Great News!

My coworker's child got out of the hospital yesterday!  She says she's coming back to work tomorrow.

I don't know what I'm going to do with myself!

Catching Up

It's no secret I've been a bit tuckered lately.  Take last night, for example.  I got out of the bath, and gathered up my dirty clothes to put them into the laundry hamper....aaaand tossed them into the kitchen sink.

Even in my advanced state of poopedness, there has been knitting.

The pickle juice hat is almost to the point I can start the decreases.  I just need to find my measuring tape.  I took it to the bedroom to measure my window for my A/C unit, and I can't remember where I put it.  I've knit enough hats that I can guess pretty closely how long it is, and I know this one is about 4  1/2 to 5 inches.   I usually knit 6 1/2 inches before starting my decreases, so we're not there yet.

My little dinosaurnaments are close to being done.

I've just been too tired to work much on them.  The knitting is so much more mindless, and easier to do in my sleep deprived brain state.

Dear Coworker

I hear you had a little trouble yesterday when I wasn't here, with both the quality and quantity of parts that were left to you.

Do you remember back a few weeks ago when I was the one complaining about how I couldn't get any help over here?  Do you remember what it was you said to me?

Now, what was it?  You said something...Oh, yes, I remember.

You said, "NOBODY CARES!"

Yeah, that's right.  That's what it was.  And now you expect sympathy from me?  How's that working out for you?  Not well?  That's right, because you ain't getting any.

Funny thing about that karma, I hear she can be a right vicious beast.

Thank you.

That is all.

Jury Duty And Air Conditioning

Sometimes weird things happen to me.   Like today, for example, when I woke up in a blind panic because I don't know how much I weigh.  Seriously?  With all that is going on in the world, that's what my subconscious chooses to focus on?  And it wasn't even that I weigh too much or too little.  It's that I don't know whether I weigh too much or too little.

After quelling that moment of panic, as I was getting ready to go to jury duty, I encountered another moment of unease.  In the letter they sent with our summons it said to wear clothes that show respect to the court.  I put on my cleanest pair of work jeans and a polo shirt they'd given us at the plant a couple of years ago, and hoped it was good enough.  I needn't have worried.  Lots of people were wearing jeans. Some people even showed up in shorts and flip flops.

I think most of my nervousness stemmed from the fact that I wasn't sure what to expect, since I haven't had to do jury duty in Mississippi before.  I got summoned last year, but got excused because the court house was a 90 mile drive each way, and at the time, I didn't have a vehicle I could trust.   When I lived in Texas, I actually got selected to a jury, but that case ended up being postponed, since one of the key witnesses mysteriously disappeared.

Back to today.  I got there and the first thing they did was call roll. There were several people I knew there, including a couple more who also work at the plant.  Then the county clerk said, "Is there anyone whose name I did not call?"  A whole line of people went up there.  After a minute, the clerk had to tell most of them to go sit back down, saying that the only thing she could excuse them for was being over 65.  The rest would have to wait for the judge.

After a few minutes, the judge came in.  First thing he did was call for a prayer.  Yeah, we prayed in court.  Then the judge told us a little bit about himself.  He's a Vietnam veteran, and a lifetime member of the NRA, and a lifetime member of the VFW, so no, taking Atlas Shrugged would not have gotten me out of that jury duty.

The next 90 minutes or so were taken up with people asking the judge to be excused.  Most of them were requesting a 6 month deferral.  I'm wondering why.  I mean, they know they're going to have to come back in January.  Why not do it now and get it over with?  But whatever...I was listening to people gripe about having to be there, and I was just like hey, I got to sleep in until 6:30, and I'm sitting in the air conditioning instead of working in the heat.  One guy kept saying they wouldn't be here if they hadn't done it, right?  Yeah, but guilty or not, they still have a Constitutional right to a trial by a jury of their peers.  So, just shut up, dude.  BTW, he did get excused, and I was glad.  I was tired of listening to him whine.

This was the first week of the circuit court term, and today they would be selecting a grand jury to do indictments.  I think that was just a totally random thing, since they didn't ask us any questions or anything.  I didn't get selected for the grand jury, but I'm still on the jury panel.  I'll have to call back every night this week to see if I have to report the next morning.  If I don't, I go on to work that day.

Next week, they'll bring in another group of people and start the whole process over again.

The good news is, according to the company handbook, if they release me after 11:00 AM, I don't have to go to work.  I got released after 11:00 AM, so I have the rest of the day off.

More good news, the A/C man got here about 1:30, and fixed my air conditioner.  He said it was something called the run capacitor that had gone bad.  He was able to replace it in just a few minutes, and didn't charge me an arm and a leg.  I told him I thought that was a very fair price, and he said, he's the one who's got to sleep with himself at night, and just couldn't do it if he was ripping people off during the day.  If any locals need a recommendation for an A/C man, just let me know.  I've got a good one.

It's still warm in the house, but at least the temp is heading in the right direction.

Finally, a bit of bad news.  It appears my card reader has bitten the dust.  I'm not happy about that, because I've only had it a couple of years.  The point is, the blog will probably have fewer photos until I can get a new one.  In the meantime, to take our minds off the heat, here is some snow.

I took this in February, 2011 in my (then) back yard.

Adventures In Being HOT

Yesterday, my coworker told me she enjoyed my throwback post so much that I needed to do another one.  (She also told me to tell you she really needs to get a life.  But that's not for me to say.)  So here ya go:

That's me at 2 months.  It doesn't get much more thrown back than that, unless my brother can dig up a picture of my mother pregnant with me. Yes, my dad always took the baby belly pictures in profile, and yes, my mom always hated them, but they're out there somewhere.  If they didn't get ruined in the hurricane, that is.  So many of my dad's old pictures did.  I lost a lot of my childhood in that storm.

Moving right along, when I got home from work, I walked into my house and it seemed warmer than usual.  I initially thought it was just because it is July, you know.  I went on to the store and did my little bit of shopping.

Oh, and I found a bunch of Pokespots down town by the square.  And at least one gym.  But I digress...

First thing I did when I got to the store was to go into the garden center and find that machete.

And there it is.  When I picked it up and balanced it, though, it just seemed big.  I thought if I'm going to carry something that big, I'd rather just carry a full sized ax.  I walked down the aisle and picked an ax up.  I hefted it and balanced it, and it just felt so much better in my hands than the machete did.  I told you my ancestors were vikings.  Did you think I was joking?

When I got home, the house was really hot, like up into the 80s.  I went outside and checked the unit.  The pipe thing that goes from the unit up into the house was really cold.  I thought it might be frozen up, so I just turned the compressor off.  I didn't want to ruin it.  I left the fan running, to keep some air moving in the house.

I got on FB and put out a request in the local group for someone who would come out on a weekend and look at it.  I got several recommendations, but only one of them even answered my message.  He's a deputy sheriff, and said he wouldn't be able to come look at it until Monday morning.  I told him I have jury duty and wouldn't be there that morning.  He said he has to go out of town tomorrow afternoon.  That put us in a bit of a bind, so he said that he'd try to come out this evening and just look at it to see if it was something he could fix without having to get inside the house.  Nice guy.

I was going to tough it out, but about 3:00, it was up to 87 in the house, and I was so miserably hot that I went into town and bought a window unit.  I'd been debating on getting one for the bedroom anyway, and this seemed as good an excuse as any.  So, I got it installed and we're basically living in the bedroom until the central unit can be fixed.

That black stuff is supposed to be packing material, but I put it on the bottom there, to insulate around the a/c.

On the way out, I saw these.

They tell me one thing:  Fall is on the way!  Fall means cooler weather, pumpkins, colors, and football!  It's my favorite time of the year.

Around 5:30, the a/c man showed up.  He apologized for being late.  He said he'd just gone on duty when he got called to a domestic.  He turned the unit on, and said he heard the compressor kick in, so he thinks I might just be low on Freon.  That would have made that pipe thingy freeze up, too.  He's going to run by and charge it up in the morning before he leaves town.

I'm hoping that fixes it, so I no longer have to be held hostage in my bedroom.  I'm glad now I bought that second TV. This whole incident has got me to thinking.  How in the world did our ancestors survive?

They were surely made out of tougher stuff than we are.

Throwback Thursday

Yesterday when work was so rough, one of my coworkers suggested I pretend to fall out. "Here, I'll catch you," she said, putting her arms out.  Right away, I knew what today's post would be about.


Satellite Communications "C" School
U.S. Army Signal Center Fort Gordon, Georgia, just outside Augusta

I remember the day as if it were yesterday.  It was August 2, 1990.  I'd gone down to the office area of the barracks to meet up with the people with whom I rode to school. When I got there, everyone was clustered around the TV, concentrating intently on what was playing on the screen.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Iraq invaded Kuwait last night," was the response.  Immediately, I knew what that meant.

I can honestly say that during my entire time in the Navy, that was the closest I came to really being afraid.  Even though they didn't put women in combat situations back in those days, still, I was in the military and we were going to war.

Over the next few weeks, the once busy post became virtually a ghost town.  It was almost eerie how quickly the place emptied of equipment and personnel -- and how fast the woodland green camouflage changed into the chocolate chips.   Almost weekly, we were attending a parade as another unit was sent to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield.

It was at one of these parades that the events of today's post occurred.

Now, first thing you must know, what we called a parade isn't what most civilians think of when they hear the word parade.  There was no marching down the street with bands and floats and stuff.  We formed up and marched out onto the parade grounds --a big field with bleachers on one side-- then listened to speeches, had a prayer, and the band played a song or two.  Then the deploying unit would march off, and we'd all watch them go.

OK, I'm having a hard time translating into civilian speak, but just humor me and pretend you know what I'm talking about.

Usually, the unit being deployed would be front and center, then ranged out behind them were the Air Force Detachment, the Navy Detachment, and a few more Army units and stuff.  At this particular parade, in the very last row of the Navy formation were myself, RM1 Danny Waller, and two RM3 women whose names escape me.  The one woman immediately to the right of Danny was just griping and fussing.

"Why do we have to come to these?  I've got better things to do."

Danny tried to tell her we were here to support the Army guys, give them a good send off, all the usual stuff, but she wasn't buying it.

"Yeah, but these are Army guys.  Why do Navy people have to be here?  We shouldn't have to come.  It should just be the Army."  Gripe, gripe, fuss fuss

About that time, the woman on the other side of the one complaining said, "I don't feel so good," and *thunk* did a face plant right there in the dirt.  Here came the medics.  They loaded her up onto a stretcher and took to get medical care.  We watched them carry her off, and the one who'd been complaining so much turned to us and said, "Say, that's a good idea."

A couple of minutes later, she says, "I'm not feeling too good" and she turns and walks off the field, wobbling and staggering like she'd suddenly gone weak in the knees.  Here came the medics to help her of the parade grounds.  Oh, yeah, she was totally faking it, but it did get her out of that parade.

We watched them leave, then Danny turned to me and says, "You want to go next?"

"Nah, I'm good,"  I said.

(This photo is not really related to the topic of this post, but it's one of the few I have from my time in Georgia.  Some of us had gone to Zoo Atlanta.  The friend who took this picture wanted me to be sitting on the gorilla, but he was made of bronze and was HOT.  If you look carefully, you can see I'm trying to only touch him where the shadows are.)


A few more parades, a few more weeks and my time at Ft. Gordon was done.  They even pushed our class through, so the Army guys could go to Saudi.  I was to end up in Naples, Italy.  The day I got there, they had assigned me a sponsor.  She came and picked me up at the airport, got me checked into the barracks, then invited me to spend that first night with her and her husband.

The next morning, January 17, my sponsor knocked on the guest room door.

"I think you ought to get up," she said.

"Why?  What happened?" I responded

"We bombed Iraq last night."

Now, I was tired, cold, jet lagging, and you know me anyway.  Naturally, first thing that popped out of my mouth was,

"Well, what do you expect me to do about it?"


And that, friends is how my adventures in Europe began.

Crazy Day

It all started last night, after I'd made that comment about cranky poop-eating dogs.  Almost as soon as I'd hit the publish button on my post, I heard a very strange noise.  Following the sound to investigate, I discovered Rylea had dragged the litter pan out of the bathroom and had dumped it out into the bedroom.  On the carpet.

Immediately, I decided that investing in another pet gate was a must.  As a manner of punishing said cranky poop-eating dog, I made her stay in the bedroom while I vacuumed up said scattered kitty litter.   She tried to tell me that was cruel and unusual punishment, but I wasn't buying it.

That brings us to today.  After another one of those every-man-in-the-world-is-glad-he-wasn't-in-the- bed-with-me nights of tossing and turning, I got to get up and go to work.  Yay!

I got there and took one look at my line's schedule and nearly started crying.  I'm still over there by myself, which is hard enough.  It's even harder when your schedule is full of small orders -- 4 piece orders, 8 piece orders, all day long.  Usually when it looks like that, I spend more time setting up than actually brazing.  That makes it very hard to stay ahead of the line, even when you have two brazers.  Doing it by yourself is nigh on impossible.

As if that weren't enough, several of the orders were units for mobile homes.  That means I had to do the florators, too.  Now, I know most of you won't know what a florator or a liquid line is, but you don't need to.  Just roll with it.  All you need to know is that it is an extra step I have to do besides brazing the header (manifold) assembly.  Sigh...

One of the orders on which I had to do the florators, I couldn't find the liquid line.  I looked all over and finally had to go to the tubing department and ask them to redo the order.  About an hour later, one of the people on my line brought me a handful of florators and said, "What do you want me to do with these?"

"Where did you find those?" I asked.  She said they were in a bin on the line.  Alas, they were not the florators I needed.  The ones I needed had been brazed onto the wrong order by a previous shift.  As I was walking down the aisle to the computer to print out a blueprint, I flung my hands out and shouted, "Stop the presses!"

I'm not sure why.  I just seemed the thing to do at the time.

And the day just went down hill from there.  I won't go into all the gory details, but it was rough.  Let me just say that when the second shift group leader came in and asked to explain what the problem was down at the end of the line, I had to ask him "Could you be more specific?"  Seriously, machines were breaking down, parts were getting lost, people were being cranky.  It was so bad, I started counting down the days until I get to do jury duty, because I'm looking forward to the break.

Oh, and I almost forgot.  One of the tubing machines was leaking oil.  The maintenance man took the cap off, but didn't lock out the machine.  When the day shift operator got there, she didn't know the cap was off -- or that anything was wrong, really -- so she turned on the machine and oil sprayed everywhere.  It was actually kind of cool.  But not her fault.  It should have been locked out.  But I digress.

I ended up staying until 4:00, and by that point, I was seriously wondering how necessary that dog gate was.  In the end, I decided that running to the store was preferable to another night of vacuuming cat crap out of my bedroom floor.  While I was there, I ran into the garden center, because I just can't seem to stay away.  A man in there whom I didn't know from Adam called me over to show me a really cool machete.  It had a smooth blade on one side and teeth on the other.  "You could kill a lot of zombies with that thing!" I exclaimed.  He laughed and said, "Yes, ma'am, you could."  I didn't tell him that axes are my preferred zombie killing weapon.

It's the whole Viking thing, you know.

Out Of Gas

I am completely out of gas.  I just don't have it in me tonight.

It's going to get worse before it gets better.  The other sub brazer won't be back for a while.  I don't know how long.  I'm not going to be telling someone else's business here, but let's just say her child has something a little more serious than a cold.

Those of you of the praying mind, lift the little boy up, would you?

In the meantime, I'll be weighing anchor and piloting the ship by myself.  That means going in early, staying late, and dealing with cranky poop-eating dogs while I'm home.

Rylea says, "I don't know what you're talking about.  I'm an absolute angel.  And about that poop-eating thing...I'm pleading the Fifth."

Sure you are...

It Sure Is Monday

And it's been a rough one.  The other sub brazer hasn't been there because her child has been sick. That means that for the last three days, I've had to braze by myself.  For some reason, they can't ever seem to find a back up brazer for my line.  So, I'm over there doing two people's work.

My regular group leader is on vacation, so today the back up group leader said, "I don't see how you braze by yourself.  Don't you ever get tired?"  Uh, yeah.  Of course I get tired.  That's why I'm hollering at everyone by the end of the day.

It's also why no Pokemon have been found lately.  I'm almost out of Pokeballs, and I'm too tired to drive down to the Pokespots.

But digress...this has been going on since Friday morning -- when the other brazer got the phone call and had to leave.  Needless to say, I've been tuckered.  Yesterday, I didn't do anything but sit.  I worked on my Dinosaurnaments a little bit, but my head was pounding too much for that much concentration.

So, naturally, I cast on another hat.

This is Knit Picks Brights and the color is Pickle Juice.  It's just a plain stockinette stitch hat pattern with an 80 stitch cast on and 1 1/2 " of  K2P2 ribbing.

I'm not sure why I felt the need to tell you that.  I guess I'm desperately trying to make this blog post more interesting, but frankly, it ain't happening.

That being said, I'm going to sign off now.  I'm sure you have better things to do.

One Of Those Murphy's Days

You've heard of Murphy's Law.  Just in case you haven't, it states:  Nothing is as easy as it looks, everything takes longer than you think, and whatever can go wrong, will.

Sometimes, I have whole Murphy's Days.  This was one of them.  Everything that could go wrong, did.  Seems it all started on second shift last night.  The plant ran out of some vitally important part.  As a result, second shift was required to skip several large orders that required this vitally important part, and move on to parts that required a different vitally important part.

By the time we came in this morning, the plant still hadn't received a shipment of this vitally important part, so we also had to skip several orders.  What this means is, our component areas were way behind, so we spent most of the day waiting on parts.

To add insult to injury, stuff kept breaking down.  First one machine, then another, then yet another.  As if that weren't enough, when I went to wash my hands after answering nature, I discovered that I'd cut my hand.

I have no idea when or how that happened.  It's especially weird because we wear gloves at work, so the window in which I could have cut myself was very small to begin with.

And the last biting moment of the day, I had to stay late.  Just 30 minutes, but still.  I have a life you know!  I've got TV to watch, and air conditioning to sit in, and tomato sandwiches to eat!

Then I got to come home and mow.  Yay!

I did take a moment to try and get some photos of the crepe myrtles.

Did you see the bumblebee?

The best part of the day is, they fed my line lunch because we ran more than 600 units yesterday.  At least I didn't get hungry.

But now, I'm going to bed.  2:45 came awful early this morning.

Who is?

If you've read the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, you will know that there is a catch phrase frequently used by the characters in that book.

Who is John Galt?  

If you don't know what it means, I can't explain it.  It's one of those things you just have to know. Read the book.  It's linked above.

You remember that mysterious phone number I found a couple of weeks ago?  I still haven't found out who Terrance is, but lately, I've been finding myself using the Who is John Galt? phrase more and more in my own life.  Except mine is Who is Terrance?

As in, "Why did they skip this order?"

Me:  "Eh, who is Terrance?"

Or, "Why is it that they can find back up brazers for any other line except ours?"

Me:  *shrugging* "Who is Terrance?"

Or, "Jesse!  Why are you eating cat poop?"

Me:  "Ewww!  Oh, well, Who is Terrance?"

In other news, I got summoned to jury duty not this Monday, but next Monday.  Aside from the disruption in my routine and the awesome responsibility of potentially deciding someone's future, I'm kind of looking forward to it.  Why?  The court house has air conditioning.  The plant, not so much.

I think I'll take my copy of Atlas Shrugged to read while I'm there, since they don't allow electronics. No phone, no kindle.  Who knows, it just might get me dismissed.

Who is Terrance?

Pokemon No Go

There's this new phone game called Pokemon Go.  It's a cute concept.  You walk around and find these Pokemon characters and catch them on your phone.    The cool part is, the game turns your phone's camera on and you see the critter right there in your environment.  It's really popular right now.

So, I'm thinking this might be a good way to get me up off my couch and out of the house, right? Wrong.  I should change the name of the game to Pokemon No Go.  So far, the only place I've caught them is at work.  Not during work, no.  I'm not one of those people who spends half the day playing on her phone.  I only get mine out on my lunch break, or if I have to um...sit and think a minute when I go to answer nature.

Even so, I've managed to catch quite a few.  There's one that hangs out in the parking lot, and I usually nab him when I first get there and again when I leave.  Then there is the one that hangs around that blue machine pictured above.   I grab him on my lunch break.  There is one in each bathroom, and the main break room.  I grab them before work if I get there early enough.

The map shows that there are some back in the warehouse.  I keep saying I'm going to go in a little early one day and see if I can nab them before my shift starts, but that hasn't happened yet.  Once the weather starts getting cooler -- like in October-- I'm going to take the dogs out to the lake and see if I can catch some there.  I've also heard churches and colleges are good places to find them, so I'll scout there and see what they have.

Or maybe I won't.  You know what they say about the best laid plans...

Here There Be Knitting

Yes, I'm going to pay for it tomorrow, but I was determined to finish this hat tonight.

I had a little bit of difficulty, because I don't know what I did with all my DPNs.  They're somewhere in my craft/snake/computer room.  I really need to get that organized.  I'm so tired of not being able to find anything.  Anyway, I had another size 7 circular, so I dragged the 2 circs method out of the recesses of my memory and used it to finish the crown decreases.  Not my favorite method, but it'll do in a pinch.

I ended up with this much yarn left over.  (Phone full of Pokemon included for scale.)

I don't like cutting it that close.  On the other hand, I do like making full use of a ball of yarn.

Speaking of, Brit put Baby Brooklyn in her new dress for church last Sunday.

Isn't she the sweetest thing?  Brittani said the dress got lots of compliments, too.

I had a bit of karmic justice today that I couldn't help but secretly gloating about -- just a bit.  You know that really annoying coworker that can't seem to do anything for herself?  Oh, she could worry the horns off a billy goat.  I swear, I haven't heard my name called so many times since Cody was 2 years old.

Well, today she got a taste of her own medicine.  Another coworker (not me) kept asking her a bunch of questions.  Every time he did, she would turn around and say, "He's worrying me!  He's worrying me!"  I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Yes, I know how you feel."  Boy do I know how she feels!

Now, I'm headed to bed, so these dogs can quite pestering me about it being time for bed!

Tuckered On Tuesday

Last night was one of those nights.  I didn't sleep well.  I tossed and turned.  I turned and I tossed.  I got hot, so I threw the covers off.  Then I got cold, so I pulled them back up.  Then I got hot again, so I threw the covers off again.  Then I got cold again, so...well, you get the idea.

It was one of those I'm-glad-I'm-not-married nights.  Rather, it was one of those every man in the world is glad he wasn't in the bed with me nights.

All that is leading up to say, this will be a post heavy on pictures, and light on coherency.

I finally got out and got some pictures of my crepe myrtles.  Alas, I'm so tired, I didn't even go for artsy-fartsy photos.  Just plain old snap shots.  Here is a lavender one.

Here is a pink one.

And here is the red one.

Remember the little marigold I had a few weeks ago that I thought was going to die?  Seriously, it was down to a leaf and a half.  Well, guess what it looks like today.  That's right.  It's the biggest one of all.

Here is my annual bed.

Old Glory is still flying.

Just so's you know, I got dive bombed by a hummingbird.  Vicious little buggers, those things.  But still fun to watch.

Dear Coworker

No, I really don't know why it's raining when your phone told you there was no chance of rain today.  Nor do I know why your phone told you there was no chance of rain today when it is quite clearly raining.

Even more so, I really don't know what exactly you expect me to do about it.   Maybe you'd have better luck discussing this with either the weatherman or the Almighty.

But whomever you choose to discuss this with, kindly stop dragging me by the arm to see the rain.  I know what it looks like.

Thank you.

That is all.

One Of Those Days

I knew it was going to be one of those days when I woke up at 1:00 AM and couldn't go back to sleep.  I tossed and turned, and may have dozed a bit, but true sleep escaped me.  Along about 2:25, Rylea started groaning.  I told her to hush, it wasn't time to get up yet, but she kept moaning until it was time to get up.

At 2:45, the alarm went off.  I got up and let the dogs out.  Then I let them back in, whereupon Rylea promptly threw up on the living room floor.  Oh, boy.  What a way to start my day.  I'm telling you, I seriously considered calling in and just going back to bed, but I didn't.  Overtime, plus attendance bonus at stake, you know.

I finish getting ready, get in the car, and start driving to work.  About half way there, I realized I'd left my breakfast in the microwave.  Dang.  I seriously thought about turning around and going back home, but thought to myself, "That would make that one very expensive sausage biscuit", and kept on going.

I spent the morning walking around brain dead and hungry.  I was like my own personal episode of The Walking Dead.  I felt a little better after lunch --oh, I had eaten a cereal bar after I got to work, but it wasn't like having a full meal -- and made it through the work day.

When I got home, Cody was there.  He and his friend Chad were going to get his bed and take it down to his new apartment.  That means I won't be able to pile the clean laundry on it.  I'll have to fold it and put it away, now.  At least until I get a new bed for that room.  Then I can go back to piling laundry.  You know, instead of folding it.

The best part about today is that it was raining when I got off work.  OK, it had mostly stopped by then, but I'm still using that as an excuse not to mow.

Today, any excuse will do.  I'm just too tired.

A Hot One

I knew it.  As soon as I got in my car, I knew it.

When it's already 81' and it's only 4:34 in the morning, yeah, it was going to be a hot one. Indeed it was.  Before it was all said and done, 5 people had fallen out in the plant.  Seems like every time I turned around, Supervisor Ronny and Supervisor Calvin were rolling the wheelchair out to take someone else to the first aid room.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I only saw 4 of the incidents myself.  A coworker told me that someone on the other side of the plant had also fallen out.  Still, I don't ever remember that many people falling out in one day.  

After they'd toted the third person up to first aid, I told my friend, "People are dropping like flies in this place.  I think I'm going to go home and hide under the covers."

And give thanks for Willis Haviland Carrier.

It Really Wasn't Monday

Do you remember yesterday how I was saying it felt like Monday all day?  So, last night, I was debating whether to watch TV or just listen to music while I worked on my needlepoint.  I was asking myself, "What comes on TV on Mondays?  I don't usually watch anything on Mondays."  In the end, I decided music would be the preferable option.

About lunchtime today is when it hit me.

Yeah, I can be a little slow on the uptake at times.  I blame getting up at 3:30 in the Ante Meridian for that.  And the holiday throwing me off.  I'm just glad it's in the summer re-run season, because if I'd missed NCIS, I'd have been upset.  But not too upset.  As my son pointed out, everything you want to watch can be found online these days --Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, Vudu... and most of the networks will have the shows up on their websites the next day.  It's not like the old days when if you missed a show, you just missed it.

Speaking of my son, he texted me today and said he's going to try to come home this weekend and get his bed.  I guess that means I need to get the laundry off of it, huh?

Before I rush off to fold laundry, here is an update on the hot pink hat.

It's almost to the point where I can start the crown decreases.  I'm knitting these on Knit Picks Caspian needles.  They're like the harmony ones, only in shades of blue.

I found a couple of dead spiders in my kitchen.  When I got the broom to sweep them up, I discovered that one of them wasn't dead.  With the help of my Teva sandal, it soon was.

Yeah, that's me.  A spider crawls out, "Sorry, creepy, I'm going to have to kill you."  A snake crawls out, "Oh, aren't you the pretty thing."  A mouse crawls out, "Squeaky!  You're falling down on your job!"

The phone rings, and I scream and run.

Is it any wonder I'm not married?

It's Not Monday

It's not Monday, but it sure feels like it.  The first day back at work after a holiday is always hard.  It's even harder when you get up at 3:30, after being able to sleep until 6:00 the last couple of days.

I had a quiet holiday.  Cody had to work, so was unable to come home.  The good news is, I got my flag up!  I haven't been able to hang my flag for far too many years.  See, when I bought my trailer house, I knew I was going to eventually have to sell it.  For this reason, I didn't want to put any holes in the walls, or door frame, or anything.  So, I didn't hang my flag.

Then my beloved son decided to hang his gun rack in his bedroom.  With screws and drywall anchors.  Yeah...

But the rest of the house was hole free.

When I bought my new house, I was so excited that I could finally hang my flag again.  However, the first time I tried to put up my hanger -- so my flag would be up for Memorial Day-- I discovered that I didn't have the right size screws.  I kept checking at Wal-mart, and they never had the right size.  The ones that fit the holes in my hanger were too short.  I wanted at least 1 1/2" screws, because my flag is big.  It's a 4' x 6', and I was afraid shorter screws wouldn't hold it up.

The next goal was for Flag Day, but alas, still no screws.  Finally, they got some of the right size screws in just in time for Independence Day.  So, yay, the flag is up.

That first day, I kept going to my front window, just to watch it wave.  It's a beautiful sight.  All these people saying they're offended by the American flag, well I suggest they move to a country that doesn't fly it.

Interesting bit of trivia, when I first came to look at this house before I bought it, there were four American flags flying on the road.  Four -- in less than half a mile.  And it wasn't even a holiday. I stood in my front yard and thought, "All these flags flying...this looks like a neighborhood I want to be a part of."  That was a big factor in my buying this house.

Yesterday, as I was looking out at my flag, I noticed it had gotten wrapped around the pole.  I went out to unwrap it, and heard my neighbor Norma call my name.  "Do you like tomatoes?"  Oh, yeah, I love tomatoes.  They give me terrible heartburn, but I eat them anyway.  "I'll bring you some."

Because this is America, and that's how we roll.

She told me she and her husband had gone to visit their younger son in Arkansas, and stopped at some Farmer's market type of place and bought a bunch of tomatoes.  They were giving some to all the neighbors.  After thanking her profusely, I promptly went back inside and made myself a tomato sandwich.

I'd never eaten a tomato sandwich until I moved to Mississippi.  Boy was I missing out.

I spent the rest of the weekend watching patriotic movies and working on my needlepoint dinosaurnaments.  That's what it says on the package.  Dinosaurnaments.  Clever, huh?

I also knit a little bit on the hat, but I didn't take a picture.  I did take a picture of one of my lavender crepe myrtles.

They're really starting to come on now, and are going to be so pretty.

I think tomorrow after work, I'm going to run to the store and see if they have those American flag paper plates on clearance.  If they do, I'm stocking up.

Because 'Murica.

Is There A Full Moon?

I'm not sure what was going on at work, but man, oh man, it was like someone dumped a whole bucket load of crazy out onto the plant.  Everyone was snapping and snarling.  Half my line went home at lunch, or shortly thereafter.

Even my supervisor and group leader got into it -- yelling at each other out in the aisle.  It was so bad, the attitude meds had to make another appearance.

My group leader asked me if they work, and I said, "They must.  I'm the only one over here without an attitude, and I'm usually the only one with an attitude."  I think everyone was mad about having to work a holiday weekend.

And I'm just over here going, "Overtime, yay!"

Speaking of, Cody is not going to be able to come home for the weekend.   He got some overtime today, and has to work Monday, so that is one more week I'll be able to pile my laundry on his bed.
It'll be a quiet holiday, but I'm used to it.  Beverly and James used to always go to a family reunion (on her daddy's side) in Texas.  They would take Cody with them and drop him off at his grandma's house that week.  I've got my own little Independence Day routine going on.  It includes patriotic movies and working on various crafts.  This year, I'll try to work on some of those needlepoint kits.

Oh, look.  I found another one.

I was informed that my collection was lightweight.  True, but if I still had the ones that got lost when I moved back from Italy, and the ones that got ruined when a hurricane destroyed my storage building, I would have a formidable collection indeed.

I went outside to mow after I'd gotten home from work.  The heat hit me, and I said, "Nope", and went back into the air conditioning.  I'll try to get out early in the morning and get it done.  I did stop long enough to take a picture of my red crepe myrtle.

I've also got some pink and some violet ones.

Last, but certainly not least, we have a baby!  Little Brooklyn Lain Hardin was born last night at 10:58 PM.  She weighed in at 7 lb 12 oz, and is 21 1/2 inches long.

Daddy Cameron is already totally smitten.

Perspective

I spent the entire day feeling like it was Saturday.  Maybe it's because I did my shopping yesterday, but whatever.  It's felt like Saturday to me.  I'm almost afraid I'm going to forget to go to work tomorrow.  That's a lot of money I'd be losing out on if I did.  A day of overtime, plus my holiday pay for Monday, plus my monthly attendance bonus, plus my six month attendance bonus.    So, I'd better make it to work.

I did my shopping yesterday so I could buy myself some tapestry needles, but when I got home, I was so tired I couldn't see straight.  So, no needlepoint or cross stitch got done.  While I was shopping, I bought some arch supports and put them inside my shoes.  They raised me up about 1/2".  It's funny how even such a small difference can throw everything off.   I was making my coffee this morning and thought, "wow, I feel so high."  Everything looked weird all day.

Between that, and living the wrong day, I've felt like the whole world is out of kilter.  I'm going to bed early again, but I wanted to show you my new 'Merica stuff.

And earrings.

I finally took pity on poor Terrance and texted him, letting him know the wrong person had gotten his paper.  He said, "Oh ok i forgot sorry for the inconvenience i had my sister to give u my number but i apologize didnt mean any harm"  Yes, with that spelling and grammar, too.

I replied, "I don't know anyone named Terrance, so the right person didn't get it.  That's what I was trying to tell you."

He said, "ok ok".

I wasn't going to reply at all, but I got to thinking that he may be feeling rejected.  The more I thought about it, the worse I felt, so I sent the text.

Still don't have a clue who Terrance is, though.

Update:  The more I got to thinking about it, the more I realized something.  This girl must not be that important to Terrance if he doesn't even remember giving her his phone number.  Sheesh, what a jerk!