We had numerous requests earlier this summer for additions to our "Day in the Modwest Life" series, so here's one more. This a day in mid-July lived by Janiel, Modwest's Business Manager.
7:00 AM Visiting father in-law up and moving around so I’m up too. Make coffee & morning chit chat.
7:20AM Get in shower – water’s not very hot, hmm...
7:45 AM Go downstairs to check on water heater. Pilot light is out. Not good. Relight pilot and go up stairs for more chit chat – mother in-law is now up too. Wake up husband so he can chit chat and I can get ready for work.
8:20 AM Off to work. It’s about a 15 mile commute and traffic is light. The drive on Hwy 93 is lovely so when traffic isn’t a bear, and I enjoy the ride.
8:50 AM Park my car in the lot off Orange St. & Front and walk the river path to the office. It’s raining so the smell is absolutely wonderful. Very fresh & green, can smell the river, flowers, trees & grass. No better place to live!
8:56 AM Greet Marianne, and settle in to answer billing voice messages & emails. Emails & calls are pretty light considering I took a 3 day weekend.
9:32 AM On my way to get cup of coffee, I remember to remind a new employee that I need their health insurance enrollment forms.
10:00 AM We are doing a series of in-house workshops & training. Last week I along with Customer Care Specialists & Web Developer were assigned homework (due tomorrow) on PHP 101. Now’s a good time to start.
11:15 AM John lets us know he wants anti-spyware software installed on all Windows machines.
12:02 PM I install Spybot and check for any unwanted programs/infections on my machine. As usual Vista doesn’t play nice & makes the new software jump through extra hoops to do its thing. Ugh. Scan requires closing browser and I need multiple browsers open to help customers with support issues.
12:40 PM Business as usual, M & H back on phones after their Spybot work. Now we’re all hungry.
12:45 PM My kitchen cupboard is looking pretty bare – gotta go shopping this week and replenish my stock. Have little chicken salad & peaches. Fix big glass of water; have to remember to drink lots of water today.
1:35 PM Scans all done, machine is clean. Answer a few new emails & then back to my PHP lesson.
2:50 PM Stuck on a particular PHP variable. Searching internet to find out what the error I’m seeing is all about.
3:05 PM Missing an ending “;” in my code – doh – all good now. It’s not very pretty though and I’m wasting too much time trying to make it look nicer.
3:10 PM Still on the same variable. Can’t make it do what I want. Confer with M and she doesn’t know how either. Put this variable on hold and move on to the next section. Will come back to this later.
3:30 PM Mail’s here. Sort through mail and begin posting payments to accounts. Receive large UPS shipment – new VPS hardware.
3:45 PM Received a payment for a customer that I can’t find. Search under everything I can think of (no domain listed, or invoice number, or email address, or phone number, nothing comes up when I search by address either.) About to send check back, when I find them by cross referencing the city & amount. Turns out the street name is the same on the account & check but not the street number.
4:30 PM Mail is done, answer a new email and back to php lesson. Almost completed my lesson.
5:00 PM Completed all of the lesson except that one pesky variable. Tinker with it some more. Could not figure out how to make it do what I wanted. Just in case you are interested I wanted to use variables to calculate my age – 17 years, by using $dob, $actualage & $fantasyage. Cheat and use variable $fantasyage = 29.
Send my assignment to teacher (Tom).
5:24PM I’m done. Hope I drank enough water. Fill my water bottle with electrolyte supplement and head to car.
5:40PM Arrive at yoga. First class I’ve been able to attend in almost 2 weeks, because of entertaining visiting in-laws. In-laws are off to dinner with friends so here I am.
5:55 PM Enter studio to preheat. Hotter then Hades. Notice they got new humidifiers.
7:30 PM Exit studio. DID NOT DRINK ENOUGH WATER! Sit with fellow yogis and eat my popcicle. Drink 16 oz vitamin water.
7:45 PM Back to my car and the drive home. Drink remainder of my 16 oz water bottle.
8:15 PM Greet husband & in-laws, off to shower – water not very hot, hmm...
8:30 PM Check water heater – pilot light out again. Looks like water heater is on the fritz. Let husband know. He re-lights.
8:34 PM Mother in-law brought home chicken Caesar salad for me (lovely woman). Eat on the sofa while I visit.
10:00 PM In-laws are heading home tomorrow (going back to Arizona via the west coast.) We discuss what time and agree they will not leave before 7 AM. Father in-law tends to rise early (4 AM) so this was an excellent compromise. Say good night as they head off to sleep.
10:15 PM Join husband to finish watching ‘Tomb Raider’ and relax, just the two of us. First time I’ve gotten to sit in my favorite chair in almost 2 weeks. Feels good.
11:00 PM Off to bed. – Wonder if I will have hot water tomorrow morning?
Afterword: Janiel's husband identified the problem with the water heater and replaced the broken part the next day. All is well.
Got other ideas for the Modwest Blog? Let us know in the Modwest Community.
-JM