Windy’s Blog

When I was just a youngster growing up in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, I was quite naive. Not much has changed with me in that respect. Most of the time, I still have no clue. But I don’t let that bother me. On the contrary, because I am so naive, I am continually amazed with life and its complexities, which makes me laugh. And that’s usually a good thing.

But I digress…back in the 1970’s I can remember riding in the car and hearing one of my parents say “there goes OB Joyful.” The words rang together for me, like “OhBeJOYFUL.” I never questioned my parents about the name, which in itself is amazing, because I ALWAYS question EVERYTHING. Yes, I was the child who constantly asked “But, why?” until it got to that inevitable point of “BECAUSE I TOLD YOU SO!”

Anyway, back to OH BE JOYFUL. I thought my parents were generically referencing someone who was carefree or who didn’t have a thing in this world and didn’t care about it. The name was an expression for me. That’s the way it was for me growing up in the late 60’s and through the 70’s. Most people were described by their nationality back then. “We’re going down to that Pollack’s place for a haircut,” or “Stop at that Frenchman’s store on the way home.” It’s just how it was, it wasn’t a bad or even prejudice description. At least I never took it to be that way.

People were also described by their trade or past time. “You know Joe, he’s the one who threw that curve ball to Eddie at the fair last year.” And yeah, everybody did know Joe.

But OBJOYFUL was different. That was a name I thought was just used to describe someone’s attitude.

Silly me, it never dawned on me that there was an actual person with that name!

Forty years later I’ve now found out that, yes, indeed, there was a man whose name was Obe Joyful. I discovered this when one of my cousins sent me a video of nostalgia from Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In the video there is a picture of a man and under it was his name “Obe Joyful.” No kidding. Apparently he was a local “hobo” who lived in the area. I’ll have to do some research when I get time and find out more about the man.

But in the meantime, I’ll sit here and wonder why I never figured out that there was an actual person by that name. And I’ll probably still use that name as an expression because old habits are hard to break.

It probably won’t be a surprise to me that one day I’ll be talking to someone and say “Come on, who are you trying to be, O B Joyful?”

And then I’ll laugh when I realized what I’ve said. And life will once again be funny for that moment. And do you know what will be even more funny? I’ll probably find out that, somehow, I am related to that “ficticious character!”

So the day started out like this: I woke up at 6:15 a.m. and completed my morning yoga routine. I took my shower, made coffee, got the wood fire going for the day, and made my lunch for work. As I took my time having breakfast I glanced out the window and noticed it was starting to snow heavily. The weatherman predicted only flurries. Laughing to myself I thought  “Yeah, that’s flurries in the Berkshires for ya!”

By the time I was ready to leave for work there was about an inch of snow on the ground and the rest was blowing madly in what the weatherman said was a “squall.” I was on time for work, but now was five minutes behind schedule as I had to brush off the car and clear the windshield. I started to stress.

I went through the drive thru at McDonalds for my daily coffee to go (I’ve learned that the large coffee just about gets me through the day rather than bring the cup from home which isn’t big enough). As I left the parking lot, traffic on the local roads was building.

I listened to the radio and the announcer was speaking about several accidents in the area. I started to stress even more as I realized he mentioned some areas that I would be driving through.

Then I got behind the local bus along with several others and we were dead stopped in the road waiting for him to pick up passengers and move on. The roads hadn’t been plowed and so he couldn’t move onto the sidewalk. Stress was building in me as I realized I would just about make it to work on time now.

Over the snowy roads I travelled and then just as I was making some good progress, the traffic had become heavy. Motorists had been diverted from some roads and somehow all ended up on the one I was on! As I got closer to work I knew that I would have to run through the snow packed parking lot in order to make it in on time.

I was two minutes from my deadline (just enough time to park the car and make a run for the front door) when traffic haulted all together. There was an accident about 30 yards from the entrance to my workplace. A tow truck driver decided at that precise moment to back up into the street, thereby blocking all traffic on the road! My stress level was almost at its peak at this point, as I could see the building I needed to be inside of, yet couldn’t get there. I telephoned the receptionist and told her my dilemma. After escaping accidents and snow covered roads wouldn’t it figure that there’d be an accident within just feet from my workplace that would be the determining factor? Yes, I was late for work by seven minutes.

I hate being late for work because then I feel as if the whole day is just a rush to catch up. And so that was how the start of my day at work went today.

On the work end of things, I am learning to be a Relay Operator. I’ve been learning all sorts of codes and computer key strokes and ways to process calls in order to help those who have the TTY or other devices for the hard of hearing or speech impaired. Yesterday we were put on the phones for the first time for an hour. I disconnected a call.

This morning we were “thrown into the fire” again so to speak. I kept making mistakes. Not major ones and no disconnets today, but still. My first calls all had issues. Of course, it would figure.

At lunch time I went to the “finger clock” which is a machine that is used to punch in and out with. You place your fingertip on the machine and it identifies you and records the precise time. As I put my finger on the machine, the screen read IN when it should have read OUT. I spent a few minutes of my lunch break trying to get that straightened out.

I checked the messages on my cell phone and heard a message from my sister to “call her on my break.” She had some news. Her voice didn’t sound good, so immediately I thought that someone we knew had been involved in one of the many accidents this morning and she was going to tell me about it.

So I called her, but instead of  “bad” news about true life, she tells me a story that one of my cousins e-mailed her about a dream he had that involved her and an accident!

My bizarre day got better when I went back in to work for the rest of the day and continued to receive odd calls when everyone else I was training with received more “normal” ones. I kept forgetting things that I’m supposed to do and by the end of the day I was ready to go home.

The “flurries” that were predicted for the day turned into about four inches of snow. So I treaded through that much snow in the parking lot on the way to the car, in my shoes, because I had left my boots in the car! After brushing those flurries off of my car, I was finally able to start the drive home. Of course there was major traffic. Now although it had stopped snowing “officially,” the wind kicked up mightily and was blowing all of it back into the streets!

My windshield wipers had frozen snow on them and did nothing to clear off the windshield as I drove home. When I finally reached the house, the snow had accumulated on the steps and drive way. After dinner I went out to shovel and realized after five minutes it was basically a lost cause. The wind was just blowing everything back into the areas I had just shoveled.

And now I am wondering what will happen tomorrow, as it is only supposed to be a high of 13 degrees out. Judging by how accurate the weather forecasters were for today, I’m going to make my own prediction that it will be below zero with the wind chill.

One good thing that came out of today? I made it through. Tomorrow is Friday and it’s the last of my work week. I can’t wait for the weekend!

Oh and by the way, did I mention that I listen to my horoscope as it’s read over the radio during the morning drive to work? Even the astrologist got my day wrong. I guess I must be out of my “lunar cycle” or whatever. Totally.

Today was my third day with the new job. Waking up early has been okay, but the real challenge for me is that I am not permitted to drink anything but water while at the computer, which is ALL DAY for me! I’ve already spoken with a co-worker about this, who also had to put aside the caffeine while at the same time be expected to remain friendly and upbeat as a customer service rep. She told me to hang in there, that eventually my body will get used to not having the jolt that coffee brings throughout my day. Yeah, right.

The good thing is that in a few weeks I’ll be working the afternoon to evening shifts, and that will mean that I’ll be able to consume vast amounts of java until I go into the workplace later in the day. See? The addiction is so strong that I’m already planning three weeks in advance on how I will get my fix.

I must laugh at this situation  1) because there’s nothing I can do about it  and 2) if I don’t laugh, I’d be consumed with negative thoughts. And I really don’t want any more negativity in my life.

But, alas, there is a good outcome of this job requirement: I will be drinking more water. I tend to go through times of keeping healthy by drinking water and then I somehow forget about it until I wonder why my joints ache and my skin is dry! So in a very small way, I’m actually looking forward to the water only requirement.

Still, I must ask….is coffee really that bad? I mean, if the IT people can figure out a way to reboot the machines in record time, and handle any type of computer issue, surely they can think of how to clean coffee out of a keyboard. In the many years I’ve worked with computers, I can’t remember ever spilling anything on the keyboard. But that’s just me.

Wish me luck for the next three weeks as I persist in my endeavors. And if you know of any clear liquid that can pass as water but actually tastes like coffee and is loaded with caffeine, please let me know!