Fierce

The drive back last night was serene. I had essentially the entire highway to myself from near Youngstown, Ohio until practically home. I wish it were like that more of the time in the East... instead, all you minivan and SUV morons clog everything up. Please stop having babies immediately; I want my highway back.

Sure enough, I got into work and there was a fire which required a great deal of mental water to put out. One of the major databases was displaying strange errors to the users, and, typically, some people who weren't paying attention were trying to update the database while I was in the middle of trying to fix it, and then whined because whatever they updated got lost.

I mean, think about it: suppose your washing machine breaks. You call repair, and then throw a bunch of clothes in it and run the water... the repair guy is trying to work on it and you're trying to do laundry.

Yes, I really do work with people like that. They don't seem to think, "gee, he's working on the system, maybe I should check and make sure it's OK before I post updates to the system I just called and said was broken?"

I want them all to retire soon. Maybe they'll hire young, aware people.

Nah.

Shit.

The Volkswagen gets washed after work tonight. I'm not going to leave the salt slime on there any longer than absolutely possible. This car needs to at least outlast its financing. I'll also clean out all the crap I left in the car from travel, and probably vacuum it. There's grit and gravel and sand from the service areas on the Ohio Turnpike, some crumbs from potato chips, and likely some receipts or bits of paper from opening things up.

I tentatively have a date tomorrow night with the nice woman from Alexandria. She and I emailed quite a bit while I was traveling, and I want to meet her cat. That she also has a sort of whiny dog is something I guess I'd have to deal with. Dogs just appeal to me less and less as I get older, in the same way that children appeal to me less and less. I see them as sycophantic, demanding and prone to making sudden loud noises for no damn reason (yes, this applies to both entities).

Cats, on the other hand, are low-key. If they're demanding and whiny, it's a rarity. This morning Marnie insisted on being the Kitten On The Bed and was extremely fierce as she growled and battled a back-scratcher I was tapping on her head. She's FIERCE! FIERRRRRRRCE KITTEN!

She's always been like that.

Speaking of fierce, I really need to do laundry. I think the clothes in the basket fermented while I was traveling, and now that I'm back I really don't want to let them build up again. I should throw out about half the things I own. Too small, too ratted-up, look wrong, missing buttons, broken belt-loops. I should cart the whole pile over to the Salivation Army and let them drool on them.