Twilight Zone

It's 2 am (it's 2 am)
Fear is gone (fear is gone)
I'm sitting here waiting
The Gun still warm (the Gun still warm)
Maybe my connection
Is tired of taking chances

Golden Earring, "Twilight Zone"

Actually, it was 3 am, but I was sitting and waiting. I didn't have a gun, but the thought of shooting my 3 am caller had crossed my mind. Why? He never called back. I dozed off waiting for the call.

At about 3 am I got a call from a peer in Europe. There has been a nasty Windows virus making the rounds in Asia and Europe, and it appears that it had made its way to the North America. My peer was calling on the behalf of one of the big managers in Europe and he wanted all the account managers called and a plan put together to resolve this issue. That sounds just great...but it is not my job anymore.

I tell that to my peer and he says, "Oh...let me call you back in a few minutes". I sit in my chair in my home office and I doze off. My wife tells me to come back to bed and try toget some sleep. About 3:30 am, I get a call from another peer in Europe, asking me to call the customer's NOC because they have been trying to get in touch with me, but the call never completes. I call the NOC and they tell me to call yet someone else...a mid level mgr in Europe (this is terrible game to play at 3:30 am). I call this mgr.

He begins to tell me about the virus issue and asks me what my plan is to deal with it:

me - "What is the case number?"
him - "We don't have one"
me - "What is the customer name?"
him - "There is no customer yet"
me - "what is it you would like me to do?"

him- "We need a plan to deal with this threat. You need to call the account managers (we have three in the US and one in Canada who would be affected) and get them involved. We need people on site asap to stop this."

Okay...at 4 AM I begin calling managers (who don't pick up...surprise, surprise) until I get to the last one, who just happens to be traveling in India this week. We have a nice chat (I am almost coherent now) and he tells me that I just need to call the Escalation Manager and let him deal with it. That is all I wanted to hear.

I call the EM and wake him up...he has some great news for me. It seems that our boss has told him not to work the issue...that I should. Normally, I would not mind but two things work against me:

1) I am working solo this week and yesterday was a bear. I just knew today would be as well.
2) It ain't my friggin' job anymore. The EM does it, not me.

Well, I get awake, let the dogs out, get a shower and eat a bowl of organic raisin bran (not very tasty, mind you) and drive to work an hour early. Of course I have been working since 3 am or so..making international phone calls.

I get to work and find a guy in Canada who has found a machine infected with a variant of the slammer virus performing DoS attacks on the network. The tech removes the offending machine and things look normal. Several hundred e-mails later, we find more machines infected and the Account Manager in Canada wants ME to run the show. Sorry, but I have enough to do today.

Finally I get our boss to allow the EM to do his job and things are beginning to come together. One of the main reasons this was a mess was that the guy who normally would handle these global issues (in Europe) is on vacation and his boss is filling in for him...his boss does not know the process we use.

Well, if I can get by with it, I am taking a nap today at lunch time. I am sure I will not get much sleep, but any would be welcomed.

Oddly enough, there has not been as much to do outside all this virus mess as I had thought, but still, I cannot be everything to everyone.