Tag Archives: Work

Oak Knoll Park Fountain

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Oak Knoll Park Fountain

Oak Knoll Park is the closest park to our home. When the boys were young it was the go to place for open green space and playing outside. It even has a nice little playground. It is a Clayton city park, so we’ve always had to cross Clayton Road to get to it. This has led to a few heart stopping moments over the years.

There are two large houses in the park. These were once the private residence of two brothers. The large tyrannosaurus and triceratops figures that now reside outside the McDonnell Planetarium lived here, back in our own little Jurassic age. One of the two buildings was open to the public, it served as the Saint Louis Natural History Museum. When the Science Center expanded to the south side of Highway 40, the dinosaurs left, along with the Natural History Museum.

At the bottom of the knoll that contributes to this park’s name it a small pond. Anne always enjoys searching for turtles in the warmer months. Once there was a rather large stainless steel sculpture that was designed to rotate, so that it was always facing the sun. Its motion didn’t last long, but the sculpture hung on anyway. Now, it has been replaced with the pictured fountain. I went for a walk this week and snapped this picture.

Under the rubric of Anne teaching Pooh, I have another story for you. Anne passed out different colored slips of paper to her fourth grade class this week. Written on each slip were sentences from “Winnie the Pooh”. Students with the same colored slip were asked to order the sentences written on each slip correctly. After they had deliberated, Anne queried one of the groups, “Which slip should be first?” One young boy piped up that it should be his. Next Anne asked, “How do you know this?” He explained that his slip had the extra wide top margin that you would expect to see at the top of a page. That’s thinking outside the box.

Wednesday night was the big Powerball drawing. For the record, I bought a single ticket and I did not win. There were two winners and one of the winning tickets was sold in Missouri. That was all that was announced until later in the day. Thursday morning, the question on everybody’s mind was who was not there at work. I made the joke that the IT department had won, which elicited the desired sour expression among the gathered throng. Later I passed by the IT room and the door was locked. I had my own little sinking spell there and then. Later still I found the IT group. They were all losers like me, holding on to their day job.

Dan-isms

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Yosemite Sagebrush Lizard

The Dan referred to in this post is a friend of mine. Dan shared with me some of his accumulated wisdom about the modern workplace. As background, we both work in office environments, for large companies. The reader should be warned that Dan holds a rather sardonic opinion on work. Here are a few of my favorites from his much longer list.

  • Engineers are like machines which turn coffee into PowerPoint presentations.
  • Never under any circumstances drink a large cup of coffee before a three-hour staff meeting. [I wish that I had known this before this week’s staff meeting.]
  • If you think nobody cares, miss all of your meetings. You’ll know for sure in a week, one way or the other.
  • There are two ways to argue your point, yell and yell louder. [If you say it long enough and loud enough, it has got to be true, right?]
  • A closed mouth gathers no budget. [This is sort of the opposite of the squeaky wheel gets the grease.]

The Yosemite Sagebrush Lizard pictured with this post was photographed at the overlook between the upper and lower Yosemite Falls. This is located a good thousand feet above the valley floor. He is about a foot in length. Since he was encountered at the halfway point, this begs the question, did he climb up or did he climb down? Either way it makes for a long journey, maybe even a generational one.

The Spirit of Saint Louis

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The Spirit of Saint Louis

I am thankful for not having to go to work today, and also tomorrow and also this weekend. They’re be no paper airplane building this holiday. I’m thankful for a good job that has supported my family and does not require me to go to work on Black Friday, or even worse, Grey Thursday.

I am thankful for the spate of warm weather today that will allow me to go bicycling, before cooking the rest of the day. It was especially foggy on Wednesday morning. I knew that the airport was closed, because the Running Rabbit wasn’t going, as I passed underneath it on my way into work. The Running Rabbit is that ribbon of chasing lights that leads pilots into land, at night or in not too inclement weather. Dave posted a photo of similar weather in the early AM at Purdue. My suspicions were later confirmed that Chicago’s O’Hare Airport was also shutdown. Our country’s busiest airport was shutdown on its busiest day of the year. I’m thankful that none of my family was flying today.

Dave drove into town last night, completing his whirlwind cross-country sojourn. We trooped over to South Grand for our traditional pre-Thanksgiving Vietnamese dinner. Our atomic family is all together again and all valances are strong. I’m especially thankful for this.

I’m thankful for all our other family members, who we won’t be seeing this holiday. Many we have seen this year, but some we missed. We hope to see them again in the new year. We’re few compared to other families, but mighty. Some though, we won’t see again. I’m thankful that I have known, loved and been loved by them.

Thanksgiving is an American holiday. Yeah, I know Canada has one too. On this holiday, across this land, we attempt to recreate a mythical meal, once shared between our Pilgrim fathers and their Native American neighbors. A recent Slate article implicates the Pilgrims for plaguing these very same neighbors into extinction. Another Slate article contends that Turkey Day is really Dino Day. I am thankful for these holiday readings, it will stimulate table conversation.

Recriminations can abound when diaspora families reunite. There is always the big three, politics, religion and sex, three things better not discussed at the dinner table. Interesting, but inconsequential small talk can be a godsend. I’ll be thankful for turkey sandwiches after the all the hub-bub dies down again.

As you travel into and through this holiday, don’t imagine yourself as some lone aviator, trying to be the first to cross the Atlantic. Lindbergh’s triumph eventually turned to tragedy. Enjoy the parade. You’ll see some of the most significant people in your life, parading before you during this holiday. Be thankful for them and enjoy them!

Swept Out to Sea

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Purple-striped jelly, Medusa de rayas púrpuras, Chrsaora colorata

You know you should be working or at least being more productive than just surfing the web, but you can’t help yourself sometimes. This was true the other morning for a couple of my coworkers. Worker #1 observed, probably on the Drudge Report and promptly began to grumble aloud that Wall Street is seeking $6 billion in FEMA assistance for damages from Hurricane Sandy. Next, doing his best dog imitation, “Oh look a squirrel”, he spied a link to another article about the mystery of the giant eyeball found of the coast of Florida being solved.

Spoiler alert here, the eye belonged to a swordfish. All this commotion drew in Worker #2, who googled “giant eyeball” and corroborated that it once belonged to a swordfish. There must have been a lot of squirrel activity going on in that cube, because a moment later I hear from Worker #2, “This fish looks like Ziggy.”

Worker #2 had found a Christian Science Monitor slideshow entitled, “The 20 weirdest fish in the ocean“. Ziggy is #2. Also, check out #7, a male jaw fish, a known mouth breeder, not to be confused with a mouth breather. At this point I got totally drawn into the discussion, including the recap of how my two coworkers had gotten to where they were. You can call me Worker #3, if you like.

I don’t mean to denigrate either of my coworkers. They are both hard-working guys. This very brief episode was totally the exception. Normally, we labor long hours trying to figure out whether tab A should really go into slot A or maybe it would be better to insert it into slot B. Making paper airplanes can be terribly complicated.

These purple-striped jellies ebb and flow with the currents of their aquarium tank. Summer currents carry the purple-striped jelly into the waters just off of Monterey’s shores. When it arrives, you’d better keep your distance, its sting isn’t fatal, but can be painful.

Be Careful for What You Wish

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Sand Spider

This particular beastie seems well camouflaged within its environs. It is only with the magic hour light of the setting sun that this much contrast can be extracted from the sands. Small enough to go undetected beneath crushing barefoot feet, it is still a predator and as such it is always on the hunt. I like many people find spiders a wee bit creepy, but it seemed a suitable graphic for this Halloween post.

Yesterday, I was walking at lunch with my work buddy Dan. I don’t remember how we got on this subject, but Dan related to me his jury duty experience. He was on a capital murder trial, here in Saint Louis. He was sequestered, cutoff from the outside world for a week. The trial started on a Monday and they reached a verdict Friday evening. They found the defendant guilty. Writing about his experience, I don’t remember hearing whether or not the death penalty was involved in this trial.

Hearing his story, I told him that I have never been called for jury duty. I’ve been eligible to serve for over forty years, but I’ve never been called. Anne has been called two or three times since we moved to Saint Louis and has even sat in judgement. I must have expressed some interest in serving, because I distinctly remember Dan’s warning, “Be careful for what you wish for.”

Spiders and bats were scary as a child, but what still gives me the willies is unexplained surprises, at least not the pleasant surprises. There was a letter waiting for me when I got home last night, a summons really, a summons to report to jury duty. I hate it when fate plays a trick like this on me. I like most people much prefer the unexpected treat. In December, I will report to the county courthouse. I may be called to serve, or I may not. Sitting in judgement of another person is a truly scary thought to behold on this holiday to fright, even more so on how it came to pass.

Save the Giant Sequoia

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Save the Giant Sequoia

Being dwarfed by Earth’s most massive tree, the giant sequoia, fills you with wonder. By massive they don’t mean tallest, that lofty title belongs to the sequoia’s haughty cousin, the redwood. It’s hard to believe that a living thing can be so enormous and old. Now the truth comes out, sequoia are not only old, but fat too. Also known as Sierra redwoods, these trees of California’s rugged Sierra Nevada mountains can grow more than 250 feet tall. OK, I get it, we’re not good enough to be real redwoods. Hey, we look down upon you snooty ‘coastal’ redwoods. From up here, in our lofty mountains, you redwoods look pretty small. Their trunks can grow as wide as 30 feet. Again with the waistline, really do we need to keep harping about this?

Maybe I’m being too sensitive about this whole sequoia thing. I’m sure that I’m just imprinting with what happened at work yesterday. Tuesday, I participated in my first on-site screening. The company held these screening last year, but they were strictly voluntary. This year, if you don’t report your numbers, then a hefty tax will be tacked unto your monthly health insurance premiums.

I should clarify here, the on-site screening was a series of medical tests designed to access my health. There were height and weight measurements. They took my blood pressure and they drew blood. From the blood work they measured my cholesterol and sugar. I have all this done annually by my regular physician and I could have just reported those numbers, but I decided to join in.

The bad news was that I’m old and fat, but other than those two insults I escaped unscathed. Enjoining the on-site screenings is another program called the health self assessment. It is simply an online questionnaire. It is a year more advanced then the screenings though, it was made mandatory last year. Anne is also required to participate in this exercise, under penalty of jacked-up premiums.

It is hard to say where these processes are headed. There are certainly plenty of conspiracy theories being voiced around the virtual water-cooler. We are all feeling as if we are being slow rolled here, but with healthcare costs rising, I predict even more company involvement rather than less. It does feel like some giant foot is hovering directly over my head.