Gotta Keep On Truckin'

Tomorrow I will get a day off! Yea me!

I've been extremely busy at the vet clinic since we opened on May 1st. The days are absolutely flying by. I stroll in there at 8:00, and before I know it, it's 5:45. It's probably because I've been a mad crazy computer Mr. Fix-it for most of the time.

Since we've opened, I've been trying, desperately, to:

1) Get our vet program up and running

2) Get our printers to actually print what they are supposed to, where they are supposed to print

3) Get our printer/fax/copier/scanner to actually work. I spent the ENTIRE day trying to get that sucker to scan a document. I finally had to install the software onto my own personal laptop to finally get it to work. It's a HP printer/fax/scanner/copier and their customer service SUCKS!!! So does the instruction manual. So I'm no better off, really, than I was when I started the sick and twisted project this morning. I guess I'll be on the telephone for another hour or 2 on Friday to try and get it to work. I email HP's technical support and they gave me a standard B.S. answer, with stuff that I'd already tried. Thanks a lot buddy.

3) Get my boss and the kennel manager to learn the computer system. The really, really scary part about all of this is that I'm the only one that knows how to check somebody out, and apply a payment. Methinks I'm gonna get a phone call or two tomorrow when they get into trouble.

4) Get ready for my next big project of getting the Dog and Cat Boarding Scheduler to work. I think that it's gonna take me a day or 500 to get it up and running. My only hope is that the new technician will get it figured out tomorrow *fingers crossed*. She's coming in for about 3 hours to work on the vet program.

5) Keep our X-Ray machine working. Yesterday, we got the new scanner to our $50,000+ digital radiology unit. I got it up and running...and it worked. Today, I even got to re-X-ray the dog that came in last week when we found out the machine didn't work. It really made us look pretty bad, so we did the X-rays for free. Not my idea, but the boss man wanted to keep a good future client. The guy will be a pretty good client, and he's pretty cool, so I hope it will be worth the $140 or so that we lost on the deal (especially since we made about $227 total today). It's also scary that I'm the only one that knows how to operate the digital X-ray computer program. And there is a limping dog coming in tomorrow that needs X-rays. There is another phone call or 2.

On a completely different note, I'm watching the Rangers play the Devil Rays. The game is in Tampa Bay and there are a grand total of...wait for it...just over 8,500 people in the stands. How in the heck do you keep a MLB team up and running with attendances like that? It's like the Florida Marlins and there abysmal attendance. Why do you keep those teams where they are? Why not move them to other cities that would actually appreciate a MLB team? How about San Antonio, TX? I know that they could put up better attendance numbers than 8,500/game, that's for sure.

According to ESPN.com, The Tampa Bay Devil Rays' average home attendance last year was 16,901/game. And they had the 2nd lowest average attendance for 2006. Who did they beat???

The Florida Marlins. Their average home attendance last year was 14,384/game. That's just plain terrible. Even the freakin' Kansas City Royals managed to drag 17,158 fans/suckers-for-punishment per game*. Just plain sad.

Let's move the Florida teams. Nobody is watching them anyway. Get them in a better market. They won't even miss them.

While I'm on a baseball rant, I'm really, really sick and tired of watching the Rangers be mediocre. It's just plain disgusting. Right now they are losing to the Devil Rays 8-11, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th. Gagne is pitching, and he has been pitching very well this year. If only the rest of the team could do the same.

I've been in Texas for almost 17 years now, and EVERY year it's the same thing: the Texas Rangers need pitching. Badly. It's the same song, different verse. I'm getting really, really sick and tired of this. It's really sad when you score 8 runs in a game, and you still manage to lose by 3 runs (assuming that the game ends with the same score as it is currently).

Sorry for the rant, but I'm just getting sick of crappy baseball. It really takes the fun outta watching baseball games. And I LOVE baseball.

At least the Astros have managed to eek into .500 baseball, not counting this evening's game.

Keep on keepin' on.

* These stats are from here. FYI.