A disastrous day

Yesterday was a disaster for me on a personal level. I awoke (early, thanks to my stepdad) for work to find that it had snowed, meaning that the drive to work (5-10 minutes at the most) was much slower and bothersome than usual (it took 20 minutes for me to arrive). Once I got there, I tried booting up the computer (required for all the transactions at my job), but the computer decided to give me a physical memory dump (Windows' famous blue screen).

Last week, my co-worker had been having difficulty trying to get the computer (and printers, et al) to turn on because the UPS (uninterrupted power supply - basically a surge protector with a built in battery just in case the power goes out, to give you time to shut down) had run out of battery and had no AC (the power went out). His solution was simple, and a bad idea: take all the equipment out of the UPS and plug it into a regular power strip. (With no surge protection.)

At the end of Saturday, I shut down the computer, and turned it off, moving all the electronics' plugs back to the UPS (now fully charged) to avoid potential problems should the weather (it had been snowy and rainy recently, off and on) cause the power to go out during the workday.

Apparently, this was the worst idea I could have had. It seems that the computer was unplugged (I did it, so this makes it my fault) at the wrong time (it never shut down normally, but it would get to a point where it was reasonably safe, but without any indication of such). So the system registry (specifically the part for all programs on the computer) became corrupted, or was possibly erased. This is what caused the blue screen of death.

So, I was placed in the awkward and uncomfortable position of calling the owner, and informing him that the computer died. He shut down his other store (he was the only one who could work it at that time) to bring us a replacement computer.

An hour later, I was in the even more awkward position of informing him that all the backup of our system data (which he had thought was going to an external hard drive), was in fact located on the hard drive of the dead computer. My co-worker (the one who had decided to remove all the plugs from the UPS the previous week) had apparently told him it was so. It wasn't; the external hard drive that they thought was being used wasn't even recognized by the computer, and so since it was wasting power and a USB port, I had simply removed it.

I then spent the rest of the workday (although I was only supposed to be working the first half, not the entire day) turning customers away because of all the problems associated with making the new computer work. Namely, getting drivers for printers, installing required software, and finding out, to my chagrin, that the new computer will not allow us the use of our USB hub (meaning printers, scanners, and other devices can't be attached because the computer then pretends they don't exist).

It was an exhausting day at work, made only slightly better by having a very caring coworker (a different one than the one mentioned above) decide to donate her half of the day to me (in hours on the timesheet), but stay around to assist in helping customers while I solved (seemingly) all the problems that could possibly go wrong (which all seemed to happen) short of a total system meltdown.

After such a terrible day at work, I arrived home. Less than 4 minutes through the door, I got a call from another co-worker/boss (we're trying to start a business). He was trying to get me scheduled for a meeting today (wednesday, the 16th). However, he informed me that he didn't have a room reserved for us to meet in, nor did he have any idea of the business expert on our team would be there, and furthermore, he had mistakenly thought I would be available during the time I have class. (This was vitally important, so I informed him that my class schedule was prohibitive of the time he *thought* I was available.)

I woke up this morning feeling quite tired (even after 9 hours of rest), because of the stress I dealt with yesterday.

For some reason, life has recently been trying my patience and attempting to stress me out. I'm normally quite patient, and I handle stress fairly well (most of the time being able to brush it off completely). This type of stuff, however, has been happening frequently, and has pushed me to the limits of my mental endurance.

I keep on being surprised by how far I can be pushed without falling apart, but I'd rather not have to find out this way. I'm curious if other people feel the same way. Needless to say, returning to school (instead of work) today will be quite relaxing in comparison. Perhaps it will do me some good.