Dave’s Picks

I noticed recently that people sometimes have weird reactions to hearing I’ve got other plans in response to a question about whether I’m going to do something (go to the Sporty, go on a photowalk, or some other invitation). And with the Saints season starting, that’s a more frequent answer.

To be sure, this year I’m going to try and miss some games, leaving a little more free time for myself over the summer, but it’s still interesting to see how people respond. Some just accept it at face value. But the majority seem to feel a need to know what those other plans are. Am I up to something more fun than what they have planned, or perhaps something more boring so they can try and talk me out of it?

But then there are days like yesterday when I just don’t know. There was a Saints game, but there was also the May Day Parade down in south Minneapolis. And it also would have been a nice day to go visit Mom. When I woke up, I really wasn’t sure which I’d choose to do. I was leaning towards going to the game, and I eventually did, but it wasn’t a sure thing.

And that happens to me fairly often in the summer. There’s a lot of things going on. The default is usually going to the game, but there are times when I’ll be double- or triple-booked with various things to do, and I’ll put off making a firm decision as long as possible. It may be that it looks like rain, so I’m not expecting to go to the ballgame. Or it may be that there’s something special going on (like the Zappa Plays Zappa show that’s about a month out). Or it’s possible that I’m just thinking I need a quiet night at home after a week of eleventy other things going on.

In any case, when I respond with I’ve got other plans and don’t have an immediate answer to the follow-up question of What are you going to do? people seem to be dissatisfied. It’s not that I’m trying to be evasive or avoid that person. Too often it’s that I already have too many things to choose from, and don’t want to make the decision more difficult by adding another possibility to the mix.

But maybe I need to change my answer. Would it be better to lie and say that I’m doing one of the things from the list of possibles? Would it be better to bore folks with the long explanation like I’m doing here? Or maybe I just should not care what other people think. I don’t know, but as I said, I’ve noticed that the short answer just doesn’t seem to satisfy people, so I’ve been pondering how to handle it.

So that’s the kind of thing that goes through my brain sometimes. But for the moment, my course is clear. It’s time to get to work for the day.

I took Tuesday of this week off from work. See, the Saints have started their pre-season, and due to a game with the Ibaraki Golden Golds, a team from Japan, they had a day-night double-header on Tuesday. With the game on Monday, that made for 25 innings of baseball that I saw in two days (I cut out early on Monday’s game, only seeing 7½ innings).

It was good to get outside, even if I did spend all three games wearing my winter coat in the stands. And it was good to get back into the cooking in the parking-lot groove. Three pretty good meals came out of the deal, including the highlight of a 3lb pork roast Tuesday afternoon. Plus I managed to sunburn my face and my hands on a day when it was cold enough that my sunblock had frozen, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

And while the Saints are playing tomorrow night down in Miesville, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to head down for that one. The forecast is for windy and rainy, with a possibility of snow. It’s not quite summer yet, no matter what the schedule says.

…if you’re a duck! It’s been raining since Thursday morning, and it might snow before the sun comes up. Could I have more spring, please? The cold and rainy weather around here the past couple days has made me a bit more cranky than usual. Or perhaps just returned me to the usual level of crankiness. At this point, I can’t say for sure.

Normally, I expect spring weather in Minnesota to be a mite “changeable.” Except that Monday begins the Saints pre-season, and the game-time forecast at this point is for a high in the 40s. Fahrenheit. This is not baseball weather!

The other cranky-inducing thing this week was an “all-hands” meeting at work. The VP of Human Resources (I am not a resource, I am a man!), got up on the video-conferencing stage, and said, after explaining our new and simpler corporate values (there used to be ten, now there are four), said with a straight face: Our ask of you is that you role-model these values to your coemployees.

I nearly fell out of my chair at that.

Now maybe it’s just the beer talking (it often is), but when I heard that, my first reaction was deep embarassment for the company I work for. This is the head of the HR department talking, and while I seldom have much respect for HR, she’s got the ability to set corporate policy and consign me to some serious heck. And I pray to Bog that she doesn’t say this sort of thing in front of any investors, because they’re going to be convinced that the company I work for is run by people who’ve been smoking too many crystals and our stock price will plummet.

I don’t want that.

I could go on, but Oh My Christ! what else is there to say that wouldn’t be hyperbolic?