W2D4

Under the category of "Really!! Are you kidding me??!"

When I returned to work after my trip to Ohio all of the paper towel dispensers, the ones in cafeteria, in the lab and in the bathrooms, were adorned with the following laser printed sticker:

"The paper in this dispenser is recycled and EPA compliant"

Again I say, are you kidding me? How are we supposed to react to this. My morale meter certainly took a huge leap in the right direction based on this announcement. Yeah, right! This year many things have happened at work; A) our department was downsized by 25%, B) there are no merit increases for 2009, C) we are being forced to deplete our vacation balances and D) the CEO's base salary is $1.7 Million and with bonus, stocks and options can reach nearly $13 Million, for the year. For crying out loud what does he actually do to earn that amount of cash? But hey, our paper towels are EPA compliant! Good grief!!

(I know some would say I should be happy to be employed and I admit I'm not as happy about it as I should be. But being employed or not doesn't change the truth of A, B, C and D above.)

On the physical fitness front, I had a great work out with my trainer. I've being seeing some rewards in upper body strength lately. I followed that with a planned 6 mile run with hills. I had mapped out a route last night but altered it on the fly and ended up running 5.6 miles with 3 pretty good hills in the mix.

We had another pretty gloomy day, but the sun did shine for about an hour in the late afternoon. Even without the sun the temperatures were in the mid 70's, but still pretty enjoyable for running.