Kevin's Watch

I'm both sympathetic and relieved for you, lorin.

Today was pretty calm at work. All my people were gone. One was traveling, one is out on maternity leave, and the third went on vacation starting today. Of course, it couldn't last. The secretarial manager has dreamed up a project for me, which I guess I get to start on tomorrow afternoon. Ah well.

E-mail conversation today between me and Out of Town Guy, who had asked me to get him some boxes for a bunch of documents he'd piled on the floor of his office:

Me: BTW, I just got done boxing up the stuff on the floor. I put binders and bound materials in one box (it all fit, more or less) and loose papers in another. I didn't organize the papers but I can give it a shot if you want.

OOTG: Oh. Thanks.

Me: I did say I'd do it if you didn't get to it yesterday.

OOTG: Totally missed that. But thanks.

Me: I sort of said it in passing. I could dump everything back on the floor, if you'd rather.

OOTG: Oh no. I really am thankful.

Me: Okay, just so we're clear.

good news - it rained! for about an hour. it seems the cold (relatively) rain cooled the turtles in the river behind the prison down enough that they became way sluggish.

just look at that last (run-on) sentence.

the family of three nutra rats were very active. (dad seems to have moved up river.) while the i/m's were being counted i got to watch the two children playing in the water. dunking each other and whooping it up.

and the blue heron returned as well for some frogging. the two spoonbills have not made a re-up yet.

you have to find something in all walks of your life to make you happy. at work it is my host of river critters. today i fed them cucumbers. and a couple tomatoes.

i am back on the diet. so give encouragement - i had gained some weight back but will be working like hell to get back on track.

guitar lessons today. Julie and i have three days off together this week. housework needs being done. Sonny gets a spa day friday. a wash, medications and his toenails trimmed. he will hate leaving us but will smell better and be scrubby clean.

man i have been chatty here lately. what is up with that?

Efest does that to a person Sarge.

I am tired. Finally done with my nine day work stint. I did manage to have a heart attack today though. I had forgotten to sign off on my timecard for the week I was on vacation, (it's done through the OD corporate system) and when I went to do so I realized that Seth had neglected to add my vacation hours. I am being shorted 25 hours on the check I get on Friday. I lost my mind. I called my district manager and the district HR person and left them both panicked messages. Manny (DM) finally got back to me a few hours later and told me to call another person tomorrow and have her issue me a separate check. Problem solved but it probably won't get to me until monday.

jen : sorry to hear you are strapped for ca$h. i hate it when that happens. nothing makes me angrier at work than when they screw up the ca$hflow. they do realize it is the only reason we put up with them, don't they?

listening to explosions in the sky.

i am having fun with the fable told in palindrome (advertising here) you all know my writing as a poet, so this is a stretch for me. i am trying to make the dialogue unclumsy. and give each character their own voice.

so thank all of you for the inspiration! if it sucks you are to blame.

Damelon wrote:There are a couple of other participants who should be at the meeting who are quite capable of dragging things out with silly questions if given the chance. Hopefully, they don't.

Don't let them. Just be firm...with 30 mins to go, start wrapping it up, and tell them you have to be out at 5 sharp.

--A

I'll take the blame Sarge, I am usually to blame for something...

aliantha wrote:

Me: BTW, I just got done boxing up the stuff on the floor. I put binders and bound materials in one box (it all fit, more or less) and loose papers in another. I didn't organize the papers but I can give it a shot if you want.

OOTG: Oh. Thanks.

Me: I did say I'd do it if you didn't get to it yesterday.

OOTG: Totally missed that. But thanks.

Me: I sort of said it in passing. I could dump everything back on the floor, if you'd rather.

OOTG: Oh no. I really am thankful.

Me: Okay, just so we're clear.

Cameraman Jenn wrote:I'll take the blame Sarge, I am usually to blame for something...

good to go then. it would seem though that you are my muse for this adventure. you and Lore.

Thanks Sgt. You rock.

I meant to sleep in until noon but apparently PG&E had to do some work on the meters in the apartment building and rang the bell about an hour ago. I meant to try to get back to sleep but no such luck. Now my day is kinda thrown off.

Just after I posted that I decided to try sleep again and succeeded until some delivery guy came with a package for Bloodguard Bob. He rang the doorbell incessantly causing Moose to go into a frenzy. He also woke me up so I wasn't thinking and I closed the door to the apartment to go down the entryway stairs and succeeded in locking myself out. No shoes, pajama pants etc. I went through the basement way out back and I had locked the back door before going back for my nap. Luckily I left my smokes out there on the back porch. I tried to break in the door for a bit. Sat for about half an hour being pissed off and chain smoking then tried the bathroom window screen and managed to get the screen off without damaging it or the window, shimmy in the window and get back inside.

So much for having a peaceful day off. By the way, who rings a door buzzer like, ring ring rrrriiinnnngggg ring ring ring rrrriiiiiinnnnngggggg ring ring ring rrrrriiiiinnnnngggggg and keeps doing that until the person comes to the fracking door?

Cameraman Jenn wrote:By the way, who rings a door buzzer like, ring ring rrrriiinnnngggg ring ring ring rrrriiiiiinnnnngggggg ring ring ring rrrrriiiiinnnnngggggg and keeps doing that until the person comes to the fracking door?

The cops?

Sorry, Jenn. It really, really, really sucks to get up early when you don't have to. I am mad at the delivery guy, too.

Not my most stellar morning...

Fun with hotel reservations day today. I was going through some bills today and found copy of my bill from the hotel in Albuquerque. I'm a part of the hotel's points program, since I use that chain when I'm out of town for work. I'd been wondering why the points from Albuquerque hadn't shown up yet. Looking at the bill I found the answer. They had my name all right. Except they somehow had my home address in Texas. Three people to straighten that out.

Last night, I had tried to make a reservation online for a room in Milwaukee. Different hotel chain, but close to where we are going. In any case, the website went down after I submitted the information. So I called their 800 number and made a reservation over the phone. Today, I'm looking at the email confirmation and it shows that I have a reservation for 2 rooms. So I called the 800 number after I got home and gave them the confirmation number. The woman said I had a reservation for 1 room. I thanked her got off the phone and looked at the confirmation numbers. There were two different ones. Turns out that there were two reservations on file for me, one for 1 room and one for 2 rooms, the second from the one that I'd tried to make online last night. So if I hadn't caught it, I would have shown up there next week having paid for 3 rooms.

Jenn, sorry about your day off

Damelon, I'm glad you caught the error before you arrived!

Go everyone! Beat back that encroaching world!

Damelon -- mistake #1 was probably due to human error. It's likely they have some Texan with your name in their system. I've run into that a couple of times when calling a hotel for a duplicate bill for my attorneys so I could do their expense vouchers. "Is it the Jane Doe in Chicago?" "No ma'am, my Jane Doe is in Washington, DC."

Mistake #2, however, is magnificent, and reminds me of that old one-liner: "To err is human -- but to really screw things up, you need a computer."

jenn - luckily you weren't arrested for breaking into your own house. of course some hawt guy neighbor should have seen you were in distress and rode his white horse in to save you.

damelon - maybe they meant to send your points to me , here in texas? it reminds me of my only hotel management i ever did. when i worked at the NH Highway Hotel (in the kitchen) i was called to the front desk one night. they had a customer who was angry at a scheduling conflict. i asked why they had called me - seems that for that night only i was the highest on the managing depth chart! no one else was around and they could reach no one by phone. so as maybe fifth in line for the kitchen head job, i was nominated. i gave the guy one free night, he had to pay for the other nights. no one ever complained about the decision i made - so i guess it was ok.

saw green lantern today - enjoyed it. took grandson. first guitar lesson went well. adding chapter to story in a minute...

This, my friends, is my 10,000th post. I will be accepting congratulations in the proper forum....

aliantha wrote:This, my friends, is my 10,000th post. I will be accepting congratulations in the proper forum....

unfortunate that i am king of the off topic. so congrats here and congrats there. (even though you never got on the comic book board. )