Overcast today, some very light rain, a walk down toward Jack London Square along Broadway to have sushi and trade company gossip. It was announced this morning one of the outer lying offices was pretty much gutted in an out sourcing deal, although the employees involved were given the option of working for the company that won the contract. We'll hear more over the next week. At least one person on our floor was laid off - unexpected in the sense none of us saw it coming, her last day being the day after Christmas - and we're not sure there won't be more. Maybe I, deedle-dee-die. Life in the 21st Century.

But let us not think this is a downer day or a downer entry. It is Friday. It is hard to fuck up a Friday, even for a man of ingenuity. It feels like winter here, dark early, particularly when the sky is overcast. When is the equinox? Why does the approach to the shortest day of the year seem to pass so fast and spring arrive so slowly? The shortest day, right, the day with the least of the sun's warming heat? Then the days get longer and it should get warmer just as quickly. But it doesn't. My birthday is in early March, yet the cold and the wet don't really seem to leave until April and sometimes May. Or is this my failing memory and a non rational belief once the sun's gone down that winter will last forever?

Didn't you say something about this day and entry not being a downer?

Ah, yes, I did. I wasn't thinking. It's easy to slide.

I got a call from someone the other night who asked why I'd dialed his phone number, which was odd, since I hadn't dialed his phone number. This evening I got a call from the police department asking if I'd dialed 911. No, I hadn't dialed 911. Did I have a computer? Yes, I have a computer on a DSL line (that piggy backs, of course, on my phone line). Had I been on the computer thirty minutes earlier? Yes I had. Well, they'd had other incidents in the past where the "caller" had been on their computer when the call was received. Oh. I assume the first person who called me earlier this week had caller ID, something that not everyone has, and maybe this is just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe my computer is known far and wide. Time to talk to tech support. Had any strange phone calls lately?