Well, dear readers, were we doing the Time Warp yesterday? Were we doing Groundhog Day yesterday? Were we taking a trip in a Time Machine yesterday? Well, here’s how it went. I posted the November 20 notes at around twelve-fifteen. I went to bed not that long after. I got nine hours of needed sleep, got up, and checked out the posts and was surprised to see that we were already on page four. Something in the back of my mind said something was weird, but it wasn’t quite registering yet. Then I went to the “new” posts and saw that people were mentioning we were on the wrong date that we’d somehow landed back on October 12. And as I looked I saw that was exactly what happened. Somehow we were almost a month behind where we actually were. I couldn’t believe it. And it wasn’t just the board, it was the notes, too. All notes from the 13th to now were gone with the wind. I literally thought my head was going to explode. I immediately texted our web guy who did not respond at all. So, I called and they said he was in a meeting and would have to call me back. I said that was not acceptable and got very in their face about it. They finally put me through to our main tech guy, who could see the problem and who calmed me down, but who could do nothing about it until the web guy was out of the meeting. He stayed on the phone with me, discussing things, and then the web guy was there and I found out the deal. When he’d synched the site and board in the morning, something went wrong and it pointed at the wrong place. But that wasn’t quite accurate – what really happened is that all the safeguards that are in place to back-up all parts of the site all failed. The area where I post the notes hadn’t backed up since October 21, which, coincidentally, was the day we were moved to the new servers. But not all – the board was left on the old servers until some issues could be worked out – they’re STILL working them out, actually. So, all the notes were gone. And whatever back-ups were in place for the board also failed, because the board uses the same software that I use to post the notes. He knew exactly when it had happened, took the blame, and felt really bad. He asked if I save my notes in Word and I told him I do but just nuke them as I write the new ones, so that all I had saved was November 19. We got that one up, and then he said they would try to find archived versions of however many they could, but that sometimes that just didn’t work.
I was, at this point, apoplectic. I told him they had to fill in all the missing dates with generic titles and some copy I’d write, because as you know this is the longest-running daily blog in the history of the Internet and I wasn’t going to have anyone be able to say we missed almost a month of notes.
We got off the phone. In short order, he filled us in up until November 4, so that was good. Then over the next few hours the tech guy did an amazing job and by the end of it we were missing only three notes, all from the last few days. I found a cache of one of them, so we were down to two. Then another tech helped me go into Time Machine and we were able to retrieve another one. But Monday’s notes weren’t in Time Machine and it’s not clear why. But I went back and read Sunday’s notes and that clued me in as to what Monday’s were, so I did a little Googling and found a cached page from the board on Monday and from that I got the title of the notes and what they were all about. So, we put that title up, I revised the placeholder comments and eventually I’ll just redo those notes, since by reading the before and after I know what’s what. So, that part of the nightmare is now over. But we are still missing almost a month of topics and posts on the board. They’re going to search the servers because the back-ups may be there somewhere, hidden deep. I told them to look DEEP deep and I’m sure they will. And I’ve been told they’re taking triple precautions to make sure EVERYTHING is saved from here on in. Once they move the board over to the new server, all these awful things, which are probably all peculiar to the old and wretched data center, will hopefully be done with.
That was, unfortunately, the bulk of my day. I went out only once, for a turkey sandwich and no fries or onion rings, then it was back home. I did do a jog. Then we had our rehearsal for the birthday concert thing. It was a bit of a mess, frankly, but I insisted I hear everything in order, which I did. I then did my thing and completely rearranged the show order so that it had the variety it needed. You could see all the performers and the MD breathing much easier after that had been done. Then, to make sure I was happy with the new structure, I had the performers sing the first page of every song and it seemed to work really well. I also made cuts within numbers and put endings on several numbers. It should be a nice concert now, and not overlong.
That didn’t end until after ten o’clock. Then I had some white rice with some sautéed onions and that was that. I felt like I’d had my head rammed into a wall repeatedly.
Today, I shall just relax, do a jog, hopefully pick up packages, do some banking, and then I’m seeing Barry Pearl’s ever-lovin’ Cindy in a play, after which we’re all going to Little Toni’s for foodstuffs. I may have their really tasty antipasto salad that I had last time.
Tomorrow, I’ll relax until it’s time to go to the birthday bash. I’ll get there at three-thirty, we’ll set up and get the sound and lighting working, then the performers show up at 3:45 and we begin sound check and running things. Then party guests arrive at five, eat at six, and show is at seven. Next week seems like it’s going to be very busy.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the old-fashioned Frug, for today is the birthday of dear reader KevinH. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader KevinH. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER KEVIN H!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, relax, do a jog, do some banking, hopefully pick up packages, attend a play, and eat. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite cookies – homemade and store bought? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping we never have to do the Time Warp again.