The Weekend

A cloudy, cold morning in Norfolk. Supposedly the snow is on the way, but there's much indecision as to how much we're going to get. Currently we're slated for an inch or so before it turns to rain, then back to snow tonight, but all of this may change depending on the track of the storm. Either way it's going to be messy.

Damn bad weekend to be on call.

The beauty of this weekend is that I have absolutely no plans other than staying more or less close to home and refrain from alcoholic refreshments JUST in case I'm paged. Much of what I may or may not do depends on the weather. As there are a few books and a number of DVDs on my list to buy, a trip to Barnes and Noble or Best Buy in Virginia Beach would be nice but such forays will ultimately depend on the condition of the roads later today. I may also wander down to the small cell phone store (the store itself is small; it's not that they sell small cell phones. Just had to clarify that) a half a block away from the apartment. I've gone without a personal cell phone since the spring of 2001, so it's about time to move up into the technological century again. Many of my less charitable friends roll their eyes when I speak of this, but I'll show them! HA!

But at least they can still mock me for not having a microwave.

I'm recovering nicely from Thursday's dental procedure and my tooth (or more precisely, the lack thereof) has evolved to nothing more than a dull, annoying ache with occaisonal stabs of real pain, mainly when I'm out in the cold such as occurred yesterday. Early in the morning two of my employees were involved in a minor (and I emphasize MINOR) traffic accident which amounted to nothing more than a bump between vehicles, such as would occur with an over-vigorous parallel parking maneuver. As soon as I got the call, I rushed to the scene and stood around in the cold and wind for almost an hour waiting for the police to eventually show up and do the paperwork. There was absolutely no damage to either vehicle, depsite the claim by my employees that they were sitting still when the car hit them at 45 miles per hour.

The thing that bothered me the most were the aspersions my employees were casting at the guy who hit them. He was young, from Central America, and obviously hasn't been in the U.S. that long. Evidently, they saw him as the weaker individual and were verbally bullying him when I arrived. He was obviously frightened, so my first action was to put myself between the kid and my two miscreants..errr...employees and did what I could to calm the kid down. A friendly demeanor and tone can certainly go a long way towards this end. Oddly enough, one of my employees continued harrassing the kid despite the fact I was standing right there. Unbelievable! My guys should know better. It was all I could do to refrain from royally dressing him down right there in the streeet. As my friends know, I have the patience of the Biblical Job and it take a lot to get me angry or upset, but what I saw yesterday certainly pushed the limits of my patience. At my order, the instigator begrudginly shuffled off to sit in the vehicle until the ordeal was over, but not without first shooting me a particularly nasty look that essentially said "why are you siding with that foreigner and not me?"

Obviously this incident calls for stern disciplinary action and I brought the organizational policy and procedure manual (a manager's best friend in many situations) home with me this weekend in order to throughly review the process and my various options (written reprimand, formal counseling session, suspension, etc.). Ideally, punishment should have been doled out yesterday, but both of them rushed themselves off to the doctor for "severe back and neck pain" as soon as we returned to the office and subsequely went home to recover from the "horrific" accident, so I didn't have the opportunity. However, come Monday morning they will be soundly disciplined. They have to be made to understand that as public servants, we have to maintain a certain demeanor with the public regardless of the circumstances.