Michelangelo sibyl from the Sistine Chapel

 

immune from the heat

The heat wave crossing the nation really hasn't had that much of an impact on me. The news makes it their top story, but for the most part I am unaffected. As long as I have my air conditioning to protect me, I am fine. My only real exposure to it was the few minutes I spent outside telling my downstairs neighbors about the raccoon that I saw in our garage last night.

The whole incident only took a few minutes, but it was an interesting break from the nightly routine. When I opened the door to the garage, I heard something scurrying in the dark. After a few seconds of scanning the darkness, I spotted him climbing up a ladder leaning against the wall. Once I knew where he was I slowly climbed into my car and thought about what I wanted to do next.

I didn't want to trap him in the garage for the night and have him all agitated by the time I returned in the morning. I also knew that I didn't have time to waste in trying to get him to leave. So in the end I decided to leave the door open for the night hoping that he might leave on his own. He started at me from the rafters as I backed out of the garage.

Early this evening at the video store I ran into a woman that I used to work with at the insurance company a few years ago. We recognized one another as soon as we made eye contact and quickly caught up with what each of us had done since we last saw one another. I guess the oddest part is that I think she would have to be one of the last people from that place that I expected to see again. I don't think that I have thought about her once since I left three years ago. It wasn't that we disliked one another. She just wasn't that close of a friend and the most that we ever did was have lunch together once or twice.

Looking back at what I wrote a year ago, I can see that I was worried about getting my current job, which after being here since then I find to be a little silly. There really wasn't any real reason for me to be nervous. Most of what I do on a daily basis is well within my ability. The only problems that I have now are listening to some of my coworkers complain about their job to me. It all started with the former second shift guy who left a few weeks ago. When he was here I seemed to absorb all of his negative energy and amplify it. After he left I was able to take things much more casually. Now, however, my third shift counterpart is feeling neglected and under utilized by the company and is using me as a sounding board for his frustration.

Maybe I am jaded, but I know that most companies move slowly when it comes to change and the bigger the company the slower it moves. At the moment my job is fine, but I have no illusions about staying more than another year or two at the most. I will definitely have to move on to something else and I am sure that by that time I'll have had enough of this place.

For now I am content to just see what happens as I focus my attention elsewhere. Early in the year I had said that I wanted to travel this year and this is exactly what I did. I managed to take two great trips on opposite sides of the continent and I am looking forward to the start of my next vacation on Sunday.

Last year so much of my time was spent trying to make my girlfriend happy that I ended up being unhappy. That may sound bitter and unfair, but I like where I am now as opposed to where I was a year ago at this time.

 
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