Hold On

 Remember a few weeks ago when I told you to hold on to your butts?  Yeah, I'm about to tell you again. 

Hold. On. To. Your. Butts. 

It's about to get rough out there.  

Rougher, even.   Today they had a big meeting at work and announced that sales haven't increased as much as they'd anticipated. We are producing way more product than we are selling, so they made the decision to have a layoff.  

By the time all the dust had settled, they'd laid off 95 people -- the remaining 28 temps plus 67 full time ADP personnel. When he said how many people they'd let go, my jaw dropped and I said, "Wow!"  Even during the last recession, they didn't lay off but 49, and that was after several years of 32 hour work weeks.

The good news...if you can call it that... is that the shutdown over spring break counts as the state mandated 5 day waiting period, so those who were smart enough to apply back then will start drawing benefits right away.  I know some people who said they weren't going to apply.  I bet they wish they had now.  

Oh, and no, your humble blogger was not one of the ones laid off.  I think if it comes to that, I might just go ahead and file my retirement papers and move back home.  They did get two of the brazers, though.  

I guess my weekend project will be to go ahead and disconnect my internet.  I'm dreading having to drag that entertainment center out from the wall to unhook my router, but it's got to be done.  Really, it's something I've been thinking about for a while anyway, at least ever since I upgraded my phone plan to unlimited data.  I mean, I feel like I'm paying for the same thing twice.  Might as well drop one of them.  

On a completely unrelated note, if you decide to nosh on some wood sorrel, pick the small, new leaves.  They taste so much better.  On another completely unrelated note, white clover is a bit of an acquired taste, but it's one you can acquire pretty quickly.   I haven't gotten brave enough to nibble on anything else -- well, except the mint I planted myself, which I've been eating for years.  I have to be absolutely certain of the plant's identity before I go chowing down on it.  I wonder if the Friends of Chakchiuma Swamp group will have a foraging workshop this year.  I know they had one on mushrooms last year -- which I didn't go to because I was working. 

On another another completely unrelated note, I saw my new next door neighbor outside mowing this afternoon with a push mower.  He's got a big  yard, too.  I'm thinking I'd have to invest in a riding mower for that yard.  I still need to mow mine.  Maybe Saturday the road construction crew will be off and I can go get some gas.  Or maybe I'll have to go to that annoying station where the card readers never work right...

Well, I'm sitting here trying to think of a witty and clever way to end this post, but witty and clever just aren't happening today.  So I'll just end it with this:

Three years ago today, this happened:

For you non-weather geeks, here's a clue.  When your radar looks like a Tide Pod, you've got a tornado on the ground.  This monster here was 2.25 miles wide and was on the ground for 67 miles.  

It was the Easter storm.