It's Friday, And....

 I am one pom pom shy of having a completed Jayne Hat.  

I'm already thinking about casting on another one using a larger needles size.  I knit this one with a U.S. 10, but for the next one, I'm considering going up to a 10.5 or 11.  I'm also thinking of tweaking the pattern just a bit.  I've been studying screenshots of the actual hat from the actual show, and there appears to be a couple of rounds of twisted stitches right where the orange joins the gold. 

I'm going to try to figure out how to get that worked into my pattern.  It shouldn't be too hard.  

In other news, as if my work weren't already a horrible place to work, starting Monday, in order to access vending machines, employees will now have to scan their employee IDs.  I guess they're bound and determined to enforce that whole water only thing.  I still don't understand what is so wrong with having a coffee or a coke at my stand.  Or even a pack of cookies.  

Now, I can understand that they wouldn't want people to set up hot plates and cook fish and french fries, but what's so wrong with a peanut butter cracker and juice?  

I'm telling you, if ADP thinks it's hard to find employees now, just wait until Milwaukee Tools opens up next year.  I know a lot of my friends are telling me to put in an application myself, but I just don't know.  My coworker and I were talking about it a yesterday.  We've both been out there 25+ years, and have a lot of seniority (not that that means anything out there, but still) and more importantly, a lot of vacation time built up.  That's a lot to throw away at this point in our careers.  Not only that, by the time it opens, I'll be 59 and just a few years away from retirement.  Too close to retirement to start completely over.  

Now, if I were much  younger and just starting out, then yeah, I'd be all over that. 

And finally, for some bad news.  Remember about a week and a half ago, when Jesse was having trouble with his back legs?  He seemed to get better for a while, then day before yesterday, he was having the same trouble.  I think I'm going to go ahead and take him to the vet next week.  He doesn't seem to be in any pain.  He just can't support his weight on his back legs.  

The weird thing is that it came on so suddenly.  I first thought he'd wrenched something jumping off the bed, but he hasn't been on the bed since all this started.  I did google his symptoms, and nothing I found sounds good at all.  We'll just have to see and hope for the best.

Still, given his age, I'm preparing for the worst...

Dear Place Of Employment

If that half a minute is going to make that much of a difference, then you've got bigger problems than employees lining up at the clock 30 seconds before the end of shift buzzer goes off. 

Much bigger problems.  

How's about focusing on solving those instead of being pedantic of minutia?  

Thank you.

That is all. 

What A Way

What a way to wake up!

But first, you need the backstory.  

Ever since I got this cat of mine, she's been staying outside at night....up until about two months ago, that is.  One night, out of the blue, I went to let her out before bed, and she wouldn't go.  Not only would she not go, she fought me.  I have a sneaking suspicion this had something to do with a vague shadow I saw one morning that looked quite a bit like a coyote.  Right in the road in front of the house.  

"OK," I said.  "You can stay in, but you have to be quiet!"  And she was.  All night long.  She did so well, I let her continue staying inside.   Funny, though, she very quickly figured out that the alarm going off meant she would soon be getting breakfast.   

Anyway, everything was going swimmingly until very recently, when she began to get more and more restless throughout the night.  Last night, she carried on so much, I finally got up and let her out just after midnight.  I went back to bed and quickly drifted off, only to be startled awake around 3:30 by a cat fight right outside my bedroom window.  

What a way to wake up!

I dashed to the back door and yelled at the cats, chasing the other one off.  It was the orange cat who'd had kittens in my woodpile last year.  I called and called to my cat, but she wouldn't come in.  I didn't go out into the yard -- I was in my draws after all -- and finally went back inside.  I laid down and dozed a bit, but never really went back to sleep.  Thus, I'm on my second night in a row running on very little sleep -- the previous night being kept awake by the storms.  

Speaking of storms, I have a coworker who is deathly afraid of them.  Naturally, the first thing I did when I got to work this morning was to ask her how she fared the other night.  "Guuuurl!" she said.  "I was so scared I couldn't move!"  I'm not joking.  She is seriously scared of storms.  One time, she got so scared, she went to the emergency room of her local hospital.  Not to seek medical attention, but to just sit in the waiting room until the storm passed.  She said she thought of doing that Saturday night, but she didn't.  

I always try to give her a heads up, but I had no idea those storms were going to be that bad.  

By the way, I learned a new term today:  equilux, because today was the equilux.  That means the sun rise and sun set were exactly 12 hours apart. 

Sometimes it's good to have so many meteorologists in your Facebook feed.  

Wicked Storms

Man alive, we had some wicked storms roll through here last night.  It's been a long, long time since I've heard thunder that loud and that continuous.  In fact, I'm not sure I ever have.  It sounded like it was right over the house for a while, and it sounded like one long, continuous thunderclap.  I'm talking hours long.  Hours.  Needless to say, neither the animals or I got much sleep.  

We officially got 2.8 inches of rain, though some of the people in my town's weather watchers group on FB reported 4-5 inches in their rain gauges.  Others said their power went out, but mine never did.  It flickered off, but came right back on.  I'm glad of that. 

I'm going to have to do something else with my windchime, though.  That wind was seriously kicking out there.  It was blowing so hard, at one point, it literally blew me back into the house, but as you can see, the wind chime barely moved at all. 

What I'm thinking about doing is finding some pieces of clear plastic and making a circle around that anchor.  Having a bigger surface area to catch the wind might help.  I'm thinking if I move it away from my chimney, that might help, too.  I'll have to experiment to see where the best location is. 

Since we were all pretty wiped out from the storming, we didn't do much of anything.  And by we, I mean me.  The dog and cat slept all day, as per their usual. Cody and Brennan are coming next weekend for our company picnic, and I should be frantically cleaning.  But I'm not. 

I'm knitting a Jayne hat instead. 

Now, before I knock off here and finish that ear flap, I realized I've been remiss.  One of my readers asked me a while back how I liked the Chosen devotional books.  

I fully intended to answer, but somehow, life got away from me and I never did.  Short answer is, I love them!  These aren't like the Bible study books, but are a brief 2  to 3 minute daily devotion.  They are engaging and easy to read.  I'd bought one years ago at Walmart called Grace For Today, but I had never been able to stick with it.  These, I can't wait to get home from work to read each day's entry.  

Also unlike the Bible study books, these can be read independently of watching the show.  The study books go along with each episode of the series, but these don't.  They are more general, every day type of readings.  You will be able to read these and be fully blessed by them even if you've never seen the show.  

The only ding I would give them is that the print -- especially in the second and third books -- is so extremely tiny.  If you were thinking about getting them, but just weren't sure, I'd say go ahead.  You won't be disappointed.  

Lots To Catch Up On

There's been stuff going on, but it would seem my blogging mojo has gone the way of my knitting mojo.  I've had stuff to talk about, and time to blog...I just can't seem to find the want-to to type it all out.  This is going to be a bit of a catch-up post, so it'll be kind of long.  Bear with me, and we'll get through it together. 

Last week, someone posted in the local free-bees group wondering if anyone had any yarn they were willing to part with.  Naturally, I responded right away that I had plenty to share, and I began gathering up some for her to take.   I had several skeins of Lion Brand homespun that a friend had given me that I didn't really want.  I'd told her that I didn't like that kind of yarn, but I was sure I could find a good home for it.  She was totally OK with that, so I tossed those into the bag.  

Nest up, I tossed in a few skeins of Red Heart my friend Peggy had sent me a few years ago. She was destashing her own yarn, and I said I'd take all her Red Heart for charity hats.  I was thinking 6 or 7 skeins.  Ten at the most.  She sent me 37 skeins.  There's no way I could knit it all up, and I'm sure Peggy wouldn't mind me passing it on to someone who will put it to good use.  

The last thing I threw into the bag was some fuzzy pink stuff that I've had for so long I don't even remember when I got it.  I told the lady to go through the bag and take as much or as little as she wanted.  She ended up taking the whole bag, so that's a good thing.  She got yarn, and I got space.  

In fact, I cleaned out so much yarn, I was able to move some of my project bags off the doorknobs where they stayed most of the time, 

and into a cabinet.  One of the cabinets, I mean. 

As you can see, I still have plenty of yarn left.  And that's not even showing you the closet full in the craft room. 

In the midst of gathering up all that yarn, I found the bag where I kept the yarn I knit Jayne hats with.  Not uncoincidentally, I'd been thinking about knitting myself a new Jayne hat just a few days ago.  I'd given all of mine away, and thus I was without one for myself.  So, I cast on a new one using my favorite Cunning Hat pattern.  

This one is not going to be given away...until my son says, "Mom, would you happen to have an extra Jayne hat?  My friend wants one."  Except that I think I gave the last one to my brother for Christmas a couple of years ago.  No matter, I will soon be in possession of a new Jayne hat just for me. 

In other news, now that I've gotten my car and various other debts paid off and a little bit of savings built up, I figured it's time for me to begin trying to finish fixing up my house.  I can't go crazy with this economy being the way it is, but I can take little bites and eventually eat the whole elephant. This room, known as the snake room, has always been a problem.  It's where I stuff junk so that I can deal with it later.  

As you can see, most of the junk in here doesn't get dealt with.  Later or anytime.  I'd bought a shelf a while back to try to get some of the stuff organized, but it's not organized either. 

I don't even know what all is stuffed onto that shelf.  The plan was to get one of those Rubbermaid cabinets and put it out into my shop.  Then I can move my tools and stuff out into that.  I'd finally saved up enough in my ibotta account to order the one I wanted, so I did.  

I was going to put it together and start getting all that stuff moved out there this weekend.  Alas, as I was putting it together, I discovered I was short a part.  One of the tube things that holds all the parts together was missing. 

This is what it's supposed to look like. 

I've already contacted Rubbermaid customer support, but haven't heard back from them.  So that project is going to be on hold until I get that part in. 

The good news is, as I was checking out, I got one of those notices:  Apply for this credit card and get $100 off this order.  OK, I can do that.  I'll get the gift card, then never use the credit card again.  I halfway thought it would be a scam, but no, I actually got the $100 credited to my Amazon account.  So, that was cool. 

One other thing I bought was a night stand for Cody's bedroom. 

I did order a pair of them, but for some reason, one of them has been delayed.  Hopefully, it'll get here sometime this week.  But look at this, it has USB ports and outlets built into the top. 

  Something like that is really convenient for a guest room.   That way, they won't have to crawl behind furniture looking for an outlet to charge their phones or tablets, or whatever else they need to charge.  

The plan is to get rid of this headboard and bed frame.  

That headboard is queen sized and it's really just a bit too big for that room -- especially once I get the nightstand for the other side.  I've found a bed on Amazon that matches the new nightstands and also has under bed storage.  I'll probably wait until the overtime starts back up next year to order that one, though.  That black bookshelf will be moved out of that room, and oh, yeah, I'm going to get some lamps to put on those night stands, as well. 

And finally, I got out this afternoon and pulled up a bunch of that -- whatever it was, so I could plant my bluebonnet seeds.  

I'm not exactly sure why I'm showing you a patch of dirt, other than to say, this is the patch of dirt where I've planted my bluebonnet seeds.  

I've still got to pull that -- whatever it is -- out of the rest of my bed.

I had a few seeds left from that packet, so I tossed them out over the back fence.  I was very disappointed in them.  I got very few flowers out of the bunch.  Other than a little zinnia, 

and whatever this is, 

pretty much the entire bed was just a mess.  

I think next year, I'll just stick with Zinnias and Vincas.  

Together Again

Early this morning, my Aunt Bonnie, my dad's last surviving sibling, went home to be with the Lord.  She was 97 years old.  

At long last, they are all together again.

 

Walter Lee Gunstream, Jr. 

October 23, 1926 - July 14, 1995

Martha Fae Gunstream Armstrong

August 16, 1921 - January 18, 2014

Bonnie Jean Gunstream Tompkins

January 20, 1925 - September 21, 2022

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

Psalm 116:15

Guess What?

Guess what we have at work?  Go on, guess!  Nah, you'll never guess, so I'll tell you.

We have a new HR director!  I didn't even know the last one had been fired.  Apparently, she'd gotten into an argument with someone in the front office and when all the dust had settled, she'd been let go.  I don't know any more details than that. 

We seem to be going through them like water out there.  

But anyway, he came out and visited with us on the floor today.  Rumor is, a particularly outspoken coworker had sent him a message that he needed to come out there.  He stopped to chat with me a bit, and asked where I was from.  I told him, and he said, "What's the nearest Louisiana city?"  I replied, "Lake Charles," and he asked, "Are you an LSU fan?"  Naturally, I replied in the affirmative.  Then he said, "That's going to be a problem."  

I said, "Why?  Are you a Mississippi State fan?"  He said, "Now you're cussing me twice!  I'm an Ole Miss fan!"  At that point, I raised my hand and shouted, "HAIL STATE!"    We chatted about football a few more moments, and he moved on to the next person. 

At least he's coming out and getting to know people.   The HR director two HR directors ago had worked there for an entire year before anyone even knew she was there. 

Guess what else we have?  A new production manager.  He's from Texas.  I haven't talked to him, but one of my other coworkers told him not to sell his house.   Nobody wants to break the news to him that he's only there so they'll have someone to blame if anything goes wrong. 

In other news, I briefly contemplated staying home yesterday to watch the queen's funeral, but I didn't.  Instead, I watched a video of it after I got home.  It ended up being better that way anyway, because the video was 9 hours long.  I fast forwarded through a lot of it -- like all the processional stuff when they were driving the hearse through London and out to Windsor Castle.  Even so, it was 7:00 PM before it was all said and done.  One good thing, at least YouTube didn't interrupt it every 30 seconds to run ads.  

Sometime during all that has been going on, I realized I've been negligent.  I completely forgot to tell you I'd finished reading Isaac's Storm, by Eric Larson.  It was a pretty good book.  Much more engaging than you'd think a book about weather would be.

Now, I'm reading The Arc Of The Scythe series, by Neil Schusterman. 

I'd gotten the first one years ago on a Kindle Daily Deal, and even though I enjoyed it, I didn't like it enough to pay $10 each for the next two, so I never got them. 

A couple of days ago, Amazon had them marked down to $2.99 each, so I said, "I can pay $3 for a book."  Of course, it's been so long since I read the first one, I have to re-read it because I've forgotten what it's all about. 

It's a pretty good book, young adult dystopian.  It's set in a futuristic world in which no one dies any more.  Once people have aged, they can do what they call "turning the corner" in which they are re-set to a younger age.  Even people who die accidentally can be revived.  Since no one dies naturally any more, people called Scythes are used to keep population under control, by randomly selecting people to be gleaned.  

The story follows two teenagers, Rowan and Citra, as they apprentice to become Scythes.  That's as far as I've gotten right now.  The kids have just been recruited by the Scythe and are about to start their training.  

And finally, I'm concerned about Jesse.  When I got home from work this evening, he seemed to have some sort of weakness in his back legs.  They kept falling out from under him, and it's almost like he couldn't support his weight.  He doesn't seem to be in any pain, though, and he's perky enough in every other way, so I'm going to keep an eye on him and see if he gets better.  If not, it'll be another trip to the vet for him.  

Given his age, every time something happens, I think this is going to be the time....

I'll Add A Real Title Later

I don't know about you, but it seems to get harder and harder coming up with original and engaging titles for my posts.  And judging by my post counts, the ones I do come up with aren't that engaging anyway.  But I am thankful for the ones of you who do come here and read. 

Let me begin by saying, I'm feeling much much better today.  My nose is still a bit stuffy, but the sinus pressure is gone.  I'm also still coughing, but that is usually the last thing to clear up.  My heart is racing, but that might be more because of the Cowboys game than any illness I may have picked up.  

Anyone been around long enough to remember when I was a sports writer?  Man, I could write the best posts about football games...until I couldn't.  It was so weird.  Usually even before the game ended, the post was writing itself in my head, then one day, it just stopped.  The words didn't come any more.  If you're interested, you can click on the labels in the right side bar and read them.  

I got aggravated, too, because I used to use a service called PicApp, where you could hotlink photos for blogs and news articles, etc.  It was completely free...until it wasn't.  One day they announced that they would be charging a membership fee to use the app, but don't worry, any photos you had already linked would stay on your site....until they didn't.  Yep, suddenly and without warning, all the photos I'd hotlinked were gone.  

The same thing happened with another photo storage site I'd used called Webshots.  That was a really cool site...until it wasn't.  They offered an app where you could download photos for your screensaver and background, and you could also use it to upload and store your own photos.  I liked the site so much, I even got the paid for version.  Then suddenly and without warning, they announced they were shutting down the site.  They offered to send you all the photos you'd uploaded in a zip file, but all the hotlinks I'd used in the blog were suddenly dead.  And I'd used a lot, since back then, Blogger limited how many photos you could upload to their site.  

Sometime later, they put the site back up, but my photos were all still gone.   They suggested trying The Wayback Machine, but I can't remember my username.  Anyway, I had over 10,000 photos stored on that site, and now they're gone.  I have the downloads on an external hard drive somewhere, but for some reason, I can't get the files to open.  It was all very aggravating.  

OK, that was not at all what I'd intended to talk about today, so let's move on.

My knitting mojo seems to have taken a bit of a vacation here lately.  I have that one blue scarf that I've been working on for it seems like forever, but I'm kind of tired of it.  I'm taking a bit of a break, so I went into my yarn closet and dug this skein out.   

This is some that had belonged to my dear friend Suzy, and I wanted to make something special with it.  Something for me to keep.  I didn't know what to make, though.  I decided to go ahead and wind it into a cake, but I was a bit dismayed to discover two breaks in the hank. I ended up with three small cakes instead.

Now, I don't know if Suzy had already divided it up for something she had planned, or if it came that way.  Madelinetosh is supposed to be pretty high end yarn, so that would be really upsetting if they'd sold it this way.  I've already knit a square into my blanket, 

and now I have to figure out what to do with the rest of it.  

While I was recovering from my epizoodies and watching football, I added a few more squares with some of the new yarn I bought at Fiber Fun In The 'Sip.  

I laid it out and compared it to some of the store bought throws I have, and I think only two more full rows -- after I complete the row I'm working on now -- and this one will be done!  At long last it'll be finished.  The conundrum is, I probably have enough yarn to finish, but it's all variegated.  I'd like a few more striped blocks in there, too, for variety.  

It'll almost feel weird to be finished with this blanket.  I started it in late January 2009, and have the blog post to prove it.  But not to worry, I still have two more I'm working on!  

Have I lost my mind or what? 

It's That Time Again

Yep, it's that time of year again.  

Along with the beautiful fall colors, pumpkin flavored everything, and cooler temperatures -- which will eventually get here -- it's time for my annual fall head cold.  I could feel it creeping up on me yesterday, but I was hoping beyond hope it was just the high ragweed counts.  It wasn't.  

Alas, the aforementioned head cold hit full force about mid- morning.  I'm running a slightly elevated temperature (but not really high enough to be considered fever), sore throat, and clogged up sinuses.  Good thing I got my errands run early, so I can sit in front of the TV for the next three days and get over this.  

As we would say in the South, I have me a case of the epizoodies.  I'm just sick enough to feel blah, but not sick enough to be sick sick.  Eh, it's a good excuse to skip mowing for the week.  

So, the first place I went when I was running my errands was to the internet company, to trade in my router for a newer model.  There was a bit of confusion when the Sparklight person verified my street address, and it was the wrong one.  "No,"  I said.  "I'm at [correct address]."  She asked if my internet was working fine, and I told her yes, it was.  She then said they had a different name listed for that address, and she'd have to investigate and get it corrected.  At that point, I pulled out my driver's license and showed it to her to prove the address was mine.  

I asked if the name they had listed for the address was the one the installation guy had told me when he came, but she said it wasn't.  Even so, that would explain the confusion on his part.   We got everything straightened out in the computer -- at least as far as my part was concerned-- and I got my new router and went on my merry way.  I tended the rest of my in town business, then came home and hooked it all up.  Aaaand, nothing happened.  No internet.  Not even any lights on the router.  

It was supposed to have lights.  And internet. What's going on?  Did they give me defective router?  It was brand new, fresh out of the box! Why didn't it work?

I checked the cables, and they were hooked up correctly.  I crawled under the entertainment center to make sure the plug was all the way in, and that's when I found the problem.  Somehow, I'd accidentally hit the on/off switch on the power strip.  I turned it back on, and bingo!  I have internets again!

The hardest part of it all was dragging my entertainment center away from the wall.  It's not really that heavy, but there's nothing to grab on to.  While I had it all pulled away from the wall, I moved the router up here.  

I wasn't sure I'd be able to, because the power cord was too short to reach, but I managed to dig up an unused extension cord and voila, we have an elevated router.  It made a big...sort of...difference in the signal in my bedroom.  Yep, it's now "Fair" instead of "Poor".  Nevertheless, I tried to watch videos on both my Hulu and YouTube apps, and they worked fine.  I should be able to watch TV just fine in bed now.  

By the way, my new Fire Stick had arrived Thursday, but I wanted to wait until I got my router exchanged before setting it up.  Yeah, I'm lazy.  I didn't want to have to enter my password twice.  Well, I mean, twice for that one device.  I had to enter the password for every device I have. Those would be two Kindles, two Rokus, two Fire Sticks, my laptop and my phone.  I think that's all of them.  I haven't hooked up my streaming DVD player to it yet, because I seldom use it for streaming.  

OK, now that I've completely bored you with all my technical jargon, let me show you what I bought at Walmart. Remember the little scarecrow I bought last week? Today, I got the matching one. 

And finally, while I was at Walmart, I ran into one of my coworkers.  We greeted one another and she said, "Did you leave early, too?"  No, I had vacation already scheduled, I told her.  She said they'd asked for volunteers to leave early, and she said she always volunteers to leave.  She thought they'd be going at 11:00, but it was 8:00 when they sent them all home. 

She also told me they shut down third shift last night.  All the temps were laid off, and they gave the full-time employees a choice.  They could go to second shift, or they could quit.  I'd known they were going to shut it down.  Third shift, I mean.  I just didn't know when.

I guess that's all I have for now.  I think I'm going to go drink tea and ignore my to do list. 

Laters. 

Going To Choke Someone

The strangest thing happened when I got home from work.  I pulled into my driveway and noticed one of those flyer looking things hanging on my front doorknob.  I first thought it was a political thing, it being almost election time and all.  

When I walked over to pull it off, I saw it was from the internet company, Sparklight.  They'd been by to do a courtesy check of my signal and all.  I thought it was weird, but didn't really think to much of it.  Maybe they'd seen me poking around their website and all.  I don't know.  It got even weirder when a Sparklight truck backed into my driveway, and a man got out.  

I asked the man, "What's going on?"  

He replied, "Are you ready to get some internet?" 

"Um, I already have internet," I said.  "I do need a new router, though.  You wouldn't happen to have one of those in your truck, would you? "  He just laughed at that.  Then he asked if this was [my address] and called a name that wasn't mine.  I told him that was the right address, but I'm not that person.  He showed me the work order on his phone, and I said, "Yep, that's this address, but that isn't me."  He apologized and got back into the truck.  I could see him making a phone call, and when I left to go to the dentist a few minutes later, I saw him up the road hooking up something to another house, so apparently, they'd put the wrong address into the work order.  

No biggie, but I thought it was pretty funny, considering the timing of it all. 

By the way, the dentist appointment went pretty well.  All they did was make the impressions of my mouth so they could start my new partial.  The only bad part was she overfilled the top tray, and the plastic stuff ran down the back of my throat and I spent that whole time gagging.  That part was not fun at all. 

Speaking of gagging, we're having our health screenings for insurance this week at work.  One of my coworkers, whom I'll refer to as Betty did hers Monday morning.  The way it works is, you have to either pass or show improvement on three out of five metrics -- those being waist circumference/BMI, blood pressure, blood sugar, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides-- to avoid paying the higher premiums for the next year.  It's technically suppose to be private, but we all talk about them with each other anyway. 

So, Betty came out from doing her screening Monday telling us she had passed every metric except her waist measurement, so she had passed.  Now, it really isn't a pass/fail thing, but that's just what we say when we meet enough metrics to avoid the surcharge. 

Today, Betty called me over, telling me she'd gotten an e-mail and she didn't know what it meant.  She said the e-mail said Congratulations, you have completed your health screening.  Did that mean she passed?  She told me she didn't know if she should cancel her doctor appointment or not. Did mine say that?  What did mine say?  Did mine say Congratulations?  I told her I didn't remember, so she asked me to come over and look at hers.  She wasn't sure if she should go to the doctor or call and cancel her appointment?  What did it all mean?????

My first thought was, she knew she had passed four of the five metrics Monday, so why did she even make a doctor appointment in the first place?  You'd be proud of me, though.  I kept my mouth shut.  

She kept on asking if this meant she'd passed, and should she cancel her doctor appointment, and worried and fretted and stewed until I was ready to Gibbs Slap her.  I finally told her, "[HR person] is right in there where they're doing the screenings.  You could go ask her.'

Sometime later, Betty came back to me and asked what the website was.  She meant the one where they upload our screening results. 

"I don't know,"  I replied.  "I just click on the link in the e-mail."  

"Oh, I didn't even think about that," Betty said, telling me her daughter usually takes care of the technical stuff for her.  She pulled up the e-mail, and I showed her where to click and how to find the results of her screening on the website.  

"Does this mean I passed?" she said, indicating all the green checkmarks beside the metrics. "[HR person] said I passed, but I just wanted to be sure.  Does this mean I passed?"  I reassured her yet again that she had indeed passed and would not have to pay the higher premium.

Then I walked back to my brazing stand and told my friend, "If Betty worries me one more time about that stupid screening, I swear I'm going to choke her!"  Not really, but I sure felt like it!

And finally, someone has the Southern seasons right!

And see the forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday?    

He's not wrong.  

I Lied

 I lied to you yesterday.  I didn't do it on purpose, but I did.  

After I posted, I was looking through some blog posts and found this old photo from 2015.  This was right after Beverly and James gave me this entertainment center. 

Do you see what that is on the bottom shelf?  On the left?  Right there where it still sits to this day?  Yep, it's my Wi-Fi router.  Turns out I hadn't moved it down after all.  What I'd had on the upper shelf was my cable box.  

Now I'm confused again.  I know I used to watch TV in my room on occasion, and I know when Cody stayed with me that week in 2018 when he was in the process of moving to Memphis, he played his online games in his bedroom with the door closed.  That means he had good signal then.  The only thing I know that's changed since then is that Sparklight bought out Cable One.  

I wonder if they've weakened the signal or something.  I'm going to raise my router anyway, and see if that helps.  If it doesn't, I'm going to call the internet company and see if I can trade my old router in for a new one.  It's leased, so that shouldn't be a problem. In fact, I probably ought to upgrade it anyway, since it's several years old.  

Hold the phone...I just went to the Sparklight website to see if I could upgrade my router and found the following notice:

Our records indicate you are currently using a cable modem this it not capable of fully delivering your Internet speeds. In order to fully enjoy your speeds, and enjoy the reliability of your Internet service,. you must upgrade your modem to a new one that can deliver your Internet speed.

If you have a Sparklight provided modem, a key benefit is that replacement with a newer, advanced technology DOCSIS 3.0 modem, is available at no extra charge. Replacement is easy - simply bring your current modem to our office, and we'll provide a replacement DOCSIS 3.0 modem along with instructions on how to replace your modem. Alternatively, give us a call and we can ship you a replacement modem.

I seem to remember getting this in an email a while back, but forgot to actually do it.  So I guess I'll take care of that, probably Friday.  Or I may call tomorrow right after work and see if they'll ship me one, then take the old one back to the office once I've gotten them switched out.  

No, wait.  I have to go to the dentist tomorrow to get started on getting my new teeth.  Eh, Friday morning ought to be OK.  That way, I'll have time to call support if I have any trouble setting it up.  

In knitting news, I really want to get out my sock yarn blankets and add my new yarns to them.  

I have to be careful these days, because the cat is a kneader.  I have to keep an eye on her and re-direct her to the store bought blankets she is allowed to knead on.   So, big projects like the blankets tend not to get brought out as often. 

Still, it was 55' this morning when I got up, and it's finally starting to feel almost fall-ish.  As Cody said when he was a kid, "It's getting to be knitting season!"

And finally, remembering the monster storm that took so many of my childhood memories.

Now, if you'll excuse me, the new season of Halloween Baking Championship is calling and I must go.  

Doofus

 I can be such a doofus sometimes.  

Seriously.  Such a doofus.  

And what doofusy thing did I do this time?  I'll tell you.  

Yesterday being September 11, I wanted to watch my 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi movie.  It's important that we remember what happened there, too.  It's important that we remember Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty, and how they were betrayed by their own government.  

I knew I had the movie in one of my streaming services, but I couldn't remember which one.  I checked Amazon Prime.  Not there.  I checked Hulu.  Not there, either.  I checked the Roku channel.  When I didn't find it there, I said to myself, "Self, you can spend all day searching for this movie on streaming, or you can just put in the Blu-ray."  I chose the latter.

I got up out of my chair, tromped all the way across the living room, and put the disc in.  I picked up the universal remote, and it didn't work.  I put fresh batteries into it, and it still didn't work.  Not wanting to fight with it, I got the remote for the DVD/Blu-Ray player...and it didn't work, either.  

I'm telling you, the humidity had been so outrageous this summer, I think every single item I have that takes batteries has gotten that white corrosion stuff on it.  This remote was no different.  I pried the battery compartment opened, pried the old, leaky batteries out, and cleaned the contacts with a fingernail file.  Fresh batteries, and I was finally able to settle in and watch my movie.  

About halfway through, I remembered.  The movie is in my VUDU.  Sigh...

I can't even blame sleep deprivation for that one.  Just me being a doofus.  

OK, abrupt change of subject.

The Cowboys had the late game last night, and since I get up ridiculously early to go to work, I must also go to bed ridiculously early.  I have a TV in my bedroom, but I don't use it very often.  I have a ROKU hooked up to it, but it doesn't get a very strong signal.  

I used to be able to watch TV in there all the time, but I can't any more.  Someday, I'm going to move my Wi-fi router higher and see if that helps -- which is not as easy as it sounds, as it involves moving heavy furniture to reach all the wiring and such like.  They say not to have them on the floor, and I don't know why I did it, but I moved my router to the floor.  Well, not the floor, but the lowest shelf on my entertainment center-- which is practically on the floor.  It's not normally a problem, since I mostly get on line in the living room anyway.  

Anyway, my ROKU can't pick up the signal in my bedroom, even though my Kindle and phone can.  Go figure.  Now, I knew I had an old fire stick around here somewhere, so I dug that out to see if it picked up the signal any better.  I found the stick, but couldn't find the remote.  Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  I got onto Amazon to order a replacement remote.  

What I found was that I could get a whole new Fire Stick for only $5 more than a replacement remote.  After trading in my old Fire Stick and getting a $3 credit -- hey, it was pretty old and obsolete -- the difference was only $2, so I ordered it.  It'll be here Wednesday.  Now, I just have to figure out the problem with the wi-fi and I can watch TV in bed once again.  Woo hoo!

It's the little things. 

Speaking of little things, I've been knitting on that blue scarf for so long, I'm almost sick of it.  You know the one.  I've shown you photos of it umpteen times, so I'm not going to post another one.  Not until it's finished, that is.  Then we will have a celebration.  

But I digress.  As I was saying, I got so sick of that blue scarf, I cast on and knit another hat over the weekend.  

The hat is plain stockinette and the yarn is Knit Picks Brava in Just Peachy Speckle. 

Now if you'll excuse me, Jesse is telling me it's bedtime, and who am I to argue with my dog?  

Good night. 

P.S.  I ended up watching the game on my Kindle, until I fell asleep at the start of the fourth quarter.  I woke up to the news that Captain Soapbubble The Second, also known as Dak Prescott is injured and expected to miss 6-8 games.  Sigh.. 

Teach It To Your Children

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

So that we may never forget.

Random Thoughts While I Watch Football

1.  I got up this morning and went to our town's 18th annual Downtown Jubilee.  I didn't stay long, because Alabama vs. Texas kicked off at 11:00.  I always like going to that one, because it's not as hot as Thunder On Water in June.  They had the usual food and craft booths, but the only thing I bought was a wind chime. 

I'd been wanting one of these kinds for ages -- the kind that sound like the bell on a buoy -- but hadn't even gotten one.  This one was a good price, and I like the tone of it.  I tried to get a video, but it didn't work out.  

2.  The guy selling those had lots of metalwork signs and things, but I didn't get any of them. 

I wanted the USN anchor at the bottom, and the circular one in the middle, but the vendor had a strict cash only policy, and I just didn't have enough cash on hand to get either of those.  I sure didn't have enough to get the signs and the windchime, even though I thought the prices were very reasonable for handmade goods.

3.  One of the maintenance men came to work Thursday with a t-shirt that read "I'm only here because you broke something".  

4.  A few weeks ago, we had some very important visitors come to the plant.  Watching all the front office people fussing and fretting about it like they were, I turned to my coworker and said, "I wonder what's got them all pooping their pants like that."  She replied, "We've got company coming next week."  I said, "Oh, I know that.  But who is it that's coming?  Queen Elizabeth?"  

5.  I missed the Harvest Moon rise last night because of the cloud cover.  I was hoping it would clear off today, so I would see it tonight, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.  It's been drizzly and rainy since about noon yesterday.  It's good in a way, because I put some of my Scott's Turf builder down yesterday morning, and it needed to be watered in. This long, slow rain we've been getting is just perfect for that. 

6.  The car show at the Downtown Jubilee was kind of thin this year, but they still had some nice cars.  I think this one was my favorite. 

7.  By the way, if I use half a blog post to tell you that Jesse is doing much better, then you ask in a comment if Jesse is doing any better, that's a sure sign you don't actually read my blog.  

8.  A few weeks ago, when we were having all those heavy, driving rains, I moved my Whatever cacti into the carport so they wouldn't be beaten into mush.   They look so much better here than they have in years!

A couple of the leaves look a bit sunburned, but overall, they look so much healthier.  I think I might put them here next spring instead of by my back door.  I'll have to keep an eye on it to make sure it's not getting too much direct sunlight, but for now, I'm leaving them here. 

9.  Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees the irony in a Dentist office having a bowl of candy on its table. 

10.  That's it for today.  I've got football to watch, and I need my computer to do so.  I'll catch you later.  

No Idea

I have no idea what day it is.  Seriously. 

Between the holiday Monday, and a vacation day today, I have no idea what day it is.  On some level, I know it's Friday, but it sure doesn't feel like it.  Still, it must be because I got my paycheck.  Which I promptly spent most of at Walmart, and I have no idea what I bought that was so expensive. 

I mean, yeah, I bought a new case of cat food, and a new bottle of carpet shampoo, and a bag of frozen chicken nuggets...just those three things was $50 right there. 

I also bought Jesse a couple of cans of high dollar dog food, because he'd stopped vomiting thanks to the meds the vet gave him, but he still wasn't really eating.  He'd eaten that can of tuna, but was just picking at his regular food.  I thought if I gave him something he couldn't resist, it might kick his appetite in gear.  

Then I spoiled him and bought him a new food bowl.  Or maybe that was spoiling myself, just a bit.  This way, I won't have to keep dumping his dry food back into the bin when I feed him his canned food, then washing and refilling his bowl with more dry food when he's done.  Having a separate bowl will make things so much easier on me. 

All that to say, Jesse is feeling better, and has started eating again.  And thankfully, has not puked in the bed again.   I'm glad of that.  I don't think I can wash all of that bedding again so soon. 

OK, so remember when I talked about getting some decorations for my front porch? I fully intended to pick up a fake hay bale and fake pumpkin to put out there, and maybe some fall garland to add the final touches.  Once I got to the store and saw how much all that stuff cost, I decided the porch would have to remain undecorated for another year.  The only thing I picked up was a couple of garlands, and even they had gone up so much since the last time I bought any.  I added it to the garland I already had on my  mantle, to make it look fuller. 

While wandering down the Fall decoration aisle, who should catch my eye but this little lady?

They have a scarecrow man, too, which I might pick up next week.  He'll look just right on the other side of that shelf.  I'll have to move the mug and luminaria, but they're used to being shuffled around like that. 

Now, I have to leave you with some sad news.  The Harvest Moon rises tonight, and I won't be able to see it due to cloud cover and rain.  I'm bummed.  It's been a family tradition since my childhood go all go out and watch the Harvest Moon rise.  I don't really know why.  It's just something we always did with our dad. This will be the first time in ages that I've missed it.  

But I think I'll have my hot chocolate and Harvest Moon cookies anyway.  

It's tradition.