Wednesday, January 27, 2016

How things run

My office was officially closed again yesterday—Metro still not fully functioning and lots and lots of people barricaded behind snow drifts several feet high with no sign of snow ploughs.

But my way was clear, and besides—the physical therapy place had an appointment open up, so I went in.

And here’s what I noticed:

The “office workers” might have been off (or even working from home), but the people who make the office work were on the job.

Trash had been emptied and the toilets were cleaned in the loo. The carpets were vacuumed and everything clean.

There had also been window washing scheduled for yesterday, and blow me if the inside washers didn’t swing round about 0930 and clean the windows. Just like they were supposed to do.

Moreover, people like to slag off Metro, but as far as I’m concerned, those men and women are tops. Under trying circumstances they had things running for the past two days—not at full strength, but still. Getting people to work, to medical appointments, to grocery stores, to wherever they needed to go…mostly.

And I know that ploughs haven’t made it to a number of areas in the DMV, but think about all those road crews who’ve been working full bore to clear hundreds of miles of streets, highways, parking lots and other surfaces since Friday night.

So, on Hump Day after Snowzilla—here’s to the people who make our lives work, even when we don’t notice them. Perhaps even especially when we don’t notice them.



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