It's half past October

The walk I took (with MK) was delightful! It was a perfect autumn day with cool temperatures and bright sunshine and leaves crunching underfoot. We walked down to the house in our neighborhood that does the professional Halloween set-out every year, and I got lots of photos. The camera is around here somewhere, I'm sure. I'm not sure just where, but it'll turn up sooner or later.

The cold mornings are bracing. I walk quite briskly to go get the paper, and Orion peeks out at me between the clouds. No frost on the grass, yet, but definitely breath-steaming cool.

I put in my first day at work yesterday. Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays from noon till 3 for the foreseeable future. Which really isn't all that foreseeable. Want a clue for getting the worst from your people? Announce that there are definitely going to be staff cuts, but no one knows yet where or how deeply the cuts will go. And because we are union, if someone's job is cut and they have seniority, they can bump someone with less seniority, so a job cut at the top of the staff will create a shuffle of bumping all the way down. People shifting from departments where they are happy and comfortable to departments where they know none of the systems and have no idea of the departmental dynamics. Won't that be just great for customer service? As it is, at least as much time is being spent trying to prognosticate the future as is spent actually accomplishing the work.

After taking the best part of the summer off, I had trouble remembering my passwords. A couple have expired. And all the usual procedures have been altered. Heck, they even re-arranged the furniture! So when I turn to grab the paper that has been kept on this shelf for the past three years, the shelf isn't there anymore.

Change is good for the old brain. And I AM trainable! Anyhow, it's great to have a job to complain about again.