From chaos to calm in five days

My trip to Salt Lake City was one I won’t forget. Breathtaking scenery, great food, and family time were among my favorite parts of the five-day excursion west.

Leaving work behind was definitely the hardest. I knew it would be a challenge, and so I made lists and meticulously tied up loose ends before we hit the road.

I left the keys in my vehicle in the garage, just in case the newspapers didn’t make it to Carrington on Friday and needed to be picked up in Jamestown or Fargo (as has been the case many times this winter). I finished paperwork and paid bills, and I checked my packing list twice (so I wouldn’t forget my laptop charging cord or camera battery).

Out of all the things I planned and prepared for that could possibly happen while I was away, I could never have predicted what did.

I had worked much of the entire trip to Utah, writing a last minute article, doing layout and conducting the final edits of all the pages for both newspapers before they went to press. After the last pages went to the printer on Thursday, I logged off and decided to be fully present with my family and the team. The only “work” I needed to do was take photos and document all the activity. Not a bad gig!

I woke up Friday morning to a text message from Kyrie in New Rockford. The server that holds data for both newspapers, as well as many of the printing and specialty projects we produce, went down due to a power outage that morning. I told her to contact Scott Wiest, our local technology expert, and went back to sleep.

Early that afternoon, just two hours before the NR-S middle school archery team was set to shoot its 3D flight, I found out that there was an ongoing issue affecting our server that would take time to resolve.

Thank goodness it was a Friday, as both papers had already gone to press. It still halted progress for staff in one office, though, as their projects were inaccessible for a while.

Since I was a thousand miles away, there wasn’t really anything I could do. I vented to a friend (thanks, Chelsea, for listening!) and then decided not to let it ruin my weekend. Instead, I got behind that camera and “focused” on the archers, the job I was there to do.

I’m incredibly grateful to Scott, who did everything in his power to get us back up and running. I was just outside the range, capturing archers in their element when I got the call that all was well (and double daily backups of all our data were underway). If you’re ever in need of technology services, I encourage you to give him a call.

If that wasn’t enough excitement for one weekend, the staff in Carrington discovered something else while I was out.

Readers of the Independent may recall seeing a notice from us a few weeks ago that our email account had been hacked on Easter Sunday. Three weeks later, staff expressed concern that they weren’t receiving replies from people who typically respond.

Leasa made a call to the Dakota Central helpdesk, and Laura Kulsrud went to work to identify what might be happening. She found that our helpful hacker had set up an auto reply, so all the replies our advertisers and readers were sending went to an email address of his choice, not to us! So, if you replied to an email from the Independent anytime in April, it’s likely we never received your reply.

Laura cleared the auto reply “rule”, and the issue was addressed while I was far from home.

This illustrates the importance of local services, and we sure have some of the best here in our community. It was also a strong reminder to not take for granted the resources we have right here at home. The day we “forget” and do business elsewhere is the day before that service or business goes away.

I’m also grateful for the staff who kept the lights on for me. They spent extra time preparing the newspaper to go online when some of the files they needed weren’t available, had to work extra hard to catch up once the server went back online, and recognized the email issue and saw it through to a resolution. In a time when people regularly come and go from our offices and our lives, it’s encouraging to know that the team I work alongside everyday is engaged. I could not ask for more.

Kudos to the folks working to get the Carrington baseball and softball diamonds ready for play. They pumped 20,000 gallons of water off the baseball diamond on Monday, and spent hours digging in new bases and dragging the infield. It was so nice to see the green grass and fresh agrilime after so many months of nothing but snow.

It’s mostly sunny and 72 degrees as I write this, and Cinco de Mayo is still two days away! I can’t wait to finish the paper so I can get home and spend some time on the patio. Maybe my husband will grill supper tonight…now that would be great local service!