Red Wings

The blog will be observing a day of silence for those brave men who lost their lives June 28, 2005 during Operation Red Wings.

Never forget them.

LT Michael P. Murphy

ST2 Matthew Axelson

GM2 Danny Dietz

FTC Jacques J. Fontan

RMCS Daniel R. Healy

LCDR Erik S. Kristensen

ET1 Jeffery A. Lucas

LT Michael M. McGreevy, Jr.

QM2 James E. Suh

HM1 Jeffrey S. Taylor

MM2 Shane E. Patton

SSG Shamus O. Goare

CWO3 Corey J. Goodnature

SGT Kip A. Jacoby

SFC Marcus V. Muralles

MSG James W. Ponder III

MAJ Stephen C. Reich

SFC Michael L. Russell

CWO4 Chris J. Scherkenbach

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

So that we may never forget. 

Havoc

Before I get into today's post, I wanted to give you an update on the brazer who fell out yesterday.  She'd gotten overheated, which triggered an asthma attack, but once they got her cooled off and her asthma calmed down, she was fine.   She didn't come back to work today, and honestly, I don't think she'll last much longer out there because it's going to get much, much hotter before it's all over with.  

Now, on to the topic at hand, my flower beds. Those storms yesterday evening really wreaked havoc on my poor Cosmos.   They were nearly pulverized, but have managed to survive. 

This afternoon, I got my now obsolete sunflower stakes and made a sort of makeshift trellis system for them so at least they're not laying out in the yard or onto the porch. 

 I think next year, I won't put such tall plants right in front of the house because of the rain runoff.  I'd love to get gutters someday, but I can't even get my act together enough to get the yard surveyed and the fence replaced, so it's not likely that will happen either. 

Speaking of tall flowers, these three sunflowers came through the storms just fine, and as you can see, they're taller than the house. 

They're the ones I had tied to the Christmas light hooks, but alas, this little one wasn't quite tall enough for that.  

I had it staked, but the stalk snapped off right above that so I cut it and brought it inside. 

In other news, something is going on with this sweet banana pepper, so I cut it and put it into my refrigerator.  

Maybe I can cut that wonky spot off and use it for something, though I have no idea what to do with a banana pepper.  I'll have to look up some recipes.  

In the back left corner, you can also see my cilantro.  It's pretty much toast at this point.  It grew too fast and I couldn't keep up with it, so it's gone completely to seed.   I know you can also use the seeds as a seasoning, and I was going to try to collect them as well, but at this rate, I don't know if that's going to happen, either.  I may just pull the whole thing up and plant some Stevia.  

Anyway, that's about all I have for today.  I think I'll go get me something to eat and watch a little of the boob tube.  Am I showing my age there?  Yep...

Laters. 

Never Dull

As some of my readers have mentioned, things are never dull out at the factory, and today was no exception.  It all started...well, during the night last night when I couldn't sleep.  I had a bad case of the sweats, and simply could not get cool, even with the ceiling fan on full blast and the window unit running -- not to mention the central air unit.

I found out why this morning when I got up to begin getting ready for work and discovered...I'd had the window unit set to fan instead of cool.  Sigh...I guarantee that won't happen tonight. 

I get to work only to find out that I'd been so focused on getting my ice machine yesterday that I'd totally missed two -- yes two-- fights in the plant.  

OK, I didn't totally miss them.  I had an inkling that something was going on when I saw two of the supervisors taking some people up to the front office, but I'd written it off as someone falling out again.  That happens a lot this time of year.  I'd also heard whispers of the other one.  I knew something had gone on but didn't know all the details, and today I found out.   And what happened is as follows. 

It would seem that the Scrap Witch had gotten a group leader (in another department) written up because one of her employees was messing up some parts, only the group leader said it wasn't his fault.  She even called maintenance out and they looked at the machine and confirmed it was "jumping off" -- whatever that means.  What it boils down to is that it was the machine's fault, not the employee's, but even so, Scrap Witch refused to remove the write up from that group leader, so the group leader went off on Scrap Witch and walked out. She didn't come back today, and we were all wondering if she'd quit.  I guess we'll find out. 

You know who did quit, though?  The brazer I call Mouth.  She supposedly got another job and had put her notice in last week.  Can't say I'm going to miss her and her attitude.  I can say the department was a whole lot quieter today without her, but it wasn't without excitement. 

Yes, it was hot in the plant -- up to 94° before the storms rolled through.  I can neither confirm nor deny that someone who may or may not have been me snuck something that gives every appearance of being an insulated tumbler into the plant. 

The person who may or may not have been me figured if Not Cuz -- whose new blog nickname will from here on out be Junior --can walk around drinking from an insulated mug, so can ...other people.  

Why Junior?  If you know Not Cuz, and have ever seen Hee Haw, you'll get it.  

It was so hot, my crazy coworker made her t-shirt into a halter top, 

about which Group Leader Shark said, "Not even Demi-god wants to see that!"  

It was so hot, one of the brazers fell out, and we rushed her up to First Aid and Group Leader Shark knocked on the door, only nobody was there.  So she rang the emergency bell outside HR, and nobody was there, either.  I was already headed back to tubing -- having returned the wheelchair to its proper place and put the cover back onto it -- when I heard them page Uncle Supervisor, because all the supervisors have a key to the first aid room which they had to start locking because too many people were stealing the first aid supplies.  

Shortly after that, the word came back that they'd had to call the ambulance.  I quipped that those ambulance drivers have got to be getting frequent flyer miles for all the times that they've had to come out to the plant these last couple of weeks.  

And as if all that weren't enough, just as the shift ended, a massive thunderstorm rolled through and we were all running -- and I'm using that term very loosely -- through the parking lot in a driving rainstorm.  I got thoroughly soaked, so I came home and took a hot shower straight away. 

Now I'm ready to settle in with some knitting and a bit of TV watching.  

Laters. 

New Toys

I got me a new toy this afternoon.  

Truth is, I'd always wanted an ice maker ever since they first began to be available, but couldn't justify the expense of buying one.  However, it's been so hot in the plant these last few days, and it being ADP the first two things they cut off when it gets hot are the air conditioners and the ice makers.  OK, not really, but it sure feels like it.

Seriously, when it's the same temperature at your work station as it is outside, how can you say the plant is air conditioned?  And I don't know what's going on with the ice machines.  They're supposedly working, but are always empty.  My guess is that they simply don't have nearly enough capacity for a place that size with that many employees, and since they won't let us have our insulated mugs anymore, everyone is constantly needing ice. 

Especially this time of year, when we're nearly always under a heat advisory. 

And it's only going to get worse from here on out, well until about mid September at least. 

After spending the last few days walking my legs off going from break room, to break room, to break room trying to keep my cup filled -- not to mention my lunchbox-- I decided I had justification enough and went straight to Walmart after work and got me my own ice machine. 

I had to rearrange a few things on my counter, but it now has a home and is happily purring away,

 and look!  Ice!

I'm pleasantly surprised at how quickly it's filling up.  I'm transferring the ice from her into my bin in the freezer, so maybe that way I'll have enough built up to fill my cup and cooler in the morning. 

My other new toy isn't really a toy.  I finally broke down and bought a glucose meter to better keep track of my sugar.  So far, I'm not doing so well.  It would seem all the things I'd been doing to try to be healthy and lower my cholesterol was actually raising my blood sugar -- like drinking my fruit smoothies.  I mean, fruit is good for you, but I'd been picking the high sugar fruits like bananas, mangoes, and peaches.  

Oatmeal is another one I'm confused about.   I've been looking into it, because I'd started eating my morning bowl for breakfast again in order to help lower my cholesterol, but some websites say it can raise blood sugar, while others say oats are a low glycemic, high fiber food that can help stabilize blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics.  I'll try to remember to ask about it when I go back to the doctor next month.  In the meantime, the consensus is that plain oatmeal or oatmeal with healthy additives like nuts or berries is OK.  I think I'll keep eating it, then. 

And finally, there has been knitting.  I've been working on the scarf for the Seaman's Church Institute, and have gotten to the ribbing part.  

I've got to knit 4 x 4 ribbing for 18", then do another section of garter stitch.  The cat is not impressed. 

Brat. 

Mystery Solved

The mystery has finally been solved!

"And what mystery is that?" you may ask.  

Well, I'll tell you.  As many of you already know, I have a squirrel feeder out behind my back fence.  I typically fill it with deer corn, because it's cheaper than squirrel food.  Usually, when I fill it completely up, it takes the squirrels about a week to empty it.  Or if I only fill it halfway, it takes them 3-4 days.  

Here lately, however, after I fill it up, and it's been completely empty the next day.  At first, I thought the deer had figured out where all that corn was coming from and were eating out of the squirrel feeder, but no.  I watched them for a few days and they weren't touching the corn still in the feeder-- just the stuff the squirrels threw on the ground.  

Last night, I finally discovered where all the corn was going when I opened the back door to let the cat out...and there was a flipping trash panda out there!  

(Not my Photo).  

It would seem I've progressed to feeding raccoons.  Oh well, all are welcome at this dinner table.  Even trash pandas. 

(Not my photo, either.)  

Speaking of dinner tables, my tabasco peppers are coming along nicely.  

I'm hoping enough will ripen at the same time that I can make fresh tabasco sauce, but if not, I'll string and dry them.  I was planning on doing that to the cayenne peppers anyway, unless Cody and Brennan can make it up here in time to get them some fresh ones.  I don't know.  It's been a lot of fun growing them, but I'm not really a pepper person.  I don't think I'll plant any next year. 

Oh, and look at this!  I got some sunflower seeds!

They were harder to get out of the flower than I expected them to be, so with that in mind, I went ahead and took all the cheesecloth off of the other flowers. If I lose a few seeds in the process, oh well.  I'll still have plenty.  I'll most likely plant these instead of eating them, and the rest I'll save for the birds.  In fact, it's still pretty early in the year -- relatively speaking.  I might just go ahead and plant some of these now.  Well, not now now, but maybe this weekend.  Or tomorrow. 

So, yesterday we had a bit of a breeze blowing all afternoon, and my tall sunflowers were all laid over.  They weren't completely flattened, but were leaning pretty far  -- so much so that even the stakes were bent.   I didn't have any taller stakes, so I got my garden twine, my ladder, and a bit of good old American ingenuity and tethered them to the hooks I hang my Christmas lights on. 

I figured if those hooks can continuously snag my flag, they can support a sunflower.  It seems to be working so far.  

If I ever grow any more of these really tall ones, I won't put them so close to the house next time.  I think it was the wind shearing off of the roof that affected them so.  

Well, I have more to talk about, but this is already turning into a novel, so I'll just leave you with this:  At 12:25 PM today, it was hotter at my work station than it was outside. 

 Fortunately, the heat is supposed to break by Wednesday -- if you can call dropping from 99 to 94 "breaking".  I just hope my air conditioner holds out. 

Is there a patron saint of air conditioners?  Does anyone know?  

Summertime

Summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime!  

Yep, summertime is officially here -- both meteorological and astronomical summers -- though it's been summer in the South for a month now.  To be fair, it's been kind of a mild late spring/early summer.  We're just now getting temps into the 90s.  Alas, they're also in the 90s in my work area.

To put that into perspective, it was 94° outside, and 93° inside.  I'd prefer the outside, though, because at least there is a cool breeze from time to time, and fresh, clean air.  The air inside is foul and stale and clings to you like a filthy scum.  

In better news, my tall sunflowers are blooming.  I had to get my selfie stick and extend it to its full length to take these photos, which was an adventure because I couldn't see what I was taking a picture of.  It took several tries, but eventually I got some decent shots.  

As always, I'm not sure which varieties these are, but they sure are pretty. 

This one isn't quite opened all the way, and you can tell how tall this plant is by the flagpole in the lower left corner of the photo. 

Not only that, I'm finally getting some other colors of my Cosmos blooming. 

The peppers are coming along nicely, too.  This sweeet banana pepper is coming along nicely, and so far is the largest one. 

I've got a pretty good crop of Jalapeños, too. 

Unfortunately, my herbs are being completely devoured by...I don't really know what, but they're munching away, especially on my lemon balm.  I've been using the diluted dish soap, but it isn't working all that well.  In desperation, I ordered some Neem oil to see if that helps. 

Speaking of, I found a very large garden spider in my kitchen this morning, and we had a long talk about her job performance.  I told her she needed to get her spidery butt out into my herb garden and eat whatever is out there.  "Imma let it slide this time, but if you don't start paying your rent, you're out of here!"  

 In book news, I finished the second book of the Matched trilogy, Crossed.  It was pretty good, but dragged a bit more than the first one.  I must have thought so the first time I read it, too, because I left it a three star review on Goodreads.  It was a pretty long book, and she could have probably trimmed 20-30 pages and it would have been better for it.  Next up is the third one, Reached.  

This is the one I haven't read yet, so I'm looking forward to it. 

I'll let you know how it goes. 

What A Week

It really started last week, but ooo-dah-lolly what a week!  

I don't know what's going on out there at the plant, but there have been a steady stream of people being taken up to first - aid in the wheelchair, including one of the brazers last Friday.  Now, don't get me wrong-- I don't want to make light of her fainting, but this particular brazer falls out all the time.  So much so that we've lost count.  That's how we all knew exactly what to do for her.  

The newbs, however, were pretty shook up over it.  Once we'd gotten the fainted brazer up to first aid, and she'd been tended to, they came back to the department shaking and crying and all.  I wanted so badly to look at them and say, 

But I was good and kept that to myself.

In other news, tropical storm Alberto has formed in the Gulf, but except for some coastal flooding, isn't expected to be any danger to the U.S.  It is predicted to make landfall in Mexico.  We won't even get any rain out of it here.    What we will get is heat and humidity.  Not from the storm.  From the fact that it is Mississippi and June.  

I had to put a fan in my piano corner, because even with the air on, it gets uncomfortably warm in that corner. 

I'm still practicing, just not as much.  I play for a few minutes in the mornings before work, because by the time I get home, I'm so worn out, I don't always feel like it. I don't really feel like doing much of anything, for what it's worth, but here's something I did over the weekend.  I started cleaning and organizing these shelves.  

I know it doesn't look like it, but hey, it's a start.  Eventually, the plan is to move the whole thing out to the shed.  I'm also considering buying another one of those Rubbermaid cabinets like I got last year.  I don't know, though.  We'll see. 

In other news, I have a pink Cosmos!

I was beginning to think I wasn't going to get any other colors but white, but this one surprised me when I got home from work this afternoon. 

And finally, some of my tabasco peppers are turning brown/gray. 

I'm not sure if it's from sunburn, or overwatering or what. I've cut back on watering them to see if that helps, but I'm open to ideas.  

Well, I know this is a bit short, but there really hasn't been that much to talk about.  I'm just working and sleeping, and not much else.  That's how it's going to be for a while. 

Until busy season is over, at least.