My Day Off

It was three weeks ago— the Friday after the ice storm. I was at my stand working away minding my own business when one of my friends came over and said, “I came to say goodbye.”

“You’re leaving?”  I asked.

“I’m retiring,” she replied, “I just can’t stand it any more.”

Fast forward to yesterday. I saw her in Walmart and she was positively glowing. She looked happy, and relaxed, and somehow younger.  I walked over and asked her how retirement was going, and she said, “It’s wonderful!  It’s so nice not to have to go back into that place!”

She got out just in time, too.  You know what we have to do now?  We have to walk through a metal detector just to get into the plant.  

You read that right.  A bleeping METAL DETECTOR!!  They say it's for safety, but it's not.  I've never ever heard of a terrorist who walked into a building with his AK-47 ready to shoot the place up then said, "Oh gosh darn it all!  They have a metal detector.  I guess I'll just go home and repent of my wicked ways."  You know, like I had to repent of the unwholesome words I uttered when I read that notice.  

Nope, they just walk right on through, ignoring the little beep beep beep.  Who's going to stop them?  Not our unarmed security guards, that's for sure.  They'll be the first ones who get shot.  

Oh, and hypothetically speaking, if I were hypothetically going to bring a hypothetical weapon into the plant, I wouldn't hypothetically walk right through the front door with it during shift change... Hypothetically speaking, of course.  There are hypothetical ways to get a hypothetical weapon hypothetically into the plant without...um, never mind.  

Not to mention all of the things already in the plant that could be used as a hypothetical weapon should the need arise.  I mean, I'd hypothetically had a whole plan already in place just in case my stalker decided to get out of hand -- with me or with anyone else.  Hypothetically speaking, of course. 

On the other hand, if I had been allowed to defend myself, I could have put a stop to that mess on day 1, and it would have saved a whole lot of women --and a few men-- 15 years of harassment.  But no....Zero tolerance policies are just like metal detectors.  They sound good on the surface, but don't really work to prevent...anything.  

Anyway, since I have today off, my project for the day was to finish water sealing the raised bed I'd started on... whenever it was, I don't even remember.   That's exactly what I did.  

It didn't take long at all, so when I was done, I put it together.  Then I said to myself, "Self, you hadn't planned on doing anything else today.  Might as well get the other bed out and seal it, too."  

A few moments later, and both beds are water sealed and put into place. 

I'm really going to have to do something about that red clay, though.  It hasn't rained in 5 days, but I was still sinking up to my ankles in that muck.  I'm hoping once I can psych myself up enough to get a dirt guy out here to fix what the land scammer did to my yard, I can get him to slope things so water doesn't collect around my beds.  I know you can't really see it in the photos, but it's still much higher in the middle than around the edges.  

Another thing I miscalculated was how many beds would fit into this space.  That area you see between the two beds is about 9" too short to put another one of the pre-fabs I've been buying. 

On the other end, it won't matter, because that'll be my entrance into the garden spot, but I'll have to figure something out for this space.  I've been thinking about hiring someone to build a custom bed there, but at this point, who do I trust? 

I've still got two 4' x 4' beds to put together, but I want to wait until I can get a dirt guy out to level the spot a bit better before I put them out.  Or maybe get all of that red clay out of there completely, if he can.  When I do, that will be all for this year.  

You know, it was such a beautiful day -- not too warm, not too cold, not too windy -- I decided it would be a perfect day to put a little fire in the fire pit and sit out side and read a bit. 

I thought briefly about getting some hotdogs out and roasting them, but I did enough of that during the ice storm.  I'm over it for a while.  Instead, I just sat there and enjoyed the day.  Only now I'm hungry.  I guess I'd better go get me something to eat, so let me just leave you with this:  

Man, have I hit the sweet spot for my bluebonnets or what?  I can't wait to see them start blooming. 

Best Laid Plans

The plan was to come home yesterday and finish water sealing that first raised bed, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. 

Yep, when I got off work, I walked out of the plant and much to my surprise, it was chilly and rainy.  Not raining, just drizzly and misty.  I didn't feel like getting out in that mess, so I changed my plans and finished my latest jigsaw puzzle instead. 

This one was a lot more fun to do than the last one, and one I got to the part where all the people are, I was able to get it done in a flash.  This afternoon, I broke it up and put it back into the box, then moved the card table into the living room so I can work the next one while watching TV.  

This will be the next one, by the way. 

I've decided on it because it's in the biggest box.  Strange reasoning, I admit, but there it is.  If I do the ones in the bigger boxes, it'll be easier to stack them back in the closet when I'm done. 

Oh, and I also finished the hat I was working on.  

I haven't cast on a new one, though.  I probably will before the night ends. 

A bit of good news, I think I'm finally kicking that bug I've had for the last...nearly two weeks now.  I'd start to feel better, then it would sneak back in and absolutely body slam me again.  But now, I feel like it's about over.  My cough has lightened up and my chest isn't quite so tight.  I'm hoping by Saturday, I'll be done with it. 

I was taking my shower yesterday, and just standing there letting the hot water run and fill up the bathroom with steam.  It put me in mind of when I was a small child.  I can clearly remember my mother getting me out of bed and sitting with me in the bathroom with a hot shower filling the room with steam.  I couldn't have ben more than two or three years old, but that is of of my strongest memories from my childhood.  Apparently, my lungs have always given me problems.  

Then there was the time I had pneumonia when I was 11 and spent 8 days in the hospital.  But that's another story for another day. 

Speaking of Saturday, I'd put vacation in for Friday so that I would have Saturday off to go to Fiber Fun In The 'Sip.  As it happens, we weren't even going to work Saturday.  I thought about cancelling my day, because we've had so much time off here lately due to MLK day and the ice storm, but decided against it.  If I feel up to it, I might just finish that raised bed.  I might even do the other one, and get them out into place.  Of course, that last part depends on the weather -- as in whether it rains or not. 

HA HA HA HA HA!!!  OK, I'll go sit down now...

And finally, I know some of you have been longing for spring.  This is for you.  

The first daffs of the season.  

Spoiler Alert!

Man I need a nap.

The problem with getting up ridiculously early is that you also have to go to bed ridiculously early.  That means when you're all just sitting down getting comfortable in front of the TV, I'm already in bed -- or at least getting ready for bed.  So it was last night.

I've been watching the Olympics, and have become particularly interested in curling.  The men's team was going to be shown playing Norway at 7:00, so I set my DVR to record it, thinking I'd watch it when I got home this evening.  By the way, one of the guys on the Norwegian team looked just like The Boss Who Must Not Be Named.   But that's neither here nor there...

After I got into bed, though, I said, "Let me just put that match on my Kindle and I'll watch until I fall asleep, like I do when I'm watching football.  I can pick up where I fell asleep tomorrow."  Alas, it was not to be.  Every time I closed my eyes and started to drift off, I was like, "Nope.  I gotta see what's going on!" and I'd start watching again.  It was totally worth it.

It was the tenth end.  The score was tied at 8 all.  U.S. had hammer, and Danny Casper had the rock.  How he threw this one last rock would decide the game.  Taking aim, he let it go....

Well, YouTube won't let me embed the video, which would have had a much better impact on you, Gentle Reader, but you can watch it here:  Curling I strongly recommend you do so. 

That, my friends, is how it's done!  

Who knew that sliding a rock down a sheet of ice could be so captivating.   

Captivating as it may be, it doesn't keep 3:30 AM from getting here way too early, and before I knew it, that alarm was going off and I was headed in to work.  Where I had old Christmas songs running through my head all day. 

This one, to be exact...

Don't ask.  Even I don't know...

OK, moving right along...you know how I always say that when I get home from work, I'm going to do so much stuff, then end up not doing any of it?  Well, today I ....didn't do that.   I actually got one of my raised beds out and started water sealing the pieces.  

Yay, me!  

I didn't do the whole bed, though, because I'm tahrd.  That's tired in Southern.  Maybe I'll get the rest done tomorrow, then I can start putting it all together.  It was such a beautiful, sunny, and warm day, once I was done with that, I sat outside in my chair for a little bit. 

I really need to get myself psyched up and get a tree person out to take some of these dead and broken limbs out of my big oak tree before they fall. Just sitting out there this afternoon, I found three branches that had completely broken and were just hanging there, stuck on other branches.  But you know how I am with phone calls -- especially when this will be the third tree guy I've called and the job still hasn't been done.  

Just so this post won't be a complete waste of your time, here is hat progress:  

Yarn:  Red Heart Bitty Stripes

Colorway:  Crayon Box

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles: US 8 / 5mm

I'll probably go ahead and finish this one after I'm done posting.  I need to start thinking about what I'm going to take to Fiber Fun In The 'Sip, since it's this weekend.  Me, I'm still not sold on it being in February.  I liked it so much better in the Fall.  At least this year, Leann will be there, and I hope Amy and Christi can come.  Even Peggy had mentioned trying to come this time, but I haven't heard for sure if she'll be able to. 

And finally, here is puzzle progress. 

I must say, this one is going a whole lot easier than the last one.  Even with the cat putting her muddy footprints all over it...brat.  

But it got me to thinking, back in the day, when we had big family gatherings for Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or whatever, we always had a jigsaw puzzle going, and usually a game of chickenfoot as well.  These days, everyone just sits around staring at their phones...In fact, Elon Musk once said we're all pretty much defacto cyborgs, because we never go anywhere without a device of some sort. 

And somewhere along the way, we've lost real human connection.  

We need to get it back. 

Endings And Beginnings

Here I sit, watching the Olympics on a Saturday afternoon.  It's not what I'd planned on doing today, but it's what I am doing.  I'd planned on getting my new raised beds out and putting the water seal stuff on them, but I'm not.  It's supposed to rain for the next few days, but I didn't see that as a problem.  I'd just pull the car out and do it in the car port.  In the end, I just didn't feel like it.  Eh, I can't plant outside for two more months anyway.  I have plenty of time to get it done. 

Ever since I woke up with the epizoodies last Saturday, I haven't felt quite right.  I feel better, just not 100%.  I mostly just feel weak and shaky, and a bit lightheaded at times.  I admit, a lot of that may have to do with getting up at 3:30 AM for work the last three days.  The older I get, the harder it is to adjust. I've basically been coming home and collapsing at the end of the day.  

Despite feeling puny and coughing so much my chest, back, neck and head are so very sore, I did manage to finish this jigsaw puzzle.  

It was....challenging.  Let's just put it that way.  It was challenging because the pieces were very irregular, and didn't follow the standard jigsaw shapes.  To add to the confusion, I had extra pieces. 

Once I'd figured out they were duplicates, I remembered them from the first time I'd worked this puzzle all those years ago.  I don't know why I didn't toss them then, but they've been tossed now.  If ever I decide to work this one again, I won't have that to deal with.  I wonder, though, if I have extra pieces, did someone else get a puzzle with missing pieces?  How disappointing that would be!

I got this one out to do next, but haven't started it yet.  

I need to move my card table into the living room where I can watch TV while I'm working on puzzles.  That might get them done more quickly, even though it's not a race.  

So, while I've been watching Olympics, I began a new hat. 

Yarn:  Red Heart Super Saver Bitty Stripes

Colorway:  Crayon Box

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8/ 5 mm

This yarn is quickly becoming my go-to for these hats.  It's soft, easy to knit with, and I love the colors.  I still have some solid color yarns to use up -- most of which was given to me by friends who were de-stashing.  

Other than that, the big project for today, since I didn't do my raised beds, was to get MartyMac out of the crisper drawer in the fridge and set him on the plant shelf so he could start warming up. 

Since I live in the South with our wild temperature swings, it was recommended* that I put him into the refrigerator for dormancy to keep him at a consistent cold temperature.  You know, just in case you were wondering why he was in my crisper drawer. 

I usually get him back out mid-February to start warming up, then at the beginning of March, I put him back outside.  I'll cover him if we have a late frost, but they're very cold hardy.  I know some people leave theirs outside all winter and they're fine.  

First thing I did was to trim off all the dead traps left from last year. 

I know it looks like a lot, but as long as the rhizome is healthy, he'll be fine.  

When I was putting him on the plant shelf, look what I found. 

This crazy thing is trying to bloom again.  That's why I call them my Whatever Cactus.  

The only other thing I did today was try to figure out how I got a Real ID.  I'd heard other people say it was such a headache and they didn't fly enough to go through all the trouble to get one, and it was all just a big money grab anyway, so I was curious.  I even asked on Facebook what people had to do to get theirs, and depending on which state they are in, some people were required to bring six different forms of ID to get it.  Others who had been married and divorced multiple times said they had to bring ALL of their marriage licenses and divorce decrees, so they could track all of the name changes.  

All I had to do was renew my driver license.  I'd done that back in 2023, and I even renewed online.  When I got my new license, it was a Real ID, and I didn't have to show them anything.  The only thing I can think of is that I have my state firearms permit -- which I've kept updated even though Mississippi is a Constitutional Carry state.  

I had to turn in a crap-ton of paperwork to get that done, and get myself fingerprinted to boot.  When I got it renewed the first time, I even took my DD-214 up there so I could get my Instructor Certified sticker.  Which isn't a sticker.  It's just printed on the ID.  

Navy normally doesn't have to qualify with weapons --  unless you're special forces or military police -- but since I was Auxiliary Security, I got my pistol quals.   

Now, at least in my state, I can get my firearms permit renewed through the mail.  They said, "There is no need to go get fingerprinted again, because your fingerprints don't change."  They still do the background check and all, but they mail you all the forms before your current permit expires and you have plenty of time to get it all filled out and turned in.  

On the other hand, I did have to show a birth certificate to get my learner's driving permit way back when I was 15, so that will still be on file, too.  Oh well, I have one and that's the point. 

And finally, I somehow ended up with a promotional credit from Amazon video, so I used it to buy The Hollow Crown.  Shakespeare. 

What can I say?  I am who I am.  

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch the rest of this Olympic hockey game between the US and Denmark. 

USA!  USA!! USA!!!

*I'm in a Venus fly trap group on Facebook.  The moderator has even written books on how to care for them.  He's the one who recommended I put MartyMac into the refrigerator for dormancy. 

Wednesday Whimsey

OK, OK, there isn't going to be much about this post that's actually whimsical, but I drew a blank on a title, so that's what you get. 

Now, let's get down to business... First things first, it was not at all cold this morning, so it totally didn't matter that I'd forgotten my jacket at work.  In fact, it was in the 60s, and I just put on a long sleeved flannel shirt and was nice and toasty warm until I got to work.  

By the way, we're back to going in at 5:00.  Yay for overtime.  Oh, and they have totally screwed us on this Big Beautiful Bill thing -- you know, the one that eliminated tax on overtime.  I'll tell you why.  Let's say, hypothetically speaking, I work 60 hours a week.  You'd think that would mean 40 hours of straight time pay and 20 hours at time and a half, right?  Wrong.

For that 60 hour work week, we'll be paid 60 hours straight time pay, and 20 hours half time pay.  So, the only thing that isn't taxable is the 20 hours half time pay.   Got it?  OK, let me clarify it a bit.  If, hypothetically speaking, someone makes $20 per hour, he'll be paid 60 hours at $20, them 20 hours at $10 per hour.  The only thing that won't be taxable is that 20 hours of $10 per hour pay.  I'll still have to pay taxes on 60 hours of $20 per hour pay.  Clear as mud?  Yeah, the company is suggesting we hire tax professionals to make sense of it all. 

I'm just wondering, for those of you who work (somewhere else), is your pay done like this?  Or is it just Lennox, International who does their employees this way?  

In other news, I got me a new toy today. 

Eh, it's just a new power bank, but I'm pretty stoked about it.  See, I'd had this one for a while, 

and I noticed during the ice storm that it will no longer charge my phone.  I turn it on, and it charges for maybe a minute, then turns itself off.  Even sitting out in direct sunlight, it wouldn't charge my phone.  The charge function kept turning itself off.  I'd have to keep turning it back on, and it took forever just to get my phone battery up by just 2%.  I guess it's worn out.  It was an el cheapo model anyway.  I don't think I paid but maybe $10 for it. 

The flashlight on it still works pretty well, but for what it's worth, this one was my go to for light.  

It's got a regular flashlight , and it's also got this little lift up panel for a more widespread light. 

I used that one to brush my teeth with. The only down side is that the radio antenna is so short it makes it pretty limited in what I can listen to.  It picks up the local station just fine, but anything further away is barely audible or so staticky I can't stand to listen to it.  Of course, the local station had lost power, too, so there was that... 

Once I'd gotten the batteries for Cody's bigger radio, I could pick up another station.  I'm not sure which one it was, or where it was located -- why don't they identify themselves more often?-- but it was something to listen to. 

All that rambling to say, as soon as I got my power back, I got online and did some research into power banks. I'd looked into the Jackery banks, but decided against it, especially after my cousin James brought me that generator.  For one thing, they're pretty expensive if you get the one with the solar panels.  For another thing, one of my coworkers and her husband have one, and she told me it only lasted about a day.  They'd kept having to plug it into their truck and go driving around to charge it back up.  

Now that I have a gas generator, I didn't need something to power my whole house.  I wanted something to keep my phone topped up during short term power outages.  You know, the ones that are too short to make dealing with a gas generator worth the effort. 

Anyway, after clarifying to Gemini what exactly it was that I wanted, the one I got (above) was the one that kept coming up on all the lists as being the best value for the money, so I splurged and got it.  It seems pretty nice.  It's got a very bright LED light, plus wireless charging.  It is supposed to be able to completely charge a phone 3-5 times -- depending on how low your battery is -- before needing to be powered up again.  They do recommend that you charge it using an outlet, because it takes something like two days to completely charge it using the solar panel.  

I hope it lasts longer than the cheap one did.  

I'll let you know. But not for a long time, I hope.

I'm done with power outages for a while. 

Snuggly Warm

I woke up bright and early this morning, and it just felt so good and snuggly and warm in my bed, I thought to myself, "I think I'll just stay in bed all day .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................DANG!  It's only Tuesday!  I guess I'd better get up and go to work." 

I don't know why I thought it was Sunday, but that was certainly a disappointment.  I guess it's because I was watching the Olympics yesterday, and I'm so used to seeing sports on Saturday.  

Other than that, there's not much else to talk about.  Oh, I forgot to tell you, they gave us our annual raises in January this year instead of waiting until July. Mine was pretty good.  I got a 5% raise, but one of the other brazers only got 10 cents.  She was so mad!  She told me she deserved more than that because -- in her own words:  "I work my [donkey] off!"  and it's a good thing I didn't have anything in my mouth because I would have shot it out of my nose.  

It's hilarious to me that it's the laziest people who think they work so hard.  That's all I'm going to say about that.  Except that they plant said they're doing a new thing this summer, and are going to let employees write their own evaluations.  That ought to be fun.  

Oh, Demi-god still hasn't gotten his power back.  And I left my jacket at work.  I hope it's not too cold in the morning. 

That's about it for today.  I'm going to pop some popcorn and watch short track speed skating. 

Here is puzzle progress, but only because I know some people won't click a link without a thumbnail. 

 This thing is giving me a headache.  

Back to Bed

My first thought when I woke up this morning was, "Boy, I can't wait to go back to bed tonight."  And I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet.  That ought to tell you how my night had gone. 

I'd started watching the Super Bowl, but turned it off at halftime and went to bed.  Up to that point, the best thing about the game was the flyover.  If you didn't see it, go find a video somewhere.  It will give you the frissons.  

Anyway, I slept through the entire third quarter, then woke up and couldn't go back to sleep.  

"Might as well finish the game," I said to myself, so I pulled it up on my Kindle and watched what was left of the fourth quarter.  Then I turned the game off, and still couldn't get to sleep until after midnight, which meant I was pretty much running on fumes all day.  

While I was laying awake and again while I was at work, I came up with a whole list of ways to fix the NFL before it completely dies out -- number one on the list being to get rid of Roger Goodell -- but right now I'm too tired to even type it out. 

The only thing I have to report is a completed hat. 

Yarn:  Red Heart Super Saver

Colorway:  Neon Stripe

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

I told you fun hats knit up faster.  

And I've made a little progress on the latest puzzle. 

By the way, I found a channel on YouTube called Letters Live.  In it, well known actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Damian Lewis, Peter Dinklage and more read historical letters.  It's fascinating and strangely compelling. 

I think I'll go to bed and listen to some more...right after this American skiier goes...

Good night. 

 

Fun Hats

Fun hats knit up faster.  

There.  I said it.  Fun hats knit up faster, especially when watching the Olympics. 

No, I am not going to boycott the Olympics just because of a few bad apples in the bunch.  There are plenty more athletes there who love this country and are proud to represent the USA.  They deserve our support.  Stop constantly focusing on the negative and look for the good in people.  

In other news, I'm sure you will all be pleased to know that I broke up and put away my jigsaw puzzle.  Then I got all of my other puzzles out of the closet to decide which one to do next.  

I decided to start with the one with the fewest pieces, which is this one. 

The thing that makes this one so interesting is that all of the pieces are so irregular in shape.  It will be a challenge for sure, but it's not a race.  I'm not in any big hurry to get it done.  

And finally, I didn't get my raised garden beds water sealed today.  I'm not too worried about that, though.  It'll be mid- April before I can plant anything outdoors anyway.  I might start some seeds indoors at the beginning of March, but won't be able to put them out until after the chance of a late frost has passed.  

I want to grow my own stevia this year, but it looks like I'm going to have to order seeds for that.  Walmart doesn't have any, and didn't have any last year either.  Maybe next weekend I can drive up to Lowe's and see if they have some.  I don't remember if they did last year, but I'm always up for a trip to visit the Mounds.  

Weekend after that is Fiber Fun In The 'Sip, and Leann is vending again this year!  Woo hoo!  I didn't get to go to the one in Oxford last month because, well, we were buried in ice.  That seems to happen a lot with that one.  I guess that's what you get when you schedule events in January.  

It's a crap shoot.  Could be 80°.  Could be 0°.  

You never know.  

Finally Over

I got word this morning -- well, it was posted yesterday afternoon, but you know how FB doesn't like to show you posts until several hours or even days later -- that the boil water notice has been lifted.  That means, for me at least, the ice storm is finally and completely over. 

I have a little bit of gumbo that I need to eat up, then even the stuff that thawed in my small freezer will be gone.  I'm not the least bit worried about the deep freeze, because even the bags of ice I'd made in my ice machine didn't start to thaw, and they were on the very top.    

The only down side to that is, I'd bought some breaded fish sticks and had put them into the deep freeze on the very bottom.  And now I want breaded fish sticks...but they're on the very bottom of the deep freeze.  Oh well...I'll dig them out eventually.  I just hope I don't forget they're there and let them get freezer burned. 

I'll be honest with you, though.  I was prepared for the storm, for the power outages and the cold, but I was not prepared at all for how this whole thing would affect me mentally and emotionally.  I think that's something that comes with age, because when I was younger, I'd have seen this as a great adventure -- a chance to live out my childhood dream of being Laura Ingalls.  But then, when I was younger, I'd have also had family around during the whole mess.  

The last time an ice storm this bad happened was in 1998.  Cody was five, and we went and stayed with my cousin and her husband.  Then their younger son and his family came and we had a whole house full of people and it was like a big family vacation.  

This time, it was just me.  Honestly, at one point I was seriously considering driving down to Jackson and staying with Cody and Brennan, and if I could have been sure the roads were good, I'd have done so.  But all I was hearing was, "Don't drive if you don't have to!" and even some of the roads here in town were a bit iffy.  I had no idea what the highways looked like, so I didn't want to risk it. 

All that to say, I can definitely understand how snowbound people back in the old days would go stir crazy.  I couldn't imagine going through something without TV, or radio, or my phone.  But once my cousin drove all the way from Texas to bring me a generator, things got a bit better.  Of course, the exact same day he brought it and hooked it up, my power came back on.  Ain't that just my luck?  

And I just realized I hadn't yet mentioned that part on the blog.  Ummmm, my cousin drove all the way from Texas to bring me a generator, so now I have one for the next time.  Which I hope I don't need to use it for a long, long time.  

Now for a bit of good news, Entergy has restored power to all 87,000 customers who lost power during the ice storm.  I can't speak for Tallahatchie Valley or Delta Electric, though.  I'm hearing there are still some 15, 000 without power, but they aren't on Entergy.  

In other news, all that stuff I'd said I was going to get done today didn't get done.  I woke up this morning feeling...not exactly sick, just a little off, so I decided to take it easy.  I did a little bit of house work, but spent most of the day watching the Olympics and knitting.  

And running to the bathroom every five minutes.  I won't go into all the gory details, but let's just say I was not vomiting, and leave it at that. There's been a bug going around the plant  --one of the other brazers was sick all week, and I think maybe I caught something from her.  

Shortly after noon, things...um...dried up in the bathroom department and I began to feel better.  I felt well enough to eat some of the gumbo Cody had made back in 2024 that I had been in my freezer.  He made the roux with bacon grease instead of shortening or lard, and I don't know...He said that was the traditional way, but I'd never had gumbo that tasted like that.  I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I didn't really like it.  That's part of the reason I didn't ask him to make me any more this past Christmas.  I've got a little bit of it left, and we don't waste food, but I really don't want to eat it... 

Anyway, in the midst of all the other stuff that was going on, I finished another hat. 

Yarn:  Red Heart Super Saver

Colorway:  Burgundy

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 9 / 5.5mm

Then I cast on a new one.  I'm sure some of you will be very happy to know I went back to a much more colorful yarn this time. 

Yarn:  Red Heart Super Saver

Colorway:  Neon Stripe

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5mm

One thing I didn't do was to break up my jigsaw puzzle and put it away.  I went in there a couple of times with the intention of doing just that, but couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe tomorrow I'll put that one up and get another one out to start on.  We'll see.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go watch some more Olympics.  Women's hockey is on.  Normally, I don't even watch hockey, but this is the Olympics.  

I'll watch this.  

USA!  USA!!  USA!!!

I Take It Back

I take back what I said about all of the brazers having their lights back.  I didn't lie.  I really thought they all had power because every day in the morning meeting when Group Leader Shark asked if everyone had their lights back, Demi-god never said a word...until today. 

Today he said he'd never had lights, so I have to recant my statement.  I don't know why he didn't speak up earlier.  I mean, not that there was anything we could have done about it other than sympathize, but still.  Then he told me they'd run out of propane and had to go stay with his parents.  He's got a five year old daughter and seven month old son, so yeah, they need to have heat.  

There are still over 20,000 people in Mississippi without power, and I know they're getting impatient, but that's no excuse for calling up the power company and making threats against the linemen.  Yes, that really happened.  The Yalobusha County sheriff's department posted on their socials that this kind of behavior would not be tolerated, and those doing it would go to jail.  Those linemen have been working day and night to get people's power restored, and I know of at least two that have sustained major injuries.  They deserve our thanks and respect, not death threats.  

Besides, they told us even before the storm hit that there would be significant power outages -- some lasting two to three weeks, especially in rural areas.  And by "they" I mean quite literally everyone.  Meteorologists, government officials, the power companies...heck, even Facebook got in on the act and my feed was suddenly flooded with ads for generators.  It's not like it snuck up on anyone.  These things never do.  

Heh, I had to chuckle at someone in the local weather watchers group who posted around noonish on Saturday, "This is the lamest ice storm ever."  You know, before it even started...I wanted so badly to go back and find that post and comment that it had aged well.  But I didn't.  I wanted to be kind in the midst of all that trouble. 

In other news, the cat has started throwing up again, but I think I figured out why.  I'd been feeding her Meow Mix ever since I had her, and for some reason, I switched her to 9 Lives.  When she started throwing up, I switched her to a hairball formula.  I think it was Purina, but don't rightly recall.  When it got colder, I thought, "She's not going to be shedding in this weather" and switched her back to 9 Lives.  And she started throwing up again.  

I've bought some more Meow Mix and mixed it in with what was left of the 9 Lives, and that seems to have helped.  I'll keep an eye on her, but I think it must have been something in the 9 Lives that was disagreeing with her.  

And finally, we have a finished puzzle!

I put the last piece in this afternoon.  I'm going to let it sit there until tomorrow,  when I'll break it all up and put it back into the box.   Then start another one.  I'll have to get them all out of the closet and decide which one I want to do.  

But for now, I'm going to get off of here and finish watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics.  Is it just me, or do these things get more and more bizarre every time?  

By the way, I had completely forgotten what the Italian national anthem sounded like, even though I heard it nearly every single day for the three years I lived there.  I remember when they'd do colors.  They'd play the Italian national anthem first, and we'd stand there quietly and respectfully. 

Then they'd play ours, and we'd all stand a little taller, a little straighter, a little prouder...

Oh, it's time for the parade of athletes.  Catch you later.

Be Proud

Be proud of me.  Why?  Because I finally emptied that last five gallon bucket of water I'd been storing since before the ice storm.  Not only that, everyone in the tubing department now has power back on -- the last one having gotten his turned back on yesterday evening.  

Most of the leftovers that thawed when the power was out have been eaten, and I'm slowly re-stocking my freezer.  

Life is pretty much back to normal.  

I know there are a lot of people still without power, but it's a whole lot fewer than there were.  Yesterday I ran into Walmart and the parking lot was full of lineman trucks.  I mean, there were probably at least 20 of them.  As I came out, a whole line of them left and headed north, probably up to Oxford or Tippah County.  They got hit the worst. 

By the way, Elon Musk -- yes that Elon Musk -- donated 500 generators to the hardest hit areas.  When I heard, I went to X and thanked him.  I doubt he'd even see it; likely he gets tagged thousands of times a day, but still...it seemed the right thing to do. 

Speaking of work, Inspector Gadget said at the morning meeting that they are going to focus on reducing scrap this year, and I'm like, how many times have I told them to make tubing count their parts?  I'd estimate that 95% of the scrap tickets I write are for over run adapter tubes.  

True story:  A few weeks ago, I had a three piece order.  It had six adapter tubes...and four of the six were over run.  On a three piece order.  

One = 🍎

Two = 🍎🍎

Three = 🍎🍎🍎

Yeah, that many.  To make matters worse, those parts are bent manually, not on the automatic machine.  That means two people had to be too lazy to count to three.  But I still had to hand write four scrap tickets for a three piece order.  It took longer to deal with the scrap than it did to braze the order.

And they wonder why their production is dropping. 

But what brought all of that on is that yesterday, someone over in tubing put the hole for the tap fitting in the wrong place on the header, and the brazer brazed the order up anyway.  I'm not blaming him.  He's only been there about 6 months and is still pretty new to the job.  

Still, the person who drilled the hole should have checked, and the person who brazed the tap fitting in should have checked, too.  They say they don't have to.  To that, I say, "If they don't have to check the parts, why do we?"  

Come to think of it, if they don't have to count their parts, why should we?  Why can't I send an order to the line and say, "Oh well, if it's short, the line will just re-order one" like tubing does to us? 

Anyway, the brazing trainer was pretty hot over that.  She said, "The problem is that they've got their auditors in the wrong place.  They should be over there (in tubing), no over here (in sub-brazing)."  She said she was going to tell the quality guy.  A few moments later, she came back and said she'd spoken to Inspector Gadget and he'd agreed with her.  He said he even brought it up one morning in one of those meetings they have, and someone from the front office jumped all over him for even suggesting such a thing.  

What I don't understand is that the person has absolutely nothing to do with either quality or production, so why is he getting so bent out of shape over us wanting the parts from tubing to be correct?  It's no skin off his nose.  But that's how it is out there, and that's why that company is circling the drain.  They already can't find anyone who wants to work there, and this kind of lunacy only makes things worse. 

On a brighter note, the puzzle is moving right along.  

I almost bought a new one yesterday, but didn't.  I looked in my closet at home and found several more I can work when I'm done with this one.  I know it's the highlight of your day to watch me work jigsaw puzzles.  

Since we've all had enough of winter for a while, I'm starting to look ahead to spring.  So, I took some money out of my ibotta savings and bought two more of those raised beds for my herb garden.  The second one arrived today. 

I'm not sure why I thought you'd want to see the box that it came in, but there it is.  It's supposed to be pretty mild this weekend, so I'm going to try to get them water sealed and put into place.  That way, I can better judge where I need to put the two 4 x 4 beds that I got for the center.  It'll make more sense when I show you photos.  

And finally, I'm not sure why play sand needs to be gluten free, but that's the world we live in.  

 Now, if you'll excuse me, I found a new show on TLC called Suddenly Amish.  It's pretty interesting, but I'm sure most of it is fake like so many of those reality shows.  The premise of the show is that young people are leaving the Amish community -- I guess they don't really want to live like it's still the 1800s -- and their way of life is dying out, so this one bishop has invited six outsiders to come see if they want to join the Amish.  

The really funny thing about it, one of the Amish guys who is mentoring the newcomers has a secret cell phone and a stash of whiskey hidden in the corn field.  One of the outsiders has a hearing problem, and his hearing aids are connected to his phone.  Well, the Amish guy with the secret phone is the one who took the deaf guy's phone away.  It's all pretty interesting. 

Oh, and I'm five episodes in to Best Medicine, and I'm really enjoying it.  It's based on Doc Martin, but isn't just Doc Martin with American accents, so it's almost like a completely different show. 

That's about all I have for today, so I guess I'll stop boring you and knit a bit while I watch this show about the Amish. 

Laters. 

Back To Normal

Yesterday morning, my coworker asked, "Is everything just about back to normal?"  And it is for the most part.  I have to confess, though, that I still have one five gallon bucket full of water in my bathtub that I can't quite bring myself to dump.  The really weird part about that is I never lost my water.  We are still under a boil water notice, because one of the chlorine pumps failed.  It's been replaced, but they still need to get clean test results before they can lift it.  

Good thing I froze so much water before the storm, so at least I've got all of that.   And I'm still eating up all of the leftovers that I took out of the small freezer when they started to thaw.  But life goes on, and today I came home not completely expecting the electricity to be out.   

There are still lots of people yet who haven't gotten their power back.  It is for them that I post this:

The good news is, my established bluebonnets seem to have survived the ice storm just fine.  Alas, my seedlings did not.  I knew I was taking a risk planting them in early January, so I only have myself to blame for that. No matter.  I've bought a few more packets of seeds to put back until September.  I'll plant them then.  I'm still hoping to get a stand going so well that they re-seed themselves.  

In an attempt to get back to normal, I cast on a new hat -- again in a solid color.  

Yarn:  Red Heart Supersaver

Colorway:  Burgundy

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 9

I went up a size on this one, because the yarn tends to be a bit on the thick side.  I've knit hats before on size 8s and the fabric was stiff as a board.  This one seems a bit softer.  

Oh, and I suppose I should point out that my puzzle is also coming along nicely.  

I used to love working jigsaw puzzles, but have kind of gotten away from them in the last few years.  That might be something I need to get back in to.  

If only the cat will leave them alone. She's done OK with this one, so maybe...

I Am Back!

I am back, baby!  

I have lights!  I have heat!  I have hot water!  And yes, I have internet, too!  

I am so back!  

I'm still just a bit in survival mode, though, because I keep being halfway nervous about my power going back out.  So far, it hasn't, and I really don't expect it to.  But I'm still just a touch paranoid about it.  

I've spent most of yesterday and today catching up on my DVRed shows and doing laundry.  While I was doing that, I finished the had I'd started.  

It kind of tickled me that my friend Marcy had commented how much she loved the colorful hats I was knitting, then the next one I cast on was plain blue.  Ah well, the bright colors will come back soon, but I need to use up stash yarn, too.  

I would have thought I'd have gotten more hats done, since there was nothing else to do while my power was out.  That was my main issue.  I'd stocked up on firewood, water, and food I could cook on the camp stove.  I wasn't prepared for the boredom.  How did our pioneer ancestors live like this?  

I guess because I'm so used to having TV and internet that I had to figure out how to keep myself occupied without those things.  I read a bit in my book.  I knit a bit.  

Oooh, I went into Cody's bedroom and got his old radio, but quickly discovered that I didn't have the right sized batteries.  I had every other size but the ones I needed.  Just my luck. 

Monday after the rain stopped, I ran into Walmart and picked some up, and have a little noise in the house helped quite a bit.  

Since I couldn't play my piano, I got out my old kalimba and tried to remember how to play it, but lost interest in it just as quickly as I did the first time. 

When I was putting it away, I found the needle felting kit my sister had sent me for Christmas a few years ago, so I played with that for a while. 

I made a mushroom, a moon, and a pile of poo

because that's what this whole situation was -- poo.  It didn't take long before I remembered why I'd put aside the needle felting.  It's fun, but very time consuming and it takes all of your attention so you don't stab your fingers.  So, even if you have electricity, you can't needle felt while watching TV.  

After a while, I put that away and started tidying the house.  As I was going to put my card table back into the closet -- it had been in the junk room since Christmas -- I found a jigsaw puzzle.  

It had been a Christmas gift ages ago, and I had never even opened it -- mostly because I didn't have any place to do it.  Now that I have a card table, I can work it!  I got started on that, and by and by time passed.

Wednesday we went back to work.  I still didn't have any power, so I got up and got ready in the dark.  At work, I was looking for a clandestine way to plug my phone in and give it a charge, but one of the other brazers walked around to Inspector Gadget and asked  him straight out, "I haven't had power since Sunday.  May I please charge my phone?"  

"Y'all do whatever you need to do," he replied. "Today, there are no rules."  

All righty, then.  I plugged my phone in and when he came around to the sub brazing area, I half jokingly said, "Hey [Inspector Gadget], will you go up to the break room in the front office and get us all a hot cup of coffee?"  Because they're allowed to eat and drink whatever they want up there instead of being restricted to plain water only like us floor peons are. 

I really expected him to say no, but he didn't.  "You got a cup?" he said.  I did, and I gave it to him, and he actually went and got me a cup of coffee.  When he brought it to me, I said, "I take back every bad thing I ever said about you."  

There were only four brazers there that day, and probably fewer than 100 people in the whole plant.  Even worse, the main factory had power, but the building where they make the hair pins -- which you can't make a unit without -- didn't.  Have power, I mean, so they couldn't make any slabs, and therefore could only run with the slabs they already had. 

I'm not sure how many units they ran that day, but I am sure it wasn't even enough to pay the light bill.  Thursday and Friday were a bit better, but we still didn't have a plant full of people.  

Anyway, there will be more post about the ice storm, but for now, I think I'm going to go to bed.  

Good night.