Since my travel plans to Houston were scuttled, I settled down for another normal work week from home. I was back on track with the plans to take Mom and Dad out for their 60th anniversary. My niece and great-niece were even going to come up and go out with us. Cool.
On Tuesday morning I got a warning box pop up on my screen to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to unlock my computer. This happens whenever you walk away from the computer for more than a few minutes. I entered my password and got an error message that my password was invalid. I entered it again, typing slower this time. Again, invalid. Just last week, my SAP password expired and I had to enter a new one. My network password also expires every 90 days. I usually change them at the same time, but was distracted with all the Hurricane Dean hubbub. Once you hit the 90 day expiration, as a remote user, you are screwed. It's happened to me one other time, and it took a long time to fix it. One of the steps is to call the HelpDesk in Tulsa, and tell them that you need the network password reset, and that you are a remote user. I called and got a new girl. She changed the password, but I still couldn't get into the VPN (company's network). She told me to reboot the computer. I rebooted, and then I entered the new password. Invalid. I entered the old password. Invalid. I was in the twilight zone of the network. Now, I couldn't get to my desktop, at all. She exhausted all her tricks and opened up a ticket and told me to expect a call later.
About 4pm, I got a call from one of the techie guys. He gave me an administrator ID to log onto. This gave me access to the internet and to SAP. But I still couldn't get to my Outlook e-mail or the company's intranet. We tried different options for hours. But since the HelpDesk gal reset my password, we couldn't reset it twice in a 24 hour period. I told him, I would try around noon the next day to reset my password, and I'd be fine. It also turns out that I shouldn't have rebooted the computer; she read from the wrong instructions. The HelpDesk has all new people since we moved the headquarters to Houston.
The next day, I logged on and changed users. Again, it wouldn't accept the old or the new password. I called up the techie guy. He had another idea. We would use the old dial-up modems in Tulsa. This is how we fixed it the last time. It puts you on the other side of the firewall and then you can reset the password. The techie guy took control of my machine and configured the dial-up number. Then I dialed the phone number. It was busy. I kept trying for an hour; still busy. Finally he called me back and said to forget that option. The modems had been removed from Tulsa to save money. (We can spend millions of dollars to move to Houston...to Hurricane Alley, but we have to save $50 / month on a dial-up phone line. Arrrrgghhh!!!!).
So I asked the techie what my options were. He asked when I made my last system backup. I told him I wasn't sure. He could image a hard disk from the last good backup and overnight it to me, and then he would guide me over the phone on how to install it. This would take about 36 hours. He then asked how far I was from a Big Oil Co facility. I told him 3.5 hours. We have three facilities in the Chicago area. I could be there and back in 24 hours. Once you log onto the company network, you can reset the password. I told him I would just drive to Chicago. It would be much easier and cleaner. The scary thing is that we have salesmen scattered all over the U.S. who could have the same problem. They would have no choice but to mail their computer to the techie guys in Houston. Not good.
I didn't want to just pick up and run to Chicago and try to bust ass to get back in time for Mom and Dad's Anniversary dinner. Plus my niece and great-niece were staying at my house. I just took vacation time on Thursday and Friday. On Sunday afternoon I drove three hours to Schaumburg, IL and spent the night with my nephew. He lives four miles from one of our sales offices. I got up early the next day and got there when they opened. Someone let me in the door after I showed my Big Oil Co badge. I used one of the offices there and hooked onto the company network. Ten minutes later, I successfully changed my password. Ahhhhhhhh!
I left the sales office around 11am. Not wanting to get stuck in traffic, I figured I would get back home in Indiana right at quitting time. So instead, I went west to visit my blogging buddies Tammi and That One Guy. I just saw these two a couple of weeks ago. T1G is leaving the Valley on Wednesday for California. T1G and had a quick lunch at Fritz's. I brought work clothes in order to help him get packed. He gave me garage duty and the job of organizing his tool box. Later I got to meet his Ma and then we went over to Tammi's house for dinner. We had manicotti, cornbread, and a chocolate/caramel dessert. It was all wonderful. During dinner, I got a call from work. We had a flex spending problem that I needed to look at. With all the excitement, I had forgotten it was a payroll day. I used Tammi's internet and made a few phone calls to defer the problem till morning. I said my farewells and headed back home, reaching the farm at 1:20am.
If I had been in Houston, as planned, I would have been prompted to change my password. I would have changed it, and none of this would have ever happened. It's all Hurricane Dean's fault!!!!
I have set up a recurring appointment on my Outlook calendar to reset my network password every 11 weeks, way short of the 90 day expiration. But it is good to have a working Plan B.
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