It's a long-standing joke how underworked and overpaid we are here at Custom Box Service. This is less true since Tony abandoned us, though we still enjoy leisure.

Then there are days like today.

The ingredients for today's disaster:

• Tony deserted in November, leaving three of us to do what four once did.
• Nick is on a month-long vacation in Italy, leaving two of us to handle everything.
• Jeff and I are both sick; under normal circumstances, one or both of us would not be here.
• I am out making deliveries and sales calls, leaving Jeff alone in the office.
• Our primary truck, loaded with boxes for delivery, catches fire in Beaverton.

There's not actually a lot one can do in this sort of circumstance other than sigh.

Fortunately, the truck fire was minor; the rear brakes ignited (don't ask me how), but Tom was able to grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Fortunately, we have a backup truck, and Jeff was able to leave almost immediately to swap stuff out. Fortunately, I was able to turn around in Tualatin and head back to the office. (The phones were left unattended only briefly.) Fortunately, two of our customers agreed to drive out to the dead truck to pick up their boxes. Fortunately, the other customers to whom we'd scheduled delivery were understanding and willing to receive their boxes tomorrow.

Thanks to proper planning, good attitudes, and a little bit of luck, this is a potential disaster that's been converted to a bump in the road.

Still, it's been ninety minutes of endless phone calls and crazy logistics. (It didn't help that our default towing company here in Canby didn't have a truck available. I called half a dozen other places before finding somebody who could do the job.)

It's not always tea and crumpets for us!

(Or, as the case may be: "It's not always lawn tractors and Roman coins and weblogging for us!")

On this day at foldedspace.org

2004 — The Rather Large Yard Sale   Kris and I hauled a vanload of junk up to the Mirons' this weekend. The four of us created a vast pool of junk and held a yard sale.

2003 — Moo   You know you have overcommitment problems when you need to pull out a sheet of graph paper and a ruler to plot all of your scheduled activities.

2001 — Linux Test   I'm posting this on my laptop, running Linux full bore.