I was in Salt Lake City for my job thingy. I expected craziness. I expected Mormons proselytizing me at every corner. I expected to have to buy a club membership to get a drink. But it hasn’t happened that way; so far, you get a drink just like anywhere else. And the locals I met have been pleasant and polite.

I wasn’t expecting new modes and methods of crossing the street. Who knew?

First off, Salt Lake City’s Walk/Don’t Walk electronic signs at crosswalks (you know, the white walking man and the red hand) are supplemented with bird chirps and . . .

Continue Reading »

Now that I work at home full-time, our cat, Hank, saves me a lot of eyestrain by standing directly in front of my laptop screen when I’m working, sort of a furry anti-glare coating on my life.

Sometimes, I try to work around him, stretching my neck up, up and resting my chin on his back, or leaning way off to the side, sliding out of my chair, still hanging on to the keyboard trying to type, before I snap out of it. Hey! . . .

Continue Reading »

As you might know from reading this blog, my office building shut down and the three employees left in Minneapolis started working from home. That includes me, thank God. I have now worked from home for a full week, or as some say, been living the dream.

Let me tell you, cubicle-bound lackeys, if you’re wildly envious, you should be. It’s awesome!

At home, I can now do anything I want. If I want to get up and do that laundry that’s piled up in my bedroom closet, I can. I haven’t availed myself of that particular opportunity just yet, . . .

Continue Reading »

At lunch today, my officemates and I huddled around the speakerphone on the back table for a “town hall” meeting teleconference call. Colleagues called in from all over, set their office and cubicle phones to speaker, and proceeded to pay no attention whatsoever.

These folks have got some good microphone pick-ups on their telephones. We heard honking, sirens, closing doors, throat-clearings and a lilting little Irish jig on lute and guitar. This is true. “Break out the Guiness,” one coworker said. If only.

At least one person held a handset up to their head. We know, because he or she . . .

Continue Reading »

My camera-phone takes pictures on par with grainy photos of UFOs or the black speck of the Loch Ness Monster, but if you look closely, that is actual weed on the back stairway of our office-building.

The pot smell came back today with a vengeance, and again we tracked it down to the back stairway. We just missed them — the smoke lingered in the air, cigarette butts lay on the floor, and on one step, a spilled bag of weed.

When we came back, our boss told us he’d caught them — . . .

Continue Reading »