The Man Who Was Shot in the Neck

Many years ago Mark told me a story about his earlier days.  When he was in elementary school, there was a construction trailer on the grounds near the perimeter.  It was largely ignored until a rumor about it was started.

The rumor was that there was a guy who was living in that trailer.  He was shot in the neck.  He was in perpetual bleeding from that wound, and was a danger to anyone who would go near that trailer.  Of course he wasn't seen, but that little factoid was ignored.  There was a man who was shot in the neck living in there, and he was a threat.

As with some childhood rumors, this one got out of hand.  No kid wanted to walk by that trailer, whether he or she was alone or with a group.  The area was avoided during PE.  And soon it got to where the kids didn't want to be outside waiting for their parents to pick them up.  The Man Who Was Shot in the Neck just might come running out of that trailer, snatch you, and do you harm.  Think about it some.  Would you go near a trailer with kind of person living inside of it?  I wouldn't.

It got so bad that the prinicipal finally got on the intercom one afternoon.  He insisted emphatically that there was no man who was shot in the neck.  There was no one living in the trailer.  There was no danger.  Again, there is no such thing as the Man Who Was Shot in the Neck.  No such person ever existed, no such person exists, and no such person will ever exist in the future.  End of story.

We laughed about that when he told that story to me.  It reminded me of an incident when I was five years old, and convinced that there was a monster living inside of the storm drain on the street where we lived, and if you looked in the hole you would see it in there and you would see it looking at you.  And because we wanted to see it, we saw it.

Anyway, events at work have reminded me of the absurd story of the Man Who Was Shot in the Neck.

In other words, it's a lot like an elementary school atmosphere there these days.

My lead and my manager would disagree with that.

They insist that it's a day care center.

Yes, we're having some personnel problems.

No, I won't tell you what they are.  Not at this time.

"We Need to Go Over Things"

I have several peeves, and one of them is that person who calls me on the phone so that we can "go over things".  Nine times out of ten this conversation isn't really needed, and this post in no way is directed to anyone belonging in the ten per cent.  What this is directed at is someone who could obtain information by due diligence on their part.  It's also directed at that someone who can function independently without calling me up to "go over things".

Several years ago at work, I was dragged into a technical problem that had the attention of several people, including department managers and others who were aware of it but who weren't tasked in any way to help resolve it.  This one landed in my lap late one afternoon, and the very next morning I had my heart set on getting that one put to bed.

Five minutes after arriving at my desk, my phone rang.  It was from someone who wanted to "go over things".  That person could have read the email trail, and probably did, but still wanted to tie me up for twenty minutes so that we could "go over things".

I was done with that call, but within five minutes the phone rang again.  It was someone else who wanted to "go over things".  OK, this time it's another 20 minutes, maybe a half hour, so that I could "go over things".  I finally got dispensed with that, went for a bio break, came back to my desk, and the phone rang.

Now I've got a third person who wanted to "go over things".  I'm thinking, we engineers might not be the best of communicators, but why couldn't he call one of the earlier callers to "go over things"?  Well the drawback here was that I was thinking logically.  This is the third person who called me up so that we could "go over things", and I couldn't very well be rude to that person.

Once I got rid of that one, guess what?  The phone rang again!  I now had a fourth person who wanted to "go over things".  So I spend twenty minutes going over things, repeating myself for the third time, and then comes the question.  "What progress have you made?"

"None."

"What do you mean, 'none'?  How come you're not working on this?"

"I haven't gotten anything done on this because I keep answering the phone."

"You're answering the phone?"

"Yes.  You're the fourth person who called me this morning wanting to know where I was on [xxxx], and all of my callers want to go over things."

"Oh!  I guess I'd better get off of the phone and let you work on this!"

I guess you might be surmising that I hate telephones, and if you are you're accurate in that assessment.  I realize that from time to time you have to call up your insurance agent and "go over things".  Well the insurance agent gets paid to "go over things".

If you've hired a lawyer, you're going to have to "go over things".  The lawyer gets that, and is happy to go over things, and if you don't mind the legal bill then "go over things" with your lawyer.

But what about that co-worker who calls you up in the middle of your supper, so that he can "go over things"?  You know, that one person who can't understand why you're not good with your food getting cold because he/she wants to call you at random so that they can talk about work and "go over things"?

My suggestion:  don't be that guy.

And no, I did NOT answer the phone recently or replied to a text from a co-worker who called/texted at 6:30 PM so that we could "go over things".

It's September Already, and Tomorrow Will be Christmas

I woke up yesterday morning and it was September.  It was day two of a four day weekend (I took Friday off) and now I'm at the end of day four.  It was a good opportunity to rest and I got some of that in.  There were also other things to take care of and some of them were, but there's more to do with respect to others.

I had hoped to be on the air this weekend.  I got on Saturday morning, worked two stations in Colorado, and the bad conditions got worse.  Two coronal holes on the sun triggered a geomagnetic storm which made radio almost useless.  I tried going on for a little bit today when the geomagnetic field quieted down some.  I knew I was getting out as that spotting stations in Alberta got my signal, but there weren't that many people on the air.  I then called Mark and we discussed some antenna ideas, bouncing our thoughts off each other, and I've now got another antenna project I want to work on.

On another front, Sheila and I had a discussion about the house.  We've decided that we're going to fix it up and get it ready for sale.  I know I've mentioned it before, years ago, but life got in the way.  We are in the process of applying for a HELOC and we're prepared to put some serious money in upgrading a few things.  The front yard has a small (as in one foot height) wall around it.  That needs to be removed, and replaced.  Some plants have to go (the eucalyptus tree and the saguaro get to stay, and two barrel cacti will get to stay as well).  

In the back, the brick planter around the spa needs to be removed, and either replaced or left as if it was never there.  I am sorely tempted to have the spa itself removed and hauled away.....I've put some good money into it over the years but we don't use it any more.  

Electrical work needs to be done.  I want an outlet next to my workbench in the garage.  I want some work done outside.  An oleander tree needs to removed (do NOT buy property that has oleander on it!).  The interior needs painting.  And we need new carpeting.  New sinks (two down, three to go).  

After all that, we'd like to move.  My preference is Vail, though Sheila is open to Sorry Vista (I'm not, but it's on its way to being a better place to live than Tucson).  The idea is to get a few acres in Vail where I can have an antenna farm.  

If we don't move, then we end up with a better house to live in.  My original plan was to retire and then some day die in my own living room right here inside the house, but I'm thinking I might as well die further out in the desert. 

And now it's September.  The monsoon season is still with us, and it's been hot and humid outside.  Once things cool down I'll be doing some yardwork.  I also want to do an antenna project....maybe next Saturday if the conditions won't permit being on the air.  

I figure on some trips to Ace Hardware (the one that Pat Sumrall goes to) in the very near future.

With it being September, I'm afraid I might see Christmas decorations being available for sale.