And Today in Indiana

Ok, I'll go with another nothing post about my day.

Semi blew a tire early this morning on the interstate I travel to work.  The interstate is divided and he was traveling in the opposite direction I would take.   But the poor guy skidded along a huge length of guard rail and then rammed into the base of one of the big pretty overhead signs Indy installed because of all the Super Bowl traffic.  Upon hitting the overhead posts, this is what happened.

Thankfully the trucker was able to escape, but he's in Wishard with 2nd and 3rd degree burns.

Since the fire was so bad, it shut down the interstate going my direction also.  By the time I was heading into town, my side was open but it was clearly backed up, so I took a different route.

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All's quiet in the office of my new gig in the mornings.  I consider 8:00 am late, but the office doesn't show much signs of life until 9 or later.

I started the new gig on Tuesday with a 6 hour conference call that they let me take at home.  Sweet. 

It's a small office and unlike the last place where I just could not understand a culture where no one talked to one another at all, this one is my kinda place.

Lots of friendly people, comfortable.  It's a little bit of old school in that several people have offices with doors, including me.  Let's see, it's been 15 years since I've had an office with a door.  I've long gotten over the office with door ego thing, so it feels a bit weird to me.



OK, this is not my picture nor my office.



Officially I am the "User Coordinator".  I know.  I don't know what that means either.  What I do know is that the Statement of Work (SOW) that vaguely outlines what I am to do lets me put on every work hat that I've done in my entire 35 years of working.   Yes, I started working at the age of 2.

Hilariously enough the contract says I'm to work 24 hours a week and then less in a couple months.  When I first heard that, I thought that the pt work may be okay because a brilliant former CIO I worked for is wanting to start a company and have me help him. 

But the massive amount of work needed that I can do would never get down in those hours or the ending time frame and the CFO indicated that in the interview.  I told the guy yesterday to let me know when he wanted to drop my hours to 24 and he laughed.  Said he knew that's a long way off, if ever and that he's budgeted for me and a lot more. 

I know I've been dropped into the middle of the Atlantic with no life preserver, but I'm excited because I've been there before and paddled my way back to shore.

And although I was beginning to enjoy life as a bum and getting a huge tax refund instead of a huge tax bill, I'm so pumped about the position.

Let's hope the economy doesn't bite me again like in 2011.  While I would like to have the stability of a "real" job (not that there is any stability anywhere), this gig is making me remember why I like contracting.   Most of them are challenging instead of boring and it's nice not having some boss tell you that you haven't earned any vacation hours. 

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The St. Paddy's Day parade came through downtown again.  I grabbed a quick bite after walking past the start of the parade downtown.  I sat on the circle steps and enjoyed the great 80 degree weather.    Back downtown again but now all the construction is gone since last time I was there they had nearly every street corner under construction in prep for the Super Bowl.

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As I sat on the steps of Monument Circle, I heard this duck quacking behind me.  Quack, quack quack.  I turned and saw a young father with his two girls.  The baby, probably two or so had shoes that quacked.  She was a cutie.  So were the quackers.  When I left the circle, I saw a woman with BRIGHT green hair.  I almost asked her if I could take her picture, but I didn't.  Sorry.

Wait, I did take a picture of the first magnolia tree that was blooming. 

And this is from the start of my sidewalk.

It's been so warm here that it feels like late April.  I was thinking I might run to the nursery to plant some annuals and had to remind myself it's only mid-March.

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While heading toward the parade route I saw two guys and a lady who obviously worked together coming toward me.  The lady was carrying her purse, one of  the young guys was carrying a bag that looked nothing like a laptop bag, but much more like a large lady's purse.  I saw the girl making fun of him and they were all joking with him about his manbag.  They were heading toward me and she was trying to get a few guys from a restaurant outside to join in about the bag.

As I came toward them, I said, "That looks great."  The lady heard me as I passed and cracked up.  She made her man-purse buddy turn around as she pointed at me.  I turned back and gave him a thumbs up.  That was fun.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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As I traveled home, the interstate was open, but traffic was stop and go as soon as I got on.  I got off the first exit and took not a great route home.  I knew I was low on gas, but the "Miles Until Empty" dropped from 32 to - - -.  The route between here and there is not the best part of town.  I found the next gas station and got out to fill 'er up.  The tank on my car is on the passenger side, which bugs me even in the best part of town.  Since I don't have to use my keys, only have them in my purse to unlock or start the car, I didn't want to have to dig through my purse to find them and I didn't want to hold onto my purse while pumping gas.  As I got out an average dressed young white guy came around the back of my car.  Instead of going straight to the pump, I waited by the driver's door until he was passed my car.  Since I had my pursse and the keys in it, I knew all anyone would have to do is jump in.  It was only about 5 p.m. and if I had been in my part of town, I wouldn't have thought a thing of this guy, but it's all about location, location, location.

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This was the first morning in close to a year that I woke up and realized I had been able to sleep all night on my stomach.  Since the rear-end collision last April 1st, I've spent at least half of every night on my side with a pillow between my legs.    So either that second "selective nerve injection" in my back last Friday or the new medication that they gave me that is supposed to be for shingles patients is working.  The shingles med blocks nerves from sending stupid messages to your brain that you are in pain, when you shouldn't be.

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My sister's heart cath came back clean, so she's in good shape.  May be due to a cyst on her adrenal gland, which they need to deal with, but that was some good news on Tuesday.

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My sister was released from the hospital on Tuesday and the next day they rush Bob's sister's husband in suspecting a heart attack.  No heart attack, but blockage.  Had 80% blockage in the back, so they "installed" another stint.  He's out and okay.

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Had some online liberal imply that since I was a conservative, that I have Rush Limbaugh tell me what to think.  Since I don't listen to Rush and think he's an idiot for what he said, then I was an idiot because I didn't know who the "official" head of the GOP was.  No amount of explaining to these people that I am perfectly capable of deciding on my own my social, economical and global security beliefs are gets through their thick heads that I just might be a bit smarter than they think..    I kinda get a kick out of people who assume I'm an idiot because I believe differently than they do.  It's like letting a kid beat you at Hi Ho Cherry O.  It makes them feel good to reinforce their stupidity.

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Toward the end of my workday today, I had a lady come see me, shut my OFFICE DOOR and then proceeded to tell me the scoop.  The great part is that the guy that hired me is dead-on blunt and told me nearly everything. 

I found she had been in banking nearly 30 years before this job and she knew one of my oldest friends.  We spent an hour talking about all the people we caught stealing money from the banks.

She has a personality a lot like mine.  We're nice people, but we don't pull punches when we need to.  Love her.  Love the job.  It will have lots of headaches, but not because of the people.

Ahhhhhhh.  What a nice relief.

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This post is boring I know, but Bob's heard it all and I needed to talk.  And I realize it covers more than just today, contrary to the title.

Maybe more pictures would have helped.  Deal with it.