Category: kerfuffle

Mother Teresa of the Flu Virus

As one of the many hats I wear in my new gig, I manage a help desk. Ok, I don’t manage it, I have an incredibly good young manager who manages that team. She’s new at the role, but thoughtful and smart.

Today is starting out tough for her because we’re getting a series of folks calling in sick. This also includes my own manager, the Director of us all. *coff, coff, sniffle, sniffle*

Not good.

So I was chatting with my help desk manager today about our situation and how we get through it. While talking, she pulled a box out from under her desk and handed me the following things:

She is now going desk to desk, ministering to the sick and wounded, laying on hands and providing the same kit to each of our call agents.

See, it’s our fiscal year end, and we really need these folks on the phones, doing their jobs.

And with an arsenal of flu fighting products, there shall be no excuses!

I think this new, young manager is one smart cookie. I better keep an eye on her, I think she’ll be running circles around me in no time.

How lucky I am to have good folks on my team!

Rumor has it

So. Word on the street is that today is December.

But I’m not buyin’ it.

Because I’m fairly certain I did NOT authorize 2008 to dissipate so quickly.

Nope. No way. No how. I don’t care that people are Christmas shopping. I don’t care that decorations are cropping up. Nope.

Nuh uh.

Not gonna do it.

Oh, and *someone* must have told the Bay Area that it’s December today because it went and got all overcast and foggy and crappy and, well, wintry.

I’m telling you, if we all band together against this thing, it doesn’t HAVE to be December. Roll back the calendar, get the sun out of storage and let’s go on about our lives circa, I don’t know, June?

How does June work for you? Do I hear a July? Going once, going twice…

Please stand by…I’m going to go see about fixing this.

Did you know?

That the word “maverick” was originally coined to apply to cattle that didn’t have a brand? Meaning they technically didn’t belong to anyone.

Is the heavy campaign usage a mis-application of the word? Oh I think so. Oh yes I very much do.

So does Terrellita Maverick. See, her ancestor, Samuel Augustus Maverick was a guy who “…was more interested in keeping track of the land he owned than the livestock on it…unbranded cattle, then, were called ‘Maverick’s.'”

Ms. Maverick isn’t buying it when John McCain uses the word to describe himself.

“‘He’s a Republican,’ she said. ‘He’s branded.'”

Next time McCain or Palin uses that word. Remember: cow.

Moo!

Source

Image “Boo Moo” by Nick Piliero

Notes:

1. The good news is the word maverick didn’t crop up in last night’s debate.

2. One might think after the last two posts that I am an Obama supporter. I’m not. Call me undecided. A lot. And call me disappointed. As in where can I park a protest vote?

3. Political posts two days in a row. TGM might faint!

How is *your* Monday shaping up?

Mine? Well let’s see.

The Dodgers advanced to the NLCS (round two of the playoffs). Brutal.

Woke up today to the news that the global markets are a mess. Again.

My own company’s stock took another major dive.

Our intracompany HR system laid an egg, and I cannot deliver performance reviews today (It would have been a little good news to my weary and battered team).

And my socially, environmentally and economically conscious mode of transportation failed me today. Early this morning CalTrain danced with a semi truck. Minor injuries only and it happened far away from me. But that meant as I arrived at the station this morning, I got the news, “trains delayed indefinitely”.

*sigh* Not an auspicious start to the week.

Guess “someone has a case of the Mondays!“

Strange days indeed…

Most peculiar, Mama*

If you, like me, sometimes struggle with change…well, then this is NOT our year.

I mean. Let’s start with the election. Both an African American Man and a woman on the main stage. Whoa Nellie!

The economy. Jeebus, I need a seatbelt to stay on this crazy ride!

There’s even a new profession I only just heard of in an article about this economy. A “neuroeconomist”, who studies the biology of economic behavior. Some guy from Emory University is saying we’re all acting like a bunch of scared sheep.

Not sure I disagree.

Several friends have been laid off from jobs and have had a lot of trouble finding a new gig.

Fannie Mae now (unwillingly) owns some 54,000 homes.

Some meaningful people both personally and in society have passed away.

A couple people very dear to me are seriously ill.

My 43-year old friend is preggers (naturally) for the first time.

My big brother is moving to Malaysia…This just after he and his family came through freaking Hurricane Ike.

Gas prices are through the roof. Prices unheard of thus far in our country.

Oh yeah, and for me personally I got married and am potentially changing jobs after almost a decade at one company.

2008 is not for sissies!

And we’re only nine months into this thing!

Holy crap!

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to retire to the underside of my bed with a tubful of Cherry Garcia, a canister of Valium and my cat.

Call me when things have settled, hey?

*Borrowed liberally from John Lennon. Thanks John!