'Twas a few days before Christmas...

I really love the job just before Christmas. People are happier, smiley-er. They're wrapping things up before Winter Break and making plans for when they come back. The students are gone and the whole town seems more peaceful as well as our own hallways (lots of students here). And the elves come out. People bring their children or grandchildren to work in these unusual days. This little elf brightened everyone's day by running up and down the hall and laughing or shrieking as grandma tried to catch him. A very charming little guy, this one.

I thought we had power issues when we lived in Wakulla! At about 2:30 this morning, our power went out. It tried to come back a couple of times, but after a few futile efforts, it went away for good. Except my scanner, which was OFF was trying to scan something. Yeah. That was weird. Anyway, with temperatures in the low 30s last night (ya'll up north don't laugh, okay?) we could have been cold, but the new roof and the new windows did their jobs and we were still warm when we got up this morning! As it turns out, we had a blown transformer.

These guys are becoming a familiar sight after Fay this summer and the drunk driver that split our telephone pole in two a couple of months ago... Hopefully, we won't be seeing them again anytime soon.

Because of the power being out, I went to work early (mmmm... HOT coffee!). After getting things underway in my office, I wandered the building a little to check things out. So quiet. Our Christmas tree stood sentinel in the lobby. Every year, Marie and the others upstairs make this tree absolutely beautiful! I'm always sad to see it come down.

I went to visit the radio side to see if anyone was around there. I was walking past their reception desk when I did a double take. Not many people around, but the gremlins have certainly been visiting!

Um. Yeah. I have to say, the expressions on the stuffed animals are priceless. I wonder what the owner of that desk is going to think when she gets back????

THe other thing that happens when we have Winter Break is that any painting or office moving that needs to happen happens then. My assistant retired this past month, leaving her office vacant. Suzanne is moving in when we get back, and the painters are going to do it up for her. Paul is moving into Suzanne's old office and he's getting his painted too!

Suzanne's Old Office Suzanne's New Office

The new office is going to be two shades of brown - a mulled cider color and a light topaz. Thank goodness we talked her out of "baby poo". Except it was called something like "light stucco".

Today, the boss man and some other unoccupied guys were moving desks and shelves and such out of the offices to facilitate the painting and I "supervised". One of the guys asked about the painting thing. Boss man turned around and pointed at me - "She started it. She did her office and now all of a sudden we're all HGTV around here. Everytime someone moves, they paint their office."

Who, ME?

My office (in some disaray, but you get the idea)

We all laughed about it and later I went to Boss Man's office and asked him about it. He laughed too, and said it was a small price to pay to keep people happy in their working environments.

One of these days, I'm going to have to post about the offices in my building. I really DID start something - especially if you realize that all of the rooms were painted an industrial beige color. Really and truly blah. Next year, I'll do a photographic tour so you can see what wide-ranging effect I have!!!