My day has gotten better, ftr. I have popcorn and work has kept me too busy to worry about anything else.

I hope all y'all's people are safe and check in to tell you so soon.

Heard from my sister - BiL took the dog and evacuated to stay with friends. She's in the shelter with plenty of food and water, and shutters on all the windows.

In between checking on here and on my other Fla friends, the movers got here (only four hours late) and are unloading our stuff right now. Almost done. I usually get through packing and moving fine and melt down when unpacking starts, so we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Easy unpacking~ma, Scrappy! Yay stuff!

Timelies all!

~ma to all those in the path of Irma.

The left earpiece of my glasses broke off at the hinge, so after dinner I will head over to My Eye Doctor(where I got them) to see what can be done.

Meeting also touched on the ongoing hurricanes and how they impact our business

We got a remarkable email the other day setting up a program where our accounts in Texas and Florida can identify and "borrow" people from other accounts across the country for "mechanical, electrical, plumbing, carpentry general handyman, manual labor and project management".

I mean, this is what we do, but in the wake of other disasters we've been able to staff up in affected areas without too much trouble - the scale of the need this time is/is going to be so off the charts that they're asking people firmwide to identify their skill sets upfront and begin the process to get permission from their clients. I've never seen this before.

I wonder if it's a sign of an improving economy that the carrot of overtime pay is not enough to get people to do extra hours here to deal with hurricane work. WE're already working through our lunches and pushing to get through the heavy workload during regular hours, and management is having a hard time getting people to come in or be on call for late shifts and the weekend. Most of the people here are new enough that they haven't gone through mega-hurricane support, and the ones around me are going "I don't want time-and-a-half, I want to go home!" Management is a little baffled. A few years ago, if money hadn't persuaded people, a guilt trip would have done it. Guilt isn't working now.

edit: There are also a lot more bearded gamer types working here, and not so many clean-cut "I learned tech at BYU". There's more talk of beer and gambling and other "sins", and some R-rated language that makes me remind them that management wanders by regularly and they won't be spotted till it's too late. I do like my co-workers, though, they appreciate my sense of humor.

Ugh, trying to eat better, and I'm reminded that vegetables are terrible.

Yes, I know, not all vegetables.

That made me laugh, Dana.

D'oh. When authors don't return their article by the deadline, we send a reminder email, which is just a standard template. Today's author replied and asked if they could have until COB Monday. I replied to tell him I would ask my coordinator, but that our production schedule is really tight, and that might mean rescheduling his article.

I didn't look at the address in his email signature. They're at the VA in Houston. He replied and said "Please ask your manager to consider this as we were severely affected by the Hurricane, are tending to patient care as well as personal challenges secondary to the severe flooding."

I quickly replied with an apology for not paying attention to their location, and an assurance that a late return is very understandable, and expressing hope that recovery efforts are proceeding well.

And now I'm going to go get a crowbar to get my foot out of my mouth. Sheesh.