A new guy at work

We had a new guy start this week at work—the one I mentioned who is from Nigeria. Hi supervisor and I took him out to lunch on Tuesday, and had an interesting conversation. It was my fault. I asked him about Nigeria, and he stretched out his arm on a vacant chair next to him, stopped eating, and began an expansive discourse on the major tribes of Nigeria, the regions in which they live and the relative political power of each. While it was a remarkable presentation, I broke in to relate some tidbit of my own in order to give him a chance to eat, since, after all, we did eventually have to get back to the office. He politely sat and listened to me, but he didn’t start eating again. I had to indicate that it was OK to eat while I talked.

I am so glad he does not report to me. His supervisor was run ragged all week taking him to meetings and events. I just had to sit with him for about an hour to explain our database system to him, and he understood it easily, since he has an IT background.

One of the coordinators who does report to me was out sick a couple of days this past week. She sounded awful on the phone. The director’s secretary had also been sick, so I hope whatever it is is not marching through the office. When the coordinator returned to work on Friday, I hung a biohazard symbol on her door. She didn’t think it was all that funny. I got a kick out of myself, though.

The 216 Hour Report

Tank has been settling in this past week. We’ve been walking a mile and a half at 5am and another two miles at 5pm and one of us should be in pretty good shape soon. On Saturday of the Labor Day weekend, our extended family met at the same park we had had breakfast in back on the Fourth of July. Tank was the big attraction since most people had not met him yet.

Shane’s girlfriend, the tri-athlete, took him for a run back and forth in a big field; a nephew's girlfriend took him for a walk in the woods, then my brother and sister in law took him for another spin on the trail. By the time we got home, he was exhausted. This is significant because we’d never seen him like that. He had always seemed ready to go. In any case, everyone was suitably impressed with him. He was, of course, a perfect gentleman. Oh. Except for the crotch thing, but hey—he’s a dog.

Kathy and I went out to breakfast on Sunday, did a little PetSmart shopping and then came home to give Tank his first bath with us. We did it outside since it was so warm. He did very well, but Kathy did not. You see, Tank took out my good knee during the Saturday outing. He swung his head at just the right angle and that was it. She was afraid he was going to take me down during the bath, but he behaved quite well.