2nd day back at work after 2 sick days ...

The Navy Yard Metro Station is probably not the most germ-free of places.

0159

... the opening scene from 'Apocalypse Now' comes to mind.

I probably should have canx'ed these last 2 days and stayed home in bed.  I got some work done yesterday that needed doin' but still -- the needs of the few may have outweighed the needs of the many despite Mr. Roddenberry's words from so long ago.  The current job, like those of so many others, is one of those deals where, the longer I'm not there, the suckier it is when I go back.  So any vacation taken is only pleasant for half of its total length because halfway in:  you're wrapping it up.  

So I went back.

Plus, it would have been a really crappy thing to do to take whatever infectious germies I had in to work and possibly bring down the other two folks I labor with ... they're nice people and don't deserve it.  Neither of them read this blog, so I can say nice things about them and they'll never know.

As of yesterday morning, the weather people (they call them 'The Capitol Weather Gang' here) are already warning everyone who still pays attention to them of some possible snow-action over the weekend -- or maybe not.  Maybe a Snowpocalypse -- or maybe not.  I don't think it's ever been called accurately here for the past 2.5'ish years we've been here.

And, whether we are treated to a big snowstorm this weekend or not:  it's Friday.  The weekend is here.  Since we arrived here in September of 2016, this has taken on the significance it once had like in the 1981 song.  While I am fortunate to now work a schedule that involves 'every other Friday off,' it's interesting to me to remember how I used to work a 10+ hours/day, 7-day week pretty much all year and *like* it.  I am lucky to have enjoyed a job like that for as long as I did.  

"Everybody's workin' for the weekend."  - Loverboy

JM(M)

... still sick ...

Second and, hopefully, last day of being sick ...

JM(M)

I can't believe I'm saying this, but ...

The media seems to have been getting it right. 

The 'two sides' are at a flat-out, nyeh-nyeh-I'm-not-listening-to-you-I'm-right-you're-wrong-I'm-big-you're-small impasse.  They. Just. Don't. Want. To. Give. In. 

Period. 

C'mon, government people, do something.  Something.  Maybe like Thomas Dewey did in his 1948 presidential campaign (against Truman), 'take the high road?'  Well .. then again, he did lose that election, no matter what the media thought was going to happen (and printed before it happened):

I didn't hear anybody say anything I haven't already heard for the past few weeks since the partial government shutdown began.  This is extra annoying to me because I got up from a cold-and-flu-medicine-induced sleep to watch these two 'speeches' that I hope my tax dollars didn't pay for. 

And I'm sick.  No.  Really sick.  That's why I'm taking this cold-and-flu stuff.

And I still set my alarm(s) up to watch the disappointment.

So there's that.

For historical purposes (in case anyone actually reads this in the future after most people have forgotten about this whole wall-thing), there was a mention by POTUS of a 45-minute meeting tomorrow.  I guess we'll have to stay tuned and see if anything comes out of that.

NOTE:

While I try not to discuss my political leanings via this medium, I am strongly reminded of the words of Rodney King:

Or The President ... or Jack Nicholson or whoever said it ...

JM(M)

Oops ... *now* what do I do?

I'll be okay if I go out of my way to call her "ma'am" even 

if I see her at the other end of the block or something, right?

What bothers you?

Bill Murray, Actor and Urban Legend

Stuff that bothers me ...

1. The year goes too fast. 
   It's almost like the Bill Murray movie "Groundhog Day." 
   Wasn't it just this time, last year?  Two years ago, even?  It's a blur.
   
   
2. Commercials.  Period. 
   I know why they're there, but there's gotta be a better way.
   
   
3. People who drive in the left lane until too late to get off at their exit without causing a traffic slowdown for miles behind them. 
   Some people just make a mistake, I get that. 
   But those with no regard for those behind them bother me.  Tailgaters fit in here, too.
   
   
4. Chinese fountain pen prices are going up astronomically.  $1 a year or so ago, $3 now!?
   
   
5. Reading about and listening to a politically polarized nation and not knowing if there's any difference between 2019 and 1969.  (Look here:  Headlines from 1969)
   
   
6. People who take too long to answer their e-mails.
   
   
7. People who hardly use e-mail anymore because, in their personal and work-life, they are able to communicate with everyone in their life via text messages or some other texting application on their smartphone.
   
   
8. People who don't use e-mail. At all.
   
   
9. People who lie.  If you slept late, just say so.  If you don't like something, just say so.
   
   
10. The time it takes for new seasons to be completed and released on Netflix. 
    I have a rule:  a program has to have been running for at least two seasons with a fourth on the way before we'll start watching Season 1, Episode 1.
    I might expand that to 3.
    
    
11. People in charge of stuff who clearly shouldn't be in charge of said stuff.
    
    
12. The meager salaries paid to elementary and secondary school teachers.  Our teachers are a back-up to failed parenting. 
    The limitations placed upon them over the past 20 years or so is the cause of many of the problems in our country. 
    Maybe not some of the bigger ones, but maybe those problems, too.
    
    
13. The fact that I'm not able to add to this list of what really bothers me in the words I really want to use because I'm not yet at a point in my life and career where I'm willing to accept the possibility that I'll have to meet and deal with someone with whom I'd rather not meet nor deal.  But there are some sissy-ways around that.

I recently watched a Netflix documentary about the actor Bill Murray.  It explores the urban legends about the actor 'showing up randomly' in various places around the country and, in a very low key manner, engaging with the public and always brightening up the lives of those with whom he shares his time. 

In that documentary, the filmmaker points out a recurring improvisation theme in many of Mr. Murray's movies (he is famous for improvising lines in his movies) - which seem to parallel his personal philosophy.  It is one that I would like to embrace more fully:

"It just doesn't matter."  -- Bill Murray

JM(M)