Anyone who’s ever been on call knows what it’s like to have the phone ring in the middle of the night and find someone at the other end of the wire who expects you to instantly wake up and begin to make sense when talking about technical issues. It’s been awhile for me…

Thursday, 4:30 AM: brrrrring, brrrrring, brrrrring Hello? Hi. I hate to call you, but…

Ugh.

So at 5:00 AM I woke # 1 son and told him that I had to go to work, I would call him to make sure he woke up at the usual time, and I would be back to take him to school in time for his first final (end of term). I figured that by that time I could have other people in there looking at the code.

By 5:30 AM I was at work and looking into the problem. By 5:45 AM, the person who had called me was there. By 6:15 AM we knew how to fix it.

Time out to call # 1 son. Yes, he is up. I know he is vertical because he goes into my bedroom to turn off my alarm clock, forgotten in the rush at 5:00 AM. Don’t even sit back down, I tell him. Go make coffee and get ready and I’ll be home in an hour. OK, he says.

By 6:50 AM, the fix was applied and I was back on the road.

At 7:15 AM I walk in my front door and say, “Hello!” No answer. This does not bode well. “Hello?” No answerer. Come to # 1 son’s door. “Hello?” # 1 son leaps off of his bed, where he’s obviously been spending the time since I called snoozing away.

“It’s time to go to school,” Said I.

“OH NO, IT CAN’T BE!!!”

Oh, yes… it can. And there followed an extreme amount of drama, accompanied by wailing and gnashing of teeth. But, fortunately also accompanied by getting ready for school in record-setting time.

And, although he professed his undying hatred of me, school, and the world (in that order, I think), he did have the good grace not to blame me because he went back to sleep. Although he did say that by going into work at 5:00 AM, I screwed up his carefully laid plans to get up and drink a pot of coffee (already made and which I reheated on my way out the first time to drink in the car) so he would be awake for finals.

I reminded him that it’s good to be flexible.

By afternoon, finals had gone OK and I had gone from Wicked Witch Of The West to “What was it were you doing at 5 in the morning??? That sucks!” And I was a relatively decent human being once again, if slightly inept, in the eyes of # 1 son.

The problem with coming in early, of course, is that doesn’t mean I get to leave early. And that’s why there was a dearth of bloggage here yesterday.