I was heading out after 5pm to
replace the mail server for Lord Electric and took along Olaia as my
little assistant. She’s always such good company, so helpful and
charming. This was probably going to be a long boring replacement, as
it involved pulling the server (a 2U unit mounted in a rack), stripping
out the 4 year old parts, and installing the new blazing fast
processor, memory, motherboard, and RAID disks. It sounds simple, but
it never really is. I am continually amazed at how long simple computer
tasks end up taking sometimes. It’s a simple transplant. Install a new
and updated Linux system, and then copy over all the configuration
files.
So here I am, heading out with Olaia. "Daddy, " she says, "People are always more important than flags."
"Huh,
uh," I stammered, glancing out the window and noting what she saw, an
American and a Puerto Rican flag on two flag poles. "Wow, little girl,
you are so wise. Do you know that most people go their whole lives
without realizing that? You are amazing. You know at the age of five
what some people don’t know at 85."
Olaia, grinned in the back seat. "Yeah, Daddy, am I smart?"
"Oh, yes, you are very smart, but more… you’re wise and you care about people. Where did you learn that?"
"I dunno."
"Well,
you’re too much, sweetie. Did you know that people fight over those
flags. Some people think one is better than the other and they try to
fight about which one is bigger, higher, lower, or more important? And
you know what they should know. They shouldn’t fight over flags."
She continued grinning bashfully.
The
server installation did not go as expected (it never does, so I should
have expected it, right?). Olaia stayed with me, coloring, and handing
me tools when I needed them.
Once, she brought me a cup of water from the water cooler. "Here Daddy, I brought you some water because maybe you’re thirsty."
"Oh,
thank you, " I absentmindedly said, engrossed in the guts of the
computer and some board or cable that would not fit where it was
supposed to.
"Daddy, aren’tcha gonna drink your water."
"Huh? Oh, yeah." I had forgotten I was holding it. "Hmmm, thank you Olaia. That was delicious.
Olaia
grinned, wrinkling up her face bashfully. She hung out with me until
Laura came with dinner, a nice Wendy’s triple cheeseburger, my
favorite. I ended up getting to bed around 3am, and as I drove home, I
smiled thinking about my little wise assistant.