July 13, 2018
Dear Everyone:
I have mentioned before that I spend Tuesday afternoons at the
Martinez
Senior Center. The real
reason, of course, is to satisfy my Crochet Cravings.
I can hook yarn for a couple of happy hours alongside “Ladies of
a Certain Age” who also enjoy
crocheting,
knitting,
embroidery and
quilting.
Each week, “Lenore”, who manages the “Crafts” group, would send a 3-ring
binder around the table.
“Lenore” would have already checked off everyone who came that Tuesday.
Our job was to mark on our individual page how many hours we
spent that week working on our particular project(s).
Each week I noted the date and marked “2 hours”, since that was
generally how long I spent each Tuesday with the group.
I only recently realized that “Lenore” was already counting those two
hours from her general sheet.
The individual sheet was to record how many additional hours were
spent.
Two things:
1. I typically spent more
than two hours each week on whichever project I was working on for the
Senior Center. These were
the whimsical stuffed toys that I made to donate.
So the additional “2 hours” was nothing to worry about.
2. I absolutely refuse to
keep track of how much time I spend on just about anything these days.
For decades (not exaggerating), I used to keep track of my time at work,
assiduously recording how much time was spent sorting versus filing; how
much time spent on Project A versus how much on Project B; not to
mention Projects C through Z.
Management always wanted to know how much time its employees
worked on what, if only to confirm that said employees were actually
working.
I had a co-worker who once informed me, confidentially:
“In all honestly, I can tell you
that most of my numbers are made up out of whole cloth.”
So much for honesty.
Another time, someone pointed out to me that she had both Lease and
Royalty Files to put away.
How much time was spent on each if she did them at the same time?
I suggested that she count the total number of files, figure out
what percentage of them were Leases and which were Royalty and split the
time between them. It was
only months later that I found out what she had interpreted that to
mean. She told me that,
“Since we always have more Lease Files than Royalty Files, I just
counted the total and marked them all under ‘Leases’.”
So much for accurate information.
Being the conscientious person that I am, I actually made up a matrix
that I kept on a clipboard at my desk.
It marked the time, in quarter-hour increments, down the side,
with Projects across the top.
That way I could glance at the clock, note the time, mark an “X”
under whichever Project at that time on the matrix.
If the phone rang, and it was someone suddenly interrupting me to
talk about their Project, I could simply “X” the time under
that Project, until I got
back to what I was originally doing.
That worked pretty well. But
one time, in the kitchen after work, I glanced at the clock and said to
myself, “OK, it’s 7:35 and I’m starting to empty the dishwasher.”
Really.
Now that I’m Retired, I don’t have to keep track of my time anymore!
So I won’t.
As for why the Senior Center wanted to know how many hours were spent on
donations? It turns out that
they hold an “Annual Appreciation Lunch” and the requirement for
“admission” is 20 hours of volunteer work.
In my case, not a problem.
Enter, “Effie, the Enforcer”, a volunteer who never met a rule she
didn’t like. A couple of
weeks ago, “Effie” was loudly informing everyone that time spent making
hats for the babies in the hospital, while a worthy endeavor, did not
qualify for the Annual Lunch.
Not that anyone paid any attention to her.
But “Effie” gets enjoyment out of laying down the law, so we let
her rant away to her heart’s content.
In any case, we had the Luncheon today.
The Ukulele
Group provided the entertainment.
Yes! There is a
Ukulele Group! And the
Mayor gave us each a
State of
California Assembly Certificate of Appreciation.
What more could one wish?
Love, as always,
Pete
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