Have you seen these?
A Year in Books - 2009-12-27
Skip Tracer, Loan Detective - 2009-11-22
New Job - 2009-11-03
The coleslaw got served. - 2009-10-21
Probably a new job. But maybe not. - 2009-10-08

Around the Lake
2008-07-23 9:21 p.m.

Wow. More than a month. I really have no justification for this at all. There was a lot of work, then a few rounds of "Well, in a few days I'm doing X, and that will give me something to write about..." So now I have the kind of intimidating task of explaining everything I've been doing for an entire month.
***
I worked a lot. The HR lady, after 3 months of us begging for more staff, started sending us new hires. The first guy lasted three days. Ditto for the second guy. The first girl is actually pretty awesome, but she's got another full time job and can't be more than part time. The second girl is a college student (out of state), so we only get to have her for another three weeks. The last new hire, the HR lady said, "I wasn't going to hire her, but since you keep saying you need people..." Yeah, great, thanks. I wasn't aware we had to specifically request competent people. Anyway, she quit after two weeks.
***
One more work mini-rant: When I was working the close shift five days a week, I knew that whenever I had a day off, the following shift would be extra annoying. The other main closer is kind of a slacker, and I always knew I'd find something he forgot or "forgot."

Now that I work three different shifts regularly, I'm realizing that everyone I work with kind of sucks. Some of them are slackers, and some of them are just idiots. Either way, every shift now starts with me getting annoyed at what was done wrong or not done at all.

Of course, I'm sure a lot of it is just me. They probably come in on the days I don't work and wonder what the hell I was thinking, doing stuff in a way that is clearly not their way.

My way is SO much better, though. Why do they not see this?
***
I went for a bike ride Around the Lake the other day. (Non-Madisonians may require a map for this part)


View Larger Map

All throughout high school, I went on several rides around Lake Winnebago with my dad and his friends. The round trip was usually about 80 miles. The Madison lakes aren't nearly as impressive. Circumnavigating Wingra, the teeny one, is about an 8-mile ride from my home, because it's right in the middle of the Arboretum. I think most of the actual lakeshore can be reached by foot paths, but on a bike, you end up mostly going around the outer edge of the Arboretum instead of the lake.

This was unsatisfying. I wanted to go Around a Lake. The first time I went around Lake Monona, I followed my free bike map from the newspaper. It shows all the bike paths, and recommended-for-bikes streets, and names most major streets. It also led me pretty damn far from sight of the lake on several occasions.

So, I bought a map. In addition to showing bike paths, my new map has names for ALL the streets. This should not have made as much of a difference as it did. I should have been able to look at the old map, and figure out, "I want the left turn three intersections after Atwood, then two blocks on whatever street that ends up being, and left again." Turns out, street names are surprisingly helpful. Who knew?

The first time, my odometer clocked in at 18 miles around Lake Monona. With my improved map, I probably shaved off at least a few miles, and except for a few places where the ideal road was under construction, the lake was in sight more or less constantly. (I didn't realize my odometer wasn't on until I was already too far from home to get an accurate trip length)

Someday, I will try The Big Damn Lake. Right now, the part of the city I'm familiar with ends at Mendota's southeasternmost shore.


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