“Who are those pictures of? I hope they’re not of me.”
There’s no good reason why the pictures would have been of me, but when the click of a cellphone camera and the “bloop” of an outgoing text are the only sounds in the room, and you have your back to everyone, it’ll let a guy indulge his paranoia a little bit.
Using the WiFi to do work at Starbucks passed into cliche a couple hundred miles back, but whose idea was it to put workstations in car dealerships? I’ve used it a couple times in recent weeks, and it’s really convenient, because I don’t have to schedule service during my free time.
I’m in the “quiet” workspace at my local Toyota dealer while my car is being serviced. It’s nothing bad, just the “Auto Butler” cleaning and shining that comes with the new car, although my wife is going to be disappointed that I didn’t see anyone in a top hat or tails.
My appointment was 8 a.m., as I’m a guy who likes to do things early so I can be done with them early. I’m doing my usual Friday busywork at my computer, taking care of all the loose ends I hadn’t gotten a chance to deal with before now.
The roughest thing is having to text one of the people I supervise over his timesheet. He’s headed out on vacation, so I feel bad about bugging him, but it needed to be handled and we get it sorted soon enough.
Using the WiFi to do work at Starbucks passed into cliche a couple hundred miles back, but whose idea was it to put workstations in car dealerships? I’ve used it a couple times in recent weeks, and it’s really convenient, because I don’t have to schedule service during my free time.
Hence, the 8 a.m. appointment. That’s usually about the time I get to work, and since most of my staff takes Fridays off — and only a couple of them work in my office, anyway — I can do my work just as easily at Toyota’s cubicle.
The downstairs workspace, where I am, is full. The upstairs workspace is full, and the lounge is full. Friday mornings must be popular.
And the things you hear. Some guy messes up Neil Armstrong’s famous quote — he calls it “one giant step for mankind” — realizes he got a word wrong, and then asks if it was Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin who said it.
Seriously, if he was a bit sketchy about the details of one of history’s great moments, they made a movie about it not that long ago. Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy starred. It was pretty good.
I had brought a pair of headphones with me, but since it was the “quiet” room, I didn’t put them in, just in case any spillover sound bothered anyone else.
Yes, even though I lost interest after Webelos — and apparently, the construction that turns “We’ll Be Loyal Scouts” into that word is known as a “backronym” — I still have a bit of the Boy Scout in me.
But oh well, it did allow me to enjoy some of the greatest hits of the ’70s and ’80s.
It’s Massachusetts, so I’m pretty sure that by law, an Aerosmith song must be playing somewhere at all times, or else a prominent resident gets charged with an embarrassing crime. (Oh, wait a minute … maybe that explains it.)
And what’s that logo in the corner? They used to play music videos?! (Speaking of things that became cliche more than hundreds of miles back … jokes about MTV playing music videos.)
Hey, wait! It’s the premake of that Weezer song!
And yes, if “backronym” can be a word, so can “premake.”
I hadn’t heard most of these songs in forever, but especially this one. I had to look it up to remind myself it was The Cars.
While the logging of the songs of my childhood and amazingly awkward teenage years was providing me with much amusement — have I mentioned that Friday-morning busywork isn’t exactly heavy lifting? — after a couple hours, my phone rang.
I went into the lounge to answer — “quiet room,” don’t forget — and it was the front desk telling me my car was done.
Looks great, by the way.
A Silly Place 