monstrous maned pregnant lions dawdle with humpback whales
“.. going slowly, Melika,” I began. “We’re back from our trip. There is no need to wait anymore. I am ready to be grand.”
“Dad, you asked me to wait.”
“That was last week. What’s your physician got to say about the delay?”
“Delay? The due date is June 3. It’s only May.”
“You say the due date is June, but I predicted May. Aren’t you tired of being pregnant?”
“I’m very tired. My doctor says two weeks.”
“Two weeks! Isn’t that what she said a week ago?”
“Dad.”
“George Porter told me that kitchen renovation was going to take two weeks. It took six months. Don’t emulate George.”
“There’s no chance of that.”
“I know. I just wanted you to know that I’m ready.”
“Not as ready as me, Dad.”
While Melika dawdles along with this baby project, Nazy and I went for a walk along the beach. The Pacific Ocean beautiful and the the Channel Islands view is wonderful on a good day.
“Good day, Dan?” Nazy interrupts.
“That’s what I said.”
“Every day is a good day.”
“Precisely my point.”
So, Nazy and I were walking down the (284) stairs to the beach. I immediately realized that we were going to have a problem.
“The tide is in,” I thought. “We won’t be able to take our standard walk to the shorter (120 step) staircase. We’ll be forced to climb back up this steeper and higher one. We should turn back before it’s too late.”
Naturally, I didn’t say anything because I knew that Nazy would suggest that all subsequent walks begin at the other end so that they would result in a “healthy” climb back to the top. When we got close to the water we saw..
“Whales!” Nazy exclaimed. “Three whales!”
“We can see them from the beach!” I agreed.
The humpback whales were very close to shore and only about 100 meters in front of the surfers. (I concluded that they were humpback since the local media says there are several humpbacks in the area and only one blue whale. There were three whales, ipso facto concludo.)
Unfortunately, we didn’t have a good camera. There was a delay between the time I pushed the ‘take photo’ button on the phone and the time that it actually ‘snapped’. Moreover, the whales didn’t deign to breach when the camera opened the shutter. Nevertheless, it was a rare and wonderful sighting and (almost) worth the long walk back up the stairs.
Regular readers are aware that the last few weeks have focused on issues associated with lions. Lost lion rings, recast lion rings, new lion rings, found lion rings. This week, Melika decided to join the game. In preparation for the baby, she had Monster (the cat) groomed to reduce the dander and fur that is dispersed throughout the house shared by Tom, Melika and the feline. Monster, now shunning mirrors, was not amused.
“He looks like a lion, Dan!” Nazy observed. “He even has a mane.”
“I think he looks like a tiger. He has stripes,” I replied.
“Tigers don’t have manes and they don’t have ‘puffs’ on their tales.”
“I don’t think that lions like the term ‘puff’, my dear.”
I also found the Father’s Day card that Melika gave me to accompany the lion ring gift from the 1990’s. (Nazy gave me some bronze lions for my office the following year.)
This week I spoke with former colleagues still working in large companies. It was..
“.. headcount reduction season, Dan,” my friend began.
“Things are improving,” I replied. “When I was working, headcount reduction was a year-round effort. No seasonality. It was, in fact, our core competence. They actually paid me more to retire early than they would have if i’d continued working.”
“That sounds like core-incompetence to me.”
“Well..”
“Anyway,” my friend continued, “My boss told me that the headcount reduction target for my department was 8. I explained that there were only 7 people in my department.”
“Including you?”
“Yes.”
“So your boss clearly...”
“ ... told me to come to him with solutions, not problems.”
“Isn’t big business wonderful?”
