December 2011

Dear Client,

We had a couple of minor outages last month lasting around an hour each.  Our provider isolated and corrected both issues pretty rapidly.

We also migrated to the new IP address block last weekend that our provider needed us to move to.  The transition was fairly smooth, with the exception that apparently the previous user of this block was a spammer.  We had to work with some spam blocking groups to get our new IP addresses off their spam lists (dns blacklists).   Fortunately that didn’t take more than a day to complete.

One of our servers uses a RAID array (a bunch of disks that work together that back each other up).  One of these disks is bad but only intermittently.  When I run diagnostics, it behaves.  I hate when that happens.  A support call to Adaptec tech support gave me a way to determine the bad drive, so I will swap it out tonight (11/30/11).

Later this month I will also need to take down the same server to do some firmware upgrades.  This will be scheduled between Christmas and New Years.  This has to be planned carefully as dropping the ball on any step could be disastrous.  So I tend to be extremely cautious when doing things like that.

The second phase of the workshop cabinets arrived the day before Thanksgiving.  We have family staying with us over the holidays and I am lucky enough that one of them is a retired cabinetmaker.  He’s been doing most of the work while I’ve had to work or (more recently) been sick.  They are almost completed.  Wall units assembled and hung, base units assembled and installed, drawer boxes assembled, drawer guides installed, and drawers installed.  Next step is to put on the drawer fronts.

Then the really hard part (for me) begins: organization.  I’m terrible at it, especially in my shop.  That’s where Bill will come in.  He has 40 year’s experience in what works and what doesn’t in a woodworking shop, and hopefully can share that wisdom in organizing the space I will have.

We will be closed on Christmas weekend and New Year’s weekend but will respond to voicemail.

This year has continued to be especially difficult for a lot of our clients.  We have been very fortunate in that we are still in business and expect to be in the future years.  Our hearts and prayers go out to those who were not so lucky this past year.

May you all spend Christmas with those you love and find comfort with those you cherish.

Best wishes!

Sincerely,

Ben Conner