More Work Stuff

 Dear John,

One of the guys who started with me died last month.  He was a super-nice guy.  Always funny but never mean.  I haven't seen him in over 25 years, but it's still pretty sad.

I was talking about connection to my job this morning, and it's just not there any more.  We were laughing about the new Standards put out by the organization built by the feds to standardize our processes.  It's definitely a case of people using big words because they want to sound smart, not because those are the best words to describe a process.  The person who sent the document to me was also delivering burns, as she noted that Google didn't think several of their terms were actual words.  I don't mind change - improvements are always welcome.  Change for the sake of changing is just dumb.

I did figure out a couple reasons why I no longer have connection.  One is because I don't have a backlog any more.  No one has to wait for me to finish stuff - I'm pretty much finishing it the same month it was delivered.  We haven't really had a case go longer than 45 days in a while, without a good reason.  If no one is waiting for me to get stuff done, I have no motivation to work on it.  A second reason is that I don't interact with people any more.  I was downstairs doing that today, and it was fun.  I got to see gross pictures, provide some excellent service, have some laughs.  I'm ready to be done, though.  Less than 2 years, I think.

I had another garage sale this weekend.  10+ Hours of annoyance for $100.  UGH.  Really not worth my time, but someone actually bought the kitchen sink that's been sitting in the garage for over a year.  I also spent a lot of time talking to some young lady who was absolutely obsessed with dolphins - especially Hope and Winter from the Clearwater Aquarium.  I would bet there aren't too many people in her life that listen to her talk about dolphins.  Another lady came by and bought a bag that one of the dogs had chewed on.  She was pretty lively - told me about her entire day's plans as well as the event she wanted the bag for.  It's some sort of Renaissance type event.  It's like a Cinderella ball, but with a fantasy component - dragons and fairies and stuff.  There were a couple of Trumpers who came through.  One didn't buy anything and the other bought something I was happy to get rid of.  

I was trying to sell your impact driver - some dude was trying to tell me that the attachments were worthless because they're American, and everything is metric.  Newsflash, Dude: No one really works on their cars any more, so it doesn't matter if they're metric or not.  Our lawn guy bought your oil filter wrench.  I sold that dumb ladder you took from the neighbor's trash.  Then I packed everything else up and took it to Goodwill.  I still have a lot of your clothes.  And I just found a place where I can send all of your old boxers for re-use or recycling.  It's not like they're stained and dirty, so I hate to just throw them away.  And I will never use that many rags in this lifetime. 

I heard Clocks by Coldplay on the radio this morning.  It always makes me think of you.  I cried.

Love,

A