Our tech company uses satellite communications to send and receive messages from tugboats moving barges up and down major rivers. Each day, by 2pm, the tugboats send data on the day's activities to the company's traffic department.
At least that's how it is supposed to work.
"I got a call from our traffic department saying they only received data from about half the boats, and would I check on it?" the technician Don says.
He calls the satellite company, but the satellite technician there says there's no problem on his end.
Meanwhile, the traffic department calls again - they're still not getting messages from the missing boats.
One of the funniest memories I have of the trials and tribulations of making the journey from childhood to adulthood was our annual summer vacation trek from Chicago to a cabin usually someplace on a lake in Wisconsin or Michigan.
In the traffic court of a large Midwestern city, a young woman was brought before the judge to answer for a ticket she received for driving through a red light.