For students who don’t have time to read the trilogy before writing their book report, here’s an excellent synopsis you can use.
(Shh, nobody tell them.)
When we all moved in to the new building, some of us contractors didn’t get assigned offices. Fair enough, we’re technically not employees. I’ve been working with the A/R team with another lady since shortly after we all started; for the first week, the two of us were working in a conference room. Needless to say this wasn’t ideal, sometimes the conference room was needed for actual conferencing, and we had to go sit in the break room or something.
The second week, all the regular employees had settled in to their offices and we started prowling the halls looking for unused space. We found an empty office and moved in. It’s near the rest of the contractor team, and has a nice big window. We let everyone know we were in there. Nobody ever came around saying it was their office, so we set up with our photos and calendars and other homey touches.
Monday morning, someone from facilities came by. He poked his head in, looked surprised, and said “Oh, my list said this office was empty.”
“Nope, we’re in here,” said my office mate.
He went away again without further objections. I have the idea that somewhere there’s a master facilities list that just got updated, and our office is now officially occupied.
The winter storm that’s been making its way across the country arrived in our area overnight. We’ve got winter storm warnings, the governor has declared a state of emergency, and schools and businesses are closed.
This morning I woke up to see a light covering of sleet and snow across the ground. Throughout the day more has fallen off and on, a mix of sleet, snow, and freezing rain. The ground is patchy with snow. The trees and cars are all covered in a fairly thick glaze of ice.
Back in the fall, when cooler weather arrived, The Director bought Duchess a heated pet bed. When it’s cold she’s either snuggled up to us, or sprawled out in her warm bed. That’s where she was when I got up this morning.
Shortly before noon, Duchess bestirred herself. She had a bite to eat, then strolled over to the window to survey her domain.
She lost her casual mien when she reached the window. You could practically see a thought bubble over her head labelled “What the hell?”
Her stunned expression amused me greatly. She spent a good ten minutes inspecting the yard from different angles. I know she’s seen snow at least once, but it was obviously quite a surprise to her.