Some pokes are worse than others

Sigh.  Though I hardly knew the guy, having only met him a few times, I am sad to report the loss of someone in “the family”, that huge network of siblings, in-laws, cousins, and archeologists (or some mix thereof) of which I am but a small part.  Often you just have to remember that some things require a gesture that’s practically my signature:  a head shake, a shrug, and a weary trudging onward.  Nothing to do but carry on and hope that our time here means as much to others as theirs does to us.

Fare thee well, traveler, and good luck.

A confession

Yes, it’s true, I did it! I poked my own family members in their eyes! Boo hoo, boo hoo, the shame of it all.

There.  Hopefully I was able to successfully fake sincerity.  Well, really, I do feel bad that I forgot both my mother’s birthday and that of my co-blogging sister.  To be fair, though, I forget pretty much everything, so it’s not like I went out of my way to avoid getting them a present or phoning them, like last year.

In any case, let me end with this quote from Dickens:

“And he leaned from the desk where he worked all the night,
Said, “Happy Birthday to all, and my pants are too tight!”

Or something like that.

 

A poke in the face, a slap in the eye.

I’m not one to complain.  Really, I’m not.  Gripe, yes.  Shake my head in consternation, yes.  Mutter murderously under my breath, no.  OK, yes.  But complain?  Not me.  And I really, really hate to sound like one of those people who think they’re oh-so-deserving of every award and recognition out there.  In fact, those who know me well know that I don’t crave attention at all.  I recall watching a video taken by a friend’s mother my senior year of the prom court procession thingy, of which I was a part.  I didn’t remember keeping my head down the whole way like that.  It was like my head weighed fifty pounds (no jokes, please).  I’d peek up for a second, then right back down it would go.

But for some reason this just plain irritates me.  Remember not very long ago I mentioned being nominated for an “Employee of the Month”-ish thing we’ve got here?  Well, the winners were just announced, and I wasn’t on the list at all.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge the ones who were on the list.  In fact, one person in particular I like, and I do feel she deserves the recognition.  But honestly, without intending to sound self-congratulating in any way, so do I.  I do work my butt off, with no complaints (gripes, yes), and I do believe I always do my best to… well, to do my best.  One wonders why all the others are praised for their hard work, while I hear only the one person who nominated me… and was completely ignored.  I also know of someone else, nominated by my own dear wife, in the same situation.

As bad as it was for me, however, I heard something today that’s even worse.  My wife herself was not nominated for the managerial equivalent, which in itself wouldn’t really bother me, except that her co-manager was.  And let me just say–and this statement was not influenced a shred by personal feelings–that my wife is clearly a superior manager.  As much as I work, she does more.  She truly puts her heart and soul into her work, and to me it’s a slap in the face that she wasn’t even nominated.  See, I was going to put that it was a poke in the eye, but that just wasn’t quite painful enough.  Sigh.  I have a feeling that my Rolling Eye of Shame™ is about to go missing again.

I’m back, baby!

Hard to believe, but I went through a couple of days of vacation and I didn’t get poked even once!

My wallet did, though.

a post about nothing

I have nuthin’ to say.

nope, nuthin’.

however, since I heard thru the grapevine that I wasn’t posting enough (which comment came from an unnamed source, whose name I won’t mention, but whose initials are poke in the eye) I decided to post anyway.

even tho I have nuthin’ to say.

nuthin’.

that is all.

The sky’s limit

Remember I didn’t get the vacation days I asked for? Well, yesterday was the only one I did get, the least convenient one, but we figured we’d use it to our advantage anyway. We decided to take a hike up to a recently-restored fire lookout. The hike itself was a bit more strenuous than I was expecting, but luckily I am in stupendous shape, for a sack of potatoes. Well, seriously, it’s a good thing I’ve been taking the stairs at work, because I really did surprise myself that, after the hike, I was able to climb the few flights of stairs to reach the top of the tower. An uphill hike, a stairclimb, and, of course, a poke. It was an overcast day, and we were quite literally in the clouds. We could see the mist swirling around us with the breeze. Lovely, it’s true, but darn inconvenient, as our view from the tower consisted of the slope below us with the interstate running by. The mountains and valleys across the way? Well, who can say for sure they were even there that day? Not I, my friend. Not I.

and the dumbest criminal award of the day goes to…

this gal.

lemonade, anyone?

the time has finally arrived. after 5 long years of paying a monthly car note, I finally received the last statement. whoo hoo, right?

yes and no.

yes, cuz now I’ll have an extra (yeah right – extra) few hundred dollars a month to spend on frivolous items such as beer, food, electricity, toilet paper and the like.

no, cuz…(ok, ya know there’s a poke comin’, right?)

a couple days after this new freedom in the form of a “last note” statement entered my mailbox, the “check engine” light came on in said car.

now I lifted the hood and checked the engine, and it was still there.

what could the problem be? loose gas cap? nope. low on oil? nah – I always pay close attention to that.

so…what?

I should find out next week. here’s to hopin’ that it’s not a transmission problem.

cross your fingers, have some lemonade, and stay tuned…

She got poked…

…in the stomach?