even the neighborhood cat has a routine

there's a cat that lives in our neighborhood. i don't know very much about cats to tell you the exact species/variety/kind, but i can tell you it is very cute, it's black and white and it has a little bell that dangles from it's neck. every so often i find this cat nestled beneath the large tree in our back yard- no doubt trying to figure out how to play with my neighbors two indoor cats. but since the weather has been starting to turn, i haven't seen cute, black and white neighborhood cat too often. until this week that is.

three out of the four days that i've biked to work this week, i have spied our neighborhood kitty prancing down the same exact stretch of sidewalk. this may not seem very noteworthy right off the bat, but stick with me. i work the exact same shift four days out of the week. and so i leave the house at roughly the same time every day i work.

so imagine, tuesday at 1:15 neighborhood cat seen trotting down the sidewalk that runs alongside the private highschool's football field;

wednesday at roughly 1:15, same cat seen in same place doing what he/she was doing the day before;

friday, again at 1:15ish, friendly neighborhood cat is again traveling the same path as the two days earlier in the week, at the same time as earlier in the week.

saturday, no cat. i assume he/she is taking the weekend off.

maybe i have too much time on my hands- or maybe my life is just not that interesting right now, but i find it fascinating that the cute little guy is following a schedule of sorts, that even a cat can possess their own routine.

and this got me thinking, on my half-hour ride into work, about my own appreciation for routine. i enjoy waking up and doing the dishes right away- before the sleep has even left my eyes. i enjoy working the same shift each and every day. i enjoy coming home after a long day of work and pouring myself a glass of red wine.

there's a new manager at work that i haven't been able to make my mind up about yet, namely because he doesn't know my routine. every saturday, he is in charge of directing the flow for the evening shift and the past three saturdays i have been disappointed with my assigned lot for the night. while every other manager sees that i am best suited to take charge of my own section, this manager has me run around here and there- not giving me the time to work my own products. i like to work my own products.

basically it's the difference between doing one large project from the start of my shift and finishing it before my shift is over, or doing an hour of work over here, then an hour of work over there and then afterward, still having to complete the same large project before my shift ends- only because i wasn't the one to do all the earlier leg work- i don't know where to pick it up or where to leave it off.

this is one of the reasons i know i'm a marxist. in his discussions on human autonomy, marx talks about how a person is made more human by their connection to the work of their hands. he argues that a person working in an assembly line, for instance, doesn't not see the fullness of their work. he or she plays only a small and seemingly insignificant role in the work being done. it is much more fulfilling to complete a project beginning to end. and it is in that that we are able to see our value and worth as a human being living in society.

okay, so far i've gone from cat that walks in our neighborhood to questionable new manager at work to karl marx' theory of human autonomy... i can't tell whether i am just rambling now or whether this is just good writing. i mean, who else could connect those three strains of thought?

enough self-praise for the evening. and incase the marx blurb bored you from an otherwise interesting blog entry on cute kitties, maybe this will make up for it