A Mostly Ordinary Monday

As Monday's go it was a pretty good one.  The meeting schedule was light at work and I spent most of the day doing a focuses review of some system changes.  There was a moment during the afternoon when we figured out we were working off the wrong version of the requirements document, but only minor differences were present.  It will necessitate a bit of rework tomorrow when I compare any change items on the subsequent document.  Process control has been a real challenge in this project.

Don and I went up to Black Angus for lunch and I had an excellent rib-eye (their monthly special).  Dinner was a simple salad, followed by a nap and a hot bath. I've been moody lately, so I've been slipping into bed earlier than usual or just spending time staring at the wall and contemplating. I contemplated overlong in the tub tonight and the water turned cool, which is always a thrill in its own right.

I've decided to wind out the evening watching the Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig version of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo".  I enjoy it for what it is, but it doesn't hold a candle to the original. Noomi Rapace owned the character of Lisbeth Salander. However, that doesn't really detract from the American version which is also an excellent - if different movie.  So, a little of Lisbeth, perhaps a bit of work related writing, and then an early night of reading. I've got a heavy meeting schedule tomorrow and a couple of objectives that I would like to get nailed down, so I might do a spot of work tonight.  Then again, I may not.

The Song of the First Monday

Well, today was the first Monday of the New Year. I joked with my sister today - only 51 more to go! It is strange but, if you break most things done to component parts (including time) then you become aware of the speed with which things pass, or the speed at which things are accomplished.

Work was a pretty typical Monday. A couple of meetings, a bit of work, enough to keep the day flowing smoothly but not so much as to overwhelm the day. I battled a bit of stress when some automated process went off on my computer this morning and it basically locked the computer up. I suspect it is a virus scan, but it could be any one of many things. It is sort of a constant thorn in my side on my work laptop, but I've worked with the desktop support people and they haven't been able to resolve it. The worst kind of errors in the computing world are intermittent errors. They can be a real bear to trouble-shoot and resolve. Other than that though, it was a good day.

I got home tonight, read a bit of Frank O'Hara, had an egg salad sandwich for dinner, then loaded "Highlander" into the Blu-Ray player. Highlander is the definitive Christopher Lambert movie and it has what I have considered to be the second greatest soundtrack - in the case of Highlander, a full set of incredible songs by Queen. (The greatest movie soundtrack ever, in my opinion, is Walter Hill's "Streets of Fire".) But, as for Highlander - Immortals, with Swords and Sean Connery in a supporting role. How can you possibly go wrong!

My bit of Frank O'Hara today was "Gamin". For your reading enjoyment:

All the roofs are wet
and underneath smoke
that piles softly in
streets, tongues are
on top of each other
mulling over the night.

We lay against each other
like banks of violet
while the slate slips
off the roof into the
garden of the old lady
next door. She is my

enemy. She hates cats
airplanes and myself
as if we were memories
of war. Bah! When you
are close I thumb my
nose at her and laugh.

A Strange-In-A-Good-Way Monday Morning

Every day begins the night before.

On Sunday night, after a relaxing and lazy day, I ate a big bowl of homemade chicken soup, I watched a little TV, I wrote a few email, I had a nice conversation on the phone with someone dear, I read a chapter in my novel and fell asleep to the sound of rain falling on the roof and gurgling in the downspout.

I fell asleep early.

At about 5:00 AM I woke to a scent. It took me a moment to figure out what it was as I lay there in the darkness. I could hear someone moving through the apartment. I could hear music playing softly. I glanced at the clock and noticed the hour. I recognized the scent - it was Axe body spray.

My first thought was a cranky one. I thought about getting up and asking my nephew what the heck he was doing up at 5:00 AM spraying Axe when it was a Monday morning. My assumption was that he had stayed up all night and now, rudely, woken me in the morning.

Then my brain slowly clicked in. My nephew works all over the clock, based on need, and I remembered he had told me he was going into work at 5:30 AM Monday morning. I realized that he was just getting up to go to work, and there I was willing to get up and be cranky.

But, I also discovered that I was pretty much wide awake because I had fallen asleep early the night before. So I rolled out of bed and told him about my morning thoughts. He laughed and promised to go easy on the Axe!

My apartment has a square lay out. The living room, dining room and kitched are in the front half and the two bedrooms are in the back half, with the bathroom between the bedrooms. there is a small corridor that leads from the living room to the bathroom and bedrooms and on one side of that corridor is the furnace and on the otherside a coat closet.

The intake vent for the furnace is near the floor. It is an efficient little place - but the furnace intake catches scents and pushes them up and through the furnace into the bedroom. With the cold weather right now, my nephew blasted himself with his Axe and the aerosol fell to the floor and was sucked into the vents!

I had an early morning meeting today, so I rolled out, drank some coffee and got ready to head into the office, then I dropped my nephew off at his work place on the way in. He is fortunate in that he works just a little over a mile from the apartment so it is either a five minute bus ride or a thirty minute walk.

After I dropped him off I drove into work, stopping at the coffee shop on the way in. It was a cold morning, raining intermittently after a night of fairly heavy rain and the city streets were black and glistening in the amber glow of the mercury vapor street lights. Because of the early hour traffic was very light so the drive in was beautiful and pleasant.

I was listening to Warren Zevon on the radio and just enjoyed the drive in immensely. Since I came in early I got a good start on my email and voice-mail queues before beginning the morning cycle of meetings. One of the advantages of starting the day early is that it will end early - by the time I go to lunch at noon it will be three quarters over. So, let me return to the working world with one of the Warren Zevon songs on "Mutineer".

"Piano Fighter" by Warren Zevon, 1993, Zevon Music, BMI

Mom and Papa bought a Chickering
Every day I'd sit and play that thing
I practiced hard;
it was more than a whim
I played with grim determination, Jim

Someone called Piano Fighter
I'm a holy roller, I'm a real lowrider
Hold me tight, honey, hold me tighter
Then let me go, Piano Fighter

I worked in sessions and I played in bands
A thousand casuals and one-night stands
Here on Thursday, gone on Friday
Heading down the Dixie highway

Someone called Piano Fighter
I'm a holy roller, I'm a real lowrider
Hold me tight, honey, hold me tighter
Then let me go, Piano Fighter

Maybe I'll go to Reno
Nobody knows my name
I'll play Claire de Lune in a quiet saloon
Steady work for a change
Ain't going down that long, lonesome road
Ain't going down that long, lonesome road
Got in trouble down in New Orleans
I must admit that I was strung out, painted in the corner of a limousine

Someone called Piano Fighter
I'm a thin ice walker, I'm a freelance writer
Hold me tight, honey, hold me tighter
Then let me go, Piano Fighter
Someone called Piano Fighter

I'm a holy roller, I'm a real lowrider
Hold me tight, honey, hold me tighter
Then let me go, Piano Fighter