"Rerun"

I came home from work in a foul mood yesterday. I hate taking my work frustrations home, but I did.

Thursday

I got a call late in the morning to go to JPL to fix one of their Xerox's. I hate driving up there after 10:00 A.M. It's 50 miles from my office to JPL. The milage isn't too bad, it's the L.A. traffic. 50 miles can take you an hour, or it can take you two. I do, however, like being there. I mean, come on! It's the JPL!

So, I drove up there. I went to check in at the guard shack and I find out (the hard way) that our company and my name has fallen off the list. So, I call my contact to have him talk to the guard.

No answer.

I called my other contact to talk to the guard.

No answer.

The guard recognized me, but cannot let me in without permission. I asked if I could wait for a while and try again. He let me and left a voice mail for one of my contacts to call him...

An hour and ten minutes later, I gave up.

After I drove down the hill, I called my dispatch guy to let him know that JPL was a bust and that I'd try again on Friday. He asked me if I could assist "New Guy" out in Ontario... again.

OK, Ontario is just about 30 miles east on I-210.

Sure, I'll go...

Well... I went to help New Guy at this same place earlier in the week and didn't get home till 8:00 P.M.

New Guy didn't bring all of the parts I told him to bring, so we spun our wheels till about 4:00 P.M.

I told him that I was going home and wrote down what he needed to bring for the next day.

I got home, hot and tired. When I went to bed, I fell asleep instantly.

Friday

I had all of the parts I needed with me for JPL and another call, so I headed straight out there from home.

The drive was only an hour and 20 minutes.

One of my contacts was in and told the guard that I was "cool."

I got to the building, fixed the printer and split.

That only took a shade over an hour.

I had another call in Pasadena, so I cruised down the hill, over, and up another hill. I got there in less than 20 minutes. I got in, fixed the old DesignJet 600 they have and split.

I was in and out of there in 45 minutes.

I called Dispatch.

Brett, the dispatch guy, said that there was nothing else going on. He asked if I had heard from New Guy yet.

I said "no."

He asked if I could call him to see how he was doing. Brett said that I could go home...

I called New Guy. He asked if I could come by. I should have told him "no..."

Like a big schmo, I went.

Ontario, CA

I drove up at 2:00. I took a deep breath, then walked in.

New Guy was there with pieces of 1055cm+ all over the place.

The original problem was "banding" in the prints.

It got worse.

Now, it doesn't print color. The cyan, magenta, and yellow printheads aren't firing. I asked what he did. He went through the list, and pretty much did what I would have done... But there are many variables. One is technique. He tends to take the "bigger hammer" approach to things. Two, the customer said that they did certain things, but with out seeing what they did, I can't easliy diagnose. Three, I didn't witness what New Guy did. Once again, too hard to diagnose. Four, I got there late in the afternoon, so there wasn't time to truly get into it.

So, the final part to replace is the main board (kinda like a motherboard for big printers).

Guess what? New guy brought the wrong main board.

Fuck.

4:30

I went home. Hot, tired, angry, stressed. Yeah, I think that's what I was...

Post Script

I will be in San Diego all day on Monday. I cannot help New Guy. I also will not answer my cell phone if I see that he is calling.

The conflict:

While New Guy is not near as bad as Bumblefuck, he's a close second. At least he isn't annoying. The thing that really pisses me off is that I like New Guy. He's funny and a great guy to talk to.

I think it's Rodger's turn to babysit him. LOL