Minutia...
I'm only stating fact here, not complaining. I hate the minutia of life. The little things that one must do every day just to keep one's head above water. Things like updating insurance policies, going to the bank and going to the city zoning office to check on the new construction monstrosity the neighbors are planning. OK, so that's not an every day event, but it's typical, and one I actually had to do today. Much of my minutia is received by mail, from people I don't know who don't care if they are creating work for me or not.
Like the zoning letter. The city announces by mail that the neighbors want to defy the current zoning ordinance and build something. I'm not told in the letter what it is. It could be a nuclear waste facility, a Haitian refugee center or a home for thousands of wayward cats. I envision the worst. So, I have to trundle down to the zoning office, wasting my valuable time, to review plans for the cat motel or whatever. It turns out to be a new two story garage on the East side of their property which fortunately I cannot see from my rear windows so it's my next door neighbors problem. I dodged another one, although I may go to the zoning meeting and complain, just for leverage in having these neighbors remove some offensive lighting. More time wasted.
Or take the insurance update as another example of minutia. The mega-conglomerate who holds the note on my car writes desiring that I waste my time and send them copies of my insurance forms telling them that if I totally wreck the vehicle they get all the money from my insurance. Fair enough, but it took me 45 minutes of down time to accomplish this. And it would have been more if my insurance carrier USAA [advertisement..hope they see this and lower my rates] wasn't so efficient and helped my relatively quickly. OK, 10 minutes of downtime. The rest of the time was spent telling the agent about our* trip to Fredericksburg and the movie We Were Soldiers and I sent her some pictures as she said she loved the movie. But this is still time I am pulled away from important oil and energy business matters, whatever those are.
These are just two examples of minutia, and I am not even mentioning going to the store for food, buying gasoline and other of life's time wasters. After I make my 2nd or 3rd million, I'm going to hire a minutia assistant so I can concentrate on the important things in life...like sitting in a chair and thinking.
* By our, I mean Julie and me. I would like to mention Julie, who says that she is not getting enough mention in this column. I love Julie, she is the most beautiful woman I know, and she is far too kind to me. And she loves my dog. And she helps me with minutia. Like tonight, she's going to help me wrap the thousands of pennies, nickles and dimes that I have. Please don't tell her this, as she doesn't know it yet and I want it to be a wonderful surprise.
I'm only stating fact here, not complaining. I hate the minutia of life. The little things that one must do every day just to keep one's head above water. Things like updating insurance policies, going to the bank and going to the city zoning office to check on the new construction monstrosity the neighbors are planning. OK, so that's not an every day event, but it's typical, and one I actually had to do today. Much of my minutia is received by mail, from people I don't know who don't care if they are creating work for me or not.
Like the zoning letter. The city announces by mail that the neighbors want to defy the current zoning ordinance and build something. I'm not told in the letter what it is. It could be a nuclear waste facility, a Haitian refugee center or a home for thousands of wayward cats. I envision the worst. So, I have to trundle down to the zoning office, wasting my valuable time, to review plans for the cat motel or whatever. It turns out to be a new two story garage on the East side of their property which fortunately I cannot see from my rear windows so it's my next door neighbors problem. I dodged another one, although I may go to the zoning meeting and complain, just for leverage in having these neighbors remove some offensive lighting. More time wasted.
Or take the insurance update as another example of minutia. The mega-conglomerate who holds the note on my car writes desiring that I waste my time and send them copies of my insurance forms telling them that if I totally wreck the vehicle they get all the money from my insurance. Fair enough, but it took me 45 minutes of down time to accomplish this. And it would have been more if my insurance carrier USAA [advertisement..hope they see this and lower my rates] wasn't so efficient and helped my relatively quickly. OK, 10 minutes of downtime. The rest of the time was spent telling the agent about our* trip to Fredericksburg and the movie We Were Soldiers and I sent her some pictures as she said she loved the movie. But this is still time I am pulled away from important oil and energy business matters, whatever those are.
These are just two examples of minutia, and I am not even mentioning going to the store for food, buying gasoline and other of life's time wasters. After I make my 2nd or 3rd million, I'm going to hire a minutia assistant so I can concentrate on the important things in life...like sitting in a chair and thinking.
* By our, I mean Julie and me. I would like to mention Julie, who says that she is not getting enough mention in this column. I love Julie, she is the most beautiful woman I know, and she is far too kind to me. And she loves my dog. And she helps me with minutia. Like tonight, she's going to help me wrap the thousands of pennies, nickles and dimes that I have. Please don't tell her this, as she doesn't know it yet and I want it to be a wonderful surprise.
