Another One Of Those Days

I got to work bright and early this morning, filled my cooler with ice, clocked in, and headed towards my work area.  I put my stuff down on my brazing stand and went upstairs to run off the daily schedules.  I got them copied and passed out, then filled the flux pot.  I did my early morning clean up, and began to set up on the first order of the day.

One of the adapter tubes was bent wrong.  Oh, great.

I turned it in to the dispatcher, and he had the parts re-cut --and they were cut wrong...I knew right then what kind of day it was going to be.

Shortly after the shift started, I had to go over to the training center for a little refresher course in a type of brazing that I know how to do, but haven't done all that much.  It didn't take too long, and I was soon back at my brazing stand, ready to braze away.

The first order I set up on after getting back...had an adapter tube bent wrong.

I told Supervisor, "This is a sign from God that I'm not supposed to be here today, so I'm going home."

He said, "Noooo it's not."

I guess it was one of those you-had-to-be-there moments.

I wouldn't have left work on the last day of the month anyway.  Too close to getting another attendance bonus, and every penny counts, right?  Fortunately, the rest of the day passed without too much of a hitch.

Then I came home to this:

Yay, daffodils!

Eventually, I want to dig up that entire bed and move all the daffodils up against the west side of the house instead of having it out in the middle of the yard.  I was thinking about doing it this year, but the recent cold has been very hard on my spider lilies.  They look rough, so I'm going to give them another year to recover before digging them up.

I was thinking of making a daffodil/spider lily bed with one of those curving, irregular edges.  I'm sure you can imagine what I mean.  On second thought, I realized it would be a pain in the patooty to mow around, so I'll probably just do a boring, rectangular bed like every body else.

Speaking of mowing, I think I'm going to hire a boy to do my yard this summer.  If any locals know a reliable kid, who is reasonably priced, clue me in, Okay?

Good news, I had thought this one succumbed to the cold.  I left it outside all through that cold spell in January.  It looked like it died, but it's blooming again.

Now, we'll have to see how long it will last before the Mississippi summer heat kills it.

One Of Those Days

Today has been one of those days.

I had to take a deep breath and count to ten.  I had to look myself in the eye, and tell myself in a firm, calm, yet kind voice, "You cannot plant your flower bed yet!  It is still too early!"

I can make plans, though.  I think instead of putting my French Marigolds in the skinny bed in front of my porch, I'm going to plant moss roses there.  I had some last year, and I really liked them, but they seemed to get overwhelmed by the larger plants in the big bed.  I think they'll do better by themselves.

I'm still debating on what else to plant.

All I can do for now, though, is to pout because it's still too early.  I can't even get out and claw, because all the rain has turned my yard into a swamp.

via GIPHY

Man, I need a nap.

I'm going to go put myself to bed.

Dear Coworker

When a female employee asks you not to call her sweetheart, it's probably not the best course of action for you to turn her in for it. 

You probably should have thought that one through a bit more. 

Thank you.

That is all.

Spring

As my old dad used to say, "Spring is busting out all over."

On the drive home, I noticed the jonquils all along the edges of the roads.  My own daffodils were peeking out of the ground, but no blooms yet.  Then one day, it happened.

The first daffodil of the season!  Followed quickly by the jonquils.  Well, the ones in my flower bed, that is.  Wild ones have been blooming for about a week. 

My roses beginning to leaf out.

I was kind of worried about them, because they lost all their leaves in the cold spell.  Since I've been in this house, they've never gone completely bare like that.  Looks like they're OK after all.  I haven't seen my gardenia leafing out yet, so I'm still wondering how it came through the winter.  We'll see soon enough.  If It dies, I'm not going to try to get another one.  I love them, but I'm not going to keep killing them. 

I was at work, just a working away, I think it was Thursday, when Supervisor walked up and said, "You've got something on your mind, I can tell."  I had to confess, I was already planning my flower beds.  It'll be a while yet before I can safely plant, but I can dream, can't I?   He told me his dad had already started his tomatoes.  He grows them from seed, in two big drum halves.  He rolls them out into the sun every morning, and rolls them back under cover at night. 

Tomatoes are something else I can't seem to grow.  I had that one last year, but it didn't do too well.  I kind of have a feeling the dog was peeing on it, and that didn't help it any.  I think this time around, I'll not volunteer for overtime one Saturday and go to the farmer's market on the square.   

I don't have any luck growing things from seed, but that conversation with Supervisor was still on my mind when I went to the store that evening.  Wandering through the garden center, I picked up these. 

Hope springs eternal...or else I just never learn.  One or the other.  Anyway, I got some wildflower seeds. 

The current plan is to extend the front flower bed the rest of the way across the house, and plant these in the newer section.  I'll probably wait until May to even plant them, so they won't be in danger of a late frost.  I'm not sure what I'm going to plant in the older section of the bed.  I'll probably head up to Lowe's when it comes time, and just wander through and pick what catches my eye.  Of course you'll get to see what I get on the blog. 

I got all my living room furniture moved back into place this morning. 

And Mrs. Matthews' picture hung in its place of honor.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of the room, so if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Rylea has her own love seat.  For some reason, she always pushes the cushions off of it.  I put them back on, and she pushes them off again.  Last night, I finally told her enough was enough.  I wasn't picking the dumb cushions up again.  Today, I found her like this. 

I just shook my head and said, "Sometimes, I just don't know about that dog." 

A few weeks ago, I switched Squeaky to Meow Mix simple servings.  It's a bit expensive, but she seems to like it.  Look.  It's got whole shrimp in it.  Whole shrimp! 

Sigh, my cat eats better than I do. 

I'm going to try to get more consistent about blogging.  I'd love to complain about all the hours I'm working, but since I volunteer, I really can't do that.   Still, long hours make for light blogging, but I'm going to try to post more, even if it's just a short paragraph. 

We'll see how that works out. 

A Scare

I had a little scare last night.  Nothing serious, just a tiny little scare.  

I have this molar that has been kind of sore the last few days.  I didn't think too much of it.  I thought it was related to the sinus troubles I've been having these last few days, because of all the storms coming through.  Last night, it was really, really sore, and kind of loose feeling.  It seemed to be sticking up higher, and when I mashed down on it, it seemed to move.  

"Oh, great!" I thought.  "That tooth has abscessed.  That means a root canal and another crown."  Lovely.  A root canal and crown isn't really that big of a deal.  It's just trying to coordinate dentist appointments and work schedules and blah, blah, blah.  But if it needed to be done, it needed to be done.  

The bright side-- because I always try to find a bright side -- is that I get my root canals done by a specialist in Jackson.  That means afterwards, I can go shopping, and to Bass Pro Shops, and the best part:  I get to visit with AMY!!  Yay!

But when I work up this morning, the tooth was fine.  It had settled back into place.  No swelling.  No soreness.  No looseness.  It appears it was sinus related after all.  It's still just a touch tender, but nothing like an abscess.  Trust me, if you've ever had one, you'd know.  

Only, now I don't have an excuse to go visit Amy.  I guess I should just not sign up for overtime one day and go visit anyway.  I was supposed to stop by on my way back from Texas, but that didn't happen.  She only lives about an hour - ish away, and by the time I got that close to home, I just wanted to get back.  So I kind of owe her a visit.  

On the way down to Texas, I thought about stopping in Lafayette, La to visit an old schoolmate who lives in that area, but didn't for the same reason.  I was too close to Home, and I just wanted to get there.  The only time I stopped was right after I crossed the state line.  There is a welcome center, and I pulled in, just for a moment, to take a picture of the great star welcoming you to The Lone Star State.  

Yes, I'll admit it.  I cried.  It had been sooooo very long since I'd been Home, and then I was there, and it just felt like all was right with the world again.    

Whenever I feel like I'm working myself to death, volunteering for all these long hours of overtime, I remember that feeling.  I remember that moment when I stepped out of my car, and my feet touched Texas soil.  I remember, and I know why I am doing it:  so that one day, when I head that way again, it will be for good.  

So that one day, I will finally be able to go

A Couple Of Sundays

I hadn't intended to work yesterday.  I'd signed up, but for some reason, my overtime wasn't approved.  I don't know why:  too many people volunteered, my name was overlooked, I only thought I signed up but didn't really, the guy who does the approving was tired of me complaining about how tired I am.  Whatever the reason, I was actually kind of looking forward to having a day off.  I had lots of stuff I needed to do around the house, and an extra day would give me a chance to work on some of it.  However, as I was walking out the door Friday evening, C shift group leader asked me if I was coming in Saturday.  I told him no.  He told me to to work anyway.

I said, "My overtime wasn't approved.  I can't just come in."  He went and got C shift production manager who said, "I need all the brazers I can get, so come on in." Thus, I worked Saturday.  And thus, all the stuff I'd planned on doing around the house Saturday didn't get done.  But I did get 12 hours overtime, so I'm not going to complain.

Before I left Saturday, a couple of people asked me if I were going to work today.  I told them no; I need at least one day to rest.  Even after I saw this morning that they were on FB begging brazers to come in...

The only thing I did today was to finish painting the trim in my living room.

Patience, Grasshoppers, I will get the door painted, too.  I'm going to take it down, remove the hardware, then strip and prime it first.  While I've got it down, I'll probably paint the inside of the door frame, too.  I put that one little spot of paint on it just to see how it would look if I painted it without priming it, but I found some small holes that I want to try to patch with wood putty while I've got it off the hinges.

On the whole, I think the living room looks really nice.

I put the ladder away, and moved the furniture back after I took the picture.  Figures I gotta do things backwards. 

Next step -- after moving the rest of the furniture back into place, that is -- decorating the place. I already know I want to replace that lamp.  It's plastic to begin with, and 12 years old.  It doesn't really go with the theme I have in mind, either.   I want this painting from one of my third grade teachers to be the focal point.

So, I'm thinking rustic, barn, countryside type decorations.  I don't know.  Decorating is definitely one thing I'm not good at.  I still haven't gotten anything put up on my bedroom walls, and it's been nearly a year and a half since I painted that room.

Also, I need to decide what to do with this ceiling.

I think I might have enough paint left from doing the bathroom ceiling to give it one coat, but I'm sure it would look better with two.  On the other hand, that paint is white.  I'm thinking if I do it a very, very light blue, it might look like a sky -- without being too overbearing.

Finally, remember the church I attended on Christmas Eve?  A couple of weeks ago, they were finally able to get back into their worship center -- after 5 months.

That is one happy bunch of campers!

(I'd meant to post this picture that day, but things just got away from me.)

Lost Mojo

Every day when I walk into my house after work, I'm still amazed at how much bigger my living room looks.  It's not a large room to begin with-- I think it's 12' x 15' -- but since painting, it just looks so much bigger. 

I've still got that last wall to paint the trim and stuff, which I hope I can get done this weekend.  I'm debating on whether I want to also paint this door, or leave it brown, or even paint it the same color as the walls. 

Well, if I don't like it, I can always sand it down to bare wood and stain it.  I'll figure it out eventually. 

I do want to replace this front door sooner or later.

I'd rather have a solid door, but that would break Jesse's heart.  Every morning, when I leave for work, he goes to this front door and watches me drive away.  Maybe I can get a door with one of those big oval windows in it.  They're pretty, and he could still see through it. 

Lately, I've come to the realization that I may have left my knitting mojo in Texas.  I've hardly knit anything since I got back.  Nothing is calling my name.  I even tried to cast on another red hat for the Little Hats Big Hearts program, but the ribbing is as far as I've gotten.  Maybe now that I'm almost done with painting the living room, the mojo will come wandering back. 

In the meantime, I need to figure out how to decorate this room. 

The Things I Think About

I hadn't planned on blogging tonight, because I didn't really have much to say.  However, today a coworker used one of my favorite words: peon.  I thought, "Wow!  I must be influencing people more than I thought!"

Definition of peon:  someone who does a lot of work for little pay.  Fits us to a T. 

Anyway, I thought, "I can't just let that go!"  So I had to come up with something to blog about.  And what I came up with is this.

As I've mentioned before, my job is a bit of a no-brainer.  Or else, I've been doing it so long I don't really have to think about it any more.  I just plug in and my brain checks out.  And oh, the places it goes -- any where from planning my flower beds to the role of Henry VIII in the establishment of These United States Of America.  From classical music to Sunday School songs.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
And the rains came tumbling down...




One day last week, I was thinking about my grandparents.  My dad's parents were Mammaw and Pappaw.  My mother's parents were Grandma and Grandpa.  For some reason, when signing birthday cards, my Mammaw always signed "Mamo" and "Papo".  I don't know why, it's just how she did it.

Grandma had a stroke when I was 3 ish, which left her partially paralyzed, including her right hand.  Grandpa took over all the birthday card signing.  He signed them "G'paw" and "G'maw".  I don't know why, it's just how he did it.

Is the Prime Directive even a valid order?  I mean, just by meeting someone, your presence influences him in some way, so there is no way to not interfere completely -- unless you just stay home completely. 

Man, my electric bill is triple what it was two months ago.  I thought it was because of all the cold last month, but I over heard a coworker saying his increased by over $100, and he has gas heating. 

Last summer when I was staying over on second shift, there were some people who were downright hateful to me about it -- implying that I had something going on with the group leader, and that was why I was getting the extra hours.  I just ignored them.  It was the supervisor who asked me to stay late.  The group leader had nothing to do with it.  Anyway, I find it funny that the one who was the most horrible hasn't signed up to work overtime yet.  I guess it wasn't that important, then.

BTW, if I ever get fired from my job, I already know why it'll happen.  One of these fool men is going to grab me just one time too many. I'm going to say to myself, "Enough is enough and I've had enough", and I'm going to turn around and bash his head in. 

Human resources?  Yeah, right.  I might have better luck reporting him to a brick wall. 

The God of Angel armies
Is always by my side

Half Price Chocolate Day just happens to fall on my regular grocery shopping day this year.  I'm not sure that's a good thing. 

I want a dream lover
So I don't have to dream alone

You frightened yet?  Just try living inside my head for a while.

One of my coworkers, in a fit of frustration said, "This will make you talk to yourself and say curse words!"  I've been giggling about it ever since.

This little light of mine
I'm going to let it shine

Not so much at 4:00 AM.  I just make the coffee a little stronger. 

Whee!!!

Robots

As I was leaving work yesterday, my group leader said, "Come in at 4:00 AM tomorrow." 

"Wow," I thought, "They really do think we're robots." 

Alas, even a robot needs some down time for maintenance, so when I got to work this morning, I went up to the office and scratched my name off the overtime list for Sunday.  C shift group leader said, "NO!  Don't do that!" but I did anyway. 

Good thing, too, because as I was leaving...."Come in at 4 tomorrow!" said my group leader.

Sigh....I guess they think we don't need sleep. 

I came home and hung my drapes back up.

I think I did a pretty good job matching the paint color of my trim to my drapes.  Now, I just need to do something about that ceiling.  The bright clean walls really emphasize how grungy it looks.  Oh, and I still have to paint the trim on the last wall.  And I need to do something about that front door...

Rylea says, "As long as you stop moving my love seat around, I don't care what else you do." 

That reminds me, I need to add Febreeze to my shopping list. 

We Have A Living Room

I got to work bright and early this morning, filled my cooler with ice, and clocked in.  I dropped my stuff at my stand, then headed upstairs to run off copies of the day's schedule.  I got to the office, and there were no schedules -- not in the copier, nor in the folders on the wall.

A quick investigation revealed a fault in the copier.  No problem.  I went to tubing, intending to run off a copy from their computer.  I pulled up the schedule, clicked print, and.....paper jam.  I opened the printer doors and top cover and pulled out the cartridge, and put it all back together, and still...paper jam.  I tried again, and even the person who works in tubing tried.  Still...paper jam.  OK, then...

I went to the tubing dispatcher's desk to ask him to print me out a copy.  By this time, I was humming the theme to the Indiana Jones movies.  Raiders Of The Lost Work Schedule.  That's what it was beginning to feel like.

The dispatcher pulled up the schedule, clicked print, and....his entire system crashed.  It was at this point I began to wonder which cosmic forces didn't want me to work today, and seriously considered going back home and going back to bed.  I didn't.  But I thought about it.

I had to wait until the dispatcher rebooted his system, and he finally got me a copy of my schedule.  I made enough copies for the line in the shipping office, because their stuff always works, and the rest of the day went off without a hitch. Relatively.

Which is more than can be said for the weekend shift.

I got to my assigned area Saturday morning and there were more A and B shift volunteers than regular C shift employees.  Before the day was over, the C shift group leader went around begging us to come in Sunday.  I told her I wasn't going to come in.  She said she was going to call me on my phone, and I told her, "Go ahead and call, I won't answer."  Sunday was the first day off I'd had in two weeks, and by golly, I was going to take it. 

I did sign up to work all three days next weekend.  I'll probably slow down some on the overtime once my bank account recovers enough to take it off life support, but for now, we'll see how it goes.

And just what did I do on my first day off in two weeks?  First thing I did was to sleep in until 6:00 AM.  Trust me, when one is used to getting up at 3:30, sleeping in until 6:00 feels like Heaven.  I leisurely lay in bed until the dogs pestered me to let them out.  After doing that, I made some coffee and leisurely drank it while leisurely eating breakfast, then I leisurely did a few normal chores -- laundry and the like, and leisurely watched a replay of the Falcon Heavy test flight on YouTube.

Oh, yeah, and I painted the trim in my living room.  Leisurely.

Well, I got three walls done at least, before I ran out of painter's tape.

Yes, again.  I knew I should have bought that double roll.  I really didn't have enough to finish wall #3.  Once I got done painting wall #1, I carefully peeled the tape off and reapplied it to wall #3, and we got it done.  I didn't try to peel enough off to do wall #4.  I'll just wait until I buy another roll, whenever I go to the store again.

I wasn't going to paint the inside of this door frame, but now I'm glad I did.

Now that it's done and the tape is pulled off, I like the way it looks.

It looks much better than the window frame, which I did not paint the inside of, since it'll be hidden behind my drapes most of the time.

I'll have a few spots to touch up after I've done the fourth wall,

but, I'm very pleased with the overall effect.

I came home this evening and started pushing some of my big furniture back into place.  Tomorrow, I'll try to get my drapes hung back up, and I'll have a living room again! 

Nothing

I was going to write you a nice, long eloquent blog post tonight, but as it happens, I got nuthin'.  Except that I got daffodils coming up! 

Other than that, nuthin'. 

Seriously, though, I work at kind of a no-brainer job.  There are some who might disagree with me, but it doesn't really require much mental strength.  Or maybe it's just because I've been doing it so long -- 23 years -- that I could do the job in my sleep. 

I can neither confirm nor deny that I may have or may have not done just that from time to time. 

All that to say, when I'm at work, my mind is composing blog posts by the dozen.  I think of all these things I need to tell you.  All these things about which I could write.  By the time I get home, they're gone.  Poofed into the nether world.

For a few years, I ran a machine that I basically set up and just watched it run for --however long it took to make the parts it was making.  I carry a little notebook to work, and in those days, I could jot down rough drafts while my machine was running.  Those were the glory days of the blog.  Now, not so much. 

The job I'm currently doing is much more hands on, and stopping work to write posts --fascinating though they may be -- tends to be frowned upon by those in supervisory positions.  I don't see why.  At least I'm exercising my mind instead of just playing on my phone like everyone else.  Yes, that is against the rules, and no, those who do it aren't being as slick as they think they are.  The bosses know.  Trust me, they know. 

Be that as it may, this is one of those days when long, eloquent blog posts escape me.  So, I'll just tell you one little story, then let you go.

I got to work bright and early this morning.  I went into the break room and filled my cooler with ice.  I clocked in, and went to my work area.  I pulled my car keys out of my pocket to put into my bag,  followed by my house k...wait, where are my house keys? 

Oh, no!  I must have dropped them in the parking lot!  No, I would have heard them clink.  Maybe I dropped them in the car port.  No, I would have heard them clink there, too.  Where are they????? 

I mean, I have spare keys, so I can get into my house, but what if someone finds my keys?  Not that I have much worth stealing, but still...And I have good neighbors who will keep an eye on my house for me, but still...And the dogs are there, but still....

After a long, arduous, worry filled day, I came home and found my keys -- right where I had left them.

That being a clear sign that I don't get enough sleep, I'm going to bed.

Goodnight. 

I'm Back

I know, I know, it's been a while.  See, I've been dealing with just a touch of a cold and all I've wanted to do as soon as I got home from work was go to bed.  That's pretty much what I did.  Saturday night, I went to bed -- I kid you not -- at 6:30.  I woke up Sunday feeling so much better, and today, I'm about back to normal.  I'm still tired, of course.  Working long hours will do that to you, but I no longer feel like I'm about to collapse.  Today is the first time I've even felt like blogging in nearly a week, so it's going to be a bit of a catch up post.

I did work all three days this weekend.  Friday and Saturday weren't too bad, but oooooh Sunday...Sunday was something else.  So many people didn't even show up, and about half the ones that did left early.  They were calling people at home and begging them to come in and work, even if it's just for three or four hours.  I told the group leader of the line on which I was working I couldn't give her all three days every weekend.  I've got to take a day off sometime.  Even my supervisor asked me, "Are you getting enough sleep?" and cautioned me not to overdo.   I assured him I wouldn't.

Friday morning, I woke up from a dream.  In my dream, I was laying on my bed, coloring in my Introvert Activity Book, when suddenly, the room filled with the glow of the purest light.  The spirit of Jesus was there, embracing me.  He seemed to be saying, "I'm here.  I love you, and everything is going to be all right." 

I got up and started getting ready for work.  While I was eating breakfast, I checked into Facebook and found that my sister in law had had to rush my brother Russell to the hospital.  He was coughing and couldn't catch his breath.  They thought he might have pneumonia, but chest x-rays ruled that out.  The next thing was his heart.  They did some tests and found that he'd had a heart attack sometime between Wednesday and Friday.  They did a heart cath, and he has three blockages -- two of which are significant.  They can't put a stent in, though, because his heart is only working at about 25%.  Also, a valve isn't working right.  The doctors put him on blood thinners and another medication to help reduce the fluid in the sac around his heart.  He got to come home today, but has to go to a heart rehab place.  He's also got to give up running and working out. 

That's the hard part.  He's always tried to keep fit and healthy, but heart disease runs in our family. 

So, that's about it for today.  I ran by the store yesterday after work, because the cat was out of food.  I had an ibotta rebate for Meow Mix Simple Servings, so I started buying her those.  Now she won't eat anything else.  Oh, well.  She's 17 years old.  I'll let her enjoy her few remaining years.  But the point is, I had to go to the store, so I picked up some more painter's tape. 

One of my coworkers told me he never uses that stuff.  I have to, or I'd have paint everywhere. 

I was going to come home today and start painting trim, but yeah, that didn't happen.  I came home and just sat.  I want to paint these walls behind the entertainment center first,

so I can get all my furniture back into place.  Once I get all the heavy stuff back into place, moving Rylea's love seat and my recliner is easy. 

Eh, maybe tomorrow. 

There was something else I was going to tell you, but right now I can't remember what it is, so I guess I'll just go to bed.  Good night.