Composite Optimist

The other day I was addressed in the ‘small talk’ realm by one of my co-workers. This person regularly delves into the unplumbed depths of this blog it seems because after the obligatory “How are things going with you” he or she appended the somewhat mysterious “not very well apparently based on your blog.” This was just after the Feb 21^st entry about “A Day in the Work Life” and every since that time I’ve been looking back trying to figure out what in the heck I said that would be construed as “things not going well.”

Since that comment, I’ve been alert for any overt signs I may be putting out that my life is in any way ‘meandering into a negative groove.’ I have to admit that I honestly don’t see how I can be ‘bumming anyone’s trip’ at this point. But just as an exercise, let’s go over the basic points of my life.

As far as the family goes, I’m not sure what more I could ask for. Our eldest child is entering that “Wow, look at all the great literature there is in the world” phase so I’m not sure how you improve on that. Our youngest is toddling about and into everything so she’s exceptionally tiresome at times but that comes with its own special rewards. Who else on the planet can be entertained for hours drinking from a simple glass of ice water? My wife is happier than I’ve seen her in ages though she could do with a bit more sleep I’m sure. To top it all off, it’s springtime again and all my labors outside over the past few years are about to come once again to their annual crescendo. I wouldn’t mind if my wife would stop running the air conditioner when it’s 65 degrees outside but that’s a small price to pay for domestic harmony.

As for my professional life, I’d say that for the first time ever I’ve come to an appropriate balance between work and not work. After years of trying to derive personal satisfaction from my job I’ve settled on the conclusion that work is simply a means of making a living and nothing more. If you expect a job to somehow fulfill you in some way not directly tied to material wealth then you’re doomed to be disappointed because that’s really what it’s for. Work is not about making friends or winning power or having a great time drinking at the office. The point of work is to turn exactly 23.8% of your life into money to help pay for the other 76.2% of your life. The work I actually do is on the whole pretty dull but I’m well compensated for it and it more than pays for the 76.2% of my life that I have free. To sew up the silk purse even more completely I finally have simple, achievable and easily measurable goals from my management. As each week passes, I can meet the prescribed expectations with punctiliousness and then go on to find the rest of my life waiting for me at the end. Add to that the fact that I do this from the room over my garage and I’d frankly be a fool to say anything but happy things about my omnipresent benefactors. *wave*

Now the third piece of this is a bit more nebulous as third pieces typically are. So you work 40.00 hours per week; you sleep for 49 hours a week; that leaves 79 hours for whatever. Say 20 hours total for eating, personal hygiene, doing the laundry, what the heck ever. So you’re left with 59 hours. When you have kids, a lot of this gets chewed up with various child-related activities but I figure I get at LEAST 20 hours free and clear a week. The thing that really annoys me is that this time seems to go straight into the toilet. I have yet to learn Spanish, Latin, French, Calculus, Greek or any of the other useless topics I’ve set out to learn lately. For the most part my blog is too quiet (and too stupid and self-centered) to be really interesting and my reading list is growing but in the wrong direction with the ‘Too be Read’ pile outpacing the ‘Just finished’ pile by about 2:1. But again, what a problem to have; I have TOO MUCH entertaining junk competing for my attention. Boy, sucks to be me.

So all in all, if people find me negative then I can only assume that it must be because of my frank approach to life. If you tell me something and I think it sucks then I’m likely to say “That sucks” in a most “Napoleon Dynamite” sort of way. That doesn’t really make me negative, merely blunt. To be honest, you might almost say that I have the world on a string. In a way, it’s like I’m sittin’ on a rainbow and I’ve got that string around my finger. Really, I’d be a silly so-and-so if I should ever let go.

Current Novel: “Mother’s Milk”, Edward St. Aubyn [178/235]

Periodic Robism: There is no greater temptation for a child than to jump onto a made bed. There is no greater temptation for an adult than to jump into a made bed.