i caught a cold

by fred owens
I caught a cold on Monday coming back from Seattle. Being sick is a great excuse for doing nothing. Or maybe only doing essential things, and then realizing that very few things are essential, so I will continue reading this light-hearted book that my daughter-in-law gave me. It's called Delancey, about a young couple who open a small pizza restaurant in the Ballard district of Seattle. No heavy lifting in this book. Written by Molly Wizenberg.
I printed out the forms for the Kiwanis board meeting. This is part of my education in administrative procedure. I have fought the overhead all my life, avoiding meetings, walking out of meetings, disrupting meetings, falling asleep in meetings....... one time, when I was a nursing aide at the old folks home in Anacortes, the Nursing Supervisor called for a staff meeting -- a big waste of time if you ask me....... It seemed that I was half way through reading an article by Noam Chomsky in the New Yorker. The Nursing Supervisor told me to put down the magazine and pay attention. So I weighed my choices -- put down the magazine, or walk out. I walked out, just quit, after nine months. It was leading up to that anyway...... I should clarify one thing -- I do not admire or agree with Noam Chomsky, but my reading his story was more important than that senseless staff meeting.

I'm sure most of you have had similar experiences. Did you walk out? Or did you suck it up?
Addendum..... I filed for unemployment even though I quit the nursing home. They asked my why I quit. I wrote, "Everybody died and I got depressed." ..... That was literally true. After nine months, all my original 12 patients had died, to be replaced by new ones who would surely all die too -- I couldn't handle it anymore, so they gave me unemployment.
Back to the present. Having fought the overhead throughout my working life, I have no need to prove a point anymore. Now I do administrative work for Kiwanis and I pay careful attention to what people say at board meetings..... I no longer fight the overhead because I am a part of it.
Election Forecast. The election seems like it is almost over but the shouting. I feel like the home team has a 6-run lead and it's the 8th inning -- is it too soon to head for the parking lot to beat the traffic?  I want to call it for Hillary, but there is this big storm coming and that might change everyone's plans.
Hurricane Coming. Sometimes the media over-hypes the coming storm. Sometimes everybody evacuates for not much reason. But this one -- Hurricane Matthew -- might be a real doozie.

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Fred Owens

1105 Veronica Springs RD

Santa Barbara, CA 93105

thank you very much

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Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214

My gardening blog is  Fred Owens

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