My New Toy

I got me a new toy today.  Not my potting table.  I'm still waiting on that one.

No, what I got is this:

And what is it, you may ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  It's a silicone mold for my wax seals.  Naturally, I had to try it out.

I can't really say I'm too terribly impressed.  I think I got better looking seals from my regular baking mat.  However, it might do better with some better quality wax.  This stuff was pretty lumpy anyway, and never really melted evenly, so it never poured smoothly.  Once I've used it all up, I'm going to make sure I get the good stuff, the kind made from pure beeswax.  That is the best kind.  

If I'm going to use this old wax up, though, it looks like I'm going to have to reactivate my account on that Global Penfriends site, as only two of my pen pals still write regularly, and one of them is in Australia, so I don't use wax seals on her envelopes.  I don't trust US mail, and I don't trust international mail even more.  Maybe I should try putting a seal on one of her letters, just to see if it survives.  

In other news, this is what we have to look forward to tomorrow.

Oh boy, huh?  To be on the safe side, I moved all of my plants from the front porch inside the car port.

What few there are, I mean.  They ought to be safe there.  Or safer, really.  But look what I found in my flower bed!

It looks like another little bluebonnet coming up.  I hope it survives the storm.  The last one didn't.  The last seedling, I mean.  The big one is still hanging in there.  

In a couple more weeks, I'll be planting the ones from my peat pellets into the same flower bed.  I ordered some little flags off Amazon to mark where the bluebonnets and the other wildflowers are.  That way, I can tell what I planted from the wild weeds and I'll know what to pull up when I weed the bed.  

I'll go ahead and mark this one, too.  

It's a bachelor's button frown from something I planted last year. It is absolutely loaded down with buds.  Once they all open up, it ought to be a gorgeous sight to behold.  It would be really nice if I could managed to get a self-propagating wildflower bed, but alas, the native weeds tend to take it over. 

By the way, I've been watching a show called The Courtship.  It's one of those Bachelor/Bachelorette type of shows -- which I don't normally watch.  But this one is pretty interesting.  They've transported all the people back to regency era England, and they're doing things the way they did back then.  Now, honestly, I don't really care if the girl finds love or not.  I'm just watching for the Jane Austin clothes and manners.  

It's really pretty cool. 

Glutton For Punishment

I must be a glutton for punishment. 

Why do I say that?  

Because I want a potting table.  I don't know why, as I have the blackest thumbs that were ever on a hand, but still, I want a potting table.  There are several options on Amazon that aren't too expensive, and I have enough in my ibotta savings to get one without straining my checking account.  I've seen several that I like.  I just have to decide which one to get.  

Soon, I'll be able to kill even more plants!  Woo Hoo!

I prefer the word persistent.  It sounds so much nicer than stubborn. 

At least Marty Mac seems to be thriving.  

He's put out several new traps, and his flower stem is getting longer by the day.  I need to re-pot him as all the experienced growers say to have the soil level with the top of the pot.  That'll be the first thing I do when my new potting bench arrives.  After I order it, of course. 

In the meantime, let me show you what I did yesterday.  Well, some of it, I mean.  I'm sure you don't want to hear about mowing or doing laundry.  See, on the east side of my carport have been these stepping stones.  They were here when I moved in.  

They are very annoying, and I hate trying to mow around them.  Yesterday, I got out and pulled them all up.   Yes, there was blood.  But I got the job done. 

It will make mowing so much easier.  I don't know what I'm going to do with the stones themselves, now that I have them out of the yard. .  

And I use the term "stone" loosely, as they appear to be poured from concrete.  I was thinking about seeing if they will fit together and make myself a bit of a patio outside my back door.  I'd be a very small one, but maybe it'll keep some of the mud out of the house. 

I don't know.  I'll have to think on it.  There are only seven, so there isn't a whole lot I can do with them.  Plus, I do have that other mold I bought years ago, and still haven't done anything with.  The first thing I need to do is get some sand delivered, so I can build that spot up and level it. 

Speaking of having only a few of something, I pulled up the plastic edging from around my wildflower bed. 

I mean, it already had edging, but I'd put this stuff around that little corner to keep it separate from the rest of that flower bed.  I was going to try to use it to make a sort of raised bed, but there are five pieces of it.  That's  how many came in the box.  Why on earth would you only put five in there?  I can't find any more of this design, either.  It seems to have been discontinued.  I guess I'll just make a pentagon shaped flower bed.  That ought to be unique.  Ish.  

Now for a bit of good news.  I got the old telescope out last night and figured out how to align it and all that.  It's so cool!  Once you get it aligned, all you have to do is find what you want to look at on the sky map in the app, tap on it, then tap Go To and it goes right there!   Of course, you have to realign it every time you move the telescope to a new spot, but now that I know how to do it, it's easy peasy.  You can also use the app to move the telescope without having to align it, if you want to find stuff manually.  

The bad news is, this time of year, you pretty much have to stay up all night if you want to see much of anything.  I looked at a few stars, and the Orion Nebula, but that was about all I got to see before I went to bed.  I got up early enough this morning to look at the moon and Venus, but it was already too light to see anything else.  I've got to find a darker place with fewer trees, as well.  Maybe one day, I'll get to go to one of the dark sky preserves.  Wouldn't that be fantastic?  

Of course, me being me, I had to mess something up.  I was trying to turn on the red spot on my little star finder scope, only I grabbed the wrong knob and now I have to re-align that.  I had an idea while I was at work the other day.  Instead of going all the way out to the lake, I thought, why not just go to the church parking lot?  There is a cow pasture behind the church, with a clear line of sight of well over a half mile.  I can get it aligned very well there.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have potting benches to browse.  

Burned Out

That's what I am, I think.  I'm just burned out. 

I think that's why I haven't had any interest in doing anything lately, not even blogging.  Stuff has happened.  I just haven't been able to bring myself to write about it.  That being said, I'm going to try to catch you up on what's been going on lately, but blogging will probably be sporadic for a while. 

OK?  Let's dive right on in, then. 

Do you see this?

This beautiful, lush green lawn?  That's not grass.  It's weeds.   See?  Weeds. 

This is four days after I applied weed killer. Weed killer!  Scott's Weed Control For Lawns, to be more specific.  Not only did it not kill my weeds, but they are thriving. Sigh...At least I can get something to grow.  

I'll need to get out tomorrow after work and try to cut down what I can of them.  I won't be able to do much of the front yard, because of all the rain we had Tuesday.  I've still got standing water in spots. 

After my whine in the last blog post, one of my friends suggested I look into something called winter sowing.  She said it might do the trick for me, so I looked into it.  Basically, it's where you cut a gallon milk jug in half and made a mini-greenhouse out of it.  You plant your seeds in it, then just leave it outside all winter.  

The downside to it is, sometimes it can take weeks, or even months for your seeds to germinate, as many of them won't sprout until the temperatures are pretty consistently warm.  Another downside is, a late frost or hard freeze can kill your little plants.  Honestly, after reading up a bit on it, I don't see how it would be any different from what I'm doing now -- which is leaving the starter tray out on the front porch and bringing it inside if there's the chance of a frost.  

I still have quite a few wildflower seeds left, and I think I might try this type of starter tray for them, filled with regular potting soil.

Maybe by the time they get big enough to plant outside, I'll have that old fire pit dug out and filled with good soil.  If I can ever find the energy to do it.  I went out there yesterday to get started, then turned right around and came back inside.  I was just too tired.

Now for a bit of good news, I definitely have a bud on my bluebonnet!

At least I'll get one bloom out of the mess.  

See that edging there on the right?  The plastic stuff?  Yeah, I'm probably going to pull all of that up, and make a raised bed somewhere else with it. Until I get some fill dirt brought in, that side of my house where this bed is now is just too wet.  I think that may be my problem with the stuff I plant there in the first place.  

But look, my bachelor's button is blooming again.

Finally, some good news.  Well, good news to me.  I'm past the gusset decreases on my sock, and am home free from here on in.

If you knew how much I disliked doing the gussets, you'd understand.  

Oh, I almost forgot, one more thing before I go...a teaser of what is to come...to the tune of Wellerman

Hear what The Weatherman says

We gotta go get the milk and bread

A flashlight and some batteries, too

Oh, heed The Weatherman!

Huddling in a storm shelter with no phone signal make one think of strange things.  And that's all I have to say about that.

I Give Up

For real, this time.  I just give up.  

All those wildflower seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago...Sixty six peat pellets I planted, and this is all I got. 

Most of them didn't even sprout, and most of the ones that did have died.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  These are wildflowers, for Pete's sake.  They're supposed to be able to grow anywhere!  Just toss them on the ground and they grow!  Sigh...

I want so badly to be able to have nice flower beds, but it seems it's just not to be.  I can't seem to get anything to grow.  Except the weeds in my yard.  I can't kill those, no matter how much weed killer I put down. 

Heh, maybe I should put that stuff on my seeds.  Maybe then, they'd grow. 

Well, I still have a lot of seeds left.  If I don't get anything else growing by...oh, say, the middle of April, I'll just plant some more and see what I get.  I'm half tempted to just pull up all my flower beds and forget the whole mess.  

Oh, and I lost another one of my little bluebonnets, too. 

Sigh, again...but the one in my flower bed seems to be holding on.  It looks like it's getting a little bud, too.  Maybe I'll have a bluebonnet this spring after all!

And look!  Marty Mac is a) still alive, and b) definitely growing a bud.

He's slowly putting out new traps, too, and I hope by the end of summer, he's as thick and bushy as some of the photos I've seen.  

In other disappointing news, I was unable to get my telescope aligned Saturday night.  Somehow, I'd managed to mess something up.  Not with the telescope itself, but on the app.  I pushed a wrong button, then couldn't figure out how to undo what I'd done.  The only thing I could think of was to delete the app entirely, and re-download it.  

By that time, I was tired, cold, and frustrated, so I just came on inside and went to bed.  The next morning, I got the telescope out and hauled it out to the road, where I tried once again to align my view finder thingy.  I still don't think I got it right.  I guess after this next round of storms rolls through, I'll have to haul it out to the lake and set it up there.  

There is a spot just below the visitor's center where I can get a clear line of sight at least a half mile away.  I should be able to finally get it set right.  The down side is, it'll be Saturday night before I can stay up until after dark again.  

Let me finish with a bit of good news.  

I'm only a few more rounds away from being past the gusset decreases on my sock.  Then I'm home free until I have to begin the toe decreases.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some hatches to batten down.  We're expecting severe weather tomorrow.  There's already been one tornado touch down in Texas from this same system.  The worst of it is supposed to pass to the South of us, but we will still get heavy rains.  

And I still haven't practiced my piano.

Always so much to do...    

Dang it!

I forgot batteries. 

My telescope requires 8 AA batteries to power the motor thing.  The one that moves it around.  I'd checked my cabinet and I didn't have enough, so I was intending to buy some when I went to the store yesterday.  

I had them on my list.  They were the very first item on my list.  The very first item!  And I walked right out of the store without them. 

We had some severe weather come through during the wee smalls Friday morning.  It didn't last too long, but I'm telling you, one of those thunder claps nearly had me coming out of the bed.  And that was after coughing my head off half the night because I'm too stubborn to take my allergy medicine.  

I was so tired all day yesterday, I almost felt sick.  I felt a little better after eating lunch, but by the time the work day was done, and I went into town on my weekly shopping run, I just wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible.  I should have gotten the batteries first, but I didn't.  I told myself I'd get them when I went to check out, since the battery display is right up there by the checkouts, but I walked right past them.   

I blame sleep deprivation.

Then today, I spent ten minutes hunting for a brazing jig that was already on my stand.  I looked everywhere for it -- through all the jig racks, on the other brazers' stands.  I couldn't find it anywhere.  My coworker finally asked, "Becky, what are you looking for?"  I told her, and she said, "It's in the [parts bin]".  The one I'd just gotten from the conveyer.  The one that was already on my stand. 

Yeah, I'm going to plead the Fifth on that one.  

It isn't just me, either.  The other day, one of the third shift brazers caught the dust in his fan on fire.  He was freaking out, and another, more experienced brazer told him to just turn the fan on, and it'll put the fire out.  He said, "Oh, I forgot that was a fan."  

But I digress...where was I?

Oh, yes, batteries.  I completely forgot to buy batteries.  I need them for my telescope, to power the motor thing that turns it and stuff.  No matter.  I'd just run to the Dollar General store on the corner (of Papermill Rd and 51 Highway, for you local folks) after work and get some.  

Just past the turn I needed to make to get onto on Papermill Rd -- you know, to go to the dollar store -- I remembered, "Oh, I was supposed to turn there."  

Say it with me now, sleep deprivation...

It wasn't too big a deal, I just had to take the long way around, but I made it there eventually.  I bought my batteries, and after a quick bite of supper, I put my telescope together and got the batteries into the power pack.   I opened the phone app and was able to get it connected to the telescope's wifi network, and played with it a little bit, figuring out how to move the telescope using the arrows on the app.  That is totally cool.  No more manually trying to find what I want to look at, then getting frustrated when the telescope moves!  I just tap the appropriate arrow, and the scope moves itself!  

Now, I just have to wait until it gets dark to get it aligned to the sky map in the app....So, here I sit, twiddling my thumbs impatiently and watching history documentaries on Trvl Channel.  

via GIPHY

Oh, and I almost forgot.  The telescope has a thing I can attach my phone to it and take photos!  Woo hoo!  I need to figure that out, since the moon will still be mostly full tonight. 

In the meantime, I think I'll go practice my piano a bit.  

Cool Points

   Before we get into that, first I have to show you the new piece of equipment I got for my bug out bag.  

 

And what is that nondescript black box? It's a solar powered phone charger.  But wait, there's more!  It's also got a compass, and some super bright LED lights.  I'd been thinking about getting something like this ever since my power was out for several days after the Easter Storms of 2020.  I mean, yes, I was taking my phone to work and charging it there, but what if I didn't have that option?  And what with gas prices these days, the last thing I want to do is to sit there idling in my car so my phone can charge.  Thus, a solar powered charger.  

Also, before I continue, dare I hope I have solved my plumbing problem?  I flushed it out really well last Friday, and a week later, it's still clear.  I think that's the longest it's gone since the problem started.  This time, instead of just putting the Drain King right inside the cleanout, I shoved it way down as far as I could get it to go before turning it on.  Maybe that's what it needed.  Keep your fingers crossed.  

Finally, we get to the Cool Points.  What are Cool Points?  Well, they are a way to show appreciation to your employees.  Lots of companies use them, and the one I work for is no exception.  The downside to this is, it is next to impossible for shop floor employees to get Cool Points.  Oh, your front office people get them every time they turn around but us peons?  Nope.  

Heh, last year, I even went to a vaccine information presentation, just to get the Cool Points they promised us.  And the free breakfast.  But mostly the Cool Points. 

And the free breakfast...

OK, moving right along.  

I've been saving mine up for eleven years now.  Eleven years.  And I still didn't have enough to get anything decent...until I got all those points from my Supervisor the other day.  Which I totally deserved.  For brazing 500 units by myself.  Doing a two person job.  Singlehandedly. 

The other day, one of my coworkers and I were talking about redeeming ours.  I'd been wondering if they had gift cards you could redeem your points for.  I looked on the Celebrate Cool website, and yes, they did, but they were to places like Macy's and stuff.  We were saying, we don't need a Macy's card.  Give us something useful, like a gas card or a grocery card. 

However, while looking around on the site, I finally found something worth redeeming my points for.  I waffled for a few moments, then added it to my cart.  

It arrived today.  

(Yes the photo is upside down.  It was easier to flip the photo over than the box.  That thing is heavy!)

A brand new telescope!  I got it out and put together, then took it outside to try to align the viewfinder.  Thing.  Whatever it's called. 

It says to focus on an object at least 1/4 mile away, but there are too many trees around here.  I tried to focus on some of the farthest trees I could see, but I don't know if they're far enough away.  I think I got it aligned, but I don't know for sure.  There is a second alignment you have to do after dark, but we haven't gotten there yet.  

The description said it's powerful enough to see the rings of Saturn and the Great Red Spot of Jupiter.  We shall see.  Best of all, it has an app where you can find what you want to look at on the app, and the telescope will automatically turn to it!  No more frustrating twisting and turning and trying to get that raggedy old tripod to stay put.

Now for the bad news....I go to bed before the sun does.  Sigh...I don't know when I'm going to be able to use it. Hopefully the severe weather will pass by Saturday night and I can get out and do some stargazing.  

For now, it's safely tucked into the snake room.  

And this, folks, is why I don't want daylight saving time to be made permanent.  Only in the deepest winter would I be able to get out and use my new scope. 

The only downside is that it's heavy, and doesn't come with a carrying case, so it's not very transportable. But hey, for a free telescope, it's pretty darn OK. 

I ain't complaining. 

Only, now I'm totally out of Cool Points.  I guess it'll be eleven more years before I can get anything else, huh?

Random Thoughts Of A Wednesday Evening

 1.  I don't know what those folks are doing up in there on third shift.  This morning, I walked into the bathroom and in the trash can, I saw this:

and in the toilet...

What on earth is that?  

2.  Society is doomed, I tell you.  Doomed.

3.  The Dallas Cowboys have traded Amari Cooper and signed Michael Gallup to a $62 million contract.  This is why they don't win Super Bowls!  They have a history of spending big money on mediocre players.  The name Miles Austin ring a bell?  

4.  My cousin Chris sent me this photo.  

Someone he knows was cleaning out his grandmother's and found it.  I'm pretty sure this is my Pappaw's brother, Uncle Charlie.  Beverly would know right away.  She's the one who had all these old family photos.  It would be interesting to know how this person's grandma knew Uncle Charlie, as well.  

4.  I came home to dog poop on the floor.  Lovely.  I don't get mad at Jesse when he has an accident.  That's a long time to ask him to hold it.  I just clean it up and go on, but it's part of the reason why I probably won't get another dog.  It's just not fair to him.  

5.  Will this nuclear war involve running?  Because if it involves running, I'm pretty much just going to have to fry. 

6.  The government is talking about making Daylight Saving Time permanent.  I hate that idea.  Most of the people I've talked to hate the idea as well.  Yes, we'd all love to stop changing the clocks, but if you're going to make anything permanent, it should be Standard time.  Frankly, I like it getting darker earlier in the evening, and I'm sure parents would feel much better if their kids aren't standing out in the dark waiting for the bus in the mornings.

7.  I canceled my FrendlyTV.  I know it's not much, but all those nickles and dimes add up.  What with prices the way they are and getting worse, I have to trim where I can.  I'm canceling all the stuff I don't use regularly, and even some of the stuff I do, like the Not The Bee website.  I even canceled my Ancestry.com membership.  I can't see paying $198 per year in these times for something I rarely go on.  I'll still be able to see my tree, but I won't be able to research anything, or add to it.  Maybe when things pick up again, I'll reactivate it.  In the meantime, I'll just look at my brother's tree. 

8.  It's almost bed time, and I have to practice my piano yet, so I guess that's it for today. 

9.  Except for one more thing.  Remember the headers I talked about yesterday?  The ones that had been brazed wrong?  Yep.  Sure enough, there I was at work, just a working away, when the assembly line group leader came walking up to brazing with a box of...you guessed it, headers that had been brazed wrong.  Beats me why they didn't just let us fix them as soon as I'd spotted the error, but hey, that's my place of employment for you. 

10.  Now, I really am going to go practice my piano.  Laters. 

Is that????

 The nice thing about long weekends is getting to sleep somewhat normal hours, and waking up when your body is ready.  The downside to long weekends is that when they're over, getting up at 2:45 again is downright brutal.   They say you should wake up at the same time every day, even on your days off.  "They" being so called sleep experts. 

I'm saying, that ain't gonna happen.  I'm not getting up at 2:45 unless I absolutely have to -- or there's a major astronomical event.  Either will do...Today was a day when I absolutely had to get up at 2:45.  Bummer. 

I knew right away what kind of day today is going to be when I walked out the door and left my coffee in the coffeemaker.  Sigh...I hadn't left the house yet, so I was able to go back and get it, but it set the tone for the day. 

I get to work, and there is nothing ready for us to do.  Nothing.  I clean up for a while...I check what's on the line...I go put in my vacation days for my oral surgery -- which got approved, by the way, so we're all set -- I go to the bathroom...

Where I see this: 

A suspiciously yellow tinted puddle on the floor.  It's not the first time, either.  And always right there in front of the mirror.  So what's going on on third shift?  Are they peeing on the floor? 

Given some of the other stuff that goes on late at night, I wouldn't put it past them. 

The part stagers finally get an order ready for me to braze...aaaand one of the adapter tubes is bent wrong.  I mean, they're always wrong, but this one was so wrong, I couldn't use it at all.  

I turned it back in to be redone, then walked over to the conveyor where we put our finished work to see how far ahead of the lines we are.  That's when I noticed that one of the orders brazed by third shift was wrong. 

As in brazed wrong.  As in brazed so wrong I don't see how they could have even fit it into the jig that way. I went over and told Group Leader Shark, and she told me the new policy is that we have to send them to the line anyway -- knowing that they're wrong -- and the line has to put in the rework order. 

I swear, the upper management must have late night meetings to think of what makes the most sense, so they can do the exact opposite.  

I went back to my stand and went back to work, but those wrong headers rankled me all morning, especially watching the parts stage load them onto the buggy and take them to the back.  But what could I do?  I'd already reported them, so there was nothing left for me to do but stand there and be rankled.  I told another brazer about them, and said, "I don't see why they won't let us go ahead and re-do them, since we're the ones that are going to have to re-do them anyway."  

They ended up shutting that line down, so I guess we'll find out tomorrow how that went.  

Oh, and by the way, we had six brazers out today.  Six.  That's half the department, and did we get any help?  Of course not!  

.

.

.

Three hours later...I was all done with my day, getting ready for bed, when I realized I'd never finished writing my blog post.  That means, instead of a nice, rewritten polished post with a tidy conclusion, you get abruptly cut off with a rough draft followed by a hearty good night.

Good night!

Be Proud Of Me

Be very proud of me.  Why? 

Because I made a phone call!  

The way that happened is as follows.  

I woke up this morning, with all three of the bad teeth hurting.  I'm not sure what was going on, but the pain was excruciating.  It was so bad at one point, I felt like I was going to throw up.  

"Please, God, make these teeth stop hurting!" I begged, but the teeth kept on hurting.  "Jesus," I said, "are you going to make these teeth hurt until I call the oral surgeon?"  

And he smiled and said, "Yep."  

Sigh, I guess it's my own fault.  After all, I'm the one who prayed for strength to make that phone call.  

Oh, all right!  I'll call him!  But can you at least ease the pain until I get home?  

God is faithful, and gradually, the toothaches subsided.  Shortly after the work day ended, I grabbed the phone before I could chicken out, and got my procedure scheduled.  It's not until May 18, but at least it's on the books.  Then I messaged Cody to see if he could get the time off to drive me, because I have to have a driver to get the IV sedation.  He said it shouldn't be a problem, neither should it be for me to get my vacation days scheduled.  I'm going to take the day of and the day after, since it's three teeth I'm getting pulled.  I kind of feel like I'll need that extra day to recover.  

Now, I just need to call the plumber.  

Wish me luck.  

This is going to be short tonight, because I didn't sleep well last night.  Add to that the time change, plus a busy day at work during which I had to pick up an order third shift started, and apparently didn't count because I spent the last hour of that order scrounging for parts just to find enough to get it finished -- all  while dealing with not one, but three toothaches, so I'll just leave you with this.  It's the funniest thing I've seen in a while: 

Snow Day, Lazy Day

 After waiting all winter long, after getting lots of sleet and ice, we finally got some snow.  Real snow!  Woo hoo!

It started Friday night, and by morning, we had a good little blanket of it.  Not enough for snow ice cream, but enough to make things beautiful for a moment. 

Since I'd gotten most of the household chores done on Friday, I decided I'd just be lazy and enjoy the snow.  And by "enjoy the snow" I mean looking at it through the window while drinking coffee in front of a nice fire in my wood stove. 

After getting out and taking some photos, that is. 

 Most of it had melted by noon, but it was nice while it lasted.  

By the way, the house across the street still hasn't sold, but I saw a realtor showing someone around it Thursday.  I have no idea what's going on with the house next door.  The For Sale sign is long gone, but there are absolutely no signs of life over there.  I guess he's just going to let it sit empty for now.  

Anyway, I spent my day watching TV, playing the piano, and knitting.  I got the sock heel turned and the gusset stitches picked up, which is my least favorite part of sock knitting. 

I'd balked so much about doing those, I knit another square into my sock yarn blanket.  I'm just having a hard time sitting still long enough to knit these days.  It seems there's always so much stuff I need to be doing, I can't relax enough to just sit and knit.  

Even now...I still have those two phone calls I need to make hanging over my head.  One to the plumber, and one to the oral surgeon.  I don't know why I get so blocked at the need to make phone calls, but I do.  And before you say anything, yes I've checked Angi's List, and Thumbtack.  There is no one local on either of those.  Well, there is one on Angi's List, but he never answered my phone calls when I did work up the strength to make them, so I'm not giving him my business now.  

Anyway, at this point, I'm pretty sure my PVC is cracked and mud is getting into my sewer lines, which is aggravating, because I'd just had it all replaced in 2015.  It cost me a pretty penny, too.  More than I can afford to pay right now, especially since I'm going to have to have oral surgery soon.  

Now, I'm depressed.  I need me some nanner puddin.  

A Day Off

I took a day off work today.  No particular reason.  I just wanted to have a day off.  We're all tired out there.  

Heh, yesterday, I'd moved to another stand for a few moments.  The person who usually works there wasn't there, so I'd gotten on her stand to finish the order that was already set up.  My other coworker came over to me and said, "I just can't get it together today.  I saw you brazing on this stand, but I still thought to myself, 'Becky's been in the bathroom a long time.  This isn't like her.  I probably ought to go check on her." And a saw you on this stand!" We both had a good laugh over that.  But yeah, the long hours are starting to get to us.  Thus, the day off.

The plan for today was, well, first of all, to sleep past 2:45, and yes, that did happen. I slept until 4:30 and it felt wonderful. 

But what I'd actually hoped to accomplish was three things.

1) Get my taxes done. 

2) Call the plumber

3) Write a letter to my Australian pen pal.

Two of those three things happened.  I'll let you guess which one didn't get accomplished.  Here's a hint:  it involved a telephone. 

Even so, it was nice to have a relaxing day, though I had a hard time relaxing.  I kept feeling like I needed to be up and accomplishing something.  Nevertheless, that was my day. 

Moving onward, I bought some new daffodils. 

I know it's hard to see in the photo, but the cups have lovely little peach rims on them.  I couldn't resist.  I used to have some like this years ago, but they stopped coming up.  Most of my daffodils have.  This photo is from this year. 

Whereas four years ago at this time,  the bed looked something like this:  

I'm not sure what's going on there, but I'm thinking I may dig what's left up once they've done blooming and the leaves start to die back, and move them somewhere else.  This spot may just be a little too wet for them.  My yard doesn't have good drainage on this side of the house, so that may be what the problem is. 

You know, now that I think about it, that old fire pit would make a good daffodil bed, along with purple cone flowers and black eyed susans --provided I can keep them alive, that is.  And can get my act together enough to dig the trash out of it and fill it with good soil.  

Speaking of keeping things alive, my few remaining Bluebonnets are hanging in there.

As is the one in my bed.  And look, this looks like it just might be another one germinating:

It's too early to tell for sure, but we will keep an eye on it. 

Marty Mac is coming out of his dormancy and beginning to grow new traps.  It looks like he might be trying to grow a bloom, too!

You won't be able to see it in this photo, yet, but it's there.  I've been putting him out on the porch in the afternoons to get him hardened off, and probably after this next cold spell, I might leave him out for good.  Oh, and I almost forgot, I found a bachelor's button growing in my front flower bed.  

And lastly, in case you hadn't heard, you can now order  four more COVID tests from the post office.  Mine arrived today. 

Because my tax dollars paid for them, and by golly, I want them!

Heel Flap

 Well, now I'm confused.  I got home from work this evening, and checked my cleanout.  It's completely drained.  Not backed up at all.  I don't know what is going on.  I'll just have to keep an eye on it. I did call a plumber last night, but he never called me back.  That's how it is around here.  People just don't want to work.    

Next thing I need to do is find someone to bring me some dirt or sand so I can fill in some of these holes and low spots in my yard.  I think that will be this summer's project.  

Since today is a bit of a slow day news-wise, I thought I'd give you your next sock knitting lesson.  Just book mark it until you're ready to get there, or hit the label at the bottom of this post.  And remember, this is just how I do it.  There are many different ways, and none of them are wrong. 

OK, once you've gotten your sock leg knit to the length you want it,    

the next step is to knit a heel flap.  You should have an equal number of stitches on each of four needles. and each one should be 1/4 of your total number of cast on stitches.  For example, if you have a 72 stitch cast on, you should have 18 stitches on each needle.  

Knit across the stitches on Needle #1, then with the same needle, knit across the stitches on Needle #2.  You should have half of your stitches on one DPN, like so: 

For the moment, you will completely ignore the stitches on the other two needles.  Turn your work, so that the wrong side -- i.e. the inside of the sock -- is facing you.  Slip the first stitch, and purl across.  It should look something like this: 

On the next row, the right side row, slip the first stitch, and knit the second.  Continue slip 1 knit 1 across the row.  

Turn your work, slip one, then purl across.  Repeat these two rows for a total of 36 rows.  You should have 18 slipped stitches on each side of the heel flap. 

When it is done, it'll look something like this:

Congratulations!  You have now knit a heel flap.  In the next lesson, I'll show you how to work magic.  We're going to turn the heel.  

Until next time...

No Rest

 I had a blog post all planned out for you yesterday, but by the time I got home...well, let me start from the beginning.

There I was at work, just a working away, when Supervisor came to my stand and said, "I need you to go line braze on line 3."  

We had our usual argument about why is it always the same ones?  But he bribed me with Cool Points, so I headed back to line braze for the day.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't mind helping out, because I know what it's like to desperately need help but to not get it.  And I don't mind line brazing.  I'm actually better at that than sub brazing, so that's not the issue, either.  The problem I have is that there are 12 brazers over there, but only two ever get sent to line braze.  What about the other 10?  Why do they never have to go to the back?  It kind of feels not fair. 

I get back to line 3, and I hadn't even gotten my tip set, when they moved the other line brazer somewhere else. I had to do two people's jobs all day long.  As if that weren't enough, that line ran more than 500 units yesterday.  Normal is around 400.  And I had to hold that line up by myself.  All.  Day.  Long.  

Man, I'm getting too old for this.  

By the time I got off, my arm was hurting so badly, I felt like I was going to throw up.  I felt so bad, I went to bed at just after 6:00.  That's why your post didn't get written. 

This morning, when Supervisor came around to give me my Cool Points, I said, "Do you know what they did to me?" and I told him what had happened.  He said, "Oh, we're not doing that!"  Then I said, "Go look up and see how many units line 3 ran yesterday.  I did that, all by myself."  Right away, he whipped out his little coupon book, and gave me some more Cool Points.  

Later on, Supervisor came back around and said he'd told Brazing Boss/Assembly Line Production Manager that he'd given me some more Cool Points, and BB/ALPM said, "Oh, thank God!  She was looking at me like she wanted to kill me!"  

Supervisor said, "I don't blame her after what you did! I'd have wanted to kill you, too!"

And that was that.  

Well, what I was going to tell you about was how there is no rest for the weary.  Even on the day of rest, you don't get to rest, because you've got to catch up on all the work you didn't have time to do while you were spending 60 hours a week in the factory.  That's what I did on my Sunday off.

Aside from the usual laundry and dishes, the first thing I did was to get out and weed what is going to be my little bluebonnet bed. 

It looks a lot better now.  Hopefully, I can keep up with the weeds, and it'll be a nice little bed for my few remaining bluebonnets. 

While I was out there weeding, I got to looking around at my yard and I said to myself, "Self, you ought to go get your lawn mower and cut these weeds down in your yard."  Then I said to myself, "Nah, I'm not going to do that."  But then I said to myself, "Yeah, I think I will go cut them weeds." So, I did.  Hopefully, I got them cut before they went to seed, but still, I have some weed control stuff I'm going to put down, probably next weekend.  Or the weekend after that.

In the midst of all that, on a whim, I pulled the cap off of my sewer cleanout, and bummer...it was clogged up again.  You know, a nagging little voice kept telling me all week that I needed to run that Drain King again, just to make sure I'd gotten the sewer really cleaned out, and hadn't just shoved the clog a bit further down the line.  But I didn't.  Sigh...

I got out my trusty Drain King, and hooked it up again.  I shoved it down into the sewer, and yes, I had to stick my hand down into the raw sewage to get it positioned properly.  But I figured, it was my sewage.  Any germs in it came out of me in the first place, so there you go. 

I turned it on, and let it run a good, long time this time.  After about 15 minutes, I checked the other cleanout, and water seemed to be flowing pretty freely.  I turned off the Drain King and removed it.  Once it was deflated and out of the pipe, all the water that had been upstream of that cleanout flowed right on down the line.  Hopefully, that means I got the clog cleared for good.  I'll just have to keep and eye on it, and if it keeps clogging up, I'll have to get a plumber to come out and cam the line to see what the problem is. 

Update:  I just went out and checked it, and it's clogged up again.  I guess I need to try to find a plumber who will actually show up.  Which requires finding one who will return calls first...Wish me luck. 

Finally, let's end on a bit of good news.  This little Christmas cactus seems to be getting a bit more green to it, so maybe it'll survive after all. 

Even if it doesn't, I still have some red blooms. Look!

Somehow, a sprig of the red cactus got planted with what I thought were all salmon blooms.  

It ought to be really interesting come fall.