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So, thing to know about work is that while I go to a state-owned building and work for a state-employed boss doing work for a state agency touching a state computer, I'm actually a contractor, employed by an agency ... uh ... somewhere in the Detroit area, I guess. Area code 248, anyway, which I guess is the ring of cities around Detroit that white people went to so as not to have to have a Black person as mayor. That area, anyway. Doesn't matter.
What does matter is this is a small company. And it has some of that looseness of a small company, like, they've been happy to work with me entirely over the phone and by e-mail. I haven't had any in-person meetings, or even video chats, with any of them, nor any kind of review past them sometimes calling and asking how I think it's going.
Thing is they also have, like, zero chill. So when there is something needing my attention and response, it won't be just an e-mail to me, it'll be an e-mail, and a simultaneous phone call, and maybe a follow-up phone call if I haven't responded in two hours, even when it's a day I'm in office and they're calling my home number. One of those instances happened last week, although when I was at home so I was able to pick up the phone for them. Someone I hadn't heard of there was calling to ask my mailing address which, yes, is the same address they've always had on file for me. I'd barely got off the phone with him (and wondering if I just fell for a phishing sceme, although a mailing address is pretty small potatoes) when my regular manager phoned and e-mailed with the same request for information.
All this, though, is for good news. One is that I now rate benefits: a week of paid sick leave. This they explained was to comply with state law, so, thank you, Governor Whitmer, and a Democrat-held legislature going off and making good things happen. (Also a thing I hadn't heard about, so credit to my employer for not trying to make it sound like they're just being nice.) The other benefit is I can now sign up for a 401K, which is what they needed to confirm my address for. Tuesday or Wednesday I got the packet of forms to fill out and return to them, to sign up for this. And hey, great timing; they say with stocks you should buy on the dips and a Vichy grifter administration is full of nothing but dips.
Anyway yesterday they called to ask if I'd received it and if I could fill it out and return it to them. Guys, relax, I've been busy working, I'll get things done when I have a minute.
Today from Kings Island I bring you photos of the travel posters set up as decoration along the queue into Adventure Express, the roller coaster.
Oh, shame, anyone going on Adventure Express hoping to see the Cobra Caverns is out of luck!
Ah, but at least there's the scenic Amazon Falls. Amazon Falls was the name of the Shoot-the-Chute ride when it opened. When the park was owned by Paramount it got renamed Congo Falls, as a tie-in to the bad but enjoyable movie Congo.
And here's the Forbidden Temple and a great idol figure with absolutely nothing about its design to make you think of racist old movies and stories and stuff. Anyway, no seeing that on this ride!
I do not know what's teased here by the Southern Yellow Overlook, although I see that the Son of Beast roller coaster had a height of 218 feet so maybe that's the reference. (I know what you're thinking and the park's Eiffel Tower is 314 feet.)
Wild Animal Habitat was the name the Action Zone had when the park opened,
Ah, now here's some dramatic arches that you will definitely not be seeing if you ride Adventure Express.
Trivia: In his 725 book De Temporum Natione, written in part to prove Celtic Catholics wrong in their calculation of the date of Easter, the Venerable Bede provides primers on how to read Greek and Roman numerals, the list of units of time as they were known (from moments and hours through to centuries and ages), and also how to count to one million on one's fingers. Source: The Calendar: The 5000-Year Struggle to Align the Clock with the Heavens --- And What Happened to the Missing Ten Days, David Ewing Duncan.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine Volume 56: Uss vs Themm & Thees & Thoos!, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly, Editor Stephanie Noelle.
