Work, travel delays, chickens

This is one of those times that I wish I could say that the days were flying by – but it is not. The hours spent at the office are more of an endurance contest than a normal working day. As the company begins to finalize the personnel roster there is an unavoidable shift to the new role assignments even though they are not yet announced. That means that everyone scrutinizes every meeting invite and every email for clues to determine their further participation within their job roles.

There is quite a bit of sensitivity around whether or not you were invited to this meeting or whether or not you were copied on this or that email. Speculations run rampant and new possible scenarios are referenced and cross referenced hourly. But the truth of the situation is that no one will really know their status within the future organization until the announcements are formally made and those of us who are going to be released no longer come to work. I cannot imagine what it is like in some of the larger offices.

On the home front, Mama is feeling better. She is not back to full capacity yet but definitely on the upside of recovery. I did advise her not to spend the day out with Victoria and Erin who have a shopping day planned this afternoon – Victoria would rather go shopping than clean the house with Mama. (That’s how much she dislikes cleaning.) Mama would be better off to continue to rest as much as possible and gather her strength for Friday when she will be watching Erin’s children all day. I will see if she can resist the temptation to tag along.

AS far as Grandma and Grandpa coming home, that is going to be put on hold for another month. It seems – how  unexpected – that something has come up that will keep them in West Virginia for a little longer. The plan now is that they will come down mid-October.  Seth and Norman will tow the trailers as Grandpa drives the car. We will wait to see how solid a plan that is when we get nearer to the time.

You have to understand that any delay will add an additional month to the schedule because Grandma and Grandpa order their lives on the date that his Social Security check is deposited to their bank account. That happens sometime in the middle of the month each month. That is not necessarily a bad thing; it is just the reality of their lives. So anything that holds them up adds an entire month to their schedule.

Mama is very quickly running out of room for the chickens as they grow. Two have been injured so far by getting their lags caught in the wire at the bottom of the cage they are being raised in. There is not much we can do about that without lining the cage with paper – which defeats the purpose of having the wire mesh in the bottom of the cage in the first place. So we are exploring options to give them more space but about the only course of action I have left is to build the chicken coop I have been talking about. Now Mama wants to know how quickly I can have that done.

Probably not quickly enough.