It’s Wednesday, and the leaves are all falling off of the trees, so it’s time to slip back into my comfortable routine. Actually, it’s past time. I missed West Wing’s season premiere a few weeks ago, and I’ve missed a couple of Wednesday hunts for various reasons. So, although the season of comfortable routine should have started a little earlier, today was the beginning. And it was a good day, except for one stupid blunder this morning which was quickly erased by the pleasures of the day.
Usually, if I’m hunting on Wednesday afternoon, I don’t go into work at all, because I’d need to leave by 10:00, and it just doesn’t make sense. Today, I was stupid enough to go in for an 8:00 meeting. Normally, I feel no guilt about skipping meetings that people are rude enough to schedule on Wednesday, but this one was early enough that I thought it would wind up soon enough for me to make a timely exit, and I was somewhat curious to see what was going to happen.
Having done everything possible to thoroughly piss off the entire IT department, management is now expressing total surprise that people are not happy, and trying to make it all better using the only technique they know: spreading more bullshit. I got the feeling pretty quickly this morning that nothing productive would happen. It was the kind of meeting possible only in an institution with way too much bureaucracy. In addition to more levels of management than anybody can find meaningful titles for, we had a “facilitator” from the Human Resources Department (which in itself is usually a major impediment to productivity).
Needless to say, it wasn’t quick. Whether or not anything useful got accomplished is still unknown, because they had barely started slinging the bullshit before I decided I wasn’t wasting any more time there. My original plan for choosing a seat that would allow a quick exit was foiled by our facilitator who, in typical HR fashion, justified her existence with brainless busywork like shuffling everybody around into cute little groups. So instead of slipping out a corner door, I got to make a highly visible exit through the middle of the group, right past our brain-dead VP who was the cause of the whole problem.
But then it all got better, because I went home and caught my horse and went hunting. And it was a glorious day to be outside.
A couple of the Bitch Pack were out on green horses, and since the weather was warm and Arthur didn’t really need any hard running today, I had promised to hang back with them unless there was irresistible temptation up front. When I arrived, the front field looked pretty irresistible, so I ended up riding up front. Arthur was in good form, jumping over everything he needed to and nothing he didn’t need to (well .. almost nothing). I stayed on top all afternoon. We had a pretty good day, with some good running but enough checks that I didn’t run out of horse. I didn’t run out of Bourbon either; when I got home I noticed my flask wasn’t empty. I’ll have to work a little harder on that next time. I think part of the problem is I keep forgetting I need to drink my brother’s share too. His presence is sorely missed, not only by me but also by others who miss the synergy brought to the field by a pair of Simpsons, that I can’t quite deliver by myself. Some people, dubious about his chances of getting his own horse (unridden for at least a year) ready anytime soon have even offered to lend horses if that’s what it takes.
And then, after returning home and unwinding from the hunt, it was time for my other Wednesday indulgence, West Wing. I’m not quite sure where the show is going, and I’m not quite sure I like it. I think it’s going to self-destruct in a sad quest for popularity, which is ironically similar to the real direction of the Democratic party it portrays. Speaking of which, I recently read a very interesting analysis of the party’s depressing pursuit of “acceptance”. I’ve long agreed with the underlying idea that trying to be more like Republicans is not working and not a good idea, but I’d never seen it put in this light before.