Wednesday, April 29, 2009

time passes

Yes, the picture is of Italy, in Tuscany, just outside of Lucca. Not a bad place to be.


I got back from being away for a week and then had the pay-back week, which often, but doesn't always happen. Seems like too many people needed attention, and too much water was delivered and no one else could do anything about it. We almost ran out of paper too. Can't anyone else take care of anything?

Today I drove into the parking lot of the building in which I have been working for the last ten years. It is basically a medical building. For ten years before that we were in a nicer building in a nicer office, but it was full of software designers, and unless they were clients, and many were, it made people uncomfortable, and they got rid of us when they finally could.

The parking lot sits on a bit of a rise and I can see the morning sun shining on the gray, red and brown buildings that make up the downtown. It's a hard-working, sometimes prospering, sometime suffering small city. Sometimes it feels as if I know at least thirty per-cent of population, even though I don't live too close to here and hardly have time to leave my office. Those I don't know I have heard about. I get before it reaches the paper.

I have been here almost thirty years. It's kind of weird to think that I have devoted so my of my life to this. Yes, there are more things I hope to accomplish, and probably will, but when I think of "what have I done with my life?" this has been pretty much it.

It's very interesting, and I still enjoy it here, although I sometimes wish the city was a bit more prosperous, but how many cities are these days? But it was kind of a weird moment to think -- this was what it was.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

so much stuff

I was away, now I'm back.

It was too cold for too long up here in the North, so we took off to the South to find the Spring, and for the most part we did. It was a bit breezy in Augusta when we were there, but all the flowers were ready for the big tournament, everything was in bloom. We drove north to the Blue Ridge Mountains and found a bit of snow, but that faded the next day and it was warm and friendly. Those mountains are beautiful and accessible and fun as you can still get creamy, cheesy grits, that you can't find up here.

But then I returned and had to catch-up with the bills, the paper-work, the cleaning, the shopping, the sorting and the arranging. It all kind of sucks.

I have a couple of clients who refuse to do that. Yes, they are in debt, on the verge of being homeless and live in clutter, some in filth, but I can see their point. There is so much stuff to do, just to stay where you are. It is so time consuming and boring. Someone should do it for me!

I see how much time, expense and effort it takes for a family when one of their members can't, or won't do their part, at least for themselves. It can exhaust everyone. At what point do you cut them loose and let them sink, especially it it is your own kid.

I am very grateful that those who I have brought into the world have been able to fly off on their own. They seem to be quite able to slog through the necessities of getting their stuff done.

However, they best not forget from whence they came.