Today was horrible.  It started at 6:30 this morning when my phone rang.  It was my coordinator calling me to tell me that there was a problem at one of our buildings.  One of my computer room units had gone into alarm.  Every four months I have to go on call for the entire month.  Some months I don’t get called while others, well let’s just say that I don’t get much sleep.  This has been one of those months.

It wouldn’t be so bad if my co workers would do what they’re supposed to do and order replacement parts when they use a part  It seems that it always shows up when I’m on call and I have to replace a part.  I am tired of spending time searching for parts that are supposed to be there but are not because someone didn’t order a replacement part.  It’s not so bad during the week because all you have to do is go to the supply house and get what you need,  What pisses me off is when I’m called out on weekends or in the middle of the night and don’t have the part.  I’m screwed.  

I get to work at 7:30 am, find the unit that’s in alarm.  I reset the unit and check out the unit.  Everything checks out fine.  I work on HVAC equipment and it was 36 degrees outside this morning.  I won’t bore everyone even further with all the mechanical details but everything checked out ok.  Got into my truck to head home and got called again by my coordinator.  This time I have some issues in another building.  There are four buildings that we have and we have to drive to them because they’re to far to walk.  I drive to that building, check everything out, reset some equipment and all is good.  We always have issues with our equipment needing to be reset during cold snaps and this is our first one.

I log three hours this morning and I am home, with clothes changed and about to watch some TV when my phone rings again.  I have more equipment in alarm and I change clothes again back into my work clothes.  It’s 10:30 am by this time. I arrive at work at 11:15 AM, this time it’s software issues and My coordinator is there to take care of that problem.  In the mean time another alarm goes off at yet another building so off I go.  This is where I start to get upset.

I have a bad fan motor.  No problem, I’ll grab the replacement from downstairs and I’ll change it.  Wrong, because we don’t have a replacement.  I look for over thirty minutes with no luck.  I call our supply house and they have a replacement but guess what, they’re closed.  It’s after 12 noon and they close at noon on Saturdays.  They agree to open back up but they’re going to charge me another $50 for opening the store back up.  It’s ok, it’s not my money.  

Normally, I can change a fan motor in thirty minutes.  This one took me and my coordinator three hours to change.  Different motor with different mounting brackets.  Basically a pain in the butt.

We’re putting our tools up and another call comes in.  A furnace in our child care center is not working.  We found a couple of bad parts plus another fan motor bad.  You guessed it, no parts and by this time all the supply houses are closed and my coordinator doesn’t want to spend the extra $50.  I’ve got to be at work early on Monday to get to the supply house and get these parts before these kids come in and complain that it’s cold.

I finally get home at 6:30 pm.  A long day for me which, if I had all the parts, the correct parts, I would have been home long before then.