Suka and Dakota are doing well. Very well. :) Recent checkup shows them both to be in perfect health, and they charmed the socks off the vet & staff. As usual. ;)
On walks downtown, they do the same to passers-by, every time. Between Suka's lively charm, and Dakota's calm dignity, they've something for every dog lover. :)
I'm not doing entirely so well, though... Family issues (no, no one is getting divorced!), and work... I'm responsible for items that could literally cost my company a billion US Dollars, if I were to fail. Plus cost my job. ;) Family comes first, but clearly, the job is running a close second. :p
When I have time, I'll add more. Until then, just know that I have my nose to the grindstone and, to a degree, my back to the wall.
Showing posts with label WAML. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WAML. Show all posts
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Why I love my dogs (and cats)
Not the only reason, mind you. Not even remotely. But still a big one; they keep me sane.
It's Saturday evening. I'm at work. Probably until midnight. I'll be at work tomorrow, too. I should be working this very instant, as a matter of fact, but my eyes have gone cross-ways, and I can't see clearly to do what I need to do. So I'll post here, and get a soda, and visit the head, and then stick my shoulder back to the wheel.
I've Quality-Control checked nearly ten thousand pages of clinical data today - I've another nearly seven thousand to go before I'm done today. Tomorrow will be the same, I'm sure. Nor am I alone - The boss is in, and so are many of my cow-orkers. By the time I'm done, my brain will be fried.
But when I get home, the dogs will not care. Suka will be flying about shoulder high, as she always does when I come home - no matter how long I've been gone. Dakota will wheel and prance and moan with delight, as she always does. They will make demands - Attention, a trip to the back yard, more attention. But these demands never ease, never increase - These are demands of love and they are constant. The document awaiting my attention does not love me, nor do I love it. When I get home, the dogs will make their demands, and will force me to push this never-to-be-sufficiently damned document out of my head. I will be home, and work will be sent back to where it belongs, out of mind until I actually need to face it again. Just me, and the dogs. No time, no plans, no meetings; just us doing what needs to be done in the time it takes to do it. Like no one else, Suka and Dakota can take me out of my head and pull me into the now.
Max and Tuxedo, too, will make their presence felt. Not quite as in-your-face as the girls, but every bit as insistent and relentless in their own rights. Max will creak his way to where I sit, and painfully climb to his throne of power (that being wherever he choses to plant his massive, muscular butt), and casually demand his due - a back scratch. He'll reward loyal rendition of his due with purrs and the random head-butt, and maybe a lick or two. Attending to his imperial demands is a kind of command performance zen - you must sit, and you must scritch, and you must do it until His Imperial Majesty is satisfied you've done it properly, else... The PAW! IOW, there's no end in sight until you've reached the end. Tux is less blunt, but every bit as pushy in his way. He will climb on my shoulder and purr and poke his claws into my beard, try to steal anything I have that is even remotely edible, and will sit or strop his back on anything I'm holding. At least, until I literally knock him on his side and give him a quick and vigorous whole-body rub.
But as demanding as the cats are, they too take me out of my day, and bring me mentally home, to rejoin my body already there present.
Dogs alone might not be enough. Cats alone, certainly not enough. But together, they consipire to return me to my refuge of relaxation and recuperation. Whilst they are there, work may not trouble me - I'm too busy taking care of the immediate, and being loved. I bet this document wishes it had pets. :-p
It's Saturday evening. I'm at work. Probably until midnight. I'll be at work tomorrow, too. I should be working this very instant, as a matter of fact, but my eyes have gone cross-ways, and I can't see clearly to do what I need to do. So I'll post here, and get a soda, and visit the head, and then stick my shoulder back to the wheel.
I've Quality-Control checked nearly ten thousand pages of clinical data today - I've another nearly seven thousand to go before I'm done today. Tomorrow will be the same, I'm sure. Nor am I alone - The boss is in, and so are many of my cow-orkers. By the time I'm done, my brain will be fried.
But when I get home, the dogs will not care. Suka will be flying about shoulder high, as she always does when I come home - no matter how long I've been gone. Dakota will wheel and prance and moan with delight, as she always does. They will make demands - Attention, a trip to the back yard, more attention. But these demands never ease, never increase - These are demands of love and they are constant. The document awaiting my attention does not love me, nor do I love it. When I get home, the dogs will make their demands, and will force me to push this never-to-be-sufficiently damned document out of my head. I will be home, and work will be sent back to where it belongs, out of mind until I actually need to face it again. Just me, and the dogs. No time, no plans, no meetings; just us doing what needs to be done in the time it takes to do it. Like no one else, Suka and Dakota can take me out of my head and pull me into the now.
Max and Tuxedo, too, will make their presence felt. Not quite as in-your-face as the girls, but every bit as insistent and relentless in their own rights. Max will creak his way to where I sit, and painfully climb to his throne of power (that being wherever he choses to plant his massive, muscular butt), and casually demand his due - a back scratch. He'll reward loyal rendition of his due with purrs and the random head-butt, and maybe a lick or two. Attending to his imperial demands is a kind of command performance zen - you must sit, and you must scritch, and you must do it until His Imperial Majesty is satisfied you've done it properly, else... The PAW! IOW, there's no end in sight until you've reached the end. Tux is less blunt, but every bit as pushy in his way. He will climb on my shoulder and purr and poke his claws into my beard, try to steal anything I have that is even remotely edible, and will sit or strop his back on anything I'm holding. At least, until I literally knock him on his side and give him a quick and vigorous whole-body rub.
But as demanding as the cats are, they too take me out of my day, and bring me mentally home, to rejoin my body already there present.
Dogs alone might not be enough. Cats alone, certainly not enough. But together, they consipire to return me to my refuge of relaxation and recuperation. Whilst they are there, work may not trouble me - I'm too busy taking care of the immediate, and being loved. I bet this document wishes it had pets. :-p
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Work/Life Balance. What's that..?
Work is eating my life again... *sigh*
There's an Iditarod to follow and comentate... Which isn't happening for me.
There are a bunch of collecge kids down at The Farm, doing good works and eating donated meals (including some from my family)... and I'm not able to take the time off to help out.
There are photos in my camera to post and discuss... And they'll be there a bit longer.
See, I do Clinical Submissions work for a large Pharma, and though they make a LOT of noise about Work/Life Balance, ultimately we are slaves to the submission work. Timelines are inflexible, and if some internal Medical Writers can't get their heads out of their butts and meet *their* deadlines, well, *I* have to somehow manage to collapse my timelines so the final date is met. If the work isn't done, the agency won't care if I was able to get a little time off - Our user fee will still be forfieted. If the work isn't done, the agency won't cut slack on statuitory timelines so I can lower my blood pressure. If my Study Delivery Team is clueless and befuddled, well, the agency doesn't care. Nor should they. But I will still have to find the time anyway, even if it comes out of my hide.
Bitter..? A little. I'm missing things I love. I love my job too, but not right now.
Ah, well. Suka will still be over-the-moon to see me come home. That helps a lot. :-)
There's an Iditarod to follow and comentate... Which isn't happening for me.
There are a bunch of collecge kids down at The Farm, doing good works and eating donated meals (including some from my family)... and I'm not able to take the time off to help out.
There are photos in my camera to post and discuss... And they'll be there a bit longer.
See, I do Clinical Submissions work for a large Pharma, and though they make a LOT of noise about Work/Life Balance, ultimately we are slaves to the submission work. Timelines are inflexible, and if some internal Medical Writers can't get their heads out of their butts and meet *their* deadlines, well, *I* have to somehow manage to collapse my timelines so the final date is met. If the work isn't done, the agency won't care if I was able to get a little time off - Our user fee will still be forfieted. If the work isn't done, the agency won't cut slack on statuitory timelines so I can lower my blood pressure. If my Study Delivery Team is clueless and befuddled, well, the agency doesn't care. Nor should they. But I will still have to find the time anyway, even if it comes out of my hide.
Bitter..? A little. I'm missing things I love. I love my job too, but not right now.
Ah, well. Suka will still be over-the-moon to see me come home. That helps a lot. :-)
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Ministry of Silly Walks, Canine Division.
The last couple of nights have been pretty frosty, at least for Delaware... Temps in the low 20s or high teens. Suka really comes alive in the cold, especially if there's no frost or ice on the ground. Snow, she loves. Frost and ice weird her out.
Last night, the grass grew hoarfrost again... Still air, clear skies, temperatures plummeting from the already low daytime temps towards something rather cooler than shirtsleeve weather; you could actually see the frost growing. Sweater weather, for me, really - As long as there's no humidity or winds to speak of, a sweater is plenty sufficient for me in mid-teen temps. WAML again, and all that rot, so, it seemed like a good night to go and perch on the old playset and just kind of chill out, in several meanings of the phrase. Suka happily joined me, energetic and playful in the chill air, but the hoarfrost was messing with her mind again. This time, rather than mincing (which really was out of the question - She had too much energy), Suka tried out a Silly Walk: Run two strides; pop her front legs off the ground and run two strides on her back legs only; repeat. I've never seen anything like it - I don't even know to what I should compare it. She wasn't bounding, she wasn't bear-walking, but some crazy hybrid of the two on the two-beat.
It's supposed to be pretty cold the rest of the week... I wonder what else I'll see Suka do before it's done?
Last night, the grass grew hoarfrost again... Still air, clear skies, temperatures plummeting from the already low daytime temps towards something rather cooler than shirtsleeve weather; you could actually see the frost growing. Sweater weather, for me, really - As long as there's no humidity or winds to speak of, a sweater is plenty sufficient for me in mid-teen temps. WAML again, and all that rot, so, it seemed like a good night to go and perch on the old playset and just kind of chill out, in several meanings of the phrase. Suka happily joined me, energetic and playful in the chill air, but the hoarfrost was messing with her mind again. This time, rather than mincing (which really was out of the question - She had too much energy), Suka tried out a Silly Walk: Run two strides; pop her front legs off the ground and run two strides on her back legs only; repeat. I've never seen anything like it - I don't even know to what I should compare it. She wasn't bounding, she wasn't bear-walking, but some crazy hybrid of the two on the two-beat.
It's supposed to be pretty cold the rest of the week... I wonder what else I'll see Suka do before it's done?
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Christmas wrapping... up.
Well, wrapping up Christmas - Still some hoiday season events pending, but the big ones will finish today - Gift day at my father's place. It's been lean, due to the economy, and due to the fact that Work Ate My Life (WAML). Not enuogh money, not enough time, to do everthing we might have otherwise have done. Still, people did have Christmas, if more frugally than extravagently. Suka, too, has had her Christmas, though she seems to not understand the significance. Imagine that! ;-)
The HBIC at The Farm sent a 'thank you' package with some home-baked dog treats, and I learned what she found to do with the raw food samples ( http://sukasplace.blogspot.com/2008/11/cold-indeed.html ) - bundle them up in small groups, and send them as gift training treats. Well, that makes sense - opening a double handful of packets is much easier, individually, than opening literally thousands. Much less scary! So, yeah, some of those found their way into Suka's Xmas package. In addition, she's been given pressed-rawhide (not solid!) chewies, and pink piggie toy, which she's decided is worth carrying about the house (the first toy in which she's shown any real interest).
Along with all the nifty treats, she's talking more, and showing a lot more affection to other members of the family. This is, I'm sure, in part due to others picking up the care slack when WAML, but it also seems to stem from the competition to be the one to giver her treats. Also, my daughter has taken to cheating... Well, not cheating, per se, but she's at that pubescent stage wherein other people are all idiots, and are to be tollerated on sufferance, at best (she ruins the effect by giving my random hugs and pesting me to watch Monty Python with her). As part of this "Oh, that Angst!" attitude, she's taken to going out to the old playset in the back yard to read her "Twilight" books. She takes Suka out with her, so Suka has identified my daughter as the "outside girl." Needless to say, my daughter's status has risen considerably! The younger child has been drafted to treat Suka while I'm trimming her nails, and with placing her food on the floor, so he's risen, too.
All told, not the most thrilling of Christmasses, but far from a disaster. Considering how easily the wheels might have come off, I'm counting this as my Christmas Miracle.
So to everyone (all three of you) who read this; Happy Holidays (what's left of them!) and a happy and productive new year!
The HBIC at The Farm sent a 'thank you' package with some home-baked dog treats, and I learned what she found to do with the raw food samples ( http://sukasplace.blogspot.com/2008/11/cold-indeed.html ) - bundle them up in small groups, and send them as gift training treats. Well, that makes sense - opening a double handful of packets is much easier, individually, than opening literally thousands. Much less scary! So, yeah, some of those found their way into Suka's Xmas package. In addition, she's been given pressed-rawhide (not solid!) chewies, and pink piggie toy, which she's decided is worth carrying about the house (the first toy in which she's shown any real interest).
Along with all the nifty treats, she's talking more, and showing a lot more affection to other members of the family. This is, I'm sure, in part due to others picking up the care slack when WAML, but it also seems to stem from the competition to be the one to giver her treats. Also, my daughter has taken to cheating... Well, not cheating, per se, but she's at that pubescent stage wherein other people are all idiots, and are to be tollerated on sufferance, at best (she ruins the effect by giving my random hugs and pesting me to watch Monty Python with her). As part of this "Oh, that Angst!" attitude, she's taken to going out to the old playset in the back yard to read her "Twilight" books. She takes Suka out with her, so Suka has identified my daughter as the "outside girl." Needless to say, my daughter's status has risen considerably! The younger child has been drafted to treat Suka while I'm trimming her nails, and with placing her food on the floor, so he's risen, too.
All told, not the most thrilling of Christmasses, but far from a disaster. Considering how easily the wheels might have come off, I'm counting this as my Christmas Miracle.
So to everyone (all three of you) who read this; Happy Holidays (what's left of them!) and a happy and productive new year!
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