Resurrection Sunday

 

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.  

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from Heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.  The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. 

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.  Come and see the place where he lay.  

Matthew 28: 1-6

Quiet Saturday

You know you live a dull life when the highlight of your week is getting a new phone case.  Yeah...

I've had that phone for 2 1/2 years now, and the case I'd bought for it had the screen protector built in.  Alas, it was plastic and after a couple of years of use, it had gotten so scratched up as to be unusable.  Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  I bought a new one, and a new case to go with it.  

Heh, I was standing in the electronics section of Walmart, reading the package where it says the case is rated to 8' drop protection...whereupon I promptly dropped said case in its packaging.  "And that's why I need drop protection," I said to no one in particular.  

I came home and put my phone into its new case, which is so much slimmer than my old case.  

Along with the bright new screen protector, it's almost like having a new phone.   And look!  It fits into my selfie stick!  

I can make vlogs no one will watch now!  In fact, you almost got one today.  It was such a beautiful day I decided to get dressed and go walk the Bottomland trail at the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve. 

Unfortunately, I was all the way up there when it occurred to me that I should have brought the selfie stick.  Ah, well, maybe next time. 

In other news, I got two more of my sunflowers planted this morning.  

I put them into the Southeast corner of my back yard, and I hope it's not too soggy there for them.  I have three left to plant, and I'd love to put them here on the East side of my carport.  

The only issue with that is the previous owner's obsession with rocks.  Still, I think If I dig down a bit, sift out the rocks and fill it back in with topsoil, the flowers might thrive there.  The weeds certainly are. 

Speaking of weeds, I ground up and bottled the Purple Deadnettle I'd dried last week.  I got about half a jar, and I'm not even sure I want to collect any more.  It smells and tastes a bit like dirt.  The bees and butterflies love it, and I think I'll leave it to them.  

Oh, and a bit of bad news, my hummingbird feeder broke.  The loop you hang it from snapped off, but I don't know why.  It was fine when I put the seedlings out onto the porch this morning.  Oh well, they're pretty cheap at Walmart.  I'll run in and pick up a new one after work Monday.  And maybe pick up some Easter candy on clearance while I'm there. 

That reminds me, I was going to get a ham for Easter dinner, but the smallest one I could find was $11 and something.  At that price, I may just have to open up one of those canned hams from my pantry.  Ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, and that'll likely be it.  I have some sweet potatoes in the freezer that I considered getting out and making a pie, but I didn't.   

You know, being allergic to eggs, I don't usually keep them on hand, but a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a half dozen.  Just in case I got a wild hair and wanted to bake something or something.  Well, today, I got that wild hair and decided I want to dye them.  Who cares that I'm fifty-mmmfmfmfm years old?  I wanted to dye eggs so I did.  Wonder of wonders, I even had some old PAAS dyes in the craft closet from back when I was into dying my own yarns, and after all these years, they still worked pretty well, doncha think? .  

And of course Peep and I had to follow that up by watching an old classic, which I still never miss. 

And finally, I know I haven't really been posting about my piano progress lately, but I am still plugging away at it.  Today, I was able to finish the last song in this book and put it away. 

I'm going to stick with doing just the Alfred's courses for now, but I may go back and get some more of these eventually.  One of these days, I might even give you another concert. 

Maybe...

Done!

There I was at work, just a working away when one of the other brazers leaned over and told me that Demi-God had said, (and I'm paraphrasing due to my poor memory) "I just don't understand it.  On second shift, I used to be able to braze 300-400 parts per day, but on this shift, I can only do around 200."  

She replied (again paraphrasing), "It's not so easy when you can't just do whatever orders you want."

BTW, today was Demi-God's dad's birthday.  Dad was going to sent him to the back, but Demi-God didn't want to go.  He said, "If he makes me go to the line after lunch, I'm not going to get him any birthday present!"  

In other news, I finally finished the book I was reading, Variant.   Let me just say, there's a reason it took me three tries to get through it.  Not only was it very tedious reading, as in the author used a lot of words to tell a little story, it was your typical futuristic dystopian story in which the main character is a 17 year old narcissistic girl who thinks she knows more than everyone else.  Not only that, but no one in this supposed VLA seems to have ever heard the phrase "Loose lips sink ships."  The main character, Paige, blabbed the the location of the safe house and her super secret computer chip project to her BFF Becca, and every one seems perfectly OK with that.  Not only do they seem OK with it, but even knowing she's a blabbermouth, they tell her even more super secret information, then seem surprised when she blows up their project by compromising it.   All it took was a massive temper tantrum by our heroine, and they tell her everything.  It's a perfect illustration of why need to know is so important.  I'll still lay odds Becca ends up being a double agent or something.

Honestly, I don't see how I am going to make it through the rest of the series.  

Now, the plan had been to go back to Shakespeare, but instead I decided to pick this book back up and try to finish it.  

 

 It's another one I'm on my third time trying to read it.  I'll let you know how that goes. 

In other news, I was laying in bed last night, thinking about my little sunflowers when I realized I'd already used up four of my little cloches.  I only had two more, but I had a lot more plants.  I quickly grabbed my phone and found them to re-order, and that's when I saw it.  There were 10 in the set, not six.  Whew!  

When I got home from work, I planted one more sunflower seedling into the front flower bed. 

That makes five, and I think that's all I'm going to be able to fit in that bed. 

I don't want to interfere with this, which I think is a batchelor's button that keeps re-seeding from a few I planted a couple of years ago.  I'm hoping I can get them established here.  

I've still got a bunch more I've got to figure out where I'm going to put them.  Four already in little cups, 

and one still in the seed tray. 

 I'll need to do something with them soon, but I'm not sure where to put them.  I'm thinking I could put some in front of the shed to help hide its ugliness. 

I need to move this firewood, now that winter is about over.  Maybe I can put some here, too. 

Then I'll have to figure out where to put all the cosmos.  Deer don't eat them, so I'm thinking about putting them out by the back fence.  Oh, and I have to finish moving my daffodils...

The fun just never ends, huh?  

Nothing Ever Happens

It's been nearly two weeks since they had us change the number we put onto our headers from our brazer number to our station number.  Two weeks, and I still find myself putting the old number on more often than not. 

The problem is, my job is pretty much a no brainer.  It's so easy, the GEICO caveman can do it, so I tend to put myself on autopilot and my brain checks out. Where does it go?  

Well, here lately, I've been imagining what would the world look like today if just one thing in history had been different.  What if Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon's son had lived?  What if Richard III had won the battle of Bosworth?  Or if Harold Godwinson had won at Hastings in 1066?  

It's all great fun, but tends to take me out of reality.  Eh, nothing ever happens out there anyway.

Or so we thought...

But first, I need to set the stage.  We have a computer over in our department for the brazers and parts stagers to use, you know, to confirm our work, run prints, get schedules, etc.  Lots of times, the parts stagers from other departments -- like sheet metal-- will come and use our computer because it's more convenient for them than walking over to their computer. Usually, when we need to do something, they'll step back and let us go first, seeing as how it is our department's computer and all.  

Which brings us to today.  One of the brazers was waiting to use the computer, only one of the sheet metal parts stager was over there running off a bunch of pick lists.  One of the new ones...Group Leader Shark went over and asked her to let the brazer kit her work real quick, even saying please, but the parts stager got smart with her.  That is one thing you do not do is get smart with Group Leader Shark. 

Let's just say, there is a reason she has that nickname. 

After all was said and done, she went to Supervisor, who went to the sheet metal parts stager, who appeared to get smart with him.  And not a single sheet metal person came into our department for the rest of the day.  

Though she be but little, she is fierce. 

Moving right along, you might remember a while back I mentioned that the radio in my car was acting up.  I ended up turning it off completely, only when I tried to turn it back on, it wouldn't do anything.  No music -- not even if I plug an MP3 player or my phone into the USB-- I can't pull up the menu, play the radio.  Nothing.  It's not that big a deal doing what little driving I do around town, but when I drive to Missouri here in a few days, I'm going to need some music.  So, I asked on FB if anyone in town worked on radios and got a few recommendations.  

After work, I drove all the way to the other end of town to get a guy to look at it, only he wasn't in his shop today.  I'll have to go back, but I figured since I was already in town, I might as well go by Walmart today, since tomorrow will likely be a madhouse, it being the payday before a holiday weekend.  

Naturally, I had to check out the garden center.   The only thing they had that I wanted was a rosemary plant.  Figuring by now that mine died in the ice storm, I went ahead and got a new one. 

 It is now safely tucked into the raised bed.  They didn't have much in stock yet, but it's still pretty early in the season.  Oh, and speaking of, I saw the first few sprigs of my spearmint peeking out of the ground today.  I'm going to be sure to dry and bottle up some of that this year, too. 

And finally, I hadn't planned on getting any Easter candy this year, but I broke down and splurged.   

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to grab a shower and head for bed.  

G'night, all. 

Another One

Well, I finally finished the hat I cast on Sunday.  Or was it Saturday?  I don't even remember any more.  

This one pooled in kind of a weird way, but I like it.  Even when I joined a new skein, everything lined up the same way.  Pretty cool, huh?  

What else is pretty cool, I got a new catalog today, again from Harris.    

Still no sign of any of the others I ordered, though.  Not sure why I ordered so many.  I've got plenty of flowers growing in my yard.  Some people call them weeds, but in the words of A.A. Milne, weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them. 

I was very lucky this afternoon and managed to catch a somewhat bedraggled Tiger Swallowtail on my purple deadnettle. 

I haven't seen any hummingbirds yet, but it's obvious they've found the feeder.  

We have the weekend off, so I'll try to keep watch and see if I can see some. 

Last night, it was predicted to get down into the low 40s, so  I brought everything inside, just to be on the safe side, and covered what couldn't be brought in.  This morning, I put everything back out.  Tonight they're predicting the same, so I'll have to do that song and dance again. 

In other news, we have two new-ish sub brazers in the department.  They told me one of them used to braze on second shift, and I believe it.  Today, I saw her skip several small orders and pick a big order, because that's how they did it on second shift. They'd skip around in the schedule and pick out all the big orders of easy work, so they could get their numbers up and look like they were outbrazing us.  But guess what?  Those 4, 8, and 12 piece orders need to be done, too.  We'd come in in the morning, and nothing the line needed would be ready, and we'd have to scramble all day to try to keep the lines running.  

Anyway, that's what this girl did.  She walked past several small orders and picked a big order of easy parts.  Only this time, one of the parts stagers saw her, and made her go back and get the small orders.  Heh, she was not happy, but she did it.  

We had to go through this with Demi-god, too, when he first got up there. 

I'm told she did the same thing yesterday.  She got caught, then, too.  She'll have to figure out things are different on Day shift.  They can't get away with all the stuff they did on second shift. 

Reminds me of a time several years ago, when one of the front office people kept trying to write up a brazer for something she wasn't doing.  She kept telling him it was the girl on second shift, but he wasn't budging until I called him over and told him the thing he was fussing about was like that when we get here.  The day shift brazer isn't doing it.  He said -- I kid you not -- "Oh, that's OK then." 

Seriously, dude?  You're going to stand there and tell me it's OK for a second shift person do to what you're just trying to write one of us up?  

But that's how it is out there.  Second shift can do no wrong.  Day shift can do no right. 

What made matters worse is that the second shift person kept doing it, and every day, the first shift brazer had to come in and un-do it, or she'd get written up.  

And yet, they can't figure out why their turnover rate is so high. 

It's All Good

Yeah, we had some weather last night, but thankfully, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.   Still both Reed Timmer and Ryan Hall, Y'all were live streaming the event, and before it was all over, I had them both on screens. 

I call them a Weather Geek's Dream Team.  But 3:30 comes mighty early, even when geekery is to be had, so eventually I went to bed.  Where I put Ryan on the TV, only I had to connect my Fire Stick in the bedroom to the internet because I hadn't done that since I'd turned said internet back on in August.  I'm not really even sure why I have a TV in the bedroom, because I so seldom use it.  I'd rather watch on my Kindle or phone, so I can lay down and take my glasses off...But that's neither here nor there...

Then I put Reed's livestream on on my Kindle and went back to weather watching.  Eventually, I turned the TV off and just listened to the livestream on my Kindle with my eyes closed...until I turned it off, too and went to sleep.  I slept so hard, I completely slept through the second squall line that went through around 10:00-ish or so.

I woke up this morning to the news of a tornado in the Jackson area, just north of the city -- which is where Cody and Brennan live.   I quickly shot off a text, knowing he wouldn't be up yet, but knew he'd answer when he could.  Sure enough, he did, and said they were both fine. 

While I was looking for info on that tornado, I read the news of the bridge in Baltimore.  Is it terrible of me that my first thought was, "Cue the conspiracy theorists?"  Yeah...

I wish I could say I was wrong about that, but I wasn't.  Before lunchtime even came around, they were already at it.  Funny how they want to call us sheeple, yet expect us to mindlessly accept everything they say on nothing more than a meme and a "Because I said so."   But that's another rant for another day. 

Anyway, I left for work a bit early just in case there was debris in the road, but fortunately there was very little.  A few small branches down on Riverdale road, but nothing major.  Some people lost power, too, but it wasn't me this time.  

The good news is, I was able to get my vacation day for my actual doctor's appointment put in and approved, then I cancelled the day I'd put in for my phantom doctor's appointment.  I mean, the appointment I'd imagined I had, not that the doctor is a phantom.  I had a brief moment of panic when I tried to cancel in the little computer thing, and it said No Requests Found, but after I'd talked to HR, it turns out that it was because I'd requested that day under the old system prior to March 1.  She was able to cancel it for me, so now all I have to do is remember to change my dentist appointment and we're good to go. 

Then I came home to find my eclipse t-shirt is here, so I'm all ready for my trip. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, Sherlock is up on Hulu and I've got a show to binge.  

Laters...

Random Thoughts Of A Monday Evening

1.  It's here!  My first catalog is here!

2.  I had my semi-annual dentist appointment today, and I have to get another crown.  He said he could do a filling, but a crown would be better, but it was my call and I chose the crown.  I made the appointment for the afternoon of April 25, because I already had a vacation day for my doctor appointment that morning.  Then I came home and double checked...my doctor appointment is April 30.  Sigh...

3.  You miss beautiful sunrises when you have to be at work at 5:00 AM.  Then you manage to catch the best one on Sunday. 

4.  We're expecting some severe weather tonight, but the worst is supposed to pass to the South of us.  I brought my outside plants inside, just in case. 

5.  My Sun filter for my phone camera arrived yesterday. 

Naturally, I had to run outside and try it out, even though it was cloudy. 

If it ever clears up, I'll try again, using my eclipse glasses to get better aim. 

6.  I was going to go get my oil changed in my car after my dentist appointment, since I was going to be in town anyway, but changed my mind when I saw what the weather was going to do.  I wanted to be home and hunkered down before the storms get here.  In hindsight, I had plenty of time, but better safe than sorry. 

7.  I've been mentally composing a blog post based on a meme a friend of mine posted a while back.  My internal dialogue went, "Yes, Jesus loves you just the way you are, but when you commit your life to him, he's going to clean your ass up!"  We had a good laugh about that -- after I repented, of course. 

8.  I seriously thought about cancelling my doctor appointment, but I think I'll just change my dentist appointment instead.  Provided I can get my vacation day changed, but since the 30th is on a Tuesday, it shouldn't be that hard.  

9.  I guess that's it for today.  I've got a new catalog to peruse. 

10.  Laters...

Hosannah In Excelsis!

 1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.3If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

5“Say to Daughter Zion,

‘See, your king comes to you,

gentle and riding on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”

6The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

10When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

11The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Matthew 21: 1-11