Actually, I think that should be the "Unrealized Truth About Managing People." About a week ago an article in ComputerWorld made the rounds, The unspoken truth about managing geeks, and got a lot of positive reaction. While it talks about IT Professionals, it applies to anyone with enough brains to not swallow every bit of nonsense some idiot salesman says. I've extracted a few key bits, but the entire article is worth a read. It should probably be required reading for anyone even contemplating a management job. I doubt that will ever actually happen, after all Dilbert is a documentary disguised as a comic strip.

On perceived ego: "It's not about being right for the sake of being right but being right for the sake of saving a lot of time, effort, money and credibility."

Mentality: "When things don't add up, they are prone to express their opinions on the matter, and the level of response will be proportional to the absurdity of the event. The more things that occur that make no sense, the more cynical [they] become. [...] Presuming this is a trait that must be disciplined out of them is a huge management mistake."

and

"If you are dismissive of complaints, fail to recognize an illogical event or behave in deceptive ways, [they] will likely stop complaining to you. You might mistake this as a behavioral improvement, when it's actually a show of disrespect. It means you are no longer worth talking to..." [Emphasis mine.] This is so very true. It's a off-net version of dealing with damage by routing around it.

Insubordination: "[They] are not anti-bureaucracy, as many observers think. They are anti-stupidity."

"Arbitrary or micro-management, illogical decisions, inconsistent policies, the creation of unnecessary work and exclusionary practices will elicit a quiet, subversive, almost vicious attitude..."

"They may work on big projects or steer the group entirely from the shadows while diverting the attention of supervisors to lesser topics. They believe they are protecting the organization, as well as their own credibility -- and they are often correct." [Emphasis mine.]

Credit whoring: "[They] would prefer to make a good decision than to get credit for it. What will make them seek credit is the danger that a member of the group or management who is dangerous to the process might receive the credit for the work instead. That is insulting. If you've got a lot of credit whores in your group, there are bigger problems causing it." I don't like saying "I did that" just too much when it is or should be a team effort, but if a slacker is getting equal credit because the rest of us are working our asses off to compensate for his lazy butt, well, don't be surprised if you hear a bit more detail than you think you need to hear.

Antisocial behavior: "Like anyone else, [they] tend to socialize with people who respect them. They'll stop going to the company picnic if it becomes an occasion for everyone to list all the [...] problems they never bothered to mention before."

And this really goes everyone, at least everyone with any work ethic at all: "[They] work their butts off for people they respect, so you need to give them every reason to afford you some. Also true is, "Standard managerial processes are nearly useless." Earlier the article mentions that professional courtesy is not the same as respect and while that professional courtesy may be an automatic thing, respect is still an earned commodity. I once told the expediter (dock supervisor) at the Post Office that I stayed later than scheduled because I was helping him and NOT because of the regular supervisor who was a micromanaging buffoon. Had it just been for that fellow, I'd have clocked out exactly as scheduled and not felt the slightest remorse about it.

And this is also true: "...the fight in most [..] groups is in how to get things done, not how to avoid work. [They] will self-organize, disrupt and subvert in the name of accomplishing work. An over-structured, micro-managing, technically deficient runt, no matter how polished, who's thrown into the mix for the sake of management will get a response from the [..] group that's similar to anyone's response to a five-year-old tugging his pants leg." That's not just IT folks, that pretty much describes every place I've ever worked. Things get done in spite of micromanagement, but never because of it. This was (and is) as true at the Post Office as it was (and is) for programming.

In fact, when that micromanager at the Post Office wasn't there, his substitute tended to be rather scarce and barely appeared to do much at all. One of the things he realized was that everybody knew what had to be done and how to do it. So he simply got out of their way and let them do the job. He was only needed when things really didn't go right or something unexpected happened. The result was a much smoother operation and a much happier crew. And this wasn't IT or programming or engineering but was largely grunt-work.

Farker vossiewulf summed it up in three rules:

1. Don't bullshit [them] and keep all marketing weasel speak out of your vocabulary.
2. Don't tell them how to fix a problem, define the desired behavior and let them determine the best solution.
3. Give them the tools they need to get done what you ask of them.

If you don't want to believe that, consider this bit of information from Farker sseye "That was actually a decent article. I've seen a few companies that would still be worth something, or still in business, if their management took that advice."

Marketing weasel words and similar nonsense merely trips very sensitive bullshit detectors - and once those go off, everything is dismissed as the drivel of an idiot and/or liar. The person spouting such garbage gets all the respect of the proverbial shady used car salesman - because that's all he deserves.

Current Mood: impressed

With this post, rillaspins reminded me of a bit about the water dispensers at work. We used to have the typical water cooler with the 5-gallon or so jug that would need replacing every day or two. Then a while back we got these gadgets that filter the city-supplied water into something that doesn't taste as miserable as city-supplied water.

These dispensers have three buttons. One button is blue. Two buttons are orange. It was obvious to everyone that the blue button resulted in cold water being dispensed. That was no problem. What was a surprise was how many people didn't realize that both orange buttons had to be pressed to get hot water. I can understand trying one button, then the other, then both, but it came as surprise that the simple safety feature had to be explained to some. It is a safety feature, too. The hot water is steaming hot - I don't need to bother microwaving the water for hot tea.

Current Mood: amused

I've seen discussions, or rather arguments, about whether MixedCaseVariableNames are better or if underscore_linked_variable_names are better. I have dealt with both. From my Forth background, I rather prefer the MixedCaseVariableNames as one of the Forth tools I have results in printouts with underlines, which make underscores indistinguishable from spaces - this is a Bad Thing when trying to debug. Of course, in Forth I can use ~Variable-Names-With*Unusual-Characters-in-Them! if I am so inclined.

Now that my bias has been revealed, I'll address one of the notions of some of the underscore users. The idea is that say, this_is_a_test won't have the missing capital problem that ThisIsATest might if someone flubs and uses ThisIsaTest instead. This error could be found with a system that demands all variables be explicitly created. But not all systems are like that. Many are, or can be, quite lax and let the first instance of something substitute for an explicit declaration.

But the problem is not even that. The problem is that of case sensitivity. In an ideal system, case would be preserved, but not distinguished between. That is, if I make a variable named CustomerID the system editor won't go changing it on me to be customerid or CUSTOMERID but will leave it alone as CustomerID. But it will also accept CUSTOMERID and customerid and customerID and they will all point to the same information as CustomerID. Not that the programmer should go around not caring about case. Ideally each instance of the variable would look like all the other instances of the variable - but that's something the search-and-replace function of an editor can handle if need be.

"But that means you can't use each separately!" That's right. Which means I'd have to think up names that won't overlap in mental name-space and be confusing. It would require that I not obfuscate my code, at least not by abusing case.

Now, MiXedcAsevaARiabLeNAMe is something that does deserve to be editted out of any respectable program. Unlike MixedCaseVariableName, nothing is gained in readability by random capitalization. Rather, it just makes the programmer look like an idiot.

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At work I occasionally have a problem booting my primary computer. It takes longer than normal to boot, and then eventually shows me the desktop wallpaper, but no icons. If I wait a while long a window opens up and looks like it's running through a script (which is normal) and then stops with a few lines of "An unexpected error has occurred." And that's that. Nothing more. I can't close the window as the close button and the corner buttons are grey-out and inactive. All I can do is give the machine the three-fingered salute and tell it to shut down and then try again. Sometimes I get to go through this a couple times.

I'm not sure if this an XP weirdness (the 95 box doesn't do it, for what that's worth) or if the Novell networking is to blame for the weirdness, or if they just don't get along all the time. I'm not sure, but it might be something trying to reach a network resource that's in use and not responding very fast. I get the feeling, but am not certain, that this happens the later I start the computer and that the mealier I boot it the less likely I am to run into this. Since it's an intermittent problem, it's not that easy to confirm one way or the other very quickly.

I wonder, also, just what errors the system is expecting if it tells me about unexpected errors. Aren't all errors unexpected? Oh yeah, I forgot, this is Windows. Oops. Still, it's frustrating to see this after having dealt with MS-DOS, PC-DOS, FreeDOS, Window 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 2000 Professional, RedHat Linux, Mandrake Linux, muLinux, Vector Linux, DeLi Linux, OS/2, HP-UX, and FreeBSD at home and never having running to this "Hi, I'll only almost boot for you. Ha-ha!" problem.

Current Mood: annoyed

Rather than do the list of jobs bit, I figured I'd mention a bit about one place I worked. The place was a little shop that did some design, some electrical assembly and some motor repair. I started doing some assembly there as a part-time job during school, I think, or else it was just a Summer job at first.

The electrical assembly wasn't small stuff like putting a radio together, but putting together things like control panels for industrial applications. This wasn't pure 'stuff the part in and solder'. Instead it was: remove packing from console case, remove steel panels from case, layout mounting holes (we had templates for most of this), drill the mounting holes, tap the mounting holes, mount larger parts and rails for smaller parts, mount the smaller part, wire it all together. There was also a tiny bit of welding using a stud-welder to put grounding points in the case. It may sound simple and overall it was simple. It was also my first encounter with poor low-level management. More on that a bit later.

When the "panel shop" was slow for a while, I wound up working in the "motor shop" - the shops were effectively two different buildings that had been joined by a short hallway. Here, I mainly wound coils. Sometimes I'd do tests on the stators (the non-moving outer part) of motors to make sure that they did not need repair. This involved passing a well-insulated cable through the stator and turning on a current, then feeling around the stator for hot spots. If the laminations were shorted, induced current would rapidly heat that area. Most tests were no big deal and I think I only encounter a bad stator once. One larger motor required a large current. You get to wondering just what all can go wrong and what electric fields might do when working up close with 400 Amps.

Both jobs could be done by pretty much anyone, really. It was the panel shop supervisor who kept reminding everyone of that - which didn't help any. It further didn't help when they did hire someone "off the street" and that person turned out not to do so well after all. The other bit was the "shut up and get to work - if you're talking you ain't working" bit. Talk was needed, some for the job, and some to keep it from being mind-numbingly boring.

The motor shop supervisor was almost the exact opposite. He never said anything, that I recall, about getting just anyone to do something or other. His rule was, "So long as you're moving and doing stuff, being productive, I don't care how much you talk or what about." This made the much more boring job of coil winding much more interesting than the panel shop work. There'd be the usual talk of the news and sports, but also all manner of other things. Some things which some folks might never expect in a blatantly blue-collar job got serious and interesting discussion. Public Radio was often the radio station of choice. One guy even took his lunch late just to listen to Chapter A Day in peace as he worked.

The difference in attitude between the shops was amazing. The panel shop was often depressing, and not just from the country music some liked to have on the radio. The motor shop was almost never depressing. It was often harder, duller work, but that didn't matter.

One shop never turned a profit. The running joke, even after I'd left, was that it was the non-profit division of the company. The other shop was profitable - and set production records three months straight in a particularly hot and nasty Summer. It should surprise nobody which is which, yet both were at the same company and in the same location.

Current Mood: not nostalgic

That message is one I expect to see if I made changes to some file and tried to exit the program without having saved the file. That's fine. I like that reminder. It's useful and has saved me headaches and re-work.

What I do not like is using Word, saving the file, printing it, and then being asked if I want to save changes. Huh? I made no changes. I printed the file. Printing is not editing. Or with Excel, I open a spreadsheet, look at it, make no changes - not even moving the highlighted cell or scrollbars! - and when I close the thing I get asked if I want to save changes. There were no changes. Why ask if I want to save changes when there aren't any?

Is it any wonder I prefer to use third party software whenever possible?

( Preserved comment(s) )
Current Mood: annoyed

I like to believe I'm a fairly good programmer. I don't claim to be Wile E. Coyote, programming super-genius. But evidently some folks at work figure I can re-program external reality. (If I could, do you think I'd have left it in the condition it's now in?) This morning was "How is the ____ program coming along?" in regard to a problem that showed up yesterday afternoon during what should have been final testing.

After some digging and some more testing, I was able to demonstrate that the program actually did do exactly what was asked. Actually, two programs on two different pieces of hardware that had to talk to each other. Connected by cable, they worked just fine. Connected by a radio link, a necessity for this particular project, things got shaky. I have exactly zero control over the radios. But somehow I'm supposed to fix them in software on other hardware. I don't think so.

It turns out that not only were the radio-modems never properly configured, the guy who was setting them up didn't have the configuration tool for it. And that should have been a clue - we stopped using that brand of radio-modem a couple years ago. Gee, maybe there's a reason we switched brands? That was pointed this morning. Now, this afternoon, it finally dawns on the guy with radio-modems that maybe he should use the radio-modems that work.

( Preserved comment(s) )

Current Mood: irked

For a while in the late 1980s I worked in a place that rebuilt electric motors. Actually they did more than that and I was usually doing things not at all related to rebuilding motors. Usually. There was a time of about a month or so where the area I was in didn't have much going on, but the motor shop had plenty to do.

I spent most of that time at a machine winding coils. It was from there that I sort of witnessed a rather memorable event. The shop was divided into sections, with walls that didn't quite reach the ceiling. This was similar to cubical walls only higher and far more substantial. I was up front at the winding machine and a few others were stuffing the coils into place and such.

The rebuilt motors had to be tested, of course, and that was done in the next area over. The sound of electric motors starting was common. After a while a person hardly even noticed it. It was just another factory sound.

We all heard it. It was the sound of a large electric motor starting... almost. It didn't sound right. It was too growly. We all stopped and looked over toward the test area and then we saw it. The area was bathed in an intense orange glow that we saw above the wall. Something popped with a loud electric snap and the glow went out. A cloud of white smoke came up. All this happened in about a second or two.

The supervisor came tearing out of his office and rushed to the test area to see that everyone was ok. Everyone was. It was unnerving, but all that had happened was a bit of dirt was on a contact. It was what kept the motor from starting properly and the current had cooked it. That's where the glow and snap and smoke came from. It wasn't bad, but it sure looked and sounded bad.

( Preserved comment(s) )

Arriving at work this morning I started for my desk and noticed a strong smell of something perfume-like. I asked Kevin if there'd been a perfume spill and he said he was wondering what happened as well. A little perfume is one thing, this was a bit much - and it lingered. I was starting to wonder if one of the office (im)practical jokers had left an open vial taped under a desk or to the back of a drawer or something. I'd heard of that little stunt getting pulled from to time.

Turns out that it wasn't anything that demanded a thorough search. Craig had thought something smelled a bit musty and gave it a shot of Lysol. I'm not sure what's in original scent Lysol but I know I won't be buying the stuff. It smells too much.

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Current Mood: nauseated

The BBC is reporting survey results that indicate many people would be willing to reveal a password for a chocolate bar. Generally people don't like passwords unless they see a need themselves. And they really don't like having to have a bunch of different passwords, and then have to change them constantly. It gets to be hard to keep track.

I have a story of a couple passwords, now long expired and not re-used in case anyone is wondering. It started when a fellow at work left to go work for someone else. The stuff on his computer was backed up, but backup tapes are notoriously poor, so it was decided to keep his computer around and not have it immediately wiped and re-used elsewhere.

But to prevent someone overzealous with re-use mucking things up, Gene, who would need the data most, decided to put a BIOS password on. This is defeatable, but it means popping the case and therefore might get someone to think that maybe there's a reason that that password is there. On this system, two passwords were possible and he wanted to use them both.

I was asked, since I was in the room (the fellow who left and I had shared the room), what passwords might be good. I jokingly suggested "goaway" ala Slappy Squirrel for the first, and then "byebye" for the second. To my surprise, Gene used these suggestions.

All was fine for a few weeks. Every once in a while Gene would boot the computer and check something or copy something off. But eventually someone else had to check on something. Brian came in and tried to boot it and ran into the password screen. By then, I think I'd forgotten the passwords since I'd didn't need to use that computer and so didn't use the passwords regularly. I told Brian that Gene knew what the passwords were.

Brian phones Genes and asks about the passwords. Gene tells him. And Brian wonders why he was so rude. Gene had related the passwords without any explanation and Brian heard, "Go away. Bye Bye." A short walk to meet face to face cleared things up. Gene later accused me of setting him up. It wasn't a setup, at least not intentionally. I just suggested those passwords because it amused me at the time. I hadn't expected the results they eventually got.

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Current Mood: blah

It took (yet another) a Google search for "Windows Explorer Annoyances" that lead to a page about Windows Explorer harf on Windows Me but, finally, I have what *I* want. The trick? Command-line switches that XP's help seems not to mention.

How about them apples? Windows XP is what you get when you infect the stability of Windows 2000 with the poor user interface choices of Windows Me.

Target: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe /n,/e,C:\home\neubauer\

Now I have what I want rather than what some imbecile in Redmond believes I should have.

( Preserved comment(s) )

Current Mood: Still annoyed by this.

Windows Explorer in XP, or whatever XP calls the file manager, is trying to be helpful. That means it is really being annoying. On the desktop is a shortcut for "Documents" that opens the file manager to a documents directory. This directory is, however, not the one I really want. I want C:\home\neubauer instead.

I figured I'd just change the shortcut and give it the properties I want. It almost worked. It will give me direct access to C:\home\neubauer\ BUT that's now seemingly a ghost of the real thing. I'm not really there in the directory tree where I can, if I want to, easily jump to another directory, like C:\usr\bin or some other that I want to get to fast from time to time.

Instead of doing what I want, the system is trying to guess what I need and getting it wrong. It wants to be helpful in the worst way. And it is that: helpful in the worst way. I don't want this incompetent help. I want it to get out of my way. The Win95 box's Windows Explorer comes up at C: and shows the whole directory tree. That is acceptable. At least I can navigate directly from there without having to go through the extra step of clicking a "Folders" button. Even Windows 2000 got it right. But XP just had to go improve things the Microsoft way. The result: it sucks.

I've put up with this silly XP behavior for a few weeks now and my patience is running out. Anyone know how, or even if, the XP file manager can be whacked into doing the right thing? I haven't looked into replacement file managers just yet, but it may come to that.

( Preserved comment(s) )

SOLUTION (30 March):

It took a Google search for "Windows Explorer Annoyances" that lead to a page about Windows Explorer harf on Windows Me but, finally, I have what *I* want. The trick? Command-line switches that XP's help seems not to mention.

How about them apples? Windows XP is what you get when you infect the stability of Windows 2000 with the poor user interface choices of Windows Me.

Target: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe /n,/e,C:\home\neubauer\

Now I have what I want rather than what some imbecile in Redmond thinks I need.

Current Mood: annoyed

For a while I worked at a post office. I feel much better now, thanks. While working there, I of course got to see how things worked. While there's plenty to notice and comment upon, I'll keep it to today's mail.

A mail carrier normally arrives at the post office early, around 6:30 AM and sorts through all the mail to be delivered on his or her route. Around 8:00, ideally, the sorting is finished and the carrier can go out on the route and deliver. If the carrier for a given route is unavailable, another person is called in to take the route. This person usually has been trained on that route and so supposedly knows any quirks of it, and might even remember them.

Most mail carriers work a six day week, so a Monday holiday like yesterday's President's Day makes for a somewhat rare two day weekend. The mail doesn't completely stop on Sundays and holidays. It's still collected from the blue mailboxes, at least some of them, and still sorted and sent through the system. So on the Tuesday after a holiday, the pile of mail each carrier has to deliver is larger than usual and takes more time to sort and perhaps to deliver as well. That's part of why today's mail will probably be later than normal.

The other part is that people like extended weekends, and if only takes one day of vacation being used to get a weekend two days longer than normal, then that's what people try to do. Mail carriers will try to get the Tuesday off after a holiday. This gives them a three day weekend. It also means the substitute carrier gets to deal with the larger than normal amount of mail to deliver. The result is that the deliveries go even slower as the substitute takes more time to sort through and arrange the larger volume of mail and also takes more time to deliver as the route isn't nearly as familiar as it is to the regular carrier.

There aren't enough substitute carriers available to call in for all the regulars to take off, so maybe your mail will be on time. Almost.

Current Mood: calm

The bill for auto registration arrived and was paid (it's nice to have a separate account that gets a contribution set aside just for auto registration and insurance - one, well two, less things to worry about). I'm set for another year - though I am wondering when I'll be paying less than the cap for the fee. At least there is a cap, thanks to former Gov. Ventura.

At work I noticed a simple personal one page ad for a used car. It was for a 16 valve V6. Uhm, 16 valve V6? 12 valves would make sense (though it wouldn't be a point of advertising), as would 18 and 24 (which would be an advertising point). Or maybe it's a 4 cylinder? I wasn't curious enough to investigate it and find out.

Also the lines on the parking lot at work were repainted at long last. Part of the lot was repaved over a year ago. The lines are now nice and bright and obvious. Unfortunately they are not quite perpendicular to the edges of the lot, nor at a significant angle that would suggest that the painters meant to do that. Of course, come Winter it won't matter as there'll be a layer of packed snow and/or ice covering up the lines and even the lines that might remain visible will be merrily ignored.

The new no smoking policy went into effect Tuesday. Thursday afternoon there was an e-mail restating the ban and explaining the escalation of consequences. The only place on the business property where smoking remains permissible is inside personal vehicles. I wonder how much longer before the status of windows (up or down) becomes a matter of contention. Also, one person suggested a large vehicle, such as a Suburban, as a makeshift break room for smokers and speculated on a scene, upon them exiting, reminiscent of something from a Cheech and Chong movie. I won't be holding my breath. I no longer have to!

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: Little Brown Jug - Glen MIller

Every summer the place at which I work has a company picnic. And every year I do not go, for various reasons. The thing is, the way the invitation, if it can be called that, is worded.

___ I plan on attending.
___ My guest and I plan on attending.
___ I am unable to attend.

I don't return this unless someone asks for it specifically. Why? There is no right choice. I am not planning on attending. I am not unable to attend. I simply choose not to. That is, I refuse to attend. And that isn't considered.

Current Mood: apathetic

Blarg. The offices made from the conference room are being painted today. Not over a weekend, not even in late afternoon. Those times would be better as folks wouldn't be around as the paint dried... so we get to "enjoy" the fumes. And they aren't as pleasant as the fields around the Emerald City, I'm sure.

Also heard Ted Turner speaking at some place or other on the radio at noon. A couple things. He complimented Wyoming and other, similar states. Oh, he didn't mean it as compliment. He meant to compliment California for "voting right" and disparage other states "in the middle" for not going the same way. Thanks for the compliment, Mr. Turner. The other thing is that while he could be funny in his answers, it only made his attempts to be serious all the more awkward. You see, his voice sounds rather like Bob Hope.

Current Mood: nauseated

It was a true 2000 lb weight. Scale shop, go figure. I didn't lift it - that was done by an overhead crane system. But that system isn't motorized for back & forth, just up & down. The work wasn't really in moving the weight so much as getting it started moving while it was hanging, since one must overcome the initial friction of the bearings and those are up by the ceiling so it's done at a lousy angle. No, it's not something I normally do, but I had a minute and the guy who was doing it to calibrate a new design got a short break from it.

A couple things are interesting. A ton is not all that big, physically. A ton of steel, anyway. A steel shelled lead ton is smaller. Maybe a couple feet on a side. I didn't measure it. The other is that such a weight hanging from a crane gives a real feel for inertia. It's not hard to move, but moving it in a specifically desired manner takes some effort. While it was hanging, it was, to me, effectively weightless - but it still had mass. Makes one appreciate what some space work could be like.

It's snowing. That, in itself, is no big deal. That the amount is substantial and growing is a big deal. I woke up to what was probably 4 inches or so, where it wasn't drifted. Shoveling the driveway (just the half I need to get out) was nontrivial, mainly as the plow had gone by and left a couple feet of packed snow for me. Oh, joy. But work hasn't been called off, so off I went.

I got part of the driveway cleared. The streets had been plowed. The roads had been plowed. Though there was a curious "snow boulder" in the middle of the road on the way to work - for a moment I thought it might have been a stranded snowmobile or something.

The parking lot at work, however, seems not to have been touched. I went looking for a parking space I could get in to, and would have a good shot at getting out of again. In the process, I got stuck. Yes, in the damned parking lot of the place that hadn't been closed. Twice. I was seriously considering going home and calling in - saying I'd be back when they got things right. But someone pointed out one spot that had been plowed somewhat. I managed to get into that spot (with help.. nearly got stuck again in the process). If this snow keeps up and the lot is still crappy then I have a choice: Do I not go home at noon and hope things will be better by the afternoon, or do I go home at noon and not bother coming back?

If a place isn't going to close, they should have their parking lot plowed at least somewhat. This doesn't just affect those who work here. Anyone coming to drop off or pick up anything (if they are still going at all) is also at risk of getting stuck. As an example, there is gal here from a local catering service and she'll be here a while. Her van - her big commercial delivery van - is stuck in the lot at a funny angle as it can't move. This is the same outfit that supplies lunch here. I wonder if they will today. I wouldn't blame them for telling this place they won't risk another vehicle until things get put right.

Current Mood: pissed off

For the last couple weeks a coworker, I'll just call him KH, has been concerned with the health of his father. His father was diagnosed with some cancer. I don't know the details, and they don't matter. The cancer was quite advanced and he had days, or maybe weeks. He decided to try to get a bit more time with some treatment and underwent "light" (as in relatively mild, not as in photons) therapy. The chemicals hit him pretty hard and didn't seem to be having much positive effect.

Last week, KH took a day or two off to prepare the house for his father's return. Rails were being installed in the bathroom, as an example. Friday he didn't show up, and there was no explanation, but it was understood - spend what little time was left together. KH is also not here today. But today we found out just how little that was. HK's father died sometime Friday morning.

Another fellow, TJ, went through something similar last week when his mother died. Not much to say. Both KH and TJ knew it would happen sometime, but it's always a jolt when it does.

They, however, are probably not enduring the worst of those here. There is another, JO, who is going through a worse hell still. Ever have a birthday that sucked? Not like this one, I hope. JO's son's 21st birthday is being marked by a cancer diagnosis, a cleaned out apartment for a move back to live with his folks, sudden hospitalization, intravenous feeding, and chemotherapy that is decidedly not light. Any visitors he might have must dress in gown and mask. And things have only just started.

Everyone is a creature of habit, to some degree. Everyone has habits. Good one, bad one, useless ones, useful ones, harmless ones, dangerous ones, and the occasional unintentionally amusing one.

( I suppose it's exercise, at least. )

Current Mood: amused