To Live and Die in New Hampshire

To live and die in New Hampshire

It all started simply enough. Go to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and install a security server that I had brought back and repaired a few weeks earlier and install it. No biggie. Fly up in the morning and fly back that evening. Little did I know that the gods were conspiring against me and that they were in a FUN mood. That is, fun for them, misery for me. All stories good and bad have a beginning. This story is no different.

(WAVY FLASHBACK TIME…PLEASE EXTINQUISH ALL SMOKING MATERIAL AND BRING YOUR SEAT BACK TO ITS FULL AND UPRIGHT POSITION)

A few weeks ago, a security server responsible for access control (ID cards and Card Readers) went in technical terms, kaflooey. It seems the facility it was controlling does a monthly back-up generator test and for the brief time that power is out, the servers also drop dead. A few moments later, the generator kicks in and power is restored. Then, the security servers do their slow wake-up call and reboot. Later, they kill the generator, again the servers are brutally turned off and they restore main power. Yet one more time, these servers come back to life and boot up. Over the course of time, this will do terrible things to any computer and operating system (Macs included, though they seem a little more resilient than others).

The computers in question are more than five year old Pentium 2’s running that paragon of operability, OS/2. If you were unfamiliar with this operating system you would not be alone. It was the first usable GUI O/S available for the X86 processors that I am aware of.

OS/2 was in the beginning a joint project between Microsoft and IBM. Microsoft learned all they could and soon waved bye-bye and created Windows. IBM continued with the development of OS/2 and with little fanfare and no commercial support released it to an unsuspecting world. For its time it was quite advanced. It was the first 32-bit clean GUI O/S available anywhere. Yes, even before Apple. It was also a nightmare to use. While it had all the traditional folders and icons, it also had a text-based window available for entering in commands (sound familiar?). It was also stable as all get out, which made it a blessing for those who required long, times between reboots. But I digress.

The server in question was an OS/2 based Pentium 2 of late 90s, which was being abused terribly twice a month. Somehow it lasted about six years before losing its mind. When it finally croaked, the secondary server kicked in (as a good secondary should) and that should have been near the end of the story. You ship the broken one out, get it repaired, put it back in service. Nope, not this time bucko. For whatever reason the secondary was missing over half the information needed which meant lots of people couldn’t open the doors they so desperately needed to access. So, my boss tells me to go to New Hampshire ASAP.

Well, for those of you who don’t work for the government, this means go NOW. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t always allow ASAP service that has flying involved. So, instead of flying and getting there in 3 hours or so, I climbed into a government issued Chevy Tahoe (A very nice vehicle), and I drove to Portsmouth. I thought it would take about 8 hours (roughly 550 miles). Two things conspired against me. I left at 5:30 PM on a Thursday, which meant I had to deal with Rush Hour traffic in both the DC area and Baltimore. Then at around 2:00AM Friday, I hit construction in Connecticut. Add in the insane traffic in the New York City area at ANY hour of the day and it was 4:30 AM before I finally got to New Hampshire.

I had to go to three hotels before finding one with a vacancy. This time of year in New England is prime tourist season and they are out in droves. I woke up at 8:30 and headed to the job site. Confirmed that yes, the server is down. Determined that it was a combination of things that made it bad and that the secondary was missing information that should (but didn’t) have been backed up daily. Swapped the drives, rebooted and put the bad machine in my car for the long drive home. Went back to the hotel, caught a nap, and made the first of many mistakes before heading back to DC. MISTAKE ONE: Never, NEVER eat Mexican food (I had a Steak Chimichanga that was delicious) before attempting a long drive. I went back to my hotel and slept.

Got up the next day, checked out of my hotel and began my drive back at around 9:30 AM. My wife had asked to check for touristy things to do in the area, so I dutifully (as any henpecked husband should) made the rounds at the various State Welcome centers as I made my way south. Traffic was a nightmare as was the weather for most of the travel day and I rarely got over 35 MPH. MISTAKE TWO: Somehow as I got near the Boston area, I missed the split between Interstate 95 South and Interstate 93 North. I continued on my not-so-merry way and soon the outlines of Boston appeared. Since I had gone through this area before in complete darkness, I just assumed (we all know the meaning of the word assume right?) that I had just not seen it on my way through the first time. I realized my mistake not long after passing the Fleet Center on my way downtown. Anyone living in the Boston area knows how screwed up this area is with the “Big Dig” going on. I had several options for getting off but was afraid I would have difficulty getting back on in the right direction since all these exits were through tunnels. I stuck it out until I could see an exit/entry back to I-93 South. This coupled with weekend traffic to the Cape added about 2 hours to my journey. Once back on I-95, I started to hit traffic as I neared New York City and MISTAKE ONE started to kick in.

It took me about 1 ½ to 2 hours to get through the city and onto the New Jersey Turnpike and it was a lower intestinal agony filled event. That Beef Chimichanga that I had enjoyed the night before was screaming for release. I was fortunate to make it to the first service plaza.

By the time I finally got to the southern end of the NJ Turnpike, it was nearing 8:30 PM, some eleven hours since leaving New Hampshire. I had had enough and got off on Exit One to grab a hotel.

By the by, if you find yourself on the road and need a relatively inexpensive hotel, try the Holiday Inn Express. Most of them have free wireless Internet access, which is a nice bonus.

Next Day: Left at around 10:30 AM. Between weather and traffic, it still took me an additional 6 hours to get home.

(FLASH FORWARD TWO WEEKS. MORE WAVY LINES)

Server is repaired and shipped back to the site. No driving this time (thank you God), just a quick one-day trip to install it. The day begins…..

Got up at around 3 AM for a 6 AM flight to Manchester, New Hampshire via Philadelphia. I arrived at roughly 9 AM. My flight out is scheduled for 6 PM that evening. Rented a car and drove to Portsmouth (about 1 hour). Installed the server and did a back-up to sync the two together. All seems well. I check the data between the two and notice some discrepancies. Do another back-up, no difference. I call the guru we have and he suggests shutting down the primary to try and sync them up. MISTAKE THREE: Listening to guru. Actually to be fair, he really is very good and what happened next was not his fault.

After shutting down, I tried to reboot the primary and it refused to recognize the hard drives. This is bad, very bad. The primary drives were the only current ones with all the info related to the system. Panic time now commenced. I worked on it until 7:45 PM (changing my flights to the next day and calling to keep my rental car an additional day).before finally giving up and leaving them on the somewhat incomplete secondary server. I stay in the only hotel within 50 miles that is not full (and not exactly what I would call 4 stars in anyone’s travel book) and spend a restless non-chimichanga-eating night worrying about what will happen tomorrow.

I come in the next day and just for grins attempt to power up the primary and much to my surprise it comes up. I tell everyone within listening distance that I will NOT be shutting it down again. I open an OS/2 DOS window and do an Xcopy across all the networked drives. Kind of what I should have done in the first place. I verify the data, close up shop, and get the heck out of there.

I return the rental at the airport and my luck is holding out. Instead of a 6 PM flight going through Pittsburg to DC, they have a 5 PM flight that is direct. This bit of good luck should have told me I was doomed, but I chose to ignore my previous misfortunes. MISTAKE FOUR.

Bad weather up and down the eastern seaboard began closing airports everywhere. DC included. At 5 PM we were told to stand by for an update at 6. Then at 7. Finally, they boarded us at 7:30 PM. We taxied out to the runway and was awaiting departure when our good captain informs us that the flight has been cancelled due to inclement weather and that we were going to return to the terminal. The Airline (Which I shall not name but rhymes with Blue Guess Fairlines), will only pay for your hotel if the delay reason is mechanical. Weather related? You’re on your own. They offered me a seat on their flight that left at 6:30 AM which I declined for reasons of my own mental health and got on a noon flight instead. Back to another Holiday Inn Express until the next day. Left on time and bounced all over the sky from the remnants of the storm system that had grounded me the day before.

As much as I think New Hampshire is a beautiful State with very nice people, I hope I don’t see it again for a very long time.