Improvements in the Salt Mine

Things are much more pleasant at work. Yesterday, for instance, one program that I do some work for took us all out to a nice lunch, where we had things like horseradish potato soup. Such is my luck, I sat across from my supervisor, but he was quite pleasant. As I may have said before, he is the kind of person I would ordinarily like if he weren’t such an asshole as a bureaucrat. I blocked from my mind the asshole part and was quite chatty and vivacious. I did enjoy hearing him and another guy describe a camping trip in the Catskills that was cold and wet.

I’ve asked Margie and her husband to join A and me for dinner some time. We’ll have to do it after the holidays–they have two invalid mothers and a ton of relatives descending. She was pleased. I find that in the past year we’ve grown pretty close.

I was naughty yesterday afternoon. I took a couple of hours and played around with the occupational handbook, looking for fields that Ben could work in for a couple of years while he decides what he wants to do next. Then I looked at some job listing sites (such as his local newspaper, state sites, etc.) I ended up sending him a few. Most were the sort that call for a bachelor’s, but one was for a bartender in a restaurant, and the place would train the inexperienced. The pay looked generous, but I’m sure there are no benefits, which he does have in his current job. In any case, I thought about him a lot, and his situation, and his independence, and his maturing, and and and and ….