A Very Special Monday

Today is Monday.

But it’s not just any Monday. It’s a very special Monday. 

Why? 

Because it’s the first Monday of my last full work week of the year!  Yep, that's right.  Starting next Friday, August 22, I'll have three day weekends for the rest of 2025.  

I do this every year -- save up my vacation days and take them every Friday, but usually I don't start until after Labor Day.  This year, I had a couple of extra days, plus I was about to max out my ETO, so I'm starting a bit early.  I'm not complaining.  Not one bit. 

On a similar note, rumor is going around the plant that they've shut down production on second shift.  They supposedly had a big meeting last week, and Group Leader Shark keeps saying Supervisor Maxwell will update us on what was said, but so far he hasn't said a word. 

They did let us go home at 2:00 today, so I went back and worked on clearing the rest of that detritus from the tree that I'd had cut down.  Things were going just swimmingly until I decided to try to cut my arm off with the mini chainsaw. 

I didn't do a very good job of it, and once I'd come inside and cleaned it up a bit, I saw t'was but a scratch.  I slapped a bandaid on it, went back outside, and finished what I'd started.  Behold, no more brush pile in my back yard!

I still have a few more of the thicker bits of wood left to cut up, women's size 9 croc knockoff included for scale, 

but the chainsaw was getting a bit grabby, which usually means the battery is starting to run down.  So I took the better part of valor and left them for another day.  I also have these bigger pieces of the trunk to cut up -- again women's size 9 crock knockoff included for scale -- but I'm going to have to fire up the big chainsaw to get those done. 

The last thing I did was to toss the smaller branches into the brush pile in the woods and rake up the leaves into the compost pile I'd already started with the ground ivy I've been pulling up.  Women's size 9...well, you get the idea by now. 

At this rate, I'm going to need a bigger compost bin. 

In a bit of sad news, something has been disturbing the rocks in my bee pond.  I've noticed every afternoon when I go to refill it, the rocks are all bunched together.  I'm not sure what is going on, but today I made the decision to take my fancy rocks out and put rocks from the driveway back in.  

It's not as pretty, but I doubt the bees will mind. 

And finally, I'm sure you'll all be relieved to know that Demi-god's swamp-@$$ is much better today.  He made sure to tell us, so I'm making sure to tell you. 

After that, I got nothing.