And yet today has pegged the suck-o-meter.
We went to Russ's memorial service this morning. What stood out the most was that while his partner of the last seven years was in attendance, his name (or relationship to Russ) was not even mentioned during the eulogy. Other things that were said made it obvious that Russ's family knew he was gay (and apparently had no issue with it), so I'm at a loss to explain why Ken was so conspicuously left out.
Initially I was the only person there from work and didn't recognize anyone other than Ken, but about fifteen minutes into the proceedings five other folks from the I.S. department showed up.
I'm kind of surprised that Russ's passing has affected me as profoundly as it has, especially considering how (a) we weren't really all that close and how (b) friends much closer to me were dropping left and right during the late 80s and early 90s and I didn't feel nearly the sense of loss I'm feeling with this passing. Maybe it's because it came on so suddenly. (I saw him about a month ago and while he was thinner than I've ever seen him in the five years we've known each other and he admitted to a lot of problems with his health, he was happy and upbeat, fully believing that he was going to persevere.)
I'm also on call this week. I fully expected the fucking pager go off at some point this morning; it didn't disappoint.
Thankfully it happened before we even left for the service, and I was able to convince the user that the issue could wait until Monday. While driving home after the service however, the pager went off again. I ignored it until I got home. Three more tickets had come in, although only one had been specifically assigned to me: one at a clinic I didn't even know was open on Saturday, and two out at the northwest hospital, the facility I am least familiar with.
The clinic call was one of those where a doctor was being inconvenienced by a wireless tablet not working, so of course it was a Priority One, Hair-On-Fire, End-Of-The-World issue. This particular clinic has had ongoing issues with their wireless tablets almost from the day they were first deployed, and there has been no definitive solution to the problems forthcoming. These tablets are one of several pieces of hardware that have been rolled out to the hospitals since I was transferred to our non-clinical business unit, so I have absolutely no experience with them. Again—fortunately—I was finally able to convince the user that the issue could wait until Monday morning, when the usual support-tech could address it.
The other two calls also involved new equipment. I have limited experience (a half day of training) with the rolling computer carts, but absolutely none with the hand-held barcode reader units. Neither ticket was directly assigned to me, so they're both getting ignored until they show up in my queue. At this point I don't care. If the shit hits the fan on Monday, so be it. It may be the trigger I need to get off my ass and actually find a different job.
Speaking to that, I got another lead from one of the recruiters I'm registered with. It's geographically less-than-desirable, turning my fifteen minute commute into about a forty-five minute one, but I wrote her back and told her I'd be interested in talking with them. At this point the extra commute time is worth it. I'm done with the place I'm at now.
So I doubt much of anything can be done to salvage this day. As soon as Ben wakes from his nap, I'm going to suggest going out for Mexican food—or Chicken and Waffles—tonight.
