The high today was 92 ever-so-lovely degrees.

I had to do two major projects by hand that ought to be able to be done by computers, if my employer's IT folks really grokked the concept of system (even just look up tables would help).

But no such luck--one set of data resides on one platform, the rest on another. One group of users works on smart workstations for mainframes; the rest of us are on networked PCs.

Work hours and duties are still entered by hand (why not scanned?) and so it goes.

But the major projects had the side effect of making the day go quickly. I found that the manager in charge of the project that Batty used to ride herd on doesn't even know how to create or use formulas in Excel (the reports come in on Excel spreadsheets). When I tried to correct an error, I discovered that the derived data was in fact hard entered. No wonder the final percentages didn't change when the counts did.

The other report derived from that same manager's core responsibilities--I'll bet she doesn't even know how to access the report from the mainframe (a two-minute job), let alone manage the data. But she's pretty and personable, so she will go far. And I hope soon.

I wish them all well and hope for them that they learn their jobs well enough to keep things running smoothly. We've had enough changes and disruptions the last few years to last a lifetime (or two).

It was a productive and busy day, and I'm ready for bed. Reading Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian. Wonder if he's Irish....