a month of woe
Too eventful of late for so many reasons, and not many of them good.
I haven't blogged out of sheer exhaustion, a severe inability to string more than three or four words together, let alone whole paragraphs, in the pursuit of snarky observation.
First, Katrina, Nawlins Destroyah, Mississippi Carnate Queen, rides the e-ticket of massive devastation through our fair southern brothers’ palisade, flattening or submerging their territories. Americans become caring again, as they are want to do during times of crisis. Why it takes a disaster in this country to bring us together as a singularly focused nation I’ll never understand. Perhaps that old Twilight Zone tale of creating an alien enemy to unify the global will of the people wasn’t so far off the mark. There was some (admittedly understandable) bashing of the president, sure, and the talking heads all railed and pointed fingers, but overall we saw people acting like a God’s children; we saw the best of what our capabilities will allow.
So a few weeks pass, and here comes Rita. But Rita was a bit of a tease, especially to those of us in the Dallas area. We were girded for a weekend of harsh storms and high winds, and we got the same sunny, humid days we'd been experiencing for the past...seven months.
Then came a layoff at my place of employment. One year after the last layoff, and almost 4 years after the last layoff by which I was adversely impacted. My department had been showing signs of improvement, five people doing the work of 6 or 7, and due to a re-focusing of corporate efforts to strengthen another division of the business, they let a number of people go. Unfortunately they let 2 of our 5 go also, and now 3 are handling the entire workload. This is frustrating and difficult, but also challenging in the best ways. My hope is that our minimalist team will pull through and end up looking better for the wear. But I cannot pretend that I am not feeling stress at levels I have not felt since being out of work, and since that is the alternative, it seems like these should be better times.
So we're a little frayed around the edges here at Casa de Controlled Burning, but my soul is intact. My son just turned 16, I’m writing again with a slightly more determined focus, and I've got Burnout Revenge to buoy the lower moments.
neither bought for gold, nor to the devil sold
I haven't blogged out of sheer exhaustion, a severe inability to string more than three or four words together, let alone whole paragraphs, in the pursuit of snarky observation.
First, Katrina, Nawlins Destroyah, Mississippi Carnate Queen, rides the e-ticket of massive devastation through our fair southern brothers’ palisade, flattening or submerging their territories. Americans become caring again, as they are want to do during times of crisis. Why it takes a disaster in this country to bring us together as a singularly focused nation I’ll never understand. Perhaps that old Twilight Zone tale of creating an alien enemy to unify the global will of the people wasn’t so far off the mark. There was some (admittedly understandable) bashing of the president, sure, and the talking heads all railed and pointed fingers, but overall we saw people acting like a God’s children; we saw the best of what our capabilities will allow.
So a few weeks pass, and here comes Rita. But Rita was a bit of a tease, especially to those of us in the Dallas area. We were girded for a weekend of harsh storms and high winds, and we got the same sunny, humid days we'd been experiencing for the past...seven months.
Then came a layoff at my place of employment. One year after the last layoff, and almost 4 years after the last layoff by which I was adversely impacted. My department had been showing signs of improvement, five people doing the work of 6 or 7, and due to a re-focusing of corporate efforts to strengthen another division of the business, they let a number of people go. Unfortunately they let 2 of our 5 go also, and now 3 are handling the entire workload. This is frustrating and difficult, but also challenging in the best ways. My hope is that our minimalist team will pull through and end up looking better for the wear. But I cannot pretend that I am not feeling stress at levels I have not felt since being out of work, and since that is the alternative, it seems like these should be better times.
So we're a little frayed around the edges here at Casa de Controlled Burning, but my soul is intact. My son just turned 16, I’m writing again with a slightly more determined focus, and I've got Burnout Revenge to buoy the lower moments.
neither bought for gold, nor to the devil sold
posted by scn at 3:58 AM
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