After a day on the road and 1000 miles in one day I arrived in Manassas, VA. to meet my wife. She flew out on Sunday morning to teach classes in the VA / DC area. She is an educator for a manicure/pedicure line, and she teaches nail techs how to use them correctly. So Tuesday morning about 5:00 AM I hit I-4 out of Tampa Bay and over to I-95 north bound. Arrived Manassas about 8:00 PM. I was really glad to be out of the car by then. She then took me out to what I must say was the best BBQ I have had in a while in a place called "Red, Hot and Blue". Great sauces. If you can, you must try the vinegar and the Sweet sauce together.

Wednesday morning we both were officially off work. Sim had already scouted the area for things I might like to see. While Washington DC was only across the river, it was just too much for me to deal with the traffic and she knew it. So just about a 1/4 mile from the hotel was the Manassas battle field. What is it? This is where the first battle of the civil war was fought in a place called Bull Run. There's a flash back from history class.

After that we headed for Brick, NJ to see some old friends. Having a great time with them. However Terri's cat had to make an emergency trip to the vet's office and we are waiting not so patiently for test results. Tomorrow we are off for north NJ to see my nephew and his parents. The little guy is about 5 and smart as they come. I haven't ever had more then an hour or two with him since he was less then 1, so I am really looking forward to spending a few weeks with him. I also understand there are bears in the area so I brought along all the camera equipment. I will post pics later on my website. That's all for now. Nothing like a vacation to brighten things up. And too my surprise... no phone calls from the office yet, so that is the greatest gift yet.

l8rs all...

Meeting with the Boss?
after yesterday I am trying to get a meeting with the boss. I need to talk to him about yesterday and just what it is that he is expecting me to do. I am the IT manager with the boss/owners entire family working here in manager positions. I am the only IT person in the office and therefore technically a manager myself. But now he is calling and asking me about the other managers who are family as if I know what their projects are and the status of each one. Am I now their manager? Did I some how become responsible for the whole office? This and much more needs to be addressed with him. 2 year ago, when I got my last raise, the network was 12 compares and a server running Microsoft Small Business server. Today it is 7 RAID servers for a total storage of 9 there abouts, exchange server, web servers, terminal servers, Cisco routers, 2 T-1 lines, Ftp servers, etc... All this in just 2 years, and all with out training, other then me reading up on things as I grow. Yet no raise, and no "thank you"s. I have become the dark office at the end of the hallway. Something that you pass by on the way to the breakroom. An article that I read the other day stated that tech's are the forgotten if all is running well. But if we are needed to troulbeshoot, then we are the hated as we often have to tell the user that the trouble is them and not the computer, and just how could that be... Users never make mistakes. Just more of the morning ranting. Hopefully I will get in to see him today and throw some of the stress off my shoulders. I may be unemployed by day's end. Who knows, who cares... Either way the stress will be relieved some...

It's Wednesday and guess what?
A bird or squirrel gave up its life to screw mw over again. the new phone system is dead. Something fried itself on the power pole outside and caused a short. this lead to a induced static stike on the building to building line link. The biggest problem turned out to be a break in the building grounding cable. this means that all the surge protectors had no where to bleed off the over voltage. this means that the power spike entered the office via the phone lines and killed the PBX again. Thankfully our phone tech happened to think to check this while the power comapny was doing repairs. So all is well there. However a phone call from my booss during this time, in which I was berated has made me think seriously about leaving the company very soon. I mean I was ready this morning to leave. And if it wasn't for the need of a paycheck they would have been looking for a new network admin. I have 20 years in at the company and I get treated like the newbie whenever there is a crisis, yet some how I end up being the responsible one. How I get this over the boss's son or son-in-law is a mystery to me. maybe you can't blame family...

But enough of that for now. T-Minus 6 days and counting till vacation. its looking good too. the high was 68 there today witha low of 38. I am ready for that....