a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment
goobster  ·  1772 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: June 12, 2019

Work.

My boss was just fired/laid-off. I'm safe, though.

When the sales department doesn't hit their goals consistently for a couple of quarters, the Executive team leans out the operational costs - AKA, the non-revenue-producing middle-management layer - until the Execs remember how much they hate managing day-to-day operations, and hire a new middle-management layer to do the daily work again.

And the cycle repeats.

Fortunately, my boss was an old friend of mine, and was here long enough to get my role properly compensated, and brought visibility of my myriad contributions to the Executive Team and the denizens of the C-suites. So I'm in a good place. And without a manager. Or really anyone who understands what I do here... everyone just knows that my job is finicky and annoying and should be three people, and I do it happily as one, so they just let me do what I do, and stay out of my way.

Home.

Tomorrow the oil heating system gets replaced in my home with a ductless heat pump system. And Friday. And Saturday. (It's going to be complex.)

I think they are going to have to partially demolish all the work I did in the downstairs with the new reclaimed barn-wood ceiling and walls, because they are going to have to run electrical across the entire house. :-( I'll know more after they show up in the morning, and we talk through Their Plan.

Motorcycle.

I began the tear-down of the old VX800, in preparation for doing the airbox, spark plugs, and compression testing. Turns out someone wants all the plastic I took off the bike, so the $600 motorcycle is down to $300. I might break-even on this thing, even before I begin working on it in earnest!

Rugby.

Going to San Diego for the Seattle Seawolves vs San Diego Legion championship game. We are coming in VERY strong, and they have two key weaknesses that we are set up to exploit. The pundits are thinking that Seattle wins this by a slim margin (2-3 points), but that no matter who wins, it is going to be a great game.

Our mascot - Rucky the Seawolf - has transformed this season from an awkward dude in an ill-fitting suit, to a real character with a fully-developed personality, and the fans have embraced him whole-heartedly. The team can't afford to take Rucky with them, so the fans pooled together yesterday in an epic FB Messenger thread, and bought his airfare, hotel room, and meals, so he can come with us. It's fucking heartwarming. Seriously.

Mid-life Crisis.

It progresses apace, and according to all the predicted models and historical precedence. Except I'm not getting a convertible (already have a car I love and a motorcycle, so that box is checked), and don't want/need a mistress.

But I am absolutely convinced that I am going to finish writing one of the 4 books I have in the works, or finally get down to drawing seriously and refining my technique, or finding a visionary job where I am fully appreciated - and ridiculously well compensated - for pulling together the exact mixture of weird experience and history that will make some company give me a swanky corner office and a secretary and some highly conceptual job that actually doesn't require much work.

Everything is going perfectly to plan. (At least, until it isn't, of course.)