Category: grumptacular

The Fools!

About a year ago I put in for a new job at work. It would be a promotion. I’d be the boss of myself, which would be fun, but difficult at staff meetings…what with me ordering myself around like a minion and everything.

Yesterday after a long year of *waiting*, I heard from my boss that they “decided to go another way”. Which means, they hired an external candidate.

I was assured “it’s not you, it’s me” and “we can still be friends” and “I just need to see other employees” and other tried and true breakup lines.

I like my current boss, so it’s a bit sad, but really, I’m ok about it.

I think, maybe, Boss Lady might have done me a favor. The expectations around that job role are a little weird. It’s been vacant for like a year and a half. No one really knows what that job is supposed to do anymore. I even asked my Vice-President when he interviewed me what were his expectations. He had no answer. That concerns me. It’s nigh impossible to do a job when you have NO idea what is expected of you.

In addition, one of my employees worked with this incoming person at another company and didn’t have high marks.

Oh well, I’ve suffered fools in this department before.

Like I said…maybe in the end, this is actually for the best.

Next!

Marine Layer

Ya’ll know what that is?

Well, in my laywoman’s terms, it’s that low cloudy layer that creeps in over the Bay Area, not quite fog, not quite clouds. It’s misty, and damp and prevalent.

According to the Wikipedia entry, it’s “an air mass which develops over the surface of a large body of water such as the ocean or large lake in the presence of a temperature inversion.”

Fine. I’ll tell you this. It’s a regular visitor to the Bay Area.

It ruins Fourth of July. All you see are fireworks bursting behind clouds. Sort of a downer.

It interferes with summer baseball. You can actually see a high-flying ball hit the “inversion layer” and drop like a dying quail. Outfielders visiting my SF Giants are often flummoxed by this phenomenon.

It also makes it a bit warmer here, tho. Holding in the heat.

But you wanna know what the marine layer is doing tonight?

It’s blocking my freaking view of the lunar eclipse!!

It’s supposed to be spectacular. I guess it is. Not that I can tell.

: cranky :

You know what bugs me?

Bugs. That’s what bugs me.

Specifically, ants.

Those little teeny tiny black sh-thead ants.

With the torrential rains, they have decided that inside our home is a nice warm place to hang out.

Sonsabitches.

First they were all over the bathroom. In the tub, in the sink, on all the countertops, on the ceiling. : shudder :

So The Good Man (formerly known as The Cute Boy™) went to battle and cleaned up, shoved orange oil in all the corners and got them away from the bathroom.

It was only momentary peace.

This morning they’d formed a marching line in a circle around the kitchen. Across the hallway carpet, to the cat bowl, then under the cabinets where the crumbs go and back to home base.

Gah!

Now, I’m used to having bugs about. I grew up in New Mexico. I remember turning on the garage light and having the whole floor in motion as roaches ran.

And this home I live in now is pretty spidery too. Those are my least favorite of all.

But these ants. Oh! How they make me nutty! The Good Man encourages me to be Zen about them. “They do what they do” and “They are just trying to survive”.

He’s a better man than me, that’s for sure.

Meanwhile, battle continues.

(this photo isn’t from our house, just one I found on the web. It’s pretty much what the INSIDE of our home looks like. GAH!)

They call it stormy Monday…

…but Tuesday’s just as bad.

Or in this case, Monday was a sun soaked cakewalk.

And Tuesday’s a cold, rainy, work crazy, traffic jammed day.

In true proof of the Butterfly Effect, earlier today a BMW cut off a woman in a van, who lost control on rain slick streets, then careened into a tanker truck hauling gasoline causing it to overturn and spilling mass quantities of petrol onto Highway 101.

Thus shutting it down completely.

From the article in SFGate: “‘They don’t want the freeway to blow up under cars driving by,’ said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Paul McCarthy.”

Ah…yeah. That’d be great.

And with this one small act, an impatient driver of a luxury car has jammed up traffic for the entire Bay Area. The drive home on 280 (the “detour”) was really so much fun. Me, my iPod and singing at the top of my lungs. Good times.

…the rest of the song goes….”Wednesday’s worse…and Thursday’s also sad……”

Tis gonna be a long week, methinks.

(with all apologies to T-Bone Walker and his fine blues song)

I wanna be supportive, I really do.

Due to gas costs and the mental toll that commute-time driving extracts from me, I’ve been riding the train a lot recently. Today, for a variety of reasons, I needed to drive, so I took my trusty hoopty out on the road.

And as I cruised along (at, yes, the speed limit) I observed a blue Prius cut me off, then slow down.

As I stifled the curse words and angry gestures (yes, I actually *did* pay attention to that driver’s ed course I took and passed), I wondered to myself, quite bluntly, “Why are Prius people always such crappy drivers?”

I know, broad generalizations are never accurate, but go with me on this, for a minute.

So yes, I live in hola-granola, tree-hugging, skunk-kissing Northern California. Which means there are a lot of fans of that little gas sipping automobile. Fundamentally, I have no problem with the Prius. If the financials could bear it out (meaning the premium they charge for that car more than offsets the cost at the pumps) I might even consider one. I can be environmentally conscious, I really can.

Here in the Bay Area, people who drive hybrid vehicles can get a special sticker that allows them to drive in the car pool lane even if there is only one person in the car. So that has definitely helped boost their popularity.

So there are a lot of little Prisuseseses (what exactly IS the plural of Prius?) on the roads out here. There are a lot of other hybrid and electric vehicles too, but today I’m talkin’ about the Prius people.

I’ve checked in with many friends. Their experience matches my own. Something about the Prius drivers is off. Is it bad visibility? Is it the alternate way they have to drive (coasting to build up a charge)? Is it the kind of person who chooses to own one? I don’t know, but I’ve observed some truly crappy driving behind the wheel of these little wonders.

Like a lot of changing lanes rapidly and slowing down. I’ll attribute that to the coasting, I guess. A lot of not looking or signaling before changing lanes. Is it hard to see in those things? And a lot of driving real slow in the fast lane.

I haven’t observed this as much with other environmental cars, just the Prius.

What’s up with that? I mean, when I read the news report that Al Gore’s kid was popped by CHP doing 100 in his Prius, I thought “well, there’s hope yet!” But perhaps all the drugs had changed his view (…and I can’t support that).

I’m all for assisting the environment by using less fossil fuels (this after reading, with horror, about the “milky rain” in Silver City and the Gila) but damnitall! Let’s keep it safe out there, ok?

Meanwhile, I’m doing my own part by taking the train as often as possible. Good for the environment, good for my sanity.

Thus ends my rant.

Time for my calmness affirmations……”breathe in…..breathe out….”

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