Just thought this might be a cool thread for us all to blow off steam about the kind of days this "holiday" season brings about. If a few of you respond... I'll commisserate in kind, knowing I am not alone.

I've tried to take December 24th off for years now... never successfully. Doesn't matter how hard you try... don't schedule anything for a week prior... whatever... December 24th is just a day I will probably never have off unless I'm pushing up daisies.

I had one appointment today... out on one of the islands here in Washington thats only accessible by ferry... worked extra late all week to make sure this was the only one. Of course every damn guy out there is on his way to the mall so the traffic sucks and I'm literally the last car the ferry worker holds up for this island's loadup. I sit idly for an hour and a half twiddling my thumbs waiting for the next boat. Finally catch it. When I start to unload, my truck has a hard time starting... of course in my haste to catch said ferry I didn't think to stop and get f*****g gas! My truck barely limps off the ferry and of course the nearest gas is three miles away. I call a cab... go get gas and return... now over two hours late.

Oh well, at least the appointment will be quick... just switch out a Comcast Cable box for the new DVR unit and upgrade the Pronto screen. I already tested the box and I know it works. All goes well until the f****g pronto decides to go to the black screen of death (third one of the bastards). No its not the firmware... you can't fix it by reverting to stock config... according to Philips its simply time to send it into Tennessee so it can sit next to my other two and wait until some jerkoff finally decides to replace it with some f****d up B Stock unit.

So of course I haven't yet told the wife that I will be working tomorrow after all... or that with Christmas Eve traffic I'll be leaving about 5 AM to wait a few hours for a f*****g ferry... or that she may as well plan on me not being there because I have no idea when I'll get off that stupid island. All these thoughts were running through my head (along with visions of people in Philips shirts dangling from a noose) when I am pulled over by one of the three toothless inbred cops that circle the island for going FIVE F*****G MILES AN HOUR OVER THE 50 MPH SPEED LIMIT! I should thank him for his Christmas generosity in only giving me a warning but I swear he knew I'd miss the outbound ferry if he just held me up the amount of time he did. I sat... again twiddling my f****g thumbs for another hour wondering why in the hell I was so stupid to schedule this call at all... or why I didn't send one of my crew!

Like I said... I'm doomed to a lifetime of Dec 24ths sans family. Anyone else feeling the need to type ferociously and get something out?

So other than that, how'd your day go?

RH, I own my own business, too, so I undrestand all too well. It's like owning a restaurant; you're always there. It's rare that we even have Sundays off, let alone whole weekends. Just in the last month or so have we even been able to intentionally set aside personal time.

What I've found to make the difference is to simply and firmly say no. I've found that most customers understand when I give an honest "have to take some family time" and accept the next available workday. You can't please everyone. Remember with whom you live.

During a philosophical conversation witha friend, we came to the conclusion that, when on our deathbed, we're more likely to regret time spent away from family than time spent away from work. Nobody is likely to say, "I wish I had spent more of my time at work!"

I came to the house start to install kind of heavy set-up home theater and I found 4 carpet guys just about start their job in whole basement. My plan was - one and half day job , happy customer and I can be at home dec. 24 around 3p.m. - MISTAKE!! Real deal is - today I was waiting for that f......g carpet , than brand new IN FOCUS SP 7205 did not want to start (defective) , so after all tomorrow- because I love my customers I am going to hook-up temporary DVD player (they HAVE TO WATCH MOVIE tomorrow) and f..k you all. My schedule for next week looks much better again :-(( God , how I love my job! So as you can see rhm9 , YOU ARE NOT ALONE. We stopped sell Prontos about year ago because of all that trouble , now we sell MX remotes and live is wonderfull. Good luck with Philips B.S. . I would like all of you RC guys wish happy holidays , thank you for all your help here . Thanks again Robert

Kinda crazy how most of us found this site because of the Philips Pronto....Now with all the "upgrades" we are running away from them...

Way to go Philips!!!!

Defective gear and funky work-arounds!
God I love this business!
12/24/04 at precisely 3pm, the van goes home, at 4 pm, it's cocktail time.
Sunday it starts all over again for another year of "whose great product can I tear my hair out over today"

I feel the holiday pain. I don't own the business but i care for and treat it and our customers as my own. I actually have christmas eve off this year. Only b/c i've worked til about 8 pm every night this week.

I was actually going to get off early today, about 3.... til i got the phone call telling me to wait at the job b/c the boss is gonna bring out a plasma that they "must have" installed before Christmas. No problem, i just have to mount it and connect a cable box... and lucky me, my boss is gonna stay to help (but he said he won't get in my way too much). TV is installed and looking like crap (gotta love cablevision), start cleaning up, say my goodbyes to the customer, happy holidays, blah blah blah.... Big boss says, oh your gonna stop by "joe blows" house and program his remote for him, right? Or you can come in and do it tomorrow.

Hell No am I working on my paid holiday, so i leave Sands Point cut through Roslyn and make my way to Garden City. (usually a 15-20 minute drive) But not in Christmas traffic... or in this ungodly terential downpour that just started. An hour later i pull up to the house, run in program a remote, get ready to say goodbye and get hit with a punchlist. Customer is having the whole family fly in from the left coast and i gotta move tvs, cable boxes, reteach the audio system and every other little thing you can think of. Walked out at about 8 pm again. But i got my day off, i get to try and finish my christmas shopping (while answering the cell, acting as tech support to those customers who just shouldnt have expensive systems but insist on it)

Happy Holidays to all of you! I sincerely appreciate all the crap you guys get me through! Best Wishes for a prosperous next year!

Mike

I just thank my lucky stars that B&K keypads are back-ordered... otherwise I'd be headed into Manhattan this morning to do an ugly install and ugly programming job, and not getting home by any reasonable hour... The price I pay for getting next week off... Instead, I get to hang a 50" and install a Gloria... Should be a snap, home by 3...I hope

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night

Norm

Mike wrote:
" i leave Sands Point cut through Roslyn and make my way to Garden City. (usually a 15-20 minute drive) But not in Christmas traffic... "

Mike, next time you go the back way through Roslyn, make a left at the High School and say hello.

This year I had none of these stories, although I am working today---by choice. I always try to work on Christmas as well as it makes getting around much easier due to everyone else being with their families. Yesterday I too was in Sands Point installing a Homeworks System. In fact, I made it home by 4:30.

Today I may swap out a few Homeworks modules and do some modest Crestron changes. No islands ( save Manhattan ), no ferries. But 2 weeks ago it took 2.5 hours to travel from 54th and 9th avenue through the Lincoln Tunnel to Weehawken, NJ, total distance 11.4 miles. But at least the cops did not strip serach me or my van that time. My wife has long since stopped talking to me due to my working on hollidays or more accurately not arriving back at the homesead at the time I claimed.
This is a busniness divorce lawyers love.

To all of you celebrating Christmas, have a happy. To those of us who are working enjoy the peace and serenity that only occurs when you can travel on a day no one else is working. 20 minutes to Manhattan on a trip that normally takes 2-2.5 hours. I do feel your pain rhm9. Been there, done that.

Alan

Not really. I'm sitting on the beach in Hawaii watching scantily clad, near nude women in bikinis. I'll be thinking of you tonight while I'm frolicking with some of them.

Seriously though, been there done that and feel for you.

Dang.

Making me feel bad with all this stuff.......NOT.

I took yesterday off. Wife and I went out for lunch at a "fancy smancy" joint. Eased around town doing some shopping, and then went out for a fine dinner at a favorite VERY upscale Italian restaurant.

My only task today will be invoicing a job that I'll be finishing up with on Tuesday. Yup, that's right, TUESDAY......lol

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanakuh, Kwanza, whatever......May the mighty Poobah bring you some goodies...

It's Christmas Eve, there's a projected high today of 5 degrees F, and I have a rough-in to do in an unfinished house. Life is grand.

I feel every so lucky this year, cut out at the lunch hour yesterday and have a tee time at 2 this afternoon. And I just can't seem to find my cell phone today:)

Hope you get celebrate whatever you celebrate this time of year, is that PC enough???

My only complaint today is that fact that it's -15 degrees wind chill and QQQ makes a crack about being on the beach. Hey QQQ, eat my shivvering ASS! :) Happy holidays everybody.

Matt