Facebook

Facebook is a dying platform, and Zuckerberg is in panic mode because of it.  Young people aren't getting on it, because they say it's their parent's social media.  It's for old folks, they say.  

Old folks aren't getting on is as much as they used to, either, because it just isn't fun any more  -- mostly because of the changes they've made to the site over the years.   There is so much they could do to make it fun again, but no.  They're getting ever more restrictive, so it's no longer such a nice place to hang out. 

I've been noticing this in my memories -- the few they haven't taken down, I mean.  We used to have real conversations about real topics.  We posted serious topics, but we also posted jokes and teased each other a bit.  And yes, we talked about our dinners and TV shows, too, but it was a great place for social interaction. 

Nowadays, it seems all you see in your feed are ads.  I logged in one morning and I kid you not, I scrolled past sixteen --SIXTEEN-- ads before I got to a real post posted by a real friend.  It's supposed to be social media, not an advertising platform.  

But when you do post a real post, chances are it's going to get removed and/or you will get put into Facebook jail.  Heh, it cracks me up when people say they won't use Facebook because of Zuckerberg's spying and fact checking, but they will be on Instagram which is owned by...wait for it....Facebook!  They can be even more strict over there, too.  My post about buying a Squishmallow was removed from Instagram (and when I appealed, they refused to restore it) because I was somehow inciting violence by buying a stuffed toy.  Go figure. 

Facebook, on the other hand, didn't remove the post.  Go figure again...

All that to say I don't get on Facebook much any more. I scroll through a couple of times a day to see if I can see what my friends are up to, and occasionally I'll post a meme or weather update, but that's about it -- other than links to the blog.  Therein lies my conundrum.  I'd love to leave Facebook altogether, but most people won't check in to the blog unless they see the link in their Facebook feeds.  

I actually started a Substack account as an alternative, but find I wasn't getting enough of an increase in hits to make sharing the link over there worth it.  Besides, that doesn't seem the place for a personal blog like mine.  They're all so serious, and everything has to be meaningful or political or whatever.  

Anyway, enough of my moaning.

I'd said yesterday that I hadn't gotten any damage from the hurricane, but it turns out I did.  My favorite sunflower had several branches broken off from the high winds.  

I didn't see it yesterday, because it was still raining.  I went out this afternoon and trimmed the broken bits off and put them into the compost pile.  I still need to mow and finish painting the fence, and one day it will stop raining and I will be able to do just that.  Today was not that day.  It has been drizzly and rainy all day from the remnants of Francine. 

The only thing I was able to do was go to the store.  Oh, and I drove by the lake and dropped off some Pokémon into the gyms out there.  I hadn't planned on walking any of the routes, but it stopped raining just long enough for me to quickly walk one of the shorter routes before going on to Walmart.  I thought about walking it twice, but didn't because I'd walked out and forgot my water on the kitchen cabinet.  

When I got back home, we had no water.  Apparently, the storm caused a leak and they had to shut off the water to fix it.  I wish I'd known that before I repotted one of my Christmas Cacti.  Or Thanksgiving cacti for those of you who are pedantic about such things.  

That poor cactus has been through the wringer.  I was plant sitting a few of  Beverly and James' plants while they were moving back to Texas and accidentally broke off a piece.  I felt bad about that, so I rooted it.  It was doing great for a couple of years, then in 2019 something -- probably a squirrel-- dug it up.  I salvaged a piece and rooted it again.  It was struggling, but surviving, then a couple of years ago, it inexplicably died back.  Again, I managed to salvage a piece and put it into one of those temporary pots you buy plants in at the store.  It looks like it's taken, so I figured it was time to put it into a regular pot. 

And finally, I forgot to mention. I re-upped my Paramount Plus subscription.  They had a deal where if you are a new or returning subscriber, you could get it for $2.99 per month.  The only catch is you had to pay for a whole year at once, but that wasn't but $30 ish.  I did that nearly a week ago, but so far, I haven't watched a single thing...

My friend told me to watch A Quiet Place, so I might do that this evening.  

All Good

First up, let me reassure you I made it through the remnants of Francine just fine.  I was at work for most of it, but every time they opened the scrap dock doors, I could see the trees whipping in the wind.  We got a good bit of rain, too.  The official total was 3.75", but I think we got more than that based on how much was in my rain collecting bucket.  

I heard that some people in town lost electricity, but mine never went off.  Other than a bit of low water pressure, we're all good here. 

I’d come home yesterday and finished up my storm prep— which mostly involved moving as much stuff as I could from my small freezer into my deep freeze, then putting four 2-liter bottles filled with water on top of it all, just in case the power went out. 

Probably the hardest part was convincing the cat that she really didn’t want to go outside. I know it looks nice now, but it’s going to be storming before we get up! She didn’t like it and let me know well into the night, but she eventually settled down and went to sleep.

Now I know some people will say I did all that panicking for nothing, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. As Ryan Hall says, don’t be scared, be prepared. Because if you’re prepared, there’s nothing to be scared of.

Well, as you probably know, we lost a great actor this week when James Earl Jones died.  As a tribute, I came home and watched the episode where he guest started in The Big Band Theory. 

 Now I'm watching Land Of The Lost on Tubi.  Funny, you don't realize how cheesy these old shows are when you're watching them as a kid.  

That's about all I have for today.  Maybe something more exciting will happen tomorrow.  

Tell It To Your Children

Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.  -- Joel 1 : 3

So that we may never forget.

Storm Prep

OK, there really wasn't that much prepping to be done, but I did it anyway.  It's not even supposed to get here until Thursday, and will be greatly weakened by then, but I went ahead and brought the plants inside -- just in case the wind starts picking up before I get home from work tomorrow evening.   

We're expecting some wind and maybe 2-4" of rain, but not much more. 

 And Francine is now a hurricane.  Time to light the candle. 

Ugh

The first day back at work is never fun, and today was no exception.  Man, when that alarm went off at 3:30, it made me seriously question my life choices.  But somebody has to pay the bills around here and this evil cat of mine isn't out there hustling up a paycheck, so out of bed I got and off to work I went. 

Where the day passed largely uneventfully, and after some of the days I've had lately, that was a welcome respite.  I'd thought I was going to come home and get at least the front yard mowed before that hurricane makes it this far inland, but I didn't.  It was too hot and I was too tired.  Eh, it'll last until the weekend.  

What I did do was to come home and start watching some of the videos for my new piano book, the Faber All In One Adult Piano Course.  I've actually had it for a while, but I've only recently started going through it.  Anyway, the book has QR codes that take you to the videos the author has made, but I found the channel that I'm going through my Alfred's book with -- Let's Play Piano Methods -- has also made a playlist of lessons for the Faber book.  

I hope that paragraph made sense.  I'm so tired, I don't know for sure. 

What it all boils down to is, I'm watching both sets of videos as I'm going through this book.  Honestly, the Let's Play Piano Methods videos are much clearer and he explains things so much better than Mr. Faber does.  He also agrees with some of the things I thought about the book, such as it introduces some concepts way too soon.  Transposing, for example.  If you haven't even learned what the keys are -- remember this is a book for beginners -- then why would you even worry about transposing?  And why would you try to improvise your own tunes when you don't even know what a chord is?  Mr. LPPM says not to worry about any of that until later, so I'm not going to.  

I still intend to vlog some of this, now that I'm getting to the part where we play real songs.  I just haven't. 

OK, moving right along, I finished the hat I'd been working on yesterday. 

I still have quite a bit of yarn left, but I don't think it's enough for another whole hat, so I may pick up some black and make a couple of black hats with a section of this.  Or maybe I'll do stripes.  I don't know yet.  I think it's Mexicana colorway, but I don't rightly remember, and I threw the label away.  

I guess the big news is, I'm finally in the cone once again!

And yes, I do realize I shouldn't sound so excited about that, but I'm far enough inland this storm won't pose a major threat to me.  We are expected to get 2"-4" of rain from it, though, and we desperately need that.  

Best of all, I'll finally get to light my Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season candle for the first time since I bought it.  (Scroll back a few posts.)

And finally, for those of you who don't live along the coast, here's a handy dandy guide to hurricane categories. 

 Now I need to get my hiney into bed.  Good night, all. 

Sunny Sunday

I hadn't intended to, but this morning it was 58° when I woke up, and what with football on the TV, and the windows open, it felt so much like Fall, I had to put out a decoration.  Just one...this one on my front door. 

It was just cool enough that I needed a light blanket as I sat drinking my morning cup of coffee.  And the coolness made that coffee hit just right.

But, even with the beautiful cool weather, I did not get up and go back out to the lake this morning.  I kind of wanted to, but I knew I'd be feeling it in my legs soon.  Instead, I hung around the house and piddled in the back yard a bit.  

I finally got that Black Eyed Susan planted and put a cloche over her so I don't accidentally mow her down.  

I'm really hoping she comes back.  I know they're perennials, but I don't usually have much luck with those.  Purple coneflowers, blanket flowers -- none of them seem to survive. 

It was so nice outside, I thought briefly about mowing, but didn't because I didn't really want to.  I started digging up these day lilies, but didn't get very far with that. 

There are a bunch of them I need to move, and if anyone wants some free day lily bulbs, just let me know.  Seriously, I've got more than I know what to do with.  I've still got a bucket full of daffodil bulbs I dug up last spring that I need to do something with, too.  

Then there is this.    

It's the only remaining sunflower I have from the seeds I got at my nephew's wedding -- the others having already gone through their natural lifespans.  I really, really hope this one re-seeds itself and I get another one next year.  I think of all of them, this was my favorite. 

The spider lilies behind the house are really coming on, too,  

but the ones along the fence won't come up until later.  I've noticed that the ones in shady spots bloom sooner, though they do well in sunlight, too.  

After that, I came inside and watched a couple of episodes of Merlin and one of Father Brown.  BTW, Sister Boniface has made her appearance, and I can see why she got her own spinoff show.  Now I'm really wanting to start that one, too.  If you take Miss Bates from the version of Emma that stars Gwyneth Paltrow, and mix her with Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of Sherlock, you get Sister Boniface.  

Now, I need to get off of here, because the Cowboys game is about to start.  

Laters.

Beautiful Saturday

It was an amazingly beautiful day today.  If it had been just a few degrees cooler and slightly less windy, you could call it a Robert Spaulding's Wife day.  

As it happened, it was beautiful enough that I managed to get myself moving enough to go walk some Pokémon Go routes out at the lake this morning.  It was such a pleasant morning -- cool, and low humidity, but I thought that wind was blowing like a wooly booger. 

So anyway, I walked the route twice because it was so short and got two route badges from it.  Then I dropped off four Pokémon in gyms, and came on home after that.  I'd thought about driving across the dam, but the wind was blowing so hard I was afraid it would blow me off the top of the levee.   OK, not really, but it was a pretty stout breeze.

After I got home, it was still cool enough to open my French doors and my kitchen window and let some fresh air into the house.   Then I got to work.  It's amazing how much you can get done when you're not absolutely crushed by oppressive heat and humidity.  But I'm sure you don't want to hear about the housework I did, so I'll show you this:  

I got all these hats tagged and boxed up, ready to send off to the Seaman's Church Institute for their Christmas At Sea program.  I didn't use safety pins this time...

Then I finally made a squash casserole out of the squash my coworker gave me a couple of weeks ago, and had some of that for lunch.  But the good news is, while I was getting some onion out of the freezer, I found one more container of that pastalaya Cody made me for Mother's Day!  That's going to be my supper tonight. 

Then I made a chocolate mousse that I found online.  It's really simple.  One cup whipping cream, 2 tbsp cocoa, 2 tbsp stevia, and half a tsp of vanilla.  Whip it until it forms stiff peaks then freeze for a few hours.  It's not super sweet as it is, but I think next time I'll add a bit more stevia.  

And finally, when they'd started clearing the woods behind my house, I'd taken the squirrel feeder down off of the pecan tree behind the fence.  I still haven't decided where to put it permanently, but this afternoon, I set it on the ground out by the back fence. 

 The squirrels have already found it, and I hope this will keep them from digging in my herb beds.  

Oh, and one last thing.  I was watching my friend Marcy's Vlog on YouTube and she mentioned another channel called Honeystead.  She grows a lot of herbs and such, and in one of her videos, she's talking about the benefits of lemon balm.  I made myself some lemon balm tea last night.   That's why I bought the stuff to begin with, but haven't really used it for that.  I've only been drying it and giving it to Cody for cooking.  She also mentioned making a tincture with it.  I need to go find that one and watch it, but right now, I'm about to go heat up that pastalaya and completely destroy my blood sugar levels. 

Laters.  

First Friday Off

Well, the rain put a damper -- he he-- on my plans for the day, but we needed it so badly, I'm not complaining.   And it's rained pretty much all day, too-- a slow, drizzly rain that really soaks into the ground.  

Instead of painting the fence and mowing the yard, or going walking down at the lake, I stayed inside and watched Merlin, Vera, and Father Brown Mysteries while finishing a letter to my Australian pen pal and knitting on a hat.   

Probably a good thing, because I had some headers yesterday at work that were so awful my whole back and arms are extremely sore.  It was a big order too, and there is that one parts stager who won't split an order to save her soul.  She doesn't like doing all that counting, she says, so she won't divide it up no matter how difficult the parts or how big the order.  We just have to deal with it. 

Speaking of work, it seems to me that they are going out of their way to make our jobs difficult.   The latest thing now is that we can no longer type our employee number into the computer when we're confirming our work.  We've done it for years -- ever since they installed this new system.  It's easy and convenient, since our hands are already on the keypad.  But no, now we have to stop what we're doing, dig out our badges, and scan them.  The real question is why?  What was so wrong with us typing our clock numbers in?  

What was so wrong with me carrying my 54 oz Bubba Keg, for that matter?  Way back in the day, I filled that thing up once every morning, and it lasted me all day -- except for the very hottest days of summer.  Now, with that stupid clear cup we have to carry, I have to go refill it five or six times per day.  That's the trade off.  It's either the big mugs, or employees walking to the ice machine multiple times a day.  

I still don't understand that one.

In other news, a few years ago, I was listening to the radio while I was getting ready for work, and some girl on there was saying that country music is biased against women, because women don't get as much air time as men do.  

Seriously?  The genre that was pretty much founded by a mother and her three daughters biased against women?  The genre of Loretta Lynn?  Of Tammy Wynette and Tanya Tucker?  Of Crystal Gale?  Of Reba, Trisha, Barbara Mandrell, and The Judds?

The genre of Patsty Cline and of course the Queen, Dolly Parton?  

"Maybe if you'd make better music, you'd get more air time," I said to the radio that morning, then went on about my day and forgot the conversation..

Until I was driving to work one more and Delta Dawn came on the radio.

They don't make songs like that any more.  

Maybe if they did, they'd get more air time.  

Rough Day

It's been a rough week, and today was the roughest day of all.  But it's all over now, and I have a Squishmallow. 

The first Spider Lily of the year is open, 

and there is football on the TV tonight.   It's not quite cold enough for hot chocolate, but you know what?  

I think I'm going to get me some anyway. 

First Day Back

There I was at work, just a working away, when Group Leader Shark came out of the upstairs office and hollered down from the landing, "Hey!  Two O'clock!  Two O'clock!" 

I don't know why they let us go on time, but I didn't argue.  I was out of there.  I thought briefly about going to the lake and walking a trail, but by then, my feet were hurting so badly all I did was come home and watch TV.  

Well, after watering my herb gardens, refilling the wildlife trough, and trimming the dead leaves off of Marty Mac -- my Venus Fly Trap.  Oh, and refilling the hummingbird feeder as well.  I think migration must be starting, because I'm having to fill it much more often now.  

I'd planned on coming home and filming the first vlog about my new piano course, since I'm finally getting to the part where there are real songs, but I was too tired to even do that.  Getting up at 3:30 after being able to sleep in as long as I wanted will do that to a person.  

Maybe tomorrow, but for now, I'll just leave you with a hat progress photo, 

and get myself to bed. 

Goodnight. 

I Didn't Labor

Oh, I had so many plans for this Labor Day...so much stuff I intended to get done, but in the end I didn't do any of it.  Well, not much of it at least.  The only thing I was able to mark off of my list was to wash out my kitchen trash can.  It's been too long, and it was pretty gunked up.  Now it's all nice and clean -- at least as clean as a garbage can can be. 

Then I decided to clean the outside of my kitchen window, which involved taking out the screen.  That was a bear but we persevered and got it done.  Then it was another bear to put back in, but now the glass is so much cleaner than before, I keep thinking I've left the window open.  

I really want to get all of my windows replaced with new, energy efficient ones that I can actually open and close without a struggle, but all home improvements are pretty pricey right now.  I'll likely have to do a few at a time, but once I'm done, it'll be worth it in the long run.

So, what did I do all day?  Well, I didn't labor, that's for sure!  I cast on another hat for the Seaman's Church Institute. 

In the latest Knit Before Christmas magazine that they send out, they'd included a page of gift tags.  There weren't nearly enough, so I made copies of them, and wonder of wonders, they turned out OK. 

Then I spent the next few moments cutting them out and punching the holes.  Now, I just need to write my message and tie them to the hats.  Oh, and the mag said not to use safety pins, which is what I'd used last year.  Oops.  This time around, I'll know better and use scrap yarn.  

And finally, September is usually the busiest month of hurricane season, so I've got my candles at the ready.  

 The Jim Cantore repellent is for any time a hurricane enters the Gulf, and the Trying To Reason is for when I'm in the cone.  I haven't been able to light that one since I got it.  

Let's keep it that way, OK?  

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some Father Brown mysteries to watch. 

Happy Fall!

Happy first day of meteorological Fall, which is the one I follow because meteorology is better than astrology.  

I said what I said.  

And look, I've got spider lilies coming up.  

See, even they know. 

Normally, Labor Day weekend is when I usually put out all of my Fall decorations, but this year, I'm just not feeling it. Oh, I'll get them out eventually, but it'll be a bit later.  I don't know what's wrong with me, but there is a lot I haven't been feeling here lately.  I had so much stuff I was going to get done yesterday, but all I really did was sit and watch football. 

Navy won.  Texas won.  Nope, that's all we care about, though Oklahoma did a nice tribute to Toby Keith.  OK, OK, Ole Miss and Mississippi State both won, too, and LSU plays tonight.  Good thing I have tomorrow off, because I'm watching that game.  

Since we finally had a Saturday off, I got up and went to the Farmer's Market yesterday morning.  I didn't buy much, but I did get a jar of that salsa Brennan had spoken so highly of.  I wanted to see what the fuss was about, and it is pretty good.  I'm not really a salsa person, but I like that stuff.  I also bought some tea cakes and a loaf of homemade bread.   Heh, after eating all that, I expected my blood sugar to be off the charts this morning, but it was only 98.  I'm not sure what I did right, but apparently it was something.

Oh, and I splurged and bought myself a pizza, too.  But at Walmart, not the Farmer's Market.  While I was there-- at the Farmer's Market, not Walmart-- I took a photo of that building that had been destroyed in the storm a few weeks back. 

It doesn't look like they've done much too it, other than fence it off.  It's been an eyesore on our town square for years, and I really hope the owner takes care of it quickly.  I'm not holding out much hope, because like I said, it's been an eyesore for years.  Shame, that, because it was once such a nice building.  It had a shop on the ground floor, and apartments on the upper floors.  They even had little Juliet balconies on the windows.  

Speaking of cleaning, look what I found in my locker. 

Now, that is a blast from the past.  We haven't been Heatcraft in probably 25 years.  They've even changed all of our employee numbers since then, too.  Back in the day, there were three Heatcraft plants here, all owned by Lennox.  Somewhere along the way -- back in the late 1990s if I remember right-- Lennox sold off the other two -- which are both now owned by Modine, but kept ADP.  Since we were no longer Heatcraft, we had to get all new badges.  I don't know why I kept this one, but I did.  I found it tucked away in a little bag I used to carry my inspecting tools when I was an inspector.  That was in like, 1998-1999, so the change had to have come around then. 

OK, enough of that.  So, while I was watching all of that football, I managed to finish this hat. 

Then, this afternoon, I got all of the hats out and washed them.  There are 25 that are ready to box up and send off, only my printer is acting up so I can't print the tags.  I've tried running the cleaning cycle several times, and it's better, but still not quite right.  I'll work with it some more, but I can e-mail the Seaman's church institute and they'll send me some, so that's probably what I'll do if I can't get it fixed. 

And finally, I got Hen-Bit out and worked on her a bit more.  I got her comb and wattle sewn on, but the wattle doesn't look quite right to me.  Good thing I'm keeping her.  Then I got the eyes on, but decided that was enough sewing for the day, and back into the drawer she went. 

Heh, I'd left the long tails of yarn to sew the seams, but like a dummy, I'd forgotten why I hadn't woven them in, and started weaving them in.  Fortunately, I'd only done a little bit before I remembered why I'd left them out and was able to stop myself before doing them all.  

I will get her finished one day.  Just not today. 

Not Friday

All day long, it's felt like Friday to me, but I don't know why.  Maybe because we have Saturday off, so this is the second to last day of the work week for me.  It didn't help that I went to the store today instead of tomorrow to try to avoid the pre-holiday rush.  I hope I remember to get up and go to work tomorrow.  

While I was there -- at the store, I mean-- I bought some coconut flour to go with the almond flour I bought a few weeks ago.  I'm going to try out some keto cookie recipes so I can at least have some type of cookies for Christmas.  

I've already seen a few recipes that sound pretty good.  Maybe I'll make some this weekend and see.  Not that a few cookies will really hurt, but I wouldn't need the sugar anyway.  I'm not trying to go full on Keto, just cut down enough on the simple carbs that I don't go full on diabetic.  

Speaking of, remember that coffee I bought from Amazon a few weeks ago?  I've been drinking it in the mornings, and it's probably the best tasting coffee I've ever had.  It's so smooth, and not a hint of bitterness so that I don't even need to add creamer.  Just a little stevia and we're all set. 

I was looking for pumpkin spice creamer at Walmart, though, but they don't have it out yet.  When they do get some, I'm going to be good and get the zero sugar kind.  Most of the time.  But look what I picked up instead!

 Sunday is September 1st, and September 1st is the first day of meteorological fall, so I'm going with it.  And the cold front is pushing through right now so it's going to cool off really quickly.  Most importantly, we're getting rain!  I swan my yard was so dry the grass crunched when I walked on it. 

Finally, they got the new lockers in at work, and the contractors have been putting them together.  I walked back and looked at them, and they aren't clear at all.  Only the doors are clear.  The sides and back are solid.  They look like plastic to me.  I hope not.  Those things will tear up incredibly fast. 

I still don't see how they'll stop people from fighting, though. 

About Yesterday

The plan was to grab a quick shower, then sit down and write a blog post for you.  However, just as I was walking into the bathroom, I heard a text message alert on my phone.  "Eh, it's another political text,"  I said to myself, then went to check it so it'd stop chirping.  

Much to my surprise, it wasn't a political text at all.  It was Cody!  They were on their way home from their trip to Alaska, driving down from Memphis and wanted to stop by and visit.  OK, they didn't drive all the way to Alaska.  They'd driven up to Memphis to leave their cat with Brennan's parents, then flew out of Memphis.  They got back yesterday morning, then drove on home later that evening.  

Anyway, they stopped by and visited for about an hour, then went on home.  I gave them a jar of the salsa I'd bought at the farmer's market, and three jars of pickled peppers.  I forgot to give them a jar of the Jalapenos, though.  Just the banana peppers and the mixed peppers I bought at the store.  I told them to tell me how they liked them, explaining that I'd just found some recipes on the internet and winged it. I haven't heard from them yet, but I hope they turned out good.  The peppers, I mean.   

After they left, I took my long awaited shower, but you didn't get your blog post.  I'd write it for you now, but I can't remember what I was going to talk about.  It must not have been that important.

In less pleasant news, the plant ran off another good supervisor. I don’t know what happened but he had just had enough and went to Milwaukee Tools.  They always seem to do that -- run the good ones out of there.  Of course, the Spawn of Satan supervisor will be there until kingdom come...

But a bit of better news, they're actually giving us the weekend off.  I was shocked and pleasantly surprised.  And my new paint sprayer came in just in time. 

Alas, we're looking at rain all weekend, so it'll be a minute before I get to use it.  No matter.  I'll get the fence painted eventually -- maybe next weekend, since I have a vacation day.  Oh, but I've got to get the transmission fluid in my car changed soon, too.  So much to do...I'm making a list, but you know me.  I'll probably not get half of it done. 

In the meantime, I've started watching Father Brown Mysteries on Britbox.  

Oh, and I ordered a small metal detector to try to find the bolt I lost when I was replacing the pull rope in the lawnmower.  I took it out to where I thought I'd dropped the bolt and got excited when it started beeping.  But when I got down on my hands and knees, I didn't find anything and the beeping stopped. 

I did this three times before I realized it was detecting the metal eyelets in my boots.  

I don't want to talk about it.  

And I still didn't find that dadgum bolt.  

Nope

 Just nope.  Come on Autumn!  

OK, this is just because I forgot to crack my windows before I went into work this morning.  My thermometer on my back porch at home said 101°.  Still hot, though.  The good news is, these next two days will be the last of the really hot days for a minute.  By Thursday, the highs will be in the low 90s, and then down into the mid to upper 80s next week.  I can't wait!

On a similar note, I slept good last night.  I'd left the window unit in my bedroom running all day yesterday, and by the time I went to bed, it was so cold in there I had to pull all the blankets up.  That makes for some good sleep, I tell you. 

Then I went to work this morning, and before my shift started, I went to put something on the lines, and it was so cold back there.  No wonder those people are wearing jackets.  It's still hot up front, though, but not as hot.  It only got up to 91° at my stand today, so they must have turned at least part of the air conditioning on. 

Speaking of work, a couple of my coworkers stopped Junior today as he was prancing through the plant with his red insulated cup and told him he wasn't supposed to be having that cup.  He said, "Aww, I'm just taking it up to my office, or to fill it up with ice or water."  

They said, "It doesn't matter.  You're not supposed to have it.  Those are the rules."  He looked at them like they had lost their minds questioning him, and just walked away.  They had a point, though.  If the rules don't apply to everyone, then they shouldn't apply to anyone.  My brazing stand is my office -- so to speak -- and if he can have an insulated mug, then I should be able to have one as well. 

However,  when Junior came back from his lunch break, he had a clear plastic cup like the rest of us.  Not that he needs an insulated cup sitting up in his air conditioned office anyway.  

By the way, the plant's reputation is starting to get out there.  This was posted in a local Facebook group today:

If things keep going the way they are, there won't be anyone left who will be willing to work there.  They're having a hard enough time keeping employees as it is.  

And finally, I went ahead and ordered a paint sprayer off Amazon.  It was only $37, and according to the seller's page had been marked down from $129.  I'm not sure I believe that, unless they are clearancing out an older model to make room for a newer one.  Still, it got good reviews and should do what I need it to do. 

I guess that's about all I have for today, so I'll stop boring you with my drivel.

Laters.