A little surprising

I'm surprised (but not entirely). The reaction to my notion of taking a voluntary layoff has been uniformly negative, even from the Democrat flavored members of my family. All have counselled me to 'look out for number one'. I've always looked out for Number One. My favorite saying is "It's all about me, baby!" For which attitude I have recieved much chastisement from the Democrat flavored members of my family. So, craving their indulgence, let me say that I find it deliciously ironic that, when push came to shove, the chips fell where they did.

That said, my reasons for contemplating a voluntary layoff were not entirely charitable. It was, in truth, mostly about me. I don't enjoy my current position anymore. I've mastered it, so there is no challenge any more. In a word, it's boring. Also, despite the fact that Frank has been with us for almost a year, people still come to me with requests that it is Frank's job to handle. And it doesn't seem to make any impression on them how surly I am when I say, "How many times do I have to tell you, I don't have the key to the supply room any more?" or "Ask Frank, he's the boss, not me." An other factor is that the whining and carping is getting worse. I understand that people are worried about getting laid off, but do they have to talk about it constantly? They obsess about their seniority dates and whether their paychecks are accurate to the penny. I'm just tired of it all.

Now, on a completely unrelated note, I have a gadget called a tele-zapper. I've had it for years and years. It 'zaps' computer dialed calls, and was intended for use against tele-marketers. Today, this morning, its power supply shorted out. I discovered this when my answering machine went dead. Then I noticed that the microwave was dead, too. So was the 'fridge, and the light over the sink. I happened to be on the phone with Pops at the time, and he enjoyed helping me puzzle out the answer. A check of the fuze box revealed a blown fuze on that circuit. A replacement was inserted, and blew instantly. The obvious culpret was a short circuit, and it almost had to be one of the appliances plugged into that circuit. I unplugged everything and put a new fuze it. It didn't blow. I plugged the appliances in in turn. Only the tele-zapper failed to work. Interestingly, by itself it didn't fry the fuze, so it must have only been a partial short, just enough to overload the fuze with everything else plugged in.