Panic & a Flea Market

I've been on call this week. There was an issue fairly early in the week, but there were folks in the office and they dealt with it while I looked on. My luck of course, couldn't hold. Friday on my very mediocre birthday I had just returned from grocery shopping when the pager went off. There were problems with the email system. This is something I know nothing about. Of course just about anything they could possibly page me for on call I know nothing about. I had a full fledged panic attack. It was my responsibility to fix the problem and I was at a total loss. I tried text paging the boss of the group I was on call for and the supervisor on call. Nada. Finally I called the supervisor on call at his house. Happily he was there, more happily he fixed the issue.

I spent the rest of the evening loading the toys and assorted excess stuff into my car for the next day's flea market. I decided to ignore the many outgrown clothing items because I ran out of time. In the end the toys and stuff filled the back of my vehicle so I don't think I could have brought anything else to the flea market.

Saturday up fairly early and I was off to market. Got there only shortly after opening and felt like I was late - those people must have been lined up waiting to get the best tables. I off-loaded the stuff and wished I'd had a hand truck. Then I struggled to get it all set up in some sort of pleasing fashion. Instead it was just pretty much a solid mass of toys and stuff. I didn't even put it all out because there just wasn't space. I spent my time selling and moving things around. I sold things cheap but I held to my prices. Amazing how a person will haggle over a $.50 item and how many will walk away from a $5 item.

Of course while I was sitting there the damn pager went off. And me without my phone number list. This one was pretty important too because it was banks not able to connect to the mainframe during banking hours. Luckily the guys on the help desk had the number of one of the other ladies who had been on call for userid's during the week - she knows about the mainframe connections and was able to fix the problem. Much soul searching and I came to a conclusion. Tuesday I will tell my boss that it is imperative they fix the on-call list so that I'm not put on again for the group I don't work for anymore. Additionally I will require several hours of training on how to diagnose and fix problems for the area I do work for so that I can be useful when I come up on call for them.

The flea market was very successful for the boy. He made $100 on his toys. The man sold a few buck worth of tapes and I got a few for the other assorted stuff. I came home and pretty much collapsed. Then I cashed in my birthday dinner rain check and we went out for chinese food. One rum drink, a couple appetisers and way too much food later. I was a tired but contented deb.

Today was catch up on the chores day. Off loading the rest of the van, cleaning up the garage, doing the laundry, defrosting the freezer. Now that's entertainment.