Rough Day

Man, it was rough today at work.  Every single order I did had something wrong with it.  Every one. 

I won't go into all the gory details, but I'm telling you I had some orders that every single adapter tube had been bent wrong.  Every single one.  By the third time I took a batch back to be re-cut, I kind of peeped around the corner and told Group Leader Shark, "I'm afraid to come over there."  Because I'd had to get so much recut, you know. 

By the end of the day, I felt like I'd done more walking back and forth to tubing getting stuff re-cut than I did actually brazing.    

Then I got to come home and do laundry.  Yippee...

The good news is, the two sunflowers I planted in the front bed yesterday made it through the night. 

It wasn't supposed to frost, but I got a bit paranoid and covered them with Walmart sacks anyway...just in case.  Turns out there was no need, because it didn't get that cold.  Cold enough to frost, I mean.  It was still in the low 40s.  

This afternoon, I planted two more.

Now, I have four little sunflowers all in a row. 

The rest will be fine in their little pots for a bit longer.  I just wish I knew what variety of sunflowers these are, so I'll know how tall they get.   I want to put the others behind these, but don't know if they're the ones that get like 15 feet tall or not.  I guess we'll find out, huh?  

Once I was done with that, I moved the last sunflower seedling from the tray into its own little pot and began hardening it off. 

I think that's going to be it for the sunflowers, but I had nine of thirteen cells germinate, so that's pretty good. 

I also decided it was time to begin hardening the few little cosmos seedlings I have, so I set them out in the sun for a couple of hours. 

And look!  There is one more that has made it up from South America!  That makes five all told.  I still don't know where I'm going to put these.  Deer tend to avoid eating them, so I'd like to put them somewhere in the back yard.  I don't know.  I'll figure it out. 

While I was out piddling in the yard, I picked a few henbit leaves and tasted them, and that stuff is good!  I'll definitely be nibbling more on that.  

I guess that's it for today.  If anyone needs me, I'll just be over here snacking on my weeds.  

Laters. 

Goodbye Winter

Happy last day of winter/first day of spring!  

Yep, spring officially arrives sometime around 10:00 PM central time tonight, but winter decided it wasn't going out without one last hurrah...so to speak. 

Good job I brought my plants inside last night, as there was a pretty thick layer of frost on top of the garbage can when I took the trash out this morning.  However, by the time I got home, the temps were up into the low 60s, and we're not expecting any freezes any time soon, so back outside into the sunshine they went.  

I'd planned on starting to put my sunflowers out after this cold snap anyway, and to do that, the first thing I had to do was start clearing a few weeds.  

Most of what was in there was ground ivy, and I'd thought for a moment I'd clear it all out -- at least of the flower bed part, but plan that came to a screeching halt when I saw a little honey bee buzzing from flower to flower. 

"I won't take all your food," I said to the little bee and cleared just enough to plant the two biggest sunflower seedlings. 

Now they are safely tucked into the flower bed, and covered with their cloches. 

I have four more cloches, so I may put four more plants out in their little pots and cover them with the cloches until I can get them a space cleared and get them planted.  

Most of the weeds I pulled up got put into the compost, but I decided to begin drying some of the purple deadnettle.  It is a member of the mint family, so it's both edible and medicinal, and I think it'll be beneficial to have some on hand after it dies back for the year.  The downside is I don't really like the taste that much.  It'll be good flavoring for soups and smoothies and such, but it's not something I could sit and eat by itself, like in a salad.  I've also read that brewing it into a tea will help with seasonal allergies, especially if you sweeten it with local honey.    Hmmm, maybe I'll try some here in a bit. 

That was all I did today, because I didn't sleep well at all last night.  It was one of those nights...I was so tired and went to bed early, but couldn't fall asleep for anything.  Last time I looked at the clock, it was after 11:00.   

I've never understood that.  All day yesterday, I was so tired my brain wouldn't even function, but the minute I got into bed, all I did was toss and turn.  As a result, I'm even less functional today.  I think I'll just take a shower and go to bed early again.  

Laters. 

As I Figured

Well, today was the first day using our new numbers on our headers, and as I figured, on about half of my headers, I put my brazer number instead of my station number.  You don't erase 5 years of ingrained habit overnight.  My only comfort is that I wasn't the only one doing it.  

Other than that, the day passed without incident.

In other news, all my plants -- and the cat -- are safely tucked into the house in anticipation of tonight's freeze.  My gut tells me this will be the last one for the year, but my gut has been known to be wrong.  Just in case, I got a Walmart sack to see how well it would fit over the garden cloches I bought.  Turns out it was a perfect fit, so I'm thinking I might go ahead and plant one or two of the more robust sunflowers into my front flower bed after the freeze.  

If there happens to be another frost, I can cover them with the aforementioned Walmart sack.   Two, if it gets really cold. 

There is one thing, though.  I read on another website that deer don't like to eat sunflowers, so now I'm confused.  Do they or do they not eat sunflowers?  I don't think I'll take any chances and will spread the Repels All anyway.  Just to be on the safe side. 

This is going to be short because I'm very sleepy.  I still haven't adjusted to these early mornings, coupled with the time change, so I'm going to leave you with my latest finished object and go to bed. 

 Goodnight, all. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 On this Saint Patrick's Day, I present to you a few of my favorite traditional Irish songs, and one that's not so traditional.  

That's it for today.  Have a great day with your family.  

One Of Those Days

Today was one of those days.  One of those rare, perfect days that you wish you could bottle up and save for later -- for the days that aren't so perfect.  If you're a Ray Bradbury fan, you'd call this a day that should have been named after Robert Spaulding's wife.  

If you're not a Ray Bradbury fan, that's from a short story called A Story Of Love.  I highly recommend you look it up and read it.  

As I said, this was one of those days that should have been named after Robert Spaulding's wife, and since I didn't have to work today, I was able to enjoy every minute of it.  So were my little sunflowers, that I put out in the morning, so they could get full sun all day long.   

It was so nice, I wasn't able to stay in the house, and I got out and did a little work in the yard.  I couldn't do too much, because my yard is still soggy from the recent rains, but I raked up all the leaves that blew from my across-the-street neighbor's trees into my front ditch and added them to my compost.  

Speaking of soggy yards, I'm considering having a landscaper come out and get my drainage issues fixed.  See, what was happening is that my neighbor claimed that the ditches weren't draining, but they were.  They just weren't draining fast enough for her because apparently she wanted them to drain like a bathtub, so she'd call the county to come dig them out two to three times a year.  The only problem with that was, without the root structure from the grass holding the dirt into place, the next time it rained, half of my yard would wash down into the ditch.  

It would seem they don't teach erosion in Mississippi schools.  

Now that she is no longer with us, I think it'll be save to get my yard fixed.  Speaking of, she died a year and a half ago, and the house has been sitting empty ever since, along with her daughter's trailer house in the lot next door.  I wonder if they're ever going to do anything with it.  I hate to say it, but I'm kind of enjoying having empty houses on either side of me.  

OK, enough of that.  

My sweet mint is coming right along, 

as is my lemon thyme.  

Still no signs of life from anything else in that bed, though.  Looks like I'm going to have to decide what new things I want to plant this year.  Cody and Brennan have requested rosemary and cilantro, so I'll get some of those, and I want some more lemon balm or maybe some lemon basil if I can find it.  They said the lemon balm I gave them last year wasn't very strong, so I want to try basil to see if it's got a stronger flavor.  I really want to find some lemon verbena, but that stuff seems to be as rare as bigfoot -- unless I want to order online.  I may have to resort to that before it's all over, but I'd rather buy locally if I can.   

Ironically enough, I spent the afternoon ordering  a butt-load of seed catalogs...

I think this year, I'm going to dry and bottle some of my spearmint as well.   I would have last year, but I didn't think of it in time.

In other news, all of the daffodils I moved last year have come up, though they didn't all bloom.    

I'm not too worried about them not blooming.  They often don't the first year after they've been moved.  As long as they're putting up leaves, they're still alive and will bloom eventually.  

I still have a few more in the front yard that I need to move.  I think I'll start doing that after this next cold snap.

And finally, being as it is the beginning of hummingbird migration here, I got the old feeder filled up and put out. 

Alas, I didn't get everything on my list done.  I'd said I was going to take everything off of this shelf and move it out to the shed. 

I even bought some plastic boxes to get everything sorted and organized, but in the end, I didn't even get started. I want to eventually get another storage cabinet to put into that spot, but one more aesthetically pleasing than this shelf -- which I bought for the shed in the first place. Which I'm thinking that I need to get completely torn down and rebuilt smaller, and more towards the back of the yard.  After I get my fences replaced, that is.  

I'll need a lot more overtime before I can afford all that, though.  But it's all on the list. 

And one more thing before I go...Do not for one second underestimate those little things called commas:

If you aren't a football fan, you'll need the back story.  After the Cowboys got completely and utterly humiliated in the playoffs this year, Jerry Jones stated that he would be going "all in" to build a winning team next season. 

So far, all he's done is let a lot of good players walk -- including Michael Gallup.  You know, the one he cut Amari Cooper to re-sign...yeah...

After the team's complete and utter lethargy during free agency, the phrase "all in" has become somewhat of a joke, even amongst Cowboys fans.  One day, sports reporter Skip Bayless had had enough and tweeted the above.  Thank goodness for commas or that comment would have had a completely different meaning.

Oh, and yes, it's a real tweet.  I checked. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I found an old favorite TV show on Prime and I'm going to binge the patootie out of it. 

The Pretender, if you're wondering.

Ooo Dah Lolly

Ooo dah lolly, golly what a day!  

It started last night when the storms rolled in, and I was so tired I slept through them.  Apparently, they were pretty bad, because they knocked the radio station off the air.  Good thing I set myself a back-up alarm on my phone, or I might have been late to work. 

It's happened before.  Heh, one time Cody woke me up knocking on my door and asking, "Mom?  Are you going to work today?" and it was like 6:30.  That was back when shift started at 7:00.  That was the fastest I ever got ready, but I made it almost on time.  I think I was like, two minutes late, but that's what made me start setting a second alarm on my phone.  You don't ever know around here when the radio station will go down. 

Speaking of work, those of you who've read my blog for any length of time know how messed up things are out there.  But every so often, they find something that works.  And do you know what they do when that happens?  

They blow it up. 

For years -- literally years -- each brazer has been assigned a number that we write on the headers we braze.  That way, if there is a problem with the assemblies, or if there are leaks, they can easily identify who brazed it.  We all know each other's numbers, so we know at a glance who brazed what.  

It's a system we've had in place ever since they move the brazers off the lines back in 2018, and it's a system that works.  I guess that's why they want to destroy it. Today, Cuz told us instead of writing our brazer number on our headers, we're to write the number of whichever brazing stand we're working on onto the headers, so if there's a problem they'll know where it's coming from.  

"But why can't you do that with our brazer numbers?" we argued.  "If you see my number on the header, you know I'm the one who brazed it."   "If you can't trust the test tank operator to enter a 3 correctly, what makes you think he'll put a 7 in correctly."   "What's going to happen when they open second shift back up?  How will you know if it's day shift 5 or second shift 5?  But they don't have a B on their keypads on the text tanks."  "This means that whoever brazes on station 2's leaks are going to count against the person whose brazer number is 2 in the computer." 

"Those files are all tangled up," he said -- whatever that even means, and launched into a word salad the likes of which would make any politician proud.  We tried every logical argument we could think of, but Cuz was unmoved.  Starting Monday, we'll have to write the stand number on our headers and nobody will know who brazed anything.

Ain't that just like ADP?  They refuse to fix what's actually broke, but will sit there and break what little actually works.  

As if that weren't enough, it rained all day long, and I do mean all day long.  It started during the night and didn't stop until about 5:00 PM.  It's supposed to turn cold early next week, so in anticipation, I brought some firewood inside so it would be nice and dry.  

Pay no attention to the mess on the floor.  I'll sweep it up tomorrow.  

Maybe. 

Anyway, I'm figuring there won't be too many more cold spells this year, and I've got tons of wood left.  The guy I bought from last year definitely didn't short me when I bought a cord.  

In other news, I finished reading Call Of The Wild last night, so this evening I watched the 1972 movie with Charlton Heston on FreeVee.  It was pretty cheesy, and didn't follow the book all that well, but it was still better than the one I watched last weekend.  

Now, I'm back to reading Variant, but I'm struggling with it.  It just isn't holding my interest. I mean, it's the third time I've tried to read this book, which ought to tell you something.  I'm determined to finish the first book in the series at least, then I'm back to Shakespeare.  

And finally, I went into the garden center this afternoon and found some more of the cosmos seeds I'd planted before.  

I'm still going to wait a bit to plant them, at least until the ones that have germinated are big enough to transplant.  It has also occurred to me that I should probably research which types of flowers deer don't eat.  I bought some deer repellent, but I'm only going to use it in the front yard.  I want the deer to be able to eat the clover that grows in the back. 

Maybe this year, we won't have such a severe drought and the clover will last longer.  

A Do-Over

 This was definitely one of those days when I wanted a do-over.

When that alarm went off at 3:30 AM...that was the first thing:  the alarm went off at 3:30 AM, which is way too early any day, but I'd stayed up late yesterday watching a documentary on MPB about the Rolling Fork tornado.  Well, I only watched part 1, and frankly, it was not at all what I was expecting.  I guess I was thinking it would be something like what The Weather Channel or National Geographic would put out - more science based, but it wasn't.  

The first maybe ten minutes was the guy interviewing people about their experiences going through the storm, but the rest of it was mostly people complaining about their houses not being rebuilt quickly enough.  Every time someone would mention that recovery wasn't happening fast enough for them, I'd think, "First time?" 

I guess growing up on the Gulf Coast, I'm more in tuned to the massive damage a hurricane will cause.  Rita, Ike, Harvey...I know after Hurricane Harvey, it was ten days before the flooding went down enough that my cousins could even get to their houses, and for some of my friends, it was two years before they were completely through rebuilding.   When Laura came though Lake Charles, there were still houses with the blue roof tarps a year and a half later.  

Anyway, when that alarm went off at 3:30 AM, I seriously thought about calling in and staying in bed, but I didn't.  Out of bed and off to work I went, and that's when the ...um...stuff hit the fan. 

First of all, there was nothing ready for us to do.  Second of all, the parts stager and the backup parts stager neither one was there, so there was no one to get anything ready for us to do.  Fortunately, I had some orders already on my stand that I'd put there yesterday, so I had work.

Or so I thought. 

The first three orders I tried to set up on all had parts that had been made wrong, so I had to take them back to Group Leader Shark, who does not like to be greeted with bad news first thing in the morning.  As I predicted, she was not happy.

I had one more order I could set up on...only I couldn't pull up a print of the part.  I tried several times, using every trick I knew, but finally had to admit defeat.  I went back around to Group Leader Shark, and said, "I know you're about tired of me..."  So, she tried to pull up the print on the dispatcher's computer, but she couldn't get one, either.  I told her I could set it up on the jig without the print, but because it was a brand new part that I'd never seen before, I'd have no idea whether I was brazing it correctly or not, so I'd prefer to wait until I got a print.  She said I'd have to wait until the front office people came in at 7:00 for that, but I figured that was better than doing them all wrong and having the parts kicked back by the line.

All this, and it wasn't even 6:00 yet.  

Eventually, I got my parts and I got my print and I got all those orders done.    

But wait, there's more!  While all this was going on, one of the assembly supervisors came up to the component area and saw another brazer just standing there because she didn't have any work to do.  I guess he was still mad because yesterday, he'd texted my Supervisor and asked if he could send me to work on the assembly line for the rest of the day.  Apparently, Supervisor told him no, and all heck broke loose. 

See, the supervisors in the back have always been able to use the sub-brazers as sort of their own personal floater pool, and they've had the privilege of picking and choosing who they want to get and our Supervisor has had no choice but to give them whomever they want.  Until yesterday, that is.  

The assembly supervisor actually made me stand there and watch him type out the text to my Supervisor asking if he could have me.  I fully expected Supervisor to come tell me to go work on the line for the rest of the day, but that didn't happen.  There was a big discussion and a bit of a brouhaha, and they sent someone else, and I guess that supervisor was still mad that he didn't get his way, so he went and yelled at Group Leader Shark, who in turn came and yelled at the other brazer, who pointed out that there wasn't anything ready.  

There was another brouhaha, and Group Leader Shark told the brazer to get something off of the conveyor that we've been told for the last five years to never, ever get anything off of.  And nobody went to the assembly lines today. 

By lunch time, as I was heading to the break area, I said to Group Leader Shark, "This has been a day and a half already!"  

After lunch, things settled down a bit, but by that time I was already completely knackered, though I did feel a bit better after eating something, and at long last, the interminable day came to an end and I came home and sat all evening.  

Seriously.  I sat.  OK, I did laundry, too, but mostly I sat. 

And I knit a bit.  Speaking of, I found a knot in the the skein of yarn, so I cut it out and did a normal join.  It caused a bit of an odd pooling, but it doesn't look too terribly bad, so I'm not going  to worry about it. 

I think now, it's time for a hot shower and an early bed time.  

Good night, all. 

Time Change

I swan, it gets harder and harder every year to get adjusted to this time change, especially the spring forward one.  This morning when that alarm went off at 3:30 AM, my body shrieked, "What are you doing getting up at 2:30 in the blessed ay em for?????", and I had to explain once again about DST and all that mess.  

Then I get to work, and you know how I say the nice thing about working Saturdays is that we don't have to listen to that music and neither of my Stalkers works weekends --  usually?  Yeah, they were all back today.  Both the music and the Stalkers...

To be fair, one of my stalkers has backed off quite a bit.  After my coworker told me his behavior towards me was scary to her, I guess my sheepdog mode kicked in, and I began staring him down with a give me an excuse look on my face.  Add a couple of well timed hammer blows to my parts, and he figured out he might just want to leave me alone. 

And that, folks, is how you end harassment in the workplace.  

Speaking of work, I have to laugh at them, because they're getting desperate for employees, only nobody wants to work there any more.  They tried to recall the people they'd laid off last year, and very few of them came back.  Now they're holding job fairs and they've even got a sign in front of the plant that says, "Interview Now".   

I guess they're desperate enough to try anything -- except, of course, make it a decent place to work, that is.   Oh, but wait!  They're playing music in the mornings!  That should solve all their problems, shouldn't it?

OK, moving right along...I should probably mention that I finished reading A Midsummer Night's Dream, and found a version of it on YouTube to watch.  I decided to take a break from Shakespeare and read a bit on a series I bought years ago called Variant.  It's a seven book series that I nabbed for $0.99, and I can see why.  This is the third time I've tried to read it, and I haven't even made it through the first book.  I can't see me reading all seven.  It just isn't holding my interest. 

The story centers around a girl named Paige, who is descended from a group of people who had had genetic experiments run on them to give them superpowers.  There was a war and most of the Variants were killed off.  They ones remaining live in hiding, in fear that they will be discovered and executed.  One day, Paige is found and recruited by a man named Ford, who is a member of the Variant Liberation Army.  The set her up in a safe house, and give her a task...which I won't go too much into here.  

Well, Paige has a coworker named Becca, to whom she blabs all this supersecret information, even taking her to the safe house.  As a veteran of the United States Navy who once held a Top Secret security clearance, this makes every Spidey sense in me not just tingle, but shriek at the top of their little Spidey lungs.   I'll lay odds that Becca ends up being a spy or something. 

That's as far as I've gotten in that series, and right now, I'm taking a break to re-read Call Of The Wild, by Jack London.  It was a favorite as a kid, but it's been ages since I've read it.  

Speaking of breaks, I'm taking a bit of a break from hat knitting to add a few more rows to this scarf.

And finally, I said I wasn't going to bombard you droning on and on about my sunflowers, and judging by the drop in blog hits, you aren't that interested in them anyway.  But I managed to get them outside after work from some direct sunlight. 

We'll have a couple more days of partly cloudy weather before the next round of rain moves in next weekend.  

The good news is, one more of my Cosmos broke the surface.  The bad news is, one of my two little bluebonnets died.  

I guess that's it for today.  Now I need to go get something to eat, then head for bed.  

G'night, all. 

Finally!!

What is that great light in the sky?  Why, it is the sun!!

I'd almost forgotten what it looked like it's been so long.  For the first time, I was able to put my little sunflowers outside actually in the sunlight.  I'd initially started putting them into the back yard under the cloches I'd bought for just such a thing, 

but I quickly changed my mind when I realized my back yard doesn't get nearly as much morning sun ad I'd thought.  Instead, I put them onto a tray and moved them to my front porch, where they got plenty of the mild morning sun. 

I was tempted to leave them out all day, but didn't want to overdo it what with it being their first time exposed to full sun, so after four hours, I moved them to the back porch for the rest of the day.  Tomorrow after work, I'll put them back out for a few hours -- hopefully before the clouds move back in for who knows how long. 

Now for the bad news.  I did a little research and deer love eat sunflowers.  That means I can't plant them out by the back fence like I'd originally hoped to.  Oh, I could have and put some repellent in my back yard, but I don't want to chase them completely off, so it's on to plan B.  I think I'll plant them in the front yard and once they've outgrown the cloches, I'll spread some Repels All around the yard.  

Full disclosure, I wouldn't have chosen sunflowers myself; they were in the wedding favors my nephew and his bride were passing out.  I kind of feel --not so much obligated -- I don't know the right word, but I really want them to thrive and prosper.  It'll kind of make me feel closer to family, you know. 

In knitting news, hat #2 is coming right along. 

While I was knitting, I watched the Call Of The Wild movie with Harrison Ford and a bunch of CGI dogs.  To put it into the vernacular of our British allies, it was bloody awful.  I mean, I'd heard it wasn't that good, but I had no idea it would be that bad.  

I mean, I know we've become a nation that worships dogs, but the level of anthromorphism in this film is...well, it's worse than a Disney movie.   It's just not realistic...and yes, I know it's not supposed to be realistic, but seriously...a dog doesn't have the cognitive capability to, say, know what whiskey even is, much less that the man shouldn't be drinking it to excess like that.  

This movie was so bad, I had to download the book to my Kindle get the taste of it out of my brain.  

If you want to watch a movie version, just stick with the 1972 version with Charlton Heston.  It's so much better. 

Safety Man

So, the safety man came out to look at our floor mats today, and we were talking about how old ours were.  I told him, "It's been so long, I don't even remember the last time we got new ones."  He looked at the mats and said, "Yeah, we don't even buy that kind any more."  

I guess it's been a while, huh?  

The bad news is, the people on the lines say the new kind they get don't have any cushion in them, either, so what's even the point?  It almost makes me wish I hadn't said anything. 

OK, moving right along, I finally finished that hat I've been working on for so long.  

The colors kind of pooled when I started the crown decreases, but overall I like the way it turned out.  So much so, I bought another skein of that yarn yesterday.  

In other news, I got two more of my sunflowers put into pots this afternoon. 

I'd almost waited too long to move these, I think, but they seem to be recovering nicely.  Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow as promised and they'll get some photosynthesis going.  Maybe that'll perk them all up a bit. 

Now my little greenhouse is almost empty.  

I have one more sunflower that just broke the surface yesterday, three somewhat sad looking cosmos, and two bluebonnets that seem to be on their last legs.  Apparently there's more to that knack of seed starting than just a heat mat and grow light.  I'll keep trying for a little while, but I'm starting to get discouraged again.  

Finally, a bit of color.  My Whatever Cactus is blooming again. 

 That's it for today.  I know this is short, but I am tired. 

Good night, all. 

My Sunflowers

My poor little sunflowers...

When I potted them several days go, it was with the intent to begin hardening them off in preparation for planting them outside.  Alas, there hasn't been a single day of sunlight since.  Not one. 

Still, in spite of the dreary weather, they seem to be doing well.  

I've been putting them outside every afternoon so they can at least get some light, even if it is shady, cloudy light.  Hopefully, if the forecast holds, the clouds will move off tomorrow and we'll get a couple of days of sun before the next round of rain moves in.   We're also expecting another cold snap this weekend.  Good thing I didn't go ahead and move the firewood back into the shed. 

The good news is, one more of my Cosmos has germinated, so I'm going to give them a few more days to see if any more of them make it up from South America, where I apparently sent the seeds.  This afternoon, I bought another packet of seeds, but of a different variety.  I didn't intend to, but I couldn't find the same type as I'd bought the first time.  Oh well, we'll have something different to work with. 

The bad news is, I found my level, and as I suspected, my kitchen cabinet isn't. 

I checked it both ways, and it's close, but no cigar.  I have an old sewing machine -- you know the kind that folds down into a table -- that is very level.  Right now it's in the snake room, but it's kind of hard to get to.  I'll have to see if I can find room to move it into the kitchen/dining area before I replant the tray.  If I can put it where I'm thinking, it'll also make the tray easier to get to and monitor.  

Of course, when my seemingly immortal snakes eventually do go to that great herpetarium in the sky, I plan on moving my seed starting stuff into that room anyway.  If I ever get it cleaned out, that is...

But enough about that...

A couple of weeks ago, I told my coworker, "You know, when I go to the ladies' room, I spent one minute doing my business, and the next nine trying to convince myself to stand back up."  Man, my feet have been hurting so badly these last few days.  Even my knees and legs ache.  

This morning, I called Supervisor over and asked, "Is there any way you can get us new mats?"  Now, for those of you who don't know, they put these cushioned mats in front of our work areas to make it slightly less hard than the concrete floor.  Ours are so old, they're almost as hard as the floor beneath them.  

"How long has it been?" asked the brazer next to me.  "At least 6 or 7 years," I replied, but in truth, it's been so long I can't even remember when we got those. 

Supervisor said he'd get the safety team to order us some new ones, but there's no telling when they'll get here. 

"That's the problem," I said, "They always say they're going to order them, but then they never come in.  Or if they do, they tell us 'We have to give them to the lines first, and if we have any left over, we'll bring them to you.'"

So, we'll see, but I've been out there long enough to know not to hold my breath.  But we'll see...

I'M COMING!!!!

I'm coming!  I'm coming, Peggy!  To see the eclipse!

I hadn't planned on it, but as I was standing there at work pondering the mundanity of my life, I said to myself, "Dadgummit!  I do want to go see that eclipse!  I'll just put the hotel on my credit card and let the financial chips fall where they may."

By the time I got home, my zeal had cooled a bit, and I thought, "Nah, I'll just watch it from here."  Just out of curiosity, I got on Hotels.com anyway and checked out rooms in Cape Girardeau.  There were two available rooms left in the entire city, and they were $850 and $550.  Nope.  Not going to happen. 

Then I hopped down and looked at rooms in Memphis.  They were much more reasonable, but still....

But when I got up this morning to head in to work at 5:00 AM, I said to myself, "NO!  Dadgummit!!!  Life is more than just working and paying bills.  I am going to go see that eclipse!"  I got back on Hotels.com and began looking for rooms in smaller towns between Memphis and Cape Girardeau.  First I looked in Sikeston, MO, where I'd stayed last time, but there were no availabilities.  Then I looked in a little town in northeast Arkansas.   

They had rooms available, and pretty cheap, but none of the hotels had very good ratings.  I decided to pass on them.  Moving further South, I found a room in Covington, TN that was in a hotel with a good rating, and with the  One Key cash I'd saved up from all those weddings last year, I was able to book the room for only $71!  I am coming to see the eclipse!!

Covington is just up the road from where my friend Leann lives, but it being a Sunday, I don't know if we'll get to hang out or not.  The plan is to drive up to Memphis, maybe go to the zoo, maybe find some craft stores and see if they have the safety eyes I need for my emotional support chicken, maybe go to the Bass Pro in the Pyramid -- which Cody says I really need to do...just hang out in Memphis.  Then Monday morning, I'll drive on up to Jackson, MO and impose upon Peggy and her husband.  After the eclipse, I'll have to hot foot it back to Grenada, because I'll have to go back to work the next day.   It'll be worth it, though, and I don't have to worry about boarding dogs this time.  

In other news, I've about decided that everything that is going to germinate in my little mini-greenhouse has already done so, so I'm going to buy some more seeds and try again.  To avoid making the same mistake twice, I got my little poker tool and marked 1/4" intervals on it.  

Maybe that'll help me get them planted to the correct depth.  Another thing I'll need to do is figure out why some of the cells are sopping, while others are desert dry.  I think my kitchen cabinet where I have it sitting isn't completely level.  I'll need to check that before I plant anything else, and if it isn't level, I'll have to figure out where else I can put my greenhouse, or figure out some way to level it where it sits.  

The first step will be to find my level...

OK, moving right along.  A while back when I was first getting into pen-palling, I'd bought some stationery from Amazon, but to be honest, I never really liked it.  I have finally almost used it all up.  I have one sheet of paper and one envelope left, and I think I'll jot a quick note to my sister on that this weekend. 

Anyway, what I didn't like about it was that the paper itself was too busy -- as in, it had too much decoration that obscured the writing.  Some of the patterns were OK, but others were almost unusable.  Well, enough complaining...as soon as I finished that last letter to my Australian pen pal, I got on Amazon and ordered some more paper, with matching envelopes. 

It's much bigger, much simpler, and has lines!  No more slanted writing.  Now, I just need to find more pen pals.  Anyone want one?  

And finally, look what I got in the mail!  A magazine from the Seaman's Church Institute!  

Isn't that cool?  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get to knitting.  I've got sailor's heads to cover!

A Day Off

Whelp, the car is fixed.  No more oil -- or whatever it was -- dripping onto my carport floor.  Once the weather clears up a bit, I'll get the pressure washer out and try to clean up the stains.  I'll need to do my back porch soon anyway.  I'll knock them both out at the same time. 

What I think is really cool is that the Ford place offers valet service now.  They came early this morning and picked up the car, drove it to the service center, and when it was fixed, they brought it back and I never even had to get dressed -- or interact with people, which is a definite plus.  Even better, I didn't have to sit up in the waiting room at the dealership the whole time.  

Unfortunately, the repair bill coupled with how slow work has been these last two years means I won't be able to go up to Missouri to see the eclipse -- unless I want to make it a day trip, and that's just a little bit too far for that.  Still, I have my eclipse glasses and we're going to be at 90% coverage and I have that day off.  I'll be watching it here.  It won't be the same as totality, but it'll still be good. 

I'd thought if they got done with my car in time, I might run up to Batesville and walk the trails out at the Mounds, or at least go to the lake or Lee Tartt, and they did.  Get my car done in time, I mean.  The car was fixed and returned to my house by 10:45.  Alas, it has been drizzly and rainy all day long, so I didn't go anywhere.  I just stayed home and watched TV.  

That wasn't allll I did, though.  I finished a letter to my Australian pen pal-- the only one who still writes to me.  I had so many pen pals for a while, but one by one, they've all quit writing except for this one.  I tried about a year or so ago to get back onto that Global Penfriends website and find some more pen pals, but they totally changed everything up.  You can't go in and browse people's profiles any more.  You have to tell them what you're looking for, and they send you potential matches.  Full disclosure, I haven't been back in over a year, so I don't know if they've changed again since then.  

I also knit this far on a hat with the yarn I'd bought last week.  

I like the way this color is knitting up.  I might get some more of it the next time I go into town. 

The other thing I did was to get three more of my sunflower seedlings transplanted.  

This one here, I had to put two seedlings into the same pot, because their roots were so tangled up I was afraid I'd kill them if I tried to separate them. 

I think I'll be good for a few days, though I do have some more that will need to be moved soon.  

I still only have two cosmos that have germinated, and only two bluebonnets.  I think I may have messed up and planted the seeds too deep.  I'm hoping they'll still germinate anyway.  I'll give them a couple more weeks, and if I don't see any signs of life, I'll get another couple of packets of seeds and try again.  I'm thinking now that I have my cloches, I might try to plant some directly into the ground and cover them with the cloche to keep the birds from getting the seeds.  And if there's a chance of a late frost, I can cover the whole thing with a layer of plastic.  

Or I could just wait a month until the danger of frost has passed.  But I probably won't.  

And finally, what I'd thought was an allergy attack has turned out to be a case of conjunctivitis.  I didn't go to the doctor, though, because most of the time it clears up on its own in a few days.  Mine is already looking better, and my eyeball isn't as sore as it was yesterday.  

I'll just keep an eye on it for now.  

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

I'll see myself out....

Today Was The Day

I'd intended to post yesterday, but alas, my allergies were acting up.  

Heh, "acting up"...they were in a full blown rage.  But I'm feeling better today, and hopefully the rain this evening will settle things down even more.  One of my eyeballs is still a bit sore -- which is what makes me think it's the Bradford Pears that are aggravating me.  When I first moved here, my eyes would suddenly swell almost completely shut without warning, not even caring if I were at work or driving or anything.  Thankfully, that doesn't happen any more, but they do still get pretty irritated at times. 

This afternoon, I'd planned on taking the selfie stick for a test drive, but it's so dark outside what with the impending rain I decided to put that off until another day.  I was a bit bummed that I'm going to have to take my phone out of the case to use the stick, because it won't fit otherwise, but we'll just have to deal with that for now.  

What it did today was to begin moving these sunflowers.  A couple of them had reached what I felt was a critical point, in that they had started to flop over. 

I carefully dug them out of the tray, separated them, and planted them into these things. 

I put them outside for a bit, to begin hardening them off, but will bring them in when the rain starts here in a minute.  I have the day off tomorrow to get my car fixed, so I'll try to get them out into some direct sunlight for a couple of hours -- morning sun, preferably since it's not as harsh.  

I've got a few more that I'll probably move tomorrow, and the rest ought to be OK for a few more days.  I just hope they survive.  Like I said, it's a learning process.  

In other news, my garden cloches arrived yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised that they were a bit bigger than I'd envisioned.  

They came with little identification tags and pins to hold them into place.  I'm seriously considering putting one over this bunch of violets, even though the deer don't usually bother them.  

Just to see how they work, you know. 

Sunny Saturday

I had thought I'd get up and go fishing today, or maybe go walk the trails out at the lake, or even go up to the Mounds at Batesville.  In the end, I didn't do any of that.  

What I did do is repot my Whatever Cacti.  It all started with this one.  I discovered a few weeks ago that the pot I'd put it in the last time I re-potted it had absolutely no drainage whatsoever.  As it happens, I'd been slowly drowning the cactus that was in it.  So to speak.

But even after I'd skipped watering it for a couple of weeks, the soil was way too damp and would have eventually led to root rot.  So, first thing this morning -- after it warmed up a bit, that is -- I took it out and put it into a new pot, with drainage holes. 

It is now fat, dumb, and happy -- as one of my old Navy instructors used to say.  

I had not planned on re-potting this one today, because I didn't think I had a pot big enough to put it into. 

However, when I went into the shed to get a pot for the first transplanting, I found I actually had two.  So the cactus got separated and repotted. 

If you'll recall, I'd discovered last Fall that I'd somehow gotten three colors of cacti put into the same pot, so I separated them as best I could based on leaf shape.  The red one is on the right, and the pink on the left.  I hope now that it has space, the pink one will bush out a bit.  I've heard that if I prune it back, it'll become bushier, so I'm going to try that here in a few weeks, once it's recovered from transplant shock. 

The only cactus that didn't get traumatized today is this one. 

This is one of James' cacti that I'd babysat a few weeks while they were moving back to Texas back in 2015.  I'd inadvertently broken a piece off, so I rooted it. Since then, the poor thing has been through heck.  It got completely dug up by a critter just a few years later, then it died back almost completely about two years ago.  I think maybe I was drowning it, too.  

As I said before, when I'd re-potted everything last summer, I'd somehow gotten this mixed up into the green pot with the red and pink cacti.  Since this cream color was just one sprig, I carefully dug it up shortly after it had bloomed and put it into this little pot, where it struggled a bit, but now seems to be recovering nicely.  

Here's a bit of exciting news.  It looks like my sweet mint is starting to come back. 

I haven't seen any signs of life from anything else, except the lemon thyme.  

Lest you think that's all I did, I finished a hat,

and will soon be casting on another.  

But first, I need a shower.  

Laters.