the company had issues with images in the message. Every one. That made reading the Chamber update and news roundups extra hard with the small X in a box and accompanying error message everywhere an image belonged. A tech ticket was created and a Help Desk associate remoted in. Things were clicked, boxes were checked. It was a flashback to decades of what former colleagues called my BTK – Bad Technology Karma. 

OMG. Such a good lunch.

There were back-to-back video meetings on the calendar at 12:00 and 1:00. The first meeting involved a lunch meetup and a Beyond Burger with grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, American cheese, and mayo, sweet potato fries, and a side salad with house dressing from my favorite no contact delivery shop. It’s actually the only place I’ve used in my very brief food delivery history which began in March with the remote work. Anyway, lunch was messy, delicious, and so filling there was no need for supper. Most of the fries and the salad were saved for later.

The first meeting was left and the second meeting joined. The tech issues resumed. My screen froze to still images of everyone, and I couldn’t change the layout or revive the screen. The meeting was joined on my phone, which caused a shrill, piercing sound through the audio. The laptop connection to the meeting was terminated.

After a couple minutes on the phone, the dogs began barking to go out. The phone screen kept freezing, and a message about “UI system problems” message kept popping up. At the end of the meeting, instead of letting me “Leave Meeting,” the usual exit strategy, the phone screen went blank on my side, but the remaining two people could see me, and we could all hear each other. The phone had to be restarted, although I really just wanted to throw it across the room. After the meeting, it was more email image issues and another remote connection with the tech gurus.

Lunch was the high point, and the tech stuff made for a sadly, not at all unusual day. The curse of BTK lives.