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Ladies and Gents Who Lunch Happy Hour in Oakland

August 12th, 2003

You Never Know
The Blaster worm made its way into our network today, but only a little way into our network and then only in Europe, but it caused a flurry as we hastily loaded patches and did the things techies do when the sky starts to fall. That would have been enough, futzing around with the servers, watching the trouble calls as they came in, is there any evidence of a problem? No big deal, the Windows Blaster worm is tethered, no damage to the system. These things happen. We are professionals, after all. We tell one another that's why they keep us around.

It was the beginner's mistake, the dumb screw up made by the company that manages our mainframes (our outsourced mainframes) that caused the real upset, this followed by the hiccups that developed on our worldwide network (the business suddenly not being able to do business is considered a problem) that put everybody against a wall. You know you're not critical to the operation when you can leave but an hour later than usual and no one blinks. There is a crew in techie central as I write chasing their tails, um, chasing the problem down.

Ms. Emmy, on the other hand, is running around making forlorn noises, really running, drag race running, scatter rugs scattered running. I'm not sure if it's the cat food - she doesn't like it - or the moon, which, I believe, is full. Ms. Emmy is neurotic. I believe I've covered her story: Brother died of cancer, two dobermans in the house (she wasn't as partial to dobermans as her brother), her owner dumping her off in Oakland for the best of reasons, tears running down her cheeks, reasons I will not go into here. Which is to say I'd be neurotic too. Well, let's rephrase that. I'd be neurotic in ways similar to Emmy's. I'm already neurotic in my own ways. Comes with the territory.

MSW has suggested two brands of cat food she feeds to her own cats and I'm pretty sure MSW does not choose her cat foods lightly. I will buy both and hope. I would call my old vet, but I'm not sure I want to call my old vet. Maybe I should bring Emmy in for an examination and ask for a recommendation, but I'm not sure. I trust MSW more than my vets at the moment and will try the food she feeds her cats before I go further afield. Or is this too cryptic? Might be the whiskey. You never know.

 
The photograph was taken at a recent Ladies and Gents Who Lunch Happy Hour in Oakland.

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