I got a one-day contract job to remove computing
equipment from a branch bank in the area that has closed because of a merger. There
were 15 PCs, monitors and printers to de-install, as well as a network server and
the routing equipment that connected the bank to the host network.
The teller stations were the dirtiest. It was like
the janitorial staff hadn't been through there with a vacuum since the building
opened for business. You know those face masks you see so much on the news about
SARS lately? One of those would have been appropriate. I'll probably be coughing up dust
for days. You don't even want to know about blowing my nose. Yuck!
The clothes I wore are ready for extra strength
detergent. The tan pants are almost brown and the black shirt now looks the color of
a smoker's ashtray. I must have washed my hands and face ten times throughout the day.
Not at all what I expected. Sure, I knew I'd be on
my hands and knees under desks and counters ... that I'd be pulling cables from
beneath carpets and through conduit passages. But I didn't expect the dirt and dust.
It's downright amazing some of that equipment continued to operate.
I suppose it could have been worse. At least the
air conditioning was on. It was 89 outside. The guys removing drive-through equipment
out there had it even worse. If I ever get asked to do this kind of job again ... next
time I'll bring a couple cans of compressed air.
Salam Pax has been writing a weblog from the Iraqi
capital for several months. As you can imagine, things really heated up in the days
just before and since the war began.
Follow the day by day story of one very courageous
Baghdad resident who risked the wrath of the regime to tell it from the streets.
Unlike true weblog style, I suggest starting at
the bottom and working your way chronologically through his fascinating account.
