2004-10-27 - 3:00 p.m.
Up for air.
I’m managing thirteen employees by myself. Due to the nefarious machinations of fate, I spend most of my days sitting at my desk, answering questions and re-gruntling the disgruntled. I have maybe two hours to do administrative stuff, tops. Needless to say, I don’t have much time to write diary entries.
“So,” I hear you ask, “why don’t you write an entry at home? Surely you have a computer.”
Yes, I do, and currently it’s doing impressions of boat anchors, paperweights, Zell Miller, and other heavy useless things. A while back, I decided to clear off all the spyware and viruses and defrag the hard drive. Somehow, I managed to nuke Windows Explorer. The system powers up, opens Explorer, performs fatal error seppuku, and restarts. Over and over and over again. I tried reinstalling Windows 98, but that didn’t work. So, until we scrounge up the money to either get it fixed or buy a new computer, we’re sunk. There’s a lot of research on that hard drive that’ll be difficult to replace, but not impossible. (I had hoped to do NaNoWriMo this year, but it doesn’t look good. Oh well; the world will have to wait on my neoNazi Viking serial killer novel.)
It’s gotten cold here again. Fall slipped in almost furtively towards the end of September, rampaged around a bit for a couple weeks, then backed off for a while. Now it’s returned, and turned the leaves glorious red and gold. I almost can’t bear to rake them up. I have to eventually, but for now I’ll leave them to hide my otherwise inglorious lawn.
What can I say about the World Series? Yeah, it’s treasonous for me not to root for the Cards. Can I help it to say that I would not be entirely unpleased if the Sox took it? I mean, come on. 86 years without a championship? It’s high time for somebody else to get the love and the bragging rights. It’d be different if we were facing the Yankees, then you’d see some decidedly rabid partisanship here.
The Professor is almost two now. We’re plotting birthday parties. One for her friends, and one for family. Yes, the two groups are large enough to merit their own distinctive parties. Oy. Gonna be fun. Chili dogs, wings, maybe some pizza, the usual stuff. Then I take a couple days off to recover. J has promised me a day to myself, a day that I can spend at the Art Museum or wandering around U. City or just parked in front of the tube watching samurai flicks. If “Hero” shows up at the second-run theater, I am so there.
After some serious budgetary reviews, J and I have come to a startling conclusion. After deducting the cost of gas, parking, time spent commuting, general aggravation, and unexpected fast-food purchases, J nets around $70 per month from her job. Given that J doesn’t like her job, her employers, or her coworkers all that much, $70 per month is not worth it. So, we’re doing some nipping and tucking so that J can stay home. I stand to make that back through judicious overtime and cost-of-living increases, so it shouldn’t be too painful.
Mom and I have finished our therapy sessions. After two difficult, acrimonious years, we have finally gotten to a point that we can actually enjoy each other’s company. Even better, she and J are getting along very well. Mom watches the Professor for a couple of hours twice a week, we come over and visit every so often, everybody’s happy.
In short, life is good.
