My company is sending me to a two day class this week. The goal of the class is to show that, as humans, we tend to make common mistakes that cost the company money and decrease the quality of our product......sorry, I nodded off.

The class does have some positive aspects: I get to sleep until 6:15, I get to spend the day in a quiet and comfortable environment and I get to wear something other than my uniform. I have glanced around the room and am pretty sure that I know who the ones are that make all the mistakes; I never understand why they don't just go to the culprits, why do the rest of us have to feel like there's a chance that the class may be about us?

We are all on break at the same time, so there's an inevitable backup in the men's room. When it's my turn I step up to the urinal, making sure to honor the vertical line rule. For those unfamiliar with the men's urinal, the vertical line is the comfort zone directly in front of you. It's perfectly acceptable to check out the tile work above you, the craftsmanship involved with the urinal installation, and even down to check the quality of your stream.

After verifying that flomax won't be a part of my immediate future, I noticed my shoes. I was wearing my rather wide utilitarian shoes that I call bowling shoes. I'm not sure how this style became popular; these shoes have a squared off toe, smooth leather panels that are connected with exposed stitching of a contrasting color, and a wide flat sole. I was thinking that I could water ski in these shoes; I could see myself skiing along with one hand held high making circles in the air above my head, which is the universal sign for "take me by the dock." I would probably try to drop a shoe, see if I could slalom for a bit.

Back in class we assembled Lego tractors in teams of four. I was the wheel and power drive installer, as well as the inspector for quality control. I was able to name my desk mate, who was late getting back from break, as our supervisor. We finished first and had a few small errors that quality control had to answer for. I explained the undue pressure our supervisor placed on us in his desire to be done first, and the focus quickly shifted to what is commonly accepted as the main human factor involved in failure...the boss.

All in all a good day. It's off to basketball tonight. I went out over the weekend and, after purchasing a basketball, practiced my layups. When the breakaway happens tonight, I just may score.

.Hasta la vista.