The Aerie
It was bad enough that I was working late on Friday. It was bad enough I was short of sleep. It was bad enough that the computer room was the size of a closet, as hot as an oven, and crowded with three guys.
No, the worst part was the humming.
The humming from the machinery was one thing - I'm accustomed to that.
And tuneful humming, I could probably have tolerated. Heck, possibly it would even have been cheering.
But no. The Qwest router technician was humming, but he was humming like a machine.
If you've dealt with machinery you might be familiar with harmonics, or cyclic hums. An imbalanced rotor, for example, might give off periodic hums or vibrations as it precesses around its axis.
This guy was humming like that. Like a machine. "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..." pause "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm..." pause "Hmmmmmmmmmmm..." pause "Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..."
Aside from the humming, he was silent. A looming humming figure reminiscent of "Bull" from 'Night Court'.
So here I was, poking around in this hot, stuffy closet when I ought to be home having dinner, and inches away looms this humming, humanoid form. "Hmmmmmmmmmm...." "Hmmmmmmmmm..." I half expected a hatch to open up in his chest and sparks to come flying out.
Anyway I figured out the problem - a problem so laughably simple it made me want to cry - and prepared to leave. Then the client said "Oh, no, you're not leaving yet - I want you to fix this problem with my backups!"
I set right to work at it.
Humming.
Posted by Albatross at January 23, 2006 10:13 AM | TrackBack