Didn't Last

Well, that didn't last long. 

I got to work this morning at 6, and my group leader -- the first thing she said to me was, "I'm going to ask if you can start coming in at 5 again."  Sure enough, before the day was out, I'd gotten the word.  I'm back to working 10 hour days. 

When I got home, I had a surprise waiting for me.  My Christmas presents from my sister in Alaska had finally arrived!

There was some candy and some Alaskan varieties of tea, which I can't wait to try.   There were two mugs, filled with candy.  

I've already eaten all my candy, but I was good and put Cody's in his room.  He'll be home in a couple of weeks for Spring Break.  His candy might last until then.

There was small jar of fireweed jelly for each of us.  

And finally, my nephew Andrew made us some leather things.  

Cody's has a bear, and mine has a wolf howling at a butterfly.  But I love it.  He made these himself.  I'll treasure it forever. 

Now, before bed, I'm going to go put it in my Bible. 

Nerves

My nerves have been absolutely shot here lately.  I work with one of the most helpless, pesky, whiny, lazy human beings ever created.  I swear I haven't heard my name called so many times since my son was 2 years old.  More than once, I've been tempted to ask her who wipes her bottom for her after she's been to the restroom.

My nerves are so shot that I was walking through Wal-mart and saw this.

I was sorely tempted to buy it, but I didn't.  I just wasn't too sure about adding another pill to the medley I already take every day.  It's all different kinds of vitamins, but still...

James is coming by sometime this evening to pick up his plants.  Yay!  I was glad to plant sit them, but I'm glad they're going home.  And I only killed one of them.  Double yay! 



I'm finally making a little more progress on the house.  Cody will be home for spring break in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to get some curtains for his room before he gets here.   He's got blinds on this window,  but they still let in a lot of light.

On that big window over his bed, there was only some of that stick on stuff that made the glass opaque.  In late afternoon, the sun comes blazing through that window, so brightly it would blind you, even through the shading stuff.  He's a pretty heavy sleeper, but he'll sleep better with the room darker.  Plus, it has the added benefit of blocking some of the heat. 

Anyway, I wanted to get curtains, so once I got my tax return back, I went to Wal-mart to see what they had.  Since this window is so wide, it needed 4 panels.  The other one takes two.  That blue is the only ones they had 6 panels in stock.  I thought that would work out, since it would match the blue edging on his bed spread.  After I got home, I discovered that the edging on his bed spread is tan.  Story of my life.

No matter.  I'll probably end up moving these to my bedroom once I get it painted and stuff.

Speaking of, I was originally planning on just painting over the paneling.  I'm not so sure, now, though.  It's go so many screw holes and pin holes, and spots where it looks like someone hit it with a hammer.  I'm wondering now how hard it would be just to take all the paneling off and putting up drywall.   One of the maintenance guys at work does that type of stuff, so I'm going to ask him. 

I know I just bought a new nightgown, but heck, I bought another one. 

This is what I bought for myself out of my tax return. 

I've also been knitting.  I cast this hat on this afternoon.  It's the same pattern as the last hat I made, only this time, I'm using wool instead of acrylic yarn.

This is some I bought the last time I went to the now closed Hank of Yarn.  It's Cascade 220 and the colorway is Autumn.  It has brown and dark green kind of heathered together.  I think it's going to be really pretty.

In the midst of my writing this, James showed up to get his plants.  In the end, he only took three of them, because that's all he had room for in his truck.  He said I could keep the rest, except for one that was his daddy's.  I'll keep that one for him until they find time to make it back this way. 

Their youngest granddaughter is expecting a little girl in July, so I expect they can stop by on the way to Tennessee -- when the baby comes. 

Good News and Bad News

First, the bad news.  They're starting to hoot and holler about the overtime, so this morning, my supervisor cut us back.  He didn't cut our overtime out completely, but I'll be going in at 6:00 instead of 5:00.  I'm going to miss that money.  I could sure use it.  I'm just glad he didn't cut it all out. 

The good news is, now I get to sleep in until 4:30!  Yay! 

Wait, that's still sad...

Sigh.

Words?

This has been me lately.

At work, I can think up long, eloquent posts.  Driving around town, lying in bed, shopping, even watching TV, the words just flow.  Oh, they're beautiful posts.  They'd make you laugh.  They'd make you cry.  They'd make you reconsider the course of your life.  

But the minute I open my blog, everything goes out the window. I'm sitting there staring at a blank screen thinking, "wut r werds."  And you end up with posts like this.

However, all is not lost, as I do have a finished object to show you.

This is the hat I knit for my sister in law's Christmas gift.  So, Paula, if you're reading this, use the Men In Black little flashy thing so you'll be surprised in December!  This was such a nifty little pattern, I may make several more for the charity drawer with all that yarn my mother in law sent me. 

And look, another surprise!

I've got daffodils coming up.  I wasn't sure if they had survived, since I was so late in planting them.  I've still got a bucket full of spider lily bulbs I've got to get into the ground. 

With all this rain we've been getting, the ground ought to be soft enough. 

Dear CoWorker

There are three things I absolutely detest in a coworker. 

The first is laziness.  I can't stand workers who do just barely enough to keep from getting fired, but not enough to actually be productive. 

Um....check.

If there is work to be done, you do it.  There is no "your half" and "my half."  It is all ADP work, and if it's on the buggy, you do it.  You don't just stand around doing nothing because you finished "your half".  Nor do you expect me to set your work up for you because you don't want to do it yourself.  You've been here long enough to know how to set up an order.  If you can't do that, then you need to have your brazer pay stripped and go work on the line or something else your simple mind can wrap itself around.  

The second is someone who tries to boss everyone around, especially one who has no authority to be bossing anyone at all. 

Um...check.

I've been here 21 years.  I know my job.  I could do my job in my sleep, and don't need you ordering me around like you think you know my job better than I do.   Nor do you have the right to expect me to wait on you hand and foot.  "Go get this."  "Go do that."  "Find me that jig."  "Set this up for me."  Um, no.  You get paid the same amount as I do.  Do your work yourself. 

The third is someone who always has to be getting up into everyone's business. 

Um...check.

When I'm having a conversation with Theresa, or Vanessa, or Fernando, or whoever, you don't come over and stick your big nose right into the middle of it. If that person had wanted to talk to you, she'd have called your name, not mine.  I know you can't stand not being the center of attention, but guess what?  The world doesn't revolve around you.  My world doesn't at least. 

Congratulations, sweetheart!  You hit the trifecta.  And that is why I can't stand you. 

Here's a clue.  We'll get along a whole lot better if you mind your own business and do your own work.  Also remember, I'm neither your mommy nor your maid.  Wipe your own butt, thank you very much.

That is all.

Degrees Of Separation

You see that guy there on the right?  I went to school with him.  Granted, I didn't know him that well, being that he was a few years younger than me, but I still knew who he was.  Of course, he wasn't Father Jim back in school.  He was just Jimmy. 

This week, he flew to Rome to spend Ash Wednesday in Vatican City.  This is his selfie from that day.

Recognize that man on the left?  Even though I'm not Catholic, I still think that's pretty cool. 

Oh, and be sure to pick up Father Jim's book, Among Friends, available on Amazon. 

When I was in college, I had a dear friend named Karen.  She now has a job teaching at a school in London.  Yes, England.  Her school had a special guest yesterday.

She said at one point, he sat down right beside her.  She wasn't allowed to take a picture, but the school's website posted an article about the Prince of Wales' visit.  In that article, they included this photo. 

The lady in the background on the right with the long blond hair is my friend Karen.  Proof that she was indeed in the same room as Prince Charles. 

And me?  I'm just over here going, "I made it to work with pants on.  Yay me!" 


I told you not to envy me my exciting life. 

Breakfast

They say it's the most important meal of the day.  It's even better when your supervisor brings it to you at work.

He brought breakfast for all of us who have been coming in at 5:00.  I noticed when he was digging my hash brown out of the bag that he had a kind of smirk on his face.  He said, "What are you looking at me like that for?"

I said, "I was just wondering why you were grinning like the cat what ate the canary."

He said, "Because you forgot I said I'd bring breakfast."

I said, "No, I didn't forget.  I gave up."
  

Look!  It only took three months, but I finally put 1000 miles on my new car!  

No, I didn't take the picture while I was driving.  It turned over just before I pulled into my drive way, so I took the picture after I had stopped.

Kinda sad that this is the most exciting thing that has happened to me.  Breakfast and an odometer reading. 

Don't envy me my exciting life. 

A Tough Week

This has been a very tough week for me.

I've been having to deal with a difficult situation at work.  I can't really talk about it, because it is an official HR investigation.  I can say that I am not the one in trouble this time!  So, that's a good thing.

No, I was a witness to something not good.  Something very not good indeed.

If you get that, we can be friends.  If you don't, we can still be friends, but you won't get that.  

I had to go to the HR office and give a statement as to what I saw.  Over the next two days, the entire situation absolutely blew up.  I'm not sure if things are resolved or not, because nobody is allowed to talk about it.  I'll see what I can find out this week.  They are notoriously bad about keeping us informed about things.  

As if that weren't enough, I woke up Friday to find out that one of my very best childhood friends had passed away.  That one hit me hard.  I've had classmates pass on before, but not one I was really close to.  And I was close to Cindy.  She and her twin sister Cathy were my very best friends growing up.  She moved to Colorado when I was about 16.  We wrote for a while, but eventually lost touch.  I never forgot her, though, and thought about her often.  She will be missed.

Other than that, and the incredibly long hours I'm putting in at the factory, it has been a pretty good week for new things.  I bought seasons 2 and 3 of Downton Abbey. 

I already have season 1.  This has been one of my favorite shows, and it is ending after this year.  Then I turned around and bought season 1 of Doctor Who. 

They took it off Netflix and Amazon Prime.  Maybe they'll bring it back, but if they don't, at least I can still watch it.

Somewhere around here, I have a good set of leather gardening gloves.  I've been looking for them ever since I moved.  I still haven't found them, so I picked up another pair. 

Want to take bets that now I will find my others?  Oh, well, I'll have a spare set.

On the way out of the store, I picked this up our of the bargain bin.

 I'd planned on giving it to my sister or one of my sisters in law for Christmas, but it's got some water damage. 

I guess I'll keep it and read it myself. 

Finished And Started

It seemed to take forever to finish this hat, but it's finally done.

I'm not sure why, but it just seemed tedious to knit on it.  No matter.  I persevered and it is complete, and safely tucked into the charity drawer.  Which is getting rather full, so I need to find a suitable charity to which to donate them.    

After I finished, I promptly cast on another hat. 

A couple of months ago, my sister in law had posted a photo on Facebook of a hat she liked.  Unbeknownst to her, I saved the picture.  After finishing the above hat, I did a little digging and found a pattern.   Then I dug through the yarn my mother in law recently sent me and found the closest thing I had to the color she said she liked and got busy. 

After a slight delay, that is.  I went to YouTube to find videos of provisional cast ons and got distracted by Crazy Russian Hacker.  Thirty minutes later, I found my waste yarn and cast on.  Maybe I'll get it done by Christmas. 

Speaking of new things, I couldn't very well sleep on my new sheets wearing an old, ragged, holey nightgown, now could I?

So, a new nightgown it is!

Dear Place Of Employment

I identify as a dragon. 

Therefore, I demand you construct a Mythological Reptile Inclusive bathroom

where dragons, wyverns, and wyrms

of all shapes, sizes, and colors

can pee in safety and comfort

free from stares, laughter, and judgement

of bigots and reptophobes.

So get right on that. 

Thank you.

That is all.