This photo does no justice to the beauty of this moment.

Is it Friday yet? No? It's still only halfway through Sunday?

Adminisk8or

06/05/2023

There are some weeks or days in one's work experience that may tend to be memorable- for either good or bad reasons. This week- namely and foremostly, this weekend- has been easily the most insane and crazy one in my IT career so far.

I didn't realize it until I looked back in my journal this past week, but it actually began from the start of the week- or the work week, anyway. I was on call this week, and I awoke Wednesday morning to find some servers had gone offline- including an entire county's phone system server. So... that was fun. But little did I know, LITTLE DID I KNOW it was only the beginning. The following couple of days, despite the fact I thought I fixed the problem, the issue returned. Sometimes twice in one day. Finally, Saturday, after I thought I had solved the issue, I discovered such was not the case. I had to go in to the office and troubleshoot why things were happening. After much looking and troubleshooting, I found what I was really quite certain was the cause of our problems- a little useful but dangerous thing, known in the industry as iSCSI and backups. So, I corrected the issue and then everything was fine.

...until Sunday rolled around. I awoke to find everything had gone offline, yet again. And on top of it, one of our other clients had a major site go offline because of weird point-to-point dish issues. What followed was me spending literally almost every hour of my waking Sunday, from 6 AM to almost midnight working on migrating phone server VMs and going onsite at the other client's to meet up with Google Fiber to install a new connection to that site, and then troubleshoot a number of reasons it wasn't working thereafter. Keep in mind, this is a HUGE summary of what essentially amounts to me, typing this here on Monday evening, having worked all my hours for both last week and this. And yet, there is still work to do this one. What fun times.

But yes, there I was, Sunday- the most tragic day of all days to ask the question, "Is it Friday yet?" And spend a double shift's worth of time working. Now on the one hand, as long and frustrating as this week has been, I will readily acknowledge I have it really, really good. I work in a good industry with good pay and good benefits and good coworkers, and maybe most importantly, I really love what I do. So, in that regard, I have no right to go on in the way I did for the past two or so paragraphs. But everyone's life is different, and each of us finds our own adventures down different roads- for me, this was mine, this past week. And with all due respect, I would rather not take it again.

But if there was one good thing to come from this week, it was a brief moment I had one of these past evenings, where I was up late finishing setting up my new work MacBook (that was also something I was working on this week), and I began to be a little restless- so I went out on a brief walk around my nearby park. The moon was full and bright, the air was the perfect temperature, and the wind was just perfect. To the north, the moon's radiance was bright enough to make out that there was a somewhat localized but foreboding rainstorm gathering around the foothills of the mountain, and rain droplets occasionally teased the possibility of the storm making its way closer, but it never did. The way the light of the moon reflected in the park-turned-pond was almost indescribably beautiful, and altogether, it was just such a nice evening.

Come to think of it, there was one moment perhaps just as beautiful, if not more so. And part of it was context. Sunday morning- the day I just talked about previously- when I awoke in bed, I saw those notifications of those servers being down, and knew it was going to be a long day. I walked out into the living room, and noticed the sun was already beginning to rise outside. I opened the backdoor curtains, walked out onto the patio, looked to the east... and the scene was just about indescribable. If I hadn't have known better, I would have halfway thought I had died right then and gone to heaven. In fact, describing it would honestly do it no service, so I'll just include the photo I took of it (though the photo only does so much to convey its beauty). Needless to say, it was exactly what I needed to prepare my soul for the rest of the day I knew would likely follow.

It's not unlike a time I was in the Philippines 9 years ago, and I found myself facing challenges and hardships- with myself, with my friends, and with others I was meeting. Compounding it all was the fact that the weather, for so long, had just been hot, hot, hot and rainless; that's how it works in the Philippines- there's rainy season, then hot season. One evening, I was feeling particularly discouraged, and began to think, how I wish it would at least just rain a little- I miss the rain. During this time, in this place I was staying, there was a door that led to a cement balcony on the second floor, and a slightly perilous stairway leading up to the cement, rebar-laiden rooftop. I would often go up on that rooftop at night to write in my journal and reflect. As I was writing this evening, I had just finished up, closed my book, and began heading for the stairway to go back down below- when I was graced by small, tiny droplets. It was hardly anything you could call a rain- heck, it was almost hardly a sprinkle. I actually remember questioning whether I was just imagining it or not. But it happened- and at that moment, it felt as if an answer was being given- a very quite and easy to miss answer- but an answer nonetheless. And what that answer was I can't quite put in words. All I can say is that as looked up to the skies above and felt this tiny sprinkle on my arms and face, I knew things would be alright, and that I just needed to journey on and continue with patience.

Having said that, I hope everyone reading has the strength and courage to bear with patience and keep going, looking and waiting for that quiet answer that tells you you're doing fine, and that your troubles and worries are known and even understood. Until then, journey on with patience and faith.

Until next time, see ya!