I really shouldn't complain, you know, even though I am grumpy right now. My eyes hurt because I have spent the last six hours looking at little tiny number series in two different documents comparing A to B to make sure they match. Am I sick or weird for loving nitsy details and granular investigation like that? I really do love it although I don't know why. I also have to say that I think I'm pretty good at it. However, after spending today with my eyes plastered to a screen staring at groups of little mouse-print numbers and comparing this one to that one, I'm tired. Then, what got me going on the grump-train is that just when I though I was finished, I was asked to look at something new - which should have been instinctive but wasn't. So I get to do it again. Oh joy.
grumpgrumpgrumpgrump...
Lesson learned! Don't forget that little detail in the bigger excitement. Lesson will be reinforced by doing it again, although it will be marginally easier since I know where the bodies are buried in this mess.
Then, when I'm done, it'll all be good. What's bugging me, if I'm honest, is the fact that I'm going back and checking, in minute detail, someone else's work. I don't usually mind checking someone's work if it's broad strokes and broad brush, but when it's detailed and nitsy - like picking fly-poop from the pepper nitsy - that's when I get grumpy because I always think "I wouldn't have made this many mistakes!" Although I probably would have, being human and fallible.
Checking other people's work is hard - particularly when it's work that stretches over two years and across a whole long list of customers. About 1500 Excel spreadsheet lines worth after being filtered, if I guess right.
But you know what? I did enjoy that exercise. It's weird because on the one hand, and probably because I just came off it, I am not thrilled with having to go back. On the other, I am actually kind of looking forward to it. Do I need my head examined? Ya think?
Probably. Along with juggling the knives of moving chess pieces around - disconnecting utilities here, connecting utilities there, arranging for new service and making sure it's all done in a short amount of time.
It's another thing I'm good at doing, though.
Yeah. It is all about me today. But that's okay because if you want it to be about you, you can start a blog, too.
So, I'll finish up the eye-strain exercise this afternoon, and then I'll have the next four days off. I'm looking forward to that. Hanging around the house, eating more than I should, knowing it and doing it anyway. If it's not raining, maybe I'll go for a walk or two or three.
We're "supposed" to get rain tomorrow night and it's "supposed" to be cold enough in these parts that we might actually have a white Christmas! Wouldn't that be cool?
One of my best memories is from about eighteen years ago - 1998 or so. I woke up early and couldn't sleep so got up. It was around four o'clock in the morning - before anyone else was up or out either.
I wandered into the kitchen, not turning on any lights and looked outside. I couldn't believe it! I moved closer to the windows and there, glimmering in the streetlight was snow falling. Little butterflies of snow whispering down in our backyard. I hurried to the front of the house and looked out, down the street, and it looked like a Christmas card. No one had driven in it - it was perfect and pristine, and I had it all to myself.
Even though it only ended up being about four inches, all the schools were closed for two days, so Daughter got a pair of "snow days" here in coastal California while I had the special privilege of trying to drive in it! We still have pictures of her snowmen that she made in our back yard. Ungainly, awkward things with blades of grass stuck in them since she had to dig down to ground level to get enough snow to make them, but they were real and they hung around for three days after construction.
I'll have to dig them up from the photo albums (remember those!??) we have stuck on the shelves in the bedroom and scan them.
Right now, though, the wind is freezing cold but it's crystal clear outside - a beautiful winter day, which makes a nice change from the rain we got.
I heard yesterday that Lake Tahoe, which is way-y-y-y-y down because of the drought picked up "6.3 billion gallons of water". I fact checked that one and one of the people in the know up there said it was probably closer to 4 billion gallons but that is still one heck of a lot of water. And it only boosted the lake level by about two inches!
The following picture taken in October 2014 is from the Tahoe Regional Planning Association's website:
Obviously, those docks are not supposed to be out of the water.
Here's another that's more telling. The normal water level is indicated by the top of the white marks on the pilings under the pier.
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| www.kcra.com |
So, the lake is up two inches. Another few billion gallons and we'll be getting somewhere. And that's what we're hoping for. That and lots and lots of snow pack so the Central Valley will have water for next summer.
We are expecting more rain in the next few days, and even more in January and February if the weather gurus predicting the El Nino have it right. We won't get as much as Southern California, but it should still be respectable and will, I hope, have a pretty solid effect on the dryness around here.
In the meantime, I have to get back to those nitsy details and looking forward to having some time off.
Be well and have a wonderful Christmas if you don't check in between now and then!
Best~
Philippa
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