Not where I thought I’d be.

 

That could apply to life in general I suppose,  but that would be a whole other story. 

I haven’t been too enthusiastic about writing much,  and if you stick with me here for a couple minutes,  you’ll see why.

 

Let me put together a few snippets,  and you can then put the rest of the picture together.

First snippet:  Remember we went to dinner with an associate of Travelling Companion on Thursday night?  This person actually reports to Travelling Companion, and that’s only important to understand the situation.  We talked about a bunch of stuff during dinner,  not the least of which was her Dad and how he liked to putter around in his garden.   The usual polite small talk.  Certainly better than talking about the weather.  Plus, I’d like to remind you that I don’t know how much I’m not supposed to know,  so there’s no talking about any goings on at The Company that Cannot be Named.  That can get tricky.  Case in point,  it’s really poor form to lean over to the boss during the company Christmas party and ask, “So which one is it you’re going to get rid of?” 

Nobody heard me,  so settle down.   And besides,  it was years ago,  and that person is long gone.

So it’s usually best to just pepper people with questions about their life.  Most everyone likes to talk about themselves,  so that usually a good strategy.

 

Second snippet:  Another associate,  who also reports to Travelling Companion,  will be taking a few days off,  since his wife just had a baby!  Such fun!  We saw the picture.  Little girl.  Usual newborn cuteness.  That kind of thing.  (To think you can take a picture with your phone,  and send it to someone’s house!)

 

Third snippet:  Knowing that the second associate I mentioned was going to be away, (the new Dad), Travelling Companion spent the entire day Saturday working from home,  since the cloud of “month end”  takes a few days to dissipate,  and without certain helping people in certain places,  making sense of some of it can be a challenge.  (I’m really glossing over things here since,  once again I’m really in the deep end).  Basically speaking, being away all day Monday meant having to do stuff on Saturday. 

 

So now we move ahead to Sunday morning.  Travelling Companion is once again on her computer doing…whatever,  we were just about to get to the stage where we fire up the iron and sort out what we’re going to be wearing, and her Crackberry does that little dance that it does when someone is calling. 

Why would anyone be calling on a Sunday morning?   It’s the middle of the night in North America,  so that rules out that part of the globe.  (we hope)   Turns out it’s a phone number in Germany.  

It’s immediately apparent that the woman on the other end has been crying,  and continues to sob throughout the conversation.   See,  the Dad who likes to work in his garden?   He passed away suddenly Saturday night.  Not a hint of a warning.

There were no details forthcoming.  The poor soul could barely get out the words as it was,  so no questions were asked.  So that means that a second person is going to be away,  since she’ll need time to deal with the death of her father.

Time to make a tough decision.

Without enough bean counters around to hold down the fort,  nipping off to Slovenia and being away from work on a Monday wasn’t going to be possible.  Certainly not this close to month end.

So that was that.

 

If these things come in threes,  I certainly hope this counts as the third. 

 

I jump as it is when the phone rings.

 

I’ll try to come up with something a little more “peppy”  to talk about for next time.  I promise.

 

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