Timecard Humor
“At my place of work, a ‘timecard reminder’ lands in all our inboxes at the end of each week. Rather than send out the same, flat, ‘please submit your timecard,’ prompt, our administrator includes images to liven up the email message—such as the Ron Burgundy reminder, or images submitted by employees. I’ve contributed a few of my own pictures which reflect my idiosyncratic take on timecard-appropriate inspirational messages.”—Tim Bayer
Won Over By Reality
By Tim Bayer, Emeritus Editor
FAIRPORT New York—(Hubris)—May 2026—At my place of work, a “timecard reminder” lands in all our inboxes at the end of each week. Rather than send out the same, flat, “please submit your timecard,” prompt, our administrator includes images to liven up the message—such as the Ron Burgundy reminder, or images submitted by employees. I’ve contribute a few of my own pictures which reflect my idiosyncratic take on timecard-appropriate inspirational messages.
Here’s the first picture to which I added text and sent on to the timecard administrator.
This picture above was taken when Emily and I were hiking the Skyline Trail at Mt. Rainier.
The Skyline Trial has many beautiful spots where hikers stop to take a break. The chipmunks have learned that hikers carry nuts, granola bars, trail mix and other snacks—and that dropped food morsels may be found near the humans. Over time, the chipmunks have become used to people and have gotten more bold.
When we stopped to take a break, a chipmunk came over to where I was sitting. I immediately recognized that it was harmless and did not flinch when it jumped on my lap and then climbed on my arm. I took a peanut out of the trail mix and offered it. The chipmunk took the peanut and tucked it in its cheek, then looked directly at the camera on Emily’s phone.
Our administrator replied to my email saying she loved the picture and would attach it to the next timecard reminder. A few weeks later, I submitted a second image starring that same Washington State chipmunk.
This second picture was taken right after the chipmunk had hopped off of my arm. After receiving a snack, the chipmunk left my arm, jumped up on my back, and then climbed up on top of my hat. Emily still had her phone out: click. Perfect! I wrote another inspirational message and shot it off it to the admin. I had a third picture from the Mt. Rainier hike starring a different chipmunk but continuing the chipmunk theme. I added some text and sent it, too, off to the timecard admin.
There were many chipmunks on the hiking trail that were accustomed to people. On the last section of the trail, Emily and I stopped to take a break and a chipmunk at this location targeted Emily. This time, I had my phone ready and caught the moment the friendly rodent jumped onto Emily’s lap. I was then flat-out of chipmunk pictures, but I do have a dog and lots of pictures of her. This was the first of several timecard pictures featuring Bubbles.
I was looking through pictures and saw the picture I had used for my Hubris column, From Fur Ball to Thunder Bubbles. I overlaid text on the image and submitted another timecard prompt.
Emily and I have a lot of pictures from our far-flung adventures.
This picture was taken in 2011, on a trip Emily and I took across country from Fairport, NY to California, stopping at a series of national parks along the route. We visited Zion National Park and hiked up to Angels Landing. Another hiker at the top obligingly took this picture.
A number of weeks later, I picked another picture of Bubbles.
Bubbles is a very high-energy dog, so Emily and I have made it a point to get her outside for lots of exercise. Wearing Bubbles out diminishes her separation anxiety, and we thought that her increasing age plus exercise had put her destructive energies to sleep . . . or so we thought. While we were both away from home one day, Bubbles set the scene for my next timecard image..
The image below is yet another from our trip to California.
For the winter holiday break in 2024, Emily and I flew to California and stayed in Carmel. On a few evenings we drove to the beach, catching the sunset over the ocean.
I also really liked the sunrise picture I took at Moraine Lake in the summer of 2023 and submitted that picture, as well.
In 2023, Emily and I drove across Canada. We stopped in Canmore and then drove on the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. One of our stops was to watch a beautiful sunrise at Moraine Lake in Alberta.
The next picture was taken closer to home: sunset in the Finger Lakes.
We take Bubbles along when we go hiking, and thought it would be fun to take her kayaking, too. We were not sure how she’d react, so decided on a step by step approach.
Step No. 1: place the kayak in the garage with towels under both sides to keep it from wobbling. Step No. 2: get Bubbles into the cockpit and reward her with a treat.
I did this for several days in a row and soon, when Bubbles saw the kayak in the garage, she would jump in, sit, and await her treat. I attached EVA foam on the front of the boat to provide a high-friction armrest so Bubbles would be comfortable with her paws on the deck of the kayak.
Step No. 3: get into the kayak, myself, and have Bubbles get in and sit in front of me.
The final step involved getting Bubbles comfortable in a moving kayak, so we put the kayak on a 4-wheeled dolly and had Emily pull us a little way down our street. All went well and so we were pretty confident Bubbles would be relaxed enough not to jump out of the boat when paddling around the lake.
Our window of opportunity for kayaking is often after work which has us on one of the finger lakes at sunset, which is where this sunset picture was taken on Hemlock Lake.
When winter arrived, Bubbles made yet another appearance on a timecard reminder searching for some unseen scent under the snow.
Bubbles loves being in the snow, which is a good thing considering we live in upstate New York. She will run zoomies and then stuff her nose into the snow and snuffle.
Bubbles also loves looking out the windshield.
When Bubbles is in the car, her spot is always in the back seat—well, almost.
Tim Bayer
Tim Bayer, Webmaster, and Assistant Editor of Weekly Hubris, was born and brought up in Webster, New York. He attended St. Bonaventure University, earning a BS in Computer Science, and then worked in the hi-tech world. In 2002 he turned his creative energies to product development and video production with the release of his first independently produced products. When the demand for web site design and freelance writing increased, he once again switched skill sets . . . to writing and web work. An avid or, to be more accurate, rabid, disc golfer, he may often be found chasing plastic while in pursuit of the perfect round on a disc golf course, or designing and developing disc golf products for Demogrid.com. He says, “Most conversations are about what you have done. If you want to tell interesting stories, do interesting things.” (Author photo by Tim Bayer. Author Head Shot Augment: René Laanen.)