Considering life beyond the cubicle
Once again, the city plans to host a “major event”, and we all pay with time. There’s a cycle race being staged; tomorrow, I think. However, certain important streets were closed, in anticipation. And that’s what we did… anticipate getting to our destinations. An extra twenty minutes on the uphill stretch may not seem like much, but that was only part of the package. I arrived, fashionably late, at the office. I may not see a single famous cyclist, but my bus time has been used to assure his or her traffic-free passage through the capital. A peleton doesn’t count.
My hours of daylight are shrinking. Again, I’ll soon go and return under cover of deep shadows, while all day long, life will proceed as planned.
Talking to a co-worker that is hesitant to consider life beyond the cubicle. I tried to point out that we (as public servants) will never be rich enough to own our a castle or a cruiser; all that staying on in the workforce assures is that our time on the outside will be short. That old line about “we all die sometime” starts to take on a personal context, once you reach a certain age.
This is “certificate change time” at work. Part of providing a secure access to our secrets requires expensive digital certificates that come with best before date (like milk and yogurt). While the IT staff adjusts server parameters, there are interruptions in service, and we know within seconds. No need for alarms; our clients call, immediately. I now know what it feels like to be on somebody’s speed dial.
