Not at all a good day

Mondays don't trouble me on their stereotyped merits or lack thereof. The week has to start somewhere, might as well be Monday.

This one was a real kick in the metaphorical teeth.

Monday is trash & recyclables day, so as I was heading out, I intended to roll both cans back down the driveway if they'd been emptied. The large, blue recyclables cart was done, so I wheeled and parked it. The gray trash can...

...was gone.

Not lying nearby, not knocked up or down the cross street. Just -- gone. After calling Val to assure that she hadn't hidden it, I called APD. They dutifully took a theft report, which was nice, since I wasn't even certain this would be a reportable theft. The cans, after all, belong to the city. But, yes, it is considered theft -- of the can, anyway. I don't think the trash, if still inside, would count.

Then I called Austin's Solid Waste Works and told them my sad tale. The rep replied that, sometimes, the automated lifter arm drops the entire can into the collection truck, and when that does happen, that's the ballgame. The compressors take care of the evidence, and it is far too risky for the truck men to jump in after one. This was news to me, that sometimes an entire can goes away; shoot, I'd pay to see that. Anyway, we should get a new can next Monday.

Val then lost her cell phone, and though it was recovered at the store she'd dropped it and I retrieved it later that evening, the display unit had been cracked and it is essentially non-functional. So, eBay will provide a new one, and then that will go to the Verizon Wireless store for cultural reprogramming. Feh, a nuisance.

Finally, it was indeed Armageddon at Val's place of work, which was no surprise. It was, typically, done in a ham-handed manner. A big hint was the large order for moving boxes placed last week, for people to clean out their desks and cubes into. Victims got their vacation balances cashed out, with direct deposits being made either on Friday or Saturday, so anyone paying attention knew what was coming. And, worse, those laid off got NO severance, regardless of length of service. NONE! ZERO! Damn, that is really cold, and indicative of (a) the company's financial outlook and (b) the sort of people who currently are in charge. The place is circling the drain; it might pull out of the death spiral, but right now it's anyone's guess. I suppose we'll know sometime in the next 90 days if today's bloodletting made any difference.

To be clear, Val did NOT get the axe. Which for now is a good thing; but she's pretty stressed over how many good people did get whacked. Layoffs are never a nice thing, but they are very much a current reality.