Several times we simply opted out of the crowds by picking a bench and sipping a lemonade until we felt up to facing them again. So many things we might have eaten or done but for the long lines everywhere. This wasn’t our year.

Today’s trip the the Minnesota State Fair was a challenge through and through. No surface lots had room at the fairgrounds, and it wasn’t until the 4th park-and-ride lot that we could actually park-and-ride. Lines everywhere were the worst I have ever seen. Moving in the Fairgrounds was difficult.

Today I learned, via my work MacBook Pro, that having your clock set to update automatically will override settings preferences for 12-hour or 24-hour time displayed on the menu bar. I started having “Ava” announce the time again, and prefer the audible updates differently than I had initially chosen.

I’m not grumpy all of the time, I promise. I’m just looking at yet another change in collaboration technology that is going to find its way into a company still spending a lot of energy maintaining SMB filers and with people synchronizing sharepoint folders to File Explorer.

Asking for real: What is Microsoft Loop? Why is Microsoft pushing this separate workspace inside of Teams? Why does Loop immediately want me to create and name a workspace when I don’t know why I would even use it?

Fourth support scenario: Your organization’s most senior leader publicly denigrates technology you support on behalf of the organization, but specifically praises members of your team

Third support scenario: An important leader in your department is having issues performing tasks that _should_​ work on the face of it. You can demonstrate to your supervisor that it does work and via multiple avenues. Important leader is on a conference call and you must wait for more details.

Second support scenario: Simple software request reveals deeper and deeper issues caused by security policy changes since the workstation was purchased, in addition to lack of access to critical passwords. More than an hour passes of attempts to work around limits. No success.

One support scenario: Executive Assistant notifies you about someone else having a problem. You must wait for that person, and you spend that time thinking about possible causes and resolutions. When you finally get time with that person, the thing that wasn’t working works flawlessly now.

Tonight’s listening included In Through The Out Door and Meddle.