The 3rd house in astrology is associated with writing, conversation, personal thoughts, day-to-day things, siblings and neighbors.
Sunday, May 02, 2004It's official
Congratulations to Doctor Lorianne! By the way, if any of you aren't already reading her blog, Hoarded Ordinaries, you're missing some wonderful writing. It's a must-read for me.
Reservoir dogs!
Yesterday I put my bike on the road for the first time this year – 18 miles around the Wachusett Reservoir. It was a beautiful day, high 70’s, sunny, though a bit windy which made the last leg of the trip slower going against the wind. My cycling muscles were out of shape and I’ll admit to doing a fair amount of groaning during the second half of the ride while my companion mainly complained of saddle-soreness. But we kept on, with visions of a cool glass of beer dancing in our heads. One of my favorite pubs, O’Connors, happens to be located not far from where we parked the car – an unplanned but welcome reward.
And today, an unexpected reprieve: I was supposed to go hiking this morning with a friend and her dog, but she had a change of plans. Besides, what was I thinking?! I guess I could have handled some flat trails as I’m just a little sore. I should get out for at least a short walk today so I don’t get stiff. And I'll have to get back into doing some regular rides to build up those muscles.
I didn’t bring my camera, but I found a few nice photos of the reservoir here. We did essentially this ride except for a detour (we plotted our ride from of one of the Short Bike Rides books) that took us off of busy route 70 just past the Clinton Dam – up Mile High Road (that did not sound promising to my taxed muscles!) to Linden Street and back down to route 70 in Boylston Center. A very nice, scenic ride.
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During my ride yesterday I went by where I used to work for a big high-tech firm 15 years ago. I remember sitting in my car at lunchtime down by the Reservoir, crying my eyes out. Worst job I ever had by far. I felt stuck because they’d relocated me and I was supposed to stay for two years.
The first year I worked on just one project, a training program that never got off the ground. There were organizational “charter issues” that I, a lowly individual contributor, knew nothing about. I had no idea why the marketing people that I was supposed to work with were not only uncooperative but downright nasty to me. Really, my manager should have handled those issues but he was incompetent and whacked out on "est" besides [update: actually it was The Forum]. At one point he hired a guy I objected to – an old technology blowhard – and assigned him to my project, further antagonizing the marketeers. After that unfinished project was mercifully put to death, I was given two new projects, neither of which got off the ground due to other organizational issues.
Finally, a reorganization put me into a group where we cranked out one program after another. I produced audio cassettes for the sales force – interviewing, editing, writing scripts, wrapping it up and getting it out the door. One satisfying completion after another. It was an unusually free-wheeling group, led by a manager who protected us from corporate bs so that we could do our jobs. The people were all highly creative, a lot of fun, and I have several very good friends from that group to this day. It also led to the freelance work I do now, generally short projects that I can crank out and complete and move on. After I got laid off at the end of 1992, I never took another corporate job. Makes me shudder just thinking about it.