Musings on a Small Life

In the world of the (business) absurd, this ranks pretty high: Our department received a reimbursement cheque today in the amount of 88 cents. From a document shredding company I used twice in ten years, and not at all in at last several. "In reviewing your account we have determined that your organization paid finance charges that were not due when you were a customer. "Enclosed is a check reimbursing you for this." Anyone want to take a guess as to how much it cost the company to actually process a reimbursement of 88 cents? I can assure you it was far and away more than the actual cheque amount! Anyone also want guess what I'll be doing with their 88-cent cheque? Yep, shredding it!

I went down to Portsmouth Olympic Harbour this morning, surprised to see that CORK (sailing regatta) still is taking place, with adult races at this time. I had thought it would be over by now. So the Harbour was busy, but because it was only shortly after 9AM, not as busy as it was when Dad and I went down the other week. So I strolled around there for a while, out to the end of the pier, then walked along the waterfront path to Lake Ontario Park. I saw "Ellen, my love..." along the way. This old-style mailbox caught my eye. Maybe it is old?    CORK flags  She left shortly after I snapped this--I think I scared her off, even though I was quite some distance away.  Along the path to Lake Ontario Park  Looking back toward the Harbour, with the Kingston Penitentiary in the distant background.  I had walked out to the end of the pier first.  I hope Ellen said yes.  I like this small rock. I have pics taken in the winter of this rock.  Not ...

Sunny days Oh, sunny, sunny, sunny days Ain't nothin' better in the world, you know Than lyin' in the sun with your radio I haven't heard the old Lighthouse song in years, possibly decades, but that's what popped into my mind today, with some of the floral snapshots I took. I haven't anything exciting to post, just had a haircut this morning and then ran an errand, came home and did house chores. But I felt like posting something cheery, something "sunny," so there you go. I hope everyone's weekend is brighter than this past week has been!

Today's eye candy is a repeat hunk just for " Old Kitty ": Daniel Craig. I didn't feel like hunting for someone to post today, and besides, he's hot. Sizzling hot. And in my age group, which is a bonus. (Okay, I'm a few years older, but it's not a significant difference. So no "sleazy" again this week. LOL.) Enjoy!

After Monday's stressful day at work, I woke on Tuesday AM with one of the ice-pick-over-the-eye headaches that has persisted through today. (I'm starting to feel better at the moment.) I did drag my butt into work, but it wasn't fun. Yesterday afternoon I met with the co-founders of SNKI (Spay Neuter Kingston Initiative) to put faces to the names I've been emailing with and to see if there's something small, behind the scenes, that I might be able to help with. In conjunction with their efforts to set up a low cost spay/neuter clinic in Kingston, they want to establish a feral cat colony registry. I've offered to be the data-keeper for that, if they are able to get this going. Today I went in to work, still with the headache--big mistake. Left at 8:50AM and headed home to bed. Two hours of sleeping still didn't make a whit of difference, and I ended up "giving back" the bit of lunch I had choked down, to the garden. (Didn't have time to...

Don't you just love your first day back at work after a vacation, even a relatively short one? (Ten days out of the cube, counting the weekends. Sigh.) And what a day it was. Definitely a crazy, high-stress one. A no-break, no-lunch-break kind of day. I spent the entire day on a project that I thought was done before I left for holidays. But I had made a number of errors, even my boss made a few (I made more of course!), and I curse the Ministry and their stupid surveys and spreadsheets, where they can't even set up the templates to calculate percentages correctly. Where the more you pore over it, the muddier it gets. I thought it was all done--my boss and I picked over it for most of the time he was in today--but after he had stepped out for a bit and just before I wanted to leave, I realized we had forgotten about template 3, section 3, the calculation of credentials. Yipp-friggin--ee. I waited past my bus time but my boss hadn't come back, so I left him a note. Not s...

This Friday's eye candy is Paul Walker (thanks, Jennifer!). An American actor, born in September 1973. So he's old enough that no one need feel sleazy today (Beth). LOL. He certainly is yummy eye candy, though the photos are rather tame. Ah, well, I can't have naked men with tattooed body art every week. (Okay, I would if I could find enough photos....) Enjoy and happy Friday!

Dad left a couple of hours ago--he thought it would be easier to break up the 700+ km drive up to Lac St. Jean, Quebec over two days. So he is heading toward Montreal right now, probably just nearing the Ontario/Quebec border or just over the border. He'll go through or around Montreal, then find a place to crash for the night. The house is quiet again and I feel as I usually do when family leaves: at loose ends, a bit lonely, and feeling very much that I live an unhealthily isolated life. But this too shall pass, as my mom is fond of saying. We did go to the Kingston Penitentiary Museum this morning, in between errands, so here are the last holiday pics. This originally was the warden's residence.  The inmates built the house, including the interior finishings--crown moulding, etc. This was the water torture chamber. The retired corrections officer (volunteer) said the strapping table would hurt for a while, but this was sheer terror for the inmates.  Cell: 1835 to 19...