Audits

My work life has been consumed by an impending audit. This isn't a surprise to us but it's taken until 2 weeks before the event for the big boys to figure out what they wanted to do and let us little guys get to work on it. I was getting one of the pieces in place today when I noticed the file date when I first prepared it; July 27.

Of course, there are huge penalties if this doesn't go well. I am actually pretty confident that my part of it can be finished in time. I probably shouldn't tempt the gods but if I can stay healthy and no more "number 1 priorities" sneak in I've got a pretty good chance.

This evening we went to a financial aid talk at Westfield high school. The truth is we didn't actually stay very long. We've heard these talks before and I'm convinced that we won't be seeing very much financial assistance. The brochures are colorful and we've now got plenty of new web sites to look at.

My Father

My father was a hard working guy. During his working life he was out of the house before 6 AM and returned late in the afternoon. Until I was 11 he was the owner of a working man's eatery near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. After that business suffered a fire in 1966 he went into the wholesale foods business driving a truck and making deliveries to small businesses in the Park Slope and Sunset Park neighborhoods of Brooklyn. We would tease him about how he would fall asleep after dinner while reading the newspaper.

Sometimes I think that I work harder than him. Certainly, I seem to spend more hours at my job. It's probably not a fair comparison. His job was very physical and being the owner of both businesses must have been a stressful place to be. In the years before he died I would ask him about work. If he hated it, if he wanted to just chuck it sometimes, if he ever really wanted to do something else. He had been retired from full time work for many years at that point but he seemed to have no regrets. I don't recall him ever grumbling about it either while I was growing up.

I think that my children will have a different impression of me. I express my frustrations with work and bring a lot of it home with me. It probably doesn't help that what I do and what's important at the office is incomprehensible to them. I can only hope, though, that I am setting a good example of responsibility, ethical behavior, and finding joy in whatever career they end up in.

Elephants

I finished Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen on my ride home tonight. I had only added this book reluctantly to my "books to read" list but I'm glad I did.

For those of you who have not heard of this book, it's the story of a young man who runs away from his final exams at Cornell veterinary school and joins a circus. It's got everything; love, drama, elephants, monkeys, and the conflict between good and evil. It gets a 9 on my 1 to 10 scale. It flips alternatively between the protagonist who is now in his nineties; frail, and in a nursing home and the younger man; inexperienced and facing the loss of his parents and the harsh realities of the Great Depression.

This is in contrast to my last book read, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert Heinlein. This one only got a 6 and that was generous. There was something so mean and macho about his male characters that I kept looking back to the date of publication. The copyright was 1986 but it was hard to believe an author could have such a negative attitude toward women in the last quarter of the 20th century. The plot line, something about time travelers trying to positively redirect history, was confusing and meandering.

Next up will be Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

Back to Work

I didn't set a record for a commute today but I came close.

I left the house at around 7:30 AM and didn't drop my stuff at my desk until 11:15. There was some kind of problem in the express bus lane going into the Lincoln Tunnel and we sat on the approach to it for 2 hours. People in the bus were remarkably patient. They were mostly quiet at first and I guess resigned to whatever would happen. Folks broke out their cell phones, crackberries, and laptops but it was hard to be annoyed with them.

My record commute happened one Christmas Day when I volunteered to be at work. I was taking the train back then and it lurched to a stop between New York and Newark in the marshy Meadowlands. We sat there for 4 hours with no heat or announcements. It turned out to be a power failure but no one seemed to be in a hurry to fix it. I began to believe that if the delay had lasted any longer the passengers might begin to eat each other. Then as today there was no thought of leaving because there didn't seem to be anywhere to go.

Today's incident followed by 4 hours of meetings cast quite a pall on the day.

Over dinner we were talking about friends of ours who have an unusual life style. I realized that many people might envy them the life they have built for themselves but I'm sure no one envies the life that we've created.

The Sunday After Thanksgiving

I've had 2 days in which I have not had to stray far from home. This feels like such a gift to me. I have never looked for the hectic life but it seems to have found me.

Today I got to enjoy the domestic life. I finally roused myself from bed at 9 AM. I grabbed a look at the newspaper before going out for a short bike ride through the park. It was cold but not bone chilling. Just cold enough to make me want a bowl of oatmeal when I came back. For me oatmeal is only good when you have enough time to cook it so the oats get creamy. I don’t like to see individual grains. I realize that this isn't a universal taste since my daughter Raisa likes it a bit drier and chunkier. Most mornings don’t afford me enough time to do justice to a slowly cooked bowl of oatmeal so that makes 2 gifts for today.

Charlie's Oatmeal Recipe

in a small saucepan combine

1/2 cup oats

1 cup water

dash of salt

Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer

When it gets to the desired thickness, add another 1/4 cup water

Let it simmer until it's the desired thickness again.

Lenore and I raked some leaves and then we took a family walk to the next town. We had a coupon at a new bakery for “buy one loaf get one free”. I do like to bake my own bread but I need to see what’s out there to be sure I’m not wasting my time. Early indications are that my bread is indeed better.

Tonight promises time to finish the Sunday newspaper and get ready for the coming week.

Thanksgiving Day

There's a lot to be thankful for this year.

Last year the holiday was much darker. My aunt and uncle had died in the preceding months and my mother was in the hospital. We gathered as we always do but our hearts weren't in it. This year our numbers were still diminished but those around the table were in good health and good spirits.

Earlier in the day my family went to see what we could of the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. We saw very little other than huge crowds. The highlight of the day, though, was walking down Manhattan's west side greenway to my sister's house in lower Manhattan. It's a gem that the city should be proud of; an uninterrupted pedestrian/bicycle route along the mighty Hudson. The 3 mile walk along the waterfront gave us a great feel for the diversity and vibrancy of life in New York as well as a big appetite for a great meal.

Early Dismissal

The day before Thanksgiving Day now seems to be a semi-official holiday.

On Monday afternoon an e-mail went out at work informing us that we could leave at 3 PM today. The office seemed just about empty by 2:30 except for my boss and his boss (who was working from home today). We began a meeting at 2:45 and continued for about 45 minutes. He then asked that I finish a report before I left. He subsequently called me twice after that and I didn't leave the office until almost 7 PM. I love my job.

We are now involved in a set of projects that must be done by December 4th. If I had to explain what the big rush was I couldn't. There will be lots of late nights and anxiety about finishing on time. All I can say is that it's a lot safer, cleaner, and pays better than working in a coal mine. I've got a better view too.

Ben's, a Restaurant Review

I don't normally go out to lunch. I rarely have the time to spend and I feel guilty about the expense. Today was an exception, though. A cousin who is the oldest friend that I have was celebrating a birthday. It has been traditional for us to go to Ben's Delicatessen on 38th Street in midtown Manhattan.

Ben's is a Kosher delicatessen in a style that was familiar to me from my youth in Brooklyn. Ben's, unfortunately, is not kosher enough for most of the tribe. I'm not sure how or why they fell from grace but the orthodox crowd seems to shun this place. There is another deli nearby that meets their standard but their corned beef doesn't meet mine. Today's meal was fine except for the fact that they could not satisfy my request for pumpernickel bread. What kind of deli doesn't have pumpernickel?

The rest of this week should be quiet. There is mass confusion about whether Friday is a company holiday. The corporate calendar says that Friday is a holiday but the newspaper calendar says that it isn't. Some muckedy-muck decided that despite the fact that we are corporate employees we work at the newspaper and thus don't have the day off. I'd be willing to bet that the guy who made this decision won't be on Friday.

E-Mail

E-mail was the original "killer app". It was what everyone raved about when their computers first got connected . For me and I suspect for many others, it has indeed become killer as in time killer.

On a given day even after my e-mail has been screened for the Viagra pitches, stock bargains, and other useless junk and even after it has been purged of the automated mail from work related systems, I receive over 100 legitimate messages a day. Why is it that we have to communicate so much?

In yesterday's New York Times Business section the Career Coach column discussed why people feel they get so little done during a work day. The answer had a lot to do with our electronic distractions. Web browsers for sure but e-mail in particular. The advice was, do not look at your e-mail as the first thing you do each day but jump into a productive task before opening that in-box.

I read elsewhere that it is much more productive to reach out to someone by telephone than to try to conduct the same business via e-mail. I'm going to try this. So, be advised, if you send me an e-mail you are likely not to get a reply but a phone call.

I look forward to speaking with you!

Obligations

I spent today with my mother. She's 89 years old and quite frail; unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair. She lives in the apartment that has been her home for the past 50 years and which I grew up in managing with aides 24 hours a day to prepare meals, get her dressed, take her out, and just about everything else. I don't believe that this is the state that she ever imagined that she would end up in. I also never believed that I'd end up so bound to her.

My mother has come to expect a visit from me at least once a week and a phone call at least once a day. Its often more than that and since June I have also taken over her finances which are a bloody mess. We get only minimal financial assistance with the aides and it's my job to make her limited financial resources last. My sister with remarkable fortitude deals with much of the day to day stuff.

To be honest, I resent the life that my mother has imposed on us. There is not a day that some obligation connected with her care doesn't demand immediate attention. It seems like this has been the case since my father first fell ill almost 10 years ago.

Having said that I do my best to make the visits pleasant. Today we had lunch together, went for a walk, and viewed slides that I found buried in a closet. She enjoyed seeing images of people that she had not seen in a very long time and it gave her an opportunity to talk about people and events that she remembered warmly.

I come home tired and frustrated, though. Sometimes I very guiltily feel that my life won't begin until hers is over. Between work and my obligation to her I am almost never home or at least never home with any energy.

Almost Shabbat

It's 4;50 PM and I think that I can leave work with a free concience. It's not often that I feel this way but today I think that I'm leaving everything in a better state than it was when the week started.

My definition of a good day (or good week) is one where you solve more problems than you create.

There was a department wide meeting this morning where the big announcement was that we were implementing a system to track employees skill sets and track where people were spending their time. This is such a laughable attempt to figure out who can be let go that it doesn't even warrant expanding on. Each employee will be responsbile for their own recording so this should prove pretty amusing when the results are in.

This promises to be a very busy weekend. Tomorrow we will be traveling up to Lake Huntington to meet with the contractor who will be re-roofing our house. We need to make sure he works on the right one. Tomorrow night we are volunteering at a "coffeehouse" where Catie Curtis will be performing.

Sunday it's off to Mom's for another thrill packed episode!

Quotes

This morning on my commute I encounterd a quote that described my workplace perfectly,

When in danger or in doubt

run in circles, scream and shout

Robert Heinlein The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

I spend a lot of time reading simply because I spend a lot of time commuting. My door to door travel time is an hour and ten minutes on a good day. Good days are somewhat rare and it's usually 80 - 90 minutes. Fortunately, I get a seat and reading on buses doesn't really bother me.

The second quote is from God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens. The main thing that one can say about this book is that he does not spare any major religion from his scorn. I find myself quite in sympathy with his arguments. He makes a convincing case that religion has much in common with totalitarian governments and in Chapter 15 lists several bullet points that tend to describe all religions. I'll list them here for your amusement:

• Presenting a false picture of the world to the innocent and credulous
• The doctrine of blood sacrifice
• The doctrine of atonement
• The doctrine of eternal reward and or punishment
• The imposition of imposible tasks and rules

This does't mean that I don't find some value in being Jewish. The community aspect and ceremonies to mark lifecycle events are valuable. The concept of a day of rest is absolutely brilliant. Much of the rest of it just leaves me cold and scratching my head as to where they came up with this crap.

I

It's Almost Too Late to Write

I really wanted to discuss the book that I almost finished on my commute home, God is Not Great; How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens. Two things are going to make me put this off. 1) I didn't actually finish it yet, and 2) it's too late to start musing about that. I am going to write about this in a future post because this is quite the thought provoking book. It's so good that I missed my stop. This is only the second time in 12 years of commuting that this has happened. The first time was while I was reading Neanderthal by John Darnton.

I've been working for the past 2 hours on a report for work. It's done now and sent off so that eager people can read it when they arrive at work tomorrow. They are not going to like what they see but it's all true and what's the fun of spending 60 hours a week working if you can't ruffle the feathers of people who aren't doing what they've promised?

November 13 - A Day in the Life

There are some days when everything that I touch seems to work. I feel clever, creative, and a master of my craft. Today was not one of those days. When I gave a demo nothing worked, everyone was argumentative, my poor 89 year old mother told me that "this would soon be over" (meaning her life, I think) and the bus rides to and from work took much longer than usual.

Some days are like that. I can only hope tomorrow will be better.

It's best on days like this to find a good book and a place without too many sharp edges and ride it out.

Monday November 12, 2007 - Beginnings

For about 15 years I have wanted to write. First it was a novel and then I wanted to write in newspapers or magazines. The novel was started but has not been finished. It seems to take more concentration than I am willing to give it. I won't say that it is abandoned but it is not active either.

I've published a few articles in small newspapers. Two about little know New York City parks and one about upstate New York pancake breakfasts. Seeing these in print has brought me incredible satisifaction. Much more than what I get from my day job.

Don't get me wrong, my day job is fine. I work for a great company helping to put out a product I respect and enjoy. I just seem to get more pleasure from putting words on paper (or screen). I am dipping my toe in the blog world to see if I can better hone my writiing skill until an opportunity to write and get paid for it comes along. Perhaps I am a bit too conservative but I can't quit the day job until something else is secure.