Friday Night Miscellany

Hola! I'm to the point in this redecorating process where I now have a punchlist - only 9 items long but it will probably take weeks to accomplish! One of the items on the punchlist is - clean-up and reorganize all piles of books, research and documents scattered about the entire house... Darlings, I'm far too tired tonight to attempt to assemble the second buffet lamp (reported on in last night's sole post), that will have to wait until after work tomorrow. Yes, that's right, work tomorrow. I hooked up with a ride and so will be in the office at my regular start time of 8:30 a.m. I plan to leave at 1:30 p.m. and head for home well before sun down. The temperature is dropping off a cliff even as I type this, and the winds will be sustained tomorrow causing windchills of down to 25 below zero F. Not exactly good weather to hike 3/4 of a mile from the bus stop home, but a hell of a lot better than doing it twice in the same day! I DID do a little bit of decorating tonight and I may do a bit more (framing up some more of those wonderful New York pics dondelion took during our first visit in 2005). My posters arrived in the mail today and I could not resist - this evening I put up Vitruvian Man in the hallway on a wall that is sort of kitty-corner from the bathroom, and I can see him peeking at me in the bathroom mirror above the sink: he's gorgeous - and naked :) The very large New York black and whites (one a Central Park shot and one of Times Square) are laid out on the family room carpet, slowly relaxing from a wicked curl. The curl wasn't an issue with Vitruvian Man since he was ensconsed inside a 1/4 inch thick plastic poster frame I've had for at least 20 years sitting in a closet - and just exactly the right size (24 x 36) - and I was not going to be defeated in my goal by some stubbornly curling corners. For the large posters, I need to shop for some of those cool poster holder thingys that my wonderful former boss, Don Schoenfeld, used in his office years ago - I believe he purchased them at the Met Gift Shop. Hmmm, I'm a Met member, I'll go shopping at their website and use my discount :) I also installed the Defective Lamp on my dresser. It does look very nice there, all the more outrageous because I paid so little for it - but Goddess, it sure was a pain in the butt putting the thing together. I put in a low wattage bulb and made sure it's plugged into the socket that has the power turned off unless I hit the switch at the doorway, and then I must actually turn the lamp switch on manually. I'm hoping to prevent a fire hazard that way (see prior post about putting the lamp together ). It's twin brother (which as far as I can tell is not defective) will reside in the New York (guest) room. Horrid, absolutely horrible news tonight - the firm I used to work at has let go 12 people today (no attorneys - but then, they don't "do" attorneys the same way they do the peons known as "staff"). Some of these people I worked with during my nearly 13 years there. One of these people worked there for 45 years (started right out of high school) and is 63 years old. What are the odds that she'll get a job that will provide her with health insurance until she can qualify for Medicare? Anyone want to name those odds and place a bet? Did the powers that be think about THAT when they were sitting at the conference room table with their red pencils - curse their monstrous cold-hearted hides. Another person on the hit list worked there for over 30 years, has a severely disabled husband who is not able to work and she is the sole support of their family. She recently suffered through her own severe illness and was working part-time. She's been "let go" at age 50. See what the fricking suits call it - "let go" - as if she and her family will simply float away without a sound into poverty and destitution, and not a hair stirs on the carefully coiffed heads of the suits as this faithful employee and those dependent upon her are left with no means of support. What is the matter with these people? A pox on those who made such cold-hearted decisions without weighing the consequences (or, even worse, if they did know the consequences and said "screw you" anyway). A pox on their families too. Let the sins of the fathers be visited upon the sons and daughters of those suits, let them experience the fine twists of Fate. Sometimes this world really really sucks.