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Jeff: Ok, well text me before you go home tonight so I can come pick up the machines you get built.

Me: It might be late

Jeff: doesn't matter. Text me anyway. I'll tell Alex I'm taking what you've got so far.

He left and I decided to build 2 at a time. I had the space and the process was easy enough. I'd install the motherboard in one, then install the motherboard in the other one, then go back and install the CPU in the first one, then install the CPU in the second, then the RAM, then the PSU and finally the drives. Thankfully they installed the OS from the network so an optical drive was not required, just a HDD and the floppy

I was able to get 10 installed in short order, and got another 5 before leaving for the night. I text Jeff and let him know I'm going home for the night and that I'll be back early in the AM. I decide to head to my office and check on things over there, I was able to get there before Steph was leaving. I sat down and got logged into my machine then tried logging into the domain controller,

"The user has not been granted the requested logon type"

wtf. I try logging into the SCCM server...same error. I pull up AD users and computers

access denied

huh. I go into the server closet and it has a RFID reader and is locked.

Steph: Are you almost done? I need to get home

Me: Hang on, just 1 minute and I'll be done.

I walk by the restricted room and it has a RFID reader and is locked as well. At least they're listening to my suggestions. I go to my office and I see various items all over the desk that must belong to Chris. I fire off an email to Jeff asking for a badge to get into the server room and also letting him know I can't access any of the servers and then I head home.

The next morning I get to the warehouse and kick on winamp, "Love the way you lie" starts blaring out of the cheap laptop speakers as I get back into my groove. I managed to finish what was left over to build from the night before and started testing as Alex walked up

Alex: Did Jeff take some servers?

Me: Yep. He said as he was leaving that he'd let you know he was taking them

Alex: How many did he take?

Me: Everything I built

Alex: Shit, you'll need to build more. We've got a shipment of new parts coming in later today, so test what you have and then go to lunch. Take a long lunch.

I hook up the first machine, boot to the BIOS, it detects the HDD and RAM. I shut it off and move to the next one. I was able to get them all booted to the BIOS and only 1 had bad RAM. I swapped out the bad stick, retested and stacked the machines up against the wall. I text Jeff and find Alex talking with the front desk lady

Me: I'm heading to lunch, here's a bad stick of RAM.

Alex: Ok, when you get back we should have some new hardware. How late can you work tonight, we're behind a little.

Me: I can probably stick around until midnight.

Alex: Ok, we may need you to stay until midnight for the next couple of days

Me: That's fine by me. I texted Jeff letting him know I finished what I had, so he may be by to get those as well

Alex: Why doesn't he just reimage the machines and start fresh

Me: If I had to guess, because he doesn't have backups up to the point the kernel was patched.

Alex: I'm going to tell him that once he has his backups, he needs to give us those boxes back

Me: That's fair. Anyway, see you after lunch

As I sat staring at my lunch, lost in thought about how I enjoy working with Jeff and Chris and the uncertainty of my future I see one of the managers from my other job, Larry

Larry: Hey, Pavix! How are you doing?

Me: I'm doing ok, how are you?

Larry: Doing good. We miss seeing you around the office, always joking with everyone

Me: Don't worry, I'll be back soon enough

I didn't know exactly how prophetic this really was

Larry: Didn't mean to interrupt, sorry to hear about your family troubles

Me: Don't sweat it. It's good to see you again

Larry: Take care

I bit into my Italian BMT....it was bland. Even more bland than normal. I sat it back on the wrapper and took a drink of my sprite, then finished my sub. I knew if I didn't, I'd be pretty hungry come midnight. I get back to the warehouse and inside the room is easily 100 cases and piled along both walls outside the room is boxes and boxes of hardware. I decide to double down again, so I setup 2 cases in the room and 2 cases on the card table outside the room after sitting the monitor and keyboard and mouse on the floor. I was able to get 30 machines built by midnight. I honestly don't know how I made it home that night, except that I was on auto-pilot and must have used muscle memory to get home.

The next morning my alarm was especially annoying at 6am. I stared at the numbers on the clock for about 10 minutes before I could take it's screeching no longer and hit it. That was enough to let the cats know they'd better make themselves scarce. I stood in the shower, barely able to stand as I continued turning the hot knob lower and lower and lower in hopes that the arctic cold would snap me awake. It didn't. I grabbed pants from the clothes hamper that we hadn't folded from Sunday and threw on a shirt. I picked up my phone and it complained of an authentication error with my company email

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