7 Quick Takes Friday #51

See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

With all the worry marching around the world right now -- the demonstrations in Egypt and concerns about plans to spread them to other Middle Eastern countries where I have many friends -- I thought I might concentrate on the less worrisome moments of the past week or so and leave the worries to another time.

1. Coming back from the post office one evening, I was stopped by a rooster in the middle of my lane. In San Ignatio, chickens have right of way, so I stopped. The poor guy, it turns out, was quite distraught. (And they say chickens are dumb!) He was running circles around a dead hen, obviously hit by a car whose driver erroneously thought he or she had the right of way. I skirted the rooster carefully; wish I could have helped his "wife."

2. On Monday day, I hurried home from work to have dinner with three friends from the Secular Franciscans. This has become a regular, unscheduled, occasional event for us. As usual, we had spaghetti and a fancy salad. Donnie makes the spaghetti; one of the other folks makes the fancy salad. Ain't much fancy about me! Good conversation more than food is what it is all about -- and good conversation we had until the dark outside became very dark.

3. At work, we had a quality assurance team visit. I guess the team liked our work because the head of the team insisted on talking to me personally after speaking with my management team and some of the rank and file. I thought he wanted to report on his team's findings. Instead, he told me that he had a troubled team and would like some management advice from me. Yikes! I did my best, and hopefully, something was helpful. The leader thanked me for my "mentoring" and left. Strange day!

4. Via a major I know who was being deployed to Afghanistan, I sent a memento to a senior officer I worked with in a camp outside Kabul last fall. The senior officer was tickled. I had made his day. "Thanks, Doc," he wrote to me on email. Now, that, in turn, tickled me.

5. Yesterday I drove back and forth between our two offices three times. I thought perhaps I should sleep the night in the toy box, given how much like a yo-yo I felt.

6. We spent Saturday at Doc Ricketts Lab in Monterey. For those familiar with Steinbeck's Cannery Row, there really is a Cannery Row in Monterey, and there really is a Doc Ricketts lab. Nathaniel and Shane went with me, and we learned a lot of history. Before the tour at Dock Ricketts, which is a private event held on three times a year, we had lunch at Baba Gump's. Donnie and I were running late, but we were clearly supposed to have lunch. We drove right up to Baba Gump's and parked in front, on Cannery Row, where there never is any parking. Then, when I went to see how long the waiting line would take, I was told that since we had exactly seven people, we could be seated right away because a table for seven had just opened up.

7. Then, of course, this week, there was the blackmail episode which backfired on the employee when I turned in the "documentation" to the personnel office. Since confronting the employee, four days have passed. It seems only like four hours. During that time, he has done some amazing things, including confiding in me, coming for help with a colleague, and coming for help with a problem of his own. It seems that he considers me his new best friend. Strange days for sure!

Wishing you all a great weekend. I am looking forward to a few normal days. I hope you are, too.