So, here I am in Dilbert world. This new office location is a confusing labyrinth of cubicles, and midway through day 3 I almost know where I’m going (as long as I’m going back and forth from my cell to the break room, bathroom, or the back stairwell where I sneak out at the end of the day). If I stand up, I at least have a view of a window, which means I can kinda see the building across the street.

It’s more than I had at the old place, so I suppose it’s a slight improvement. And since I’ve been standing almost exclusively at my standing desk, I can at least look over and tell if the sun is shining or not. I’ve decided to stand not only because sitting all day was slowly killing me, but also because they refused to allow me to keep my old (and rather expensive) chair because it didn’t “match” all the other peon chairs (the important people got better chairs – presumably because their asses are worth more than ours). I definitely prefer standing, but I’ve had to order an anti-fatigue mat because standing is taking its toll on my feet (among other things).

My feet have been giving me problems for a long time now, and I’m terrified of having a flare-up now that I’m a user of public transportation. I don’t have all that far to walk, but between that and the standing all day, my feet are definitely complaining. As a result, I’ve been keeping my feet on ice at home both before and after work. It’s more preventative than anything else – I just want to prevent any swelling if possible.

Speaking of public transportation I think I’ve just about got the whole bus thing down now. I missed my stop the first day and wound up having to walk quite a bit farther than I needed to. Buses have changed quite a bit since the last time I rode one. For one thing, there’s no rope to pull to make the bell ding to tell the driver you wanna get out. There’s also a message board that reads out the cross streets as you approach them, and an android voice that calls them out. This is probably not a big deal to most people, but since it’s probably been 30 years since I’ve been on a bus, I thought it was pretty cool.

My bus comes from quite a ways out (it starts in Auburn, which won’t mean anything to you, except perhaps that it’s where Harriet Tubman lived out her final years – from about 1859 until 1913 – and is buried), so we get more of a “coach” with bucket seats and the kind of overhead air nozzles and lights that they have on airplanes. Best of all, it’s not particularly crowded and I don’t need to transfer, so I can more or less relax and zone out.

In my younger days I used to bus all over the place – generally winding up in a downtown bar where I would very often proceed to miss the last bus home – which would result in about a 15 mile walk to where I lived in North Syracuse hitting every bar along the way, of course, and hanging out with the street people and other urban “characters.” Ah, those were the days.

Some things never change, I guess, as the street people still seem to be attracted to me. I had one guy decide to be my new best friend the other day, and I got his whole life story (divorced three times – got a good lawyer this last time, though, and got the house and half the old lady’s 401K – former Engineer at Carrier, musician, and good Christian). I think I ought to get myself one of those DILLIGAF hats.

So, I guess I’m getting used to the new routine, even if I’m not terribly excited by it. My biggest problem is that I’m always too damn early (it’s in my nature to be early anyway, but I’m paranoid about missing the bus – having missed it so many times before). It’s nice to have reduced my commute from 40 miles a day down to 4, though. And I figure I’m doing my part for the environment, so that’s good. I guess.

But this cubicle shit is kind of depressing.