White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Ahhh, sweet monotony. The traffic last night was unpleasant, but not so much so that I wanted to chew the accelerator pedal off. Sooo, leaving at 1615 and getting home at 1705 has become the standard. Of course, the sun immediately burns out at 1700 so I spend about 15 minutes hunting for dog plop in the dark. I should train the hounds to use the toilet. Well, except for Thor. He has to circle and spin around about 100 times before he will settle down and drive some spikes. Once in a while, he does not settle down and ends up dancing on his own mountain of remains. Nice. I wonder what goes through his mind at these times, but it is a fleeting concern. I'm sure he is thinking that as soon as he is done, he'll get a snack and will get to go play some more. Dog's life indeed!

Picked up kids, served them dinner, bath at 2100, lights out by 2130. Simple enough. I'm sawing wood at 2330 after finishing all the preparations for the next morning. Standard stuff, lunches, breakfast, clothing, weapons check, lock down the car-port, arm the security system, etc... Here is where things go south. Usually, the dogs wait till the but-crack of dawn to start making a fuss. Right around 0600. Not today. Some time around 0400 Katie starts to bark in her usual low, muted way that means either she has to pee or Thor is doing something he should not. Well, this is not good. I run down to the kennel to find her standing over Thor who had stolen her blankie out of her kennel. So, this is what all the fuss is about? At friggen 4am? Ok, fine. I throw the blanket back into the kennel, tell Thor to go sleep on his EXPENSIVE DOGGIE BED and lock Katie in her kennel so Thor can no longer steal her precious ragged, worn, chewed up and stained blankie. I crawl back up the grand stair case and back under the sheets for a couple more hours of dream-less and yet fitful sleep. At least my sinuses are starting to drain out a bit so falling asleep is a bit easier. When the alarm start bashing my consciousness at 0600, the dogs are at it again. I find that Thor drug his blankie out of his kennel this time. Not sure how he got it open to get it out though. I let them out to wreck the back-yard and set out their morning meal consisting of 25 tons of kibble. On auto-pilot, I get everyone out of the house, drop off the kids by 0700, get to work before 0800. Of course, I sit in the parking lot for a bit till someone shows up. Still did not have my stupid building pass. Well, I did not till I was in the office for a bit. I was schleping through the 100 or so 'emergency' emails I get on a daily basis when I overheard a couple of Ops people talking a few cubes over. Linux this, Solaris that, Backbone here, Router there, Oh, did you loose your key? That's when my ears perked up. I went over to talk to Jenny who I had known from a previous contract. I asked her about the key noting that I myself had lost one late last week. And there it was. So, no covert infiltrator, no consumption by the hounds, no sneaky act of sabotage by the Twin Tyrants. I just dropped it in the office. ARGH.

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 9:53 AM