Excuse me
Today was a pretty decent day. The sun's out and it's in the high 60's which is pretty decent for February. Work went along just fine - no major issues. Attended a customer meeting for Hewlett Packard with my rear intact afterwards (they can be extremely confrontational, sometimes). But the day wouldn't be complete without
some form of insanity. Here's today's peek into the asylum:
When I got back out on the floor, my Lead (assistant) hands me two "Personal Time Off" request forms from two techs, from the day before. It seems they (boyfriend and girlfriend) decided that it would be a good idea to come in for an hour and just leave to go home. Mind you, these are two of my best techs. But to top it off, they had the nerve to submit time off forms for my approval. Needless to say, I wrote "not approved" on both of them. So today the male tech comes over to my desk and asks me why I didn't approve the time off. I told him that coming into work and then running off with your girlfriend is not an acceptable business practice and violates our "48 hour" rule for requesting time off. His reply - "I had to go home because I drank too much was hung over from the night before"!
I just looked at him.
So, I asked him, are you telling me that you and your girlfriend needed to leave the job, after one hour, because you were
hung over?
That's your excuse??
"Yup".
I didn't write him up (or her, for that matter). I figured it would make me look too cruel to be writing someone up while I was laughing...
Happy Birthday, Dad
Today's is my Dad's birthday. He would have been 97. But since he passed away, last April, this is pretty much the only way I'll get to wish him happy birthday. So that's what I'm doing. His was a remarkable life. He served in two wars - going into the military as a private and retiring as a major. (As a dad, he never wanted me to call him "sir" - just "dad"). He then started another career with the City of New York's Dept of Hospitals. He began as an ambulance driver and retired as Chief of Transportation for New York City's Dept. of Hospitals (the highest civil service position in that sector without being elected Commissioner). Somewhere, in there, I was born. Somehow he found time to do everything that a dad should do. Even going so far as to be an Assistant Scoutmaster for my Boy Scout troop. I remember him going to summer camp with me and getting our troop camp site "into shape". He even taught us how to march. Most of the other scouts thought this was pretty humorous and a bit too "military". But that summer, we were given the award of "Best Camp Site" in a Jewish Boy Scout camp where they only served Kosher food. We were the only non-Jewish troop there, made up of mostly African-American scouts from St. Clement's Catholic school. Me - I just mostly get by. I haven't achieved all that much. Oh yeah, there've been a few bright spots in my life and I'm grateful to be where I am. But nothing like Henry Charles Brennan Sr.
Happy Birthday, Dad...
The Rambling Man
well, I just returned from my self-imposed "vacation" from everything but the necessary. It's strange, but I actually feel like I took a nice trip somewhere peaceful and I guess, in essence, I actually did. No obligations other than just family and work. No "extras". I didn't watch any movies - Just "24" with the wife. I found it pretty intense and absorbing - but seriously. I'm supposed to believe all
that took place in "real time". Are you kidding me? Here's Jack chasing down some terrorists. Now, here's Jack in an airplane crash. Now he's removing a piece of metal from his leg and running from some gunmen. Criminey! I can't even get on a plane in an hour. What about bathroom breaks? How about some treatment for that leg? I know what he was thinking - "PLEASE don't let me hit rush hour traffic! I only have an HOUR, here!" Good show, though. Well, back to work. My assistant on 2nd shift is off the next 3 days for his birthday. That means I get to come in at 11 a.m. to check on 1st shift, then stay until 2nd shift ends at 12:30 a.m. the next morning! Good times. I'll have to make up for it by scheduling some vaction time in March. More on that, later.
Out of Town
I'm out of town this week. I'll be back on Tuesday 2/21. See you then...
If you can't stand the heat...
Well, here it is, a few days later and I finally get a minute to update my blog. It’s been amazingly cold for the past few days and that is always a cause for concern. My heating bills have more than doubled with the price of gas skyrocketing. Just this last month, my utilities (gas, water and electricity) came out to over $500. That’s almost half my mortgage! It’s ridiculous. My family has a membership to the YMCA, where they exercise daily and take their showers plus we keep the house temperature just above arctic level and still the utility bills are that high. Anyway, I guess I should just be grateful I can afford to pay them. I feel sorry for those who can’t take the hit.
I watched a couple of films, this weekend. “
Corpse Bride” was excellent. A great family movie with a lot of style, fantastic visuals and some pretty slick humor. I highly recommend it. The other one was “
Grizzly Man” which really should have entitled “Moron Man”. Give me a break. It isn’t so much that the guy was a whack job that somehow managed to avoid being eaten for 13 years. It’s the tree-hugging leftist whackos that encouraged his insanity. C’mon, now. These are
dangerous animals. They are not and never will be “people”. Their brains are wired completely differently. As my wife put it, “The bear that got them wasn’t thinking about anything but his next meal.” The real tragedy was that this nutcase managed to get his girlfriend killed in the process. That wasn’t a spoiler, by the way. This is a documentary and everyone knows the outcome. It was nice, although, to see
Werner Herzog demonstrating his filmmaking talent. Worth a look.
Another rainy day in February
Well, it seems that I’ve been out of touch, for awhile. Quite natural, actually. Now that I’m a Senior Supervisor running two shifts, it’s amazing how time can get away from me. The next thing you know, several days have gone by without me taking the time to do some of things I
enjoy rather than just meeting obligations. This, of course, includes writing and watching films. I better get back with the program, though. Otherwise my Netflix money is being wasted.
There will be a review sponsored by yours truly on
Jabootu.com coming up, this month. It’s kind of strange seeing my name in BIG LETTERS on a site that I visit just about everyday. But Ken’s site is definitely worth supporting as it has provided me with many hours of entertainment over the years.
Nothing all that much new on the home front. Ms. Cocoa, the Shih Tzu princess, is getting big and continuously torments McGhee (the little poodle man). The day, itself is rainy and gives rise to reflection on some of the things that have occurred in my life. This month marks three years with my company. It also is the first February that I won’t be sending my Dad a birthday card. Funny, how some things can strike you simultaneously. Like a song that suddenly transports you to your childhood. I really should write more. It feels like I’ve temporarily forgotten how much I enjoy it. Or maybe it’s more like I’ve temporarily forgotten how much I
need it. Can you tell it’s raining out? It appears that my writing is weather sensitive.
