“Remoted” – Workday Twenty-One – Monday

The morning was gray and raining and the forecast was for crazy heavy winds. The kind of winds that come with warnings from the local weather group on Facebook, text alerts from the power company about possible outages resulting from downed limbs and power lines, and an alert from work about what to do in the event of power loss while working remotely. This storm is no joke.

Breakfast today was my childhood favorite – cinnamon toast. When I was a kid, this was a rare and special breakfast treat, but as an adult fully aware of the low degree of difficulty and minimal ingredients, I have no idea what made cinnamon toast the least served breakfast in my childhood home. For speed and ease, it’s the simplest breakfast on the planet. Well, not as simple as unwrapping a granola bar, but it's pretty simple.

Monday in my neighborhood is trash day. Once a week, the little wastebaskets from the bedroom and bathroom are emptied into the larger kitchen wastebasket. This is where it gets exciting. When the flip-top lid of the wastebasket is removed to tie up the bag and remove it, Moose goes from zero to 100 in the blink of an eye. He barks and yelps. He thrashes like a toddler who just had his favorite toy taken away.

When the bag is carried through the dining room to the front door, he runs alongside, still barking. Then, as soon as the door is opened and we go outside, he stops. He is suddenly quiet and no longer interested in me or the bag of trash. Maybe he doesn’t want the neighbors to see that he’s nuts. With only minor variations, this has been the weekly trash bag routine for 3.5 years. And with the trash bag fanfare, the workweek begins.

For unknown reasons, logging into the system this morning was quirky, and it only got worse as the day wore on. During data entry, there were problems with really stupid things like zip + 4 codes and basic math and frozen screens that caused a 15-minute activity to take exponentially longer. Over and over again. It was frustrating. 

Canine naps were often interrupted
 by my random swearing.

After 9.25 mostly aggravating hours and many, many swear words randomly yelled at technology at sufficient volume to startle the dogs from their napping, it was finally over. There was not much patience or mental capacity left to make dinner, so it was a three-minute ramen cup for the win. Then some Cool Ranch Doritos. I feel much better now.