Excelling
Good news. We got an inch of rain yesterday. Better news. The driveway repair held. The rain ran down the drive in torrents, turned right at the low side, and kept on going down the drain into the street. No new canyons were cut. Sweet deal. Reminder to self. I need to keep the driveway drainage clear of leaves, debris, and dirt.
As for the rest of the day, I spent it indoors, working on a spreadsheet doing data analysis. I stayed in my pajamas all day, because that’s one of the benefits of working from home. Of course, it was free work done for a friend, but it was still work. I used Excel. I love the program. I fought it for a long time because I started out with Lotus, then Symphony, dabbled with MultiPlan, and settled on Quattro Pro. All spreadsheet programs vanquished by Microsoft.
I think what I enjoy most about working in Excel is it’s predictability and flexibility. If you can imagine it doing something involving numbers, there is probably a way to do it. And when it doesn’t work, it’s likely to be user error. I’ve even used it when I do Wordle as I search for letter combinations. Several friends think its cheating, but I simply see it as a tool, and I still have to know the word when I see it. But I guess we each get our pleasure’s in our own ways, and that’s what makes the world go round.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale