No research added
Its 11 o’clock in the morning, hot, the kids are splashing about in the wading pool and the radio is playing Harvey Norman end of year sale adverts.
Today marks the birthday of Mrs G. She’s inside coating the pav in cream and tinned fruit for our guests this afternoon. One of the advantages of a post Christmas birthday is the opportunity to offload the dishes that were overlooked a couple of days ago.
The pergola is proving a treat also – those new fangled polycarb sheets are doing a top job of cutting out the nuclear badness from the skies.
Thinking of today’s advances in UV protection, drug detection, road safety, health research, I’m suspicious of the direction we’re all heading. No alcohol, no sun, no fat, no salt – just where are we supposed to get our thrills when we reach that puritan goal of no fun at all? Sitting at a keyboard typing random thoughts to strangers perhaps?
Actually things are good. It might not be apparent by how its articulated here but there’s really not a lot to complain about. After a few days away from the desk the recirculating anxieties of one’s profession begin to subside.
Gradually the concept returns that there are other things in life – the things that get brushed aside in the daily rush of a workday or ‘work weekend’. There’s that slight facial twitch that occasionally pulls the sides of my mouth upwards, the satisfied feeling of a good sleep without guilt of lost work hours, and extended moments with the grindlings beyond the confines of the dining room table at mealtime and in the car travelling to shops and school.
There’s also other emotional baggage of visiting relatives that has been checked in and sent afar for another few months. Unlike other relationships that can fade to zero over time, family association in the Grinder household has a mandate that stipulates a minimum number of timed interactions each year, regardless of how little you have in common or how much you dislike them.
Since Christmas has passed I haven’t looked at my watch once, read the newspaper or worked on the next home renovation project. Instead, books, gardening, cooking, bouts of family time and a few good movies in the evening have been the order or the day.
Soon the decorations will be taken down and people will gradually return to the old routine. It will be time to return to work, traffic will increase, the tele-sales will resume, and eventually teachers and students will follow suit.
Looking forward, I see a year of personal reckoning. My work from the last twelve months is likely to make its way in to the fan also known as the justice system. The rest is out of my hands from this point on, other than getting on the stand and attesting to it all. If it goes well, I’ll be able to ride the wave of success for years to come, if not, its back to the grindstone and try again.
It will also be time to decide whether my future lies in my current line of work or not. The all-consuming nature of it has pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me achieve things that I’d never dreamt of. Actually I don’t dream of much – never have. I am hoping however that there’s more of a balance between work and play. The recent acquisition of some golf clubs might just be a step in the right direction.
As for blogging – who knows? Even for lightweights like GrinderCom its time consuming. Unlike many of the good writers out there, I perform best with a good eight hours of shuteye.
The other nasty stumbling block for blogging is the liability. It’s more apparent than ever that without the constitutional right to freedom of speech, Australian bloggers are open to repercussions for being too outward in their thoughts. Likewise the naïve attitudes of employers towards blogging, albeit anonymously, see blogging as a major threat in need of annihilation.
Editorial intervention has seen quite a few good posts head for the virtual recycle bin of this Windows 98 operating system. While entertaining and possibly informative, they only served to draw unwanted attention to the Grinder’s sheltered workshop.
I suppose that leaves a lot to be said about writing fiction. Maybe there will be a new direction for GrinderCom in 2006. Maybe there’ll be a newer operating system on a new PC too.
Today marks the birthday of Mrs G. She’s inside coating the pav in cream and tinned fruit for our guests this afternoon. One of the advantages of a post Christmas birthday is the opportunity to offload the dishes that were overlooked a couple of days ago.
The pergola is proving a treat also – those new fangled polycarb sheets are doing a top job of cutting out the nuclear badness from the skies.
Thinking of today’s advances in UV protection, drug detection, road safety, health research, I’m suspicious of the direction we’re all heading. No alcohol, no sun, no fat, no salt – just where are we supposed to get our thrills when we reach that puritan goal of no fun at all? Sitting at a keyboard typing random thoughts to strangers perhaps?
Actually things are good. It might not be apparent by how its articulated here but there’s really not a lot to complain about. After a few days away from the desk the recirculating anxieties of one’s profession begin to subside.
Gradually the concept returns that there are other things in life – the things that get brushed aside in the daily rush of a workday or ‘work weekend’. There’s that slight facial twitch that occasionally pulls the sides of my mouth upwards, the satisfied feeling of a good sleep without guilt of lost work hours, and extended moments with the grindlings beyond the confines of the dining room table at mealtime and in the car travelling to shops and school.
There’s also other emotional baggage of visiting relatives that has been checked in and sent afar for another few months. Unlike other relationships that can fade to zero over time, family association in the Grinder household has a mandate that stipulates a minimum number of timed interactions each year, regardless of how little you have in common or how much you dislike them.
Since Christmas has passed I haven’t looked at my watch once, read the newspaper or worked on the next home renovation project. Instead, books, gardening, cooking, bouts of family time and a few good movies in the evening have been the order or the day.
Soon the decorations will be taken down and people will gradually return to the old routine. It will be time to return to work, traffic will increase, the tele-sales will resume, and eventually teachers and students will follow suit.
Looking forward, I see a year of personal reckoning. My work from the last twelve months is likely to make its way in to the fan also known as the justice system. The rest is out of my hands from this point on, other than getting on the stand and attesting to it all. If it goes well, I’ll be able to ride the wave of success for years to come, if not, its back to the grindstone and try again.
It will also be time to decide whether my future lies in my current line of work or not. The all-consuming nature of it has pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me achieve things that I’d never dreamt of. Actually I don’t dream of much – never have. I am hoping however that there’s more of a balance between work and play. The recent acquisition of some golf clubs might just be a step in the right direction.
As for blogging – who knows? Even for lightweights like GrinderCom its time consuming. Unlike many of the good writers out there, I perform best with a good eight hours of shuteye.
The other nasty stumbling block for blogging is the liability. It’s more apparent than ever that without the constitutional right to freedom of speech, Australian bloggers are open to repercussions for being too outward in their thoughts. Likewise the naïve attitudes of employers towards blogging, albeit anonymously, see blogging as a major threat in need of annihilation.
Editorial intervention has seen quite a few good posts head for the virtual recycle bin of this Windows 98 operating system. While entertaining and possibly informative, they only served to draw unwanted attention to the Grinder’s sheltered workshop.
I suppose that leaves a lot to be said about writing fiction. Maybe there will be a new direction for GrinderCom in 2006. Maybe there’ll be a newer operating system on a new PC too.
posted by Grinder at 6:36 pm
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