I Miss Out On Everything

Normally, I am a very light sleeper.  Even in temperate weather, I can't sleep with the windows open.  If a dog barks half a mile up the road, it wakes me up.

Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night, because I got hot.  The power had gone out, so my air conditioner and bedroom fan weren't working.  I wondered why the power was out, because it wasn't stormy. 

"This is an odd time of the year for a power outage," I thought to myself.

I eventually fell back to sleep, waking again briefly when the power came back on because my fan rattled.  By the time I woke up this morning, I'd forgotten all about it.

Until Beverly called and told me I'd slept through quite a bit of mayhem.

Seems someone was driving a little too fast down my road and ran head on into the telephone pole right across the street from my house.   He didn't survive. 

There were police cars, and fire trucks, and an ambulance and sirens and shouting and dogs barking, and live wires down across the vehicle.  They had to call the power company to come and shut off the electricity so that they could get the man out of the car.  Or truck, I'm not sure which it was. 

And I slept through every bit of it. 

Boy, I really must have been tired. 

Finished Object!

The first soldier hat of the season has been spotted!

Here we observe the wild hat still in its pre-blocked state.  

We must be very careful not to spook it, as wild hats can be very skittish.  Let's see if we can lure the hat into the woolwash to be tamed...be very quiet...no sudden moves...

No!  The hat got away! 

The startled hat disappeares into the dry brush, where it blends in with its surroundings.

Well, let's call it a night, and we'll try to find the hat once again in the morning, as they are most active at dawn and dusk.  

This is The Hat Hunter signing off.

We'll see you next time on The Wild Hat Adventures.

The Land Of The Living

I am finally feeling like I'm almost back to the land of the living.  Still coughing a little bit, but not to the point of nearly passing out.  I even felt well enough to sing a little bit at work.

I only sing at work.  Everyone there has to wear ear plugs, so I figure they are safe.

Speaking of work, today they announced that we would be off Friday and Saturday, plus Monday is the Holiday, so I get a 4 day weekend.  When I was turning in my vacation request -- so I could get paid for Friday-- I asked Supervisor Ronnie if we were going to be off a lot of Fridays.  He said he didn't think so, because we still have plenty of work.

So, though I don't really know why we are getting a day off,  I'm hopeful that it isn't because the second dip of our double dip recession is about to hit.  Since our business is closely tied with the housing market, and the housing market is usually the first indicator of economic fluctuations we feel it before the rest of the country.  We were struggling for two years before the recession hit.  Or at least before it became really noticeable.

Let's move on to a less depressing topic, shall we?

He he, depressing.  Get it?

What are my plans for the long weekend, you ask?  Well, I plan on doing a little fishing, of course.  I'm going to finish the skirt I made last Saturday.  All I've got to do is run the elastic and hem it, which just so happen to be my two least favorite parts of sewing.

 

I may cut out my dress, too, and sew it up, even though it's not really a winter dress.  It'll be all ready for spring, though.

And I'll finish my hat.  

Who knows what else I may do. Heck, I may even take a walk on the wild side and *gasp* leave the house. 

I'll let you know how that works out.

Chats On The Farmhouse Porch

I'm feeling much better, but I'm still coughing my head off. Today at work, I coughed so hard I thought I was going to pass out. Be that as it may, we are still going to have our chat. I'll just pass out these surgical masks and straws.  Why don't you join me-- from across the room, that is?




1.  Do you remember your first day of school?

No, not really.  I was only 4 when I started kindergarten.  Back in my day, there weren't kindergartens in the public schools, so we went to a church run kindergarten.  My brother is two years older than I,  and he came home every day and taught me everything he had learned.  I seemed to enjoy it so much, my mother went ahead and started me the same year.  But I had to repeat, because public school wouldn't let me start first grade.  I was too young.  Well, really, I didn't have to repeat.  My mother asked me if I wanted to stay home, or go back, and I chose to go back.  By the time my sister came along, the public schools had kindergartens, so she and my younger brother didn't go to the church school.

2.  Do you decorate for the different seasons? If so, have you decorated for fall yet? 

Not for all seasons.  I do put out general Fall decorations, which morph into Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and finally switching to Christmas.  I haven't put any out yet.  I probably will this weekend, though.

3.  What food do you associate with fall? 

Candy corn.  It feels like fall to me when I buy my first bag of Brach's Candy Corn, no matter how hot it still is outside.  I love the Autumn Mix, which has candy corn, Indian corn, and the mallowcreme pumpkins.  And also, pumpkin stuff.  Pie, bread, pumpkin spice latte, whatever. 

4.  Do you order books online, buy books in a bookstore, download books to a device, or frequent the library? If not interested in books, how do you get your music? 

Yes.   In other words, all of the above.  I haven't been to the library in a while, though.  Cody and I used to go every week, but we kind of stopped when he got so involved in after school activities.  I've been saying I'm going to start going back.  I just haven't gotten around to it.

5. When was the last time you realized that you had just been talking to someone really special?

Hmmm, I can't think of any time right off the top of my head.  I will say, though, that I'd always enjoyed listening to Charles Durning at the National Memorial Day Concert.  He passed away this past year, so they did a thing about his life at this year's concert.  I knew he had served in the Army, but I didn't know that he had stormed the beaches at Normandy.  That's when I was like, "Wow, he didn't just support our heroes.  He was one."  

Thanks for joining me for this week's chat.  Drop your masks off in the laundry basket, or take them home if you'd like.  Be sure to take some extra vitamin C, and maybe some echinacia.   I hope no one gets sick!

I'm Back!

Did you miss me?

 I woke up Friday morning feeling just as bad, if not worse, than I felt Thursday, and running fever besides, I decided to throw in the towel.  I called in sick and spent the day in bed.  It was probably a wise move, because I woke up Saturday feeling much better.

I felt well enough to go out to the balloon thing at the lake.  It was really cool watching the big balloons being inflated. 

This is the one that was giving tethered rides.  It was only going about 20 feet up in the air, though, so I decided it just wasn't worth paying for if that was as high as they were going.

Then they inflated a few more balloons for the balloon glow.

They were really pretty all lit up and stuff.
 

There were only 6 balloons there, but this is only the second year they've done this.  Maybe it'll grow bigger in the future.

Sunday, Beverly and I took Cody back to college.  I got to see his school and meet some of his friends.  I was glad I got to go, because last year we were still working Saturdays.  I was even gladder because Beverly drove, and I knit the whole way there and most of the way back.  I'm almost done with the first soldier hat of the season. 

Speaking of hats, a while back I bought some yarn in Cody's school colors.  The plan was to knit him a hat and matching scarf.  After thinking about it, though, I decided he probably wouldn't wear a scarf anyway, so I'm going to make a bunch of hats that he can give to his friends.  I guess I'd better get busy, huh?


Today I had to go back to work.  I had told Group Leader Fernando Thursday not to expect me there on Friday.  I guess he thought I was joking.  This morning he said, "Don't you even speak to me today." 

So I didn't.  All day. 

Let that be a lesson to you, children. 

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.  

Epizoodies

Sometime during the night, that I Think I'm Getting A Cold feeling morphed into a full fledged Oh Boy I'm Dying feeling.

OK, not literally dying, but I feel pretty bad.  I was thisclose to calling in sick this morning and crawling back into bed, but I toughed it out. 

Group Leader Fernando asked me if Good Becky or Bad Becky had come to work today.  I told neither of them came.  Unspeakably Evil Becky is here.

I tell you what, though, if I still feel this bad in the morning, Unspeakably Evil Becky is going to stay in bed.

In other news, my wonderful cousin, whom I absolutely adore, got a little overenthusiastic with the weed killer.  Final body count:

nine marigolds, my last Dahlia, and about half of my wildflower bed.   The good news is, my zinnias are still strong and healthy.

No WIPs This Wednesday

The plan was to come home from work and drag out all my WIPS and photograph them for this post. 

You know what they say about the best laid plans...yeah.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat, quickly followed by that I Think I'm Getting A Cold feeling, so I just didn't feel like tracking all the WIPs down and getting them out. 

So what you get is this:

This is an old pattern that one of Cody's babysitters gave me years and years ago.  I've always liked this dress.  I'm getting the urge to sew again, so I think I'm going to make it.  I might go tomorrow after work and look at material. 

It all depends on how I feel. 

Now, I think I'm going to go to bed.

Chats On The Farmhouse Porch

It's Tuesday, and that means it's time to chat on the porch.  Despite the cool (relatively) weather we've had for the last few days, it's hot again, so I think we'll chat inside in the air conditioning.

So grab your glass of lemonade and join me around the kitchen table



1.  My oldest daughter has returned to college for her second year. Could I get you to give her some good wishes here? Please? 

Certainly.  Good luck and I know you will do well.  Cody is also returning for his second year of college.  I have to take him back Sunday after church.   It's kind of hard thinking of them all grown up, isn't it?

2.  Summer is about to move on, what will you miss the most? And the least? 

Nothing.  I won't miss a thing about summer!  I hate summer.  Well, maybe my flowers, but that's it.  What I will miss the least?  Everything.  Yeah, everything: the heat, the allergies, the overtime, the huge electric bills from running the air conditioner, sweating constantly, the sinus headaches.  All of it.  I won't even miss how late it stays light outside.  That just puts extra pressure on me to feel like I need to go out and do stuff. 

3.  Are you currently working on any craft, sewing, DIY home, or any other creative project?

I've got several knitting projects in the works.  I've got a couple of pairs of socks, a hat, a few blankets, some scarves, etc, etc.  I need to do a full WIP (Works In Progress) post here soon, because things are starting to get out of hand.  And as if that weren't enough, I'm getting the urge to sew again, too.

4.  If you could have any treatment at a spa for free, what would it be? 

I've heard massages are nice, but I don't know if I could stand a stranger putting his/her hands all over me like that.  I have no interest in facials, mani/pedis or any of that nonsense.  If I had my druthers, I'd ruther have the money so I could get that new fishing reel, or the purple Ruger .22LR I've been wanting.

5.  What's your favorite kind of pasta? 

Plain shell macs with just some melted butter on them.  It's always been my favorite, even more so than mac and cheese.

Thank you for joining me for another chat.  I will be along to your place directly. 

P.S.  Have I ever mentioned how glad I will be when this fad of everyone talking like three year olds passes?

Music Monday

I haven't done a Music Monday in a while, but since this song was going through my head all day, I'm going to share it with you. 



And it all started when our production superintendent asked, "Does everybody know where they are going?"

Our new parts stager is named Darius.  Every time I see him, I think of Darius Rucker, which makes me think of this song:



Uncle Si and Lady A are just a bonus, which segues nicely into this:



My favorite Lady Antebellum song.  And of course, there is this:



Just because. 

A Wedding

Beverly's granddaughter Shelbi got married today.  Naturally, I went to the wedding.

Well, maybe not so naturally, because the last wedding I went to was my own.  Twenty years ago.  Times sure have changed since I got married.  I felt so out of place.

I mean, I took a shower.

I wore a dress.  (And was told I clean up nice for a white girl.)

I took my hat off.

I left my phone in the car.

I was a bit overdressed.   Apparently, these days, t-shirts and jeans are acceptable wedding attire.  And hats.  And cell phones. 

Be that as it may, it was still a very nice ceremony, even though it was not in Klingon.

Or Sindarin.

Or The Black Speech of Mordor.

Or Old High Gallifreyan.    Just plain old English.

And I didn't check the score of the ball game.

Well, not until I got to the reception, anyway.   (Got to get a handle on those turnovers, Boys!)

After which they did not release The Kraken.

But during which, I was told-- once again-- that one day I would meet Mr. Right.  And when that happens, I can have the wedding of my dreams.

Now, if you will excuse me, I've got some translating and Kraken hunting to do.  

Today

There's this guy I work with.  I won't call his name out here. 

But there's this guy I work with. 

He's always trying to start stuff.  Always running his mouth.  Trying to pick a fight.  Agitating.  Aggravating.  Irritating.  Annoying.  It's like he's trying to make me mad. 

Then, when I answer back, he says I  have an attitude.   He can dish it out, but he sure can't take it.

So today, I took this cartoon in. 

I didn't say anything.  I just taped it to the side of my brazing stand, and left it there. 

This guy, he was very, very quiet all day.  

Guess the joke hit a little too close to home. 

Reckon?

My Personals Ad Redux

You know, I been thinkin'...

Yes, I know that sentence is not grammatically correct.  I was typing in vernacular.

Anyway, I've been thinking.

I've decided that if I ever get married again, I want my ceremony conducted in either Klingon, Sindarin, or The Black Speech Of Mordor.

I've gotten some objections to including The Black Speech of Mordor.  No, you should have it in Klingon or Sindarin (which is an Elvish dialect, by the way).


(Also by the way, I woke up in a blind panic one morning because I couldn't remember then name of the other Elvish dialect.  It's Quenya.)

Most of my friends are strongly supportive of having the ceremony in Sindarin, but I disagree.  Sindarin is for starry eyed dreamers who still think the world is a magical place, and marriage is sweetness and light.

I have no such illusions.  I think in my case, The Black Speech of Mordor is entirely appropriate. 

Anyway, with that in mind, I decided to tweak my personals add just a bit. Keep in mind, it's still a work in progress.

Sherlocked Browncoated Whovian Trekkie Hobbit seeks mad man in a blue box for daring adventures in time, space, and Middle Earth.

Hobbies include reading, knitting, randomly quoting poetry at inappropriate times, attempting to bring archaic words back into the current vernacular, memorizing weird stuff, and running in slow motion while singing the theme to Chariots of Fire.

Must be self sufficient, have bigger on the inside technology, and a gun named Vera.

No Potterheads, please, unless you have a sailboat.  

Um, yeah, I won't have to clean out my closet just yet.

Matchmaking

I've got a couple of coworkers who seem determined to get me married off.  I had one that actually said so.

"Becky," she said.  "I'm going to see you married before I leave this place."

She doesn't work there any more, and I'm still not married.  But there are a couple more who seem to have taken up her mantle and are determined to get me married off.

Seriously, if I wanted to be married, I could have been married years ago.  I've had plenty of offers.  I've turned them all down.  I'm just not the marrying kind.  When someone comes along and makes me change my mind about that, then I'll consider it. 

Anyway, one of these women came up to me the other day and asked, "Have you found you a man yet?"

"Not since you asked me two weeks ago," was my reply.

"Well, why not?" she asked.

So, I tried to explain in a way her feeble mind could understand.  (Bear in mind that this is the same co-worker who tried to diagnose me as bi-polar because I enjoy writing.)

"I'm not the kind of person who is going to be with just any man, just so I won't be alone.  I'm content to wait until the right man comes along."

"There ain't no right man," she interrupted.  "They're all the same."

It was at this point that I almost started the fight.  But I managed to keep my mouth shut.  What really I wanted to say was,

"Well, that explains a lot.  I always did wonder what you saw in that one you're married to."

I managed to keep my mouth shut, wonder of wonders.  Seriously, though, her husband is a very nice man.  He's always friendly, and I don't think I've ever seen him without a smile on his face.

I do disagree with my co-worker, though.   People seem to think that when I say right man, I must mean perfect man, but that isn't it at all.  I just mean the one who is right for me.  The best fit, so to speak. 

Look at it this way, we know that there are definitely wrong men out there.  And if there is a wrong man, there must be a right man.

Right? 

Chats On The Farmhouse Porch

It's a cool-- relatively-- rainy Tuesday evening, so I think it best we have our chat around the kitchen table, instead of on the porch today. Grab a glass of lemonade and join me. I also have coffee, hot tea, cider, and hot chocolate for those of you so inclined.





1.  Do you have any type of air cleaner in your home? 

 I'm assuming by this you mean some sort of air filtration system.  And the answer is no.  Just the standard air conditioning unit. 

2.  What do you do with the spare change you accumulate in your car, purse, pockets, etc? 

I have a large Coke cup that I put it all into.  Back years ago, our church used to do a rice bowl offering.  Every family got a bank shaped like a bowl of rice on World Hunger Day, and we would put our spare change in that.  Then, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we took them all back to the church and they donated them to help feed the hungry.  They stopped doing that, so now the change just collects and collects.  I don't use cash much any more, so there really isn't that much change anyway.

3.  What's one chore you wish you never had to do again? 

Cleaning my shower.  I have a separate shower and bath tub.  I don't mind cleaning the bathtub, but I really hate cleaning the shower-- especially the tracks for the shower door.  Hate it, hate it, hate it.

4.  Are you outgoing, quiet, shy, reserved, or life of the party? 

 I'm an introvert, so I am a quiet natured person.  I'm not so much shy, though.  I'm not afraid to talk to people.  I just abhor small talk and chit chat.  Those "life of the party" types tend to annoy me to no end.

5.  Have you understood your parents more as you've gotten older? 

No, not really.   My dad and I were always two peas in a pod, and I'm still very much like him.  My mother and I were as different as night and day, and we still are. So, I can't really say that I understand them more as I've gotten older. 


Well, that's it for this week's chat.  Since it's still raining, feel free to hang around a bit and talk about other stuff. 

What would you like to discuss?

DuoLingo

One of my friends clued me into this website/app called DuoLingo. 

Supposedly, you can learn a second language using this site.  I decided to start doing it to refresh my Italian, but so far, I'm not that impressed with it.

First of all, it's not conversational Italian.  Most language courses start with phrases like

Hello
What is your name?
My name is...
How are you? 

and so on.  You know, stuff you can use. 

This one starts with "I am a girl", and  "That is a boy". 

"Enter the Italian word that describes these pictures (Hint:  it is the word for woman)", but if you don't already know the word for woman in Italian, how are you going to know what to enter? 

Then, there are the lessons where you have to listen to someone say a sentence in Italian and translate it into English.  But the Italian is so badly pronounced that sometimes it's impossible to tell what they are saying.  It's nearly impossible to tell the difference between words like E , ho, and ha. 

Their response when you point this out is "Well, you're just not used to hearing Italian."  Well, duh.  For someone trying to learn a language for the first time, no you aren't.  That's why words need to be enunciated clearly rather than mushed together in faster than normal speed. 

Besides that, I lived in Italy for three years, so I'm well used to hearing spoken Italian.  I never heard a native speaker pronounce it so badly. 

All this to say, I'm not sure I'm going to stick with it.  And I sure wouldn't recommend it to beginners.  There has got to be better language apps out there. 

Saturday Stuff

I had a post already planned out for yesterday, and it wasn't until I'd gone to bed that I realized that I hadn't posted it.  I hadn't even written it, in fact.  As soon as I get finished with this one, I'm going to go write it and retro-date it, so it'll be there for you.  Just pretend you are reading it yesterday.

We had the day off today, but what good does it do when you wake up at 4:30 AM anyway?    I laid there in bed for an hour and a half trying to get back to sleep, but I finally gave up and got up. 

I'd thought about going to the Great Southern Gun Show in Jackson, but decided against it.    I was really tired from work yesterday, and didn't want to drive all that way when I can't really afford to buy another gun right now anyway.  Cody has got to have new glasses before he goes back to school.  I thought I'd put him on my vision insurance last fall during open enrollment, but apparently I didn't.  I've got to make sure I get him on it this year.  So, that's going to be somewhere in the $250-$300 range, and that's most of my gun budget for the rest of the year.

So, what did I do?  I got absolutely crazy and did 4 loads of laundry, swept and mopped my floors, and vacuumed and shampooed the carpets. 

I think I sucked and entire small dog out of my carpet.  Is anyone missing one?  Some assembly required.

And that was my exciting Saturday.  What did you do?

Knowledge Is Power

I've known for a while now that I am an introvert.  For a long time, I didn't really know what that mean, though.  I fell into that same, common misconception that introvert = shy and withdrawn, while extrovert = outgoing and popular. 

It wasn't until I started hanging out on some introvert pages on Facebook that I began to understand what it really means to be an introvert. 

A couple of days ago, someone posted a question on the Introvert Spring page:


Good morning all,
I have a question for you: how has knowing you are an introvert changed your outlook on life?


The short answer is, it has set me free.

OK, perhaps we need to look at a little bit longer of an answer.

My whole life, I'd always thought that there was something wrong with me.  I'd been described as the sulky, sullen, moody one.  I'd heard myself called things like shy, withdrawn, pouty, and antisocial.  I thought my social skills were severely lacking, and didn't even want to talk about my conversational skills. 

It wasn't that long ago that I was expressing frustration here on my blog that I didn't know how to have a conversation, because I didn't know what to talk about. It's not shyness.  I wasn't afraid to talk to people--though I will admit that societal pressure to be a chatterbox did make me nervous in most social situations.  I just didn't know what to say.

Now, I know that there isn't anything wrong with me.  That's just how introverts are.  We don't like to waste words, so we abhor chit chat and small talk, and thus the activities --parties and such-- that revolve around such things.  So, now I no longer worry and fret that I can't make small talk.  I just happily stay quiet until I feel that I have something worth saying.

Treebeard said, "It takes a long time to say anything in Old Entish, so we don't say anything unless it's worth taking a long time to say."  Or to paraphrase for my situation:  it takes a lot of energy for an introvert to speak, so we don't say anything unless it's worth taking a lot of energy to say.

I've also discovered that I'm not withdrawn or antisocial.   We introverts, we need our alone time, because being around people drains us of our energy.  We don't like people in our houses, especially for long periods of time, because we have to be up all the time.  That is extremely exhausting for us.   That's exactly how I feel.  It's not that I don't like people in my house so much is that I feel I can't relax and let down when someone else is there.  I feel like I have to be entertaining all the time.  That just wears me out. 

When we have to be around people a lot-- even people we really like-- eventually our energy will run out and we will go emotionally limp --so to speak.  Now I know that this is not sulkiness or a mood swing.  I just ran out of energy, and it's OK.  I can stand up and say that I need some time to myself to recharge, because you know I'm an introvert, and that's how we are. 

Even my preference for writing to people instead of confronting them face to face-- that's introversion.  It gives me time to think about my words, to choose them carefully, and to change something if it doesn't come out right the first time.  We introverts aren't so good at off-the-cuff speaking. 

All of these things that I've known about myself, but had always considered character flaws, or personality faults, now I know that they're OK.  They're not what's wrong with me.  They are what's right with me.

And the best part about discovering what it means to be an introvert is knowing that yes, I really was born this way.  It's not a choice.  It's the way my brain is wired.  I can finally look all those people who are trying to help me "break out of my shell" and say, "Stop trying to fix me, because I'm not broken."  I'm OK the way I am.

I'm more than OK, I'm good the way I am.  I'm an introvert and I'm proud of it.

That's why I can sit here and say that knowing that I'm an introvert has set me free.

I'm finally free to be who God made me to be, and in a strange twist of irony, embracing my introversion has made me more confident and outgoing than I've ever been before.  

I have finally become the flower I was always meant to be.

TMI

Yep, this is going to be another one of those TMI posts, so if that bothers you, stop reading now. 
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Still here?  Good, then.  Let's get this party started.

For those of you who may not remember, I've been having that constantly gotta go feeling for a while now.  I mentioned it to my regular doctor during my physical back in June, and he set me up an appointment with the urologist. 

Today was that appointment.  Well, when I got there, I had to give a urine sample.  Then they did a scan of my bladder to see if I was retaining urine. 

I was.  Even though I'd felt like I'd completely emptied my bladder, the scan showed I still had 108cc of fluid still in there.  He said that for women, anything over 50cc is retention.

The good news is, now we know what the problem is.  The bad news is, my allergy meds are probably causing it.  The doctor said that allergy medications taken over a long period of time can cause constriction of the urethra, which is why I am having trouble emptying my bladder.  I asked him if there was something else I can take, and he said no, they all do it. 

Oh, great.  I get to choose between running to the bathroom every 5 minutes and breathing. 

Breathing is kind of important, so he put me on a low dose of meds they usually give to men with prostate problems.  It's supposed to ease that restriction and...um...make things better.  He wants to see me back next month. 

So, I spent an hour and half in the waiting room, then another half hour in the exam room, and five minutes with the doctor. 

And it wasn't even this Doctor.

That would have made the wait worth it.

I spent the rest of my day off getting Jimmy's oil changed, and taking Jesse in for his annual vaccinations.  Then I came home and watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer until time for The Big Bang Theory. 

And that was my day off, and your TMI.

Some people may ask me why I would share something so personal, but I figure that if I share my story, someone else might have the courage to speak to her doctor about her own problems.

That's why.

Wednesdays Are For Knitting

Well, every day is for knitting, but since I completely forgot what I was going to blog about, you get knitting.

Sock progress:

And soldier hat.

And that's about it for today.

I Saw The Devil Smiling

All personnel evacuate the building.  This is not a drill.  Evacuate the building and report to your assigned areas along the fence!

OK, let me back up a bit.  I was at work today, brazing away...wait, let me back up a bit more...

For those of you who don't know, I work in a facility that manufactures evaporator coils for air conditioning units.  I am a sub-assembly brazer, which means I use a propylene flame and a silver alloy brazing rod to join copper components into pre-specified assemblies.  Those header assemblies are then brazed by someone else onto the evaporator coil.

So, I was at work today, brazing away, when all of the sudden I heard screaming and everyone took off running.  I looked over, and the gas regulator under the assembly line was engulfed in a big ball of flame.

"Cool!" was my first thought.  Then I thought, "I might want to move away from this just a bit."

There really wasn't any danger, as one of my co-workers had already hit the emergency shutoff switch, and only the residual gas in the lines was still burning. 

Group Leader Fernando calmly walked over, got the fire extinguisher, and put the fire out. 

That's when Production Superintendent Jonathan ran over and gave the order to evacuate until they were sure the fire was completely out.  I guess better safe than sorry.  I remember when I was on second shift and the same thing happened.  They just handed out dust masks and told us to keep on working.  There really isn't all that much in there that is flammable. 

The biggest danger was to the guy who was closest to the regulator when the fire started.  Or as he put it,

I saw the Devil smiling.  

And that was my excitement for the day.  After that, who needs TV?

Chats On The Farmhouse Porch

1.  Have you ever baked bread from scratch? 

Yes, I have.  I have a bread machine and I used to use it all the time.  Now that Cody is grown, I don't use my bread machine so much any more, but I still make the occasional loaf from time to time.

2. If we decided to have lunch on the porch, and you so kindly volunteered to fix it (thank you). What would you serve?

 I would probably give you a buffet style variety of things-- green salad, pasta salad, finger sandwiches, maybe some wings, cold cuts, etc.  Now, if it were winter time, it'd be shrimp and sausage gumbo all around, but it's too hot for that this time of year. 

3.  Show us, or tell us about your key chain (the thing you have on your car or house keys).

OK, I'm not sure why it turned the picture sideways.  It's right side up on my computer.  Anyway, this is my True Blue Fan Club keyring.  You used to get stuff like that with the fan club.  Now, all you get is a card.  No keyring, no team photo, no lanyard.  Nothing.  


4.  Have you ever tried a challenging or dangerous sport? No. I don't mean rush hour traffic, but I understand the confusion. :) 

I wasn't allowed to participate in sports as a child, but if I had, I would have done gymnastics.  I trained in Isshinryu karate for a while as an adult, but I did it mostly for the exercise.  I wasn't into the fighting part.

5.  Have you ever written poetry? If not, have you ever had anyone write a poem for you? If you aren't happy with this question, we'll even accept a "Roses are red..." poem. 

Why yes, I do write poetry.  I even have my own poetry blog.   Becky's Words Of Whimsy.  It's a private blog, but if you really want to read it, just send me your gmail address and I'll send you an invite.  (If you don't feel comfortable leaving it in a comment, you can email it to me at beckyg137 at gmail dot com.)  I don't have much up yet, but hey, they poetry comes when it will. 

That's it for this week's chat.  Now, we had a bit of excitement at work today.  I don't usually post twice in the same day, but to preserve meme integrity, and because it makes a better post on its own, I'm going to write about it in a separate post.  Do drop by and read it in a few.

Tired

Yes, I'm very tired today, so this might be one of those posts I come back to later and ask myself what I was smoking when I wrote it.

I stayed up last night to watch the Hall of Fame Game-- to the end.  The Cowboys won, but don't get excited.  It's just an exhibition game.  Too many people try to make too much of preseason games.  Just because a team wins their first preseason game doesn't put them directly into the Super Bowl.

Most of the starters didn't even play.  I know some fans are lobbying to eliminate pre season games, because they aren't very exciting, but I disagree.  I feel they are necessary.  No, it may not be exciting watching 2nd and 3rd string players, but the games are still important.  These games are a chance for the players to show the coaches that they deserve to be on the team, and for the coaches to evaluate players based on the team's needs.  Eliminate that, and there's a whole lot more guesswork involved in building a team.

Oh, I should probably mention that the Cowboys didn't resign either Felix Jones or Mike Jenkins.  I think it's too bad the way things played out.  They were both first round draft choices, and showed such promise.  Then things happened and for whatever reason, they never lived up to their potential.  Felix got hurt his rookie year, and was never the same after that.  He seemed very timid-- almost afraid to run. 

Jenkins did the same thing.   He didn't get hurt, so I'm not sure what got inside his head, but he was just never the same after he backed off of tackling Brandon Jacobs in that one game.  He never got his unction back. 

So, the game kept me up late, and for some reason I decided not to take my sleeping pill last night.  I figured I'd be tired enough that I didn't need it.  I was still awake at midnight, and began to regret my decision.  By then, it was too late to take it.  If I had, I wouldn't have been able to get up this morning.  Then, my beloved cat, whom I love sooo much, decided she needed her breakfast at 4:00 this morning.  So, yeah, I'm a wee bit knackered today. 

I did manage to finish a hat, either yesterday or Saturday, I don't remember which.

No matter, it's done, and I cast on another one.  It's time to start cranking out those soldier hats!  Christmas will be here before you know it.

The yarn is Paton's Classic Wool in the colorway Lotus.  No pattern, just basic hat construction. 

Finally, this is so wrong, but it made me laugh so hard.

Now, I think I'll go lie down before I fall down. 

Goodnight.

Football!!!!

FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL!  FOOTBALL!  FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL!!

OK, it's just preseason, but it's still

FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL!!!!!

Flowers

Just a few photos of my flowers.

A Day At The Museum

No, nothing came to life.

I'd been wanting to go for a while.  I even took a day last week to go, but GLF begged me to cancel it.  Well, they gave us a long weekend, so today I finally went.  Where?

To the Mississippi Museum of Art.

I got up and headed out with my handwritten instructions that I got from the website.  Turns out they weren't very good.  Add to that the fact that the road I needed to turn on was closed due to construction, so  I ended up having to eschew my Luddite ways and use my GPS to find the place.  But find it I did.  Finally. 

Once I got there, though, I really enjoyed the exhibit.  We weren't allowed to take photos, so I downloaded a few of the paintings they had there to show you.

I think this was one of my favorites.  

Duchesse de Polignac Wearing A Straw Hat, by Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun

Jane Avril Leaving The Moulin Rouge, by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

There were two Monets

The Beach At Trouville

Nympheas (Water Lilies)

Monet did several paintings of water lilies.  It seems that it was one of his favorite topics.

And here we see Monet himself, as painted by his friend Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

There were, of course, other people in the museum, too.  There was one woman who had a teenage girl there with her.  Not sure if it was her mother or grandmother.  The older woman looked to be in her mid to late 50s, and the girl looked about 14, so I'm thinking grandmother.

You could tell the poor girl didn't want to be there, but the woman had apparently dragged her there to educate her.  The older woman was reading all the placards out loud to the girl, and I do mean out LOUD.  You could hear her bellowing all over the gallery.  The poor girl was simply mortified by the older woman's behavior, and was trying to stand as far away as she could without getting into trouble.

And naturally this woman knew absolutely everything about art.   She was acting like she was such an expert, but was feeding that poor girl a load of crock.  She was really getting on my nerves, but I nearly lost it completely when she bellowed

Yep, that's a Ree-nore.  I thought it looked like Ree-nore.

Yeah, an art expert who can't even pronounce Renoir. 

Before I left, I spent a few minutes sitting with Vincent.

Whovians will understand.

There were many, many more paintings than I have showed you here, but I couldn't put them all into the post.  Also in the museum was a display of absolutely gorgeous quilts, some Native American pottery, and paintings and photos about Mississippi, and the people of the state.

It was a very enjoyable trip, even though it was freezing in there.

After I left, I went by Bass Pro Shops, and was going to go to the mall, but it seemed that everyone in Jackson was also headed to the mall.  So, I just filled up my gas tank and came on home. 

And that's how I spent my day off. 

They said at work that we'd completed our schedule for the week.  I hope it's not this second housing bubble bursting.  I'm not sure I can make it through another 5 years of 4 day work weeks. 

No Internets

I came home from work to find my Internet down. It drops often in the summer, but this time it didn't come back up.

I checked the phone lines, and they were down, too. It may be Monday before they get it fixed, so there will be no blog posts until it's back.

Thank goodness for cell phones, huh?