John’s locker

Why is it that, the more you pack the more junk appears to clutter up your space?  I have something like twenty-three boxes packed, in preparation for the move, and I seem to have the same amount of junk cluttering up my life.  You would think that there would be visible empty spaces where stuff used to be- but it just isn’t so.  I’m down to day-to-day stuff (left unpacked) and the stuff I’m either going to donate or throw out when I move.  I suppose that I should get the junk guy and Salvation Army in here before too much longer, but I just can’t seem to work up that kind of motivation yet.  I also need to pick up a Garmin or a Tom Tom for the drive across country.  I think it will be fun.

I’ve got to get the kittehs their shots (and their papers) so that they can come too.  I guess that will be sometime next week.  Got to decide whether to ship them or to bring them with me.  I haven’t told my family that I’m moving yet (but my friends and coworkers all know).  I don’t want to get my parents all worked up and have this thing fall through at the last moment. 

I told my boss (I’ll call him Benny) that I had received the offer from the Capitol Police and that I intended to accept it.  I’m just waiting for a release date from DHS.   In the meantime he has taken no owneship of the transition and is actively looking for ways to make my life hard.  On Thursday his answer to the “what are you going to do when Jim goes question “(carefully staged so I was present) was that they would hire someone else to do my job for less money.  He also is taking every opportunity to throw me under the metaphorical bus (but he usually gets slapped back for his trouble.)  The more I have to deal with Benny the less charitable I’m feeling towards my (soon to be) former organization.  When this opportunity first came up (more than a month ago) I tried to treat my organization fairly and give them time to transition the duties I perform (now) to others.  So far, nothing has happened.  I expect that Benny thinks I’m going to teach someone the complete range of my duties in two weeks.  HA!

 Um, what Benny doesn’t get (what a shocker) is that I have virtually ALL the institutional knowledge on the way things get done in four major program areas.  I hold (in my head) ALL the knowledge of what’s ours, what’s not, when it was instaleld, and the reason it was put into place.    I’m also the agency’s ONLY certified project manager.  I know that Benny doesn’t get it about managing the repairs like a business.  He also doesn’t get it that the program I ‘ve been running has NEVER needed a subsidy from HQ.  I have ALWAYS run this program in the black.  I also think that Benny doesn’t understand that I was the one who built the business cases for the x-ray leases, the maintenance contract, and the replacement of the radio system.  No one else knows how to build a real business case, and I don’t have the time or desire to teach them. 

Somehow I’m thinking that Benny’s actions are going to come around to bite him (and my soon to be former agency) in the butt.  It’s a pity I won’t be around to laugh when he dicks this up.