The carpet that nearly caused heart failure on Monday arrived today and is being installed. I was here at 0630 for that, starting my day with tracking down a dust mask so I could sweep up the Monument Crud - the stuff that wasn't quite ground into the carpet. That was a nasty task because it's been about twenty years since that carpet was installed so there was a lot of crud. I did have the foresight to bring a fresh shirt which was a good thing. By the time I finished with the sweeping and cleaning up I had black smudges on the white shirt. No idea how they got there or where they came from, but it's a magnetic effect that I have at times like that. Kind of like Charles Schultz's Pig Pen character.
As for the carpet, it's looking really good. Now, following my Executive Decision of the other day, I hope everyone else is pleased. If not, too bad because we're not undoing it.
I'm also catching up on all of the invoices I've let collect for the past week. That was a huge task - a stack about five inches thick taking up a goodly portion of my desk. I took most of yesterday to get them coded and most of today to get them entered, and I still have several batches to go through. By two-thirty I should be done, which will be nice. Naturally, though, more arrived today but they're just going to have to wait.
Along the way I solved a dilemma that was bugging me: How do I know, among the thousands upon thousands of pages that came out of the file drawer last week, which are supposed to be here and which are supposed to be in the storage locker? It took some doing, but I downloaded the records for what's been closed and am now going through the thousands upon thousands of pages and comparing each to this list I've created. It's a worthwhile exercise because while many are open and should be here at my desk, many others were closed last year or the year before and shouldn't be here. I've already whittled the stack down by a solid three inches. If I can keep going at this pace, I should have a manageable stack to wrestle with. One I fervently hope will fit in the rolling file bin that I have, instead of in the rolling file bin and the other bin that's sitting on the floor here.
Of course, that stack of closed items also needs to be organized so that if we do need to find something, we can. That'll take about a day of intense concentration.
In addition to that, I solved another problem. How do I make the documents I need approved readily accessible to the reviewers? Ah ha! Work with IT to create a shared drive accessible only to those who need access. I can 'park' copies of the documents that are pending there, shoot the guys and gals an e-mail telling them they have stuff waiting and please stop by to take a look. That way I'm not blowing up their e-mail inboxes and phones with huge files. So far it seems to be working. Early days, yet, since I only got this started two days ago, but I have been getting responses and a couple of things have 'gone away'.
All-in-all it's been a good week. I'm up to my ears in projects and hanging things - like these papers I have all over the place - and I'm loving it. It's exactly how I like to work.
By the time I go home tonight, I expect the carpet will be down and the spaces will look beautiful, my desk will be clear of processed invoices, and I will have another bite taken out of the other work.
Looking farther than that, my next hope is that the powers that be will take a look at the new carpet and realize how shabby the rest of the building looks by comparison. We have blue carpet long-since turned black on the stairs. At the edge of the upstairs landing that ends and meets the brown carpet that meets the other blue carpet that morphs back into brown carpet so it can become blue again down the back stairs. It's a mess! Of course the bright pink duct tape covering up the holes and tears adds a bit of a festive touch...
If we could get some more spaces done, it might actually look like a good place to work when we bring visitors into the office.
The next thing is the forlorn Stack that's still sitting here on the corner of my desk. And the client's website I'm supposed to be rootling around inside 'when I have time'. Now there's a joke. When do I have time? I dunno. I'll find it, probably next week, once I feel like I've got a little room to breathe.
This week I've likened life to standing under Niagara Falls with a Dixie cup and trying to catch the entire flow. Not realistic but you do the best you can and who can complain about that?
So that's my week and that's why this has been hit and miss. Tomorrow, though I have an interesting piece about politics and the world economy. I hope you'll drop by.
Have a wonderful day!
Best~
Philippa
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