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Thursday,
March 7, 2002
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a globe collection, from an office long ago...
"Don't be too timid and squeamish
about your actions. All life is an experiment."
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meeting madness When I get up, the dog wants to go out. But she stands on the porch, alert and sniffing, looking toward the narrow retreat between the two parts of the house where last night there was a possum that might have snarled at her. She won't leave the porch. I'm in my underwear. I let her back in and go put on my robe and some loafers and go out with her. She's happy to go out with me to protect her from critters. After I'm dressed and FFP is back from the club, we investigate. The critters have found a way to get under the foundation flashing and under the house. Or so it appears. Building a nest methinks. With leaves and dryer lint. Sigh. Possums are so like giant rats. Ugh. My pal in SA notes that the rest of the world says opossum. I suppose that's true. Sounds stilted when said here. Usage note compares it to saying tater for potato and skeeter for mosquito. Those sound like the language of hicks. Isn't language fascinating?
There are meetings. I wasn't invited but I either insinuated myself into them or got invited by invitees. And one of the attendees is someone in a new position with some power who has been trashing me behind my back, I'm pretty sure. My goal is to remain above the fray, to express the competence and disinterest and confidence that will be necessary to control the situation. Yeah, right. But that's what I do. And this guy doesn't work in public so there aren't fireworks. After the meeting, though, I seem to have a 'to do.' But I already was doing it. On another front, I take a break from the other things I should be doing to think about how customers might accomplish a certain task. I am often frustrated that I can't get other people to write up such things. I have one paper from one of the team members that articulates some of the issues pretty well, to be fair. Also, most of the people are so involved in day-to-day issues (bugs, customer complaints) that they can't lift their heads for such things. (A new boss I'm still feeling out talks about 'last customer syndrome' and on this I agree with him. Of courese, about something else he says, "That's going to stop." and I cringe.) And, I should have written this paper long ago. Yeah, I'm often frustrated with the competence, energy and use of time I see around me. And that includes me. One problem is that the body corporate erects obstacles to clear thinking. So yeah some thinking and a bunch of meeting and feeling out a new boss and other new people in the power quadrant. Some I already know. Hey ho. I'm still keeping the jury sequestered on the new boss. Time will tell.
Another day that doesn't require me to go somewhere in the evening. There is something wrong when you look at blank days on the calendar with longing and anticipation. However, after the last meeting, FFP calls and wants to have dinner at the club. The bar room is pretty empty when we arrive...we know the one other couple so we join them. We talk about a project they are building in our neighborhood and food and wine because she is involved with the Wine and Food festival. We have a nice meal and some wine and FFP suggests we go to the Four Seaons. I'm up for it. We listen to Rebecca, meet a young man named Luis and a judge from Beaumont who are Rebecca's fans. I overhear snippets of a conversation from the next table where a twenty-something young man and an older couple (apparently family friends) sit. "Argentina, they have no money, you can go down there with $100 and live like a king." "Phillip had this lamb, the best one in the county." The young man has an authentic Texas accent, cast subtly on a young voice. The older couple is tired and worn. Their meeting is typical of others I've seen where a young person, most likely a UT student, and an older couple, in town from east or west Texas and 'friends of the family' meet for a drink. Where they come from, they are upper class families. The Four Seasons bar is a natural place to meet.
My habits are changing. I'm not as interested as I once was in reading other people's journals. About the only one I read pretty thoroughly is Journal of a Writing Man. I do glance through Bunt Sign, too, and take Michael's advice there and link to entries on other sites. OK, eventually I probably read every word he writes. These guys lead quiet, some might say boring, lives. But they are never boring. I think the dulling of my interest in other people's journals is because I'm currently bursting with ideas for 'projects' of my own. I want to be creating words on a page myself, I guess. Or other allegedly artistic things. My mind has been bursting with ideas lately and I've also been keen to see art, read about art, watch performances, listen to music. Mostly I've wanted to make something totally artistic and useless. The fact that I'm really not much of an artist nonwithstanding. So perhaps today's title has more than one meaning. Yes, perhaps so.
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180
JUST
TYPING