19 September 2010
Watching a Lightn Rain Fall at Three in the Morning
19/09/10 07:14
This was a heck of a week. Marsha was not feeling well most of the week. She wasn't exactly "sick" just felt lousy. I didn't feel very good either. Because of that we didn't go see Barbara all week. The house was on the market, sort-of. Last weekend we noticed that the For Sale sign in the window of the townhouse we were interested in purchasing was no longer in the window. We had our realtor, Dave, call the agent who said "No it's still on the market, the sign must have fallen down." Thursday Marsha noticed that the listing was not on the web any more. Dave checked into it again and it turned out that the place had sold some days before. We suspect about the time the sign came down. Even though their realtor had promised Dave he'd let him know if there was any change, he didn't. Grr.
So the house has been pulled off the market and we've started putting the house back together. My desk first, then the kitchen. We did celebrate getting back to our normal routine by taking Barbara out to breakfast, which was fun. At work I had a little job at NAN. Move some people to a new server, should have taken half a day tops. Two and a half days later we finally finished. Mostly anyway. There's a couple of things still outstanding but they're minor. The trouble was that while they were able to log into the new server, they had written so many special scripts and jobs that assumed they were on the old server that they were crippled. We had to look at each document and connection, and system, and link and repair it for them.
Then this weekend I had some work to do at Pacific Shores in Nanoose. That would not have been a big deal except that the work disabled the phone system so I had to do it at 2:00 in the morning. Marsha and I drove up Saturday, I got up at 1:00 and worked until 4:00 then went back to bed. Everything is working better now, none of the other guests were any the wiser, and we got to stay in the resort for the night which was cool.
I was looking out the window at three am waiting for my job to finish running. A light rain was falling and the drops were illuminated by the flood light. As I watched them I noticed something interesting. The drops were streaming in the same direction, heading en mass toward the grass as one. But mixed in there were a few oddballs. Usually single drops, sometimes pairs. that were going another way. Sometimes at right angles to the mob. Sometimes upstream. I felt a great deal of empathy for those raindrops.
While everyone is standing shoulder to shoulder and rushing toward the same goal there are always a few that go their own way. A few that say,
That way may be popular but not for me.
That way may be what everyone thinks is best, but I don't agree.
That way may be prudent, but we will see.
That way my be "normal, but "normal" is not for me.
Maybe the world needs more people that think at right angles to the rest. More people that don't follow the common path, that don't stick with the herd. I saw a bumper sticker years ago that said something like "Nice Girls Don't Change The World". I liked that. People that believe they need to do what everyone else is doing seldom make a difference. Think of the great minds, the great artists, the great innovators, engineers, scientists, philosophers, or leaders. None of them were exactly normal. It's the oddballs that shake things up, that make life interesting. That change the world.
So while everyone is rushing toward a common goal, fighting traffic, standing in line, pushing papers, doing their job, maybe it's time to stop and think. Is that the route you want to take? Remember, like those raindrops rushing toward a common goal we all end up together...in the mud. It's the path we take that is important.
Happy Start of Autumn.
Doug & Marsha
(The Two drips in Nanaimo)
PiX:
The Goose and the Ocean: A Parable
Sticking with the rest is the easy way, the safe way, the prudent way.
But there are a few that look up and say why not. That ask Is This All.
Where everyone else is happy getting along within the confines of the world around them
They see the broader picture. They see a world full of options.
How far you can you go?
So the house has been pulled off the market and we've started putting the house back together. My desk first, then the kitchen. We did celebrate getting back to our normal routine by taking Barbara out to breakfast, which was fun. At work I had a little job at NAN. Move some people to a new server, should have taken half a day tops. Two and a half days later we finally finished. Mostly anyway. There's a couple of things still outstanding but they're minor. The trouble was that while they were able to log into the new server, they had written so many special scripts and jobs that assumed they were on the old server that they were crippled. We had to look at each document and connection, and system, and link and repair it for them.
Then this weekend I had some work to do at Pacific Shores in Nanoose. That would not have been a big deal except that the work disabled the phone system so I had to do it at 2:00 in the morning. Marsha and I drove up Saturday, I got up at 1:00 and worked until 4:00 then went back to bed. Everything is working better now, none of the other guests were any the wiser, and we got to stay in the resort for the night which was cool.
I was looking out the window at three am waiting for my job to finish running. A light rain was falling and the drops were illuminated by the flood light. As I watched them I noticed something interesting. The drops were streaming in the same direction, heading en mass toward the grass as one. But mixed in there were a few oddballs. Usually single drops, sometimes pairs. that were going another way. Sometimes at right angles to the mob. Sometimes upstream. I felt a great deal of empathy for those raindrops.
While everyone is standing shoulder to shoulder and rushing toward the same goal there are always a few that go their own way. A few that say,
That way may be popular but not for me.
That way may be what everyone thinks is best, but I don't agree.
That way may be prudent, but we will see.
That way my be "normal, but "normal" is not for me.
Maybe the world needs more people that think at right angles to the rest. More people that don't follow the common path, that don't stick with the herd. I saw a bumper sticker years ago that said something like "Nice Girls Don't Change The World". I liked that. People that believe they need to do what everyone else is doing seldom make a difference. Think of the great minds, the great artists, the great innovators, engineers, scientists, philosophers, or leaders. None of them were exactly normal. It's the oddballs that shake things up, that make life interesting. That change the world.
So while everyone is rushing toward a common goal, fighting traffic, standing in line, pushing papers, doing their job, maybe it's time to stop and think. Is that the route you want to take? Remember, like those raindrops rushing toward a common goal we all end up together...in the mud. It's the path we take that is important.
Happy Start of Autumn.
Doug & Marsha
(The Two drips in Nanaimo)
PiX:
The Goose and the Ocean: A Parable
Sticking with the rest is the easy way, the safe way, the prudent way.
But there are a few that look up and say why not. That ask Is This All.
Where everyone else is happy getting along within the confines of the world around them
They see the broader picture. They see a world full of options.
How far you can you go?