tech support, Pebble Beach style

blech, I woke up to the sound of my cell phone Monday morning but it wasn't the usual alarm ("low chord") but a phone call from one of the admins at work. Joe, the CEO of the company I work for, is having computer problems and needs to talk to me right away. She puts me through and he has lost all connections to his internet... at his home in Pebble Beach.

Pebble Beach is a city two hours south of San Francisco where the rich hang out and play golf. I've been there once a few months ago to install a router and laptop for him. My co-workers thought this was so cool, that I got to go and check out his fancy house, get a ride from his driver, check out the golf courses.

The reality is that I spend two hours in a car and I immediately go to work under moderate stress (I'm getting better at interacting with the CEO now) and have to absolutely make sure everything is cool cause I really don't want to come back and waste my day (or his). As soon as I get there I start with the basic troublshooting techniques like resetting the router and modem... and voila it's fixed. So I'm going to spend four hours in a car for a one minute fix. To "make it worthwhile" I spend the next three hours checking every part of the computer setup but I couldn't find anything wrong. I even had their local computer guy come by to confirm this. One thing I learned is that I know almost nothing about Macs (he has both).

I suppose it's part of my job and it is kind of cool that I'm the go-to guy but both times I've been there, it's been taxing mentally. Fortunately, the driver and I have many things to talk about during the ride (I don't want to nap cause that would be rude). Mostly, it's either about his Harley-Davidson or gossip about the VPs or his days as a police officer.

Anyways, since it was "close enough" to the end of my work shift, I got dropped off at home. I keep my fingers crossed that I don't have to go back.