Remembering how to sit still for 8 hours

Let's start with what I did on Saturday (because I took pictures, and they will not be wasted).

You see, a few weeks ago I went to walk out the front door, and the chain at the top looked ... different. I couldn't remember exactly what it had looked like before, but something had changed.

(I admit it, I'm not very observant.)

Eventually I figured out that the springy part of the chain was no longer attached to the door frame.

The spring had actually broken, and I didn't really know how to fix it.

I went to Rona expecting to have to try to explain what I was looking for, but it turns out the replacement chains were easy to find. I removed the old one and replaced it with the new one much more easily than expected (although it probably would have been warmer if I had done it in summer).

Here's how it looks now.


Now, to change the subject completely, today was my first day of work.

When I started my last job, I was in an area with 2 other people. My manager was working from home, so he asked one of my new coworkers to get me started.

The coworker got in at 10. I didn't have a computer, so he gave me a bunch of books to read ... and read ... and read. At lunch time, he got up, asked the other person in the area if she wanted to go for a walk, and the two of them took off while I sat in my cubicle trying to stay awake.

(They continued doing this as long as I worked there, by the way. Sometimes I would barge in on their walk, but sometimes it wasn't worth the effort.)

Today, I arrived on schedule at 9. (I was a little concerned about it at one point because it snowed this morning. We've had relatively little snow this year and the traffic report consisted of "If you can stay home, do so. It's slow everywhere.") I got my badge picture taken, then my manager came to reception to meet me. She took me down to our office area and gave me a bit of a tour.

I didn't have a computer yet, so we walked down to the restaurant in the basement since she wanted to buy breakfast. When we got back, she got one of my new coworkers to walk me through some of the systems.

After a while, we took a break so that I could take care of some paperwork. When I was ready to get going again, I sat with another coworker for a while to start to understand some of what she does.

I was there until lunch, when she and another coworker invited me to go get some lunch with them.

I got my badge and my parking pass. I need to use the badge for the elevator, and that took a while to figure out.

After that, it was more sitting with people, then I got some reading material. Finally, my computer was ready, so I read my e-mail (all 10 or so - the beauty of working for a large company) and started to figure out what software I need to get access to.

All in all, not a bad first day.