October 20, 2011
Dear Everyone:
I
had lunch today with a “former, former co-worker”.
We’ll call her “Babette”.
When we first started working together, we were in the “Boring
and Really Expensive Services Company” (BRES).
She was an Information Technology (IT) “contractor” and I was
just beginning to teach people how to use the
Document Management (DM)
System that had been purchased by BRES and which she supported.
Over the years, “Babette” kept trying to get hired as an employee, but
they kept putting her off, saying they couldn’t “afford” her, except as
a contractor.
Then the Powers That Be decided to move the whole “Information
Management” division out of the “Business” part of BRES and into the
Information Technology Company (ITC.)
The Document Management system, and those of us who supported it,
went as well. It took BRES
about a month to realize that they couldn’t function without “Babette”
and promptly hired her away from ITC.
Yeah for her. Not so
good for the rest of us.
Still, I was happy for her.
And “Babette” became a “former co-worker”.
When I left the Company, she became a “former, former co-worker”.
Now BRES is going through yet another “Resource Optimization
Management” (ROM) program.
“Babette” just found out that she still has a job.
For now. And I’m
happy for her.
I’m
happy for me, as well, as I don’t have to go through yet another ROM.
On
the home front…
I
have surreptitiously snuck one of my
bird feeders out of the closet.
This one is roughly the size and shape of a rectangular baking
dish, with a “mesh” that fits on top and helps keep the birdseed from
flying away when it gets breezy.
Instead of hanging it from the stand, I’ve placed it on the seat of one
of the wooden chairs on the patio.
That way, no one can see it except the people upstairs and only
if they come out onto the balcony.
The
jays were the first to spot it, of course.
They’re the most opportunistic in the bird world.
Then some smaller birds.
Then a few chickadees.
Nothing like before.
Before, when I had four feeders going, we had plenty of visitors.
A covey of quail showed up in the spring.
Lots of mourning doves, naturally.
And the turkeys.
A
few months ago, a troupe of four young wild turkeys wandered in under
the patio fence, following bits of seed.
They were bigger than hatchlings, but much smaller than adult
turkeys. In fact, the adult
turkey, “Mom”, would stand outside the patio and yell at them because
she couldn’t see where they were.
After a while, they got so big that they had to “duck” to fit under the
fence. Then, when it became
time to leave, they were “too big” to fit under the fence again.
So they learned to “flip-flop” their wings enough to get up to
the top of the fence. Then
they would sort of “flop” back down to earth again.
Normally, I don’t nickname birds.
But in this case, because there were exactly four of them, I
called them “Athos”, “Porthos”, “Aramis” and “D’Artagnan”.
Of course.
Even if the property management company hadn’t “ordered” me to stop
feeding them, they were getting too “advanced” to continue to “visit”.
In any case, they’re gone now.
Once things “settle down”, we’ll see how things go, bird-wise.
Love, as always,
Pete
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