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Extra work from the Boss is always a delight, of course, but first thing Monday morning, it’s even better. I got several faxes from him over the weekend, all of which I ignored, but once Monday settles in that won’t work. This morning he sent me a draft of a three-page letter that he wanted me to type.
As the years have gone by, this has become more and more of a challenge. He scribbles his draft in pencil and faxes it to me without reading it. Naturally, I’ve grown used to his scribbling, and I rarely have to ask him to clarify. Lately, though, I wonder if he’s testing me. Or maybe he’s just losing it.
Spelling isn’t a problem, because I know he can’t spell and he knows I can. Grammar isn’t a problem, usually. Sometimes I have to guess what he’s trying to say, especially when he rethinks a sentence and adds a new word in the wrong place. I shudder when I see his caret marks, because it’s never clear where to put the added words, and even if it is clear, it’s likely to be wrong.
Over the years, the hardest thing for me has been the technical jargon. I work in construction, but I don’t know much about it. He’s an engineer, and although he knows what word he means to write, he probably doesn’t know how to spell it, and in some cases neither do I. I still don’t know what a “waler” is (and I don’t care, thanks), but I do know how to spell it (and there’s no h in it).
Anyway, things seem to be progressing in a negative direction. It’s getting harder and harder to decipher his scribbling, and his sentence structure has left English and moved on to something more amorphous, English as translated from Russian by someone whose native language is Martian. I wonder if he’s losing his grip. I wouldn’t be worried about this except that he’s expressed the same concern about himself. He thinks his mental functions are fading. I hope not, since he’s only ten years older than I am. |
