Vexed and Grateful in Everyday Ramblings

It isn’t just San Francisco that has a row of pretty Victorians.

Wow, our legislature is making national news because our Republican Senators left the state rather than vote against a Climate oriented bill on Cap and Trade. We’ve always been a divided state, but now everybody knows how divided we are. It is sad because there is lots of business left to do. But the minority took their toys and went home.

The second part of my test results finally came in yesterday and my blood flows were normal. What this means in the short term is no invasive intervention at this time. And that is good news.

I don’t know what the next steps are but I am glad to be out of that waiting for results might need “the procedure” space.

Work remains awful. I reported what I considered to be retaliatory harassment to HR and my manager’s manager. That seems to have clamed down. I also insisted that I take the scheduled meeting yesterday with Mr. On the Spectrum and Motorcycle Man over the phone instead of in person.

The whole precipitating factor in this health challenge was my deeply physical reaction when I was told to take my contact information, (particularly my phone number) off all the correspondence with our customers.

In the end, even though I dragged my feet on it for a few weeks I did it. My IT person has been teasing me about the absurdity of it and yesterday I got a call from a truly exasperated researcher from another institution who wanted to give us a purchase order number for some work his lab was ordering through us. This guy was transferred to me from someone in an allied department. He said he had tried 10 different people and left numerous messages for Motorcycle Man whom he heard ran our department with no response.

It took me about 5 minutes to find the info he needed to chat and exchange useful information. I don’t know if you’ve ever needed to deal with an exasperated incredulous person but my approach is to make very clear that I hear them and understand that they are exasperated and to the best of my ability try to understand why they are so vexed.

But apparently this skill is no longer valued in my workplace. I don’t care. I am going to continue to deploy it anyway.

While I was having the phone meeting yesterday the nice efficient dryer guy came back and fixed my dryer. Sweet! It is great to have it back working with ease of operation.

And three of my students took me out for a lovely dinner to celebrate my birthday last night after class where we witnessed a dramatic thunderstorm and downpour. I let them drive me home too.

Mrs. Sherlock was on a hike with the Trails Club yesterday where one of her fellow hikers, an older woman who likes to talk, took a fall on the trail and hit her head. She was not coherent for a few minutes but then came back into herself and they all hiked out. Mrs. Sherlock took her to the hospital and when they did a scan, she had a bleed in her brain. She had to stay overnight.

Mrs. Sherlock got her settled into her room and then came to class and then out to dinner. Then she had to go right back and take her car home and all the complicated logistics of this type of situation.

So even though I am tired and nothing is resolved at work, or in terms of long term care of my heart condition I am incredibly grateful.

No physical intervention!
My dryer is working!
I am working from home for the rest of the week!

Oh and in the middle of it all I had a weird growth on my leg cauterized and my skin checked for anything suspicious and nada, nothing, I am six years cancer free!

Last updated June 27, 2019