Construction Destruction

8:59 Punch in

9:01 Check voicemail. Plu-eeze let last night have run smoothly...

9:02 Nutz. A CD drive has eaten a disc. A check with the powers that be tells me that I should take care of this first thing for the day.

9:10 After discovering a member has brought us a large pan full of fudge, a cup of coffee, and a check of the email, I wander next door to pick up the PC.

9:20 Walk back across the lot to the office with three people that have decided to come and gaffle some fudge from us.

9:30 Screwdriver in hand - let's get crackin!

9:35 Well, we haven't gotten very far before we hit our first snag. This is the first of three phone calls I have to take regarding the anniversary party coming up. I was just getting excited about taking something apart too.....

10:05 Computer apart, CD drive out of it's slot..........

10:06 "Warning! Drive contains NO parts to be serviced by user. If drive needs service, please take to authorized service center for repairs." C'mon son - if you don't want me taking this thing apart, you gotta bring a better warning that that. If you don't want me to take a screwdriver to this apparatus, you best be putting a picture of someone like Nort getting electrocuted on the cover. Or better yet, just say, "If you open this device, you will die." Anything less than that, and this baby is coming apart! Co-workers wonder why I've chuckled under my breath.

10:19 Whew. They sure put this thing together well. Them are some tiny-ass screws.

10:22 Looks like a confetti factory has exploded inside the CD drive. The drive didn't eat so much of the disc but it mowed down the label on top of the disk.

10:23 Shake out the shredded label.

10:31 Even after immense shaking and use of an air-duster, there's still tiny pieces of label making their way out of the drive. The label was white on one side, and reflective metallic on the other. The little 'glitter' pieces that are making their way out onto the desk and floor are causing it to look like there was a stripper convention by my desk.

10:32 Or, so I've heard that strippers use glitter.

10:40 All major pieces seem to be out. I'm beginning to realize that all of that label 'dust' isn't ever going to come out. But the moving parts seem to be clear to move, and there's no major breakage that I can see.

10:48 Went back together faster than it came apart. That's not normal for things I dismantle. But I don't have any screws left over, so I'm not sure what I missed.

11:13 All back together in the tower ( I only bent ONE plastic snap to get it in - woo hoo! ), and IT WORKS!!! It read a disc and everything! Of course, I used a disc with NO label on it - but we're still one step ahead of where we were this morning.

11:22 PC is back next door, and victory is claimed - despite putting me a couple hours behind schedule for the day. I'm thinking no matter what happens the rest of the day, it's a successful day. From here, I look forward to looking at more pictures of people working out in the 80's.