Epiphany

I had an epiphany laying in bed last night. 

As you know,  I’ve been contemplating buying an herb grinder, since using the mortar and pestle was so time consuming and labor intensive. I’d even gotten onto Amazon and priced a few. But sometime during the night last night, it hit me.

I already had one. 

Kindly ignore the clutter on my cabinets.  One day, it'll get cleaned up.  Today is not that day. 

But I digress...

Yep, it finally occurred to me that I could use my Magic Bullet to pulverize my herbs, so as soon as I got home from work and had a quick bite to eat, I got the sweet mint that I hung up last week and gave it a go 

It worked like a charm.  A few seconds in the magic bullet, and I had some nice, finely ground herbs. 

I put it into a jar, applied a cute little label I made, and we are good to go. 

I think next time, I'm going to buy smaller labels, because these are just a bit too big for my little jars, but they'll do for now. 

In other news, all last week we'd heard the rumor that our supervisor was supposed to be going to second shift starting today.  I know how rumors go, so I tried not to get my hopes up, but I still felt that stab of disappointment when he walked in.  Ten minutes late, as usual, but he was there.  

I'm not sure what was going on out at the plant today, but it was so quiet all day.  Even over in the brazing department, hardly anybody was talking.  Maybe it's the heat, I don't know.  The only interesting thing that happened is that they brought out a box of brand new brazing jigs, none of which looked even remotely familiar.  Maybe they're for that exciting new product that they still haven't told us about. 

I'm just wondering where they're going to put them.  We already don't have enough rack space for the jigs we have.  We sure don't have space for a bunch of new ones. 

And finally, I went ahead and cancelled my Peacock subscription.  Once I'd finished watching The Office, I hadn't used it since.  I was going to cancel it before it went back to full price (from the introductory price I'd gotten it at) anyway, so I just axed it before I got charged again.  When things pick back up and I can get my internet and Hulu Live back, I won't need it anyway.  

I guess that's it for today.  I think I'll practice my piano, then work on my next knitting project for a bit.  

Laters. 

All In

Sometimes I can be such a doofus.  And what doofusy thing did I do this time?  Well, I'll tell you.

As if picking the hottest day of the year to blow out my tire wasn't enough, I decided to mow the next day.  I didn't just mow, either.  I weedeated, too.  

Those of you who've read this blog for any length of time know I have a love/hate relationship with my weedeater.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I can't get the string wrapped around the spool correctly so that it feeds out more line when you bump the bumping thingy.  I have to stop weedeating, turn the thing off, and manually reel out more line.  Still, I persevered and got most of the yard done before I gave up in frustration and put the thing away.  

I'd thought that if I got started early enough, I could get the job done before it got too hot.  I thought wrong.  Oh, it wasn't that hot, but the humidity more than made up for it.  It was 90% when I started, and had only dropped to 64% by the time I finished.  All that to say, starting at 6:30 -- as soon as I heard the neighbor across the street get into his truck and drive away-- did me absolutely no good.  For the second day in a row, I completely sweated down.   

Once I was finished, I came inside, took a shower, and stayed in the air conditioning the rest of the day.  And drank a lot of water.  And watched Gladiator for the first time in ages, while working on a new hat. 

I should probably also mention that I finished the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu.  It was pretty good, but was one of those trilogies that should have been shortened into a two book series, or even a stand alone novel.  The first book was fascinating, captivating, and I couldn't put it down.  By the second book, the story had begun to drag... and drag....and drag.  It had a good ending though, and the story would have been much stronger had she cut out all the empty filler she'd needed to stretch it out into a trilogy. 

Now I've started the Variant series by T.C. Edge.  I'd started this one before, but only got a short way into book one when I set it aside to read something else, so I went back to the beginning and started over.  It seems OK so far.  I'll let you know.  

That brings us to today.  It's been a true day of rest for me, as I've stayed inside and relaxed most of the day, other than to get out and cut some more pineapple sage to start drying. 

If I keep this up, I might have to invest in an herb grinder.  The mortar and pestle is fun, but it takes a long time to get the herbs ground up with it.   It's still useful if I just want to bruise a few leaves to make tea with, but to grind a lot at a time -- like to fill jars for Christmas gifts -- I'm sure a grinder would be much more efficient. 

The only other thing I've done is to get Snow's old tank ready for a new inhabitant. 

No, I'm not getting a new snake.  I'm going to move Blaze from this tank into Snow's. 

That way, I can move that old tank out and get this corner cleaned up.  

I need to see if Cody and Brennan might want the tank for one of their critters.  Otherwise, I'm going to sell it.  By the way, that table is an old sewing machine that was given to me.  I've never used it for that, and frankly, don't even know if it works.  It's had a snake tank on it ever since I've had it.  I'll probably just offer it up for free to anyone who wants to come get it. 

I reckon that's about all I have for today, so I'll stop boring you with my drivel.  

Laters. 

Pokémon Don’t Go

Back a couple of months ago when I cut off my internet, I moved all the games I played on my Kindle to my phone -- all but one, that is, because I don't like the way that game is formatted on my phone.  For some reason, when I did that, I also re-installed both Pokémon Go and Jurassic World Alive.  

Do you know when you don't play Pokémon Go for like 4 years, they delete your game and you have to start all over?  Apparently, they do, or else I was doing something wrong.  My Jurassic World Alive game was just as I had left it, but I never did find my old Pokémon Go game.  

No matter.  The whole point was to try to encourage me to get out and walk more.  However, I very quickly remembered why I had quit playing to begin with.  Here, let me show you. 

This is my street on Pokémon Go.

 

By contrast, here is my street on Jurassic World Alive.

To find any Pokestops, or really, any Pokémon at all, I have to get into my car and drive all the way into town.   There are lots of Pokestops down on or near the square, but not many anywhere else, and certainly not any outside city limits-- at least, not that I've found. That kind of puts a damper on things. 

Since I had to go into town this afternoon anyway to run my payday errands, I thought I'd just swing by the town square and hit a few Poke stops along the way.  I got two or three down by the square, then went to turn west onto South street (for you local folks) to head to the post office to hit the Pokestop there.   That's when the trouble started.

There was someone in the eastbound lane at that 4-way stop where I needed to turn, and I'm always just a bit paranoid about swinging too wide and hitting someone when I do that, so I frequently overcompensate and cut the corner a bit too narrow.  Sometimes, I hit the curb when I do this.  It usually isn't a big deal. 

Today, it was. 

I could tell by the noise I heard as soon as I hit that curb that I had really messed up.  I kept going, thinking that if I could make it to that little gas station (on the corner of South and MLK, for you local folks), I could maybe air up my tire enough to make it to Walmart for a repair.  I hadn't even gone maybe 50 yards, and I knew by the sound my wheel was making I wasn't going to make it even that far.  

Not wanting to mess my rims up, I pulled off onto a side street (right by the Methodist church, for you local folks) and got out my can of Fix-A-Flat.  I hooked it up, pushed the button, and...nothing.  Oh, the stuff was going into the tire, but the tire wasn't inflating at all.  Man, I must have really messed that tire up. 

I do have an air pump that I keep in my car, but it requires an outlet to work.  Fat lot of good that did me sitting there on the side of the road.  I was standing there thinking maybe I could pull into the Methodist church and ask if I could use one of their outlets, when I heard someone call my name:  "Becky?"

It was one of the other brazers from work.  She'd seen me and stopped to see what was wrong.  I'm so glad she did, because she had an air pump that you can plug into your cigarette lighter.  We got that out and hooked it up to my tire, turned it on....and nothing.  Man, I must have really messed that tire up. 

I told my coworker, "It's no good.  I'm going to have to put the spare on."  

I got the spare out, and the jack, and the little lug wrenchy thing out and got to work.  As I was jacking up the car, I told her, "This is the first time in my life I've ever had to change a tire since I was 15 and my dad was teaching me how.  He said I'd have to know how to change a tire before I could get my driver's license, but every other time I've had a flat, someone has stopped and changed it for me."  Not this time.  This time, I did it myself.  Yes, I'm kind of proud of that. 

It didn't take long for me to get the spare on, and my coworker stayed with me the whole time.  Then we had to get her pump back out and air up my spare, because it was flat, too.  I thanked her profusely for stopping, because I'm not sure what I would have done if she hadn't.  She picked up my flat tire to put it into the trunk and said, "Here's where it's damaged.  I can see that stuff you put into it bubbling out."  I looked and there was about a 3 inch long split in the sidewall.  I'd really messed that tire up.   

"I don't think they'll even be able to fix that," I said.  "I'll just have to buy a new tire." And that's exactly what I did.   

I now have a two brand new tires -- having just bought one about 3 months ago.  Heh, as I was checking in at the automotive counter, I noticed I was leaving big puddles of sweat there on the counter, and had to apologize to the clerk. "I'm sorry.  I'm sweating all over your counter.  Yeah, I would pick the hottest day of the year to blow out my tire!"  She got a good chuckle out of that. 

The good news is, they gave me such a huge discount because of the tread depth on my old tire, I practically got the new tire for half price.  And I bought one of the same kind of pumps my coworker has, the kind you can plug into a cigarette lighter.  I won't be caught out like that again, sitting on the side of the road with an air pump I can't even use. 

Then I consoled myself with some new buttons. 

That was my adventure for today.  I was going to mow this evening, but I think I'll save that for tomorrow.  Tonight, I'll just rehydrate, because I'm all in. 

Oh, and thanks, Dad, for making sure I knew how to change a tire.  

Lemon Balm

I woke up feeling much better today than I did yesterday.  I don't know what the deal was; I just felt awful all day.  Yesterday, I mean.  I had intended to come home and get the lemon balm ground and bottled, but I didn't.  I just sat and watched Shark Week.  Heh, I even watched the last episode in bed, barely able to keep my eyes open.  But it was Andy and Tristan, so I wanted to see it. 

Oh, and finished yet another headband.

So, today, I came home and did what I didn't do yesterday.  I put on another episode of Shark Week and got the old lemon balm out.  

We almost had an incident when the cat jumped up onto the kitchen counter where I was working, but I managed to catch her tail just before it got into the herbs.  She wasn't happy with me, but she got off of the counter.  

Anyway, I didn't think I'd get that much out of that bunch of lemon balm, but it was enough to fill up a jar just over half way.   

Once I was done, I went out and cut some more, and I also cut some of my rosemary to start it drying. 

I also picked a few leaves off of each to make myself a cup of tea here in a little bit. 

Well, they put up a notice yesterday that we're having another shutdown next Friday.  Just one day, this time, though, so that's good.  Or better than a whole week, at least.   One of my coworkers said that it's good that it's that day, because it's the first day of school.  I said, "I think that's why [The Big Man Up Front] picked it."  I mean, he's always picked holidays or school breaks for the shutdowns, so I'm not surprised that he chose this one, too. 

I wouldn't be surprised if we had an extra day off for Labor Day, then the whole weak at Thanksgiving, too.  And there is still the rumor that we're going to have a month long shutdown in December as well.  I was debating on turning my internet back on before the holidays start, but I want to wait and see what's going to happen with that shutdown first. 

I'll just have to find another way to watch my cheesy Christmas movies.  

Dear Coworker

 If you mark an order complete and put it on the line, then you have no business taking attitude with me when I point out that some of the parts aren’t in the bin.

Furthermore, don’t you ever, ever, ever go find the parts then throw them at me like you did. I could have gotten you fired for that. 

Next time, I might not be so forgiving.

Thank you.

That is all.

Old School

Yep, we kicking it old school around the Fine Martial household these days.   I knew my little mortar and pestle was supposed to arrive today, and naturally the work day ended up being the longest day ever.  Funny how that works when you're expecting something in the mail. 

At long last, the shift finally ended and I rushed home to find my package had indeed been delivered. 

The first thing I did after opening the package was to give it a good wash and dry.  Then, while I was letting it air out a bit longer, just to make sure it was fully dry, I replaced the hair screens in my bathroom sinks, which I also had ordered.  

For what it's worth, these aren't actually there to catch my hair, but rather all the other things I might drop into the sink -- such as hair clips, bobby pins, fingernail clippers, screws.  You know, the usual stuff. 

Then came the fun part.  I got out my dried pineapple sage, 

and a big bowl, then put on an episode of Shark Week and began pulling the leaves off the stems. 

I did my best to get all the smaller stems out, too, but some may have gotten through.  Oh well, I'm sure they won't hurt anything.  

Once the leaves were separated and the stems tossed into the compost pile (which I need to stir again, by the way), I put a few into the bowl and began crushing them.  

I discovered that I kind of move the pestle in a circular motion once I've gotten the leaves semi-crushed, I can grind them really pretty fine.   I didn't, though.  I left the leaves fairly coarse, because I want it pretty obvious these are home-grown herbs, since they might end up being a Christmas present.  

As luck would have it, the sage I'd cut was just enough to fill one of these 4 oz Ball jars. 

I need to find some sort of clever label, along with a clever moniker for the jars, but for now, I've just got a piece of scotch tape on the lid, with the contents written in that.  And I've got to get some more jars as well. 

This being my first foray into herbs, I'm kind of learning as I go, and yes, I'm making some mistakes.  One thing I think I've been doing is overwatering, so I've cut back quite a bit.  One of the websites I read said to hold off watering until the leaves begin to droop, so I'm going to try that to see if it helps. 

Another thing I've read is that I need to be harvesting them more, because pruning them regularly keeps them growing.  With that in mind, as soon as I was done with the pineapple sage, I went back out and cut back both my sweet mint and peppermint pretty hard.  I think it's too late for my spearmint, because it's already flowered, and I've read that once an herb flowers, the flavors just aren't the same.  I'll just wait until next spring to start drying some of that. 

Probably tomorrow, I'll grind and bottle the lemon balm I've already dried and cut some more of that.  I've really got to rig up some sort of drying rack if I'm going to keep on doing this, as the closet is getting pretty full about now. 

As for now, it's back to Shark Week.  

Laters. 

Boring Work Stuff

 As soon as I got to work this morning, I heard the rumors.  I knew better than to believe them, but still, we'd all had our hopes up.  One of my coworkers even started singing "Ding Dong the witch is dead'.  

Alas, it was not to be.  Along about 6:10, we were all sorely disappointed when we saw supervisor walk in.  Apparently, he hadn't been laid off after all, as the rumors had said, and apparently, his days of showing up to work on time have also come to an end.  Or maybe that's just because the production manager wasn't there today.  Whatever.  He was back to coming in after the shift starts.

The other rumor I've also heard is that two supervisors on second shift got fired Friday, but I don't know why.  Now they are asking for volunteers from day shift supervisors to go to second shift.  I haven't heard any of them say they want to go, so I guess the powers that be are going to make someone go.  Since our supervisor has the least seniority, we're all hoping it will be him.  I don't know who our supervisor will be if they do send him, but whoever it is has got to be better.  

They announced Friday that they are also sending a bunch of employees to second shift starting next week.  This week the ones who will be going are in training, because they don't know yet what jobs they'll be doing.  When I heard that, I said, "Training???? Since when does this plant do training???"  I've been there 28 years, and never got any training, other than "Here is a job.  Do it."  I ain't lying. They've always just stuck me in a job and expected me to figure it out, and the only way I knew I was doing it right was if I didn't get chewed out for doing it wrong. Even when I told them I didn't know how to do whatever job they wanted me to, they just said to go do it anyway.    

Heh, I have a coworker who is ...well, just a bit of a dim bulb.  She told me, "Thith ith jutht crathy! They're laying off all thethe people on thecond thift, then want to thend people from day thift back to thecond thift.  If they needed people on thecond thift, they thould have kept the oneth already on that thift."

I replied, "Would it be fair to keep someone on second shift who had nine points, but lay off someone on day shift who only has 4 just because they need someone in that position?  Or to lay off someone who's been here 20 years, and keep someone who's only been here 2, just because that person is already on second shift?"  She said, "Well, I gueth not."  But the real kicker is that we have this exact same conversation at least once a week.  You'd think she'd have gotten it through her head by this time, but nooooo.   I'll lay odds we'll have this conversation several more times before it's all said and done.

By the way, I'd mentioned to a couple of the other brazers about the new product the company is supposed to be introducing soon, and they hadn't heard about it, either.  I wonder when they plan on telling us about it.  Probably the day we start running it down the lines is when they'll tell us.  That's how they usually do things out there.   Back in the day, they communicated with the employees a whole lot better than they do now. That all ended when Scott Reid and Bob Moody left. 

That's about all I have for today, unless you want to hear about Shark Week, but since I know some of you won't click on a link unless it has a photo, here is a drawing I did way back when I was trying to learn how to draw.

And Some Sad News

This morning…oh, this morning it was so cool outside I actually got chilly when I opened the door to let the cat out.  It was cool enough I got out some of my pumpkin spice coffee pods, and put some fall scented wax melts into the melter. 

Then I got fall fever, and now I can’t wait until it’s this cool all the time…

Alas, we've got a bit longer to go for that, as it's supposed to be back up into the upper 90s by the end of the week, with heat indices into the triple digits.  Come to think of it, I probably should have mowed this weekend, when it was still relatively cool. 

But I didn't.  I sat inside and knit two more headbands.  

Funny thing is, the cat distracted me both times, so I lost my place on both of them, but instead of starting over, I just winged it.  They turned out OK, I think.   Oh, and yes, that is the cat's tail in the bottom right of the second photo.  

Not much else going on, unless you want to hear about all the TV I'm watching.  I re-subscribed to Discovery + just so I could watch Shark Week.  Of course, I won't be watching it live, but I don't normally watch things live anyway due to my work schedule.  Good news is, I can catch up on my cooking and home renovation shows, so yay!  

I'm still hesitating to get my internet hooked back up until I see if those rumors about a month long shut down are true or not.  That's what's going around the plant, that they're going to have to rework some of the assembly lines to run this new product line they're launching.  Funny thing about that, we were talking about it at work, and my coworker mentioned that she'd heard about it back in April, but hadn't wanted to say anything just in case it turned out not to be true.  But the thing is, she heard about it from a couple of different people, neither of whom even work out at the plant.  You'd think they'd let us know, since we're the ones who will have to be building it.  

And finally, the sad news.  My snow morph corn snake Snow has gone to that great herpetarium in the sky.  It wasn't really a surprise, as she was 19, which is ancient as far as snakes go.  

Still, the house feels a bit empty without her.  

Goodbye, Snowy-girl.  I will miss you. 

Lazy Saturday

 I said I wasn't going to do anything today, and that's exactly what I didn't do -- anything.  Well, nothing major, at least.  I did watch a lot of TV and finished two headbands.

The color in the photo isn't quite true; they're a pretty bright yellow.  I've been having trouble with my phone camera's flash option.  When it's in autoflash, it won't flash at all.  Not even in a completely dark room.  I have to manually turn the flash on every time.  

But I digress...

After finishing those, I dug out all the headbands I've finished so far, and laid them out for a photo. 

These are so easy to make, I need to find some place to donate them.  Or maybe I could knit a bunch and set up a booth at the Farmer's Market next summer.  These ones are to take to work to mollify those coworkers of mine who pitched such a fit over not getting a hat last winter.  I need to see if I have any more variegated yarn anywhere in my stash.  I think I'm down to just solid colors now -- mostly shades of blue.  

In other news, I found a couple of my lemon balm leaves had fallen off of the bunch I'd hung a few days ago, so I checked to see how dry they are. I think they're dry enough to crumble, and I had planned on doing that very thing this afternoon, only I had the bright idea to go all the way old school.  Instead of crumbling the leaves with my hands, I'd crush them with a mortar and pestle.  

First thing I did was to open the Walmart app to see if the local store would have any, but they didn't, so I did what any red blooded American would do.  I jumped onto Amazon and ordered one.  It's supposed to be here Tuesday, and now I have my Tuesday afternoon project all lined up already.  

Speaking of Amazon, did you know they deliver on Sundays now?  Yep, I've gotten two deliveries on Sunday now.  I'm going to have to be more careful when choosing my delivery day from here on out. 

Oh, and while I was there, I found my nephew and his fiancé's registry and ordered them a wedding gift.  I'd originally planned on getting something locally and taking it to Missouri with me next month, but then I got to thinking they'd have to find a way to transport all their gifts.  It will be much easier for them to just ship something to their house. Or Nate's apartment, rather.  

One of the things I'd planned on doing was to cut back all this spearmint that is taking over my yard.  

However, when I went outside to do it, I found so many butterflies and bees on the flowers, I changed my mind. 

Until I got these plants, I didn't even know mint bloomed.  Just shows you're never too old to learn something new. 

Oh, and I've been meaning to show you this.  These elephant ears that I've been trying to kill since I moved into this house have come back again. 

I guess I'll just let them live, especially since they are edible.  I mean, I knew that before, but you have to prepare them just right or they're toxic*, so I don't usually fool with them.   Still, with the way things are going, I might as well hedge my bets a bit.  

I guess that's about it for today, unless you want to hear about how I cleaned the cat pan.  And I don't just mean I scooped it. I mean, I dumped out all of the old litter, scraped the stuck bits off the bottom of the pan, and washed it really well.  While the pan was drying, I swept up all the litter that had been kicked all over the laundry room floor and mopped.  Then I brought the pan back inside and refilled it with fresh, new, litter.  

Don't envy me my exciting life.  

But hey, you're the one who just read all that. 

*Technically Taro isn't toxic, but it's so acidic that most people can't eat it unless it's cooked and rinsed really well to wash all that acid out. 

Oops

 I accidentally bought a popsicle maker today.  Really…

But how does one accidentally buy a popsicle maker? Well, I’ll tell you.

I’d wandered down the clearance aisle at Walmart, as is my custom. While wandering down the aforementioned clearance aisle, I just happened to spot the aforementioned popsicle maker. 

“Cool!” I said to myself. “I can make popsicles just like we did when I was a kid!” And I promptly put the aforementioned popsicle maker into my as yet unmentioned buggy and went on my merry way.

A few moments later, I thought better of it and went to put the popsicle maker back onto the shelf. Alas, by then, the clearance aisle was crowded with fellow bargain hunters, so I decided to come back later.

If you know me at all, you know exactly where this is headed…

The next time I even thought about the popsicle maker was when I was unloading my buggy onto the checkout line.  

I guess next time I mow, I’ll have some Gatorade popsicles to cool off with. Which won’t be today, or likely tomorrow, either.  It has been so hot in the plant this week, I just don't have it in me.  The grass can just grow for another week. I think I'll stick with indoor chores for a few days. 

But there is hope on the horizon...Look what I found in the store today!  

It's almost enough to bring a tear to my eye. 

Hot & Tired

I meant to post yesterday.  Truly I did, but by the time I got home from work, I was so hot and tired and drained of energy all I did was watch 4 episodes of Horrible Histories and then I switched over and watch Digging For The Truth...and got totally geeked out that it was about the Trojan War -- which had also been featured on one of the episodes of Horrible Histories. 

And yes, I do realized just how dorky that makes me sound...

While I was doing all that history geeking, I finished yet another hat. 

And that was the limit of my productivity for that day. 

In other news, remember a few posts ago I mentioned that there were rumors floating around the plant about some upcoming changes?  It would seem those rumors are true and I can speak confidently about it now, because the company posted the news on their LinkedIn page.  Well, they posted a teaser.  They're introducing some new product that even those of us who work there don't know what that is.  I just hope it helps stabilize things out there, because it doesn't look like the housing market will recover any time soon. 

By the way, today was even hotter than yesterday.  It was hotter inside the plant, 

(photo taken at my work station)

than it was outside. 

 It kind of makes you wonder what is even the point of having air conditioning if it doesn't condition the air.  

Speaking of, we managed to catch the safety guy walking through the department, and called him over to see how hot it was -- which by that time was 96'.  He told us that the company had ordered three new massive air conditioner units that had been supposed to arrive July 1st.  Safety guy said The Big Man Up Front had called this morning demanding to know where his air conditioners were.  They told him the units weren't ready.  

My fellow brazer told Safety Guy that she and I would drive up to Arkansas and get them after work.  Just kidding....but they'll eventually get here.  Probably just in time for winter -- when we have to bundle up in jackets, scarves, and hats to keep from freezing. 

And finally, my herbs seem to be drying quite nicely,  

so this afternoon, I cut and hung some of my lemon balm. 

One of my friends suggested hanging them near the air conditioner vent, so I'm going to try to figure out how I can rig up an herb hanger from the vent in one of the spare bedrooms.  I think if I can find an old wire clothes hanger, I can whip up something quite nicely. 

I also got out my mini mason jars and washed them, so when my herbs are ready to be stored, the jars will be all nice and clean.  

Tomorrow, I'll start on the rosemary, but for tonight, it's more Horrible Histories and knitting.  BTW, my little adapter thing works great with Hulu, unlike some other platforms.  I'm looking at you, FreeVee!

Hulu

Well, I broke down and turned my Hulu back on last night. 

The reason I did it is because The Chosen was premiering on network television and I wanted to watch it. I mean, I've seen it dozens of times, and even have the DVDs of the first two seasons (I'm waiting on the especial edition for season 3 to come out before I get that one), but I wanted to watch it on regular TV so that they will see we want quality programming and not that garbage they keep putting out these days. 

So I turned on my Hulu Live— only to find out after I'd turned it on and they’d billed me for it that I can’t use my mobile data or even my hotspot to watch live TV. I mean, you can, but you have to have home internet and check in every so often or they block your access to the live tv streams.  Basically, I'd just paid $70 for something I couldn't even use.  

Bummer...

The good news is, I contacted customer support, explained what had happened and they refunded my money. Not just for the live plan, either. They gave me a whole month comped.  I was all prepared to gripe and grouse about Hulu's customer service policies, but had to drop that idea pretty quickly.  The bad news is, pretty much all the streaming services that show live TV and local affiliates require you to have home internet to use them, so there's no point in trying Sling or any of the others until I can get my internet turned back on.  

Rumor has it they've got some pretty big changes in the works out at the plant, and if they're true, I'm hoping things will get better for us next year.  I mean, the housing market may still be in the dumps, and we may not get any overtime, but maybe we won't have to go through these long shutdowns.  I think part of the problem is that they were kind of caught by surprise by how quickly and how far the housing market would crash.   I've been out there 28 years, and I've never seen them lay off twice in the same year and never in the spring.  Not to belabor the point, but I don't expect them to overproduce this coming off season and we end up with three warehouses full of products that aren't moving, so hopefully, next year things will be more balanced.  

Speaking of work, I think my supervisor got in trouble for more than just not approving our vacation requests.  This morning, he actually got there before the work day started.  That's a first for him.  I guess he thought that since he's salaried and doesn't have to punch a time clock, he can just show up whenever he wanted to.  Sometimes he wouldn't come in until 30 minutes after the start of the shift.  We'll have to see if he keeps it up.

Also speaking of work, we had a visitor in the plant this morning. 

It took some doing, but I managed to catch him and take him outside.  One of my know-it-all coworkers told me to grab him by his wings.  I said, "No, that will damage his wings."  She said, "Not if you do it right."  But I know better, and didn't listen to her.  

We call that particular coworker Queen Mary, because she thinks she's superior to all of us lowly common brazers.  I try to cut her some slack, because I really do think she's on the autism spectrum, but as I told my friend, "Part of me wants to protect her, because I know she's not quite right, but part of me wants to whip her @$$."  

In other news, my friend Leann posted yesterday about conscripting her kids to help her harvest and dry some basil, and that inspired me to go ahead and start harvesting some of my herbs, too.  First I cut some of my lemon thyme.  I'd read that you can try herbs in the microwave, so I tried that out first, but I think I burned it.  Something that is not me is eating my thyme up.  I'm going to mix some dish soap with water and spray my herbs down well with that.  Hey, there is a reason our foremothers tossed their dishwater onto the herb gardens!  It really does work. 

Next up, I cut some lavender.  Since it's not going to be eaten -- I want to try to figure out how to make lotion or soap with it, or maybe just sew it into sachets -- I put some into some silicone cat litter (unused, of course) and hung some upside down.  I'll see which method works best for that.  I think I might be overwatering my lavender, because all the stems are turning brown at the base.  I don't know if that's normal or not.  If it dies, and I decide to try it again next year, I might just put it into a pot by itself. 

And lastly, I cut some of my pineapple sage and hung it upside down.  

All the websites say to hang it in a cool, dry place, but this is Mississippi in July.  There are no cool, dry places, so Cody's bedroom closet will have to do.  If that doesn't work, I'm not too worried, as I still have plenty left.  

Everyone might end up getting homegrown pineapple sage for Christmas.  Maybe tomorrow, I'll start drying some of my lemon balm and rosemary.  I got those to make my own herbal tea blends, along with the different mint varieties -- which pretty much all taste the same to me anyway. 

You know, even if I don't actually do anything with all this stuff, I sure have enjoyed growing them.  It's been a nice little hobby, and has kept me quite busy this summer. 

Today while I was at work, just a working away, I suddenly remembered I'd made these little graphics as sort of topic headings.  So, there you go.  And here you go with the cunning hat.  

All it needs is a pompom and it'll be done.   

Now if you'll excuse me, Hulu has Horrible Histories now.  I've seen clips of the show, but not whole episodes, so I must go geek out.  

Laters. 

You’ve Got Mail

You’ve got mail! Or a new mailbox, at least. 

The bad news is, I wasn’t able to get out and install it in the cool of the morning, because we had some pretty good storms roll through, so I had to wait until after they’d passed. Which meant heat, humidity— and yes, I ended up with frizzy hair, but I persevered and got ‘er done.  It wasn't actually that hard, once I'd made myself get out of the chair and you know...just do it.  

I put the numbers on it after I took the picture, but yes, it does have numbers. Best of all, it’s got a door that will stay closed! No more damp mail! Woo hoo!

Kind of sad what I get excited about these days…

Once it cools off a bit— and I mean autumn, not evening— I may get someone to come and set a new post. Maybe. There was enough of the old post sticking up that it’s pretty sturdy as it is, but we’ll see.

Funny thing is, when I pulled the mailbox out of the packing box, look what I found inside. 

Yep, that's the cat's toy.  How it got underneath the new mailbox is beyond me, but that's life with cats. 

In other news, here is hat progress.  The cunning hat just needs earflaps and a pom pom and it'll be done.  

I think this'll be the last of this kind I make.  My old hands aren't what they used to be, and knitting with doubled yarn sure makes them sore.  I'm going to do what I said the other day and adapt the pattern to be knit with a single strand over an 80 stitch cast on. 

In the meantime, work on charity hats also continues.  

I've got lots of this particular colorway of yarn, so there's going to be a lot of these.  Trust me, you aren't seeing the same old photos over and over again. 

And finally, the local Walmart had these, and I just couldn't resist. 

They may look like Solo cups, but it's good and sturdy, heavyweight plastic.  I got some and sent them to Cody and Brennan as well. 

That's about all for today.  I've got the chores done, so I'm going to settle in for some knitting and TV watching.  

Laters. 

Forgetting Something

I feel like I’m forgetting something. I don’t know what it could be though…

By the way, this is my t shirt.

No, I didn’t spray it with a water hose. That’s all me.  My sweat, I mean. But at least I got the mowing done, and won’t have that chore hanging over my head all weekend.  My big project for the weekend is to get my new mailbox put up.  I'm going to try to do that early tomorrow morning, before it gets too hot.  Then it'll just be laundry and house cleaning for the rest of the day.  And knitting while watching TV, of course. 

Speaking of TV, I finished watching The Office, and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself now.  I really liked the way they ended the show, but won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it.  I'd started watching Heartland on the BYUtv app, and I'm enjoying it, but I don't like the way the app won't keep track of where I am in the series.  I have to scroll down to the next episode every time.  But, that's the only place I've found where I can watch it for free, so I'll just have to put up with it.  

The whole reason I even told you about finishing The Office was to say that now I can cut my Peacock off.  I've got until September before it goes back to full price, but wasn't really watching anything else on it. My Hulu is due to turn itself back on next month, if I don't reactivate it sooner, which I might do.  I need to get back to watching The X-Files.  It's on FreeVee, but that app won't work with my little HDMI adapter thingy, so I have to watch it on my phone.  With Hulu, I can watch on the big TV.  

Also, I think my piano mojo is back.  The problem was -- at least part of the problem was -- in my Alfred's piano course book, I'd run into a stretch where I was having to learn songs I just didn't like.  I didn't like the songs, I didn't like playing them. Heh, the last one, I just flat out skipped.  I mean, I played it for a few days, then decided enough was enough and moved on.  

Now, I'm working on some songs I actually like.  I might even try to record them for you tomorrow.  Just remember, I'm still learning them, so they won't be perfect.  My biggest problem now is that cat of mine.  She's either napping on the piano bench, or she comes running and lays across the keyboard the moment she hears me playing.  

And finally, remember a few days ago when we had that big meeting at work?  The supervisor said there'd be some changes, and he wasn't kidding.  What he's finally started doing is making the tubing department fill out a form on which they have to write down the order number, the part number, and how many of that part they made.  

Wonder of wonders, now that tubing has to keep track of what they do, suddenly we have parts to braze!  It's amazing what a little accountability can accomplish.  If they keep this up, we might eventually dig ourselves out of that huge hole they'd gotten us into. 

I reckon that's all for tonight.  I'm plumb wiped out, so I think I'll head for bed.

Goodnight.