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| I figured I may as well go ahead and get my post for the month out of the way  I've actually sat down a couple times this week with intentions of hammering out a post of some sort, but got interrupted by one thing or another each time. So this half-hearted late evening effort is what you get. Deal with it.
I've spent the better part of the day being aggravated. I try to stay positive about life in general, and I think under most circumstances I do a pretty good job. Positive and/or apathetic. Whichever best fits the situation. But dealing with work and all the crap therein lately has left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth. In the year and a half that I've been working in claims, I've mostly enjoyed my job. It has its stressful days, like any job, but I had no complaints. But over the last couple months, things have just gotten crazy. With the company's renewed and increased emphasis on safety (i.e. peeing their pants in fear of OSHA, the DOT, and lawsuit frivolity of every conceivable sort), the hammer is really being dropped on stores - and those working in claims in particular - to deal with their hazardous materials/waste properly, and make sure we're compliant with applicable environmental laws. And it's not like I'm pro-hazard or anti-environment; I'm all in favor of protecting the environment and my co-workers. But some of the new procedural hoops we're being forced to jump through are not only nonsensical, but counter-intuitive and counter-productive. These hoops change almost daily as well, so keeping up with what I can and cannot do becomes a challenge in itself. It's complicated work to the point that I have almost twice as much to do now as I had just a couple months ago. My co-worker and I have been getting a little farther behind each week lately, to the extent that I was asked today to change my schedule and split up my off days because work gets too backed up when I'm not there for two consecutive days. In and of itself, I didn't feel that was such an unreasonable request, and I was surprised that I hadn't been asked before now. But I've already given up all of my vacation time for this year without having used a single day of it, simply because there's no way I can take time away from work. Compounded with about a hundred other problems I've been dealing with at work lately that I don't particularly feel like whining about, the whole mess has me in a state of mind that I don't particularly enjoy being in. If there was a light at the end of the tunnel, it would be a little easier to bear. But right now it appears that I'm in over my head, 'cause I don't have any more to give. And that's a pretty hollow feeling.
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| I'm not exactly Suzy Homemaker, but its hard to get the cat to do anything around the house. Therefore, domestic duties here tend to fall on me. That's okay.
To make a long story (that some of you already know) a heck of a lot shorter, my house once belonged to my parents before my mom passed away and my dad eventually remarried and moved out of it. I've been here for several years now, but I've never thought of this place as my home. I don't often set foot in the room my mom died in (the master bedroom), not because I'm afraid of it or anything, I just don't feel like I belong there. It's hard to explain.
Thursday I got involved in rearranging some stuff and getting rid of some garbage in the house, when I realized that I have a big closet in that master bedroom with quite a bit of space I can utilize for storage. Problem is, that closet has been used for storage for several years. It's been storing a bunch of stuff of Mom's, stuff that I wasn't really hanging on to for sentimental reasons, but that I had been avoiding throwing away. Thursday - as much because I needed the space, as because it was just time - I tore into that closet and threw away mounds of things that I had no attachment to. Junk, mainly. I also found a couple things that were actually worth hanging onto, things I had forgotten were here. Nothing major. It's kind of hard to explain why I had been reluctant to get in there and throw that stuff away. I guess I still feel like the stuff is hers, just like I still feel like the house is hers, rather than mine. But in the end, there are things that are okay to hang on to for sentimental purposes, and things that just don't have that worth.
At the end of the day, it was really just about coming to terms with the fact that it's okay to let go. It's something I had already known, but that was reaffirmed by the weight that was lifted off my shoulders when I actually tossed the stuff in the garbage. 'Cause I know where Mom is, and I know where she's not. Her memory and her impact are far too profound to be relegated to a pile of old things stuffed in a closet and forgotten with time. We would all do well if someday the same can be said for us.
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| Well, I guess I ought to put something on this blog, which is quickly becoming worthless in the grand scope of the blogosphere. I just don't have as much to say as I used to, which leads me to wonder if maybe I haven't already said it all. Hmmm...
Last week, I took a long-overdue trip up to the greater Detroit area to visit my longtime xanga friend and blogging great Sarah. That was a tremendous amount of fun, and I wish I could have stayed longer. Not only did I get to meet a wonderful person for the first time, but also her inimitable twin Megan. I had a great time with both of them, and was reminded of how much I love Michigan. I love it so much, in fact, that I brought the weather back with me. Ohio hasn't thawed out since I got back. It's supposed to warm up Wednesday. We'll see.
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| We're living like yetis here in Southern Ohio. Well, not quite, but we did get 7-8 inches of snow, which is pretty cool because we don't tend to get that much very often. We also got a fair amount of ice, which made life interesting. I stayed at Dad's Tuesday night, since he lives about 20 miles closer to where I work than I do, and was able to make it into work yesterday morning without incident, something the majority of my co-workers were unable to do. That suited me just fine, actually, since I was able to work the entire day with almost no interruptions. Increased productivity and all this winter beauty? I'd call that a pretty good day.
Today I have the day off, and that works for me since I need to go make a formal reintroduction between Mr. Driveway and Mr. Snow Shovel. I love playing in snow. I should probably move to Michigan.
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| I had to take a moment to congratulate one of my all-time favorite athletes, Rickey Henderson, on being voted by an overwhelming margin into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Baseball was the first sport I ever became interested in as a kid, and though I have always been a huge Reds fan, my favorite player from the first time I saw him was Rickey Henderson. Aside from the sometimes strange soundbytes he often provided to the sports media, he was one of the most talented and gifted athletes I've ever seen, who now possesses one of the more impressive records in all of sports, with 1406 career stolen bases, roughly one and a half times the second place total amassed by the great Lou Brock. As a kid, I used to have lots of posters and baseball memorabilia hanging from my bedroom walls illustrating my enjoyment of America's pastime. Today, I have only one such article hanging on my wall; a framed autographed picture of Rickey Henderson given to me on my birthday nearly 20 years ago. So when I heard yesterday that Rickey had been voted in, I got a little nostalgic. For a moment, I was the boy of 20 years ago, beaming with pride that one of sports' greatest honors had been bestowed upon his hero.
Congratulations, Rickey. Today, you are the greatest of all time. Again.
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