22:33 - 08.06.05
Floods
I couldn't log in to the "add an entry" feature in Diaryland last night dear diary. I'm not certain if that means there is still a problem with my PC, or if Fred the ghost is at it again. I suspect both. That would be a simple extension of the type of work day I had. Oh yeah.
Starting on June 6, problems in the records database became really obvious. For the weekly report of May 27, the number of records coded for retention, derived in a search directly from the database, was higher than the same search run on Monday June 6, that was meant to provide the cumulative number of records coded to June 3. When I submitted the June 3 weekly report, I added in comments about the discrepancy asking for direction to resolve the disparity in the numbers. My own daily log indicated I had worked on close to 2000 records and I wanted to know where the data was.
Although it was likely irrelevant, there was a vendor sales and equipment manual on my desk Monday morning when I arrived for the morning. Maybe someone had just been sitting there to work on a file but at that point in time, I was paranoid enough to wonder if that had anything to do with it. I continued working on the series of 3235 records that I had begun on June 3. By the end of the day on June 3, I had completed coding 275 records and had made notes citing record # and box numbers for several issues.
Yesterday several oddities appeared when the same records series was called up to continue coding at record 725 of 3235. The evening before I had recorded a question re: coding in records # 729 � 757; they were left un-coded pending a response. Those records did not appear yesterday. Instead records that had been coded on June 3 and 6 appeared in their place. A quick �find� search located the next similar entry at record #1632. It appeared that records coded in earlier days were scrambled throughout the sequence under consideration with some records coded on June 6 appearing as early as record #6 in the collection. In addition, a number of un-coded records that do not belong in any of the categories under consideration appeared in the earlier section of the records series. At one point, when scrolling down the list of records available to code, three records were highlighted even though normally only one record can be selected for coding at a time. I took screenshots of the odditites from random parts of the database to illustrate the pattern of the problem as they were being discovered first thing yesterday morning.
My supervisor, of course, was in Houston and the loud supervisor, who is standing in for her, didn't arrive until more than an hour after I realized that there was a problem. I had no intention of trying to "fix" the records because that would just make it harder for the tech support staff to figure out what had happened. The database is backed up every Friday night so, from experiences I've had in other assignments, I knew that the "lost in space" and "scrambling" could have been a result of that if both problems had shown up on Monday. However, the "lost in space" thang was apparent that day, but the scrambling didn't occur until Tuesday morning - Monday the database had been fine. That Fred, such a joker. Went and grabbed a latte for emotional sustenance and waited for the one supervisor to arrive. She called in the tech staff around 10:00 am when she couldn't find any way to account for it either. They arrived at 10:45 after they got out of another meeting. Decision was to kick everyone in the company off that database so they could try to igure out what was going on. I took off for the chiropractor rather than waste more time twiddling my thumbs, hoping they would have it fixed by the time I got back. Not. The legal staff wouldn't withdraw from the database, so the supervisor eventually used one of the VP's email headers to make the point that the direction applied to everyone. Those lawyers - even if they are very junior - likely make four times what I do an hour so I wasn't certain how to view the urgency assigned to the tech request. Idle lawyers are awfully expensive to have sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Hmmmmm. Finally was asked to do a test assessment of the software around 2:30. The scrambling was fixed but the "lost in space" data wasn't to be found. At this point half was good enough and I went back to work along with all the other staff who had been sidelined for the duration. The coworker who had switched places with me allowed that she had been having trouble with that software on Monday,as had one of the other records staff but I guess neither of them had thought to raise the issue. Today I just keyed as fast as possible trying to make up for lost time. Hmmmm.
Got home to hear about flooding and evacuations across most of Southern Alberta today. Last night the city engineer in charge of one of the major dams allowed that the flood gates were fully open and that they could not predict if the dam would hold. This afternoon around 3:30 the water couldn't be held back anymore and it was starting to pour over the top. The same engineer said the river hadn't peaked yet and it would be another 24 hours before they could determine the extent of flooding that would be the result. In the 70 years of the dam's existence the flood gates have always been sufficient to do the job so there is no benchmark for the staff to use as a reference. I don't think I can blame Fred the ghost for that catastrophe. Mother Nature has just had enough foolishness I think and is flexing her muscles a bit. Wonder if anyone is listening.
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