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All Roads Lead Back to Subnetting

The girls were headed to Branson after sleeping in this morning. I went to work with Muad’Dib and tinkered with Avigilon some more. I kept toying with different ways to organize everything, and no matter what project I’m on, it always ends up being a network infrastructure issue. I just don’t want to act too confidently when I change anything, because there’s no safety net if I screw up. I don’t want to lock myself out of my own equipment.

I stopped by to ask if Tammy wanted any of her other gals on the afternoon call, and she ended up chatting at me for quite a while. I ended up having to slowly back away so we could go find lunch before the meeting. We ended up at Sonic where they were replacing the road sign with a crane truck. For some reason the kitchen seemed super slow, too. We eventually got our food, but it wasn’t the greatest this time.

I just barely had enough time to get settled back in before our call. It was still short since we’re not spending a ton of time testing, but I don’t think there’s much to worry about. The afternoon dragged a bit after that, and it seemed like everyone left a little early. We had to leave out the back, and then took a casual ride home since the girls wouldn’t be there.

I decided to swing by AT&T to see Kevin, and we chatted outside for a little bit before we headed home. I had to pick up a prescription, so I took Muad’Dib for a run to the Neighborhood Market, then my parents’ house. They were out watering plants, so we went inside for a pork chop. By the time we made it back home, I felt completely sapped. It wasn’t overly hot, but the humidity made it feel terrible outside. I felt like I could just barely move.

Muad’Dib went straight to bed without the girls around. I didn’t get into very much before bed. I had Summer call me before she went to sleep, and then Muad’Dib and I passed out.

Do you hear that?

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Back Doorman

Internet at home was still out until late in the morning, without much news from TCW. I was excited to get to experiment with some scheduling instead of just beating my head against the wall over intercom programming today. Nobody else seemed to show any feelings about it, but I assumed they were just glad I finally fixed something. Of course now I also have a backup, and can replicate my success in a few minutes rather than weeks. Programming was relatively straightforward, but the holiday scheduling had me stumped for a while. The guides I found all had them added to schedules, but that wasn’t the case. Just adding the holiday dates defaulted the lock schedules to a locked state.

We took a really late lunch and picked up some free McNuggets, then had chili cheese fries and onion rings at Sonic. It was cheap and light, and the weather was great for it. When we got back, I stopped by the back gate to test the closing, and it worked perfectly. I had its schedule fixed, but now that the plant is running around the clock, the gate isn’t really even necessary.

The last piece of the puzzle for now was to get cameras integrated with the security system, but everything I tried seemed incompatible between systems. I had an anxiety attack late in the afternoon, but it cleared up well. We left a little late after verifying the gate shut properly. Then we made it home to find Eaddie back from her band conference, and Summer in the bath.

Once Summer got out, I took them to Brangus for dinner. I had a pretty awful steak, which was both overcooked and somehow cold to the touch. The girls enjoyed it, so I didn’t press. I just don’t think they’re any good for a dinner on a slow day.

I tried to take them out for dessert when we left, but they didn’t want to go. Instead, Summer and I had a beer on the back porch before I took Muad’Dib out for a run. We took a big plastic bag from Eaddie’s vacuum-sealed couch, and then came back home. As we got back, I heard the familiar frustrated cries of a man trying to recall a stubborn dog. I was proud to be able to call Muad’Dib back out of the house to run and fetch him, and then deliver him back across the street.

Not bad for a Thursday.

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Gates Closed

I had acclimated to the shower a bit, so this morning didn’t feel quite as bad. I still miss the insane water pressure we used to have, but I can wait for a good deal on a new one with more flow. I took sandwiches for breakfast and lunch, with the hopes that I would finally crack the case on my broken Aiphone intercoms. That also meant that I was fairly hungry for most of the day. I did get to really focus, though, and through all of the attempts at wiping everything, rebuilding the entire configuration from scratch, and eventually emailing the manufacturer, I finally got a response to delete the hostnames from my settings. That was the fix. Seconds before quitting time, I had a working intercom with gate controls. Somehow it also inverted my gate names, but I can figure that out tomorrow.

We got home a little late, and Summer was baking cookies for her work crew while our home internet was out. Once she reached a stopping point, we split up to mow lawns. She went to the old house, and I took Muad’Dib to my parents’ house. There, I remembered my true hatred for mowing. Patchy at best, there were only a few square feet of mowable grass. The noise, the smell, and the constant vibration of the gas-powered mower were all things that I despised. My small electric ones are lightyears more pleasant to operate. Most of the yard was so patchy that I couldn’t really tell where I had been, so I just sort of bounced around and cut what I could see. Then I trimmed around the rest and cleared up a path through the parts I always struggle to navigate when I visit.

I got home a bit after Summer, showered in an uncontrollably hot shower, and then sat in the dark with a continuous outage from TCW. They’re saying it’s a RADIUS issue. It sounds more like a redundancy issue.

You haven’t thought of everything yet!

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RESET ALL THE THINGS

We were a little behind today, but I had time to get things ready for our staff meeting. I felt like I did okay, and then I spent the entire day working on the Aiphone gate stuff. At one point, David and I walked out to the front gate and looked at the control box out there. All of that stuff was Avigilon, but it was still useful to tinker with it a bit.

I had an anxiety attack about half an hour before I left to meet Summer at Ortega’s for lunch. Then I finally perceived some luck in the afternoon. I ended up factory resetting both the master controller on Heaven’s desk, as well as the relay control module. I really thought I had something, but by the end of the day, Heaven’s phone still couldn’t call the stations.

We left a little late, and made it home just moments before Summer pulled in. She took a cool bath, and I finally made it to Leonard’s to pick up an air filter. The house took forever to cool down, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the away temperature being high, or if it’s just been running non-stop and couldn’t keep up.

Muad’Dib could have handled the store a little better, but he was excited about a new place. He was super high energy all evening, so I took him on a late run straight to my parents’ house before it got too dark. He ran nearly the entire way there and back, which was pretty intense for how miserable it was outside.

We made it home and I juggled chargers, since Summer made it home with under 10%. Fortunately I charged extra last night, so I had a little more than usual when we got home. I rummaged through the freezer and found some buns that I could use to make a sandwich for tomorrow, and then wound down for bed pretty quickly as the air finally started to feel a little cooler.

Enter Enter Enter Enter Enter Enter Enter

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Gatekeeping

My shower wasn’t great this morning, and I almost wished I had just left the old, broken head in place. When I finished, I bent over to dry off and then pinched a nerve in the middle of my back as I tried to stand back up. I was hunched for the rest of the day from that, and I could barely move without tweaking it.

I realized after we left the house that I forgot my breakfast, so I survived the morning on coffee alone. At least I remembered to bring my leftovers for lunch. The first thing I fought was actually the broken maintenance network again. This time I tried changing some STP priorities to see if it would prevent the far point-to-point from tripping the port.

The rest of the day was spent digging through and documenting the security cameras and gate system. Heaven mentioned Charles doing something on her phone that caused the front and rear gate cameras to become inverted, and I could never figure out how or where that might be set. I spent all day tinkering with settings, but never heard anything back from Fleming about what the old password might have been. I had finally given up on trying to recover anything from the non-wiped equipment, but then I couldn’t seem to write new configurations over them, so tomorrow I’ll still be stuck working on that.

I left work late again after messing around with the relay portion of the gate controls, then made it home through heavy traffic. I quickly fixed the leaky shower head and bruised the bottom of my foot in the process. Summer got home moments later and took a shower. I made her a sandwich and had some more Long John Silvers myself. A bunch of the lunch meat went bad, and I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea to buy so much in the first place. We ate, and then cleaned up a bit. Eaddie was already gone to work the conference, so Summer had to finish her laundry for her.

Summer was dead tired from working in the heat, and I could still barely move. Leonard’s was closed, so I couldn’t go get the air filter we’d been needing for a few weeks. Muad’Dib hadn’t been run in a couple days either, so I decided to take him to the Neighborhood Market to get rid of some recycling. One of our neighbors had a car in the driveway with a trunk that was open the entire time we were gone, so we stopped by on the way home to knock on the door. Someone turned on some lights, but we never got a response, so I considered that the extent of my neighborly responsibility.

We hobbled home and went to bed.

Meet prep!

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Lefthandyman

I woke up surprisingly early this morning, but put myself back to bed since Summer was still out cold. We eventually got up for some brunch. She made herself an egg, and I had some Long John Silvers. I had some coffee and sat with her on the couch for a bit, tinkering with the Steam Machine. I got some laundry going, and she went to the gym. Eaddie got around and eventually started cleaning up her areas.

I kept going all day long, barely stopping, but didn’t have a whole lot of good to show for it. My biggest project went off the rails because I thought it would just be a simple power outlet replacement. I figured Eaddie’s bathroom socket was the culprit, but after I pulled it, I still had no power to the lines coming in there. I checked our closet receptacle and found that it was the end of the circuit, so I went back to the bathroom.

I ended up pulling out the outlet and both wall switches. One was just a switch for the heater and had no power coming in behind the switch. The other switches in the two-gang box had three lines coming in. I eventually worked out which was the power in, and then the other two were just lines to the light and the vent fan. There didn’t appear to be another line going out to the outlet, so that whole project was a wash. I did learn that the fluorescent light in our closet actually worked though, and just needed bulbs. I’ll have to see if I can find LED alternatives for it, otherwise I’ll end up pulling the whole fixture for some better lighting.

Summer got home and mowed, then threw together a quick pasta dinner for the three of us. I got the new shower fixture installed, but not at all to my liking, so that will have to be swapped again too. By the end of the night, I ended up using the new diverter with the old shower head and wand, but the diverter itself seemed to be inhibiting some of the awesome water pressure we had gotten used to.

I finally took a shower, Eaddie finally finished all of her cleaning, and Summer made it to bed. At least there was some success.

Back to work!

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Epic

Summer left early this morning for a race in Clarksville. I got up just before she would get home so I could be ready for our day in Little Rock. Eaddie stayed home with Muad’Dib, and the two of us went to eat Bulgogi in Conway, then walked The Promenade for a bit before the movie. The only shop we visited was LoveSac, just to check out their modular furniture. It was neat, but I didn’t think it was worth the unlisted price.

We got back to the theater early for our movie, and it was a hot mess. The movie was just about sold out, and there appeared to only be two people working. There was a mob of people, and the kids running the place weren’t particularly customer-friendly. In any event, we made it into the auditorium and found our seats. It filled up quickly, and we all took in The Odyssey for the first time since grade school.

It was a long movie, to be sure. I did really enjoy the story, though it did feel a bit more like homework than entertainment. The cast was completely loaded, and I thought the changes in the story helped add thoughtful perspective. The biggest surprise of all was the fact that both of us sat through the entire thing without having to get up.

To get immediately back to the poor experience, as soon as the credits started to roll, the staff turned on the lights and came in to start cleaning up. One of the kids even yelled at us that were were no post-credits scenes, while we were sat watching the scroll. We waited to the end, then left to head toward home.

I didn’t want to skip dinner, so I stopped by Long John Silvers in Conway for a family meal to take home. It was a fairly relaxed drive back, and then I had just a little bit of it to eat before we wound down for the evening.

You are the people from the sea.

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It’s Hot up Here!

I brought some spare stuff to work with me so I could wire Heaven’s new office. My first goal was to get up to the switch cabinet in the shipping area to see if they just needed to be patched in. I had to ask Charles to get someone to clear a path, since there were pallets upon pallets of stuff all underneath where I needed to be.

They got that cleaned up and delivered a scissor lift quicker than I could have imagined, so Muad’Dib and I took a walk through the plant to try and find some cable. I tried to get him onto the lift, but he refused to jump up. He stayed right by me though, while I went up. The cabinet was completely full of the blackest dust and dirt that got all over anything it touched. The switch wasn’t protected at all. There were no air filters or dust covers anywhere. There also weren’t any unpatched wires, and I couldn’t see cables coming into the cabinet anywhere, so I came back down and drove the lift over to the other switch cabinet by the line. More dust, and still no cables.

I walked through asking everyone, and nobody knew where any of it was run. Finally, Charles went over there and took a picture of the other side of the cabinet, where cables were barely sticking out from behind the cabinet, just out of sight and reach. I took the lift back over, and managed to reach up from behind to grab them. It was super uncomfortable, and super hot up there, but I eventually got them down and into the cabinet.

Three of the four lines were Cat6a, so my fingers felt all torn up by the time I was done with those. We made it down and brought a laptop to Heaven so she could get signed in. Rhonda had a fit about her leaving, and then gave Teddy to me since Muad’Dib got hyped for a run outside. I let them run around before taking Teddy back in, and then Muad’Dib and I grabbed some Arby’s and McDonald’s fries for lunch. Our Aptean call was coming up quickly, so I just ate in my office right before the call. The call itself was pretty pointless since we hadn’t done any more testing. I really need to get Janice and Elizabeth set up.

We eventually made it back out to Heaven’s new office to terminate there. I decided to just use RJ45 connectors on both ends, then went straight into the switch, since I didn’t have any keystones anyway. I thought maybe they had used Panduit Mini-Com keystones like they did in our main rack, but they did not. I’ll just have to go back and do it right later. By the end of it, I was able to verify data on all four cables, though PoE didn’t test completely right. I chalked it up to the dirt that I couldn’t blow out.

Finally, I got to focus a little bit on the security gates again. I found some manuals and tinkered with the setup utility some more, but didn’t really have anything to show for it by the time we left. Everyone else was long gone, and we made it home through some fairly thick traffic.

Summer was doing her nails, and Eaddie came home and cleaned her room a bit since she wanted to unbox the vacuum-sealed sofa I got her. I grilled some of the squash and zucchini that I brought home from Janice, and the three of us finished up the ribs from the other day. I took Muad’Dib for a run as it got dark and cool, but it still felt pretty miserable and stagnant outside. We visited my parents, and made it home in the dark.

Summer went to bed surprisingly late, especially considering she had a race in the early morning. I got us tickets to see The Odyssey in IMAX, so I tried not to stay up too late.

Much to do!

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Standin’ the Heat

I jumped back into cameras and security gates this morning, but didn’t really feel like I had as much traction as I did yesterday afternoon. Charles was back and had looked at the gate as well. I did at least get video back up, so I think almost all of the cameras are back online now. The gates just require additional configuration, but I don’t know how.

Scott also wanted to get Heaven going in her new office by Monday, so I figured I needed to get out to that room this afternoon. We went to Taco Bell for a quick lunch, and Muad’Dib got some pets from a stranger for being such a good boy. Afterward we went to the guard shack outside the shipping entrance. I had to call Scott to learn that this wasn’t the right building, and then Nyjoel had to point me to the shipping container that was actually inside the shipping area, well under the roof.

It was a small container, barely finished out, with a window unit in the wall. There were four network lines dropped in the back corner, but only down to about waist level. If we want to get to anywhere else, I’ll have to get some cable raceways. I didn’t have the right tools, since nothing was terminated, so we drove around to the front, then walked back down from my office. I used a temporary termination clip that I picked up off of vine, just to see if the cables went anywhere. The one I tested did not. Muad’Dib and I wandered around to find the switch cabinet, and it looked like nothing was patched in. More to do.

The rest of the afternoon went by fairly quickly, and then we had to leave to get home and change for Julie’s birthday dinner at La Villa. Summer had Sip + Stretch, and Eaddie was in Clarksville, so I just took Muad’Dib with me and left him in the car. My parents actually beat me there, but I beat Julie and Kevin, so I guess that was a win.

Eaddie’s old friend Emma was our server, and she seemed about in tears the entire time. I later learned that this was just a personality trait, and not anything that anyone had done. She did a fine job, and I don’t think anyone had any complaints. I figure she just needed to relax. Dinner took a while, and then I went outside to let Muad’Dib out for a couple minutes while everyone else settled up. When we finally left, we stopped by Point Remove to check on Summer. They were busy yapping, so we just left and went for a run.

I forgot poop bags, so we had to run a modified course to find some bags and then return, but we visited my parents, got the bag, got the poop, and made it home before Summer got there. Eaddie made it home fairly early and needed help removing her new contacts, but she wouldn’t let me just grab them, so she was on her own until she finally gave up and had me pull one. They were super lubricated, so it was no wonder they were difficult to remove.

Do it dry!

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Subnets

It may be my imagination, but the loaner Model 3 sounds much quieter than mine. It definitely doesn’t have the wheel shake, so I need to get my tires balanced or aligned. We made it to work and got right on trying to fix the remainder of the cameras that were out. The gate was also down, so that was another piece of the adjacent puzzle. I was pretty focused on it, and got a lot of documentation done for the future.

Anneka called a couple times about my car, and hopefully they’d be getting started on it within a day or so. I considered getting another door ding fixed, but it wasn’t worth the extra thousand dollars to me. We ended up finally taking a late lunch just to grab some onion rings and chili cheese fries from Sonic to eat at my desk.

They didn’t have cake for Heaven’s birthday yesterday, so we had some today. By the end of it all, I finally had some major pieces of the puzzle figured out. Unfortunately I can’t tell whether anyone there actually believes that I’m fixing these things “for good.” All I can do is keep documenting things to back up what I’ve done.

I got tied up pretty late as I finally figured out one more piece of the Avigilon puzzle, and I finally headed home. Summer was in a bath and hungry, but wasn’t in a rush to come out. I took care of a bunch of Vine stuff, and then we went to Ridgewood for dinner. They were super dead, and closing down a little early. We got a rack of ribs and a Bronco to sit outside with Muad’Dib. Fortunately it felt pretty nice out.

When we got home, I took Muad’Dib on a good run to my parents’ house. It started to get a little dark, so we continued around on a short jaunt, slowing down slightly as the air began to feel stagnant. We got home and Summer was in bed, so I wrapped up quickly.

It was subnets all along.