Saturday, June 27, 2020

Serving with Humans

I'm packing up this morning to go cat/house sitting for seven weeks.
Even though I'll just be staying across town, I feel like I'm going on vacation!

The big house  in a quiet neighborhood has central air-conditioning and a shady front porch--I cat-sat there last summer too.
It's like staying in a nice airBNB except you have to care for two cats. Very nice cats; I like them, and  luckily it's no trouble to give them their medications.

It's farther to bike to work, but I can use the exercise. Last summer I took the bus, but I'm trying to stay off public transit, for health reasons. 

I'm going to work on--and I hope finish--my film/photo-montage , Undaunted: Penny Cooper in the Blitz.  I've packed most of the Red Hair Girlettes. A few want to stay home with the bears, to hold down the fort.

I'm extra happy to have a personal project to occupy myself.
Work was almost beyond belief this week. I won't go into the details--they were piffling. 

But the emotions they called forth went ricocheting like bullets around the store.

Is everyone losing their minds?
I'd have to say, yes. Me too, a bit.


I would be floundering if I were a store manager trying to repair and refresh a broken store that wasn't in good shape to begin with. But I know myself well enough to have refused a "promotion" to manager.

[deleted rant about a coworker]

At the end of a hard day, I thought about looking for another job.
Maybe I will. I really should earn more money before I get too old!


I came to my senses though. I'm not going to quit my job over this coworker, who is nothing to me, personally.


I quoted the logical Mr Spock to a coworker:
"May I say that I have not thoroughly enjoyed serving with humans?"


I'm one too, of course.
____________________________________

* Along these lines:


5 comments:

  1. So...you are working for trump now??

    Your cat sitting adventure wounds like good medicine, glad you are taking the girls along and leaving some to keep the bears company. Even keeled.

    I am a little bit jealous of your cat sitting - it sounds like something I need at the moment- someone else's pets, in their house, mini vaca

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  2. Enjoy the cat sitting..they will look after you xx

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  3. I think everyone IS losing their minds.

    "Obey" isn't really a word we want to hear in a workplace setting, is it? It doesn't connote much buy-in from employees or collegial empathy from managers!

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  4. You Tube, wall hung TV, no cable, Roku, internet only. I happened upon a documentary about Star Trek created by Rod Roddenberry Jr., Gene Roddenberry's son. Delightful. Putting together the pieces of his late father's life, and that series which took the world head on through the power of hope. So much we could fix about this planet, we could you know, we could...but maybe not.
    My niece, maybe late 4s or perhaps all of 5 years old. “OK, we'll play Star Trek. You, (points to her brother), will play Spock, and you, (points to her mother), can be Uhura, I'll play captain Kirk, and you, (points to me), will be the captain's log.”
    Captain's log, Star Date 2020, planet earth. Wise folks finally finish fixing all problems, everything is knee deep in clover, love is all around. Earth ends, no reason to be anymore.
    :)

    I love your blog and your work. Your real work has little to do with selling books in a SVDP.

    Tom

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  5. LINDA SUE: I'm sorry to say yes, it does feel like I'm working for a Trump Mini-Me.

    Definitely a mini-vacation will be super welcome!!!

    GZ: After all the human drama, the cats will be so wonderful!

    STEVE: Obey "doesn't connote much buy-in from employees or collegial empathy from managers!"
    Yes! THAT'S IT exactly.
    If you have to force people to obey you, your management is broken.

    TOM, aka "Captain's Log" (that's hilarious):
    Well, there ya go---flattery works!
    No, but thank you, seriously, for your kind and helpful words:
    "Your real work has little to do with selling books in a SVDP."

    It helps to try to get perspective on the store--as if I were up above and away like a bird--or, ten years down the road, looking back.

    Star Trek has meant a lot to me---first in my miserable high school (1970s), and then again thirty years later after my mother's death.
    Might be time to rewatch it again...

    Knee deep in clover. Sign me up!

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