Y2/D364...Warm
Mar. 15th, 2022 06:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatThe heat and hot water came back on - also it made it to 60 degrees today, well that I experienced at any rate. And by the time I left work - it was probably in the fifties. I celebrated by taking a long hot shower and washing my hair. It was frigging cold last night with the heat or any hot water. But it did make for great sleeping.
It's weird the things I take for granted. I am not going to take heat and hot water for granted...well not until six months from now, when I forget about it - and they decide to replace the entire broiler. The broiler is over 100 years old, or so I was told. I doubt it. My guess is most likely fifty years old. The building is over 100 years old - it's pre-war (pre-WWII), but I seriously doubt the broiler is.
***
Crazy Workplace
I wish they'd make up their minds about well...everything. Very indecisive little work place. (Okay it's not little...it's huge, which makes it worse.) They change the procedures, the legal docs, everything constantly. I'm revising things that I've already revised multiple times. It's exhausting. I'd like to go one week without revising something. (So, what do I do? I come home and revise an 800 page novel that I wrote? I make no sense. I admit that.)
The time punch system still doesn't work. Kronos - a global time-keeping system was hacked back in December, and as a result various companies, schools, and agencies across the globe are having issues with their payroll/time-keeping systems. My vacation time did not show up. Oh, I had time in the vacation carryover (which I usually don't get - you either use it or lose it) but none in the vacation category. Also, the time punch continues to be rejected, with the error message that I'm a home employee.
Me: It thinks I'm working from home still.
BYT (for those new to this journal BYT = Bright Young Thing manager): Both myself and BB (Breaking Bad Manager, he's above BYT) could swipe in, but nobody else could.
Me: I should just stay home.
BYT: No, it doesn't think you are working from home. That's just the message it gives if you are swiping in at the wrong location. It has you working out of a completely different department for some reason. We're trying to reroute you.
ME: My vacation time isn't in there correctly either.
BYT: Send an email to PT and DM - they are supposed to be fixing that.
Union Guy: Don't mean to eavesdrop - but thank you for doing that.
ME: What?
Union Guy: going to your supervisor to ask about it. Everyone keeps coming to me - and that's what you are supposed to do.
Me: Why would they go to you? You have nothing to do with the time keeping system.
Union Guy: No clue.
Regarding masks? It's about 60/40, 60 percent without (dammit) and 40 percent with. Frigging Long Islanders. It would be okay, if they didn't feel the need to chat with them off.
Oh well, the workplace does have signs up now that state: "You Don't Have to Wear A Mask, but You Do HAVE to Respect Your Co-workers".
Weirdly White Union Guy (who was a Trump supporter) does wear a mask. While various liberal folks (from Haiti and the Caribbean) don't. So this isn't quite as clear cut as one might think.
***
Mother: You're brother agrees with you - he thinks I gossip too.
Me: Oh?
Mother: I told him I just share information that I've learned about folks and find interesting. He said that's gossip. The sharing of trivial information that others have shared with you about their lives.
Me: Yup.
Mother: It's odd how you just don't tend to keep the things other people find important, or you throw out what they want without realizing it.
ME (wondering where she is going with this)
Mother: Your brother asked me if I'd kept any of the slides or 35 millimeter shots that we'd taken of you kids, and you as a baby while we were in Chicago, also from our various trips and of family members - and I think I just through them out. I didn't think anyone would want them.
Me: You threw out the pictures but kept...my father's mug collection?
Mother: I didn't think anyone would want them.
Me: Mother, we'd want the photos more than the other collectibles.
Mother: I kept the cylinders for the music and old phonograph because it's an antique.
Me: I think we'd want the photos more - they are like memories, and faces of people...
Mother: I'm sorry.
Me: Can you digitize the photos in the photo albums...
Mother: Well, I was, but I got tired of doing it.
Later...she calls me back.
Mother: I found them. They were in the garage.
Me: You called me back just to tell me that?
Mother: Called your brother first to tell him.
Me: Okay, well tell him if he does anything with them - I want a copy.
My plan is to start printing my photos off somewhere, framing them and putting them on the walls. I just suck at that sort of thing - so have been procrastinating. The sunset fell down so, I propped it on top of a book case and hung it that way.
Also my printer isn't working properly - so can't print anything off.
Not surprising - I do not have a good track record with printers.
***
I'm frustrated with how my country is handling the pandemic.
Me: I told a co-worker that they no longer care whether we die.
Mother: No, they just don't care if you get sick - they figure you'll live.
Personally, I do not want to get sick - I have surgery coming up. At Christmas, I thought it was safe to go back to church, then everyone including me, got sick. And I don't want to take that risk again. (I wish she'd thought of that when I went to visit her - I didn't particularly appreciate getting sick at Christmas - on the other hand - it turned out well, I got to stay an additional week, saw my Dad, and it was very nice that second week.)
Mother: Pfizer is saying that we may need a fourth shot or second booster shot.
Me: They've been threatening that since August. Back and forth. You may need one, no, wait, you don't.
Mother: It's not like they have one available.
ME: I don't think they know. They certainly can't make up their mind.
Mother: It's just the Pfizer though doesn't appear to be the Moderna.
[My niece and I have the Pfizer, everyone else in our family has the Moderna, although my brother and sis in law got the Pfizer as the booster and the Moderna as the regular vaccine. If everyone would just get the damn vaccine this would not been an issue. But nooo. ]
The US does not handle pandemics well. We sucked with AIDS (although part of our issue with AIDS was Reagan and Homophobia. I hate homophobia. Note to anyone reading this? I have ZERO tolerance for homophobia. I lost all patience for it about twenty years ago.). And I can't say we did much better with polio, the Spanish Flu, cholera, etc. Although I'm not certain the rest of the world is all that much better.
I'm about ready to throw in the towel and buy a Music Man ticket - I want to see Hugh Jackman sing and dance on Broadway. (I've a huge crush on the man. Furthered by the fact that he's well adorable and married to a woman thirteen years older than he is.) I figure if I can survive commuting in and out of a major transportation hub every day, and deal with people at the workplace who don't wear masks - I can handle a Broadway show. It's not as if I can afford the orchestra seats anyhow. Also, I wear a mask off and on most of the day - three hours won't kill me.
***
It's still chilly, but warmer tonight. Supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. I'm looking forward to Spring. I'm tired of gray drab winter. I want to take long walks outdoors again. Taking long walks outdoors in a city during the winter is not fun. Everything looks gross and depressing. In the Spring? We've got flowers. The trash is still around, but hey, flowers!
The plus side of DST is that I get to see the sunrise again on my way to work. There's a great view of it on the viaduct that the train rumbles across every morning. The best view in Brooklyn is on that viaduct. I get see the sun rise across the city. You've not seen a great sunrise until you've watched it glow against steel and glass buildings. And now that we have all these new skyscrapers in downtown Brooklyn - it's a line of skyscrapers from Brooklyn to Manhattan, with the sharp orange, pink, and yellow bits of sunlight reflected against them and streaked across the dully light blue sky.
**
Here's a picture ...of a sunset, because I can't find one of a sunrise - I don't take pictures of it on the train in the morning, that would require work. All I want to do at 6:45 am in the morning on the train is listen to music, read, and watch the sunrise. (Also, I'd have to get up and risk losing a seat.)
It's weird the things I take for granted. I am not going to take heat and hot water for granted...well not until six months from now, when I forget about it - and they decide to replace the entire broiler. The broiler is over 100 years old, or so I was told. I doubt it. My guess is most likely fifty years old. The building is over 100 years old - it's pre-war (pre-WWII), but I seriously doubt the broiler is.
***
Crazy Workplace
I wish they'd make up their minds about well...everything. Very indecisive little work place. (Okay it's not little...it's huge, which makes it worse.) They change the procedures, the legal docs, everything constantly. I'm revising things that I've already revised multiple times. It's exhausting. I'd like to go one week without revising something. (So, what do I do? I come home and revise an 800 page novel that I wrote? I make no sense. I admit that.)
The time punch system still doesn't work. Kronos - a global time-keeping system was hacked back in December, and as a result various companies, schools, and agencies across the globe are having issues with their payroll/time-keeping systems. My vacation time did not show up. Oh, I had time in the vacation carryover (which I usually don't get - you either use it or lose it) but none in the vacation category. Also, the time punch continues to be rejected, with the error message that I'm a home employee.
Me: It thinks I'm working from home still.
BYT (for those new to this journal BYT = Bright Young Thing manager): Both myself and BB (Breaking Bad Manager, he's above BYT) could swipe in, but nobody else could.
Me: I should just stay home.
BYT: No, it doesn't think you are working from home. That's just the message it gives if you are swiping in at the wrong location. It has you working out of a completely different department for some reason. We're trying to reroute you.
ME: My vacation time isn't in there correctly either.
BYT: Send an email to PT and DM - they are supposed to be fixing that.
Union Guy: Don't mean to eavesdrop - but thank you for doing that.
ME: What?
Union Guy: going to your supervisor to ask about it. Everyone keeps coming to me - and that's what you are supposed to do.
Me: Why would they go to you? You have nothing to do with the time keeping system.
Union Guy: No clue.
Regarding masks? It's about 60/40, 60 percent without (dammit) and 40 percent with. Frigging Long Islanders. It would be okay, if they didn't feel the need to chat with them off.
Oh well, the workplace does have signs up now that state: "You Don't Have to Wear A Mask, but You Do HAVE to Respect Your Co-workers".
Weirdly White Union Guy (who was a Trump supporter) does wear a mask. While various liberal folks (from Haiti and the Caribbean) don't. So this isn't quite as clear cut as one might think.
***
Mother: You're brother agrees with you - he thinks I gossip too.
Me: Oh?
Mother: I told him I just share information that I've learned about folks and find interesting. He said that's gossip. The sharing of trivial information that others have shared with you about their lives.
Me: Yup.
Mother: It's odd how you just don't tend to keep the things other people find important, or you throw out what they want without realizing it.
ME (wondering where she is going with this)
Mother: Your brother asked me if I'd kept any of the slides or 35 millimeter shots that we'd taken of you kids, and you as a baby while we were in Chicago, also from our various trips and of family members - and I think I just through them out. I didn't think anyone would want them.
Me: You threw out the pictures but kept...my father's mug collection?
Mother: I didn't think anyone would want them.
Me: Mother, we'd want the photos more than the other collectibles.
Mother: I kept the cylinders for the music and old phonograph because it's an antique.
Me: I think we'd want the photos more - they are like memories, and faces of people...
Mother: I'm sorry.
Me: Can you digitize the photos in the photo albums...
Mother: Well, I was, but I got tired of doing it.
Later...she calls me back.
Mother: I found them. They were in the garage.
Me: You called me back just to tell me that?
Mother: Called your brother first to tell him.
Me: Okay, well tell him if he does anything with them - I want a copy.
My plan is to start printing my photos off somewhere, framing them and putting them on the walls. I just suck at that sort of thing - so have been procrastinating. The sunset fell down so, I propped it on top of a book case and hung it that way.
Also my printer isn't working properly - so can't print anything off.
Not surprising - I do not have a good track record with printers.
***
I'm frustrated with how my country is handling the pandemic.
Me: I told a co-worker that they no longer care whether we die.
Mother: No, they just don't care if you get sick - they figure you'll live.
Personally, I do not want to get sick - I have surgery coming up. At Christmas, I thought it was safe to go back to church, then everyone including me, got sick. And I don't want to take that risk again. (I wish she'd thought of that when I went to visit her - I didn't particularly appreciate getting sick at Christmas - on the other hand - it turned out well, I got to stay an additional week, saw my Dad, and it was very nice that second week.)
Mother: Pfizer is saying that we may need a fourth shot or second booster shot.
Me: They've been threatening that since August. Back and forth. You may need one, no, wait, you don't.
Mother: It's not like they have one available.
ME: I don't think they know. They certainly can't make up their mind.
Mother: It's just the Pfizer though doesn't appear to be the Moderna.
[My niece and I have the Pfizer, everyone else in our family has the Moderna, although my brother and sis in law got the Pfizer as the booster and the Moderna as the regular vaccine. If everyone would just get the damn vaccine this would not been an issue. But nooo. ]
The US does not handle pandemics well. We sucked with AIDS (although part of our issue with AIDS was Reagan and Homophobia. I hate homophobia. Note to anyone reading this? I have ZERO tolerance for homophobia. I lost all patience for it about twenty years ago.). And I can't say we did much better with polio, the Spanish Flu, cholera, etc. Although I'm not certain the rest of the world is all that much better.
I'm about ready to throw in the towel and buy a Music Man ticket - I want to see Hugh Jackman sing and dance on Broadway. (I've a huge crush on the man. Furthered by the fact that he's well adorable and married to a woman thirteen years older than he is.) I figure if I can survive commuting in and out of a major transportation hub every day, and deal with people at the workplace who don't wear masks - I can handle a Broadway show. It's not as if I can afford the orchestra seats anyhow. Also, I wear a mask off and on most of the day - three hours won't kill me.
***
It's still chilly, but warmer tonight. Supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. I'm looking forward to Spring. I'm tired of gray drab winter. I want to take long walks outdoors again. Taking long walks outdoors in a city during the winter is not fun. Everything looks gross and depressing. In the Spring? We've got flowers. The trash is still around, but hey, flowers!
The plus side of DST is that I get to see the sunrise again on my way to work. There's a great view of it on the viaduct that the train rumbles across every morning. The best view in Brooklyn is on that viaduct. I get see the sun rise across the city. You've not seen a great sunrise until you've watched it glow against steel and glass buildings. And now that we have all these new skyscrapers in downtown Brooklyn - it's a line of skyscrapers from Brooklyn to Manhattan, with the sharp orange, pink, and yellow bits of sunlight reflected against them and streaked across the dully light blue sky.
**
Here's a picture ...of a sunset, because I can't find one of a sunrise - I don't take pictures of it on the train in the morning, that would require work. All I want to do at 6:45 am in the morning on the train is listen to music, read, and watch the sunrise. (Also, I'd have to get up and risk losing a seat.)
no subject
Date: 2022-03-20 02:34 am (UTC)Hmm..Vancouver could be an option. I don't think Ottawa could work (noticed it is like the US Mid-Western and Upper Western states of Wyoming, Minnesota, etc. Toronto is also doable.
Our work from home situation is less likely to happen - then again who knows? I work for a very large state agency, who has to figure out whose interests it must serve. It wants to retain good employees - who can easily jump into remote jobs at other companies/organizations. Yet at the same time? It wants to support the thousands of employees who can't work from home and might be (I don't know?) envious? (sigh). But there is a petition online requesting the Governor (who heads the agency) to overrule the chairman, and let us do a hybrid schedule or work from home completely.
It has its pros and cons, much like you relate above. On the one hand - it's nice to interact with folks. On the other - I am less stressed at home, and can get more done. Less interruptions.
Also, I get more natural light and daylight. Plus more sleep. And better food options. Yet more exercise if go into the office (commute involves lots of walking), reading done, and can print off stuff.
It's a mixed bag. I'm kind of glad the decision is being made for me in a way.