Welcome home, KW. Butt in seat. No blueberries here.

Yes. Butt in seat today. Oddly enough, this is the 12th workday that I have not seen my long-suffering, cat-herding boss. He was out. Then I was out. Now I’m back and I expected him to be back too. But he wasn’t. Maybe he’s allergic to me? Probably not. Whatever. It gave me a day to wade through all of the stuff that happened while I was gone. Which wasn’t all that critical (thank you god), mostly comments from fellow team members on my latest project. And there was an unexpected pizza lunch! That was better than the little dribs and drabs of leftovers I had managed to scrabble together for my bag lunch. Last year, when I returned from my vacation busman’s holiday, I spent my first day back “bonding” with my team over lunch and a Star Trek exhibit in Dee-troit! That was loverly but today was just as good in its own little way.

Of all things, I did receive a nice little welcome home! An unexpected one. I stepped out yesterday morning for my 0-skunk-30 walk and when I got to the end of the block and turned right, I gasped. Why? Because those sidewalks — the ones in the photooo — were there! It’s a long story. This is more or less what our little backwater part of the neighborhood’s entrance to the school looked like when we moved into the Landfill and all the years that the beach urchins attended the school and beyond. A few years ago, somebody got ambitious and built a big “multi-purpose room” onto the back of the school. The construction folks used this entrance as a ROAD during that whole time and by the end of all of that, the whole area was a sea of mud. I wish to heck I’d had the iPhone back when the college-age kid tried to drive his low-slung muscle-type car through the schoolyard via that entrance and got totally mired in mud. Kid, I felt your pain.

When they were done with the “multi-purpose room” and all the trucks went away, some nincompoop decided to plant grass over the right branch of the sidewalk. Problem. During the snow/ice/mud season, the *left* branch was impassable to anyone without spiked shoes or yak tracks or whatever. It had always been that way. During that season, we would often choose to walk the right branch. I thought about complaining. I even personally know a couple of school board members, not that I have talked to them in a few years. I procrastinated. I am tough and I can walk over all kinds of stuff and I did, yada yada. When I walked over there at 0-skunk-30 Sunday morning and saw those new sidewalks, I was totally flabbergasted and all I could think was something like, “Hot damn, they fixed those blasted sidewalks and they fixed them exactly like I would have wanted them to if I had asked.” I even dragged Lizard Breath over there before we had to drive her over to Daytwa Metro.

So I am home at the Landfill. Butt in seat. The Commander is now both calling me from her cell phone and answering it. Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? I think the Comm still has a few tricks up her sleeve.

G’night and enjoy this heat while you can. –KW

One Response to “Welcome home, KW. Butt in seat. No blueberries here.”

  1. Sam Says:

    What a huge change (the sidewalks!)! I can’t wait to trod them—w/U, of course!

    Yak tracks? I don’t think we have them down here in ATL. Or at least since the last Ice Age!