I Did It!

I did it!  I actually slept past 3:30 this morning!  The cat actually let me!  

And I had the strangest dream.  I dreamed I was back in the Navy, in one of my schools.  We'd gone to lunch, and the place we went to took so long to bring us our food that we had to rush back to the base to be back in class on time.  As I was running into the building to go to class, I realized I didn't have my shoes and socks on.  

I ran back outside to see if they were still in my friend's truck, but he had already left, so I ran into the classroom knowing I'd get into trouble for being out of uniform, but I didn't know what else to do.  And I never even got to eat my lunch. 

Seriously, I slept until 5:00 then lay in bed another 30-ish minutes before the Incarnation of Evil came to yowl outside my bedroom door.  

I got up, fed her, then made myself a cup of coffee and sat savoring it and enjoying a quiet morning without having to rush off to work.  I didn't even turn on the TV until much later.  I just enjoyed the quiet. 

Sometime later, I went outside and did a little yard cleanup.  I don't know where that landscaper found his dirt guy -- that is, the guy he buys dirt from -- but he needs a new one.  The dirt he's put in my yard is full of all kinds of trash, from empty water bottles to broken bits of PVC sewer line, but mostly rocks.  Lots and lots of rocks. 

I've been trying to pick up the biggest ones, mostly so the lawnmower doesn't fling them into a window or something.  I've got the two little spots in the front yard mostly cleaned up, but I think I'm just going to have to live with all of these in the back.  The photo above was taken where my garden spot is going to be.  It's a good thing I'm planning on using raised beds, huh? 

A few days ago, right outside the back door, I found this bit of concrete sticking out. 

I managed to pull it up, but how do you spread a bunch of dirt and not even notice a huge chunk of concrete?  

And there were two of them, though I only took a photo of one.  I know one thing, I'm not going to be hiring this kid again.  He wasn't my first choice to begin with, but he is the only one who showed up. 

Anyway, I came back inside to cool off a bit -- we are under a heat advisory, you know -- and while doing so, I made the pesto.  I'm telling you, before I do this again, I really need to buy a food processor.  Come to think of it, I said that last time I made pesto, too.  I had to use my blender, and it just wasn't cutting it.  But we persevered and got her done, and the pesto tasted pretty good.  

This time, though, I had enough basil that I didn't have to use baby spinach to stretch it with, so that definitely made a difference.  Maybe next year, I'll plant the kind of basil you're supposed to use in pesto, instead of sweet basil.  We'll see. 

The recipe I used says pesto freezes well, so I laid some parchment paper on a cookie sheet and dolloped most of it out onto that, then froze it. Once it was good and solid, I put it into a freezer bag to save for later use.  I still have some in a container that I didn't freeze, to use right away.  

The only other major thing I did today was to mow the back yard, and again, the hardest part was getting the lawnmower to start.  I had given up and pushed the thing back into the shed-- threatening to throw the piece of garbage into the garbage -- when on a whim, I pulled the starter rope one last time.

And it caught...and started.  

I don't know what is doing that, because once it starts that first time, it starts again pretty easily.  But while I was fooling with it, I got the model number so I can buy that part I think will solve the problem.  

I only did the back yard, which desperately needed it, but it was too hot to do much more, and besides, there is still standing water in my front yard.  Still, the back yard looks so much better now.  I kid you not, in some spots the grass was nearly up to my waist.  The ruts left by the landscaper sure made things difficult, and there were some spots I couldn't get to at all with the mower.  

By the time I got done mowing, I was drenched in sweat, so I once again came inside to cool off, then tackled the weed eating -- which is so much easier with my new weed eater.   I got the spaces between the ruts as best I could, 

all along the fence line, 

and even cleaned up and weedeated around the chairs and fire pit.  

All on one battery, at that.  It looks so much better now!  I'm going to try to get to the front yard tomorrow evening if it's dry enough.  I think it might be, since the scattered showers have skipped all around us.  We'll just have to see. 

I eventually want to put a little patio under there, but that's going to have to wait until it cools off a bit.  Maybe in the fall.  Unless I hire someone to do it, but then there is that whole not showing up thing that's so prevalent in this town. 

And finally, just so this post isn't a total waste of your time, here is an early morning photo of my volunteer sunflower. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go find something to eat with pesto...

Vacation!

Just for one day, though.  Well, and Saturday, because if you take a vacation day on Friday, you get to be off on Saturday, too.  I'm thinking I might make it up to the farmer's market this weekend.   I was going to go up to Batesville to look at tillers, but while I was browsing Amazon this afternoon, I found one I really liked, and it was marked down 20%.

I'm not sure if it really was, or if they just said it was to entice you to buy stuff, but it was a good price -- at least I think so -- and it got very good reviews.  It's a corded electric, so it'll be quiet and lightweight, which is definitely a plus at my age.   It's supposed to get here the middle of next week, so maybe it'll dry out enough for me to use it by then. 

I think I may try to mow sometime this weekend, too, even if I have to strap pontoons to my lawnmower.  I swan, the grass in my back yard is nearly waist high.  It's rained so much, I haven't been able to mow it but once this year.  The front isn't much better, either.  

Oh, do you want to know how much rain we've gotten lately?  We're 9 1/2 " above normal for the year.  Here, let me put that into perspective for you. This trough was slap empty two weeks ago. 

 I haven't added any water to it.  That's all rain.  And that's ground ivy growing out of control because I haven't been able to mow. 

It's got to stop raining sometime, right?  

Right???

In other news, they started the bag checks at work this morning, which was a basically a big nothing-burger.  I set my clear backpack down on the table, opened my cooler so the security guard could check inside, and he said I was all good.  Didn't even look in my backpack, so he didn't even see the illegal cup of coffee I had stashed in there. 

I went on into my work area, and quipped to a coworker, "Do you feel safer now that I've had a security guard check my cottage cheese?"  

Moving right along... the last thing on my to do list for the weekend is to get the final snake tank cleaned out since my bedding arrived yesterday.  The first thing on my to do list is to sleep past 3:30 -- provided the cat ceases her endless yowling long enough for me to do so.  

For now, I'm going to get off of here and knit a bit more on the baby surprise jacket.  

Laters. 

Sunflowers And Insomnia

 My little volunteer sunflower is fully open!  Isn't it cute?   Like I said yesterday, at least I have something growing...

On a similar note, I bought ingredients to make pesto, which I'm going to try to do this weekend.  I think I should have enough basil to get a batch, and Gemini says it freezes well, so I'll have some to put back over the winter.  

In other news, I got my little gnome returned to the UPS store, and I went ahead and did my shopping while I was in town.  The only problem with that is now it feels like Friday.   It doesn't help that insomnia hit hard last night and I probably only got about three hours sleep.  

Let me give you a picture of what goes on in my head when I'm laying there unable to sleep:

I wonder who invented butter?  Let me ask Gemini.

*Opens app*  Who invented butter?  Oh, so butter was round when Jesus was here.  I wonder if he ate butter on his bread.  I wonder if Jesus likes butter.  

Then I got up and killed a massive brown recluse in my kitchen, so maybe I shouldn't have asked...

Oh, and I keep forgetting to tell you the good news.  After nearly seven years -- seven years-  they're finally building bathrooms on the production side of the plant. It's about blinking time!  Ever since they rearranged the plant, those poor folks who work on the line closest to the back wall have had to walk nearly half a mile just to go answer nature...I mean, walk to the bathroom and back to their line it's nearly half a mile.  

For reals.  I was down one day waiting on work, so I checked with the pedometer on my phone.  But that's when they were much less uptight out there and you could do such things. By the way, I don't think they brought in any new hires this week.  At least I didn't see any.  Even Demi-god said if they don't stop making up all these rules, they won't have anyone to work there, especially not after they get all those plants open in that new industrial complex they're building. 

I don't remember exactly who they are, but they had the groundbreaking a few weeks ago.  It's a development company that buys land then builds facilities to lease.   The plan is to build 14 of them, which will bring a lot of jobs and a lot of choices to the area.  If the powers that be out at the plant don't figure out that the secret to attracting and retaining quality employees is to make the place less horrible, not to double down on how awful it is out there. 

We on the floor have a saying, "Sixty two can't get here quick enough!"  

I reckon that's all I have for today.  I might try to go to bed early.  I never seem to succeed, but I'm going to try anyway. 

Bummed

Some of you may recall from previous posts that the local Walmart has stopped carrying small animal bedding.  This presents me with difficulties because I have four small animals that need said bedding.  Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.

I hopped on to Amazon and ordered some. 

While I was there, I went ahead and tossed my first fairy house into my cart and bought it, too.  

Alas, when it arrived and I opened it, they'd sent the wrong item.  Instead of my adorable little house, they sent an ugly gnome flipping the bird. 

Ugh.

Good thing Amazon makes returning things so easy.  I hopped back online and started one, and that means I'll have to run into town after work tomorrow to drop off the aforementioned ugly gnome at the UPS store, so I might as well get my shopping done while I'm there, even though it's only Wednesday.   

Or it will be.  Tomorrow, I mean.  Not today...

OK, moving right along...look at this!  My sunflower is starting to open up. 

This is the one I think came out of the bird feeder, that a squirrel or some such planted in my planter.  I'd moved it a couple of weeks ago so I could empty and move that planter, and well, it looks like I didn't kill it after all.   At least I have something growing...

Supervisor Green Jeans came over yesterday and asked my how my garden was going, and I replied, "It isn't!"  I told him my yard hadn't dried out enough for me to even get my raised beds out.  With today's rain, we are now 9.5" above normal for the year, and I never ever thought I'd be glad to hear the words heat dome, but I am.  They're saying there is one out west that is inching our way, and should be here by the end of next week.  Maybe it will finally dry out a bit.  At least enough for me to mow. 

On a similar note, the landscaper sent me a message saying his truck ought to be out of the shop by next week, so as soon as it's dry enough, he'll come out and finish up my yard.  I'll be glad when he's done, because I'm tired of having this hanging over my head.  

I keep trying to look on the bright side.  This way, I'll have all winter to get my beds out and prepped -- except for that one week it gets really cold, I mean -- and will be all ready to plant come spring.  

In other news, there has been knitting as well.  Somehow, this blob is going to end up being a baby sweater. 

I'm not quite sure how, but it will.  Let me go look at YouTube...OK, I'm back.  There are lots of videos, which I'll have to peruse later.  

For now, let me tell you the latest about how my place of employment wants to make their employees hate working there.  Do you know what we have to do now?  We're going to have to let the security guard rifle through our bags before we can go into work.  It was supposed to start today, but apparently they're still training the guards on what to look for, because heaven forbid someone try to sneak -- oh the horror-- an insulated mug into the plant.  

And they can't figure out why nobody wants to work there.  Go figure...

Look, even the clouds are angry about it! 

 Well, Ryan Hall is live streaming again, so I'm going to go watch and knit.  Good thing, I was going through withdrawals. 

Later, peeps.   

Not A Drop

Looks like I cancelled my plans for nothing, because we have not gotten a single drop of rain today.  I could have gone to Batesville, except that I didn't really want to.  I wanted to stay home. 

It got dark and windy a few times, but no rain -- yet.  It rained all around us, and there is still a line of storms that might hit us later on this evening and into tomorrow.  With that in mind, I moved Mr. Mater and the other potted plants on my porch away from the edge and back up against the house.  

I thought for a minute about getting out and trying to mow, but the yard was still way too soggy.  Instead, I started cleaning this mess up--

which mostly involved throwing all the stuff over the fence into my side. 

I cut up some of the limbs into pieces that will fit my firepit until the battery on my mini chainsaw ran down.  By the time I charged it back up, it was too hot to be outside.   Too hot to want to, that is. 

I'm not exactly sure what kind of tree it was.  According to Google, it was a box elder, which makes so-so firewood, but since it's for the fire pit and not the fire place, it'll do.  Besides, it was free -- besides paying the man to cut it down, I mean, which would have had to be done anyway before I could get that fence replaced.  

I'm probably going to have to break out the big chainsaw to cut the bits of trunk up.  

The tree guy said he'd cut it into firewood lengths for me, but I wonder how big he thought my fire pit would be.  

Once it got to be too hot to be comfortable outside, I came in and cleaned two snake tanks.  I'd wanted to do the three I had left -- having cleaned out Onyx's last week-- but when I pulled the second bag of aspen shavings out from under the stand, I discovered it was only half a bag.  It was enough to do Slider's tank, but Sunny's will need a bag and a half by itself.  I'll have to order more before I can do his.  

I spent the rest of the day -- the part I wasn't doing laundry -- watching TV and making good progress on the BSJ. 

I've been watching loads of documentaries on Netflix.  Today I watched on the Astroworld tragedy a few years ago, when all those people got crushed to death in the mosh pits.  I also watched on called The Quilters, about men in a maximum security prison who make quilts for kids in foster care.  It was really good.  Then there was the one about the fertility clinic doctor who used his own sperm to inseminate women, instead of their husbands' and has over 100 biological children.  

And finally, I found this cute little gnome garden on Facebook. 

I'm not into gnomes, but I can adapt it into a fairy garden.  

Woo Hoo!

I knew right away what kind of morning it was going to be when the filter in my coffee pod busted and I ended up with a cup full of grounds. 

Sigh....

I supposed I could have cleaned the machine out and run another pod through, but I didn't.  I just drank what I could and tossed the rest.  Then went on about my day as normal.  The good news is, we have tomorrow off!  Woo Hoo!  

I don't plan on doing much at all this weekend, because I'm still feeling pretty drained. I don't think there's anything wrong with me other than just being exhausted.  I was thinking about it yesterday, how do people do it?  How do people work a full time job, and still have immaculate homes and gardens that look like a fairy wonderland?  Then they go out and do stuff...I mean, like volunteering and church stuff and all.  How do they find the energy?  

I come home worn out, my house looks like a disaster, the yard is an absolute mess, and all I want to do is sit.  I was going to mow yesterday, but it was too hot, so I said I'd weedeat the front ditch instead.  But I didn't even do that.  I just sat.  I knit maybe two rows on the baby surprise jacket, then went to bed early. 

 When Group Leader Shark told us we would be off tomorrow, I thought about running up to Lowe's and looking at their roto-tillers, but it's supposed to rain all weekend -- off and on.  I hope mostly off.  I'm so over this.   We are now 9" above normal for the year. 

Alas, I did not sleep through last night's storms, which is why I'm rambling. 

Anyway, I'm hoping things will settle down, and I'll get back to regular blogging soon. 

Monday....Demi-god and his wife are expecting their second child, a boy.  He came in Monday morning, very upset, because his in-laws had given them a baby shower last Saturday and only two people had shown up.  I decided then and there that I'd get him a little something, so when I was at the store, I picked up what every parent of a newborn needs-- diapers and bibs.  

As I was carrying my gift into work this morning, I had it in a Walmart sack to protect it from the elements.  I saw at one of the TXV stations a Walmart sack with what looked like shiny, irridescent paper sticking out of it. 

"Oh," I said to the person who works there, "did you bring a gift, too?" 

"It's supposed to be next Friday," she replied, and that's how I found out what apparently everybody else in the department but me already knew.  Later on, I asked a couple more coworkers, and yes, they all knew, too.  But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

"Oh, well," I said.  "He's getting his gift from me today, because I'm not wagging it back home!"

"Fine!" snapped the person who was organizing the baby shower, and I was like, whoa!  Back off there, sister.  If you're not going to tell me about this little party you've got going, you have no business getting mad at me for going off and doing my own thing. 

I mean, it's fine with me, because I'm not even going to be there next Friday, and Demi-god was tickled pink that I got him something.  A little bird told me he was over there showing it off.  But if the organizer had wanted me to bring it next Friday, she should have told me so.  She should have told me they were doing a baby shower in the first place, but that's just me.   

By the way, for those of you not from this area, to "wag" something means to carry or drag it somewhere - usually referring to something cumbersome or inconvenient.  It's a local colloquialism -- very local, because I've never heard it anywhere else. 

And finally, a bit of good news.  I found two bags of aspen shavings that I didn't know I had, so I can clean the rest of the snake tanks this weekend.  So woo hoo to that, too. 

It All Caught Up

It all caught up with me yesterday.  The early hours. The fatigue.  The heat.  The stress at work.  Even this landscaping project that's still hanging over my head. 

It all caught up and I was so tired I went to bed at 6:30.  I don't normally like going to bed that early, because I usually wake up around midnight and can't get back to sleep; not so last night.  I slept all the way through -- except for a couple of bathroom breaks, that is -- and was still sound asleep when the alarm went off at 3:30.  

And apparently had slept through a pretty good thunderstorm judging by the notifications that were on my phone when I woke up. 

This is why you need a good quality weather radio on hand and multiple ways to get alerts.  Heh, I was watching a video from Adam Couser a while back and he was reacting to a video about a tornado.  I think it might have been Rolling Fork, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, the storm chaser, which I'm pretty sure was Freddy McKinney, had the emergency alert go off on his phone and Adam like to have jumped out of his chair. 

All the Americans watching laughed our heads off!  Truly, that sound is enough to make you jump right out of the bed.  Adam is not safe for work or small children by the way, but he's pretty funny. 

By the way, Ryan Hall has his own app out now called WeatherWise.  He said it's a weather app for weather geeks, and there's a whole lot of stuff you can do in it, even in the free version, like access hazcams and follow some of the storm chasers.  It's still in development, but worth the free download.  

Speaking of rain, we are now nearly 9" above average for the year, 

which is why the landscaping still hasn't been done.  I had so hoped to be further along than this by this time, but no.  It just won't. Stop. Raining.  

And guess what it's supposed to do this weekend?  Rain.  

Sigh...

Still, Mr. 'Mater doesn't seem to be bothered by all the rain.  He's loaded down with baby maters.

And I harvested my first banana pepper, as well.  

I've only got one so far, but there appear to be a few more starting to come on. 

And finally, a knitting friend loaned me her copy of the Baby Surprise Jacket pattern, so I cast on right away. 

The pattern says to use sport weight yarn to knit a newborn size, and the only yarn I don't have in abundance is...you guessed it, sport weight. So I cast on in worsted weight, and they can put it back for later.  

Or maybe I'll give it next year for Christmas.  I don't know...I'll figure it out. 

Tuckered

I stayed up way too late last night watching Ryan Hall's live stream.  And the night before...

Then I fell asleep and dreamed I was watching Ryan Hall's live stream.  Clearly, I have a problem. 

Ironically, enough, I was not watching Ryan Hall's live stream the day the big storm hit here and knocked the neighbor's tree over -- so I'm watching it now.  Seriously, I am.  I got curious about what he would have talked about, so I went back and found it.  I skipped ahead, though, to the relevant part and am not watching the entire eight hours of it. 

All that to say, I'm a mite tuckered.  

All righty, then....on to more relevant topics. 

Except that I can't remember what it was I was going to tell you, so let me just show you this.  I got the last of my basil planted yesterday when I got home from work and Walmart. 

This isn't the best place for it, because it's in shade for most of the day, but I had to put it somewhere.    I'm sure it'll be OK.  It just might not grow quite as big as it would in direct sunlight.  That may be a good thing, because I'm not completely sure what I'm going to do with so much basil.  

I'll cut and dry most of it and probably give it to Cody and Brennan, and I want to collect enough to make another batch of pesto.  Maybe I'll find a smoothie recipe as well.  And if all else fails, there's always the compost bin.  

While I was out there, I grabbed a quick picture of the other side of the planter.  You can see my Greek oregano in the back of the photo above, and on this side I have lemon balm, peppermint, and what was labeled as orange mint, but I'm having my doubts about that. 

I eventually want to have a whole bed of lemon balm plants once I get my herb garden set up and going.  I'll have to research what else you can do with it except make tea and season cooking.  I know it has lots of medicinal uses, so I'll look into those as well. 

In other news, one thing I've really been missing since developing this insulin resistance is a good bowl of cereal.  I've tried one of the bran cereals and they don't taste good.  The one box I bought is still sitting in the pantry mostly uneaten because it tasted like cardboard.  

I tried the Magic Spoon cereal, and didn't like it, either.  To me, it tasted like sour milk.  So, I had this ibotta rebate for Cheerios Protein cereal, and bought some. 

I had a bowl of it last night, and it tastes pretty good.  This morning, I checked my glucose, figuring it would be through the rood, but it was only 96.  So maybe, just maybe, I can have a bowl of cereal after all. 

While I was at the store yesterday, I bought myself a new floor lamp for my living room after the old one started behaving erratically.  It was 20 years old, after all, and was a cheap lamp to begin with. 

It's kind of sad the things I get excited about now...

And finally, I'm still playing the piano -- working my way through my lesson books, but it's become a struggle.  I think I'm going to set aside the Faber book for a while and concentrate on finishing my Alfred's Level 2 book.  Then I'll go back and finish the Faber book before doing Alfred's Level 3. 

I don't think I'll do any more of the Faber books.  Oh, it's not a bad course.  I just don't see the point in doing course after course.  At some point, I need to just start playing. 

Well, since it looks like Ryan Hall won't be going live tonight, I'll have to find something to watch.  Don't know what, but I'll find something...

June 6, 1944

 

 Tell it to your children, 

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

So that we may never forget.   

A Damper

I've been saying for a while now that I am going to change my shopping day to Thursday in a probably vain attempt to avoid the madhouse that is Walmart on a Friday.  So it was today, as well.  I'd planned on going into town after work, but the minute I got into my car it started raining.  

That kind of put a damper on my plans.  It was raining hard, too, not just a little sprinkle, so I changed my mind and came on home.  As soon as I got home, it stopped.  

I took it as a sign.  

The downside to even that little bit of rain is that all the red clay in my back yard is now slicker'n snot.  Since it's supposed to rain off and on all weekend and through next week as well, I made myself a path out of the old stepping stones left by the previous owner.  

 Until the landscaper can get here and finish up, this will help keep me from busting my hiney every time I go out into the back yard.  I wish I had one more because that last one isn't quite close enough to the grass for me to step that far.  

I'll go out maybe tomorrow and see if I can find a chunk of concrete from that old fire pit that used to be behind the fence.  If there's one flat enough, I can make myself another step.  

Speaking of, the landscaper sent me a message this morning saying he hasn't forgotten about me.  His truck is broken down and as soon as he gets it fixed, he'll come take care of my yard.   Of course, now we'll have to wait until it dries out again...

At this rate, it might be July or August before we can get it done. 

Oh, and I'm thinking about buying a roto-tiller.   I'm thinking that I can till up the garden spot and mix the red clay with the regular dirt underneath it.  That way, maybe it won't be so slick every time it rains  At least I hope it won't.  It's going to be a multi- year project and I don't want to fall and kill myself before I get it done.  I'm thinking of putting either stepping stones or pea gravel between the beds.  I don't know which yet, and I might put down some pine straw until I decide.  

Also, if I till it several times, it'll level the spot out, probably even better than the landscaper can with his big machine.  

That being said, I looked at some roto tillers online, and they aren't very expensive.  The only question is, will I use it enough to justify spending the money?  The answer is, maybe.  

And finally, I took my first little basil harvest this afternoon.  I hadn't intended to, but I noticed some of the plants were flopping over.  I know they say don't cut the stems, but I did.  I thought if I cut the stems just above the first little branches, they'll get bushier, but won't put such a strain on the upper stems.  We'll see. 

Probably this weekend, I'll try to fit my remaining basil plants into the other planter.  It doesn't get full sun, but they need to be in something besides those little pots.  

Well, will you look at that?  I ended up writing a pretty decent post for a day when I had nothing to say. 

There Is A God!

What are you talking about?  Of course there is a God.  

But sometimes, when things are going not so well, it's easy to lose sight of him.  To wonder where he is in all of this.  Is he still there?  Does he even still care?

Then he sends you a little nudge, as if to say, "Yes, I'm still here, and I still love you."  Sometimes it's little things that wouldn't mean anything to anyone but me --  like sending a tree guy right to my house so that's one less phone call I need to make.  Or being able to get the lawn mower started on the first try. 

Other times, he slaps you right upside the head.

I walked into work this morning, and the plant was all abuzz with the news.  The Human Resources Director from Hell had been fired yesterday!  Hallelujah praise the lord!

I just hope the next one they hire isn't bat guano crazy like the last three have been. 

In other news, I hadn't planned on mowing when I got home.  I was just going to go out to get the model number so I could order that new part I need, when on a whim, I decided to try to crank it up.  Alas, on the second pull of the starter rope, it caught.  

Bummer.

But since it started, I wasn't going to waste the effort, so I mowed.  Just the front and side yards, i.e. the public areas.  I didn't mow the back, and probably won't until the landscaper comes back to finish the job.   I don't know when that will be, because yes, it's supposed to storm again this weekend.  

Sigh.  

We just can't catch a break, can we?  And as if that weren't enough, we have both Saharan Dust and Canadian wildfire smoke floating around...

In a bit of better news, there has been knitting happening.  

 This one for the Seaman's Church Institute.  My numbers are really down this year.  

I'd better get on the ball. 

He Came!

The tree guy came!  He came and cut down that little tree that was fouling my back fence.  

He had to cut a hole in the fence to get it down, but I'd told him that was OK, since I was going to replace that fence anyway.  That's the whole reason I needed the tree cut down in the first place. 

I hated to do it, but it had to be done. 

Anyway, while I was trying to remember how to write a check -- and I'm only half joking there -- I said, "When you have time, I would like you to come cut out the dead branches in that big oak tree."  He said it might be on into the summer before he could come back, because he still has so much storm clean up to do.  I said that would be OK.  I'm not in any hurry, but it does need to be done. 

He wrote my name and address in his book before he left, so here's hoping he comes back. 

Heh, he said, "I'd better write it down, or I'll never remember."  And I started to ask him if he was my long lost son or something.  I didn't. 

The things that sound funny in my head don't always sound so funny when I say them out loud.  I've discovered that it's usually better to keep my mouth shut most of the time. 

Well, this is going to be short, because I stayed up way too late last night watching The Fat Electrician (NSFW) videos on YouTube.  I think that's why I've been in a brain fog all day, so I'm going to end this and watch a few episodes of The Chosen.

I was going to binge the entire series before season 5 comes out, but I don't think I'll have time.  But, I do what I can.  

If I don't fall asleep.  

DOPE

You know what my place of employment needs?

A D.O.P.E..

Seriously.  A department of plant efficiency.  Someone needs to come out there and do a thorough audit of their policies and practices so they can streamline the place and make it a functional, successful business.  Not that they'll listen, mind you, but yeah.  

They can start with all these unnecessary positions that someone in upper management literally made up so that they could give their buddies a job.  Yes, Stalker's job is one of those, but not the only one.  I'm thinking of someone else who was hired simply because she was someone's buddy, and from day one, she's never had a real job.  They have to keep making up stuff for her to do so they can justify giving her a ...somewhat hefty paycheck.   There's probably dozens more similar positions in that place -- almost all of them are office jobs.  And none of them are vital to the plant's day to day operation.  

I am so old I can remember when the plant had one supervisor per shift instead of five, and one production manager for the entire plant, and the same person handled HR, Safety, and First Aid.  I can remember when we didn't have any quality auditors -- not the buttload we have out there now. 

And then there are the useless and redundant things they want us all to do, like filling out those papers every day where we write down the order number and how many headers we brazed off of that order.  Why?  If they want to know which orders we did or how many parts we brazed, they can just look it up in the computer.  Why do we need to waste our time writing it down?  

Do you know what else they want us to do, in addition to filling out those papers, sorting out bad parts, ordering shortages, and handwriting scrap tickets?  Now, we have to keep track of how many headers we braze each hour and write it on the white board in what I've come to refer to as the S.W.O.T. chart.  

In case you haven't guessed, that stands for Stupid Waste Of Time.  Because that's what it is.  It's just something else added onto our plates, and what's it going to solve?  It's not going to make tubing get the parts out faster, or get them to make the parts per print, or get them to count so we don't have to spend half our day either ordering shortages or writing scrap tickets for their overruns.  Those are the issues they need to be resolving.  As I told my coworker while I was down waiting for headers because for some reason tubing had only done half of the order I was working on, Junior is standing over the wrong people.  

I can reach no other conclusion but that they want us to fail, because that's what they seem to be setting us up for.  Failure. 

After a seemingly interminable, hot, frustrating, stressful day, I finally made it home, and I hadn't even gotten to the bathroom when there came a knock at my door.  I opened it to find the man from the tree removal company that's working on the tree next door.  He asked me if I'd happened to take any pictures of the tree.  He said he was in such a hurry to get the tree off of the house before the next round of rain came through that he'd completely forgotten to take before photos.  

I told him that I had, and he asked me to send them to him.  As I was doing that, I said, "I'm going to go ahead and add you as a contact, because I've got a tree I'm going to need cut down pretty soon."  He replied that it would be cheaper for him to do it while he's already got his equipment in this area, so I showed him this little tree that's growing up through my back fence. 

He said he didn't think he could get it down without cutting a hole in my fence, and I assured him that it would be OK, since I was going to have that whole fence pulled up  anyway.  So, he's going to come cut it down probably tomorrow, and that's one more thing off my list.  

Then he turned around and saw the big old limb that had fallen on top of my chicken coops, and said, "That needs to come off of there."  I said that I'd tried to pull it off, but it was too heavy so he just reached up there and tugged a bit, and came right off with no problem. 

Another thing taken care of.  And another chunk of firewood for the fire pit.  I'll have to get my mini chainsaw out and cut it up, but that's not a problem. Oh, and he's going to leave the tree, too, to burn in the fire pit.  

And finally, the basil seems to be perking up quite a bit. 

I propped a few of them up with twigs from the yard, just until they get their feet back under them.  

Now, I'll just have to figure out what to do with the other nine I still have in the pots.   Why on earth did I plant so much basil?  

The world may never know.