Most of the time I work from home. You almost cannot call it telecommuting because for me home is the normal arrangement. I only run out into the field when I cannot fix something remotely. It has taken a little bit of getting used to. No longer am I bound by the normal paradigm of The Office. I could work in my shorts while wearing a blond wig if I wanted to. I don't, but just knowing it is a possibility is somehow rather liberating. The best part though is I don't have to deal with management consultants, buzzwords, slogans, and all that in-office stuff. And for once I KNOW I'm the smartest person in the room., unless Marsha or one of the cats come in.
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-11-24

Now I will admit that staying focussed when you work from home is sometimes difficult. I am working for the company and I have to concentrate on that and not things like laundry or Geiger wanting to jump in my lap just before I save a critical document, or other household emergencies. It's taken some practice and discipline but I'm getting used to it.
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2000-09-19

This week was a rough one though. I got my annual winter cold. It started on the twelfth and I've been dragging all week. Missed a week of exercise and only by Friday was I feeling more normal again. Through all of this though, I never missed a day of work. It is one of the drawbacks of working at home: calling in sick is not a simple thing. Sick is relative and whereas someone else might call in sick if they aren't up to driving, if I can crawl to the kitchen I can make it to the office. It's especially bad for me. For work I play with the computer. To relax I play with the computer. How can you tell when I'm not working? For that matter how can my boss tell when I AM working. Such is the conundrum of telecommuting.
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-02-06

There is also the issue of them knowing what I'm doing. As long as the Trouble Tickets get done and I answer the phone and e-mails promptly I'm pretty much on my own.
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-07-26

Of course Marsha wonders when I'm NOT working, but right now with her being full time at H&R Block plus the Superstore plus everything else, I'm beginning to wonder the same about her.

So I like working at home and being on my own most of the time.

As I said earlier I spent the week with my cold hacking and coughing and working. The cats just don't understand colds. I mean if was sick enough to stay in bed then they kinda get it. They stay nearby enough to comfort us but they still get ornery if we miss a feeding time. When I'm working though they are rather confused. I'm in the normal place but they can tell things aren't quite right. For one thing every once in a while I get a coughing fit and scare them away. I'm guessing that to them I must sound like I'm about to produce a hairball the size of my Kleenex box, and there were times I suspected they were right. Oh, and, speaking of Kleenex, it's also so much fun to discover in the morning that they think my wastebasket full of used Kleenex is actually a bin of new cat toys. I think we'll be fishing them out from under the couch and under tables  for the rest of the year.

It's been a long week.

I did get even though. Every once in a while my cold would settle in my throat.  When this happens my voice got very low and rumbly. It's actually kinda sad to think that the only time I can sound like Barry White is when I'm too sick to make use of it, but such is my lot in life. In any event the good part is that the new voice totally freaks out the cats. They know it looks like me but when I talk it's not. (Imagine Barry White rumbling "well, hello kitty come on over here so I can pet you". It would freak out me too.)

But I'm feeling much better now.

Doug & Marsha

PIX: Nanaimo is clear, dry, and warm but snow is not far away.