Crazy Day

It all started last night, after I'd made that comment about cranky poop-eating dogs.  Almost as soon as I'd hit the publish button on my post, I heard a very strange noise.  Following the sound to investigate, I discovered Rylea had dragged the litter pan out of the bathroom and had dumped it out into the bedroom.  On the carpet.

Immediately, I decided that investing in another pet gate was a must.  As a manner of punishing said cranky poop-eating dog, I made her stay in the bedroom while I vacuumed up said scattered kitty litter.   She tried to tell me that was cruel and unusual punishment, but I wasn't buying it.

That brings us to today.  After another one of those every-man-in-the-world-is-glad-he-wasn't-in-the- bed-with-me nights of tossing and turning, I got to get up and go to work.  Yay!

I got there and took one look at my line's schedule and nearly started crying.  I'm still over there by myself, which is hard enough.  It's even harder when your schedule is full of small orders -- 4 piece orders, 8 piece orders, all day long.  Usually when it looks like that, I spend more time setting up than actually brazing.  That makes it very hard to stay ahead of the line, even when you have two brazers.  Doing it by yourself is nigh on impossible.

As if that weren't enough, several of the orders were units for mobile homes.  That means I had to do the florators, too.  Now, I know most of you won't know what a florator or a liquid line is, but you don't need to.  Just roll with it.  All you need to know is that it is an extra step I have to do besides brazing the header (manifold) assembly.  Sigh...

One of the orders on which I had to do the florators, I couldn't find the liquid line.  I looked all over and finally had to go to the tubing department and ask them to redo the order.  About an hour later, one of the people on my line brought me a handful of florators and said, "What do you want me to do with these?"

"Where did you find those?" I asked.  She said they were in a bin on the line.  Alas, they were not the florators I needed.  The ones I needed had been brazed onto the wrong order by a previous shift.  As I was walking down the aisle to the computer to print out a blueprint, I flung my hands out and shouted, "Stop the presses!"

I'm not sure why.  I just seemed the thing to do at the time.

And the day just went down hill from there.  I won't go into all the gory details, but it was rough.  Let me just say that when the second shift group leader came in and asked to explain what the problem was down at the end of the line, I had to ask him "Could you be more specific?"  Seriously, machines were breaking down, parts were getting lost, people were being cranky.  It was so bad, I started counting down the days until I get to do jury duty, because I'm looking forward to the break.

Oh, and I almost forgot.  One of the tubing machines was leaking oil.  The maintenance man took the cap off, but didn't lock out the machine.  When the day shift operator got there, she didn't know the cap was off -- or that anything was wrong, really -- so she turned on the machine and oil sprayed everywhere.  It was actually kind of cool.  But not her fault.  It should have been locked out.  But I digress.

I ended up staying until 4:00, and by that point, I was seriously wondering how necessary that dog gate was.  In the end, I decided that running to the store was preferable to another night of vacuuming cat crap out of my bedroom floor.  While I was there, I ran into the garden center, because I just can't seem to stay away.  A man in there whom I didn't know from Adam called me over to show me a really cool machete.  It had a smooth blade on one side and teeth on the other.  "You could kill a lot of zombies with that thing!" I exclaimed.  He laughed and said, "Yes, ma'am, you could."  I didn't tell him that axes are my preferred zombie killing weapon.

It's the whole Viking thing, you know.

Out Of Gas

I am completely out of gas.  I just don't have it in me tonight.

It's going to get worse before it gets better.  The other sub brazer won't be back for a while.  I don't know how long.  I'm not going to be telling someone else's business here, but let's just say her child has something a little more serious than a cold.

Those of you of the praying mind, lift the little boy up, would you?

In the meantime, I'll be weighing anchor and piloting the ship by myself.  That means going in early, staying late, and dealing with cranky poop-eating dogs while I'm home.

Rylea says, "I don't know what you're talking about.  I'm an absolute angel.  And about that poop-eating thing...I'm pleading the Fifth."

Sure you are...

It Sure Is Monday

And it's been a rough one.  The other sub brazer hasn't been there because her child has been sick. That means that for the last three days, I've had to braze by myself.  For some reason, they can't ever seem to find a back up brazer for my line.  So, I'm over there doing two people's work.

My regular group leader is on vacation, so today the back up group leader said, "I don't see how you braze by yourself.  Don't you ever get tired?"  Uh, yeah.  Of course I get tired.  That's why I'm hollering at everyone by the end of the day.

It's also why no Pokemon have been found lately.  I'm almost out of Pokeballs, and I'm too tired to drive down to the Pokespots.

But digress...this has been going on since Friday morning -- when the other brazer got the phone call and had to leave.  Needless to say, I've been tuckered.  Yesterday, I didn't do anything but sit.  I worked on my Dinosaurnaments a little bit, but my head was pounding too much for that much concentration.

So, naturally, I cast on another hat.

This is Knit Picks Brights and the color is Pickle Juice.  It's just a plain stockinette stitch hat pattern with an 80 stitch cast on and 1 1/2 " of  K2P2 ribbing.

I'm not sure why I felt the need to tell you that.  I guess I'm desperately trying to make this blog post more interesting, but frankly, it ain't happening.

That being said, I'm going to sign off now.  I'm sure you have better things to do.

One Of Those Murphy's Days

You've heard of Murphy's Law.  Just in case you haven't, it states:  Nothing is as easy as it looks, everything takes longer than you think, and whatever can go wrong, will.

Sometimes, I have whole Murphy's Days.  This was one of them.  Everything that could go wrong, did.  Seems it all started on second shift last night.  The plant ran out of some vitally important part.  As a result, second shift was required to skip several large orders that required this vitally important part, and move on to parts that required a different vitally important part.

By the time we came in this morning, the plant still hadn't received a shipment of this vitally important part, so we also had to skip several orders.  What this means is, our component areas were way behind, so we spent most of the day waiting on parts.

To add insult to injury, stuff kept breaking down.  First one machine, then another, then yet another.  As if that weren't enough, when I went to wash my hands after answering nature, I discovered that I'd cut my hand.

I have no idea when or how that happened.  It's especially weird because we wear gloves at work, so the window in which I could have cut myself was very small to begin with.

And the last biting moment of the day, I had to stay late.  Just 30 minutes, but still.  I have a life you know!  I've got TV to watch, and air conditioning to sit in, and tomato sandwiches to eat!

Then I got to come home and mow.  Yay!

I did take a moment to try and get some photos of the crepe myrtles.

Did you see the bumblebee?

The best part of the day is, they fed my line lunch because we ran more than 600 units yesterday.  At least I didn't get hungry.

But now, I'm going to bed.  2:45 came awful early this morning.

Who is?

If you've read the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, you will know that there is a catch phrase frequently used by the characters in that book.

Who is John Galt?  

If you don't know what it means, I can't explain it.  It's one of those things you just have to know. Read the book.  It's linked above.

You remember that mysterious phone number I found a couple of weeks ago?  I still haven't found out who Terrance is, but lately, I've been finding myself using the Who is John Galt? phrase more and more in my own life.  Except mine is Who is Terrance?

As in, "Why did they skip this order?"

Me:  "Eh, who is Terrance?"

Or, "Why is it that they can find back up brazers for any other line except ours?"

Me:  *shrugging* "Who is Terrance?"

Or, "Jesse!  Why are you eating cat poop?"

Me:  "Ewww!  Oh, well, Who is Terrance?"

In other news, I got summoned to jury duty not this Monday, but next Monday.  Aside from the disruption in my routine and the awesome responsibility of potentially deciding someone's future, I'm kind of looking forward to it.  Why?  The court house has air conditioning.  The plant, not so much.

I think I'll take my copy of Atlas Shrugged to read while I'm there, since they don't allow electronics. No phone, no kindle.  Who knows, it just might get me dismissed.

Who is Terrance?

Pokemon No Go

There's this new phone game called Pokemon Go.  It's a cute concept.  You walk around and find these Pokemon characters and catch them on your phone.    The cool part is, the game turns your phone's camera on and you see the critter right there in your environment.  It's really popular right now.

So, I'm thinking this might be a good way to get me up off my couch and out of the house, right? Wrong.  I should change the name of the game to Pokemon No Go.  So far, the only place I've caught them is at work.  Not during work, no.  I'm not one of those people who spends half the day playing on her phone.  I only get mine out on my lunch break, or if I have to um...sit and think a minute when I go to answer nature.

Even so, I've managed to catch quite a few.  There's one that hangs out in the parking lot, and I usually nab him when I first get there and again when I leave.  Then there is the one that hangs around that blue machine pictured above.   I grab him on my lunch break.  There is one in each bathroom, and the main break room.  I grab them before work if I get there early enough.

The map shows that there are some back in the warehouse.  I keep saying I'm going to go in a little early one day and see if I can nab them before my shift starts, but that hasn't happened yet.  Once the weather starts getting cooler -- like in October-- I'm going to take the dogs out to the lake and see if I can catch some there.  I've also heard churches and colleges are good places to find them, so I'll scout there and see what they have.

Or maybe I won't.  You know what they say about the best laid plans...

Here There Be Knitting

Yes, I'm going to pay for it tomorrow, but I was determined to finish this hat tonight.

I had a little bit of difficulty, because I don't know what I did with all my DPNs.  They're somewhere in my craft/snake/computer room.  I really need to get that organized.  I'm so tired of not being able to find anything.  Anyway, I had another size 7 circular, so I dragged the 2 circs method out of the recesses of my memory and used it to finish the crown decreases.  Not my favorite method, but it'll do in a pinch.

I ended up with this much yarn left over.  (Phone full of Pokemon included for scale.)

I don't like cutting it that close.  On the other hand, I do like making full use of a ball of yarn.

Speaking of, Brit put Baby Brooklyn in her new dress for church last Sunday.

Isn't she the sweetest thing?  Brittani said the dress got lots of compliments, too.

I had a bit of karmic justice today that I couldn't help but secretly gloating about -- just a bit.  You know that really annoying coworker that can't seem to do anything for herself?  Oh, she could worry the horns off a billy goat.  I swear, I haven't heard my name called so many times since Cody was 2 years old.

Well, today she got a taste of her own medicine.  Another coworker (not me) kept asking her a bunch of questions.  Every time he did, she would turn around and say, "He's worrying me!  He's worrying me!"  I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Yes, I know how you feel."  Boy do I know how she feels!

Now, I'm headed to bed, so these dogs can quite pestering me about it being time for bed!

Tuckered On Tuesday

Last night was one of those nights.  I didn't sleep well.  I tossed and turned.  I turned and I tossed.  I got hot, so I threw the covers off.  Then I got cold, so I pulled them back up.  Then I got hot again, so I threw the covers off again.  Then I got cold again, so...well, you get the idea.

It was one of those I'm-glad-I'm-not-married nights.  Rather, it was one of those every man in the world is glad he wasn't in the bed with me nights.

All that is leading up to say, this will be a post heavy on pictures, and light on coherency.

I finally got out and got some pictures of my crepe myrtles.  Alas, I'm so tired, I didn't even go for artsy-fartsy photos.  Just plain old snap shots.  Here is a lavender one.

Here is a pink one.

And here is the red one.

Remember the little marigold I had a few weeks ago that I thought was going to die?  Seriously, it was down to a leaf and a half.  Well, guess what it looks like today.  That's right.  It's the biggest one of all.

Here is my annual bed.

Old Glory is still flying.

Just so's you know, I got dive bombed by a hummingbird.  Vicious little buggers, those things.  But still fun to watch.

Dear Coworker

No, I really don't know why it's raining when your phone told you there was no chance of rain today.  Nor do I know why your phone told you there was no chance of rain today when it is quite clearly raining.

Even more so, I really don't know what exactly you expect me to do about it.   Maybe you'd have better luck discussing this with either the weatherman or the Almighty.

But whomever you choose to discuss this with, kindly stop dragging me by the arm to see the rain.  I know what it looks like.

Thank you.

That is all.

One Of Those Days

I knew it was going to be one of those days when I woke up at 1:00 AM and couldn't go back to sleep.  I tossed and turned, and may have dozed a bit, but true sleep escaped me.  Along about 2:25, Rylea started groaning.  I told her to hush, it wasn't time to get up yet, but she kept moaning until it was time to get up.

At 2:45, the alarm went off.  I got up and let the dogs out.  Then I let them back in, whereupon Rylea promptly threw up on the living room floor.  Oh, boy.  What a way to start my day.  I'm telling you, I seriously considered calling in and just going back to bed, but I didn't.  Overtime, plus attendance bonus at stake, you know.

I finish getting ready, get in the car, and start driving to work.  About half way there, I realized I'd left my breakfast in the microwave.  Dang.  I seriously thought about turning around and going back home, but thought to myself, "That would make that one very expensive sausage biscuit", and kept on going.

I spent the morning walking around brain dead and hungry.  I was like my own personal episode of The Walking Dead.  I felt a little better after lunch --oh, I had eaten a cereal bar after I got to work, but it wasn't like having a full meal -- and made it through the work day.

When I got home, Cody was there.  He and his friend Chad were going to get his bed and take it down to his new apartment.  That means I won't be able to pile the clean laundry on it.  I'll have to fold it and put it away, now.  At least until I get a new bed for that room.  Then I can go back to piling laundry.  You know, instead of folding it.

The best part about today is that it was raining when I got off work.  OK, it had mostly stopped by then, but I'm still using that as an excuse not to mow.

Today, any excuse will do.  I'm just too tired.

A Hot One

I knew it.  As soon as I got in my car, I knew it.

When it's already 81' and it's only 4:34 in the morning, yeah, it was going to be a hot one. Indeed it was.  Before it was all said and done, 5 people had fallen out in the plant.  Seems like every time I turned around, Supervisor Ronny and Supervisor Calvin were rolling the wheelchair out to take someone else to the first aid room.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I only saw 4 of the incidents myself.  A coworker told me that someone on the other side of the plant had also fallen out.  Still, I don't ever remember that many people falling out in one day.  

After they'd toted the third person up to first aid, I told my friend, "People are dropping like flies in this place.  I think I'm going to go home and hide under the covers."

And give thanks for Willis Haviland Carrier.

It Really Wasn't Monday

Do you remember yesterday how I was saying it felt like Monday all day?  So, last night, I was debating whether to watch TV or just listen to music while I worked on my needlepoint.  I was asking myself, "What comes on TV on Mondays?  I don't usually watch anything on Mondays."  In the end, I decided music would be the preferable option.

About lunchtime today is when it hit me.

Yeah, I can be a little slow on the uptake at times.  I blame getting up at 3:30 in the Ante Meridian for that.  And the holiday throwing me off.  I'm just glad it's in the summer re-run season, because if I'd missed NCIS, I'd have been upset.  But not too upset.  As my son pointed out, everything you want to watch can be found online these days --Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, Vudu... and most of the networks will have the shows up on their websites the next day.  It's not like the old days when if you missed a show, you just missed it.

Speaking of my son, he texted me today and said he's going to try to come home this weekend and get his bed.  I guess that means I need to get the laundry off of it, huh?

Before I rush off to fold laundry, here is an update on the hot pink hat.

It's almost to the point where I can start the crown decreases.  I'm knitting these on Knit Picks Caspian needles.  They're like the harmony ones, only in shades of blue.

I found a couple of dead spiders in my kitchen.  When I got the broom to sweep them up, I discovered that one of them wasn't dead.  With the help of my Teva sandal, it soon was.

Yeah, that's me.  A spider crawls out, "Sorry, creepy, I'm going to have to kill you."  A snake crawls out, "Oh, aren't you the pretty thing."  A mouse crawls out, "Squeaky!  You're falling down on your job!"

The phone rings, and I scream and run.

Is it any wonder I'm not married?

It's Not Monday

It's not Monday, but it sure feels like it.  The first day back at work after a holiday is always hard.  It's even harder when you get up at 3:30, after being able to sleep until 6:00 the last couple of days.

I had a quiet holiday.  Cody had to work, so was unable to come home.  The good news is, I got my flag up!  I haven't been able to hang my flag for far too many years.  See, when I bought my trailer house, I knew I was going to eventually have to sell it.  For this reason, I didn't want to put any holes in the walls, or door frame, or anything.  So, I didn't hang my flag.

Then my beloved son decided to hang his gun rack in his bedroom.  With screws and drywall anchors.  Yeah...

But the rest of the house was hole free.

When I bought my new house, I was so excited that I could finally hang my flag again.  However, the first time I tried to put up my hanger -- so my flag would be up for Memorial Day-- I discovered that I didn't have the right size screws.  I kept checking at Wal-mart, and they never had the right size.  The ones that fit the holes in my hanger were too short.  I wanted at least 1 1/2" screws, because my flag is big.  It's a 4' x 6', and I was afraid shorter screws wouldn't hold it up.

The next goal was for Flag Day, but alas, still no screws.  Finally, they got some of the right size screws in just in time for Independence Day.  So, yay, the flag is up.

That first day, I kept going to my front window, just to watch it wave.  It's a beautiful sight.  All these people saying they're offended by the American flag, well I suggest they move to a country that doesn't fly it.

Interesting bit of trivia, when I first came to look at this house before I bought it, there were four American flags flying on the road.  Four -- in less than half a mile.  And it wasn't even a holiday. I stood in my front yard and thought, "All these flags flying...this looks like a neighborhood I want to be a part of."  That was a big factor in my buying this house.

Yesterday, as I was looking out at my flag, I noticed it had gotten wrapped around the pole.  I went out to unwrap it, and heard my neighbor Norma call my name.  "Do you like tomatoes?"  Oh, yeah, I love tomatoes.  They give me terrible heartburn, but I eat them anyway.  "I'll bring you some."

Because this is America, and that's how we roll.

She told me she and her husband had gone to visit their younger son in Arkansas, and stopped at some Farmer's market type of place and bought a bunch of tomatoes.  They were giving some to all the neighbors.  After thanking her profusely, I promptly went back inside and made myself a tomato sandwich.

I'd never eaten a tomato sandwich until I moved to Mississippi.  Boy was I missing out.

I spent the rest of the weekend watching patriotic movies and working on my needlepoint dinosaurnaments.  That's what it says on the package.  Dinosaurnaments.  Clever, huh?

I also knit a little bit on the hat, but I didn't take a picture.  I did take a picture of one of my lavender crepe myrtles.

They're really starting to come on now, and are going to be so pretty.

I think tomorrow after work, I'm going to run to the store and see if they have those American flag paper plates on clearance.  If they do, I'm stocking up.

Because 'Murica.

Is There A Full Moon?

I'm not sure what was going on at work, but man, oh man, it was like someone dumped a whole bucket load of crazy out onto the plant.  Everyone was snapping and snarling.  Half my line went home at lunch, or shortly thereafter.

Even my supervisor and group leader got into it -- yelling at each other out in the aisle.  It was so bad, the attitude meds had to make another appearance.

My group leader asked me if they work, and I said, "They must.  I'm the only one over here without an attitude, and I'm usually the only one with an attitude."  I think everyone was mad about having to work a holiday weekend.

And I'm just over here going, "Overtime, yay!"

Speaking of, Cody is not going to be able to come home for the weekend.   He got some overtime today, and has to work Monday, so that is one more week I'll be able to pile my laundry on his bed.
It'll be a quiet holiday, but I'm used to it.  Beverly and James used to always go to a family reunion (on her daddy's side) in Texas.  They would take Cody with them and drop him off at his grandma's house that week.  I've got my own little Independence Day routine going on.  It includes patriotic movies and working on various crafts.  This year, I'll try to work on some of those needlepoint kits.

Oh, look.  I found another one.

I was informed that my collection was lightweight.  True, but if I still had the ones that got lost when I moved back from Italy, and the ones that got ruined when a hurricane destroyed my storage building, I would have a formidable collection indeed.

I went outside to mow after I'd gotten home from work.  The heat hit me, and I said, "Nope", and went back into the air conditioning.  I'll try to get out early in the morning and get it done.  I did stop long enough to take a picture of my red crepe myrtle.

I've also got some pink and some violet ones.

Last, but certainly not least, we have a baby!  Little Brooklyn Lain Hardin was born last night at 10:58 PM.  She weighed in at 7 lb 12 oz, and is 21 1/2 inches long.

Daddy Cameron is already totally smitten.

Perspective

I spent the entire day feeling like it was Saturday.  Maybe it's because I did my shopping yesterday, but whatever.  It's felt like Saturday to me.  I'm almost afraid I'm going to forget to go to work tomorrow.  That's a lot of money I'd be losing out on if I did.  A day of overtime, plus my holiday pay for Monday, plus my monthly attendance bonus, plus my six month attendance bonus.    So, I'd better make it to work.

I did my shopping yesterday so I could buy myself some tapestry needles, but when I got home, I was so tired I couldn't see straight.  So, no needlepoint or cross stitch got done.  While I was shopping, I bought some arch supports and put them inside my shoes.  They raised me up about 1/2".  It's funny how even such a small difference can throw everything off.   I was making my coffee this morning and thought, "wow, I feel so high."  Everything looked weird all day.

Between that, and living the wrong day, I've felt like the whole world is out of kilter.  I'm going to bed early again, but I wanted to show you my new 'Merica stuff.

And earrings.

I finally took pity on poor Terrance and texted him, letting him know the wrong person had gotten his paper.  He said, "Oh ok i forgot sorry for the inconvenience i had my sister to give u my number but i apologize didnt mean any harm"  Yes, with that spelling and grammar, too.

I replied, "I don't know anyone named Terrance, so the right person didn't get it.  That's what I was trying to tell you."

He said, "ok ok".

I wasn't going to reply at all, but I got to thinking that he may be feeling rejected.  The more I thought about it, the worse I felt, so I sent the text.

Still don't have a clue who Terrance is, though.

Update:  The more I got to thinking about it, the more I realized something.  This girl must not be that important to Terrance if he doesn't even remember giving her his phone number.  Sheesh, what a jerk!