random thoughts – Day 1,284 – (Friday) – breaks and hunting

Some days offer a break in the routine, and today was one of them. There were three of us in the office. I was on my side, and the others were on the far side of the floor.

There were letters to be stuffed into envelopes, and on Thursday, the team had been given a "divide and conquer" directive to get it done. This morning, I started folding and stuffing a few letters and the next thing I knew, they were all done.

There was another divide and conquer plan for some favors that needed tags attached over the next dew days. With everyone working on a dozen or so, there would the right number done for Tuesday. When one of the colleagues from the other side of the floor came over to tag some items, they were done. Like the letters, I got on a roll and did the entire box.

I joked that I had channeled the factory piece work skills of my grandparents. It felt nice to handle a task that I could control, and which provided a sense of completion. Such immediate gratification is often lacking in my regular tasks, which can be hung up for days, and in some cases lately, months, in the review process with various business units. It was nice.

After the tagging and stuffing, the rest of the day was less triumphant. The request came in for a monthly task and I was able to knock it out right away. This week’s to-do list was updated and next week’s was set up, which is my Friday afternoon ritual. It’s helpful to start on Monday with a plan already in place, something I learned ages ago from a great production manager I worked with.

The last sky of summer.

After work, it was a quiet night at home with a frozen pizza, a bottle of Anchor Porter, A Discovery of Witches on max, and a scavenger hunt for some witch-related costume items. It was mostly successful. A couple skirts were found and run through the washer. Forgotten and never worn jewelry was found. One item not found will haunt me until it is finally located. It could be a matter of hours or years, there is no telling. Sometimes, things just mysteriously disappear forevermore.

I remembered it was the last night of summer and had intended to look for the sunset, but I forgot. When I remembered and looked outside, the bit of sky I could see through the houses up the street was sky blue pink.