Political strategy is not a strong suit for ownself.
But I know I detected a hint of fear in Mayor Roy Ludwig’s eyes last week when we crossed paths at the Bienfait pool opening. He said he was getting out of Estevan for a few days, so I took that as a cue to expand my mayoral campaign.
I now have nine, almost confirmed votes.
Of course one guy said he’d vote for me as long as there was nobody else running.
I didn’t bother to explain the word acclamation to him. But that’s the type of person who is attracted to my platform.
Lacey said her mom, might vote for me, but she’s not sure. Lacey herself, definitely wouldn’t because she knows me too well from work-related issues.
So there you are, one definite maybe, and another who will give me his vote, as long as nobody else is running.
Next week our neighbours are holding a block party. I give them advance warning I will be working that tiny crowd to the maximum, if I’m invited.
And while I’m in campaign mode, I’m giving notice to Justin that I’m available. He’s looking for a candidate to run amok in Souris-Moose Mountain. I can be bought easily and since his is the only party without a credible contender … well, if he gave me the nod, they’d at least have a name. A contender, yes. Credible? No.
And speaking of credibility, I was listening to the mother radio station (CBC) last week and they had one of those ergonomic experts spouting out truths and half-truths about staying fit within the office.
This stay fit guru was suggesting that getting up from your desk and walking somewhere to do something for between 30 seconds and two minutes, was a good thing for your health since it got the blood flowing evenly again while developing muscle tone while lending an air of communication within the office. He didn’t say anything about carrying phones.
So, I wondered, what do those Lean system senseis have to say about that? They like to preach lessons of reducing your walk and wait times to save 32 cents per day. They claim we do too much unnecessary walking and lifting.
So who is right here?
In our office, we’re regularly lifting ourselves out of chairs every 10 minutes or so to engage in some sort of meaningful task, like fetching a Diet Pepsi, fumbling with cookies or muffins, or perhaps marching to one of the printers, copiers, fax machines or to a neighbouring office to see if they have any cookies, muffins, printers, or paper they need taken to the recycle bin five steps away.
We practice Lean and ergonomics all the time, we just don’t know it, nor do we wish to acknowledge it, and we certainly don’t need some $100,000 a year Lean or Ergo specialist to urge us on. We’re self-starters when it comes to walking and talking without the services of a Kaizen promotion office.
We could use a couple of desktop computer whiz kids though. We’re always getting jam stuck in our keyboards or coffee stains on the screens.
Last week, I walked to the office of a fellow Mercury employee and asked him a question.
“I’ll send you an email,” he offered.
“Uhhh, I’m standing right here in your doorway. You can just tell me what I need to know.”
“Ya, I guess,” he responded.
We then engaged in this strange little episode we used to call a conversation. It was fun.
