Sunday, August 26, 2007

Pilot's logbook

No flight hours here today, but airport hours. I started at 9 at AC1. Drove the gas truck to fuel one of the planes. I also put it back in the wrong place and didn't put the keys where they belong, but now I know.

Peter came in shortly after that. It was his 30th birthday which he was moody about, (and which I have a hard time being sympathetic about) and also nursing a premonition that it was going to be a bad day. No way, right?

Well, he was for the first time acting as "proctor" for a couple of people taking online tests. Other people were in and out, up and down. The power blinked and I had to call Lisa to find out how to restart the computer. Peter got cut off in a phone conversation with a potential student. No big deal--until the fellow upstairs came down and said his test was gone.

The next four hours were crazy. No one could get the computers back online. Bellsouth tech support was worthless. "Our equipment is working. The problem is on your end." Laser-Grade was useless. The people in India were no help. More people came for tests, camping out in the Pilot Shop. Lisa spent about an hour on hold. The airline pilot from Fort Worth eventually gave up, called Laser Grade and found out that the nearest place he could continue his test was back 20 minutes from his home in Fort Worth. At this point I called my brothsr David to ask him if he knew any answers. He ended up coming over, and spent a careful hour with his computer (and his own cannibalized network equipment) and put things right again. Ye gods!

I left there, skipped the Herde family reunion, and went to Bardstown where Youth Choir was singing 5:00 mass. The kids--Taylor, Andrew, Maggie, Grace, Madison--were stunning. They did everything well. Very well. I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light. Go out to all the World. Prayer of St. Francis. Shepherd Me, O God. Qui manducat. Lord, I Lift Your Name on High. (And this is the thing I'm wanting to turn over to someone else!!?)

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