A couple of weeks ago I found some tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta) on my tomatoes. I decided to raise them indoors because 1. I have a hard time killing things and 2. it's been a long time since I raised caterpillars and it was fun. At first I had 2. I put them in a little cricket cage. Then I found more. And more. They moved up to a 20 gallon tank with substrate and a mesh top (gerbil cage). I think I ended up with 7 or so larvae. A couple of days ago they started wandering and now they're in the pre-pupa stage. Most of them are buried completely but I can see the butt of one caterpillar. So when that little green butt turns brown I'll get in there and find the pupas. You can tell the gender in the pupa stage. Then in like 20 days or so the moths will emerge and I can feed them nectar or let them hang out in the garden and then after a week they'll lay eggs and die. They're really cute and really grotesque at the same time. I just don't touch them much. Maybe I'll do better with the second generation.
I ordered three books the other day. They should be here on Tuesday. They deal with social skills and stuff. I figure since I won't see the doctor until January, the best thing I can do is treat it like Aspergers and see if I improve. That's what they do in medicine. Treat for what you think it is and if that works, that's what you had. Learning social skills won't make the underlying cause go away but it might let me keep my job. I guess some people treat Aspergers as a disability with all the special treatment and paperwork and everything. I don't want that AT ALL. I just want to know why I'm different and how to capitalize on my strengths and lessen the weaknesses. I feel like I should be more valuable because I think differently than most people. I come up with creative solutions to problems all the time and the bosses look at me weird and then do what I suggest. Richard has said several times that he would have never come up with the solution that I thought of almost immediately. I also feel like my attention to detail and passion for quality work should make me valuable- and it does. That's what's kept me there so long. But lately I feel like I'm not allowed to perform up to my standards. I feel like we all are supposed to cater to the lowest common denominator instead of raising everyone's skill level. That frustration is what causes my "attitude problem". So far the biggest change I've made at work is simply not voicing my frustrations unless I'm 100% sure that they won't travel up the ladder and get me in trouble. When I do vent, I phrase it in the best possible way. Like how I wish I could help them be more efficient.
This week has been crazy. The kind of crazy where you either have to go postal or just laugh about it. I chose to laugh. Every day there were several big jobs that got messed up. They were all caused by different people, and most of them were the most experienced people in the company. One job was messed up by the outsource company. Several were caused by the customer insisting they wanted it that way even though we knew they didn't. One job got the inside printed upside down by the most experinced pressman we have. Even [name omitted] himself had two pretty big oopses. That usually doesn't happen, but like I said, it was a weird week. But we got everything fixed and it's all ok now. I hope next week is more normal. One day I went to Matt with about 5 problems (needed to reprint the job) just while working on the cutter! I usually don't do that 5 times in a week! But it is over now and I can relax!
Until tomorrow morning when I'm getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to go help my family with Pappaw's garden. He started a big garden and then we think he had another heart attack or heat stroke or something. Either way, he's unable to tend the big garden and so we're all pitching in. I think it will be fun though. Most of my aunts will be there and some others too. We'll have a good time together.
I bought a watermelon. It is yummy.
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