Today, Bernie asked me how to: (1) print a letter, (2) use a luggage cart, (3) and put something in the mail.

Then he loaded up boxes on the luggage cart and took them out to his car, so he could drop them off at the client's tomorrow. Five minutes later he pulled the whole load back in and confessed that he forgot he'd taken the bus today.

I'm starting to get a little worried about how he's going to fare while I'm gone, you know?

Then he informed me that he'd be sending me to Larimer Square to buy some weirdo gimmick gift he wanted to send to a potential client.

(I evinced no enthusiasm. My excitement over going out and running around town during a workday ebbed as gasoline climbed over $3/gallon and the thermometer over 95 degrees.)

(He subsequently decided to do it himself, tomorrow. It's amazing how much less "urgent" some of these rush-rush-rush projects are when he has to do them himself.)

Also, when a client said they didn't have time to do an add-on survey project, he badgered them until they threw some questions at him. When they didn't respond to his request for answers, he made some up.

I understand that the more surveys we do for a client, they more they pay us, but I think he really crosses the line sometimes. If he hadn't forgotten about this project until two days ago, it could have been done two weeks ago, and done properly.

I guess it's partly my fault. The lines aren't really clear where what he intends to take responsibility for ends and my responsibility begins. I've thought a time or two about talking to him about it, but I know that it will inevitably lead to the revelation that he wants to be done with the clients after he gets their signature on an Agreement and I'm not prepared to let that be said, finally and completely. There is only one of me, and I am the last remaining employee in a company set-up that now has three "owners". There are days when the mindless clerical shit eats up six hours of my day. I can't commit to actually doing the job he hired me to do because I frequently just don't have time.

Also, since I'm seriously considering leaving after my vacation, I have a vague feeling that it's "unfair" of me to start things I don't intend to finish. He needs to keep his hands on all of these projects so he will know where everything stands after I'm gone (hopefully without a huge delay).

Right now, he's out there walking two blocks in the 90-degree heat so he can buy something he just decided is critically important to make a job that doesn't start for two weeks to be successful. Anyone else would have waited until they had their car, or the temperature dropped to around 75, which it's supposed to do in a couple of days.

Weirdo.

C-2! Two more days!

Major tasks left undone: Laundry, put Mom's address and the L-i-K-S address in my stripped-down wallet so I can send postcards, get cash from the bank, call and arrange for a cab at 5:45 a.m. on Friday.

And.

Decide what clothes to take.

Update: Okay, so I'm sitting here trying to work my way through a horrendously complicated charting program and he's interrupting me every ten seconds because he wants something printed. And then he decided to print it himself rather than wait ten minutes, but he couldn't figure out how, so I had to go teach him.

And then he wanted me to send a fax but it could not, could not, no, could not wait ten minutes, so he faxed it himself, then he came back and interrupted me again to say he wanted me to call her and make sure the client received the fax. And then he interrupted me again to say he watched the fax machine and it said it went through.

FYI, these were copies of documents the client told him earlier today that she'd received.

Boy, am I glad it's almost time to leave.

(P.S. Just FYI, comments will be closed tomorrow and remain closed for the duration of my absence. I have no intention of allowing the sp*mmers to go mad at my expense while I'm gone.)