Today, February 19, was a mixed day.

Woke at 8 am with a call from work. Some critical PC could not get access to the internet.  I quickly dressed, drank a cold cup of left over coffee from the night before, fed the dogs, let them out to do quick business in the frigid single digit cold, and headed to the store to 'fix' it.

Never did find the cause.  The network connection on the PC was functional, accessing something, but it would not let any browsers access it, hogging the connection. Worried about a virus, I did the quick check, disabling this and that, shutting down processes. Restarted in safe mode, check logs, looked for newly installed software, made sure Kaspersk was healthy and running.  Un-installed Chrome, which was running a beta version - from when I used the PC and did leading edge testing stuff.  Un-installed dropbox, for it was not needed by that user - it only created traffic for her. Stopped Windows XP for trying to auto update, for it was a worthless task. 

That company needs a IT guy. 

Wait ...  That is me!

All the time I was doing this, in the background of my own brain, I kept thinking: "There has be a better way to develop technology.  Where is the responsibility for the companies that develop shit that needs updated weekly, has security holes in it, has software licenses that read more complex than the federal budget, collect all kinds of private information on us, and they think they can make changes willy nilly on equipment you purchased and you own. And, you use to run a business to make a living. WTF, why do they develop this shit that requires a farmer technologist like myself or guru's to keep running?  

I rant.

Then I went home.  The owner emailed that the check for a big order was not yet received. So I had to play the naive Detective Colombo and draft an email to the customer saying: "Ah... we didn't get the check you said you mailed today, what do you say?" 

When I really wanted to say: "WTF?  Do you expect goods for nothing?  I'm stopping the UPS truck until we get our money or I'm sending @#@! Gueeto to break your F'ing legs "   

Then my local client got their PC hacked again. They are too stupid to own PC's

My dog wants to play stick outside in -20 wind chill weather.

The hot tub is running to keep the water temp at 104 degrees.

WTF?