Employee of the Month
04/10/17 16:09
I turned the corner on my bike after taking an hours ride along Ocean Boulevard mid morning up to Rye Harbor and back and noticed that Evan was sitting on our porch at the Airbnb with Katie. I first noticed her car and then caught sight of the two of them sitting opposite each other having what appeared to be a normal conversation. Evan was probably not expecting me to return so soon and did not otherwise have a sense of when I was expecting to return from my ride. I slowed my bike but did not change direction and wheeled past the house with a surreptitious and half hearted wave to Evan and just keep pedaling. Katie's back was to the street so unless she noticed something in Evan's behavior she probably was unaware of my presence. I can tell you unequivocally that is what Evan would have preferred so knowing that to be the case I kept on keeping on.
I didn't look back, I didn't care one way or another if anyone saw me, and I then turned north once I reached Ocean Boulevard hoping to waste just enough time to allow them to finish their business before returning home. If Evan did see me then he knew I was giving him space while leaving him to his own business without interference or interruption. There is a chance Evan may find a place of his own and Katie will be instrumental in assisting with that process. Nancy and I are mostly on the outside looking in when it comes to Evan's personal business these days and giving him his own personal space is important to him so we do just that. It is with mixed emotions that we anticipate being empty nesters again for reasons I cannot go into here. Suffice it say that it is all about Evan. Even the best of parents take a back seat to the ambitions of their children sooner or later and we're no different.
We may want to consider asking the caretakers of the Airbnb if we can stay at the house until three on Friday to give the workers here at the house a chance to complete any unfinished tasks. The departure time in the contract we signed for the Airbnb is 10am if I'm not mistaken. The plumbing and electrical fixtures have not yet been installed so the last thing I want to do is to interfere with their work if they are doing their best to meet a deadline. I was here at 6:30 this morning to check a few things on the computer and the Dockham workers were hard at work. Arriving back home here as I did later in the day when they were gone I was a little disheartened to see how little they had accomplished. For all I know they finished up after a couple of hours of work and went on their way. We'll be sure to have a conversation with our contact tomorrow once Nancy has cleared her schedule of one or two planned activities. I don't care if they are not completely finished by the time we move back in but certain things we cannot live without. Not easily anyway.
Nancy is so funny. She came in second in the company football pool at her new job and you would have thought she won the lottery. She was also awarded a "best of" something that saw her coming home with a Mason jar filled with candy. It doesn't matter that she shared not a thing from that jar of candy with her better half. Did I tell you that football pool was a non-monetary event? And all of a sudden she gets out of bed the morning after football games have taken place and she looks up scores on the internet to see if her teams won. I don't know this Nancy. I just don't.
I'm not much help, of course, since I watch zero football and not just because of all the kneeling going on in the league. I think I'd rather watch paint dry. I used to watch the New England Patriots when I thought they might lose because I love to hate that team and seeing them lose gave me pleasure. A sick sort of pleasure but pleasure nonetheless. They don't lose much these days so I just stopped watching. But I'm reminded that there is much to be said for group dynamics in the corporate setting, individual participation in those dynamics, and an occasional boost in morale for employees like Nancy who always perform better when they are recognized for their efforts. I can say with some certainty that I didn't see much of this sort of thing when she worked in the medical field so it's nice to see it now. She makes a fraction of the money in her new job but she gets ten times the amount of job satisfaction forgetting if you will the monotony of her core duties. As an aside, Nancy doesn't think much of Management but I'll continue sing their praises as long as my wife comes home to me each night with a smile on her face and a jar of candy under her arm. Getting her to share is my problem.
I didn't look back, I didn't care one way or another if anyone saw me, and I then turned north once I reached Ocean Boulevard hoping to waste just enough time to allow them to finish their business before returning home. If Evan did see me then he knew I was giving him space while leaving him to his own business without interference or interruption. There is a chance Evan may find a place of his own and Katie will be instrumental in assisting with that process. Nancy and I are mostly on the outside looking in when it comes to Evan's personal business these days and giving him his own personal space is important to him so we do just that. It is with mixed emotions that we anticipate being empty nesters again for reasons I cannot go into here. Suffice it say that it is all about Evan. Even the best of parents take a back seat to the ambitions of their children sooner or later and we're no different.
We may want to consider asking the caretakers of the Airbnb if we can stay at the house until three on Friday to give the workers here at the house a chance to complete any unfinished tasks. The departure time in the contract we signed for the Airbnb is 10am if I'm not mistaken. The plumbing and electrical fixtures have not yet been installed so the last thing I want to do is to interfere with their work if they are doing their best to meet a deadline. I was here at 6:30 this morning to check a few things on the computer and the Dockham workers were hard at work. Arriving back home here as I did later in the day when they were gone I was a little disheartened to see how little they had accomplished. For all I know they finished up after a couple of hours of work and went on their way. We'll be sure to have a conversation with our contact tomorrow once Nancy has cleared her schedule of one or two planned activities. I don't care if they are not completely finished by the time we move back in but certain things we cannot live without. Not easily anyway.
Nancy is so funny. She came in second in the company football pool at her new job and you would have thought she won the lottery. She was also awarded a "best of" something that saw her coming home with a Mason jar filled with candy. It doesn't matter that she shared not a thing from that jar of candy with her better half. Did I tell you that football pool was a non-monetary event? And all of a sudden she gets out of bed the morning after football games have taken place and she looks up scores on the internet to see if her teams won. I don't know this Nancy. I just don't.
I'm not much help, of course, since I watch zero football and not just because of all the kneeling going on in the league. I think I'd rather watch paint dry. I used to watch the New England Patriots when I thought they might lose because I love to hate that team and seeing them lose gave me pleasure. A sick sort of pleasure but pleasure nonetheless. They don't lose much these days so I just stopped watching. But I'm reminded that there is much to be said for group dynamics in the corporate setting, individual participation in those dynamics, and an occasional boost in morale for employees like Nancy who always perform better when they are recognized for their efforts. I can say with some certainty that I didn't see much of this sort of thing when she worked in the medical field so it's nice to see it now. She makes a fraction of the money in her new job but she gets ten times the amount of job satisfaction forgetting if you will the monotony of her core duties. As an aside, Nancy doesn't think much of Management but I'll continue sing their praises as long as my wife comes home to me each night with a smile on her face and a jar of candy under her arm. Getting her to share is my problem.