Posted by It rained like crazy last night and turned colder. As I’m walking down to pick up the Sunday paper, I’m noticing earthworms all over the driveway. Some are moving, others are not but you can’t tell if they are dead. Not really wanting to squish any because I generally don’t have any issues with worms so I was trying to step from free space to free space.
It made me a little sad which might be a bit silly. After all, worms are pretty low on the life scale. Although they clearly have survival instincts since the ground gets wet and they get the heck out of town. Probably have no concept of asphalt other than being something they can’t dig into. I suspect some of them ended up as meals for the robins that leave around the house – pretty easy pickings. Yes, these are the things I think about from time to time.
Because it was cold and wet, there was no reason to try to go to the outdoor places to look at spring flowers. Hoping next weekend is better. To kill some time, we went to a mall. My wife found a shirt that I think she said was originally $70 that she got for $10. I’m guessing it was no longer in season but it seems like she’s able to find these type of close out deals better than I can.
When she was in one of the stores, another lady started asking her for fashion advice. Guess she had a high school reunion coming up and must have been a little nervous about what to wear. My wife seemed a bit confused why someone would ask her for fashion advice when she was in her “casual” clothes. I was going to tell her that there are some people who just look put together even in jeans and a sweatshirt and she’s got that going on. Some of us never look good no matter what we have on but others just always pick the right combinations. It would have been a much more interesting story if someone had asked me but my afternoon was quiet so I thought I’d share her encounter.
Had a couple of things at work last week. On Thursday, we had a meeting with our payroll and benefits people to discuss the timing of our last checks and to answer questions about benefits. Except that the people who were doing this really didn’t have a lot of answers and kept pointing to the various companies that provide things and telling us that we really needed to talk to them. There were a few nuggets of information but it mostly felt like something they were doing to check a box to say that they had done what they could for those of us on the out list.
It did give me an opportunity to see the team again – it was the first time we were all in one place since the breakfast the day after. But there was quite a bit of bitterness in the room as the presentations were going on. Not from my team but from some of the others. At one point, someone IMed me about the energy in the room and I had to agree. To be fair, it isn’t easy being told you aren’t wanted but these people had nothing to do with that decision and really didn’t deserve some of the nasty tones to questions.
Tomorrow I have to bring my car in. This is the first vehicle I’ve had that I’ve taken beyond 100,000 miles. It is due for normal maintenance plus there are a few other things that need to be taken care of. Kind of like people – you get old and things wear out and break down. But I don’t have to worry about how I’m getting to work so I plan to just bring my Nook and spend some quality time with an e-book.
I do have some adult things I have to do. After the benefits meeting, I have to set up a meeting with our financial planner and the place that holds our 401k so they can talk about what we do next. I did get an email from someone from the outplacement firm and I have to at least touch base at some point. But probably not tomorrow. There’s plenty of time.
Well that’s all I’ve got for now. Just some random observations.
Facing Diagonal Wall 