Bedsticks and broomknobs

Been a quiet time in my little dusty dark corner of the internet.  Mighty quiet.

Lazy, too.

Wonder how it’s been for you?

OMG a real door!

In the cube farm at work there are many wonderful and varied ring tones from many a cell phone and work phone and ‘soft phone’ by which to be distracted throughout the day.  Why, one that sounds like a chime just went off, as it does approximately 60 times a day!

Used to hear the soft ‘hoo hoo’ of a loon when a former cube neighbor’s phone rang with a call from her Dad – the loon has left the building, unfortunately because he has since passed on, but the horse whinny and cry of the cardinal are still there and reverberant whenever members of her family call.

Some folks have rock tunes that start up, some have a simple buzz.

As for me, my phone is on ‘vibrate’ 90% of the time.  I do not contribute much to the noise problem here at Grand Central Station.  It is enough to have the chorus of other people’s electronics, the stomp-clomp of their feet in the hallways, the whirr of the coffee machine, the spitspitspit of the water dispenser, the rumble of supply and janitorial carts, the giddy laughter and deep conversations of people both near and far reverberating through my personal workspace.  I don’t need to contribute to that with random outbursts of cell-phonery.

Which, of course, is why I miss a lot of phone calls.

Hey – I’m an introvert.  I don’t mind missing calls.

It’s nearly 3 p.m.  Our building has about warmed up enough to not freeze my nose hairs when I inhale.

Seriously – this building is an icebox in the winter, generally.  It’s a necessity to grip a paper cup full of bad coffee throughout the morning just to keep fingers limber enough to type.  A steady stream of warm decaf keeps the ol’ core temp hot enough to stay awake, at least through lunchtime, when there’s a slight but perceptible shift in the temps toward ‘tepid,’ which is a great change from the ‘downright chilly’ of the morning.

It’s understandable when the outside temps are in the teens, that heating a large building such as ours can be a challenge.  I get the notion of not wanting to introduce to much of a temp swing during the daily cycle, and to simply let the body heat of your employees (and contingent workers, and third-party ‘guests’) do most of the heavy thermometer lifting, but dang.  If I have to wear gloves and a parka just to keep from drifting off into a hypothermic sleep, isn’t that a little MUCH?

Good thing I’ve scoped out the ‘warm rooms’ in the building.  There are 2.  Once of them is reservable on our meeting manager system, the other is our dedicated team room that only ‘key personnel’ such as myself can use.  They’re good for a nice dip in the near-70-degree pool of air for a while, and sometimes, if nobody’s taken the team room, I’ll just sit in there and back for as long as possible.

It also has a door.  That shuts.  And shuts out noises.  It is, truly, a happy place.

Well, I’m planning on having a weekend.  How about you?  Do let’s catch up in the comments area – it’s been too long.

Tiff out.