Role Players

Due to some personal issues that his Mom faced while he was growing up. my Dad was basically raised for a significant portion of his childhood by his Aunt Jean and Uncle Jimmy.  They were very good to my Dad and Mom - and to all of us as well.

In an email exchange earlier this year, my sister Joan was reminiscing how Uncle Jimmy would provide transportation frequently for the kids while Dad was at work – Mom didn’t drive. In an earlier post, I also briefly touched on the good times that we all shared at Aunt Jean and Uncle Jimmy’s small cottage on the Juniata River in the town of Ardenheim outside of Huntingdon.

Dinner Is Served

Back around Thanksgiving, I had a nice piece of ham laying around and threw it in the crock pot with some lima beans, water, and seasonings. 8 hours later, I had a simple, hearty meal on a very frigid day.

Growing up, my Mom’s lima beans and ham was one of the meals that I didn’t like – at all. But somehow, by the time I had reached adulthood, I had acquired a taste for it. Comfort food. Easy to make – even someone lacking the most elementary culinary chops like me couldn’t screw that up.

However, just like me, none of my kids cared for it – again, at all – while they were growing up. So it was more than a little surprising that all three of them voluntarily partook of this stuff during the latest Thanksgiving break.

Repeating Of Course

As described in my last post, I occasionally try to find some moment at work in which I can interject some subtle humor or sarcasm to break up the monotony. In my case, these efforts typically fall flat on their face due to my material or my delivery or both.  But that doesn’t deter me from trying. Obviously, you can’t force it or overdo it or you end up looking lame, so timing is pretty critical.

Earlier this year, I thought I had a perfect opening and attempted to capitalize.

Back in 2006, there was a viral video unleashed that I thought was hilarious. ”Leeroy Jenkins” highlighted a play-by-play account of an online multi-player game of World of Warcraft where one of the players, Leroy, goes off the grid and does his own freelance thing - much to the chagrin of his teammates, who are painstakingly planning an elaborate attack.

Am I Really That Boring?

I am very grateful that I am able to make a decent living developing software. On the good days, it can be very satisfying and the time flies. Even on the bad days, software development is still better than about 99% of the other jobs that I could imagine myself doing.

But the actual type of software I work on (systems management software) isn’t exactly the sexiest stuff in the industry when compared to, say, consumer applications that the entire world uses (smart phone apps, browsers, etc). It is very specialized, has incredibly long deployment cycles, and typically requires services engagements so the function can be tailored for the individual customers.

As is typical with any product development area, there are the assorted status and team meetings to attend, reviews with various stakeholders, and the normal elements of a large corporate bureaucracy with which one must fight. So lightening up the work environment with some humor would seem to be a welcome respite from the mundane aspects of the job. I have had some spectacular failures in this respect over the last couple of years. The failures were spectacular not in that the humor was in poor taste or offensive – rather that simply nobody got the humor!

I Ate the Cheese!

Tuesday night was my Dad’s Bowling Night at the Knights of Columbus on 12th Ave in downtown Altoona. After rolling, the team members would often retire to the club for drinks and card games.

Bowling was my Dad’s one recreational activity. He didn’t hunt or fish or play golf, but he really did enjoy  bowling. The K was his main social club and I can only imagine the outlet it provided for him from the mundane, working class, physically-demanding job that he performed his entire life.

In addition to the weekly Tuesday night out during Bowling Season, Dad would also frequent The K to tend bar, to sub for another team, or just to have a couple pops and play cards with the guys. Friday night was by far the predominant night out at The K. Of course, if the light was on and he was in the mood, then it didn’t have to be Bowling Night or Friday night.

Depending on how long the game or evening’s festivities ran, Dad would get back home fairly late for a work night. Dad’s shift at the railroad would vary, but he would usually be out of the house by between 5:30 or 6:00 AM. Very, very, infrequently, a half-day of work might be missed because the previous evening’s fun and games got a little too crazy or the arrival back home was a little too late.

The Light Is On In The K

My father had this habit, when driving past the Knights of Columbus (aka The K or The Club) on 12th Ave in downtown Altoona, of peering through the front door windows to see if the light in the lobby was on. I believe this check was part of an internal planning process.