DUCKS OUT OF WATER

And breathe out.

Yesterday I stood watching the rain through the Venetian blinds. I was contemplating how bad a thing it was to prefer the idea of ‘being out there getting drenched’, to actually being inside, lit by the plasticky yellow glow of the office. I pinched the slats and watched the ducks on the lake. They were having a lovely time, and the maths was simple; I was not. 

I can’t really talk about why yesterday and today were such dreadful work days. I’m sure though, we’ve all had those Venetian blind moments, when in a heartbeat we’d have chosen a miserable, sopping walk around a lake, over actually tackling the stuff on our desks and in our inboxes. It’s that shared knowledge that makes me certain I need say no more.

-

“Any holidays comin’ up, bud?” he said, styling his hair in the mirror.

“Yeah. Me and the misses are goin’ to Marbella in May.”

“Aw nice. Can’t argue with that.”

I agreed, silently, eavesdropping in the gym. No argument here either. In fact it’s quite a popular idea, going on holiday, so I’ve heard.

“Yeah, not too shabby.”

“That why you been hittin’ the gym so hard this week?” laughed mirror-man.

“Yeah man. Can’t go on holiday looking sloppy.”

“Ha. Definitely.”

I caught my own reflection in the mirror. Sloppy seemed like such a funny word, suddenly. Sloppy! Sa-loppy! Sssloppy! Ha! Mirror-man stared carefully at his own face, rather like a sculptor eyes the marble. His eyes met mine in the reflection. He was big enough to punch me through the wall, I reckoned. My eyes flicked back to me, quickly. I looked very sloppy.

-

I can’t believe I was jealous of some ducks! That’s a new low, I think - beating the previous record of envying the lady who dusts and polishes the plastic plants in the lobby. I’d like to justify it by saying we’re all equipped with a natural sense of our design and the ducks are just doing the one thing they know how to do while we humans have become much better at suspending that freedom and forgetting that fun... but no, I think I was actually just jealous of the ducks. Plus, I noted, the ducks were making no attempt at all at getting into the building to do a sneaky bit of software engineering! Therein lies the tale.

Meanwhile (and this is weird) I personally don’t have any desire to get ripped and go to Marbella, either! For the guys in the gym though, the thought of that kind of thing would drive them up early every morning for months. In their world, sloppiness is not really acceptable in Marbella.

Well, anyway, it’s been difficult. And I stood there in the office kitchen, watching the rain through the slats of the Venetian blinds.

Some colleagues scooted in and started talking code, and repos, and builds, and unit tests, and plugins. I took my leave and went back to my desk, my world, and my inbox.

Quackety quack.