View From a Privileged Life in Everyday Ramblings

So five years ago for my 60th birthday Kes and Most Honorable and I went to Central Oregon to the Metolius River. (Kes was just there a few weeks back with a couple of friends.) Ours was a lovely trip and a great way to celebrate.

I don’t spend much time thinking about the past. Of course memories come up and I do find myself missing Mr. Finch and Sammy pretty much daily but by and large I am rooted in either the present moment or planning in some respects for the future.

The counselor I talked to said I might find some benefit in reviewing my work life, particularly the accomplishments to help wrap a time frame around it as it draws to a close here.

I’ve taken some risks and not followed the straight and narrow path and have periods where I wasn’t working. There have been a couple of themes, I didn’t want to be a manager that was expected to work all hours and be responsible for implementing processes and programs I didn’t agree with. I didn’t totally avoid this and have both hired a number of folks and let people go, the first time I did that I was 26 years old.

There have been jobs with big companies, many temp jobs, jobs with small family businesses (businesses like the Trumps where the children are involved that I found odious), mid-sized business and simple things like balancing other people’s checkbooks. Almost all my jobs had to do with numbers. That was a conscious decision after my first “real” job as a unit clerk on a hospital ward. No more life and death days for me.

I’ve had my own business and in a very small way still have one now with the yoga. I am interested, fascinated in fact, by how money works, both in the world and on people but I have never had the drive to make a whole lot of it. You can’t take it with you and all that.

The HR guy finally got back to me yesterday midday to tell me that he had laid out my concerns to Mr. On the Spectrum’s boss, the head of the half of the department I work in.

I knew as much because the only contact I ever have with this individual these days is I provide month-end metrics to him in this cumbersome to put together way that is more like coloring in a coloring book than manipulating statistics. (I will not miss this task at all) and yesterday morning when I sent them off to him he replied with a Thank You.

Nobody ever thanks me for anything on this job these days so that was a big reveal.

Anyway HR man is away next week and so he gave me some dates to get together with our head man in two weeks and that is when I have my 65th birthday and the following day my CT scan. So no go on anything happening about my situation at work for a number of weeks.

Mrs. Sherlock bailed on getting together this morning. I totally understand, she wanted to putter around the garden. It is gloomy and getting humid so I slept in. I worked a lot of overtime this last week and the new drug regime is taking its toll on my energy level.

And I have a lot of homework on the meditation course.

I had done a fairly long and comprehensive relaxation practice last night (it is so cool, they use all these ancient techniques melded with modern scientific research on creating the conditions for deep deep relaxation) and I forgot to bring in the bird “stuff”.

The raccoons (party of five) took apart my tube feeder again and this time a piece is missing. They are remarkably resourceful those raccoons. Sometimes I think they and the crows and the pigeons and squirrels are just biding their time until we overindulge ourselves into extinction.

The view from a truly privileged life. Not as privileged as the men I work with but still…

One that is going through a major transition.

So say we all.

Last updated June 08, 2019