Chicken Soup for Breakfast

After taking a lovely few days off from work as I turned 62, I returned to my rewarding and fulfilling career position as a supermarket cashier full of pep and vigor. Less than a week later, I have returned to a life of constant backache, arthritic knee pain which leaves me walking in hobbled fashion, flatulence which would offend a skunk, and as still yet another indignity have now come down with something nasty. I had to call in sick today. I didn't want to, I have little in the way of provisions and had planned on stocking the larder after my four hours of toil in the fields of Mammon. It is also quite within the realm of possibility that I could be fired for "calling in", an odd bit of terminology which should really be "calling out".

Actually, this image is somewhat inaccurate. I refuse to go into further de-tail 

At the very least, at some point upon my return, I will be taken off the sales floor and given a lecture and forced to sign paperwork stating that I understand that my actions inconvenienced others and adversely affected the morale of my co-workers. I suppose I should have gone in sick giving this cold a chance to spread around to those who haven't come down with it yet (many already have it and have already inconvenienced and affected the morale of their co-workers), asked to run to the bathroom every 10 to 20 minutes and so on and so forth. Just as a by the by, there have been times when I have asked to go to the bathroom and been told no - I have had to remind the supervisors that their denial is illegal (this happens to others as well, not just myself). I doubt that the customers would appreciate the results of a lengthy denial of bathroom "privileges" at the moment. The corporate environment in which I work is badly in need of a worker's union. Of course, if that were to be mentioned out loud, or posted where such sentiment could be easily seen or found, the person expressing such a thought would quickly find themselves dismissed. Not for using the word "union", of course, but they would find something. (I immediately recall two bookkeepers in a row who complained about their supervisor, both of whom were dismissed when the cash drawers were found to be exactly one hundred dollars short.) The workers at the local Food Co-op have once again started the struggle to form a union. More power to them. Literally.

On another eqully distressing note, ever since my new internet service was hooked up, my computer has been misbehaving. It no longer "sleeps" - the monitor will turn off but the computer itself  returns to its "awake" state immediately. After a couple of hours, it will turn the monitor back on. I wonder what it is up to. Is it trying to catch up on all the news it missed? Have we caught the same virus? Is it having an affair with a computer half way around the world? I do hope it stops this and returns to its normal behavior soon. I shudder to think what will happen if our bond of trust is broken.