Hello and welcome, hope that all is well in your world. A few things have happened since I last posted so here’s the catchup news.
FRIDAY… This was a very stressful, busy and horrible day. The morning started off with an email on my phone and a machine at work that came into contact with Ransomware. That shit is no joke and we don’t play with it at all. It’s an instant power the machine off and get a replacement. It’s a better safe than sorry approach and it’s served us well. The files sourced from a client and there were hundreds of files that were sent to us via different methods. I took a closer look at the alert and then just started my day. Gave the bad news to the user. Reached out to my boss who had the day off. Then this thing snowballed because the user had stored some files on the network in a repository we have and the files got sent on to multiple people. Long story very short I sounded the alarm; everyone deleted the files they had and at the end of the day this turned out to be a false positive detection. Which means basically all of my work was for no reason and there really wasn’t anything that could harm/hurt any system. My boss is the one who figured this out by talking with our vendor. We had a similar alert a couple days prior and he said what are the odds that we would get another one in a short time. The first alert was positive but the one I was dealing with was not. I know the action I took was correct because we have a 0-tolerance policy when it comes to any kind of Ransomware/Virus/Threat. I know I will be supported by my boss on the action I took. However, I can’t help but think that it will impact my well-regarded reputation. I had some minor concerns that it could result in some disciplinary action but the more I think about it I am not horribly worried about it. This kind of thing happens and you are far better to react and have files deleted and machines wiped rather than to sit back and relax. I think I would have a greater risk of being in trouble if I had done nothing and this turned out not to be a false positive. Without giving too much away we have multiple layers to our security protocol and nothing has gotten past it yet. Not to say it’s impenetrable because no system is 100% perfect but I feel really good about the protection we have in place and it allows all of us to sleep better at night. I was devastated when I learned it was a false positive. I had many different issues and being on-call I am the focal point for our team for the week. It was me and 1 other person that were working. My colleague didn’t offer any help or support nor did I ask for any. The events of the day really made me want a drink and a vacation in the worst way.
SATURDAY… No surprise I was still kind of trapped in a mental hell from the events of Friday. I woke up to snow fall, it was minor. My late spouse had a story that snow always brought him comfort. I kind of took it as a sign that things would be okay but still, I wound up spending the day in isolation with just me and Gator. I ate junk food for the most part and didn’t really have anything for supper. There was a nap in the day and it came pretty early and I was quite tired the remainder of the day. I was just hoping that my phone would remain silent. One thing came in but it’s not urgent and it can wait until Monday morning, which is when I plan on dealing with it. Otherwise, work has been quiet thus far.
SUNDAY… I woke up super early at 5:30a and tried to go back to sleep but it got closer to 6a and I just opted to get up being as quiet as I could which managed to work so I didn’t wake Gator. I got myself into the bathroom and took one massively long shower. It was quite nice. When I was done, I opened the door and she was wide awake waiting for me. We said our Good Mornings and I got her some food despite the fact I didn’t have a stich of clothes on. When she is hungry, she wants her food or she gets quite vocal about it. After feeding her I commenced getting dressed. It’s quite cold out, Winter is for sure here and there is no sign in sight this week that temperatures are going to warm back up anytime soon. The note on my phone from the local TV station said more snow and rain are on the way in the week ahead.
I was of course headed to breakfast and thinking about the waiter and trying to mentally figure out what to do. As luck would have it, I was super early and got sat in his section. He was speedy quick to get my order and put it in. I had made up my mind to ask him out. The problem I had was what to say and when. Two lumberjack guys walked in and they got sat next to me. I knew that I didn’t want to make a move while they were around. Another couple came in and got sat at the other table by me. I was about done. He was taking their order so I made my way to the front of the store and just waited, he was on his way back to the kitchen when I stopped him and asked if he’d like to get a bite to eat sometime. I was flabbergasted when he said sure. He asked for the check and wrote down his number (kind of sloppy) and said to text him. Holy Shit, it felt like I won the lottery. I wasn’t expecting a yes or to get his phone number. I texted him right away. I know that he works the bulk of today so it’s no surprise the message has not been read yet but it has been delivered. I’ve done all I can do at this point and it’s just waiting for a response. I’ve gotten a yes before but the guy never did call or text me. I think that there is a possibility that this could be the same thing but I am on Cloud 9 just waiting for a response.
Thinking about the situation I don’t know if I sent my info/request to him too soon or if I should have waited. All I know for sure is that it’s done, he knows I am interested and I’ve done all I can to try to get this to materialize into an actual date. I am so surprised he said yes and gave me his #. I think I read the situation spot on given the response. He’s been on my mind all week long. Right now, it feels great and there is an extra spring in my step and my mind is going a million miles an hour.
At the grocery store I almost forgot to get lunch meat. I was busy looking for my favorite Christmas Cookies but didn’t manage to find them yet. They have Christmas stuff out but it’s spread all over the store and surprise, surprise since construction is still going on more things got moved. I will be much happier when I know where everything is going to live at. I based my shopping on a routine as to where items are stocked and that helps me not forget anything instead of having to scramble to figure out where this or that is.
I drove straight past the vets when I knew I needed to stop in. I had to turn around. Picked up Gator’s medicine. Then finally home to unload, unwind and unpack. Did all of that and spent a couple hours with my girl. She was pretty happy to see me come walking in the door like she was just thinking about me. I got her some food and then she sacked out in my lap for a nice nap. I watched another podcast interview with Matt Rife, which was fun.
I’ve made it downstairs and there is a load of laundry churning away. I will do some internet surfing and then plan to get dressed and hit up the pet food store. I also plan to take a trip to get a bite to eat. My problem is part of me wants Red Lobster and the other part of me wants Mexican food. They are both in opposite directions of each other but each is a decent drive to charge the battery and let me zone out. It’s going to be a lupper trip but I want to get it in sooner rather than later since it gets dark pretty early. I’ve still got about 4 to 5 hours of daylight left. I can drive in the dark but just don’t enjoy it so I try to avoid it as much as possible.
The only thing good about tomorrow being Monday is the fact that I will no longer be on-call. I will still hate Monday like I do every Monday. This is the last full week before Thanksgiving. I will be in the office on Tuesday or so that is my tentative plan at the moment. I have no plans to be in the office on the week of Thanksgiving especially because the week is only 3 days long. I will be on-call again the week after Thanksgiving so I won’t be back in the office until December. Time seems to move faster when there is less daylight out and the temperature drops like a rock.
I honestly hope that this is the fresh start that I needed, this is the right guy and that everything will fall into place as much as it can and I can be happy. I also hope that if things work out with this guy that Gator doesn’t wind up checking out. I need and want her always, there never ever will be a good time for us to part ways. I really want more than anything is happiness, it’s what I have been looking for many years. Not to sound entitled but I think for all of the hell I’ve been through that at the end of the day I more than deserve to be happy. Stay tuned and I will keep you posted on what happens next. Kind of feels like a soap opera but then again life is a soap opera. Have a good day and enjoy what’s left of the weekend. Talk with you all again soon.
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