2003-03-23 - 11:19 p.m.

Clean The Garage And Oscar

When I was a kid I used to hear people on television talk about having to clean the garage.  That was a foreign concept to me at the time because no one I knew had a garage.  We all lived in old farmhouses or mill houses.  Some people had carports attached to their houses, but I grew up in the country and we didn't have suburbs with tract houses.  So when the tv dad asked the tv son, "Did you finish cleaning up the garage?" I thought that was just a made up thing, like roller skating on a sidewalk.

Today I worked on cleaning up the garage.  What a chore.  There is so much crap in there.  Stuff we put in there and forget about.  Stuff that needs to be thrown out.  But my sister, whose house l live in, is a pack rat.  She hates to throw anything away so she puts it in the garage.  Of course, as I was cleaning up in there I found a lot of stuff I had thrown in there, too.  The main thing about my sister is that she hates to use a room for its intended purpose.  As soon as we moved into this house I wanted to park my car in the garage.  She wanted to turn it into a gym. Or enclose it and turn it into a den.

Eventually I started parking my car in there.  Little by little she filled it up until it was no longer possible to park. I cleaned it out and got enough room to park in there again.  But now it is a lost cause.  I give up.  It is filled with boxes and broken furniture and gardening equipment and stuff that should have gone to the dump long ago.

Today I rearranged it all.  So it will be ok for a time.  There was so much dust in there.  I breathed in most of it.  I am already congested and sneezy from it.  I took a long, hot shower afterwards.  I washed my eyelids and nostrils with baby shampoo.  I gave myself a thorough cleaning (the old undercarriage a bit of the hows yer father).  I have been drinking water to flush my system.

I also washed my truck this morning.  I spent the whole day in front of the house.  The truck looks beautiful.  It is absolutely gleaming now.  It just makes me feel good to look at it.  The sun was shining, it was warm, the birds were chirping and Petey hung out with me, watching.

I was thinking earlier about all the bitching I do here in my diary about my crappy job.  It all seems so important right now because I am living with it.  I remember reading one of my old paper diaries from 10 years ago.  All those dramatics going on and I was so caught up in them.  Now I have a hard time remembering the names of those people.

I got called into the sales guy's office and confronted about my not seeming to be happy.  He tried to put me on the spot.  He made a few veiled threats about how I am perceived at our company.  At no time did I feel threatened.  I walked out calmly and just forgot about it.  I went about my day.  Made a few jokes about it with my coworkers.  The president and the sales guy have singled me out and are trying to get me to go to them for help.  They want me to tell them I am looking for a new job so they can help me find one.  Everybody I talk to about this confirms what my intuition tells me -- don't do it.  I'm just going to ignore them and try not to let them demoralize me.

Kevin summed it up best when he said, "I keep telling you, it's not us, it's them."  They try to make us feel as though we are doing something wrong.

I went to work yesterday. I had to.  I have that much to do next week.  So I went in on a Saturday, built some product, got caught up on my email, and forced Kevin to just spend an hour doing the inventory so they won't eat him alive next week because it isn't done.  I got there around 10, left before 5 and did a huge amount of work. David came in, too.  It was good to hang out with Kevin and David again.

I'm watching the Oscars now.  Michael Moore won for best documentary.  The audience cheered him.  He invited all the other nominees on stage with him, the audience cheered him.  He made a few remarks about the fictitious election and fictitious war and the audience stared booing.  I should say, part of the audience booed him. Some where still cheering.  Kay called me to ask me what I thought about it.  I say, the man is not a hypocrite.  He speaks what he knows to be true in every situation.  That is what he does.  He is not intimidated by passing situations.

Selma Hiak presented the award for best foreign film.  The winner was a German film.  Her face just fell and she politely accepted the award on behalf of the German winner who was not there.  Yikes.  The Mexican film, the one I saw, El Crimen de Padre Amaro, did not win.  Poor Selma.

There was one winner early on, it was for a short animated film called Chup Chups or something like that.  It looked familiar and I had to search my brain to remember how it was that I had actually seen the film. Then I remembered. I saw it at the North Georgia Film Festival last summer.  Wow. Little did I know that this short little film, amid all the others I saw, would go on win what many consider the highest honor in filmdom.  Good for the creators of that one.

Steve Martin is hosting the show.  He is a very funny man, but he seems a little off tonight.  I have little or no interest in who wins what tonight.  Although I was glad Michael Moore won, he had a great film.  My favorite parts of the show are the opening monologue and the tribute to all the people who have died the past year.  I know that sounds a little morbid, but there you are.  Usually there is someone there I did not know about.  There.  They just did it.  There were no surprises this time.  Probably because from time to time I got to a web site called Dead Or Alive?.  So I'm all caught up on famous dead people.  I recommend it.

The other day I read a book. It is called A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.  My friend Kay told me she had read it and recommended it.  It is a children's book and it was fine.  I was hoping it would be funnier.  It is about three kids who have horrible things happen to them.  And it just gets worse and worse.  I liked it because it is British and there are some subtle jokes in it.  I read it in a few hours.  I recently reread Patrick O'Brian's first Aubrey book, Master and Commander.  It has been years since I read it.  I enjoyed it a lot, but the next 10 books are even better.

Now I must conclude my entry for today. I hope to update more frequently this week.  It all depends upon how much of my life my job robs from me.  I may not have it to give.

Jimmy
 

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