Golly, What A...Night?

It has been so miserably hot in the plant these last two days, and I know it sounds cliche, but it's true.  It's not the heat.  It's the humidity.  It was getting up to 91 at my work station, but it felt like the air was absolutely clinging to me.  

To make matters worse, I think my little window unit in my bedroom has kicked the bucket.  It's not cooling and I don't hear the compressor cycling on and off.  I'm not mad, though.  It's nine years old and I've worked it hard since I got it.  And before you ask, yes, maybe it could be repaired, but honestly, it's cheaper just to buy a new one than buy the part then pay someone to install it.  I'll look at Walmart tomorrow and see if they have any in stock, but I may wait a week or two to buy one.  At least until after this next cold spell. 

Speaking of, I talked to Supervisor Green Jeans about the possibility of frost, and he said he hopes it doesn't.  His tomatoes are still inside, but he's got corn in the ground.  He said he might buy a bunch of visqueen and cover his whole field. 

But I digress...

As I was saying, it's been so muggy I came home and turned on my central air for no other reason than to get the humidity down a bit in my house.  I was so miserable last night, I didn't get much sleep.  

Well, and I was watching the Weather.  It was quite a night.  Several of the meteorologists and storm chasers I follow have said there were 728 warnings issued, and that included both tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings.   One of them posted this graphic, of just the tornado warnings. 

And this was all of the watches and warnings from yesterday. 

So, since most of you follow the same weather watchers that I do, I won't spend a lot of time on this, because I'm sure you already know what I'm telling you anyway.  

In other news, I got a picture of that weed I've been pulling up here lately-- the stringy stuff with the circles of leaves around the stems. 

Google thinks it's Galium aparine, sometimes known as sticky weed or stickywilly.  The description seems right, and even though it's supposedly edible and has medicinal uses, I don't like it and don't want it in my yard.  It also causes skin irritation in some people...like me.  Next year, I'm going to be on the watch for it and try to catch it early, before it spreads so much. 

In work news, there I was at work just a working away.  A couple of the other braziers were talking. I could hear them, but wasn’t really paying attention.  One was old school, and the other has been out there less than a year.

Suddenly the old school brazer called across the way to me, “Becky, when was the last time we got a bonus? It’s been about ten years, hasn’t it?”

I thought for a moment and said, “It was the first year Nadir came, sooooo 2016. Yeah, right about ten years.”

Nadir was the name of the director of operations who put an end to our employee incentive bonuses when he came.  He said that if it were up to him, we wouldn't even be getting a bonus his first year, but the home office in Dallas had already funded it.  He said we didn't deserve bonuses.  Someone in my meeting asked him why we didn't deserve a bonus if we met the criteria for getting one, and he snapped, "Because you don't!"  He never did explain why we didn't, but that was the end of us getting an employee bonus. 

I relayed all of this information and the new brazer said with an air of shock and disbelief, "Then how do they show employee appreciation????"

I laughed and replied, "Well, first they'd have to appreciate us!"  I then told her we used to get a monthly attendance bonus, equal to a day's pay, but they cut that out, too.  Now we only get 2 hours extra vacation time for every month of perfect attendance, but that's valued at less than $40 for most of us. 

And we started talking about all of the COVID relief money the government had been giving to industries and such, and she was telling us all that her job had been giving them, and it was quite a bit.  I said that we got a can of Lysol and a bottle of hand sanitizer.  A few months later, they handed out brown paper sacks with three masks and a stick of gum in it.  A few weeks after that, they gave us another can of Lysol and bottle of hand sanitizer, and that was it for our COVID relief.  

Speculation is that that relief money is what our Director of Operations at the time was embezzling.  Not Nadir.  They'd already gotten rid of him.  It was the next one, and one of the engineers or IT guys, I don't really know.  

On a similar note, we might have Saturday off, if we can get our numbers up.  The production side is off, and I was remarking that I remember the good old days when being 8 hours ahead of the lines was the goal.  My coworker said, "I know, right?  I don't even know what they expect from us any more.  I really don't."

All I could do was shake my head, because I didn't have an answer for her. 

Anyway, if we do have Saturday off, I was thinking I might try to mow my front yard, depending on what time the storms are supposed to get here.  So far, they've all been well to the north of us, but the ones Saturday might reach this far south.  

I'd thought about running up to Batesville, since they are still remodeling our Walmart and I can't find anything, but after checking the forecast, I think I'll just hunker down here. 

But knowing the plant, they'll make us work just because they can.  

Mystery Solved

I think I finally solved the mystery of the weirdly pooling yarn.  I'd picked up a skein from the freebies box at the Oxford Fiber Festival back in January, and just assumed it was the same as the Red Heart Mexicana.  It didn't have a ball band, but it looked the same.  

When I caked up the yarn from Oxford, it was in two parts.  It was a partial skein after all, and it wouldn't be a problem.  I know how to join yarn.  The problem came when I tried to join this small ball, which was left over from a skein of Red Heart Mexicana I'd bought.  

As it happens, the yarn I got in Oxford isn't the same.  I have no idea what it was, but it's not the Mexicana.  The part I'd knit with the small ball was the only little section that wasn't pooling the same way, so I ripped back and took that yarn out.  I joined the rest of the yarn I got from Oxford, and am back to chugging away and the yarn is pooling just like I wanted it to. So, that mystery is solved, except that I have no idea what this yarn it.  Oh well, it's going to make an interesting hat for someone. 

In other news, my purple deadnettle is dying back, which is sad, but look!  My clover is coming out!  

If it were up to me, my whole back yard would be covered in white clover.  That's good for the bees, the deer, and it's good for the soil.  Plus, it's less I have to mow.  Also, my daisy fleabane is starting to bloom.

 I'm so glad to see this stuff coming back after that guy skint my yard last year.  There is one I've been pulling up that I didn't take a photo of.  I don't know what it is, but I don't like it and don't want it in my yard.  If I think about it, I'll take a picture next time I'm able to.  

The weather is supposed to be pretty bad for the rest of the week.  I've got Ryan's livestream on the TV and there was a huge tornado that hit Lake City, Arkansas, and Cape Girardeau, MO is under a PDS warning as I type this.  That one is concerning, because that's near where my friend Peggy lives.  I'm sure she's already in her basement...

Then there is the storm that is about to hit Memphis....where my friend Leann lives.  Well, in a town just outside of Memphis, I mean.  

This is going to be a long night for people in those places... 

A Grandbaby!

I had a completely different post planned for you today.  I was going to tell you about my dentist appointment, and my clean bill of dental health.  And I was going to tell you about how the hygienist told me a story of how she touched a snake for the first time in her life -- it was a friend's pet snake-- and she said it felt like a nut sack, and how I laughed so hard she had to stop cleaning my teeth.  And how she said, "I don't know why things like that pop into my head, but they do, so I said it." 

Then I was going to tell you how I'd intended to start reading Taliesin, by Stephen R. Lawhead, but changed my mind when I found the first book of the Edge Of Collapse series marked down, so I bought and started it instead. 

This is one Brennan had recommended, but I felt it was a bit too expensive for an e-book.  However, I managed to catch it 60% off and got it cheap.  It's pretty good so far, but I don't know if I can handle a seven book series.  

Then I was going to tell you about how I overheard a coworker in the bathroom talking about how my Stalker keeps trying to look down her shirt.  I was in the stall, and she was talking to someone else.  She kept calling Stalker "Wild Bill" and the other person didn't know who she meant, then she said, "You know, The Warden's best friend!"  That's when the other person got it.  

And I was going to explain that The Big Man Up Front's new blog name will be The Warden, since he seems to be trying to turn the plant into a prison, and I was going to tell you that I got so completely caught up in thinking about that conversation that I forgot to put my gloves and armguards on until I got all the way back to my brazing stand, and had to go back to the bathroom to get them. 

Buuuut, just before I sat down to blog, my sister texted me and said my oldest nephew and his wife are expecting a baby!  It's due August 15, and are going to find out if it's a girl or boy this weekend.  I told her to let me know as soon as possible so I can start knitting.  

If it's a girl, I already have a dress finished, except for sewing on the buttons.  If it's a boy, I'll have to start from scratch.  

Even if it's a girl, I'll probably do a sweater and hat as well, since they do live in Alaska.  

Oh wait, did you think it was MY grandbaby?  No such luck...Cody did tell me he wanted to start some seeds in his new greenhouse, so I'll have some grand-plants, I guess...

And Finley, the grand-cat.