"...and a top o' the mornin' to you!"

Been off the blog a week now. Started a new job that's always fun, and weaning myself off the old one (i.e. still working there three nights a week and Saturday day shift 'til they find some bodies to work!)
Aside from the fact that the guy who had the accounts I handle now gave up almost six months ago and the accounts are in a shambles, the new job's great! I've spent two weeks trying to locate "stuff" he never bothered with, like notes of Board of Directors meetings, etc., lists of things to do he never made, let alone even did, and in general utilizing conflagration management systems (pissing on the highest fires!) to get things under control. By my guesstimates I'm about half way there. Think of it like being in one of those big pens of balls the kids play in at MacDonald's, only this one is seven feet deep in balls and about two hundred feet wide. Day one you get uncerimoniously dumped in the middle, by day three you figured out you can't touch bottom and keep your head above the balls, Day five you've figured out how much progress you can make toward the side of the pen by attampting to "swim" through the balls. Now I'm making steady progress "swimming" but I'm only half way there. (God I love the challenge!)
On other fronts I watched the Preakness (2nd rung of the Triple Crown of horse racing) yesterday and saw the favorite break his ankle just out of the gate. Man that's a depressing thing since horses are notoriously not favored to have broken legs heal and usually get put down. I hope they can save this one, he was really spirited!
Went to the movies last night and saw the "DaVinci Code". It wasn't as bad as the critics said it was, but if you hadn't read the book you'd have a lot of blanks to fill in and try and understand. It really was almost an impossible book to try and make a movie out of becaus eof it's complexity, but hats off to Ron Howard he did a supurb job of trying. Now Tom Hanks is a great actor, but it sounded like he had a cold throughout the entire movie, you know that half sinus sound you make when you have a nasty cold. Would I go see it again? Yes, in fact I'll probably go next week with my wife when she gets back from Boston, just to see what I "missed" the first time I saw it. (Interesting sidebar: I can not bring my self to re-read a book, no matter how much I enjoyed it the first time, but I love to see a movie more than once because I always pick up something new. So how do you figure that??)

I must say the two job work schedule is helping out. I've not been able to hit my "two pints a day" at the pub on tuesday, wenesday, and thursday, wind up grabbing a salad or a bite between jobs, come home and go to bed and do it all again. Result; I've lost about six pounds in a week, seem to have more energy, and actually feel a little more rested. Why? Well I guess the pure unadulterated boredom of the old job, after 7 years, was a lot more tiring than even I realized. Maybe there is no such thing as "burn-out"!

Now there's a thought! Maybe we don't really get "burned out" but indeed get "bored out". I know some folks can do the same old same old every single day of thier life and it really doesn't bother them, but me? I've finally figured it out as I look back on my forty some odd years of working life. I am beginning to sense a reality to a "seven year cycle" for me personally, and I wonder what if any, cycles exist in other people.
Maybe that's why I never finished college as a dropout of college at17 . I was long past my seven year cycle. Now I went in the Navy, enjoyed the hell out of that for almost five years, got out, worked two jobs, one full time , one part time, and still found time to go back to college nights and get my degree in four years, all while raising a family of two children. (Sound like a glutton for punishment to you?)
In reflecting back on my "working life" seven years is about the max I've ever stayed with anything, then I have to move on. In fact as I reflect even more about it, the "functions" (I won't call it a job because some of them were start ups of my own businesses) immediately following a long "bored out" period function were stellar successes that I got my teeth into like a junk-yard dog and loved every minute of thier 24/7 existence. Kind of a feast or famine thing. I'm either into this thing like running full out at Indianapolis, or just sittin gon the sidelines, fishin'.
Maybe this is a good subject for a management book! Write it, get it published, have Oprah endorse it, bank proceeds in the Grand Caymans, and kick back and do the "book tour". Hmmmm, let me give that a little thought. Any ideas for a catchy title?
Well rantings for today are about played out. Got to do a little housework before the wife gets home Tuesday.
(OK, so I forgot to water the plants until last night. And the one that keeled over is the one that reminded me of it. Does anyone know of a sort of Viagra for plants so they'll all look better by tuesday?)
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