Next to the litter boxes we have a grey slotted plastic scoop for separating the lumps out from the sand. We’ve had it for something like six years. The handle is cracked almost all the way through. The tines have separated so it’s now more of a litter box spork rather than a scoop. I’ve been thinking it was going to fail for a couple of years now but it just keeps going. Every day it patiently waits for me to call on it to do what is after all a really nasty job. It could have given up, have retired, just quit but no. The scoop still does its job without complaint, always reliable. A couple of years ago I even thought  it was time to act proactively and just replace the scoop before it broke. The new one was bright green, was clean and shiny, had teeth on the edge to get those really stuck on bits. It promised to be the hot young replacement that would be better in every way than the old grey workhorse. Thing was, the first time I tried to use it, the new one shattered into four pieces. I could almost hear the old grey scoop chuckling as I reached for it.

So why am I waxing poetic about a litter box scoop? You see, we all reach the point where we’re not as young as we used to be. We’ve got a few cracks, some problems here or there. But we keep going. Keep doing our job. Keep showing up every day to do the best we can, just because it’s the right thing to do. I gotta respect that.

This week we’ve been working a lot. I’ve stayed late a couple of times. Marsha is putting in lots of overtime to get the Block office running for tax season. Our managers like us because while we’re not as flashy as the new kids fresh out of school, they can count on us to come in on time or early and do whatever is needed to get the job done. We may not be as pretty or as fast or even have as many ideas as the new kids but like the old grey scoop we’re reliable. I got thinking about this because of an interview I read with a factory worker. He was around 18 years old and was complaining about the working conditions. “All I do is work, go home and go to bed, wake up and go to work. It’s so boring.” My reaction was "Well, welcome to the real flipping world kid" only I didn't use the word flipping. To quote the great philosopher Red Forman “If it wasn’t work they wouldn’t call it work. It’d be called happy fun time.”   

My job is going well though.  One thing I like is that I never know what I’m going to be doing. Sure I’m the ‘IT Guy’ but some days that means I fix computers. Some days I’m working on server systems. Some days I’m writing code. A couple of times I’ve had to work on the office lights. Last week they asked if I knew how to solder (there’s a big order coming through and they might need help getting them all put together in time). I’ve even been planning the big flooring big project which starts next week. This is when we move people out of one area so they can replace the carpet, move them back in and out of the next space, and so on throughout the office. It will be a very busy couple of weeks. This has required lots of planning and furniture choreography. Everywhere we can store desks and file cabinets is going to have its flooring replaced too so we need to plan our moves so that we aren’t moving into areas that need to be empty. I also have to coordinate this project with a couple of other projects that are going on as well. So I’ll do whatever is needed to keep the company running. I do have my limits though. One of the seats in the bathroom clogged and overflowed. I told them water and electricity don't mix so I don’t do plumbing. I needn’t of worried though. They’d already called a plumber.

As I said I’ve put in a couple of long days too. One of the robots was sent back to us from Arizona because it would not take orders. It turned out that while it worked fine in testing, with our five year old development laptop computer, new laptops try to save energy so they reduced the current in the network connection. They simply aren’t ‘loud enough’. They just don’t produce a strong enough signal to send a command all the way down the cable to the robot so we’re going to have to add an amplifier inside the control box. Didn’t see that one coming, I really enjoyed sorting it out though.

Oh sure there are some days I’d rather not go to work. We all get that. I expect even Pablo Picasso just vegged on the couch in front of the TV on occasion. But on the whole we’re enjoying what we do.

And I guess that means that work, if you play your cards right, can be happy fun time.

Thought for the week: If you’re a fan of Victorian literature you must be a Brontesaurus.

Doug & Marsha

PIX: A day at the beach.


Smile


Love the look of driftwood


Stones