Summer blues

Ah, the summer is here… Actually, summer come in Milledgeville after the last day of winter. This is now we do it here – by flipping the switch of the heat pump from Hot to Cold. I was trimming the lawn while ago when remembered what good friend of mine told me when I come in USA – “When you don’t have to cut your grass and assemble your furniture by yourself – means you are rich and successful” and I ran back to write this down. Anyway, while I am on the computer…


Today is the first day of the “summer work schedule”. Some colleagues in the EDU sector know what I am talking about – half days on Fridays. Nice outside, quiet… kind of invitation to relax and think about past, present and future. I was flipping through my calendar and found that last year on this day we completed our OCS EV deployment and issued an order for disconnection of our PSTN lines. Was I scared? No. Was I under stress – big time. I knew that the timeline is too short and the lack of training will stress the folks even more and yet, if you ask me will I do it again, the answer is - Yes! As I shared in earlier posts, I take my job and role in the college with pride and determination because in my opinion the role of IT today went long way compared to 10-15 years ago. The time of the “computer gigs” is long gone. IT professionals run the operations today, like it or not. What would happen if one department in the college is closed today? Ohm, they will have twice as much to do tomorrow. Now, what would happen if IT is not operational? You got the point.

While SEO is the brain of the operations with his/her oversight of the present and vision for the future, IT is the heart. The stories of soldiers lost limbs in combat a year ago and swimming, running, hiking and claiming today never stop to amaze me. How they manage to do that? With brain and heart -the two key components. In this regard, I don’t understand how some colleagues can lay low and get by with “why should I do it if I don’t have to”…

We jumped in the unknown exactly one year ago. We worked hard to overcome the problems and took the challenge to learn and develop. This morning one of the biggest opponents of the UC in the college stopped me in the corridor and told me “I am sure my husband called, but I did not received missed call notification. Not a big deal, just… hope everything is all right with the system”. Got it? The people finally took ownership over the system!

I can now die one happy sysadmin.