My work life just got interesting. Marley advised our employers today that she is eligible for disability due to repetitive strain problems with her hands. She's had pretty serious problem for the 10 months I've been there, so this is not a surprise, but she basically expected to get fired for asking for her clearly deserved workmen's comp. Instead, the bosses asked her to stay on at work and simply not type for a month rather than sit at home. They'll keep paying her, and we'll gain someone who can answer the phones, do a bit of filing, and handle the tour requests that walk in the door (they don't involve much typing). Personally, I'm glad, although a large portion of her work will devolve upon me because I was the only agent without a particular corporate account to mind. I'd hate to be completely without someone who knows the reservation system, plus we quite desperately need a receptionist. It's going to be a big adjustment, though, as she gets used to not having too much to do.
Meanwhile, our bookkeeper Butch is still out and won't be back next week either. He hasn't fully recovered from his emergency Christmas surgery, and he apparently has to go back for a second bout of surgery which will keep him out of work for a month again. I get to do his job, too. Well, the ARC report part of it. Thank god no one expects me to post the accounts. I dread having to balance my checkbook let alone the company's books, even if they were inclined to let me in on such secrets. Anyway, that's the equivalent of one day off the phones each week when you add up all the time spent in the back room slaving over a hot report, repeated frenzied calls to the accounting software company who are apparently staffed by bonobos instead of humans who return their voice mail, and endless clarifying of ticket status. No one's offering to pay me extra, either, but I assume I'll have the admiration and respect of my co-workers and my bosses and that, you know, makes it all worthwhile.
On the other hand, John got a spiffy raise today, and it's retroactive to November 1st. Chile may be on after all.
I'm almost through with my book on Ancient Rome. I'm up to Julius Caesar. I wish everyone hadn't had a name beginning with either P or C, though. I'm forever mixing up Catullus, Catalina, Cato, Cicero, and Crassus. There's far too many Claudii. Ptolemy gets shuffled among Publius, Pulcher, and Pompey. Some of them stick out in my mind only, and I actually am a bit ashamed of this, because I read Steven Saylor's mysteries set in the first century B.C.. Fictionalize history and I am there. Set me a list of dates, names, and battles, and I'm asleep.
And speaking of mysteries, I was devasted to find Kate Ross' name and books displayed on a memorial wall at Capital Crimes yesterday. I'd only just discovered her wonderful Regency mysteries and her truly memorable dandy detective Julian Kestrel. Now I know there will be no more, and it makes my world a little greyer.
Guess I'll have to wait for Rick McGinnis to finish his novel, and Ceej hers, and for Diane to sell her first screenplay. Could you guys hurry up? I'm running out of first rate books to read.
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