My cat now looks at homebound-me and asks "traffic? What, am I traffic
to you now?"
Emmitt help me greatly in my early yeaR:s on the list; your posting a
reminder of the generosity of his soul.
Bruce Chitiea
------ Original Message ------
From: "A. Razzak Memon" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: 3/25/2020 6:55:03 AM
Subject: [RBASE-L] - My first day in the Home Office (No, not in the
British sense!)
To all:
This message is an off topic post from a gone but not forgotten friend to the
R:BASE Community Emmitt Dove on July 5th, 2006, when working from home was more
optional than the current environment.
Enjoy this blast from the past!
Razzak
-------------------------------
You may not know that today was my first day in my new home office. Being the
opportunist I am, events at work transpired to make this possible, and I jumped
at the chance. For those of you who think a home office is a bed of roses,
consider:
The Awakening
I have one of those "atomic" alarm clocks that set themselves to the Naval
Observatory and also display the indoor temperature and humidity. For the past several
years my alarm has been set to 5:45 am. That allows time to negotiate two bridges under
construction and still make it to work at a reasonable hour. So I decided I could take
some of that time back.
Well, this clock has four buttons on the back - mode, mem, up arrow and down
arrow. Intuitive, right? No amount of fidgeting with the blasted thing could
get me to the set alarm time mode. The reasonable alternative would have been
to consult the documentation. Oh, but where in blazes is the doc? Nowhere I
can find it. So I did the logical thing and hopped online, went to the
manufacturer's website, hit the clock section, went to the documentation
download page. Now, where is my model? Not there. They have online doc for
every other clock made in the history of Mankind, but not mine.
By this time it is getting late, so I decide to go ahead and hit the sack and
deal with the clock another time. So could I get to sleep? No, I was to busy
steaming over a piece of plastic and electronics that had failed to yield to my
superior efforts. Turn the light back on ... fidget some more ... no luck.
Light off. Light back on. Off. On. Finally, somewhere after midnight, I
inadvertently hit some unidentified combination of buttons that put me into
alarm set mode! For joy!
At 6:15 AM this morning the clock faithfully sprang to life and emitted its
annoying chirping to wake me up. Off to a good start. After all, tonight I
can make up the hours of sleep I missed last night fidgeting with the blooming
clock. Note to self: just plan on awakening at 6:15 for a good long time.
Now to get going and get ready ...
The Brief Commute
No, not that kind of brief - I meant quick! I did run into some cat traffic between the
food dish entrance ramp and the litter box exit. However, that was offset by the fact
that there was no wife traffic (she's up in Newfoundland for a few days). The lack of
wife traffic was fortunate, since there is only one "rest stop" along the way,
and it can get jammed with wife traffic. The facility, such as it is, is a one-holer.
(Note to Southerners: this one-holer is indoor, and has plumbing!) Naturally, wife
traffic has the right-of-way. I'll have to schedule future commutes around this
potential log jam.
The weather was nice - incandescent light with a background of filtered
overcast. Even though it was raining steadily, the road was dry and I didn't
need my wipers. The temperature was a comfortable 74.3 degrees and 61%
humidity, according to the aforementioned undocumented electronic clock device.
A gentle, cool breeze emanated from the east, courtesy of the Friedrich
Corporation. Indeed, the trip was almost idyllic.
There was no wait at the breakfast place, but the selection was very limited.
Strangely enough, there was cat traffic here, too. Note to self: put
groceries on the to-do list.
The coffee joint had just the blend I like, all hot and loaded into an
insulated mug. Things were looking up, except for the cat traffic.
Even getting up half an hour later and taking the cat congestion into account,
I still made it to work well ahead of my previous arrivals. As before, I
arrived before anyone else and had to turn on the lights. But I'm accustomed
to being first-in, and I really enjoy having some quiet time with my coffee,
Doonesbury and RBG7-L before the others start showing up.
[later]
Hmmm. Was today a holiday? Where is everyone?
Lunchtime
After a morning of the usual emails and phone calls, noon rolled around. So I
moseyed over to the local sandwich shop. Again, no wait, but an extremely
limited selection. Note to self: I really must get to the grocery store soon!
The afternoon was filled with the usual brain-disengaged user support calls:
Caller: "Would you add these valuations for me?"
Me: "You can do it yourself."
Caller: "How?"
Me: "Click that button right in the middle of the screen that says 'Add
valuation'."
Caller: "You never told me I could do that."
Homeward Bound
Quitting time rolled around, so I hit the reverse commute. Funny thing, though
- the phone kept ringing, so I had to keep turning around and going back to
work! And, there was all that cat traffic again. Then, I discovered that if I
opened the door the cat traffic disappeared! I'll have to remember that one.
Note to self: The food dish entrance ramp is in need of attention. More
groceries!
But, somehow, this is better than 30 miles each way that can turn into over an
hour on two major highways with even more major construction and untold numbers
of out-of-staters in a big hurry to get out of this state and into some other
state.
I guess I can get used to it.
And, upon reflection, I miss the wife traffic. Now, where is that cat?
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