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.