Morning

I am ill today, but since I am at work in a giant corporation I will describe the feeling as "sub-optimal" instead of "sick" or "hung-over." It may be a struggle to perform at "value-added" level today.

When I arrived, a man with an electric screwdriver was disassembling the cubicle next-door. He also had a loud rubber mallet. My appearance startled him. Whether it was my early arrival or my visually sorry state that caused his jump I do not know. After a moment or two, however, he warmed to me. He began speaking in a foreign language, something guttural and phlegmy, and looked at me expectantly. He punctuated sentences by jabbing the air with a yellow box-cutter. I nodded, looked at my watch, and made an escape.

I decided to walk the perimeter of the HP pond. As I approached a group of ducks crowded around me, jostling each other and tilting their heads sideways to peer at me in an anticipatory manner not unlike the office handyman. They were obviously highly domesticated. They were unfazed as I wildly clapped my hands in childish delight. They stared, bored, at the leaf-blower that the groundskeeper used to shatter any possible peace I might have found. I enjoyed the ducks' company for a few minutes before returning to the cube.