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Sunday, February 21, 2010

Typical and Not-so-typical Manor-isms

Thursday wasn’t the best day I ever had… there was a Dilbert strip a long time ago when he was trying to explain that he had to work and to only bother him for emergencies. What they heard was something like: “I am at your disposal. Killing spiders is my speciality.” And the spiders heard, “The house is full of crippled flies.” The last three weeks that I’ve tried to work at home have been like that: whether it was the in-laws (Big V wanting me to help pull her husband’s 18-wheeler out of a ditch with a pickup truck, somehow it worked), Mrs. Fetched (“I need you to replace an outlet at the chicken house” which turned out to be burned wires just north of the outlet), or The Boy and Snippet (any ridiculous thing they can think of), everyone seems to think that I should be thrilled to drop everything and take care of their problem. That the job I’m doing, or trying to do, is at least partially supporting all of them doesn’t seem to register on them. So about 5 p.m., I got fed up with it and bailed for a while. The indie coffee shop was already closed, so I went into the Kroger and got a Starbucks. After taking my sweet time quaffing it, I wandered the store and picked up a few items I knew we needed. But when I get back from vacation, if this stuff keeps up I won’t be working at home anymore.

The Boy pulled a pseudo-TB03 — he didn’t come home last night, knowing we wanted him home, but he did have the good grace to call and give us a slightly plausible story of “we trying to get the sound right on this one song.” More than likely, he and his band-buddies were getting 'faced, but he swore up and down that wasn’t what was happening. He also promised to be home by 9 this morning to help Mrs. Fetched with the chickens, and showed up about 12:30. That was pretty much the last straw for him borrowing our vehicles.

Mason and meFortunately, I have an 18-pound anchor to keep me sane. Mason is usually a very good-natured baby, and is getting to where he doesn’t have to have attention every minute… although he enjoys, and gets a lot of, interaction with the Big People. He’s at the point where he gets on his hands & knees and rocks — the precursor to crawling. We’re thinking about getting him a walker so he can cruise around the manor. Of course, that means we’ll be baby-proofing the place in short order.

Spring #2 arrived on Planet Georgia yesterday, just in time for the weekend. I went out to the treefall and cut some more firewood on Saturday; today we hauled, split, and stacked it. Cousin Splat pulled up with The Boy and Snippet in tow as I was getting started splitting; after a few minutes, he started stacking the wood I’d split and tossed aside, then The Boy saw this and joined in. The wood rack in the garage is now heaped over, and one of the pallets out back has about as much wood stacked and covered — maybe enough that anything we cut from here on out will be there for us this fall. There’s plenty more at the treefall; I finally got all the branches cleared away and can work on trunks from here on out. Kobold got an old 22" Husky saw running, but the chain’s worn out. When I resume cutting, I should get a new chain for that one (and remember the ear plugs, Huskys are LOUD).

At least I’ve got vacation starting later this week. Daughter Dearest and I are heading to Florida to visit my family… hooray! I’m hoping to get some writing done on White Pickups; maybe the change of venue will help. Progress is being made, but it’s slow progress.

3 comments:

  1. I've been "working" from home since 1998, and my days are usually just like you describe - mostly doing little things for everyone else, and not getting lot of work done.

    The worst is my friends who think that, because I'm home, I must have time to chat over a cup of tea, and they'll bring their kids over to play with mine and hang-out for HOURS! How do you say, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here" without sounding like a meany?

    For a long while, I didn't even try to work during the day, but staying up until 1:00 or 2:00 working, and then, getting up at 7:00 wasn't much fun.

    Anyway, after all of these years, I've learned to just say, "I'm working", and mostly, people bother me less. If you make working from home a permanent thing, they'll get used to the idea that, even though you're home, you're working, and they'll leave you alone ... mostly ... unless there's a spider to squash ;).

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  2. What a CUTE picture!!

    Re: working @ home - I've very lucky that my only distraction is myself. ::g:: Though sometimes, telling oneself to leave me alone gets a little psychotic. ;-)

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  3. Hey all!

    Wendy, I think I'd be tearing my hair out in that situation! Even when they were like four, my kids understood that I was working & they could get me if they really needed me… which was usually all the security they needed. On Thursday, I ended up getting back to work after supper and wrapping up around 9:30 or 10. Still not much fun. With the kids to deal with, you can't just slip out to a coffee shop and work in peace either — sounds like a Catch-22.

    Thanks Maria, and sometimes you have to give yourself a little attention, right? Some things just *can't* wait. ;-)

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