Aaaaand we're back at work..

Now I get it.  Hard to find ANYthing positive to write about, much less have the time, when I'm back at work.  I think of a thousand things a day to write about but by the time I get home and have a moment, I've lost interest.  I guess that's why some people update their blogs on their cell phones and whatnot.

Happy New Year to all!  Yesterday was the first time in years I totally broke with all my New Year's traditions.  No resolutions.  Didn't create or eat the annual "good luck" meal.  Yeah, I'm probably going to burn for that one.  I did laundry - my husband would not let me do laundry on New Year's Day, some kind of bad luck thing, I don't know what for sure.  Maybe it was just a tradition born of his mother or grandmother wanting to have a day off, way back when.  Whatever the case, laundry needed to be done so I did it. 

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Turtle and the Duchess came for a visit. Really very nice.  Duchess kept telling me, "We will have a party and I am almost four years old!"  and "Lovey, you are my best friend!"  Really, can a New Year start better than that?

Turtle told me a little heartwarmer that happened on the way to Lovey's house.  Duchess had been chattering about parties and Christmas and fun at Lovey's house.  When she grew quiet, Turtle got a little alarmed  (Duchess has a tendency to get carsick) and asked, "Sweetie, are you okay?"

Duchess turned to her with a look of serenity and contentment and said on a sigh, "I'm just so happy.." 

Rare moment.

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And now for the bad news:  I'm on call for the weekend.  The co-worker who was SUPPOSED to be on-call for the weekend had some phone issues (Turtle was calling BULL! but *sigh* what could I do?) so I agreed to take it for him.  The calls have not been that bad but people, PEOPLE, sometimes I hate dealing with people - unreasonable, snarly, snide. 

For example, I had two calls yesterday, back-to-back, with nearly the same issue.  Phone line problems, or could be a bad phone.  I am only required to dispatch a field tech if the phone doesn't work at all, but in both cases it was an issue with house wiring, and the phone was working if it was directly connected. 

CALL ONE: 
Me:  Connect the phone directly to the device.  Do you have dial tone?
Nice Customer:  Yes, it's working now.
Me:  If you would like for us to come out and check your house wiring, please call the office Monday morning and schedule an appointment.
Nice Customer: Thank you!  We'll do that.  At least we have a working phone!

CALL TWO:
Me:  Connect the phone directly to the device.  Do you have dial tone?
Bitchy Customer:  No.
Me:  (Looking at the diagnostics, I can tell she hasn't made any changes)  You need to disconnect the line on the device and connect a phone directly to it.
BC: I can't do that, you need to send someone.
Me: (I know she CAN disconnect the line, we had already been through that step)  If I send a tech on a holiday, you will be charged.  I'm just trying to help you avoid any additional charges.
BC:  There better not be any charges on my account!  This phone been like this since I got it!
Me: (Checking records, I see that she has had the service for over three years and this is the first time there is a record of a bad phone line call)  *SIGH* I understand, but I do have to warn you.  I am not responsible for charges but accounting will put charges on your account if they see that I've sent a tech out there.  Now, please connect a phone directly to the device and let's check for dial tone.
BC:  But then I won't have a phone in my livin' room!

The fact that you have a cheap crap cordless phone that is messing up the internal lines is NOT an emergency.  Just saying.

Also, the fact that a customer has TIME on a holiday that he normally doesn't, does NOT mean I want to hang out and chat.  If I ask, what can I do to help you?  Do not ask if I'm having a happy new year.  Duh!  I'm WORKING what do you think?  I'm also not going to take an extended amount of time to help you set up the XBox/Playstation/IPad you got for Christmas.  Not when you've had an entire week to call during business hours and didn't. 

One last thing:  If you call me on Saturday night at 9pm and open with, "It's been doing this for a couple of weeks now...."  Guess what?  It's probably going to have to suffer until Monday.  Really? Couple of weeks?  And you don't want to troubleshoot, you want me to send someone on a rainy Saturday night JUST BECAUSE you just now have time to deal with it?  I think not. 

I hate being on call.