I'm Free

 I'm free!  I'm free!  Well, until Tuesday, at least.   I wish it were forever, but hey, we take what we can get.  

We have a new supervisor out at work.  He's been there about a month or so.  He's not a nice man.  Every morning, he comes around and gets in all of our faces one by one and shouts, "How you doing?" or "How's it going?"  It's very annoying first thing in the morning.  The really bad part is you can't just ignore him because he will not get out of your face until you acknowledge him.   I'm like, "Sheesh!  If you're that starved for attention, get a puppy!"

But what can we do?  He's a supervisor.

This afternoon, I overheard him ask one of the other brazers, "What are you going to do on your long weekend?"

Her response was, "Sleep!"

He said, "Aw now!  You can't spend the weekend sleeping!  You've got to get out and have some fun!"

I didn't hear what she said back to him, but after he'd walked off, I leaned over and asked, "Did he seriously just say that?"  Does he not know that when you've been getting up at 2:00 AM (in her case) six days a week for the last six months, sleeping is fun?  Because let me assure you, it most certainly is. 

I plan on doing plenty of sleeping myself, but I also made myself a to-do list -- in addition to the normal chores, I mean.  

I can't promise all of these things on this list are going to get done, but I'll give her the old college try.  Except for calling the plumber.  That probably won't get done.  What can I say?  I am who I am.  

Oh, and don't worry, there will be plenty of knitting and TV watching going on as well.  

One thing I definitely want to get done is to clean up Cody's room.  Last month, when my toilet overflowed and flooded my bedroom, quite a bit of water also made it into Cody's closet, and his carpet got pretty wet.  Once I'd realized what had happened, I dragged everything out of the closet so the carpet could dry out.  It's been dry for quite a while, but I still haven't gotten around to putting the stuff back into the closet. 

I want to take all that stuff out of the cardboard boxes and store it in plastic since some of the stuff in the cardboard boxes got wet as well.  I tossed what couldn't be salvaged, but wanted to sort through the rest before shoving it all back into the closet.  

I'll tell you one thing, I've got to get better at throwing stuff out.  I hate to toss good stuff if there may be someone out there who can use it, but at the same time, I hate dealing with people.  I advertise stuff on the local freebies group, and people say they want it, but never show up to get it.  It's very annoying. 

Finally, we got rain!  Not a lot, but not a lot is better than none.  Even better, this...whatever it is... finally has a bud!

I guess my threats of composting them worked.  

Heh...

One Day More

One more day of work, then I'm off until Tuesday!  The whole plant is getting the weekend off, and the holiday Monday, but I had an extra vacation day for Friday.  I know I could sure use the rest; I am absolutely gassed.

I told my coworker, "You know how you say you're running on fumes?  Well, I ran out of fumes about 7:00 this morning."    

The first thing I plan on doing is to sleep normal human being hours.  No more getting up at 2:45!  Well, for four days at least.  Other than that, I've got a whole list of things I want to get done and not spend the entire time sitting in front of the TV.  What will probably happen is I'll sit in front of the TV the entire time telling myself, "I really need to get up and do stuff and not sit in front of this TV all weekend."  

I reckon it'll look something like this:

I'll let you know how it goes. 

Seriously, though, I don't know what's wrong with me.  I have no energy.  I have no desire to do anything.  I'm even having trouble getting excited about Fiber Fun In The 'Sip.  I can't even seem to bring myself to make my hotel reservation.  That's how bad it is.  

All I want to do is hide inside my plague doctor mask.  

Well, I didn't mean to get all maudlin on you there.  I'm just feeling a bit low.  I'm pretty sure it's a side effect of being so exhausted all the time.  If they go back to those long, long hours, I think I might file for early retirement.  I don't know how I'll pay my bills since my benefits won't kick in for another few years, but something has got to give here.  All I know is I can't keep going on like this.  

Now, for a little good news.  It's supposed to rain all weekend!  Yippee!  That may cool things off a bit.  I mean, it's still hot, but it's normal hot, not heat dome hot.  See this?  Yeah, I told you it's been hot here. 

I guess that's all I have for tonight.  It's getting late and I still have to practice my piano and take a shower.  

Laters.  

 

Operation Red Wings

The blog will be observing a day of silence for those brave men who lost their lives on June 28, 2005, during Operation Red Wings.

Never forget them.

LT Michael P. Murphy

ST2 Matthew Axelson

GM2 Danny Dietz

FTC Jacques J. Fontan

RMCS Daniel R. Healy

LCDR Erik S. Kristensen

ET1 Jeffery A. Lucas

LT Michael M. McGreevy, Jr.

QM2 James E. Suh

HM1 Jeffrey S. Taylor

MM2 Shane E. Patton

SSG Shamus O. Goare

CWO3 Corey J. Goodnature

SGT Kip A. Jacoby

SFC Marcus V. Muralles

MSG James W. Ponder III

MAJ Stephen C. Reich

SFC Michael L. Russell

CWO4 Chris J. Scherkenbach

Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to the next generation, and their children to the next generation.  --Joel 1 : 3

So that we may never forget. 

High Hopes

I'd had such high hopes yesterday when I saw the wind pick up, and the dark clouds gather.  I even heard thunder at one point, but no.  We didn't get any rain.  Not one drop.  Sigh.

Good thing I bought a new sprinkler last week.

I had to get a kid's toy because they were all out of regular lawn sprinklers, but it's heavyweight metal and only cost $3.  I figured I'd give it a chance.  It puts out quite a bit of water, so to me, it was totally worth the money. Good thing, because our next chance of rain isn't until Friday.  But at least we're out from under that heat dome!  

The tropics are waking up, 

but at least we're out from under the heat dome!  

We had a bit of excitement at work today when a machine broke and sent a part flying 15 feet into the air.  I didn't see it happen so that 15 feet thing is just a guess.  Fortunately, the only thing that got hurt was a nearby computer.  We all said it was a good thing the regular operator wasn't there today because she has a bad knee and there's no way she could have gotten out of the way quickly enough. 

Finally, remember my poor little Christmas cactus I thought was going to die?  Let me refresh your memory:

I'd re-potted it into two pots with soil blended just for succulents and hoped for the best.  Here's what they look like now:

So much better, eh?  Come Fall, I might put them all back into the same pot, and dispose of the ones that are still red and struggling.  

Kindly ignore the water gun.  I bought it to squirt the cat when she's tormenting the dog.  It doesn't work, though, because it won't hold water over time.  I need to get a different kind that doesn't leak so much.  

That's about all I have for you today.  Maybe something exciting will happen soon, besides machines flinging parts 15 feet into the air, I mean, and I'll have something to blog about.  In the meantime, I downloaded the free Grammarly app to try to make my posts more readable.  As one of its features, it has a tone detector that will let me know how my posts may sound to my readers -- both of you. 

I'm shooting for engaging and humorous.  It says this one is nervous and sad.  What say you?  I'm I nervous and sad here?

Y'all Thought I Was Joking

I went ahead and ripped that scarf out and started over, making it a little wider this time.   

I'm going to like this width better, and I'm sure I have enough yarn to make it long enough.  I've also knit a few more rounds on the hat, even though I'm mostly working on the scarf.  I seem to have been bitten by the scarf bug lately.  It's almost making me want to warp the loom.  But not quite.  

A few days ago, we had sexual harassment training at work.  I have no idea whether it was how to harass someone or what because the man leading the class was incoherent.  All I heard was a lot of garbled mumbling followed by, "That's sexual harassment!"  There was no discussion, no opportunity to ask questions, or anything.  I'm not sure what the point of the meeting even was.  

The highlight of the meeting was when the brazer sitting next to me leaned over and whispered, "[Your Stalker] needs to be in here."  Not that it would do any good because he knows he's protected.  He was already fired once for sexual harassment and using racial slurs, but his "special friend" in the front office made them give him his job back -- with back pay -- and forced the HR director who fired him in the first place to resign.  

If they really wanted to end harassment and bullying out there they'd do away with their idiotic zero-tolerance policy and let us defend ourselves.  Thing is, I wouldn't have to actually poke Stalker's eyes out with a piece of hot brazing rod, but as long as he knows the option is on the table, he's going to think twice about leering at me all day long.

As it is, I just have to stand there and put up with it. 

Also in the meeting, they handed out a survey about whether we would prefer to work 10 hours Monday through Thursday, plus 8 on Friday and have Saturdays off, or 9 hours Monday through Friday and 8 on Saturdays.  People working in component areas can add 2 hours to those times.  Those of us who have been around a while and remember when we were on that schedule before.  We tried to tell them we would still be working Saturdays anyway.  That was the whole point of my blog post that night.  Listen to me, coworkers, you will not get Saturdays off!  

Today, I was looking through my Timehop memories and found proof:

It's the work schedule from three years ago -- when we were supposed to be getting Saturdays off, you know. 

Not only that, they seem to have forgotten that the plant took 25% of our vacation days away.  Those who had 5 before now had 4.  Those who had 20 days were cut back to 16.  Of course, the survey didn't say anything about that...

In the end, it doesn't matter how we answered the survey.  They're going to do what they want to do anyway.  

Dear Coworker

 I was just kidding!

I'm not going to do that to you three days in a row.  I wouldn't have done a second one yesterday, but when that girl wore that sweater to work, I simply couldn't resist.  I could probably make an entire blog just of Dear Coworker posts and never lack material.  Why do I say that?  Because she wore a long-sleeved shirt the next day as well.  You'd have thought she would have learned, but noooooo.  

The good news is, that the heat dome seems to be dissipating.  Check out the forecast for Monday!

That will be such a relief after all these blistering hot days. 

Speaking of, I had a bit of a fright when I got home this afternoon and the electricity was out.  It was all good, though, because when I checked the Entergy app, turns out it was a scheduled outage for maintenance.  They estimated it would be back on around 7:30 PM.  I got a bit of a break when it came back on about five minutes after I'd walked into the door.   Whew!  I sure didn't want to sit in this house with no air conditioning.  

In knitting news, I went ahead and cast on that scarf I was talking about, but I'm not sure I like it.  

I'm still trying to decide if I want to rip it out and make it a bit wider.  I've got 650 yards of yarn, so that ought to be enough to widen it a bit and have it still be long enough to wrap it several times. 

I guess I'd better make up my mind before I go any further, huh?  

Dear Coworker

 If you're going to wear a sweater -- a sweater -- to work

In Mississippi...

In June...

While we're under a heat dome...

Then I don't want to hear you complain about being hot. 

Seriously.  

Not. One. Word. 

Because you aren't getting any sympathy from me. 

Not one word of it. 

Thank you,

That is all. 

Dear Coworker

 It doesn't matter one whit what that little survey says.  Take it from someone who's been there done that. 

You. Will. NOT. Get. Saturdays. Off.

Full stop.

End of story. 

You will not get Saturdays off, no matter how many hours you stretch our weekdays to.  Remember, we've already done this.  What happened then?  

Yeah, we worked Saturdays.  All of them.  And we were exhausted.  Even more so than we are now. 

So, think before you check that box.

Thank you.

That is all. 

I Have Been Remiss

I have been remiss in that I completely forgot to mention my third anniversary of having gotten my electronic piano.  I meant to include it in Saturday's post, but I was so tired by the time I got home from work, it totally slipped my mind.  I knew there was something else I was wanting to talk about, but I couldn't remember what it was.  Sometime Sunday afternoon is when I remembered.

What I was going to say, if I hadn't forgotten, was that three years ago on June 17, 2019, my piano arrived in the mail.  Isn't 'Merica great that you can mail order a piano?  Free shipping at that.  The most amazing part is I haven't quit!  My desire to play is still as strong as it was the very first day.  

I'll admit there have been times when I've been so tired, that all I've done was run through a few Hanon's or scales and called it a day, but I'm still plugging away at it.  I'd intended to record a song to post, but I didn't.  By the way, I finally downloaded that recording software I mentioned a while back, but I still need to figure out how to use it.  Maybe this weekend I can get around to that. 

I was going to tell you yesterday, but I was so determined to finish this scarf, all I did was knit furiously from the moment I got home.  I got this far

and said, "Nope. Not today."  I was so tired, I couldn't finish even that little bit.  As soon as I got home today, I whipped the last part out, and here you go, a finished scarf.

I like this one so much, that I might keep it.  It's pretty rare for me to keep something that I've knit, but just this once will be OK.  Don't you think?  The next project I cast on will be with this yarn.  

It's some my ex-mother-in-law sent to me when she was de-stashing a few years ago.  I'll probably do another scarf.  This time, I'm thinking I might do a seed stitch pattern.  It's still mindless enough to work while watching TV, but interesting enough not to be boring.  Plus, the texture ought to be very warm.  OK...

In gardening news, all of this -- whatever it is -- started to flop over a couple of days ago.  I don't know why, so this afternoon I found one of the old tomato cages Tomato Man* left behind, flattened it out, and used it to prop them up. 

It wasn't quite big enough, so I tied a bit of yarn -- which you can see there on the right -- to brace the plants on that side.  I'm hoping they start blooming soon.  Oh, and let me update you on Marty Mac.  As you can see, he's growing and thriving.  He's got several new traps growing, and they are so much bigger now.  

As a little lagniappe, the trap there on the right -- the big one -- has a bug in it.  Whee!  Contrary to what a lot of people think, Venus Fly Traps don't need to eat bugs to survive.  They do just fine with only water and sunlight, but it's kind of cool to watch them eat.  

Finally, people are moving into the house across the street.  I haven't met them yet, as they've only been in and out briefly so far.  The house to the east of me is still empty, though.  

Now, I need to go practice that there piano of mine.  Laters. 

*If you're new to the blog, or have a memory like mine, click the link to read the story of Tomato Man.  

Random Thoughts Of A Saturday Evening

 1.  I almost forgot to let Jesse back in this morning.  I'd gotten up at my usual time, and let him out to do his business.  I got ready for work as usual.  Just before I was about to walk out the door, I decided to fill his water dish.  Walking into the bedroom, I noticed he wasn't on the bed.  I thought he must be in the closet, but no, he wasn't in there, either.  That's when I realized I'd forgotten to let him back inside.  

I ran -- figuratively speaking, I don't run in real life -- and opened the back door, and there he was, patiently waiting on the back step.  I'm just glad I realized I'd left him outside before I left for work.  It's way too hot for him to be outside all day.  

2.  Yes, I am praying for my air conditioner this week.  Literally.  

And next week as well, because it's supposed to be even hotter.  You know it's hot when you see it's only supposed to get up to 91' tomorrow, and you're excited about it. 

Please, Lord, don't let my conditioner of air konk out this week!

3.  I know one thing, I will not be mowing this weekend!  What will I be doing instead?  I'll be watching my new special edition Blu-rays of The Chosen.  

I love special editions of stuff -- behind the scenes videos, director's commentary, round table Bible discussions about the episodes -- all of it.  

4.  How hot is it?  It's so hot, that my numbers are peeling off my mailbox.  

I bought new ones, and will probably get out early in the morning before it gets too hot and replace them.  Or I may just wait until the heat dome lifts.  No point in putting new ones on if they're just going to peel off anyway. 

5.  I don't know what these things are.  I think they're a variety of Cosmos, but I'm not completely sure.  They came out of the packet of wildflower seeds I bought.  

I do know one thing, though.  If they don't bloom soon, they're going to be composted.  

6.  I am by no means a germophobe, but when your lunch table at work looks like this

every day, yeah, that's why I carry sanitizing wipes with me.  That's just nasty.   We are supposed to have a cleaning crew, but obviously, they don't do their job very well.  

7.  I went on a bit of a spending spree here these last few weeks.  One of the things I bought was some more of that Scott's Weed & Feed Southern formula.  I'm not going to show you a picture of it.  You can look it up if you want to.  I'm telling you, though.  The stuff works.  My front yard has grass in it now!  It's still got a little bit of dollar weed, but even that looks sickly and dying.    Best of all, I haven't seen a single ant bed since I put it down.  I think I might put some behind the fence, too, to keep the dollar weed from spreading back into my yard. 

8.  I'd gotten Cody one of these record cleaning systems for Christmas, and he seemed pleased with it.  

I'd asked him to bring it down and clean some of my records last month when they came to take me to the oral surgeon, but he didn't.  I don't know what was going on with him that day.  He didn't even bring his laundry, which I told him he was welcome to do.  Anyway, since it'll likely be Thanksgiving before I see them again, I splurged and bought one of my own.  I felt like it would come in handy since most of my records came from eBay.  Plus, I spilled something sticky on one of my Christmas records when I was doing my baking last year.  That needs to be cleaned, too.  

9.  I also bought a hat. 

And some new work boots, but those were kind of a necessity.  I need new work jeans, too, but it's so difficult to find 100% cotton jeans that don't cost $80 + these days.  

10.  Speaking of hats, knitting is coming along right nicely.  

This is why most crafters have more than one project going at the same time.  When one gets dull, switching to another for a while can bring back a missing mojo.  I'm still working on the scarf, but it doesn't look much different. 

11.  Well, I'm off to watch my new DVD.  Laters.  

I Caved

 I did it.  I caved and cast on a hat.

I'm not sure if I'll do some sort of pattern or just a plain stockinette hat.  Given the colors are a bit feminine, I might just try to come up with some sort of simple pattern that won't get lost in the variegation.  The yarn is Red Heart (obviously) in the colorway piñata.  I'm not sure where I got it -- if this is some I bought or some my friend Peggy sent to me.  

Knitting is a bit difficult at the moment, as is piano practice.  See, I did something to my finger last weekend when I was working out in the yard, only I don't know what.  I didn't notice it until Sunday afternoon when it began to feel a bit stiff.  You can see there, that my knuckle on finger #3 is swollen.  

It's pretty painful, too, especially if I move it wrong or try to bend it too much.   I don't remember doing anything to it, or being bitten or stung but I put some Benadryl ointment on it just in case.  I've also been icing it down several times a day -- actually, I just stick it into my cooler at work from time to time, so it's getting a bit better, but it still...

I tried practicing my piano yesterday evening, and by the time I got through with my Hanons, I was like, "Nope.  This ain't happening."  

I probably ought to go ice it down again, so here I leave you with a little something to brighten your day. 

If you enjoyed that, you should check out some of their other videos.  As for me, I have an appointment with an ice bag.  

Laters.   

Good News!

Guess what?  Good news!  Well, for you, at least.  And what is that good news?  Today -- and today only -- you don't have to listen to me complain about how tired I am.  Instead, you get to hear me complain about how hot it is.  Yippee!  

Right?  

And how hot is it?  It's so hot, my air conditioner has not shut off since I got home from work.  I finally shut it off myself by raising the thermostat a couple of degrees.  It's my only hope to be able to pay my electric bill this month.  

It's not looking to get any better anytime soon, either.    

Add in the humidity and whoo boy!  It makes me question my decision to not move to Alaska...

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite meteorologists moved from down in Jackson up to Kansas City.  I never did unfollow him on Facebook, though.  Yesterday, he posted the forecast for his new viewing area.  I couldn't resist....well, just read it for yourself:

I feel famous now!  Or infamous, take your pick.  

I thought I had a mini tragedy yesterday when the drain pan on my air conditioner overflowed.   I'm starting to hate water.  Seriously.  Between the plumbing issues and now this, water is ruining my life.  

Anyway, I pulled the front panel off my evaporator coil and vacuumed the water out with my shop vac.  I tried to clear the drain thing with my fingers as best I could, then went and got a pipe cleaner and shoved it down the pipe as far as I could.  I tried to put my little sink snake down it, but it wouldn't make that sharp 90' turn, so I gave up on that idea.  

I checked it today when I got home, and there was a little water in the bottom of the drain pan, but it was below the level of the drain hole -- if that makes any sense -- so hopefully, I got the problem taken care of.  If not, I'm sure I can call the man who fixed my A/C a few years ago to come to clean the lines out for me.  

And I'm going to hold my breath that nothing else goes wrong around here...