Paying for our sins and our saviors

Thursday evening I took part in my first boot camp fitness session. After losing almost 70 pounds 4 years ago, and then gaining 45 back, I've decided it's finally time to get back on the wagon and get to work. Well boot camp kicked me in the ass! I've been walking around like my arthritic cat for three days. Stay tuned...

Today is Thursday

Now before you go pointing out the obvious, I just felt like it was a descriptive statement, "Today is Thursday." Thursday is kinda the red headed step child of the week. No one looks forward to Thursday. No one dreads Thursday. Nothing happens on Thursday except everyone wants it over so that it will be Friday.

And lord am I glad tomorrow is Friday. Not so much because this Friday is any more special than any other Friday or that this weekend is bringing any major vacation or event, outside of a dinner with friends. Mainly, because it brings me a week closer to a week off work, SPRING BREAK! I'm looking forward to some time with nothing to do, other than random things with my girls. I've promised myself not to plan any major projects or "house jobs" for that week. The only thing that sounds better than a week off doing nothing is a week off doing nothing at the beach! But we can't have everything can we.

The Carpet -- Continued

In response to yesterday's jewel a good friend and fellow Office fan found these very appropriate quotes.....

"Why would somebody ruin a perfectly good carpet? I don't know. Could be done out of hate. Could be done out of love. It could be completely neutral. Maybe somebody hates the cleaning lady, and well she doesn't do a very good job obviously because my office still reeks like you would not believe. I hate her. You know what, I am beginning to think that what happened to my carpet was an act of terrorism, against the office. The only thing that makes any sense." --Michael Scott

and....

"I tried being rational. And what happened? The employees went crazy. I got no support from corporate. So now, I have no choice. I'm going to treat them like the children they are."
"Apparently, some of you are upset with my plan. So I want everyone to write down any diseases you have that you might want covered and I'll see what I can do….make it anonymous and put it in my in-box….Or don't right it down at all, and it won't be covered. Sound fair? Yes." --Dwight K Schrute

The crazy people I work for.....

For anyone whoever thought I might be exaggerating stories of my employers, here's an email from today.....enjoy

From: xxxx
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 4:26 PM
To: Staff
Subject: Carpet damage

The carpet is only two months old and we have a worrying amount of damage. Not just marking – which we can fix. Rather this:

Whole threads being pulled out of the carpet – a type of damage that we don’t think we can fix. These threads have to be cut off and a permanent hole is left. Based on the current rate of thread pulling there will be holes every few feet within 3 years (our previous carpet lasted 10 years).

Do you know what is causing the damage?

If you know what has caused this damage please let us know. It is quite likely that, if you were on the other end of the implement that went into the carpet and pulled out the thread you would have felt it. If we can find the root cause and eliminate it before too much damage that would be the best solution.

Do you have any theories of what might be causing the damage?

Have you seen any one dragging heavy, rough things that could catch on a thread? Any other ideas? Have you seen this sort of damage before?

My personal theory

When I ask myself “What sharp object is being pushed into our carpet with great force?” I have one answer. The heels on high-heeled shoes. When a 130 pound person puts their weight on the tip of a small high heel the pressure is over 2000 pounds per square inch. This is plenty of force to push the tip into the carpet – or even through it. If you doubt my knowledge of physics you need only go into the kitchen to see the hundreds of indentations that have been caused by high heels in the VCT that was newly laid just eight weeks ago. It is difficult to photograph but if you look closely at the picture you will see some indentations at the end of the arrows. If you get hold of a piece of VCT and try to punch an indentation into it you will quickly realize just how much pressure a high heel can exert.

Suggested action

In the event that:

· No one can suggest a more credible cause of the damage

· A reasonable number of people agree with my theory

then I suggest the following action.

We ask employees not to wear shoes with very small heels in the office.

This part is none of my business – but that never stopped me before!

I have a natural aversion to imposing rules on other people. However, in this case I am confident that if we do adopt the “not tiny heel” guideline, rather than in any way damaging the affected employees we may be doing them a favor. Try looking at the attached pictures to see the damage that high heels can do inside the shoe as well as under the heel.

http://www.wpxi.com/slideshow/news/3910331/detail.html?qs=1;s=1;dm=ss;p=news;w=320

Of course, there is tremendous peer pressure to conform to the latest mode – even if it is harmful (like drug taking amongst teenagers). So, to those who feel that they are not a complete person unless they are wearing 3.5” heels, I would point out two things:

· You can still wear them outside work and save our carpets and floors

· The fashion for high-heels will, of course, pass and is already on the wane. So, eschew them at all times and think of it as just being ahead of the next trend – and save your feet.

xxxx