I know Christmas is about the celebration of the birth of the Savior and what he did for us, but one thing I love about Christmas is the chance to be with family. We have had a wonderful Christmas and it is because I have probably, absolutely, the most wonderful family in the world. We had some wonderful times this weekend. I hate to see it go. Commercialization, go away now, family, stay.
Office email is the bane of my existence. It also makes small men feel powerful. Example. Today I was submitting a credit for approval to the individual who needed to approve it. It also so happens to be that this man is a jerk. Ok, so I submit it, expecting some respect, and he comes back and reads me the riot act about a perceived misdeed and mistake on my part. I guess I wouldn’t mind being read the riot act, too much, but he also copies everyone and his brother that might have anything to say or do with my career. What was worse was this man was dead wrong on his acusation and assesement regarding my handling of the credit.
So, I try to be nice, but now I answer the guy, telling him in a round about way that he is the one that screwed up (which was really the case). I tell him in a nice way though, being the nice guy that I am, but I copy every one in the chain of command because he has already publicly read me the riot act and made it everyones business. Wouldn’t it just be better to solve problems on the phone, face to face, or at least only the two of us emailing back and forth?
A little while later I get another email from the man. He not only hasn’t gotten the message I had intended, but he also has made the same accusation again, and moreover, is more brazen and direct is his accusing me of a misdeed. Now I am getting really angry. My first reaction is to type on the computer, copy the entire bank, and call the guy a liar and stupid because he has missed the point. A cooler head prevails however, and I realize that probably what I really need to do is call the guy. However, modern office politics has made it real easy for him to depersonalize all of this, copy everyone, so I almost feel I need to respond in the same forum that he used to come after me.
I call my boss. While we talk the situation over, I hear his computer beeping every time he receives a new email. He must be getting a lot because every 15 seconds or so I hear another beep. I now it is email because my machine makes the same noise.
Long and short, email has made things more convenient at times, but it has also made things a lot more complicated. It has also allowed jerks a forum to show how rude they can really be. I hope someone teaches the guy some manners, sometime.
No, I am not speaking about the singing group that were part of the 60s and the 70s. Rather, I am talking about how bad it is at Christmas time for those of us on a diet. At work we are having what is called the 12 days of Christmas. When are kids were growing up, that was a crazy tradition started by the parental units where each of the children got a small present on each of the 12 days before Christmas. We stopped that crazy thing because it got out of control.
Out of Control is how I feel now every day at work. Everyone is supposed to be bringing in all of these treats every day for the staff to eat. Oh, my, the temptation. Here I am on a sugar free diet and all of these sugar ladden treats are in front of me every time I walk in the back room to get supplies, run the copier, or take something to the mail. It isn’t fair. It also is the source of my breaking my diet all the time. It just isn’t fair. Everyone should suffer like I have to. After all, I am so noble if I am suffering, right?
I have spent the last few days looking at some videos of the Beatles when they were first becoming popular, and reaching back even further, of Flash Gordon. My, how things have changed. Wait, it is not me that has changed, but the world out there. Things I got a kick out of as a kid are now ancient history to the rising generations. Man, am I feeling old and worn out.
Yesterday was yet another in a long series of doctor’s appointments that we were getting in order to use what little medical benefits we have. They all reinforced just how long term this diabetes thing is. This chronic disease does not leave you for one minute. I was reminded again, and again, that if I don’t live the law of the diabetes that there will be severe consequences. I am so tired of facing this every time. Boys and girls, do not, I repeat, do not get this disease. Do everything in your control to avoid it like the plague that it is.
There is another reason that I don’t like winter. We are in the middle of a cold snap. It is going to be close to zero out there tonight, and is very cold this morning. I wish I could just stay inside all day long.
Of course, the coldest I have ever experienced was in Michigan in 1982. The temperature was down to about 35 below zero. Then, add on top of that a wind chill bringing it to close to 80 below. Pipes were bursting, people freezing to death. Now, that was Michigan at it’s finest. Everytime I feel like it is getting cold, I think of that winter and then realize that in actuality it is actually quite balmy here in Utah. Ah, the blessings of warm weather.
The social pressure put on people trying to diet is amazing. Those of you who have never had to “Fight the Fat” probably don’t realize what us dieters have to battle.
We went to a friends home last night to play dominoes. During the course of the evening, we ate a couple of times and there was significant pressure to eat more and not look so thin. Maybe I should be just more forthright about what I am trying to do, or about the health reasons I have for dieting, but I figure it is no one elses business unless I choose to let them in on the secret.
Regardless, it isn’t easy to stick to a diet. The social pressure to just eat and “enjoy” yourself is tremendous and for us fat people trying to get thinner, it makes the job all that harder. Also not helping is the holidays which tends to interrupt dieting plans because of the big meals involved and all of the specialty foods that we all like to sample and eat.
Needless to say, it is not easy to Fight the Fat, and this time of the year is murder on the scales. I have not really lost any weight in the last month. I am at a plateau and part of it is because of the social pressure involved. Maybe I should become a hermit.
I was talking with a customer today about my family. I mentioned my son was on a mission and my thoughts and minds eye went back to a picture of him in the mission field.
It is so good to have a son working in the mission field, doing the work that he should be doing right now.
Today was a typical Payson Branch Friday. I went in to work, and from the moment I got there it was very, very busy. It just seems like there is way too much to do at work. Fridays are particularly bad. The first week I worked at this branch, Friday afternoon at 4:50pm I was packing up my desk, getting ready to leave. I looked out into the lobby, noticed no one was getting ready to leave, and soon realized I had hired into a branch where we all worked until 6pm on Friday nights. I hate that. Now my weekends start even later than they used to.
I am up early again this morning. I heard two things that brought back a lot of memories. The first was the sound of wind banging satellite dish cables against the side of the house. While we didn’t have those miraculous satellite dishes back in the 50’s and 60’s peering 22,000 miles into the sky, bringing us tons of TV channels, we did have all kinds of cable around the house. Sometimes at night, when the wind would blow and the tree leaves would rustle, you would hear the cables banging against the house. This morning I awoke to that sound and it took me back to my childhood. It took a while before I could focus enough to know what was making the sound.
The second was the faint and distant sound of a train whistle. We lived near an air force base when I was young, with the not so silent roar of fighter jets flying overhead. I got used to and learned to tolerate the loud noise of the planes as they flew overhead and shook us out of our seats. I didn’t notice the noise until someone, who didn’t live with the noise every day, would complain. However, I could hear the lone sound of a train moving through the night, the whistles blowing at train crossings. We have that here in Payson, and every once in a while, I will hear the sound of whistles in the morning, or the late evening, as I lay in bed or sit at a computer in the quiet of the night. It makes me remember simpler times in my life. Sometimes, I would like to hear more of those train whistles.