Thur, Nov 23rd – “Push the Button, Jack!”

(Fans, like me, of the ABC hit show “Lost” will understand this reference better.)

In the plot of the hit series “Lost,” there is a bunker with a mysterious complex computer that runs on a cycle. Every few hours, an alarm will begin to sound, and the inhabitants have about three minutes to enter a specific code and “push the button.” Now, for drama’s sake of course, this alarm never seems to go off when they’re all just sitting around on the couch, reading a book, or having a jovial conversation over a cup of java. No, this alarm is, for some unknown reason, CRITICAL to their survival on this island, and only sounds when they’re all tied up being held hostage, or trying to resuscitate someone’s life, or rescue a wanderer from some deadly smoky apparition! No one has ever dared to let the alarm run out without pushing the button, just to see what might happen.

Veendam has its own version of “the button.”

I work on a weekly salary. I get paid the same amount every day whether I work 20 hours, or 0 hours. Still it is, for some unknown reason, CRITICAL to my boss that I “clock in” at least once every 24 hours. I punch in the same “work hours” every day, 5 pm to 10 pm, regardless of when I actually worked. And the time clock’s day turns over at 10 am every day.

So if I have forgotten to clock in on any given day, as I did yesterday, then the boss calls my cabin to remind me. (Somehow, he seems to know what time my alarm is set for, and conspires to call me just 20 minutes before it goes off.)

So at 8:15 this morning, I dragged my tail out of bed to answer my phone, and I hear my boss on the other end of the line. “Dani, you need to clock in before 10 am.” Thanks, boss. In my still half-asleep stupor, he might as well have yelled in desperate anguish: ‘Push the button, Dani!’

And of course, never willing to risk what might happen if I DON’T push that button, I got myself dressed, walked out to the time clock, and pushed the friggin’ button. :::sigh::: I guess it could be worse: I could be living the drama of Fox’s 24. Ha ha ha.