Hi Folks - On the jet zooming back to Miami from Costa Rica.
We had a very fun, very male time. Heroic amounts of expensive meat & sea critters, scotch, cigars, and wine disappeared. The house staff was excellent in every way. We went crashing through the jungle on ATVs twice: once with the ride-ons and once the ride-ins. Swam in raging waterfalls, fell into a drunken pile of arms and legs in the surf on a beach near midnight, ate empanadas from a food cart late at night, and generally tore it up. Only a little blood was drawn and no crocodiles were sighted. Booo!!. I’m sure there was some sleeping, but I don’t really remember that part. It was generally a high overcast and occasional sprinkles, so perfect tropical weather there at 9 degrees North.
My only complaint was that the house staff loved air conditioning even more than the folks in Miami. Which is saying something. So I was mostly outside where it was tolerably warm.
Yaay for a good trip! Will repeat.
I have kept up with the last of last week and the first of this week’s MMP.
Exciting that FCM is about to leave. A question: Do you think the total Mom-hours of planning & prep exceeded the hours you’ll be aboard? Or worse yet, the hours measured door-to-door from home?
More exciting that metalmouse saw puffins. I bet they stank. My reading suggests they’re ill-tempered little shits too. But I bet they were otherwise really cool. I’d sure like to go see them too.
Back when I managed people I found that simply paying them according to the time card they submitted (or didn’t submit) very quickly taught them the value of diligence in that area. When they came crying about a negative paycheck due to no wages but with deductions for e.g. insurance I simply said “You told me you worked zero hours. So I paid you for zero hours. Time cards are not optional if you want to see any money. Now get back to work.”
Very few people did that twice. If you coddle them like infants they’ll behave like infants. if you treat them like adults they’ll behave like adults … or quit. Either way you’re out of the babysitting business. Nobody is super-talented enough to babysit.
As to the weekly theme…
I try very hard to have zero drudgery in my life. Of course it’s easier to do once retired; work itself brings a lot of drudgery along for the ride.
Most of what most of us do is self-imposed and unnecessary. My weekly drudgery is 4 loads of laundry: bedsheets, towels, beach towels, and all my clothes. And rinsing out the reusable screened coffee filter 7 times. That’s it.
I’ve considered switching to paper filters so I can remove (or at least reduce the effort of) that last task too.
If you make drudgery-removal a priority in your life, it’s amazing how different and freeing it can become.
Cheers all!
“Monday, Monday…” 
I sent her a quick note to let her know, so she won’t be caught off guard in case of any negative reaction! She feels terrible, but it’s too late to recall the email. I feel bad for whoever the note is about, and I also feel bad for the chief. Embarrassing situation for both of them.
Ugh, I’m sorry.
