Saturday, April 4, 2009

Frosted Toes & Other Blessings


It's Saturday. Do you know what that means? Another Spring snowstorm to hamper the weekend activities. Humph!

I was looking forward to attending a horse clinic today, but it was cancelled due to weather.

Pictured are Misty's tootsies as she was standing at her trough in her stall eating lunch today. It's not snowing heavily (at the moment) but the wind is really fierce. My face stung as I was pelted with tiny snow flakes on my short walk to the barn. Snow is swirling and blowing into the stalls. It's a day to stay indoors and reflect.

Friday was a sad and stressful day at my office. Extra security staff walked the hallways on all floors. Human Resources staff had flown in from corporate headquarters; they stuck out like sore thumbs in their professional business suits amidst the rest of us dressed in "Colorado casual" attire. The office grew very quiet except for whispered conversations between co-workers.

"I just saw 'John' being escorted from his cube."

"Is that 'Jane' carrying a box out to her car in the parking lot?"

"Oh no, 'Joe' just went into a conference room with his manager."

"It doesn't make sense. These are bright, hard working people."

We all sat at our desks, stunned, waiting to see if the axe would swing our way.

By 11:00am our manager notified us that our work group was not affected and we gathered in a small conference room where we all expressed our sadness and confusion. How did they choose? It didn't make sense. What was the criteria? We'll probably never know. Then we were dismissed for the rest of the day. Nobody was in a frame of mind to concentrate on work and upper management realized this and gave us the afternoon off.

As I sit inside on this cold, blustery day, with Friday's somber mood still lingering, I need to count my blessings. Here are just a few:
  • I'm grateful for a warm and comfortable house on a day like today.
  • I'm blessed to have a husband who was willing to move away from the suburbs and build a barn and put up fencing so I could bring horses home.
  • I'm grateful for Misty & Marley and the joy they bring to my life.
  • I appreciate our barn and the good workmanship of the craftsman who built it. It's creaking and rattling today in this wind, but it provides excellent shelter for Misty & Marley. I know they like it...judging by all the poop piles inside today rather than outside.
  • I'm happy there is hay in the hay loft and grateful to my family for helping hoist it up there.
  • I'm thankful for my job...so very, very thankful for my job.
I hope our economy improves soon, for the sake of my displaced co-workers, the horses that are going unfed, the rescues that are trying to take up the slack, and all those people struggling to make ends meet.

3 comments:

  1. That is so sad. When my company had a round of layoffs, I immediately started looking for another job, even though I wasn't one of the ones who were laid off. My boss assured me I had nothing to worry about, but who can you believe? Fortunately, they realized that they still needed some of those people, and they hired them back.

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  2. I have another thing to be grateful for today.
    We have had marvellous spring weather with sun and a nice temperature, and I have been on a long trail ride with my skitty horse.
    So just keep the snow over at your place, please OnceUpon. We still have enough here!

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  3. NuzMuz, it is an awful thing. I'm afraid round 2 might be looming in the future. It's not a good time to be job hunting. Glad you made it through your company's downsizing. Lucky for the ones that got hired back. I hope that happens for some of my co-workers.

    Horse, I promise not to send any snow your way. There's too much of it lingering in many places. Time for it to realize its season has ended! Hope you enjoyed your ride in the sunshine and warm temps. We at least have the sunshine today.

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