Midnight Machinations

10:01 P.M. - Well, I'm back at work again. The time has come for the final live test of the inventory beast.
10:24 P.M. - Problems. There is no DISK there, it is always the LOWEST and most downright repugnant of technology that gets us in the end. So, I'm going on a Mission From Gawd (ala Blues Brothers) to get the data from a contact in Boise.....
1:21 A.M. - The mission was a success, after approximately 60 high speed minutes on the interstate, and a few tense moments copying the file to a laptop for backup, I am now waiting while my python script crunches the data. The first three items went through perfectly, and so far everything looks to be going wonderfully. (touch wood)
2:38 A.M. - Some minor bugs in the code cause some delays, and lots of careful checking at each step caused some more, but it looks like everything went pretty smoothly.
3:20 A.M. - Upon reaching the old homestead, I found that my roomate was still up, and not feeling well in the stomach. Her supply of pepto had been exhausted however, so, being the nice guy that I apparently am, I was off on yet another Mission From Gawd, this time to Walmart. Having made it back safely, I think I will try and find out how deep the bottom of sleep is.
12:58 P.M. (the next day) - I got a call this morning at 8 A.M. saying that things were ready for the next major step in processing, so with 4.5 hours of sleep and some coffee con leche in me I headed back for another 3 hours of going through code and data with a fine toothed comb. As it turns out there were a few small bugs, and one major one caused by a set of circumstances I hadn't predicted which necessitated a little last minute programming. Such is life. On the upside, all of the data looks very good now and has made it to its final resting place, and so the first live test has been labeled a success. Needless to say, I'm going home a bit early for a nice long nap in an hour or so! Then it is lawn mowing time and after that I am busting out the old air-compressor and doing some major computer cleaning (so besides other clean systems, there will be a nice shinny pile of parts waiting to be assembled into a Linux machine by the end of the night).