The Crazy Land Carnival Ride

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed this week. It's a combination of things--the upcoming surgery and a veritable avalanche of Crazy Land projects, all large and viciously complex. I note a return of the crying behavior, but not quite as bad as the long crying jag of recent vintage.

Enough of that, though. Here in Crazy Land, we're feeling the economic pinch. Of course, that's always been the nature of our business. The proverbial feast or famine. These are the leanest of times, primarily because of a top-heavy corporate staff and a dwindling contractor base as our clients scurry off to Asia where the labor is cheap, the environmental regulations nonexistent.

Accordingly, Mr. Moneybags and the Information Superhighway had a meeting with Owner yesterday. If the Accounting Office were a small village, it would be razed and smoldering from the onslaught. I'm intimately familiar with Owner's slash and burn marathon management style. I've spent many hours poring over invoices and expenses. When I was the sole employee, entire days used to be devoted to sitting in Owner's office as he worked himself into a frenzy of cost cutting.

He's demanded an armload of documents. Moneybags and the Superhighway are exhausted from merely keeping track of the action items. By the time the meeting was over, they both felt personally assaulted. Sometimes Owner's anxiety expresses itself as anger. Woe to those who must sit in an office with him as he works through his stress.

Meanwhile, the City Utility service has been digging up the side street next to our building. We weren't able to even empty the dumpster for a month. The truck couldn't get access to our parking lot. They've also been digging up the freshly laid sod across the street that runs in front of our building, after a year of excavation and construction of a park, a lake, expensive and "affordable" homes, a very large strip mall and some medical facilities thrown in for good measure. The dearth of planning by the Utility department has infuriated me for years. I can go on about it just as long as I can rant and rave about the death penalty and toll roads. Ask my husband. He's spent hours trapped in cars with me while I railed on and on and on.

The dust has almost killed some of us off. We have several people who suffer from asthma who've been through multiple bouts of bronchitis brought on by the endless digging. They finally installed the new sewer lines, though, and the City is now reconstructing the side road. The machinery they use to accomplish this has been shaking the building. All day long we've been treated to a rumbling sound and intermittent vibration. I shudder to think what it must be like on the ground floor. It's a little like trying to type while sitting on one of those old vibrating beds.

Finally. Crazy Land is now a very large carnival ride. Strap on your seat belts and hang on.