I love it when the hydrangeas get old and dappled like this in the autumn. You can see on the right that the purple asters are blooming too. We don't seem to have as many of them as usual -- maybe I was too thorough in my garden-clearing last year.
I realize I must have sounded ridiculously entitled in yesterday's post, complaining about feeling pressure to not read blogs at work. I should make clear that no one has told me not to do that, so this is mostly my own assumption (guilt?), but we are going through some changes in our department that make me think it would be frowned upon. And of course I understand why that is. They're not paying me for blog-reading, obviously.
But here's the thing: My job is almost entirely focused on helping kids when they come into the library. If I have no kids at any given moment, and I've done the background tasks that are also part of my duties (re-shelving, book displays, contacting people with overdue books, that kind of thing) then I literally have nothing to do. I've always felt that if I get the job done, and done well, then reading on the side shouldn't be frowned upon. It's pretty much my only option for killing time, unless I'm just staring into space. There's only so much shelf-neatening a person can stand.
I certainly don't want to be given some unnecessary task so that I can spin on a hamster wheel to look busy. I've been fortunate enough all my adult life to have jobs that allow me to hold this philosophy, but I've certainly heard stories about workplaces that time bathroom breaks and that kind of thing. So I know it's not everyone's experience.
(Also, in my defense, I usually only take about 20 minutes of my lunch hour, so I figure that other 40 minutes goes into my down-time over the course of the rest of the day -- though, granted, I don't measure or track that time in any official way.)
So do I sound like an entitled, spoiled, self-justifying jerk? Maybe. But that's how I think about work.
Maybe instead it's time to think about retirement! Hmmmm...
Flickr just billed me for renewing my mom's account -- £111 for two years. I maintain this account because years ago we scanned and uploaded a bunch of family photos there, like the one above of me, my mom and my brother swimming in the lake behind our childhood home in Florida. Of course my mom is no longer alive and I've downloaded all the pictures onto my computer, but somehow I can't bring myself to close or delete the account. (The online pictures are all set to private so only I can see them.) I suppose I should, though. That's a lot of money for a redundant family archive. (And it's non-refundable, so at this point I have the account for two more years, no matter what.)
Finally, I belatedly realized I've already shown you a video of this, but I made another one last night so you're seeing it again. This is Olga wiping her face on the outside shrubbery after she eats in the evening. This is her daily routine, followed without fail. It always amuses me. (And if we don't let her do it she wipes her face on the couch!)
I suggest that you never renew your mother's account again. Copy what you want or need and then let her go. Weren't there alligators in that lake? Your brother was a chubby fellow - is he still chubby?
ReplyDeleteWe did have some alligators, but the conventional wisdom was they wouldn't bother us if we didn't bother them. We only ever saw them in the distance, swimming out in the middle of the lake. I think alligators nowadays are more of a danger because people have intruded on so much of their habitat. My brother wasn't any chubbier than I was, and neither of us is chubby in adulthood!
DeleteI once read somewhere that when dogs rub their faces , and then bodies, on something like that, they are transferring their smell from scent glands in their cheeks onto the rest of them . My boy does it on the sofa after a bath. The shrubbery probably doesn't work as well as a sofa! Hooray , sunshine today.....enjoy it ....after work!
ReplyDeleteAnd yet given a choice, she'd much rather rub on the shrubbery! Go figure.
DeleteShrubbery beats the couch for sure. I have never worked at a place that times bathroom breaks.
ReplyDeleteMe neither, thank goodness.
DeleteWe are lucky if our hydrangeas look like that after summer. Usually the flowers are dried, having been fritzed by hot sun and hot wind.
ReplyDeleteI had my thoughts about blog reading while at work but having known you for quite some as a blog mate, I think I know your character, so if I had any doubts, the latter came into play.
It's a pity Olga doesn't have a hand and you could give her a napkin. Wiping her mouth on bushes is preferable to wiping on carpet.
I'm glad you gave me the benefit of the doubt!
DeleteI always want to hug Olga. I had friends who had an English sheepdog named Heathcliff. She wiped her face on their gold velvet sofa after every meal. The sofa was disgusting. I never knew them to clean it. The hydrangeas are stunning
ReplyDeleteYeah, if your dog's going to do that, an occasional cleaning is required! Plus sheepdogs accumulate a lot of grime on their face, I'm guessing.
DeleteHeathcliff was a sweetheart but, although they loved her, she didn’t often get bathed or brushed. What a mess.
DeleteYou could always allow access to other family members..and possibly they could add their photos as well? A wider family archive perhaps?
ReplyDeleteThat's just what my brother proposed!
DeleteMy birds used to clean their beaks, after eating, very fastidious. I wondered if work wasn't very happy, maybe a bean counter boss.
ReplyDeleteAs David Bowie sang, we're undergoing "ch-ch-ch-changes..."
DeleteIt's sweet how you look the same as a little boy as you do now!
ReplyDeleteWill Flickr last forever so you always have access to those photos? How about your computer files? Do we need access forever? These are just questions I don't have the answer to...
I suppose nothing lasts forever. There will probably come a time when Flickr and Blogger will go belly-up, but hopefully before that happens we'll be able to retrieve our content and move it elsewhere.
DeleteI always keep backups so even if Flickr died tomorrow, I'll have all my photos. And I back up my blog, too.
I've had a couple jobs over the years where randomly surfing the internet would be frowned upon but in my line of work, I generally always had more work to do than I could ever accomplish in a lifetime. But at my last job, my boss told me that he expected me to get the tasks done that I was assigned to on a yearly basis but my hours were up to me. I could knock off early or take a break whenever, just as long as I had those tasks done before our end of the year review! I rather liked that job.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, perhaps decades, I had a photo account online where I had to upload photos in order to post them onto my blog. I stopped paying and for years, they would send me occasional emails asking me to rejoin and showing me random pictures I had uploaded onto their site. I think this went on for maybe ten years before they gave me an ultimatum of rejoining or my account would be deleted. I don't know if they followed through but I stopped getting emails from them.
Was that Photobucket? As I recall, in the early days of Blogger we couldn't post photos directly, and they had to be hosted on a third-party site. We were also limited in file sizes and overall data storage. I think I joined after those prohibitions were loosened, because I always posted straight to Blogger, but the early photos were pretty small.
DeleteThat job sounds like a sensible approach to work.
You know, I think Photobucket is the one I was thinking about. For the life of me, I couldn't come up with the name when I was writing the comment.
DeleteI think your work philosophy is sound. Once you have done everything that you ARE paid to do, what's wrong with reading?
ReplyDeleteThat photo is SO Florida. Forget palm trees- show me a lake with little children playing in it.
Olga is quite the dainty and mannered lady, isn't she?
Yes, indeed, that is REAL Florida! Olga is mannerly about some things, but not everything. :)
DeleteI have that same work philosophy - if I get my work done then I'm NOT doing busywork. Nope. (Although sometimes I spend too much time on the internet & have to work late or on the weekend - but I'm not paid hourly so my employer doesn't pay extra for that.)
ReplyDeleteAs long as everything gets done -- that's what matters!
DeleteSuch a clear photo of you little boys in the lake with your mother. Good camera, good film?T
ReplyDeleteThey are not paying you to breathe, or go to the loo, - reading blogs in down time can not be wrong. You are in a library full of words, it does not matter in what form they come, does it?
My dad must have taken it on his Minolta, in probably 1973 or so. And I agree -- I am modeling good behavior by reading! (Though ideally it would be better to read books, which I also do.)
DeleteIf your lunch break is an hour long and you only use 20 minutes of that, then whatever time you have left is yours to do whatever! Reading in a library ... how quaint!
ReplyDeleteRight?! It's our mission to encourage reading, after all!
DeleteThat's a funny habit Olga has. I used to worry about reading things at work but I don't any longer. Now when I'm in the office and I'm waiting around I either read the newspaper or blogs or both. No one has ever said anything. I think all the time working from home changed the way I saw the work day.
ReplyDeleteLately, I've been thinking the same about Flickr. I haven't uploaded anything there in ages. I need to cancel it.
I maintain my main Flickr account because it's my searchable archive -- and it has bottomless storage! But my mom's account really is redundant.
DeleteI support your workplace philosophy 100%. As long as the work is getting done, there is no harm in doing other things.... People need to break up their day and inject other stuff.
ReplyDeleteYour family archive of photos is very nice to have, holding on to it makes perfect sense to me. The photo of the three of you at the lake is precious.
Perhaps my brother will take it over. He's asked about it.
DeleteI see nothing wrong with your workplace philosophy, it's not like you're working in a machine shop and having to mind the machinery for 8 hours straight.
ReplyDeleteExactly! This is not that kind of job.
Delete"So do I sound like an entitled, spoiled, self-justifying jerk"
ReplyDeleteYou sound like someone who does his job very well, and makes yourself available to the kids and to the library and isn't that the job??
Thank you, Bob! That's what I say too, but sometimes I think I'm in the minority!
DeleteUnless specifically told not to, I don't see why you can't read blogs during down time. My younger daughter's boss actually told her she's welcome to bring books and read when she's caught up with her work.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried wiping Olga's face for her with a cloth after her meal? Of course she might not think that's as satisfying.
See, that's cool. And I think in a library it makes perfect sense!
DeleteOh, and no, I've never deliberately wiped Olga's face. (Well, unless it visibly needs it!)
DeleteNo I don't think you sound entitled. And yes, maybe it is time to think about retirement. But are you really old enough to retire? Maybe you'd spend your time eating and cleaning your face. 😄
ReplyDeleteI'm really not old enough. I'm not quite 58. I think I have at least five more years of work in me.
Deleteare they looking over your shoulder, know you are reading blogs on paid time? I know how you feel. I'd have to be doing something instead of staring off into space.
ReplyDeleteWell, my boss sits in an office behind me, and my computer screen is visible to her. As I said, she's never said anything critical, and I always offer to do anything she needs to have done, but if nothing is forthcoming I just read!
DeleteSince I'm working backward in your blog, I don't know about the entitlement but hey, I hear and agree with everything you say here. It was much the same (well, there were many moments when I probably DID have something to do but it wasn't urgent and blogs change every day!) And I was in my own office with the computer not visible. So, I was probably not "the best." But no guilt! Love the Olga video. I'm glad you're keeping your mom's account. I'm not sure I could cut it, either. Not yet, at least.
ReplyDeleteReading in a library when there is nothing else to do seems an apt use of that time. Blogs or books, what's the difference? Olga is a very neat dog!
ReplyDelete