Uh Oh!

I’ve had sounds that go crunch in the morning, and now I’ve had a sound that I can’t even put into words to describe it in here!

The company we are auditing has all of their documents on microfilm. For the record, this is NOT my favorite medium. I usually have to take a dose of Dramamine in order to read the films and not throw up from the motion sickness and then I am fighting to stay awake to analyze them as the Dramamine just makes me want to sleep. At least this company has a better microfilm reader than most I’ve worked with.

The reels of microfilm come in a little box. I open the box, take the reel of film and insert it into a plastic horseshoe shaped holder. The holder is then slid into the microfilm reader and the reader automatically threads the film into the machine preparing it to be read. There is a keypad on the machine that all I have to do is punch in the appropriate number for the frame of film I want to see and the reader will advance the film to the exact frame I requested. Since most of it is automatic, I don’t have to watch the film roll by, therefore reducing my motion sickness.

Then it happened. I put the reel into the plastic horseshoe shaped holder. I inserted the holder into the machine. The, as the automatic threader took over, I suddenly heard the most horrific sound. Sounded like glass and bone being put through a wood chipping machine. Everyone came running and guess who was sitting in the chair, at the machine, looking guilty! ME! Talk about wanting to crawl under a desk and hide.

We realize we are guests when we are on an audit site. We try to act accordingly. We are respectful of others, and we try not to make a mess or leave anyone’s desk in disarray. Then I go and break the toys.

Luckily for me, (I mean them) there is a service contract on this piece of machinery. Service was called and a few hours later a nice person fixed what was broken and they gave me the word that I can go back to the machine. Are they kidding me? Like I’d risk breaking something twice in one week! Oh heck no.

I will wait until next week to get back on the machine. That way we can have some excitement next week too. Lock up the copy machine and the fax. They could be next.