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Wow. NewBoss is out due to some kind of morning emergency, GirlBoss (back for a few days) is sick, Coworker J is gone, Bulletproof Temp is at a counseling appointment, BossBoss is at another office, and my allies, the Graphic Design department, are all at a training conference.

*looks around warily*

I really hope nothing important or vital happens, because I am a competent guy but I am not actually a ninja.

Also, I hope someone somewhere can come relieve me for lunch. That'd be good.

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Thank god that day is over with.

This is the kind of day I'm thankful also for PeaPod. Because while I could walk down to the Jewel-Osco, shop around, buy my supplies there and haul them back in my messenger bag, in the rain, instead I logged on, searched out what I needed, price-compared everything, and got it done in like half an hour. Tinfoil, laundry soap, frozen rolls to bake and cheese to eat on them, stew meat for stroganoff, apple juice, turkey and avocado and bacon for sandwiches, all wending their way to me and also giving me an excuse not to go anywhere tomorrow morning while I wait for delivery.

I'm well and truly exhausted. This week hasn't been bad, but it has been intense; I've basically been doing two other peoples' jobs as well as my own, without their mobility because I can't leave my desk.

I got an amusing email from BossBoss right as I was leaving, which said "If anyone asks you about customer service training, tell them you're on vacation those days." Apparently someone suggested that all the administrative staff get customer service training and put my name forward in particular simply because I'm the public point of contact. BossBoss told them that I'd already scheduled vacation time for those days, which is almost true -- it's the Monday of Thanksgiving week and I leave town a day or two later to visit friends for Turkey Day. In all honesty, however, he says he thinks the idea of me requiring customer service training is laughable. He actually had to train me out of some of the more formal manners I picked up at the box office.

It's dark and rainy here, perfect sleeping weather. And thus I go.

(no subject)

So I've put out the lights in the flat and lit about a dozen tea lights; I like live flame, and while I don't have that many places to put them tealights are pretty easy to find holders for. It's rather nice.

Everyone down south is anxious about Hurricane Ike right now, which is baffling me a bit because isn't it a category 2? As in, the second-to-weakest category available? That's what Google hurricane tracker says, and if you told me ten years ago I'd be saying the phrase "google hurricane tracker" I'd have been perplexed to say the least. But my point is, am I getting an inaccurate read off Google or are people seriously wigging the fuck out over a category 2?

Dad Lucky says the storm's going to wreck Galveston completely and I should be glad I got to see it way-back-when, but Galveston wasn't all that impressive before the hurricane hit, and it's got shitloads of sea-walls and mansions on stilts because of the storm in 1905. Mama Tickey, down in Houston, is not under mandatory evacuation (yet) but depending on circumstances Dad Lucky is ready to run down there and bring her up to Austin for a bit.

Mum always freaks out about hurricanes, despite the fact that Austin is deep inland and even the big storms usually just mean some rain -- we got worse in off the west Texas plains when I lived there. Before Hurricane Katrina hit she had us clean the yard and pack away anything that could get hurled around in a hurricane; yesterday they went out and bought a gas generator (useful anyway) and a chainsaw in case they need to cut their way out after all our trees fall down on the entrances to the house. I suspect this was, in reality, Dad Lucky's gadgetphilia in action.

I'm keeping the mandatory-evacuees in my thoughts, of course, and I'll be checking in with the 'rents tomorrow to make sure Mama Tickey's all right, but I refuse to panic or to cater to Mum's panic. Even if it does bump up to five by the time it makes landfall, panicking does nobody any good.