09 August 2001
Surviving Incompetence
The journal has been fairly empty lately, and the little writing I've done has not been of any particular depth. I've also not been out much lately, or to the gym enough, or spending any extra time with work or friends (to the contrary, actually). Mostly, I'm slowly plugging away on the dissertation, which seems to be consuming most of my discretionary creative time.
I have also been stuck at home the past few evenings, because our landlord's handyman has been coming over from his "day" job to do some work on the a/c ducts, which involves ripping out sheet rock, insulating the ducts properly (they weren't done right the first time -- of course!), and repairing the sheet rock. He's a really nice guy, and has done some other work since we've been here, but he is not as meticulous as one would hope -- certainly not as meticulous as I am, whether I'm working with my hands or my brain. So I imagine the work, when he's done, will be passable, but not great. I almost wish now I had volunteered to do the damn thing myself, in exchange for a rent reduction, because I would have done it to my satisfaction (and it's not rocket science, just messy and tedious).
On top of it, he seems to have lost my backpacking flashlight that I let him use (mistake! my bad! lesson: never loan anybody something you expect to see again), along with its set of NIMH rechargeables. I'll ask him about it tonight, and I'm sure he won't know what he's done with it -- or worse, will claim he gave it back to me -- and that will be that. I'm even serene about. Unlike the Lovely Evelynne, I've just come to expect it of people. Much better to be pleasantly surprised and celebrate competence on the rare occasions one finds it than to give one's self a stroke over the masses of mediocrity and incompetence.
[Posted @ 05:42 PM CST]
