Fair Bubba Keg,

 Fair Bubba Keg.  I hardly knew ye...

This is my Bubba Keg.

For some 15 odd years or so, I've carried Bubba Keg to work, and filled it with nice, cold ice water.  It's never been a problem...until now.  Yes, they had the meeting with us Thursday.  As of Monday, we are not allowed to eat or drink anything -- anything -- at work except water.  

Not only that, our water containers must -- must -- be a clear ADP approved sippy cup.  

It can't be insulated.  It can't be tinted.  It must be something they can check at a glance to make sure we are only drinking tepid water... because God forbid we drink a Coke, or some tea, or coffee...

Ohhhh, my coffee....

Seriously!  I don't understand what's so wrong with me drinking a cup of coffee in the morning, or a vegetable smoothie, or protein shake or whatever.  It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.  

Furthermore, no snacking.  No chips, no peanut butter crackers, no protein bars, no fruit...no anything.  Nothing at all, but plain water.  Here's the thing, some people go in at 3:00 and 4:00 AM.  Lunch break isn't until 10:40 or 11:05, depending on if you have first or second break.  So, if you go in at 3:00 and you have second break, you're having to go 8+ hours with absolutely nothing to eat.  Nothing.  That's a long time to be hungry out there, especially since we're doing physical labor.  Oh, and check out this gem from our new employee policy:  

Any employee choosing to take their break in the work area forfeits the right to eat/drink, other than water. 

We've always just sat down in our work area to eat, rather than walking half a mile to the nearest break area, then hoping there is a table available.  Sigh...  After 25 years, why is this suddenly a problem?  

Shall I also mention that we have a new HR director?  She's a peach, I'm telling you.  In our meeting, she was very rude and smart mouthed.  I don't see her lasting long out there.  But anyway, on the way out of the meeting, as she was handing my official ADP approved sippy cup, I asked her, "Have you figured out why the turnover rate is so high?"

"That's something we're still looking in to," she replied.  

Seriously?  Are you people seriously that obtuse?  You lock us into a cage, and a hot cage at that, then put us on water rations, all for only $13.50 per hour (for most employees), and you can't figure out why nobody wants to work there?  SERIOUSLY???????

In a moment of irony too rich to go unsavored, as that awesome hunk of pure awesomeness who used to be my imaginary boyfriend before he got married to someone who is not me Bill Whittle says, before the day was over, so many people had quit, they had to completely shut down one assembly line.  It wasn't just the temps, either.  It was full time ADP employees, coming out of their meetings, getting their belongings, and walking out.  By yesterday, so many had quit, they had to shut down two lines, and I suspect even more will quit before Monday, when the new policy takes effect.  

And they will still be totally clueless as to why they can't find employees....

Then, yesterday, just to add salt to the wound, they announced that they would be giving a $2 per hour raise, but only to second and third shift employees.  Talk about a slap in the face!  Day shift carried that plant, and oh, well, sucks to be you, I guess.  

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate, hate, hate my job?  I swannie, it's like they stay up late at night trying to figure out how to make our jobs as miserable as possible.  But look, a new toilet seat!

See how much we care?  Yes, it's only on one toilet, and yes the bathroom is still filthy, and there's usually no soap or paper towels, but here's a crumb to shut you people up.  Take it or leave it. 

In more pleasant news, my new Knit Picks cables have arrived, 

and knitting on the shawl has resumed.  Since I can't just order from KP without ordering yarn, I wanted to try their premium acrylic brand, so I threw these four in the bag as well. 

It's pretty nice, and very soft, unlike Red Heart, which can vary by color.  The softness, I mean.  Some colors are softer than others.  In Red Heart, I mean...Anyway, I suspect these will eventually become hats. 

And lastly, I'm not quite sure if I should be comforted or frightened.

Oh, I almost forgot, it looks like that live stream thing isn't going to happen just yet.  I'd planned on doing it this afternoon, but it's a bit more complicated to set up than I'd anticipated.  Back in the day, I used to turn it on accidentally, but apparently they've changed things since there.  In the meantime, here is a recording on my crappy camera of me playing the first song from the Schaum Red Book.

I'd started playing the next song, too, but my battery ran down.  I'd thought there was a way I could trim the video, but I guess I can't do that to uploads.  Or maybe that was just videos from my phone.  

Now, I have to run get dressed.  I've got someone coming over to give me a quote on cutting my grass.  If she's affordable and dependable, I might be able to get out of mowing for the rest of this summer.  

Wish me luck. 

Riding For Clarence

They ride these things every day.

It's part of their job.  But today...

Today they ride to honor the memory of our friend and coworker Clarence Hurd who left this life July 24, 2021.

The blog will be observing a day of silence to honor him.  

I'm Back!

 I apologize for the prolonged absence.  I needed a little break.  

What with these 10 hour shifts we're on this time of year, I just don't have the time to devote to all the things I want to do in the evenings -- between piano practice, my French lessons, and blogging, not to mention housework and all the necessary things that have to be done.  Something had to give, and since writing a thoughtful, coherent blog post is the most time consuming, it's what got put on hold.  

I'd even started setting up to live stream the piano practice that I've been threatening you with, but didn't want it to feel rushed, so I put that on hold as well.  The good news is, we got this Saturday off, so maybe I can do it then.  How well it is received will determine if it continues or not.  

The sad news is, we have Saturday off for the funeral of a long time coworker who passed away unexpectedly last week.  Oh, I don't know if that's the official reason, but I do know a lot of people have said they won't be there.  Clarence was a forklift driver, and they are a tight bunch, kind of like us brazers.  All of the forklift drivers have already said they're not coming to work so they can attend the funeral, so I'm guessing the plant decided to cut their losses and let everyone off.  I mean, it's not like you can just put anyone on a forklift.  You have to have a license and everything.

Either way, I'm glad to have a break. 

BTW, if you catch a piece of paper on fire at work, take your mask off before you try to blow it out or you'll end up hyperventilating and nearly pass out.  Ummmm, happened to a friend -- who took way too long to figure out why she couldn't blow that fire out.  She blames sleep deprivation, this friend does.  

Hmmm, what else has been going on since last I blogged?  

I had a bit of unexpected fun with my bugs...and the way that happened is as follows:  

There I was at work, just a working away, when on a whim, I got one of my plastic spiders out and put him on my work table.  I was having imaginary conversations with Fred, scooting him around on the table.  Just minding my own business...playing with my spider...I'd noticed the bugs all have a little mold mark on the bottom, so in a moment of boredom, I picked Fred -- as I named my plastic spider -- up and tried to stick him to my face by creating a suction in that mold mark.  You remember sticking drinking glasses to your face like that?  It's what I was trying to do with Fred.  Just minding my own business...playing with my spider....

My coworker, who is a self admitted fraidy cat, just happened to look up at the wrong moment and saw that spider on my face. I'm telling you, the whole plant heard that scream.  I'm getting a lot of mileage out of those little bugs...

I finally splurged and bought some Irish butter. 

Eh, it's OK, but quite frankly, it's not that much better than the Great Value butter I've been buying for years.  Certainly not worth spending $8 per pound for it.  I won't be buying it ...I can't say ever again, but it won't be a regular habit. 

In knitting news, I made some progress on my lace shawl.

Then I made some more progress.

It was at this point, all progress ground to a halt.  I'd knit this pattern before, so I knew how it would go.  First, you knit the center panel, then the left side of the shawl.  You put the stitches on a holder, break the yarn, and knit the right side.  I'd deliberately used my Knit Picks interchangeable needles so when I reached this point, all I had to do was put the caps onto the cables and voila, a built in holder.  

Do you know, as many of those cables as I've bought over the years, I couldn't find a single one when I needed it.  I quickly got online and ordered some more...and now we wait. 

In the meantime, I've got piano to practice and French to learn...and laundry to ignore.

Laters. 

Once Upon A Time

 Once upon a time, a certain ADP employee who may or may not have been ...um...me... got herself some plastic bugs.  And that certain ADP employee who may or may not have been um...me...just might have taken the aforementioned plastic bugs to work and may or may not have possibly scattered them strategically around her work place. 

Then that aforementioned ADP employee who may or may not have been ...um...me may or may not have peed her pants laughing at the hilarity that ensued -- especially when that one co-worker screamed so loud, everyone thought the fire alarm had gone off and evacuated the building.

OK, maybe that last part didn't actually happen, but it was the loudest scream I'd ever heard.  She said, "Don't you know you shouldn't be scaring old people???"  I said, "Who?  Me?  Would I do that?"

In other news, the last of the piano books I'd ordered arrived.  Well, the last of the books I ordered this time, that is. 

Just thumbing through it, I definitely remember some of those songs.  I was thinking, "I used to be able to play that?"  But I did.  I was about halfway through the grade two book when my mother made me quit.  Unfortunately, I can't quite play just yet, as the cat is napping on my keyboard. 

Speaking of the cat, the little cat house I made for her worked.  She got caught out in the rain last night, and when I opened the door this morning, she was inside it.  Nice and dry.  I'd love to get her something like this eventually, but they're a little pricey.

For now, the old cooler will have to do.  I need to get her some sort of weather-proof mat to put inside, so she won't be laying directly on the bricks.  I'm thinking I might just knit something out of my massive Red Heart stash, 

because it's durable and washable.   I can knit two or three, and switch them out when they get dirty.  The other option is to get a carpet style door mat.  I think it will be better for outdoors.  I'll look next time I go to the store and see what they have there.  

Oh, the cat's awake now.  I guess I'll go practice a bit. 

Laters. 

I Found It!

I'm sooo tired.  

Back in the day, my most often used phrase was "Man, I need a nap."  It's been supplanted by the phrase above. And it's not just me, either.  We're all pretty much worn out at this point.  My friend told me one day last week, "Becky, I just sat on my couch and cried.  I don't even know why I was crying!"  

Because you're exhausted and overwhelmed.  I know, because I'm exhausted and overwhelmed, and I don't even have a small child at home!  I can't imagine trying to raise a child in that environment these days.  I remember what it was like when Cody was little, and it was tough enough 25 years ago.  

When he was two-ish, I was trying to explain to a production manager how difficult it was finding child care -- especially on second shift.  He just shrugged and said, "That's not my problem," and walked away. It has gotten so much worse since then.  

Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't expect corporate America to be your Sugar Daddy, or your mommy and daddy, but you need to recognize that the majority of your work force -- especially in these low paying jobs -- is going to be women, most of whom will have children, and many of whom will be single moms. If you don't want to keep running off your employees, try to be a little less callous about their family concerns, will ya? 

In the meantime, I need to give you a piano update.  I'm still working my way back through the Level 1 book with those videos I found.  In one of the videos, Mr. Let's Play Piano said to watch the other videos he's done on the same songs.  See, the Alfred books have three versions -- Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course, Alfred's Self Teaching Adult Piano Course, and Alfred's All-In-One Piano course.  The only difference is that the All-In-One has theory lessons included.  With the other two, you'd have to buy a separate theory book, but based on Amazon reviews, the music in all three is exactly identical.  

He's done playlists for all three of those books, and said his videos are unscripted.  He says whatever comes to mind at the moment, so he might say something in one that he doesn't say in another.  He recommended watching all the videos he does for each song, so, I went back and started over...again...I didn't get very far before I said, "Forget this!"  I'm not working my way through that book again.  This is my third time as it is.  What I'm going to do is just start where I am, and watch all the videos for each song from here on out.  I figure at this point, if there's something I haven't learned yet, I'm just not going to.  

Another thing he suggested was to go through more than one method book concurrently.  Different courses teach things in different ways, and since people learn in different ways, one course might be more conducive to learning a concept than another.  

I looked through his list of method books he'd done playlists for, and chose this series. 

I'd thought these were the ones I'd learned from as a kid, when I took that one year of lessons, but it turns out they weren't.   I thought briefly about sending them back, but decided to keep them anyway.   

I did a bit more research, still trying to find the books I'd used in my childhood, and came up with this one:

That giant note looked familiar, so on a whim, I ordered it, too.  It arrived today, and immediately I turned to the first song, and that's when I knew!  

Yes!  I remember this song vividly!  It's the series!  The ones Mrs. Duchamp used with us!  It's like a little piece of my childhood found me again. 

The plan is to go through these books together, and if I can work up the nerve, film myself and share the journey with you.  

And finally, yes, this crazy cat was sleeping like this:

Her feet in my lap, her body draped over the arm of the chair, and her head on the side table.  

That Didn't Take Long

 Well, Shark Week is over for another year.  It always feels kind of like the day after Christmas when Shark Week ends.  So, what has been going on while I've been watching sharks?  Not a whole lot, really. 

I wore my new socks to work.

I went shopping, and got all of this stuff absolutely free with my ibotta app. 

I bought and hung a new American flag, right beside my new Texas flag, so my house is patriotic once again.

And for good measure, I took updated photos of my flower beds.

Unfortunately, it looks like these few Bachelor's buttons are all I'm going to get out of my wildflowers. 

The grass and weeds have already completely taken over that little bed. Oh, well.  Maybe this year, I'll finally learn not to try to start anything from seed.  

I made progress on my Garden Party shawl, despite being distracted by sharks.  

I had to rip back one pattern repeat, but the chart I'm working now is only 8 rows long, so it wasn't that bad.  Thank goodness for lifelines, is all I have to say.  

And finally, that didn't take long.  My next door neighbors finished moving out Friday, and by the time I got home from work Saturday, the owner had put this in the yard. 

Apparently, he's not going through a realtor.  Whatever.  I just hope my new neighbors are as nice as the ones he ran off.  And no, I'm not going to pay a surveyor to come out so he'll know where the property line is.  

If he wants to know where the property line is, he can get a surveyor out himself.  

 

Just Popping In

 to let you know I'm still alive and breathing.  And watching Shark Week.  It's now day 4 of Shark Week and I haven't seen Andy Casagrande yet.  Who do I sue?  I've seen Paul, Dickie, Kina, and Craig, but not Andy.  It would be a shame to go through a whole Shark Week without Andy.  He's a living legend. 

There are still a few episodes I haven't watched, because when one gets up ridiculously early, one must also go to bed ridiculously early, so I DVR the shows that come on after my bedtime and watch them later.  

In the meantime, I finally found a temporary solution to leaving the cat out while I'm at work.  My biggest concern is her getting caught out in storms, and me not being there to let her in.  She's finding shelter somewhere, I'm sure, but I still worry.  So, this afternoon, I got this old Styrofoam cooler out of storage and cut a door in it for her.

FYI, Styrofoam makes a shockingly loud screech when you cut it with a knife.    

I used the cooler lid to make a bit of an overhang to help keep any rain out of it.  The bricks are on top because it is Styrofoam, after all, and very lightweight.  But, you can kind of see how thick it is, so it should be well insulated, even in winter.  Once she gets a bit more used to it, I'm going to try to fix some sort of flap over the door... maybe with an old tea towel or flannel pillowcase or something...to keep the heat in a bit more.  

When I showed it to her, she went right inside and explored.  However, by the time I got my camera out and turned on, she'd come back out, so you don't get a picture of her in her new house. 

If she uses it consistently, I may spring for one of the fancy ones at a later date.  They're pretty high dollar, though, so it'll have to wait.  

Finally, in knitting news, I finally cast on a new lace shawl.  

The pattern is Garden Party, and the yarn is Knit Picks Gloss Lace in Dandelion.  I'd knit one of these years ago, and gave it to my Aunt Martha -- for no reason other than I loved her and wanted her to have something pretty.  I'd always said I was going to make another one, but never did...until now.  

I even have a recipient in mind for it already.  I'm not saying anything other than...if I have your mailing address, it might just be you.  

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Shark Week.  

Shark Week

 

Blogging will be a bit sporadic this week while the candle and I watch Shark Week.  

Which is a fancy, cop-out excuse for I have a headache and don't feel like posting.  We are right in the middle of Sahara Dust season, and we're expecting a big wad of it by midweek.  I was hoping the rain would settle it, but apparently, it hasn't.

On the bright side, the dust has settled the tropics...for a bit.  

Hey, you take the good where you can find it.  

I Have Officially Lost My Mind

There I was at work, just a working away.  For those of you who may be new here, I work in a facility that manufactures evaporator coils for home air conditioners.  My specific  job is to braze various copper components together to form what we call header assemblies.  Some of you may know these as manifolds, but we call them headers.  Now, it is not strictly necessary for you to know exactly what a header is to follow this story, but if you are interested, you can google it. 

Anyway, there I was at work, just a working away, when one of my headers just wasn't acting right.  I struggled with it for a few moments, then in frustration, I asked the header, "Do you want to go into the scrap bin?  Do you want to go into the scrap bin??"  

I asked the header, "Do you see these extra parts I have?"  Here, I held the header over my parts bin, so it could see the extra headers..."I can easily replace you with one of these, and put you into the scrap bin.  Now is that what you want?"  

It's official.  I have lost my mind. 

Lost my mind or not, it must have worked, because the header behaved itself after that, and I got it brazed up and sent it on its merry way.  

All righty, then...moving right along...

I finally finished that pair of socks I've been working on for forever.

I came mighty close to them being exact matches as well.  The pattern is a simple garter rib (Row 1: K2P2, Row 2: K).  I wish I could tell you what the yarn is, but I lost the ball band.  I only remember it's been in my stash probably a dozen years at least, and I got it from that high dollar store down in Jackson.  I think it's called Yarns Downtown, now, but it's changed hands since last I was there.  I don't remember.

A week or so ago, I bought the cat some of that oat grass stuff for her to chew on.  I mixed it up, planted the seeds, and put it into a dark, warm room to sprout.  Whereupon I promptly forgot about it.  When I went into that room to get my sock blockers, I saw it had become some sort of mutant weirdness.

Maybe she'll still chew on it.  We'll see. 

My spending spree that started with Prime Day is almost over.  I've only got one more order that I'm waiting on, but let me show you what's already arrived.  Well, besides the air fryer and such that I've already shown you.  First up, new slipper socks.

I'd gotten some of these for my mom for Christmas last year, because she was up in Alaska with my sister.  I know she didn't like the cold, so when I saw these, I knew she had to have them.  They are sherpa lined, and after buying her a set, I decided I had to have some myself.  I dare my feet to be cold this winter!

Shortly after I'd received my two newest candles from my friend Kristine, she posted one more that I just had to have.  Darn it!  If I'd known, I'd have waited and ordered them all at once.  No matter, I promptly ordered the new candle, and it arrived just in time.  And what was that candle that arrived just in time?  This one:

A Shark Week candle!  Since Shark Week starts tomorrow, I'm all set.   Oh, and the Boomstick candle is one of my favorites of hers.  That one will be my third...but it's worth it.

She didn't have any more super secret surprise candles, so she included some samples of her favorite fountain pen inks.

They're made by a local -- well, local to her, not me-- family owned company.  I'm going to try this ink out, and I'm sure it'll work better than the cheap stuff from Amazon.  Maybe once I run out of all my other inks, I'll spring for some.  But right now, I need to slow down on the spending.  I've got one more item that's supposed to be here next week, and if I can get my act together, a surprise for you as well, Gentle Reader. 

It will require getting out of my comfort zone, but I hope you will like it. 

Thursday Miscellany

 There I was at work, just a working away, when I had to go to the computer.  I don't even remember what for, but it doesn't matter.  On a whim, as I'm sometimes wont to do, I went to the company home page to see who had a birthday today, and that's when I saw it.  A name...Valkyrie.  

Someone had named her child Valkyrie.  She'd even spelled it correctly.  

Immediately, I had questions.  Who names a child Valkyrie?  I'm assuming it was a girl child, but was it?  Would someone have named a boy Valkyrie?  Did the mother even know what that name means?  Did she know what a Valkyrie is?  

Alas, none of those questions found answers, but what I did find was my earworm for the day...Wagner.  

That song always gives me a Fantasia like image of the Valkyrie flying from Odin's hall, on their way to do what Valkyrie do...

I so wanted to play it for the birthday...girl...or whatever, but nobody seemed to know who she was.  

Jesse would like you to know that he also has whiskers.

Back in May, when we were all home for my mother's memorial, I just happened to catch my nephew Paul teaching my nephew Joshua to throw a ball.  

It was a very sweet moment between cousins.  These are the times we miss, being so far apart as we are.  

Whiskers On Wednesday

I'm plumb tuckered.  I'm so tired, I was trying to practice my piano, and I couldn't even see the pages.  

Yes, I did have my glasses on!  

The point is, I'm tired, so this will be short.  Basically, just a Whiskers On Wednesday post.  

This was my attempt at being artsy fartsy.  I'm not sure the cat appreciated it.  

Saturday when I was down at the Founder's Day thing on the square, I noticed our Little Free Library was empty.  

Naturally, I did what any red blooded bookworm would do.  I filled the sucker back up!

I came home and went through my bookshelf, and Cody's bookshelf -- yes, I checked with him first-- and picked out some old books to take up there.  Then my friend messaged me and said they'd cleaned up some of Mr. Clark's books and if I wanted to, I could take them down there, too.  By the time it was all said and done, I had more books than would fit.  

I'll be able to fill it back up again at least once.  And of course, if anyone else has any books to donate, particularly children's books, I'll be happy to take them up there for you.  

But now, I'm going to bed.  Good night. 

 

It's Official!

 I have officially lost 20 lbs!  

That was my initial goal, but I'd really like to get back down to around 135.  That means I have 6ish more pounds to go.  Then the real work begins -- keeping it off!  That's where I've always struggled, because I simply get tired of never being able to eat what I want, when I want to.  As a result, I'll say, "Just this once," which turns into "Just this twice" and before you know it, I'm pigging out on junk food.  Let's hope I can stay strong this time. 

I got some bad news this afternoon.  My neighbor to the East, Mac, came over and told me he and his wife are moving out.  There were ... um, issues with the landlord, none of which surprised me a bit.  Remember a few years ago when the one I called Tomato Man asked if he could plant tomatoes in my yard?  For those of you new here, you can read about him here:  Tomato Man.  Well, Tomato Man is Mac's landlord, and he wasn't taking any better care of the house than he did the tomato patch.  He was wanting Mac to fix things up at his own expense, but wasn't reducing his rent for it.  Long story short, Mac was going to buy the house, and they'd agreed on $80K, when all of the sudden Tomato Man upped the price to $95.  So, they're moving out.  

Which means I'm going to get two new neighbors --that house, and Mr. Clark's house across the street.  There is no small trepidation there.  I just hope they're quiet.  And leave me alone for the most part.  

But the whole reason Mac came over was to give me a business card.  He's a mechanic, and said any problem I had with my car, to give him a call and he'd fix me up.  He's a good, honest man, too, so I know he won't try to rip me off. 

Before that happened, I was getting a post all ready for you about my flower beds, so here is what you were going to get:  

Look!  I have marigolds!  

I'm so excited to see them blooming after I thought they were going to die.  I guess from now on, I'll be putting them into containers, because it's working.  And here is the long awaited photo of my petunia. 

My lantanas are starting to come on as well.

I finally got around to replacing my Texas flag.    

My old one was looking pretty bedraggled.  My brother and his family had sent me one for Christmas, so I finally got it out and hung it.  Now I need to replace my American flag, because it's also looking a bit faded. 

And finally, never leave your popcorn alone with cold lemonade. 

Or maybe we're supposed to eat it alone.  I don't know...

*Yes, this was an actual notice posted at work.