Back on the grid- for another swing

Don't think I was tempting fate a few weeks back when I thumbed my nose at the "confickr" virus (1 April)- but whatever maladies were slowing down the operations of my computer the past few months finally caught all the way up to it last week and took me off the information superhighway for a few days last week

Hence, at least one of the reasons why I've been so lax in updating this blog lately- I've had other pursuits/ time-consumers on the internet- when my computer's been working- the instant-message function with certain members of of the other social site has been a particular focus lately- I've also been leading kind of an all-or-nothing work schedule- where I'll work about 40-50 hours in 4 days' time- then not work for about 5 days at a time has led to stretches where I literally do nothing but work and sleep or sit around and sleep- not much grist for interesting writing

Anyhow- I'll try to get in a quick entry before I return to New Jersey for a visit the next few days - before things pick up and I'm back to working something of a normal schedule for the remainder of the spring- and I'll have more of my regular out-and-about encounters to write about (or not)

-To return to one of the oldest themes of this blog- The Dunkin Donuts across the street from my usual work spot in Waltham- apparently had some sort of management change during one of the recent fallow periods for me there- The woman who'd been the manager there finally got a store closer to her residence in New Hampshire- so there's new management there for the first time in a couple years or so

Learned this the hard way one morning last week- when the new go-getter assistant manager (I assume) came out from behind the counter and addressed me as "Boss" with a business card in hand- asking me what the business levels were at the hotel I (usually) work at were- I told him it was very early (about 6:50 AM or so) to be asking me that and I'd been away for awhile- He wanted me to go back and sell hotel-function customers on the coffee there for a discount- I didn't have the energy, patience, wherewithall, whatever- to tell this guy that overpriced coffee is one of the ways the place makes money on groups- and just nodded and took the card- which I tossed pretty quickly once outside the store and forgot about it- for 2 hours or so

Until I went back for another coffee- and recieved the same treatment- same guy coming out from behind the counter with the "Boss..." opening line- until I pointed at him and said "You already asked me today"- He stopped and stammered "Well, I thought..."- "You already asked me" was my second response- Like I should have gone back to where I work and undercut the salespeople there for 10% or whatever on my coffee

-Speaking earlier of the other social site (for the MySpace readers) or Facebook- as its known- for the 2 or so Blogger readers I have - I like to think the random public listings for some groups has become kind of like the modern-day version of the 1970's game show "The Joker's Wild"- particularly if you end up joining any school/ alumni-type group and may end up next to people you'd least likely want to be associated with after a number of years- the closest I've seen for myself was when I had it happen on my public listing where both "Magnum P.I." groups I was in turned up as my public listing there