Just When it was Getting Good

I was offered a ride back to the office by a middle-management type in a car that was not only not her, but one she came into rather suddenly. My combination of admiration for the car and advice on it's poor performance in right-around-the-corner winter conditions must have been seen as some remarkable act of kindness, because she was about to make me a beneficiary of her attempts to conceal a fair amount pf upper-management financial wrongdoing.

I had never heard of OfficeResidence, and now I had one. It was in a new building built right on a rocky part of the bay. The previous occupant had left the company, in part, in acknowledgement that she was, responsibility wise, over her head. As I looked around, I had no idea how my efforts for the company, as they were, would justify such a grandiose budgetary line item as the lease on this space.

Upon entry from the typical corporate corridor, there was a small reception area, doors that led to meeting space, and stairs that led to a studio and a top-line production suite. Behind reception and the meeting rooms was the residnece; very open and modern with tall ceilings and a clear lean toward large-scale entertaining. The whole thing spilled out to a wide, landscaped cement terrace that gradually sloped down to a 30-foot drop to the water.

I guess they were going to say that they were operating a design and production facility on the West Coast, which I'm sure sounded good to someone. I just didn't know how I was going to make it look like it was running. The production suite could handle a any live HD telecast, but it would take 25 people to do so. The space could host drinks and finger food for 100, but who would they be? Should I play along with all this and see what I can accomplish or get out now knowing that someday this will all come to a bad, sudden end. As it always does.

I was walking through the place, giving yes/no answers to a couple people who were to become my support staff, playing with the lights and the automatic drapes, when I saw previous occupant standing, plian as day, right there in the middle of the room. I was plenty surprised, since she had left the company months before. I couldn't express any outward sign of surprise when it became evident that only I could see or hear her.

Struggling

It's really been one of those days weeks months.

painting by Adam Stennett

ISTJ Humor

Joe Friday, Eeyore, Fred Mertz, Cliff Claven and OctaneBoy walk into a bar.

Actually, there is no punch line.

A Matter of Inches

The Eversons didn't see the cow falling and didn't know what happened until afterward. Charles Everson said he kept repeating: "I don't believe this. I don't believe this."