23:40 - 08.01.06
cats pyjamas
Well the cats came back - spayed and neutered of course. I thought the gentleman who has been looking after them said he would be by at 9:30 so i was in the shower when I heard knocking on the door at 9 am. I guess he had called ahead but I hadn't heard the phone ring. Seems my youngest took it to bed with him but he didn't rouse either. I arrived at the door in a towel and dripping wet since I was in the midst of washing my hair. He just took one look at me and laughed. No doubt, as I raced back uptairs to get dressed while he waited in the foyer. The cats seemed to be happy to be back but a few were a little overwhelmed by thier adventure. Re-explored all their nooks and crannies and tried to decide who the king or queen of the hill would be while we cuddled them. I couldn't take too much time since I had work to go to early but my youngest was quite content with the idea of just spending the day with them.
My assistant arrived about 10:30 and we went by to pick up our tech. The whole plan for today was to prepare and print the revised list of electors. First sign things weren't well was when we found the backup from the night before had failed. Had we lost any data or had any corruption - moreso than we alredy knew occurred? Spent some time checking all of that while my tech discussed the reasons for the system failure with Ottawas techs. Apparently there had been a number of other ridings that had experienced similar problems so that was almost a comfort. We had to keep all the workstations off while the server was rebooted and other operations were carried out. My tech had said that he would do a manual backup in an hour if Ottawa hadn't acted and I recalled enough of the procedure from a couple of elections ago when a ismilar crash had occurred to take the first steps to that end. It appears that got Ottawa's atention anyway since the phone rang almost immediately after. About an hour into ou regular day we were back up and operating as a lan. Yee Haw. As I continued to strike off people who had already voted, more and more examples of database problems we had identified for the specialist last week arose. Screenshots were taken and my tech commented that he had underestimated my understanding of the software significantly. That was the second time he mentioned it. He got quite excited about some of the information that was revealed as I worked through various error messages. I've had to work around such things for several years so I don't get anything but frustrated with it anymore. My assistant provided the best break of the day when she pointed out the huge jack rabbit hiding under the fir tree across the street. It was the size of a good sized dog - like the one being walked on a leash nearby by his owners. They played hide and seek a bit. The legs on thumper gave him a decided advantage for certain.
At one point we were in the secure room looking at and comparing the original geographic lists to the alphabetic lists. We were standing in the darkroom that the RCMP had set up near the the thing that was used to develop the photos of crime scenes. I have always hated that area and avoided it when ever I could. Bad pictures showing up in my mind. All of a sudden I felt really cold and there was a hard tapping on my back right between the shoulder blades. It fellt as though something was trying to pierce the spine. I got out of there as quickly as I could explaining my reasons to my tech as I left. I had already told of my discomfort with the room and his only comment as he joined me outside the door after finishing up the work was that I needed to BREEEEATHE and remember that there coudln't be an ivasion or attachment unless I allowed or accepted it. He acknowledged that he couldn't really feel anything but that he was aware of the presence. That calmed me down considerably but I had no intention of going back in there.
Later in my office when we were going through some ofthe other data I asked him some specific questions about his near death experiences. There are certain physical manifestations that are hard to describe to someone who hasn't had the experience. Sort of like labour and delivery stories among seasoned moms, I guess. At first he denied recalling anything about them. Then when he mentioned not understanding why any person would want to remain earthbound or ghostly when they had the freedom to move through all eternity I commented about the trouble I had being in my body afte the first experience. Cold clay, heavy, wet and clammy was how I felt about it. At that point he got really jumpy and said he had to go find a book. That was the end of that conversation. All the while I had continued cleaning up the striken voters information. More oddities and I was able to explain how padding a voters list was possible by showing some things to him and my assistant. By 7:30 pm the preparation was finished and the disks and paper lists could be run. By 9:30 we were done. My assistant and our tech worked on the paper production while I cleared up the paperwork.
My back and neck were really painful by the time we left but my youngest insisted we needed food - the real kind. My assistant said she had to buy groceries before she returned home for the day so the two of us shopped together after dropping off the tech at his home. I really need to go see my chiropractor I think and the sooner the better. Anyway off to bed now. Maybe tomrrow will be better.
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