Oh, what a week

I am so thankful that this week is over with. It’s been uber stressful. A vendor we do business with got bit by Ransomware. That has caused my boss and others in our organization to be a little bit more paranoid. Lots of changes both in policy and in permitted applications. I suspect that this hysteria will continue for the foreseeable future. They are all focusing as if we could get hit by the same thing and while that is possible, there are a million different types of virus, trojans, malware, ransomware, crypto ware, etc. That’s why we have a defense plan in place and it’s a layered approach which is smart and the right thing for any business today. Sadly, things that we would mitigate and clean up before if found today will cause your machine to be removed from the network and replaced. We just aren’t in the chance taking business and while I don’t think that is necessarily right for all types of detections it’s the direction we are going and I have to support that despite how I feel.

I have also been involved in many calls regarding the corona virus and how we plan to respond to that. Jesus if there ever was a reason to work at home, this is it. That is pretty much our plan in a nut shell. Travel is limited and if you can get by with a video conference then that is the preferred route which for what we have invested in AV I would think would be the norm but sadly it’s not. I think that this virus is to the point of being the next pandemic and it will wipe out a bunch of people. Other people tell me that I am wrong and that things will get under control. I suppose it’s a wait and see type thing but wow it’s something I think about every day. Not to mention the fact that my body has been trying to get sick for months and while I feel bad from time to time and have some symptoms I have no concern that I have this but if you cough in an elevator or even sniffle people look at you funny.

On the home front things are going pretty well. Marv has been quite for the most part. He makes noise when I am home but no more yowling and waking me up in the middle of the night, which makes me happy. He’s taking his medicine and eating. I had some problems getting the cap off the needle to give him his B12 shot and wound up sticking my finger in the process. That fucking hurt into the next day. He got his shot and all is well. Over all I would say things are pretty well back to normal or a state thereof. Gator on the other hand is cutting back on what she will eat and she begs for more food, I give it to her and she smells it and then turns her nose up at it. She is otherwise normal but this whole battle of the food has been constant for a long time. I struggle with what I am going to feed them and I think they pick up on that. I wish that I had a crystal ball and could tell what they would eat, I would buy it and eliminate the problem. I hate the food struggle and it really irks me to throw away an entire can of food, that’s good money going straight to waste.

I got a call from the vet and they are going to give me my money back. I told them to write me a check that would save me from having to go back to present my credit card. Besides that, I really don’t want the big bank to know I was successful in getting my money back. I also did battle this week with AT&T this was a yesterday fight. I lost $75 in discounts and in order to get them back I had to involve the office of the president. I thought I made a huge stride until I got home and looked at what my bill was. Jesus, they had a serious rate increase and I actually was slated to pay more instead of less with the discount. To remedy that I reduces service today and now I will pay about $20 less per month. The change in service from what I was able to see online won’t be noticeable to me given the networks and shows I like. Besides that, you can offer me a million channels but I can only effectively watch one at a time. I did find out that you don’t have to have AT&T for internet to get the new AT&T TV, so that is something I may consider next year, but for the next 12 months I have what I have and am locked into a contract in order to get the savings, which is fine by me. I’m always looking for ways to cut costs. The more money I can hang on to the better for me. Rainy days seem to come more often than not, if you know what I mean.

I got my vehicle scheduled for service on the same day I will be seeing my new dentist. Car work in the morning and mouth work in the afternoon. That should make for an interesting day and leave me hopefully with some time in the afternoon to maybe grab a meal out. I did find out that my car dealer dropped the brand of vehicle I am driving. They can still provide service but just aren’t selling that brand. That is displeasing to me because I am still kind of looking to make a switch later in the year. I will have to travel either upstate or cross into a different bordering state to get what I have my eye on. Until I see it in person and drive it, I can’t say for sure that I will buy it, but getting up close and personal is dangerous for me because that brings me much closer to pulling the trigger. I actually found what I wanted online last night and it had everything I wanted but a sunroof. That is going to be a tough feature to find, I think. I’m close to the factory warranty being up on my vehicle from a mileage standpoint. I am at 43 thousand and at 50 thousand the warranty expires. I’d like to drive something new and pay less in insurance, car payments and gasoline. I don’t know how successful I will be at achieving that large goal but it doesn’t mean I won’t try. Who know I may just wind up keeping what I have? It’s not bad it’s just not new. I’ve got an extended warranty because I planned on driving this for a while. Insurance is really what is killing me but that is because of the Turbo. Don’t get me wrong I like the Turbo and I work it; it’s helped me out in a couple of close calls. This is the first turbo I have had and given the experience I really don’t want to give it up unless I have to. Kind of like the brand of the vehicle I don’t want to drive anything else now but if I have to I will.

I am on-call next week and do not look forward to that. Boss man will be going on vacation just for part of the week. He was actually scheduled to be off on Friday and all of next week but because of the vendor issue his plans were changed for him. The next full moon is on Monday. This is time change weekend and if all of that isn’t bad enough Friday is the 13^th. I am already stressed from this week and I don’t know that next week will be much better but I can certainly hope so.

I have slept away the bulk of the day and need to get dressed, grab the mail, something to eat and some cat food. Plus, work on laundry. With the change in the weather to spring the ants are coming in so I have that annual battle to look forward to. Spring is going to be costly for me. I need to get a power washer to clean the back of the house and the deck. I could use that attachment for the leaf blower to clean the gutters and the trim around the garage needs to be painted. If it’s not the money the physical activity will do me in. I really am starting to feel how out of shape I am. I went downstairs at work this week and back up to my office and I was so out of breath. It’s a simple trip that I used to make with no effort at all and today it makes me huff and puff. This extra weight that I have put on needs to go but I so lack in the motivation department.

I hope that you had a great week. I am going to get this published and then get moving because hunger is real. Take care and thanks for stopping by.