12:41 AM - 09.02.05
Skill
My youngest greeted me with tea, toast and a section of our newspaper when I emerged from the washroom this morning after preparing for work. Well ok. This is the Sagittarius child. Just like his oldest brother of the same astrological sign, their usual circadian rhythm, when unobstructed by external agents such as school, fishing or work, deem that the sun well up in the sky should determine the earliest possible time for rising from sleep. Night Owls both. With Sagittarius rising on my ascendant, I can sympathize completely. Add in the fact that I am usually walking away from the house in order to catch the bus when the newspaper lady drops our daily dose of reality into the mailbox and I got a "what's up with this picture" sensation. My tummy was doing the old - "you expect me to eat?!" rhumba, associated with the mix of food and commuting at the same time. It definitely is on Sagittarian time too. Looked at the story my son was pointing out and we both laughed. Remember me mentioning that I had e-mailed a couple of investigative news stories to my supervisor last Friday? Well here was the next piece of the puzzle. I'm not as crazy or as paranoid as I thought, am I dear diary. Well maybe, but not about what I've been seeing - that's for certain.
One of the good things about the morning commute now is that the woman I ride with works at the opposite side of downtown. Not a long walk - about 7 city blocks - but just enough to get some exercise in and enough morning air to leave me conscious, although gagging with the pollution, to boot. Walk in to work about the same time as a result. Started working away on where I left off and realized about two hours into the day that someone was tapping the papers next to me, trying to get my attention. There was my tech grinning at me. Off travelling were we? Well in some ways, yes. I sometimes just "ride" those notes of music, just as Buddhists ride their breathing when they chant. It's amazing where that can take one. Snapped back to reality. He had just wanted to let me know that he had gotten his tax material from Elections Canada, so he can now get his return off and hopefully a refund back. My youngest got his too. Hope mine come soon, because money is a big issue right now. Don't have, any but need some. Those new contact lenses await don't you know. We chatted a bit about the one person who worked with us that just started her new job. She had called him for some help with some software issues and had expressed the view that offices and corporations really don't have much care or concern about their employees. Not surprising to us, but then, we are professionals aren't we?
Continued working and the two techs came by - everything ok with that new keyboard? Well yes, except for the fact that the tray that holds it was all wonky this morning and I couldn't get it to sit back in any comfortable position. Talk about hyperextended wrists - I estimate carpal tunnel syndrome within the month. Well not really. I finally managed to get that resolved on my own but with the penalty of losing about half an hour of data entry time while fighting with the darn thing. They left, and not ten minutes later the spreadsheet crashed again. When that occurs it is as though the cap locks comes on and can't be shut off. The gremlin also opens every spreadsheet I have in the personal drive that I save to and one can't then save to that drive. The command will only work if one saves to the C drive - the one shared with the whole company. I'm not allowed to do that with this spreadsheet. It doesn't matter where one clicks the cursor on the spreadsheet either. Every cell previous to that become highlighted and no data entry can occur. Called the one tech and he said he would send the other one back pronto. The other one must have got hung up on another responsibility, because I finally got tired of losing so much work time and logged out of the system completely. To date that has been the only thing that has disconnected the glitch/virus causing the problem. The tech walked up just as I was rebooting and I got the lecture about waiting, but he doesn't have to go into a meeting tomorrow where the only thing that counts is how much tangible work has been completed. Oi.
Walked over to the data management company at lunch to pick up the diskette that now holds the data taken from that laptop. Apparently the file was too big to save anymore, so it had to be zipped. I decided to wait until tomorrow to try to open it, partly because I had already lost so much time, but also because I needed to complete the work I am focussed on now, before I can use the data the way I want to carry out the analysis of the spreadsheet. Got a lot accomplished in the afternoon, so that made me feel a bit better. We were just winding down supper and the daily newscast when the phone rang. It was my supervisor. Still at work and trying to get the report we have to submit for the weekly meeting done. Points of clarification about the tangible progress I'd mentioned before. Then the comment, well I'm not going to include the other tasks that you've listed - the liaison just wants to know the numbers. Well that's fine, but I lost about four hours of data entry to helping the coworker find the data he hadn't done by deadline, the tech with the spreadsheet interpretation and the computer problems - that's half a day minimum not on task. It is part of my job and that is fine, but I don't want to hear it said that my progress was inadequate with out having the right to explain the mitigating factors. It's frustrating enough skipping the noon hours when I usually get my daily exercise in and working an extended day without anything else being added on. I know I only really have to satisfy him and he made it clear he is very happy with the work I am doing, but perception in the work place is important too. Oh well.
Went back to playing with the cats and that new computer game - Bejeweled - that my son drew to my attention. Pattern recognition and eye hand co-ordination - I need all the help I can get on skill number two. Time to do a little more training I guess. Good night Dear Diary.
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