in the realm of the fictionman

Plans and stuff

Well, today is an early morning for a Saturday. We're picking up Lindsay on our way to Milwaukee for the Quest For Immortality exhibit at the
Milwaukee Public Museum (the exibit only runs until August 8th, so the exhibit link might break after that).

They have an Imax film about it to.

Amy got recommendations from a friend about where to stop for breakfast before the exhibit.

We'll probably be back in town around dinner. Mom and Dad are babysitting, which they'll enjoy.

Oh, and in other news, the severance package was put together and signed by HR on Monday.

I'm still in touch with Rita, who sat next to me. I've been hearing the odd tidbit through her. At least one person has come through hoping to find my rolodex. I kept all that in Outlook, which suddenly no one has access to.

Mwahahhaha... [insert ominous organ music here]

Oh, sorry.

Anyway—have to get ready to go.

Eliminated, Part II

Well, it turns out I wasn't the only one. Rose, the department admin, was about an hour after me.

Today is her boss's last day, but he's known that for months.

Mind you, he was Sr. VP of Marketing before this all started back in March or so.

Then down to Director. Then his direct reports went away two and three at a time. Then his "end of August" termination date turned into August 1st just about a week ago. But he has known the whole time.

That's the difference. Wednesday the department gave him a cake and sendoff. He's a baseball nut, so we got him a baseball that we all signed. You get crap like that when you're senior management.

The peons? Nope. Just the swift boot. Get the hell out. That's why workers don't give their all to companies like they used to. Loyalty is dead, because, like trust, it has to work both ways.

But I'm a better man than to be bitter and vengeful about it. Corporate leaders just behave that way. They're shallow, empty people. Expecting them to behave differently is just setting yourself up for disappointment.

The difference is, I can see this as the opportunity I've been afraid to take. Mind you, I'd feel better if I knew just what it was an opportunity to do...

Irony

So also today I got an envelope in the mail. The envelope was marked with an eagle logo, and two phrases:

• "You play an important part"
• "IMPORTANT AWARD MATERIALS ENCLOSED"

The letter inside?

Dear Awardee,

Congratulations on your anniversary with Saralee Coffee and Tea.

For your convenience, an Award Order Form has been included in this packet...

This would be the order form for the gift for my five year anniversary, which wouldn't have been until December 6th.

Not even a form letter, mind you. The whole packet is pregenerated and generic.

Not only that, but the third-party company that manages it didn't even spell the company name right.

<Sigh>

"Eliminated"

Well, if you've read Amy's blog, she's already stolen the thunder.

I got to work, turned on the fountain at my desk, started up the computer.

Typed in the password, got an error message. Hit return without reading it and retyped said password. It's an intentionally mistyped word, so sometimes first thing in the morning I type it correctly.

This time I actually read the message.

Your account has been disabled. Please contact your system administrator.

Now, viruses have been moving through the internet. One of my contacts had already left me a voice mail that he had to clean one off. Because I send emails to consumers, I end up in a lot of people's address books. And that's how email viruses (virii?) like to propgate.

So it was one of two things. Virus, or an impending visit from HR.

I was on the phone with the help desk getting a ticket number when my boss stopped by, needing to see me for a minute. He was supposed to be in a staff meeting with his boss, and after I hang up we head towards one of the conference rooms. But we go past it and down the stairs. Now there can only be one place he's leading me. HR.

And then we were sitting in an HR office.

"With all the reorganizing that's been going on, your position has been eliminated."

Then the whole severance package review.

I wasn't even allowed to go back to my desk. The HR representative went up and grabbed the bag that had some of my stuff (like car keys). My steel travel mug is still sitting on said desk. As is the fountain.

The rest gets boxed up and shipped to me. No idea how long that'll take.

The good news is that now I'll have more time for writing and blogging...?

2% Milk.

Ever wonder what the other 98% is?

(Yeah, I know...)

Aha!

Sometimes the easy answer is the best one.

Quick Shtick is up now. Problem solved.

I left the ball in Amy's court, of course, but that's how it goes...and I didn't leave her any huge dilemma.

Now I can get ready for work. Goody.

Coffee for Writer's Block?

Maybe I'm just not awake enough this morning. Maybe the caffeine level is still below some important threshold.

But for the moment I'm stumped.

It's Quick Shtick. I'm stumbling over what's next. It's my turn, and I need to have it up before breakfast. Unlike Something*Positive (and probably other web comics, but S*P is the only one I read right now) I can't get away with just posting filler.

Those who follow our story will understand this better than the rest. Lynna was anxious to talk to Agmar, but we (as readers and writers both) don't kwow what about. Now her father is walking in on them, actually hoping to interrupt.

But I don't know what they're talking about. And I'm having trouble coming up with something.

Argh!

So off I go. Some random web pages... Inspiration is lurking around here somewhere, I just need to scare it out of hiding—without making too much noise, Matt is still sleeping on the hide-a-bed upstairs.

Here, coffee coffee coffee...

Better...

Well, she's got it fixed. Still no idea what went wrong.

One of my projects is getting up on time, rather than hitting snooze or just resetting the alarm and going back to bed. I want more time in the morning.

So, while I have a little time this morning, I'm not awake enough yet. Coffee's going, that'll help some. I'm also working on incorporating a little exercise into each morning. That will end up leading me to having both time and some energy in the morning. But I'm not there yet.

Anyway, as Amy asked her readers, if you see something that looks messed up (on either site), please let us know.

Thanks.

Technical difficulties

Yeah. I know. Site problems. We noticed them today. Apparently they've been there a while, but suddenly got worse.

Now it's a problem.

Amy's all frustrated trying to fix it. Thank you, Love.

Hopefully better soon. Then I think she has to fix her own, which is at least less screwed up.

Don't know yet what happened.

Update later (film at 11?)

Meet the new boss...no, really!

I like the new boss better than the last...three that I've had there so far.

Not that most of the meeting was blog-worthy, though.

But yes, I did meet him.
It was an encouraging discussion.
It does look like we're going to be resolving most of the main issues I have. We're meeting again Monday afternoon to resolve some of the details...like what the hell is my job description and title.

Other than that I spent today so busy that I had two piles:

• Urgent Crap to do Right Now, and
• Crap to sort through and figure out what the heck it is later.

Meet the...doh!

Yesterday was not meet the new boss day. That's today.

Yesterday I had lost track of what day of the week it was. I've done that a few times already since getting back from Canada. I keep thinking it's later in the week than it really is. Maybe it's just subconsciously wishing it were closer to friday...

So today we'll see how it goes.

Look!

Credit goes to Amy for the new look. We had both had pretty much the same idea when we first saw the picture. So she spent most of today making that idea happen. Dad gets the credit for the picture.

I think it turned out very cool.

Next it's up to me to (further) tweak the style sheet (fonts and such).

Thanks again, Love!

A Motley Group?

Left to right:

Dad, Me, Bill, Mark, Chad, Nick

There are other pictures I'm still sorting, so little by little, eh?

Meet the new boss...

Today I actually get to meet the new boss. He's coming in from one of the other offices to meet with his new people. Partly to discuss what we do, partly find out what we do.

I'm not looking forward to it. I'm still wondering if I'll get a chance to politely confront him about how somebody really needs to decide what I should and shouldn't be doing, and let me know.

I'm really hoping to be able to get up early Saturday morning and devote some time to getting resumes out. There are just some things I'm not going to do from work. Heck, I wonder if the job sites are blocked at work yet or not. That sounds like something they'd do...

Meet the new boss, same as the—um, wait...

Another one to add to the official Bad Signs list:

When your boss comes to your desk, asks you to come to his office "for a minute" but "it's nothing to panic over."

Then he closes the door. "I don't want you to worry, but..."

Any time soon the announcement is supposed to come that I (and most of the rest of the people reporting to my boss) are about to report to someone else instead. So now, rather than waiting on my current boss and his boss (who I think still doesn't know what I do) to tell me what my job is, I'm waiting on a new boss I've never met and the same next boss up to tell me. Once they decide. If they even decide. It's been what, four months already?

I will give him credit for wanting to tell me in advance of the email announcement. I mentioned how very rare that is, and thanked him for it.

So, some day I'll meet the new boss. In theory. He doesn't even have an office in our building yet. Apparently he comes here frequently enough.

What's that saying about change? Oh, I think it's being revised. Sorry.

Learning

I love watching Jareth learn things.

He's getting better at dexterity lately. He likes turning the stiff pages in his books. He has an abacus-like thing on his swing. It's rings that slide back and forth. He likes to stand in front of it and move the rings one-by-one from one side to the other, and then back again. Usually he's doing that with just one finger.

For his birthday I got him the book Tails, by Matthew van Fleet. It's about animals and the different kinds of tails they all have. On each page there are textures to feel. There are fur inserts for furry tails, and scaly textures for scaly tails, and shiny plastic foils on the peacock tail, and so on. At first he was fascinated by the colors, and being able to turn the thick pages. Now he has realized that there are those things to feel, and he loves checking them out. (By the way, I highly recommend the book as a gift for toddlers!)

He also got from my sister-in-law Jenna a piano thing. on the top of it is a little symphony of animals playing instruments, and they all move whenever the piano keys are pressed. The whole thing can also do five or so different instruments. He loves watching it go. At first he kept trying to manipulate the animals to try and make them go. I've been gradually working on getting him to figure it out. Now he knows that it's the keys that make it happen, he just isn't quite pressing hard enough. But watching the development has been great.

I love that he's letting me see the world all over again. I thank him for that on a regular basis.

Jareth at 9 months, one of my favorite pictures so far...

Vacation Journal, Part IV

Thursday - really morning, 9:00, 44 degrees
Gonna be a slow start today. I woke past 8:00. Breakfast hasn't even started yet. Bill threw up, and Mark is still sleeping. According to the log book, fishing was good last week, but at specific places we're not finding [the prior group mentioned places by names we don't know...]. They probably had different weather. What we need is a break in the weather. Maybe today. Or maybe I'll get more reading done.

Sunset, 10:00, 45 degrees
We did get as warm as 58 degrees. Today was the best fishing weather yet. I read and napped. Bill and Mark spent their day in bed sick. Maybe flu they could have picked up running to [Lodge] the other day. Most of us never did see Mark today, and Bill only for a couple hours.

Nick and Chad spend three hours fishing, and caught one. Total for the week about six, which we had for dinner earlier.

Dragonflies go through a pupa stage that looks a bit beetle-like. Today we watched a dozen or so emerge from those shells as proper dragonflies. Very neat. They come out through the back, head first, until they're hanging by their tails. Eventually they do this sit up type exercise so they can grab the shell and hang on to the old shell while their wings unfold. The whole process takes a couple hours. But apparently they eat skeeters (amongst flies and other bugs), so this island must be something of a paradise buffet for them. Now I kind of wish I had taken the picture of the process I had considered takign previously. [They blend in very well with the cabin wall, and the camera that I had was too automatic to get a good picture of it.]

I am going to miss that sauna. It feels like getting clean from the inside out. It's soothing and relaxing more than any shower. It's a bit lik soaking in a bath, but not the same.

I have to admit to myself that I miss Amy and Jareth. If they were here I could live like this months at a time, if not forever. The weather has kept us mostly inside, which leaves less to do. I have read enough for this week.

There is some wondering if we might leave tomorrow. We at least need to make a trip out with some geat to lighten the boats for Saturday. Nick and Chad were planning on just leaving at that point. Nick has places he needs to be, and could use the extra time getting home. Bill or Mark would have to go with that gear run, so we'll see how they feel tomorrow. Nick wonders if they (Bill & Mark) might not prefer to just give in at that point. It hasn't been discussed in their presence.

No Northern Lights, no spectacular sunrises or sets—too much more or less constant cloud cover. Also makes for very dark nights with few stars. We've seen the moon once the whole time. It's very dark out now. I can't make out the dock on the river right now.

Dad and I are the last ones up, and I'll be crawling into a sleeping bag shortly.

Friday, mid-afternoon, 53 degrees
Earlier today I made my entry in the log book. Everyone makes one. It's amusing to look back on how others sum up their time here. Other entries very frequently refer to great fishing. Our week's weather has not been the norm.

Bill has already run out with Nick and Chad, and should be returning any moment. I'm partly waiting to get a picture of one of the hummingbirds. I have time to write, with the camera before me on the table. I'm listening for the bird [to fly up]. How often can one say that?

In some ways I'm ready to go home, and in many I'm reluctant to return to that world and its ways. Here one can return from the sauna/shower naked and stand around and converse a bit and it's as if no one notices. here one can walk out in the night and just go over the porch rail. Here the traditional rules of an uptight society have no merit. There is no need for them. There is a freedom here that I know I must surrender tomorrow.

Some groups bring families here, and I can see how the atmosphere would be totally different. With family would come society with its expectations and restrictions. I would love to be able to raise Jareth with this sense of freedom, this deep spiritual connectedness, but I know our society will not react positively.

In [Australian] Aboriginal culture, children learn about their bodies and sexuality by watching their parent. They have no shame of their bodies, none of the hangups we so excel at. I wonder what the compromise point can be. Amy and I have so much to talk about, so much I want to share. I do very much love that about our relationship.

Conversations here, while sometimes very deep, lack the intimacy that allows for the best dialogue. There is a lot of sharing, but sometimes people forget to listen. Reminiscent of both the best and worst of family table talk.

Some time between 9:00 and 10:00, 49 degrees
I've gotten into the habit of checking the thermometer outside when I start writing. I look at the clock as infrequently as possible.

We've done the evening sauna, and now we're winding down for the last night. Most of the cleanup is done. All that's really left is mopping the floor, which we'll do as we leave.

Tomorrow we get up as early as we can to get started. I hope to remember to notw the mileage on the car before we get out, but I don't expect any more entries past this one. I still have the vast majority of this book left. I'll find other, similar uses for it then.

Once we're out of here, we'll make the boat trip back to [Lodge]. The way the boats are acting, the 45 minute trip will take 1-2 hours. From there we sqaure up some final expenses and drive the 45 minutes or so to town for breakfast.

The expectation then is lunch in Duluth. We'll start off caravanning with CB radios. How long that will last we dont' kow. We've discussed the option of changing car loads depending on how they [Bill and Mark] feel. I'd drive one and dad would drive the other. Bill and Mark may also catch a motel en route.

Apparently we can expect to be back at Dad's around 2am. That would put me home at 3:00. That may assime some greater-than-speed-limit driving. Getting up here certainly did.

Quick note about the drive up:
We all met for breakfast in Bristol, WI. We were supposed to assemble there at 6:45. We (Dad and I) were one minute late, which was 15 or 20 better than the rest.

From there we discussed plans and set up CB radios. Our antenna showed a propensity for falling and dangling along the back window. We frequently found ourselves with a range in blocks rather than three miles.

We did get left behind at one point at a rest stop. That entailed some additional speeding to catch up. My car runs very smoothly at 90. Most of the trip was at 10-15 over limits. 90 was a half-hour exception.

We stoped at a motel at International Falls at the border. We ate a late dinner and crashed. After breakfast was the border crossing. Dad and I were picked for what we suspect was a random check. We had to get out while a guy checked and dug through the car. That killed most of an hour.

As we drew closer, we found more problems. The pontoon boat barge was out of commission, which necessitated the heavily loaded boat trip. As we drew closer we also watched the beautiful sky ahead turn dark and foreboding. At each of the three or four preparatory stops there were additional delays or uh-ohs.

As for the trip in across [big lake]...
It's supposed to be a 45 minute trip. It was very nearly two hours in water we weren't certain was entirely safe to cross [as heavily loaded as the boats were]. We stopped a ways out to move people around on boats to even loads. It's a twelve mile trip. They were a long twelve miles. But we got here.

We fired up the saunas and got warm and slept. (Oh, we toasted to survival as well.)

Dad likes to talk about the harsh crossing he had two years ago. At one of the calmer points (when it was possible to have a conversation) I asked Bill how our trip was comparing to two years ago. He pointed at the water around us, fairly calm in a wind shadow. This is about what we had two years ago, he said.

Bill has since said that he hasn't had a rougher arrival than this noe. If we had had the barge, things would have been far better. The wind and water have been pretty much the same all week.

In the morning the wind will be at our backs. It's also gentler in the early morning. So we're hoping for an extra early start.

On that note, I'll close this out.

And that's my vacation journal. It was a fun trip, and I came back more than I was when I left. As I noted in my log entry there, "What more can one ask for, except perhaps fish."

We dropped off the film yesterday, so I'll have pictures in a few days. I'll get them scanned and then I can post them with captions.

Vacation Journal, Part III

A bit before sunrise, Wednesday
Almost too dark to write. The solar-recharging lamp is going outside, but it's wet, and I don't actually need it. Nick woke briefly just now and offered a batteried flourescent, which I declined. He's back in bed, I obviously chose to stay up. The hummingbirds are, too.

There is less difference 'tween day and night than I expected. It's 40 degrees outside, not that different than the 48-50 we ran all day yesterday.

Between boat problems and weather challenges, the fish total is four or five, although only two came back for cleaning. There are walleye that become food, and bass and Northern that get released.

Now is one of those quiet times again. Except when I was cooking yesterday, it's been a rare happenstance that I've been alone in the cabin for any length of time. I'm rather aware of the noise of this pen, which is a noise I'm not accustomed to. I use this pen often at work, and was never aware of hearing it there. It could also be the paper, which is more of a composition book.

The jambalaya turned out very well. Big hit with many compliments. Nick told me that he has had a log of good jambalaya, and this was good. I felt proud already, but his saying that felt very good. One of those humble wow moments.

The reflection of the riverbank (400? 500 yards?) in the glassy water is very cool. The river itself is a strange thing. It flows northwest, but you can only tell that at night. The winds blow eastward, so during the day the top of the river goes the wrong way. The wind goes away at night, and things that drifted by in the day now come back.

The wind may be the most pronounced change between day and night. At night there for the most part is none.

5:15 am
Much lighter now. Fog rising some on the river like steam. The sun is lighting up clouds and patches of blue behind them. Retreated into the sleeping bag briefly—cold. 59 degrees in the cabin.

Mid-morning
Warmer today. We got a smaller motor on one boat, so now we have three good enough for fishing. Nick & Chad and Bill & Mark are out. I'll probably go out with one group or another after they come back for lunch. It's reading time here at the cabin. I took eight or ten pictures; we'll see how they turn out.

Afternoon, 44 degrees
What usually takes effort comes easily to me here, and the river lets her voice be heard. I think I know now the ceremony to ask the river and sky to favor us. I know how it would sound, yet I do believe it. But all who would fish would need to partake in the ceremony, and I know that most would not. The river knows this as well. The river is unhappy, and the rain does as she asks. I will not change the weather only for myself. This at least the sky and wind and rain accept, and when explained my intent, the rain paused while I walked back. It fell again in earnest as the door closed, and continues to do so.

The rest are all asleep. I would probably not have even asked had anyone been awake. They would not understand. Dad more likely might, but even of that I am not sure.

Evening, not yet 8:00, 40 degrees
Dinner is running late. Probably 8:00 for Mark's chili. Wildlife seen so far (at or around the island): skeeters, gulls, hummingbirds (ruby-throated and another kind), pelicans, Canadian Jays, crows, skeeters, dragonflies, skeeters, some bright red wood ticks [chiggers], bald eagles, skeeters, some finch-like brown bird with white speckles, walleye/northern/bass/crappie, loons [Common and one other unidentified species], ducks of uncertain types, bees, beavers, and skeeters.