Hello Again

Hello again.  Yes, I know it's been a while, except for the plunger story which was so funny I had to share it with you.  Truth is, I'm plumb tuckered.  I walked into work Monday morning to see some of the brazers already there working.  Now, if I were like some previous brazers who no longer work there, I'd have stormed off to HR complaining about favoritism.  

But I'm not like that.  I figured if Group Leader Shark wanted me to come in early, she'd let me know.  Sure enough, about five minutes later she came around the corner and told me to start coming in at 4:00 AM.  And we are still staying until 3:00 PM, so that makes for a long work day.  Heck, Wednesday she came around and asked people to volunteer to stay until 4:00.  It's been a long time since I've worked a 12 hour day.  I came home that night and absolutely collapsed.  

You know, as much as I grumble and fuss about getting up at 2:30, there are advantages to going in early -- one of them being that you don't have to walk through that ridiculous metal detector.  The other one is that there is ice in the machines.  My poor countertop ice maker can finally get a bit of a break. 

Of course, my first thought was, "Oh boy!  More money to buy stuff for my garden!"  From the overtime, you know.  And that's just what I did.  Truth is, I've been wanting a yard wagon for quite some time now, and after watching a few gardening channels, I settled on this one:  

It's a dump cart!  That means, I can lift the cart part up and dump out whatever is inside it.  Most of the big channels get a ... higher dollar brand, but I figured this one was good enough for what I needed since my garden is much smaller than theirs.  The channels I watch, I mean.   It has already come in so handy, but more about that in a minute.  

Funny thing, while I was researching the different carts and reading customer reviews, one guy had posted that he didn't get a cart.  He got parts to a cart!  Not only did they expect him to pay for his cart, they expected him to put it together himself!  Oh the horror! 

I didn't find the cart at all difficult put together, but I did break out my own rachet instead of using the open end wrenches they sent with it.  That made it go so much faster.  I'm still learning how to steer the thing, which has made for some quite comical moments. 

The other thing I bought was some crimson clover seeds to use as a cover crop this winter. 

Clover is one of the best cover crops you can plant, because it fixes nitrogen in the soil.  Plus, I think it's downright gorgeous.  I love seeing it on the side of the roads in the spring.  This package has enough seeds that I might plant some in the back yard.  Hopefully it will choke out the creeping Charlie.  The only thing is, I have to make sure to cut it down before it goes to seed -- in my raised beds, I mean -- or I'll have clover coming up everywhere.  

That's fine in the yard, but I don't want it in my veg patches!  

Speaking of, today's project was to get the red clay dug out from under a second round bed so I could get it filled with dirt.  Even though the weather was much cooler than it has been being, I was still drenched with sweat by the time I'd finished.  Then I went and mowed.  And weed eated.  But just the front yard.  The back can stay long.  That's why I got a privacy fence. 

Since we haven't had any appreciable rainfall since I filled the first bed, and we don't have any in the forecast for a few more days, I put the sprinkler on the two new beds to settle the soil.  

Turns out, I needn't have bothered because that lemon balm had such a massive root ball, I ended up having to take most of the soil back out to get it to fit.  When I was digging it up, I discovered that some of the roots had even burrowed below the bed lining in the old bed.  It doesn't have that problem now.  These beds are pretty deep, plus it has clear access to the soil beneath.  Those roots can grow as deeply as they want to.  

The rosemary's root ball wasn't quite as big, but I still had to remove quite a bit of soil to get it to fit.  No matter.  They are both settled into their forever homes, looking a bit bedraggled from the move, but I'm hoping they'll pick up once they get over transplant shock.  I'll get some mulch down soon, too.  Maybe tomorrow.  

That's what I used the dump cart for this morning.  I moved the red clay back into the pile behind the shop, then used it to move the soil into -- and back out of -- the round beds.  I'm so loving this thing.  It's much easier to handle than my wheelbarrow.  

While I was working in the yard, I trimmed back my crepe myrtle, but I did not commit crepe murder.  

I only cut off the lower branches that were slapping me in the face while I'm trying to work in my garden spot.  I left the rest of it growing naturally.  It's had a rough time this year, too, with the drought and all.  Yeah, I was thinking last night that it would be such a good night to sit out beside the fire pit, but we're still under a burn ban.  I guess I could have sat out there without a fire, but it's just not the same. 

And finally, a few days ago, I was scattering some corn behind the fence for all of the critters who eat corn.  We don't turn anyone away.  All are welcome at this table.  Except fire ants, but they don't eat corn anyway so it's a mute point.  

Anyway, I was scattering corn and noticed something a bit odd on the ground.  Looking closer, I saw it was a small rock.  

"Huh?" I mused.  "I wonder where that came from..."  At first, I thought maybe I'd dropped it, but I hadn't carried any rocks behind the fence.  I finished scattering the corn, and was walking back to put the scoop back into the corn bin when it hit me.

It was a crow gift!  I'd finally gotten a crow gift!!

I dashed back and snatched it up post haste, and it is now sitting on my entertainment center in the living room.   

You know you're living right when a crow gives you a gift.  

Mishap

I had me a little mishap a while back.  Oh it was nothing serious. You’re going to laugh at me, and that’s all right because I’m laughing, too.

See, what happened was I have one of those toilet wand thingies that you click the sponge onto the handle to clean your toilets with. Like this one, but I have the cheap Walmart brand.

So I was cleaning the toilet in the half bath off of my bedroom, and I guess I got a little too enthusiastic in my scrubbing because the sponge came right off of the handle and fell into the bottom of the toilet!

I tried and tried to get it out, but the harder I tried the deeper into the drain it went. I even got my little drain snake out to try to grab the sponge with that, but it just pushed it further down. 

OK, plan B.  I got the plunger out and spent days on end plunging, but the sponge wouldn’t budge.

As luck would have it, I had just seen an ad for a pneumatic plunger on some website.  I don't remember which. I’ll bet that would knock that stuck sponge loose. 

First, I looked on the Walmart and Lowe’s apps to see if I could find one locally, but no dice.  In the end I had to order one from Amazon. It arrived yesterday.  

I quickly unboxed it and put it together, then ran with it into the bathroom.  Now, the description on Amazon had said to start with a low PSI, then work your way up, so I pumped the pressure up to 1 PSI.  I stuck it into the bottom of the toilet and pressed the trigger.

Nothing. 

OK, I'll try again, I thought.  I pumped it up to 2 PSI this time, put the plunger into the toilet and pulled the trigger.  

WHOMP!  I heard and all the water in the toilet began draining out.  Woo hoo!  Very cautiously, I flushed...then flushed again.  It worked perfectly.  In fact, that toilet is flushing better than it has since I moved into this house.  I think I'm going to go plunge the toilet in the hall bathroom to see if it will stop screaming at me every time I flush. 

Don't envy me my exciting life...

Duh Moment

I was sitting there this morning watching the church service when I had a bit of a duh moment. 

If you'll remember, yesterday I was talking about filling those round beds and getting my lemon balm and rosemary settled in before winter.  I'd been saying I wanted to take the dirt from my planter -- the one I had put the spare basil in-- to top the round beds up.  

One bag of the garden soil I'd been buying at Walmart will mostly fill one bed up, but not quite, so I  needed just a little bit more dirt. And yes, I know I could have just opened another bag, but I don't really like having opened bags sitting around for fear critters might get into them.  Most likely snakes -- which I'm not afraid of, but still don't want to get bitten.

So, I was sitting there during church when I suddenly remembered I had this bed, sitting there completely empty except for my fairy garden.  

Now, for clarification, these are 8' beds with a divider in the middle, making two 4' sections.  My mind thinks of each section as its own separate bed, even though they are connected.  I was going to empty these beds out anyway, so I could move them this winter, after the first frost kills off all of the zinnias growing in the other side. Why not go ahead and do it now? 

As soon as church was over, that's exactly what I did.  First thing was to move my fairy garden, which I put into the planter temporarily.  

I still want to have it in my pollinator garden, which I will need to plan better next spring.  But for now, this is where it will sit. 

Then I dug out enough soil to finish filling the round bed.  

I'm going to let it settle a week or so, then top it up before I move the lemon balm into it.  Probably sometime this week, I'll dig the red clay out of the bottom of another one of these and fill it to put the rosemary.  

As you can see, I've had to put that plastic fencing stuff on top, because the cat has already found it. Once I get the plants settled in, I'll cut it to fit and put mulch over it.  Hopefully, that'll be enough to discourage her digging in it.  

While I was taking the fairy garden stuff out, I found a little toad.  I carefully caught him and put him on one of the rocks in this old dog bowl.  Naturally, the moment I got my phone out to take a photo, he  jumped out.  

He's still in the photo, but you'd have to blow it way up to see.  He's beside the fence, just behind that first ground ivy leaf.   I'm going to have to take it easy for a bit, because my back is so sore today.  I can't handle the hard labor like I did when I was younger. 

In other news, I got one more storage box emptied out, and I'm wondering why in the world I kept some of that stuff so long.  I'm talking about old cell phone chargers for models that are completely obsolete, old phones -- flip phones-- that no longer work, dimmer switches that I used to use in my snake tanks -- some of which are totally burned up.  Not sure why I kept them, but they're in the garbage now.  I've got two more boxes to sort through, but to be honest, I'm kind of burned out about the whole thing.  I said I was going to put them into the spare room, but I'm afraid if I do that, it'll be out of sight out of mind and they'll never get sorted.  

And finally, I got this much knitted while I was watching football yesterday.  

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Rainbow Galaxy

Pattern: Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

We've got football on the TV, knitting on my needles, and homemade jelly in the pantry.  Now all we need is some Fall feeling weather...

Come on not-as-hot front!

That Was Strange

Wanna guess what I did this morning?  Do ya?  Do ya?  

If you said I made six more jars of pepper jelly, give yourself a cookie because that's exactly what I did.  

In my defense, I had one more pouch of the liquid pectin that I needed to use up, and I wanted to make some sort of jelly with it.  I'd actually thought about trying to make some mint jelly, but I knew I wouldn't have enough fresh mint, so I went with peppers instead.  I have plenty of those.  Heck, even after this batch of pepper jelly, I've still got two gallon size Ziploc bags in the freezer. 

I had enough jelly to almost fill a seventh jar, 

which went directly into the refrigerator since it didn't have the correct headspace to do the water bath canning thing.   No matter.  I expect it will be eaten up before too much longer.  Heh, I've already eaten two jars of the stuff by myself.  With cream cheese, on crackers.  It's pretty good, if I do say so myself. 

I made the jelly pretty early, so once I was done with that, I had time to get outside and work in the garden spot before it got too hot.  I dragged out the ol' roto-tiller and managed to get this spot level enough that I put two of the beds into their final spots. 

I'll still need to level the ground some more before I get the one at the bottom of the photo settled into place for good, but that's going to have to wait until it cools off some.  

Before I came inside to huddle in the air conditioning, I started filling one of the beds with garden soil.  

The plan had been to take the soil out of the planter where I had been growing the spare basil and add it to this, but since that basil is coming back, I might have to pivot.   I'm thinking I transplant those two into the bed where I pulled up the tomatoes and that will free up this dirt to use in these round beds.  I want to fill this bed up and get my rosemary and lemon balm moved into it pretty soon so they'll have time to get over transplant shock and settle in before the first frost hits.  

I think they will do so much better away from the house where they have good air flow and room to grow.  

Speaking of growing, I've got bluebonnet seedlings coming up all over the place. 

I ought to have a gorgeous stand come spring. For now, my little mum I bought is opening up and brightening my front porch. 

That and the wreath are all the Fall decor I have up at the moment.  I'm hoping I can motivate myself this evening to go through the boxes I still have in the house and get them sorted.  Then I can start dragging out all the boxes with the Fall stuff in them. 

In the meantime, I'll just be sitting here knitting on a new sailor hat. 

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Rainbow Galaxy

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

This is the last of the HL yarn I have, then I'll be back to knitting from stash for a bit.  Although, I do want to go up to Batesville -- just not this weekend.  

And finally, I had a bit of a strange response when I saw the thrift shop had posted this photo of the Micropets I'd donated. 

My first inclination was to say, "Those are MINE!  I want them back!"  But it passed pretty quickly when I remembered that they'd been in storage for over a decade and I'd barely thought of them in all that time.  It's better that they go to a collector or someone who will treasure them.  

For what it's worth, these are the three beanie babies I kept.  

I'm not sure why I kept the dog, but there he is.  

I guess that's it for today.  I think I'm going to go take a quick shower while it's halftime, then I'll start sorting those other boxes out.

Don't envy me my exciting life...

All Clean!

First thing, bright and early this morning, the clean up man came.  All of this junk is now gone!

He did such a good job, and was in and out in about 30 minutes.  

If any of you locals need something cleaned up, give Mr. Jermaine Latham a call.  He'll do you right.  

Better still, that's one more thing I can cross off my list. 

Slowly but surely, I'm getting my list whittled down. 

 

I guess the contractor/ handyman should be the next one I call, since I've got some rotten wood in my soffit and fascia that needs to be replaced.  The guy I'd hired to paint the house a few years ago was supposed to have done that.  He just didn't.  He slapped some wood putty in the worst of the rotten spots and painted over that.  I guess he thought I was too dumb to notice. He also painted over the peeling paint and drips from the previous paint job instead of scraping and sanding that smooth.  When I called him on it, he said, "I can fix that, but it'll cost you extra."  

I definitely won't be hiring him again.  

Anyway, once Mr. Latham had gone, I was so happy I almost got my Fall decorations out to start putting them up, but I didn't.  I've still got boxes in my floor to sort through, which I'll probably do while watching the ball games tomorrow.  As for the decorations, we're supposed to have a not-as-hot front come through sometime this week and it's going to be down in the mid 80s by next weekend!  Woo Hoo!  That cooler weather will be much more conducive to Fall decorating. 

You want to know what else made me happy today?  I got a sweet little card in the mail, out of the blue, from one of my dearest knitting friends. 

It really brightened my day.  Thank you, Susie!  You're the best!

Speaking of knitting, I finished another sailor hat while vegging out in front of the TV.  

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Songbird Stripe

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

Do people still say "vegging out", or am I dating myself?  Maybe that's one we should bring back. 

And finally:  

 I, for one, am glad.  I like the earlier sunsets.  It makes me feel like I have an evening when the sun goes to bed before I do.  Otherwise, I feel like I'm having to go to bed in the middle of the afternoon.  

Except it's the middle of the afternoon right now, and I still want to go to bed. 

Success!

There I was at work, just a working away about ten minutes after two, when one of the parts stagers walked by, then kind of did a double take at me.  "I forgot you were staying until 3:00!" she said. 

"So did I!"  I replied, laughing.  Seriously, I did.  I was getting all excited around a quarter to, thinking it was almost time to leave when I overheard someone else say the word overtime.   

"Dang!"  I exclaimed.  "We've got to stay until 3:00!"  And so we did.  Well, the sub brazing department did.  The lines went home.  Most of them, at least.  I told my coworker that if we're going to be the only ones staying over, I'd rather come in early.  

Anyway, work has been kind of interesting this week because the construction crew is taking everything down out of the ceilings. And I do mean everything.  All of the electrical conduit, the phone lines, the pneumatic system, the old air conditioners and duct work -- everything except the sprinkler system.  It looks like they're going to start over completely from scratch. 

The interesting part is that they've been cutting off the electricity to the lighting system from time to time, and we've been working in the dark.  I was over at the computer trying to confirm some work and I couldn't even see my paper to type the numbers in.   It's been fun, to say the least. 

After work, I had planned on running by Another Man's Treasure thrift shop to see if they wanted this stuff I'd boxed up to donate.  Alas, when I turned down the road to go into town, I saw the sign "Road Closed".  It would have been nice if they'd put that sign somewhere you could see it before you turned onto that road, because once you're on it, there is no place to turn around until you get to the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve. 

Turn around I did, and then I drove down through the lake and went to Huckleberry Finds thrift shop instead.  She was very happy to take the stuff, and thanked me for supporting her small business.  I thanked her for taking the stuff, because I hated to throw it into the garbage.  "These teddy bears need to be loved by a little girl," I told her.  She said any time I had stuff to donate, she'd be happy to take it.  So, now I have a place to donate stuff, and there will definitely be more coming as I get more cleaning done.  

This guy never made it into the donation box, though.  

I don't even know where he came from, or who gave him to me, but he's staying. 

This one, on the other hand, I had to dive back into the box and get him out.  

I'd scooped up all of the Beanie Babies without looking and put them into the donate box.  Sometime today at work, I remembered this bison was in there, and said, "Oh no!"  I'd gotten him because my dad loved bison.  He and a Canada goose are the only ones I wanted to keep.  The rest, I'd completely forgotten I even had, so they all could go. 

Oh, and I called the clean up man back.  He said he didn't forget about me, then asked if I'd changed my mind about Monday.  After a bit of clarification, turns out it was just a misunderstanding.  I'd thought we'd agreed he'd come at 2:30, and he thought I was going to call him back when I was ready for him to come.  The long and the short of it is, he's going to come in the morning after he puts his kids on the school bus.  Cool beans. 

Funny thing is, I kind of did change my mind.  When he didn't come, I had decided to wait until today to call and see if he could come early in the morning either tomorrow or Saturday.  It's been so hot, I haven't even wanted to be outside long enough to show him what to get. So it all worked out for the best. 

But this whole thing illustrates why -- at least one of the reasons -- I don't like making phone calls.  I don't feel like I communicate well over the phone.  I'm much better texting or messaging. 

OK, moving right along.   Some of the basil I'd cut down from the planter last week are coming back. 

I totally did not expect that, since I'd cut them down at ground level.  There are two of them showing new growth, so now I'll have tender young basil going in to the Fall.   That's good, because I'd let all of the rest go to flower, and the leaves can turn bitter once that happens. 

And finally, if you have a mind to, keep my friend Edna Who Loves To See Her Name In My Blog in your prayers.  I know she'd appreciate it. 

She's had a rough week.  

Make It Make Sense

If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you'll know that work out at the plant has been very slow this year.  We haven't worked a single Saturday so far.  I'd thought then that it was because of the economy, and that we just weren't getting any orders.  

Apparently not. 

Yep, they posted this morning, the plant is working Saturday.  Not me, because I have vacation already scheduled, but the rest of them are.  They gave us an entire week off, and now want us to work Saturdays -- for the rest of the year, from what I hear.  

Not only that, they've started making us all stay an hour over.  I was not happy about that.  I'd rather come in early than stay over, but that's not up to me.  And all of this after they'd spent several weeks sending the lines home at 9:00 and 10:00 in the morning.  

Make it make sense!  

What I heard is that the distribution center is empty, and the powers that be are starting to panic.  Now, for those of you who don't know, I work in a facility that manufactures evaporator coils for home air conditioners.  When we're done with an order, it's loaded on to a truck and shipped to the distribution center, which will send it on to the customer.  The DC is only about a mile up the road, so it's a short trip.  What I'm wondering is how in the world did no one notice that the stockpile was getting so low?  I mean, this kind of thing doesn't happen overnight.  Surely someone should have spoken up before now and said, "Hey, we need to put more coils into the distribution center!"  

By the way, I keep forgetting to mention that two supervisors have quit within the last month.  When your turnover rate among your shop floor employees is as high as ours is, you've got problems.  But when your turnover rate among supervisors and upper management is as high as ours is, you've really got problems. 

Think about this:  We've had five plant managers in the last seven years.  FIVE!  

First up, there was Butterball.  I call him that because he was short and pretty round.  He's the one that took our profit sharing bonus away because he didn't think we deserved it.  Someone in the meeting I was in asked, "Why don't we deserve it if we're meeting the criteria to get the bonus?" And butterball just snapped, "Because you don't!  You just don't!"  He was fired in early 2019.

Then came The Big Man Up Front.  He was fired for embezzlement in...I think it was late 2020 or early 2021.  Word is, all of that COVID relief the government was giving to companies for their employees was going straight into his pocket.  Someone who worked at another plant in the area was telling me her company gave them boxes full of groceries and lots of stuff like that.  We got a paper bag with two masks and a stick of gum.  

He was followed by Mob Boss.  He got that nickname because he always kept his dark hair slicked straight back, and to me, he looked like someone who belonged in the Mafia.  He's the one who told us we couldn't have anything to eat or drink on the shop floor but plain water -- even those who came in at 3:00 and 4:00 AM.  Lunch break is at 11:00.  That's a long time to ask people to go without food.  He got fired, but I don't really know why.  There aren't even any rumors about him.  Nobody missed him. 

Then came The Warden.  He resigned last year and went to another plant in the area. I thought he was going to be a good boss until that one day there was a big fight in the main breakroom at lunch.  Someone filmed it and posted the video to her Facebook.  I guess he got his behind embarrassed, because he went on an absolute tear after that.  That's how he got the nickname -- because he started treating the plant like a prison.  

Now we have Captain Cardboard.  I said I wasn't going to call him that, but it kind of stuck.  Truth is, the man hasn't shown enough personality for me to call him anything else.  He's been here almost a year, and...well, I'm not holding my breath that he stays too much longer.  I've already heard rumors that he's planning on resigning as soon as he's worked long enough to get his signing bonus.  Or some such. 

I don't know.  I guess we'll see...

On a brighter note, I've got spider lilies blooming!  

And finally, I had planned on taking the stuff up to the thrift shops this afternoon, but when they'd made us stay over, I changed my mind.  I'll take them tomorrow when I go to do my regular shopping.  Hopefully someone will take them. 

And just because...

 

Fruit Basket Turnover

We had to go through a bit of fruit basket turnover at work this morning in the sub-brazing department.  What happened was that the one brazer who comes in late every single day but still miraculously hasn't pointed out came in late yet again yesterday only to discover that someone else had set up on "her" stand.  

For that to make sense, I have to explain that we normally have 12 brazing stations.  When they moved us all around, they'd taken four of them out for the time being.  The brazers who normally work on those four stands had to find another stand.  Alas, one of them got on Prissy Butt's stand, and she had to get on a different stand. 

She pitched an absolute wall eyed hissy fit all day long claiming that everybody else was able to get on their "right" stand but her.  This wasn't at all true, by the way.  Only three of us had gotten on the same stands we'd had before, and the other five were on different stands. None of that mattered to her, and somehow in the conversation the other brazers agreed to swap stands to mollify her. 

This morning, four different brazers -- five if you count Prissy Butt -- swip swapped stands so she could have her "right" stand back.  I was kind of glad, to be honest, because she's farther away from me.  I swan, when we get moved back to the lines, I don't know what's going to happen to her, because she's one of those people who can't even wipe her own butt unless someone holds the toilet paper for her.  I feel sorry for whoever ends up having to work with her.  I only hope it's not me. 

On the bright side, I was able to come home and watch new seasons of Halloween Wars and Halloween Baking Championship! Oh, and Heartland is back on Hulu, so I picked right back up where I left off. 

On the not so bright side, still no word from the clean up man.  I think I'm going to wait until this heat breaks then try calling him back.  If he doesn't come then, I'll just find someone else who wants my money. 

In the meantime, I emptied two more boxes out and bagged up some stuff to donate-- mostly stuffed animals, Beanie Babies, and Micropets, plus the fish tank ornaments I've decided not to use in my toad garden.  There are three thrift shops here in town, Another Man's Treasure, The Broken Pot, and Huckleberry Finds.  Surely one of them will take this stuff.   

These two guys, however, I'm finding I'm having a hard time putting them into the donation box.  Their names are Joshua David and Gregory Jason. 

I've had them for forever, but I'm not quite ready to part with them.  

In garden news, not much is really going on with the garden.  While I was waiting for the clean up man yesterday, I tore up a few cardboard boxes and added them to my hot compost bin.  It still needs some more, but I've got plenty.  Maybe I'll get up early Friday and tear some more up before it gets too hot.  

And finally, a little football humor for you. 

IYKYK

Back To The Grindstone

Years ago, I used to have a coworker who when the end of lunch buzzer went off would slap her hands on the table and say, "Whelp, back to the grindstone" every day.  That's kind of how I felt this morning when I had to go back to work.  Boy, did I not want to do that, but somebody's got to pay the bills around here, so out of bed I got and off to work I went. 

Where I found the plant in total chaos.  They'd removed the wall between the front and the back, and had shifted all of the brazing stands around.  Now, you would think it would be common sense to put the same desk by the stand it was with before the moved it, but noooooo.  Apparently they were just plunking any old desk any old where.  

It wouldn't have been such a big deal except that we had all left our tools in our desks...because they'd taken our lockers away already.  Anyway, I was looking for my desk and Group Leader Shark was yelling at me about it for some reason, and I was trying to calmly explain that I needed to find it to get my tools, and she just snapped and started screaming at me.  

"They're back there!" she snapped.  

"That's all you had to say!"  I replied, and I went and got my tools.  I don't know why she has to be that way, but she did it again later.  I was looking for the parts stager to find out where she wanted us to put our completed orders, and Group Leader Shark yelled, "Put them over there!"  On the conveyors.  "Just plunk them down any old where?"  I asked.  But later on, I found the parts stager and asked her, and eventually we got a system worked out.  

The rest of the day passed largely without incident, except that they hadn't even hooked our computer up.  We couldn't even clock in on it, and had to go halfway across the plant to find a computer to clock in.  They called IT out and it took them until about 9:30 to get everything back up and running.   They were having to run cables and hook things up in the connection box thingy on the wall and everything.  

They also had some contractors in the plant taking down all the old A/C units, most of which never worked in the first place.  They pulled down one big piece of duct work and boy howdy there was so much dirt up in there!  Demi-god told me he thought a raccoon had fallen out.  Then he told me his wife wants a baby raccoon as a pet.  He'd tried to catch her one, but the mama raccoon bowed up on him and started growling, so he decided to leave that one alone.  

She also wants a skunk, which make good pets as long as you don't make them feel threatened.  By the way, I think I must have hit a skunk this morning, because boy was that smell strong as I was driving down the highway. 

Anyway, the long workday finally ended, and I came home to wait on the clean up man...who never showed up. Shame, because he had such a good reputation.  At this point, I'm beginning to think it's something about me.  Heck, I even tried to hire someone through Angi a few years ago, and they said they couldn't help me.  I'm going to try to stay positive, though, and hope he just got hung up on another job, but if he doesn't come within the next couple of days, I guess I'll try to find someone else to come get this junk.  Still, it's hard not to get discouraged. 

While I was waiting, I knit a few rounds on my latest sailor hat. 

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Songbird Stripe

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

You know, this colorway is called Songbird Stripe, but I'm not seeing songbird in this.  I'm seeing some sort of Native American woven basket pattern.  But that's just me.  You might see something totally different. 

And finally, I think I have this jelly making thing down.  

The jar on the left is from the first batch I made -- the one where I chopped the peppers by hand.  You can see they're all kind of floating at the top.  The middle jar is from the second batch.  I'd chopped the peppers in the food processor, but didn't drain them before I made the jelly.  It looks better, but most of the peppers are still clustered towards the top.  The jar on the right, I chopped the peppers in the food processor and then let them drain overnight, and I think it turned out so much better.  The color is better, the peppers are more evenly distributed, and I sound like a total dork, don't I?  

OK, I'll let you go for now.  But I am kind of proud of that pepper jelly. 

Just in case you couldn't tell. 

Really Almost

It really almost feels like Fall today.  Oh it’s still hot, but I’ve got football on the TV, and I made pepper jelly.  

I was thisclose to going and getting my Fall decorations out, but I didn't.  I still have all those boxes of stuff I need to sort through, so I'm going to do that first.  Besides, once I was done with the jelly, I was already sweaty enough from standing over that hot stove and wanted to go take a shower.  

I decided to do something different with my jelly this time.  The other batches I'd made taste really good, but they're a little too loose for me.  I was reading another recipe and that one said to drain your peppers, especially if you chop them with a food processor.  So last night, I got my peppers out of the freezer and chopped them up.  Then I put them into a cheesecloth and let them both thaw and drain overnight.  I got this much juice out of them.

I'm hoping that makes this jelly more jelly like and less sauce like.  But doing this meant I only got six jars instead of seven.  No matter, it's not like I don't already have 14 jars of it in the pantry...

In garden news, I mentioned yesterday that we had some storms roll though here.  What I didn't mention is that we got 1.85 inches of rain.  That's more than we got for the entire month of August.  Well, apparently we had hail, too, which must have happened either during the ball games or after I went to bed, because I had no idea until I checked my rain gauge app.  I'm thinking it was after I went to bed, because I was hearing a strange rumbling noise, but didn't want to get out of bed to check for fear of setting the cat to yowling.  

Anyway, when I went to check my garden this morning, my poor basil had been beaten half to death. 

I went ahead and cut all the broken and snapped stems off and put them into the compost, but there is still plenty of basil left.  Not that I'm going to do anything with it.  I've got tons of it already dried and stored. 

Even before I did that, I got my little spreader thingy and spread weed and feed in the front and side yards.  I really need to get more consistent with doing that, both in spring and in fall.  I do not spread it in the back yard, because I want my clover and my purple deadnettle to grow.  For the bees and things.  

I had to take Marty Mac out of his protective custody so he wouldn't get the weed killer on him, and figured since I had him out, I might as well tidy him up.  

I pulled up the grass that was growing in his pot and trimmed away all the dead vegetation, and he looks a lot better now.  I've been so focused on my garden that I've kind of neglected him a bit.  I must do better from here on out. 

By the way, I filmed another garden journal, but since the book of faces tends to take my posts down when I embed my vlogs, I'm not posting it on the blog.  If you're interested, you can watch it here:  Garden Journal 9/13/26

And finally, a couple of years ago or so, I saw a meme that I was sure I had saved, but I can't for the life of me find it now.  It said something to the effect that a company's culture is best displayed by how your employees feel on a Sunday night, and boy do I feel that today.  After having a wonderful, glorious week off, turning those alarms back on this morning literally made me physically ill.  

I'm serious.  I've walked around all day today feeling like I want to throw up.  The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that one day, I can walk out of that toxic place and never ever go back.  Unfortunately, today is not that day.  

Neither is tomorrow.  But some day...

in 1934 more days...

Almost Fall

It has almost felt like Fall these last couple of days. Oh, it was still hot, but after the front passed through, the breeze had that crisp feeling that felt like Fall. Almost, but not quite. 

One of the meteorologists I follow said this was a not as hot front.  

 Yesterday morning, I mostly finished cleaning out the shed, and I'm pretty pleased that I finally got it done. 

I still have all of these boxes to sort through, and I've got to nag Cody to come go through his stuff, but for the most part, I'm done. 

All of this junk is ready to be hauled off,  

and guess what!  I actually...yes, I called the clean up man!  Woo hoo!  

He was going to come this afternoon, but when it started storming, we decided to put it off until Monday.  He said he'd come anyway, but there is no need for him to work out in the rain and muck and mud.  Monday will be sunny and drier.  Once that's done, it will be one more thing I can mark off my list.  

I wanted to show you this one thing I found in a box out there. 

Someone -- I can't even remember who-- gave this to me for Christmas years and years ago, long before 2001.  After the attacks, I put it away and never even opened it.  It is now up in the closet with the other puzzles, still unopened.   They're saying we will have a particularly harsh winter due to the Super El Nino, so maybe I'll work it if we get snowed in.  Or more likely, iced in.  I'm OK with that as long as the power doesn't go out.  

Even that won't be so bad, because I have a generator now.  That means I really need to get an electrician out to check that breaker, just in case I need it.  

This morning was our town's annual Downtown Jubilee, and I went as is my custom, but I didn't take a whole lot of photos this time.  I mean, they would look just the same as the photos I took last year, and the year before and the year before.  However, when I saw this old Beetle Bug, though I couldn't resist.  I haven't seen one in ages.  

I can usually pick up a few Christmas gifts from the vendors up there, but this time, nothing appealed.  There was one booth that had a whole bunch of polished rocks and gemstones, which Brennan loves, but those folks were a little too proud of their wares for my wallet.  A tiny little quarter sized stone for $15?  No thanks.  

I also found a man selling homemade apple butter, but he was very proud of that butter, too.  He gave me a sample, and it was delicious, but he wanted $15 for a pint sized jar.  I didn't want to pay that much for something Cody and Bren would likely end up throwing away anyway. 

The only thing I bought was this hot sauce for Cody. 

I thought it would be kind of a unique taste for him to try.  They had plain habanero sauce, too, but I didn't get it.  Now I kind of wish I had.  Cody is so hard to buy for, but I also keep thinking about how many of the gifts I got them ended up in the garbage or the donation box.  Oh my gosh, I don't even want to talk about their refrigerator...

How about the size of that flag?  

And the girl who sang the National Anthem did such a good job.  A little too much styling for my taste, but her voice was so strong and pitch perfect.  All in all, it was a nice little outing, even though I didn't stay long.  I made it home in time to watch all the football games -- and yes, I had the multi screen thing going at one point.  I'm trying to hurry up and get this post finished, because I'm going to need all four screens this evening.  Yes,  Navy, Texas, LSU, and Ole Miss all play at the same time. 

It ought to make for some good knitting time.  Speaking of, I finished this hat yesterday.  

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Day Dreamery

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

In gardening news, I was laying in bed Thursday night and remembered that I had forgotten a very important part to my trash can composter -- the air holes.  I got out of bed and ...no, I didn't go outside and drill air holes at 11:00 PM!  However, I did put my drill by the back door so I'd remember to do it in the morning, and bright and early Friday, that's just what I did. 

I still need to add some more browns to get the balance right, but it ought to turn out some nice compost by spring.  

The next thing I did was to pull up the last of the pepper plants and cover that bed with some landscape fabric to absorb the heat. 

Then I covered that with a sheet of Visqueen to contain that heat so that the fungus or virus or whatever infected that bed will be baked to death in the sun. 

The downside to that is this will also kill or drive out the earthworms and beneficial insects and microbes, leaving me a dead, sterile bed.  Come spring, a good layer of compost will revive it, I hope.  

And finally, I have baby bluebonnets!  

I ought to have a nice stand of them by spring time. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got football to watch and knitting to knit!  

Laters.