Dreary Weather Mondays...

Is it redundant to say that today was another True Monday? I say that every week but today, it was especially true. I woke up to the sound of pouring rain. It was dark outside whereas even at our early 6:03 a.m. wake-up time, it's usually starting to get light by now. The puppies needed to go out and let me know quite clearly that there would be no laying in for me today. After we'd taken our morning jaunt outside in the wet yard, they decided they wanted to go back to bed. I would have loved to have given in to them and climbed back into my toasty nest but, alas, my precious PTO is low at work and I couldn't justify it.

I was the first one in the office. It was deadly silent when I went into Cubicle Land. They've taken to turning off the air conditioning/heat at night and so the absence of the hum made it seem even quieter.

Everyone seemed to be getting a late start today as I remained the only one in the office for at least 20 minutes longer. Even though I take in a travel mug of tea each morning, I like to get the coffee rolling for those who aren't as caffeine-prepared in the mornings as I am. However, today, I went to make coffee and discovered that only the decaf pot remained. Someone had taken the regular coffee. Not sure whether it was intention, I decided not to make coffee until the pot returned. Normally, someone removes it over a weekend to run vinegar through it- our water in this area is the type that creates a lot of build-up over time and makes us have to clean the coffee pot to make it drip more quickly.

Anyway, it turned out that there was some kind of disaster with the coffee pot and it was NOT coming back so someone braver than me decided to confiscate the decaf pot and convert it to the True Ways of Coffee. We no longer have a decaf pot, at least for the time being. We only have two decaf drinkers in the office most days anyway. Besides if they really want their decaf, they can always confiscate the hot water coffee pot. Yes, we have a hot water coffee pot for the tea drinkers. Of course, it doesn't really boil the water but it gets it hot. We also have a water cooler that dispenses boiling hot water and there's no waiting for it to heat up. So, you can see why I found it a little strange that the decaf drinkers got bumped but, well, office politics are everywhere, even with the priority of the hot-beverage drinkers.

The rain stopped but the whole day passed in a dreary fog. I had a chat with my boss on Friday and felt quite good about telling him in a polite way that I felt like Harry Potter. Today, however, I was back to being Harry Potter which, while not unexpected, was slightly disappointing. The project I'm working on is currently at a standstill because it just won't run through the database. I've tried all the fixes I know how to apply and nothing is working. I know it's not me. My boss thinks it's me. Thus, when I ask him for assistance, he dismisses me with one of those vague, 'try this' solutions that I've already tried and when I ask him for help, he forgets I asked five minutes later.

Still, I have other work to do in the meantime. It's just not the type of work that makes you want to sit up, punch the air and say "YAY! TODAY I GET TO TRY TO TRANSLATE TECHNICAL JARGON INTO ENGLISH AGAIN! HURRAH!"

I've been working on this project for a while. It's not moving very quickly. It's necessary but boring. It's not a good 'rainy Monday' project either so you can imagine that by 4:15 p.m., I was ready to come home to the puppies.

They seem to be in crabby moods too. Rory keeps biting at my feet. Sookie keeps following me, giving me sad, sulky looks. They both want to sit on my lap and then, when they do, decide they want to get off again and start squabbling.

Still, now we're home and the only thing to do on an evening like this is to sit down and let the day pass quietly while watching some Jack Bauer. He puts it all into perspective, really: A rainy, dreary Monday is hardly a bad day when you're dealing with terrorists or nuclear bombs or betraying women or crazy women or women you have to shoot or best friends who betray you to the the-almost death....you get the idea. So, really, this day hasn't been so bad. It's just been a bad mood day.

Tomorrow is Tuesday. I hope it either rains or is sunny. I hate this dreary, nothing type of weather that won't really do anything except hang around, not making up its mind if it wants to rain or clear up. However, even if it is like this tomorrow, at least it's not a Monday. Something about that makes the day already better. I wonder why that is.

Happy Tuesday!