Just About Out Of Gas

I thought I could breathe out today at last since the bulk of the work for the week is done. Then again you n-e-e-v-e-r know what comes up do you? Certainly the hand-off with Lisa is always a wildcard since no two of them are ever alike LOL LOL. But I actually felt good about today and tonight because tomorrow I do have the day off and I'm trying to figure out what to do with myself other than immerse myself in INNER WORK. I would get a rather loud answer later on actually. But before all that there is still the usual Thursday morning stuff, consisting of Johnnie's Computer Class, music class and my IS Team Meeting. We didn't get to talk about much because there wasn't much to talk about. At least not until later on when Lam would drop the news on me that he is leaving the company. W-h-a-t? Another Justin situation all over again. I heard that he wasn't very happy with how they were dealing with him. How he wanted a Manager position with more money. I did hire the guy way back in September 2018. Now a little over 2 years later, he is already leaving the company. He had had a winding road since I hired him. First Data Analytics got taken away from me when Justin quit. And I know he didn't like that. But he did manage to build up the department to the point where it was one of the strengths of the organization. He did that. He built all the dashboards, and channeled James' energy. No small feat. If he were reporting to me last year I would have been the one fighting to get him an upgraded position. But if he didn't get one that meant Eloisa didn't believe he merited one. And that to me, was the reason he is leaving. He didn't feel like he was being valued. And because of that there would be nothing I could do to get him to stay.  I wished him the best, told him he was doing the best thing for him and his family, and then went about starting the process to replace him. I thought to myself... I hate interviewing people... <sigh>

And so I thought that was my end-of-the week surprise. I went out got Johnnie a treat in the afternoon, one of those chocolate Hocky Pocky sticks and then got myself a treat too: an iced hazelnut drink from Coffee Bean the way I would have circa 2 years ago on a Thursday afternoon at the FRB when the Coffee Bean on Grand and 8th was still there. And then on the way home I got another end-of-the-week surprise. I hit the curb on the way into my garage with the left front tire. The same one that was already low on air because it had a tire in the tread and was slowly leaking. Hitting the curb exploded the tire so loud I thought I actually dinged my car on something. I stopped immediately, looked at the back, looked at the front, and was relieved to find nothing. But when I drove, there was a loud squishy noise. So it wasn't nothing. And then I looked after I parked and there it was. The front tire was completely flat. This was the loud reminder I had alluded to earlier. And so I had to do something about it. After Johnnie's computer programming class I took him downstairs and told him we were going to fix the tire. He brought a couple of his :tools: with him LOL. Fortunately I remembered how to get the spare from the back, remembered that most new cars these days have their own tools for fixing a flat. A jack, a bolt screw. All I needed. It took some work but I did manage to lift the car, get the flat tire out and replace it with the spare. Got all dirty in the process and got Johnnie's hands dirty too. "Hey you're pretty strong Dad", Johnnie said. Old man isn't some weakling you know LOL. And at least the car was now drivable. Even if just to Panda Express on Olympic to get Johnnie's dinner. His Zoom class started at 6:30 PM too, right after dinner. And I thought it was important for Johnnie to attend since it was for all the October birthdays. There were only TWO, Johnnie being one of the two. And so it was that he got himself celebrated yet again. Seems like we've been celebrating his birthday all month long LOL. And I don't mind a bit. Finally Lisa called before this meeting was even over. She was already on her way home. I told her Johnnie was still in the middle of his meeting. Why she couldn't come and wait 10 minutes for him I don't know. But she ended up going home. And I ended up taking Johnnie there, spare tire and all. There weren't going to be any arguments from me. Not tonight. I dropped Johnnie off and she asked if I could come over again tomorrow so she could practice piano. I quickly agreed and went on home. Hey I was tired. I am out of gas. After all, didn't I change a tire today? LOL LOL. Actually it was only Thursday and I had already did my week's target for activity minutes and cardio activity minutes. Three whole days early. THAT'S why I'm tired I think...