random thoughts – Day 1,913 – (Thursday) – time and tasks

The days are dragging and yet, the weeks are blowing by at a blistering pace. It’s possible I may never understand time. Seriously. We are bumping up on the midpoint of the month. How is this even possible? 

Wednesday's empanadas.

It’s two weeks and a sprinkling of days before the first wave of layoffs. Yesterday, while downtown for a regularly scheduled in-office day, after enjoying the team member food truck lunch in the parking lot (empanadas, pizza, chicken, and cookies with ice cream) I tackled my top desk drawer. This one held the random assortment of items that help me survive office life.

We’re talking instant teas (ginger/honey, licorice), instant hot cocoa, salt and pepper packets, three emergency Keurig cups for when we run out, lip balm, toothbrush, toothpaste, sewing kit (twice I have repaired colleague’s clothing in a pinch), small items from vendors, spare logo pins from HR (because a shocking number of bankers would forget theirs on banker portrait day), plus the set of organizer trays and cups to keep it all straight. These things were all laid out on my desk for consideration.

A few items went onto our work counter in our version of the “swap shed” and colleagues took what was useful for them or their kids (bye bye fidget spinner and backpack clip bubble gum dispenser). Paper clips, binder clips, extra Sharpies, and a bunch of pens I hate went back to the supply cabinet. The organizers, bought at a dollar store years ago, were rinsed out and liberated of about eight years of dust and packed to go home. Today, in the home office tidy-up, they were used to reorganize the home office top file cabinet drawer.

There are still a few drawers with random promotional items sent to me by vendors and project notes I’m not sure we’re done with yet and ad tear sheets I have no clue what to do with. On June 30, that last day when I return the home office equipment and make the final goodbyes, I hope to walk out with not much more than the small plant from my desk in hand and some tortured memories of my time with the place that claimed for 35 years “we will always be independent.” Umm, okay. Until we're not. Got it.

At the home office today, things were sporadically busy, then not. It reminded me of the bunnies I see in the yard, sitting calmly for a while, then suddenly sprinting off to whatever. A hiccup prevented completing the simplest of tasks (wrong image size for a website financial learning article), but there is always tomorrow. Well, until the end of the month when there is not. But it won't be my problem.

Among the tasks that were not casually shifted onto tomorrow was the mowing of the lawn after work tonight. The sun was shining. There was a stiff, cooling breeze, and the backyard was accomplished in record time. 

This used to be a purple mum.
Now it is sticks.

The front yard, like projects at work, has a delay of game until I can roll the mower down the freshly sealed asphalt driveway to access it. A brown bunny was in the front yard trimming the greens for me tonight, and there is more clover than grass out there, so it’s not that bad. 

The bunny may or may not be the culprit that ate every single purple flower off my potted mum, too, but I'm trying not to jump to conclusions. I may never know what ate it, but something decapitated the entire plant in one night last week. The white one planted across the yard is intact and blooming. Purple must taste better. When it had flowers, they hid the fact that the pot shattered during the recent power wash of the deck. Oops.