Oh, Lovely

It's that wonderful time of year again. Time to train new employees. And guess who hates to train new employees.

Right.

Now guess who always gets assigned the delightful task of training the new employees.

Right, again.

For some reason, Brian always sends the trainees to line 2 to train. And I don't know how he does it, but he always, always, always manages to pick the day we are most behind to do it.  Not only that, when he sends us trainees, we always seem to have hard assemblies to braze. 

Today we had three trainees.  One is on the test tank, one is on the line, and I'm training one to sub braze.  She's doing OK, but being new, she's slow.  We're all slow when we start out.

After a couple of hours, Greg comes over and tells me to braze for the rest of the day, because the trainee is holding up production.  Why they don't train people during the slow season so they'll be ready when work picks up is beyond me.  But they don't.  We're supposed to train people, have trainees who leave absolutely zero leaks, and still run 500 units per shift.  Go figure.

Anyway, I take over and start brazing again, and we get the line moving.  IT doesn't take long until my trainee starts complaining.

"Everybody I came over here with has worked all day.  I'm the only one not working.  He's been working over there all day.  He's been working up there all day.  I'm the only one who just has to stand here."  Blah, blah, blah. 

I'm trying to tell her that what she's doing is more complicated than what they're doing.  They were difficult assemblies, the adapter tubes weren't made correctly, etc., etc.. This and that...because I didn't want to say right out loud that she was just too blasted slow.

The next order that comes up is pretty easy stuff, so I set her up and tell her to have at it.

It takes her 30 minutes to braze 10 assemblies. That's why she wasn't getting to work.  It should have taken 10-15 minutes to braze 10 assemblies.  She took twice that long.

The upside is, she got us so far behind that Greg talked Ronnie into letting us come in early tomorrow.  So I guess I'd better get off and head for bed. 

Four thirty comes mighty early around these here parts. 

Music Monday

on Tuesday.

Yeah, I forgot yesterday was Monday, and wrote a regular post.  So you get your music on Tuesday instead.



I dreamed about my daddy's iris beds last night.  I dreamed how his iris were always so beautiful and stately, and my bed was just pitiful.

That put me in mind of this video.  Some of my fondest memories are of my dad and grandpa taking me and my older brother fishing when we were very little.  Except my rod and reel was green, not pink.  And it came apart for easy storage.

One time, we were down at Rollover Pass fishing.  I was doing more playing than fishing, but I suddenly decided to cast my line out.  I picked up my rod and reel and cast it out as far as it would go.

To my horror, the top piece of my rod came off and disappeared into the water.  I stared at it openmouthed, wondering how I was going to fish with that little nub I had left.

My grandpa laughed at me, but my dad just calmly walked over and reeled my line in.  There, caught on the hook, was the end of my rod.  He put my rod back together, and I carried on fishing.

I don't remember if I caught anything that day.

Other than the top of my rod, that is...

Shocking? Not So Much

I get e-mails from a news site, mostly a list of headlines linking to articles about what's going on in the world. It's just one of my sources.

Anyway, like most commercial sites, they include advertisements in their e-mails. One of them is for a book entitled Shocked By The Bible: The Most Astonishing Facts You've Never Been Told.

I'm not going to buy the book.  I'll tell you why.  The advert gives a list of "shocking and astonishing" facts that you aren't supposed to know.

Did you know ...

• The Bible doesn't say Jesus died on a Friday or rose at sunrise Sunday morning
• No wise men at all visited baby Jesus in a Bethlehem manger
• The phrase "God the Father" is not in the Old Testament, but is surprisingly everywhere in the New Testament
• There were not just two of each animal aboard Noah's Ark
• Moses did not write the Ten Commandments

Shocking ... but all true!

The problem is, even the most rudimentary Bible scholar, or Sunday School Child, will know these facts.  I'm not nearly the Bible scholar I should be, but even I could answer these-- and without having to look them up. 

Let's go through them one by one...



1.  The Bible doesn't say Jesus died of a Friday or rose at sunrise Sunday morning.

Of course it doesn't.   They didn't use those names for the days of the week in first century Judea.  Our names for weekdays come from Norse gods (except for Saturday) and were not adopted until sometime between 200 and 500 AD. 

However, the Bible does say that the Pharisees went to the Romans and asked them to break the legs of those being crucified because it was almost the Sabbath-- or the seventh day of the week-- which we know as Saturday.  They couldn't leave them on the crosses over the Sabbath.  Now, in Jewish calendars, the day begins at sunset.  Therefore, the Sabbath would begin on sunset of the day we think of as Friday.  Thus, we can conclude that Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

Now, because they had to get his body off of the cross and buried before sunset, so they didn't really have time to prepare it for burial according to their customs and beliefs.  So the women were going to back to the tomb after the Sabbath, or on the first day of the week, which we would call Sunday, to finish the burial preparations.  They were going to the tomb that morning, and when they got there, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty.  Therefore, we can conclude that Jesus rose sometime between sunset on the Sabbath-- when it officially ended-- and early morning the first day of the week.  Which we know as Sunday.



2.  No wise men at all visited baby Jesus in a Bethlehem manger.

The Bible clearly states that the wise men came to the house, where the young child lived.   Furthermore, Herod ordered all boys under the age of two to be murdered according to the time given to them by the wise men of when the star first appeared.   So, Jesus was about two years old, and living in a house by the time the wise men got there.  Yeah, we put them in our manger scenes, but that's just for tradition's sake. 


3.  The phrase "God the Father" is not in the Old Testament, but is surprisingly everywhere in the New Testament.

And why would it be in the Old Testament?  God was not a father until his only begotten son was born, so why would people refer to him as God the Father before that?   Jesus is God's son, and referred to him as Father frequently.  Through his sacrifice, we can be adopted into God's family as his children, too, so he is our Heavenly Father.  I'm not sure why this should come as a surprise to anyone. 


4.  There were not just two of each animal aboard Noah's Ark.

Nope.  The Bible says clean animals and birds were brought in by sevens.  Of unclean animals, they were there by twos-- a male and his female. 


5.  Moses did not write the Ten Commandments.

Duh.  God did.  


Now, keep in mind, I haven't read the book.  There may actually be more interesting stuff in there.  I should think, though, that they would put something more compelling than stuff any Sunday School child would know. 

But that's just me.

First Quarter

 Today is March 31, which means one quarter of the year is gone.  I kinda figured I'd do this back when I was setting my goals for the year.  I kinda figured I'd do quarterly updates on how those goals were progressing.

Anyway, just in case you don't recall, my goals for the year were:

1.   Don't buy new yarn
2.  Try to find things to knit that will use up stash yarn
3.   Work on reducing my number of WIPs

So far, I've done well in meeting my goals.  I haven't bought any new yarn at all, but I haven't used up any stash yarn yet.  That's just because I haven't cast on anything new.  I've been working almost exclusively on WIPs-- and a group charity project that I'm not counting. 

When I posted my first WIP update back in January, I had 18.  The current number stands at 12. 

Anyway, here's a rundown of the WIPs I've finished this year. 


1. Charity scarf--

2. Bubble Wrap socks:

3. Hurricane Hat:

4. Sport Weight Socks:

5. Braided Cable Tam:

I had one more WIP-- the sock that Jesse got ahold of.  I ripped and rewound it, to be cast on again at a later date. 

So, there you have it.  In three months, I've managed to reduce my number of WIPs by 30%.  Of course, now that I'm getting to the larger --as in lace-- projects, it won't go so quickly any more. 

And it won't go at all if I don't get off of here and get back to knitting!

Dear CoWorker

Normally, I'm not one to tell other people how to raise their children.  However, in your case, I really, really, really wish someone had made your mama teach you the value of personal hygiene. 

Thank you.

That is all.

A Thousand Words

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so just consider this a two thousand word blog post.

Eggs

Azalea

I'm getting kind of frustrated.  As I walked out to take my daily photo of the bird eggs, I checked on my plum trees.  The vines --both honeysuckle and poison ivy-- are starting to climb up the trunks again.  I want to get it all cut back, but boy do I not want to go through all this itching again.

This is one of the rare few moments I wish I had a man in my life.  If I did, I'd just say, "Honey, go get all that poison ivy out of my plum trees." 

And he'd say, "OK" and do it, because he loves me like that. 

You know it's true love when you'll take on poison ivy for a person. 

But, as there is no man in my life, I guess I'll just have to invest in a hazmat suit.  Anyone know where I can get one for cheap?

New Glasses

But first, let me do a WIP update, since it's been about 3 weeks since I've posted one. I'm going to try something different this time.  I'm going to bump the ones I actually worked on to the top of the list.  Maybe I won't lose you so quickly then. 


1.  Charity Scarf:  I've been working on this one some.

2.  Arwen Wrap:  and I worked a bit on this one, too.

3.  The 2010 Anniversary Mystery Shawl.  I did a few rounds on this. 

4.  2011 Anniversary Mystery Shawl.  But they all got set aside to finish up this one.  I've finally picked it back up, and made it a priority.  I finished chart 4 and have started chart 5.  There aren't that many rows left, but they are sooo long at this point that I only get a couple of rows a day finished.

5. Conwy sock:  No progress this week

6. Traveling Roses Scarf: No progress this week.

7. Garter Rib Scarf: No progress.

8. Fruit Of The Vine  scarf: Ditto.

9. Orkney Pi Shawl:  No progress

10.  Leper bandage: This is my new waiting project.  When I'm on my excruciatingly slow desktop and I'm waiting 20 years for a page to load, I pick it up and knit a row or two. 

11 & 12. The two sock yarn blankies. No new squares this week.

I took half a day off yesterday to go to the eye doctor.  He said my prescription hasn't changed, but he did give me a slightly stronger bifocal spot.  He said most people will just pull their glasses off to read, but I need to be able to see my lace and the TV at the same time.  And besides, it's been 2 1/2 years since I've gotten new glasses anyway, so might as well get ones that I can see through. 

I was disappointed, as usual, in the frame styles.  Most are tiny little coke bottle cap sized frames, and I can't stand them.  I've been hoping that bigger frames will come back into style, but so far, no luck.  I'm stuck peering through peephole sized lenses for a little while longer.

Well, somehow I thought I'd have more to say about that...

I love taking half days off--really even more than whole days.  There's just something about slinging my tool bag over my shoulder and walking out at lunch time.  I really ought to do that more often.

Just Stuff

I've been slipping out every day to take pictures of my eggs, though nothing is happening right now.

I finally got out there without all 50 dogs, and was able to get a glimpse of the mama bird. After I quick look around the internet, I managed to correctly identify her as a redwinged blackbird. That's what had me confused, since she is neither black, nor red winged. She looks rather like a big sparrow.

On the way back to the house, I stopped to check the plum trees, and look what I found.

Baby plums!

My steroids are already working.  My redness and swelling are already going down.  Unfortunately, one of the side effects of the steroids is already kicking in.  I'm starving.  All the time.  Well, there goes my diet.  Good thing I only got the 6 day course...

Dr. Reid is so funny.  I was going to include this in yesterday's post, but it just didn't work with the flow, so I'll tell you it here. 

I showed him how much the whelp on my right arm was poking out, and how red it was, and that it was hurting more than itching (he said sometimes they do that), and said,  "I decided I'd go to the doctor while I still could go to the doctor." 

That got him wound up.  He got to fussing and almost didn't stop.

He was fussing about the electronic records they're now required to keep, and all the doctors there hate it.  The only good thing about it is that he can send prescriptions straight to the pharmacy. 

He fussed about how they want to cap doctors' salaries.  He said it's a calling, but still there's got to be some incentive for young people to enter the field.  There's a lot involved in becoming a doctor-- he went to school until he was 30-- and he deserves to make more than a plumber or a ditch digger, but the government wants everyone to make the same amount of money no matter what they do. 

He fussed about how little Medicare pays, but he can't just not treat old people.  He said,  that's what we do."  He said it's a calling, it really is, but medicine already isn't what it used to be, and if things keep going the way they are, nobody's going to want to become a doctor any more.  He's already got himself a side business that he can fall back on if things become so onerous that he just can't stand it any more.  He can quit being a doctor and just do that. 

So, there you have it, straight from a real doctor's mouth to my ears.  Obamacare won't make anything better for anyone.  Not patients.  Not doctors. 

It MUST be overturned. 

Oh Yeah

Oh, yeah, I knew it was there.

I knew there was poison ivy in that there plum tree. I knew what it looked like. And I knew it was poison ivy I was yanking out of that there plum tree.

What I didn't know was that my long sleeved shirt and leather gloves wouldn't protect me from the poison ivy that was in that there plum tree.

It showed up yesterday morning. Big, itchy blotches over both forearms. The one on my right arm covered nearly half my forearm. The one on my left arm almost as big.

After a nearly sleepless night of itching, after waking myself up several times scratching, after lying awake to the sound of said poison ivy cackling maniacally at the Benadryl I was futilely bombarding it with, I decided this morning that I would go to the doctor and get something a little stronger, to clear it up a little faster.

Off to the doctor I went...

I saw Dr. Reid this time. He is a hoot. While my regular doctor, Dr. Armstrong, is fairly quiet, Dr. Reid will talk your ear off. He's a bit of a clown, too. First thing he said to me was, "Ah! Someone I can actually help! All these other people have been coming in here today, and I don't know what's wrong with them. But you, I can help."

I came home with some steroids, and some ointment and it's working already. But that's not important.

The key phrase in that story up above...can you guess what it is?

"I decided"

I decided. Yeah, I knew the poison ivy would clear up on its own in a couple of weeks. But I decided I didn't want to itch for a couple of weeks. I knew there was stuff available over the counter, but I decided I wanted to get the good stuff, even if it meant paying a little more.  I knew it wasn't a medical emergency, but I decided I didn't want to deal with it.  I knew it wasn't even remotely life threatening, but still I decided I wanted treatment.  I decided I wanted to feel better sooner, rather than later. 

So, I decided to go to the doctor.

Whether I will be able to make those decisions for myself in the future is being debated before the Supreme Court even now.  I don't hold out much hope, since one of the justices hearing the case wrote the law.  She wrote the flipping law and has refused to recuse herself from the case.  I guess we already know which way Obama's "wise Latina" is going to rule.

Here's a clue...not with the Constitution.

It's a frightening prospect, if the Supreme Court does not rule in favor of freedom.  Those kinds of decisions-- like the one I made today-- will be taken out of our hands, out of our doctors' hands, and placed in the hands of a faceless bureaucracy who sees you not as a person, not as a human being, but will weigh you in terms of an asset or a liability.

It will be he, not you, who will determine if you deserve medical treatment.  It will be he, not your doctor, who will decide what treatments are not the most effective, but the most cost effective.  It will be the government, not the physician,  who decides who receives medical treatments and what those treatments will be. 

It will be the government who will decide who lives and who dies.

And then, my friends, we will be under the thumb of a tyranny much greater than what our ancestors fought to throw off.

Our forefathers must be so ashamed of us.  They would have been shooting long before now.

Eggies!

We got off work a little early today, so when I got home, I took my handy dandy bucket of gardening tools out and worked some more on the trees in the back yard.  I've gotten the plum trees mostly cleared of poison ivy and honeysuckle-- at least as high as I can reach. 

So I started on the pear trees.  There I was, yanking away at the honeysuckle when all of the sudden my production came to a screeching halt. 

And there will said production remain halted until such time as the baby birds are able to leave the nest.

I'm going to try to sneak out and get pictures -- well, I'm going to try every day, though I don't know if I'll make it every day. I just hope I didn't rattle the mama too much and she abandons the nest. I tried to drape some of the vines I'd cut off back over the branches the way they had been, so that the nest was a little more sheltered.

We'll see. It'll be exciting to see if they do hatch. I've never watched baby birds hatch, except for when we had chickens, of course. Usually the nests are way too high.

This is going to be fun!

Good News

Good news on the work front.  They announced today that sales are exceeding their forecast, so maybe we'll get some decent overtime this year.  Just thought I'd throw that out there.

You know, our first production superintendent, Ray, well, he was crazy.  I mean, not quite right in the head.  OK, really not right in the head.  He had us working 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, PLUS 10 hours on Saturdays and Sundays.  I don't miss that at all.

I do miss those paychecks, though.

I was on second shift back then, and Cody was only 2.  I was working 3:00 PM to 3:00 AM.  A two year old doesn't understand that mommy needs to sleep in.

One day, at three in the morning, I was waiting to get off work and Ray waltzed by and said, "Are we all ready to go home and get 8 or 9 hours of sleep?"

I said, "Huh!  I wish I could get that much."  Ray asked how many hours of sleep I usually got, and I replied, "Three, if I'm lucky."   He just said, "Oh" and walked off, but the 12 hour shifts didn't stop.  Not until Ray got fired. 

No one knows for sure why.  Rumor has him getting caught stealing.  Other rumors have him getting caught sleeping with several of the employees.  I'm more inclined to believe the second one, because I knew for sure at least one woman out there was messing with him.  Ray's wife had never moved here when he got the job.  This woman was telling how she went over to his house one night and his wife answered the door.  (I don't remember what happened-- it was a long time ago.)

Ray wanted to buy my first trailer house.  I was OK with that, but told him he'd have to move it.  He didn't want that.  He wanted me to move into town and let him live in my house where it sat.  I explained that I didn't own that land.  My cousins do.  He said he'd pay lot rent.  I told him that they wouldn't do that to me.  They weren't going to make me pay lot rent in a trailer part while he sat there on that land.  So, he said I'd never get moved to day shift then...

When he left, the guy who took his place, Brent Burton, we all loved him.  I explained to him how Ray had done me, and Brent got me moved to day shift.  Good thing, too, because Cody started kindergarten that fall.  If I'd had stayed on second shift, I'd have never gotten to see him, because I'd have to be at work before he got out of school.  Then he'd be asleep before I got off work.  Those few minutes in the morning getting him ready would be it. 

Sheesh, who needs reality TV?  Life has enough drama as it is.

Anyway...

My little seeds are growing like weeds.  Unfortunately, this is where it gets iffy.  They usually sprout well, then after about two or three weeks, they just all die.  I've never figured out why.  I hope these do better.

Hi Jesse!!

No, he's not getting over his camera shyness. He was outside, and I took the picture through the window. But when I got the camera and tried to take a picture directly, he still went and hid.  I guess it's good my phone takes pretty decent photos.  At least he's not afraid of that. 

And finally, your quote for the day:

"There is a just God who presides over the destines of nations ... who will raise up friends to fight our battle for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. ... Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." --Patrick Henry on this day, 1775

Perfect

It's perfect.  This moment in time.  It's absolutely perfect.

It's one of those magical spring days when it's cool enough to open the windows, yet warm enough to leave them open.  So rare in the South where winter usually dives headfirst into summer. 

It's quiet.  I haven't turned the TV on at all.  The only sounds I hear are the soft singing of crickets, Rylea contentedly crunching her chewy stick, the almost inaudible click and scrape of my knitting needles.  An occasional car drives by. 

Jesse snores softly at my feet, the warmth of his fur comforting.  Inviting. I sink my toes into it.  Cozy.  Snuggly. 

Off in the distance a frog chirps, bringing a momentary wave of homesickness.

In a world in which I am constantly bombarded by noise, these moments are few and far between.  I must enjoy them while I can.

These few moments of quiet contentment.

These few moments of peace. 

The Kindle Is Watching You

Ever since I got my Kindle last spring, I've wanted to take it to work with me, so I can read on my lunch break.  However, working in a factory, I was kinda scared to do that.  What if it got broken or stolen?

But then, I figured out something.  I went to Amazon.com, downloaded the Kindle app to my phone, then a book to my Kindle app on my phone.  Yay!  I could read at work!

Thanks to a tip from a friend, when I got home yesterday evening, I was able to sync my Kindle to the same page I left off on the phone app.  I was rolling.  What I wasn't sure of, though, was how to sync my phone app to the Kindle.

At lunch today, I opened the app, all prepared to flick through the until I got to where I'd left off last night when I was greeted with a message that said

You read to page such and such on the device called Becky's Kindle last night at such and such o'clock.  Would you like to go to that page now?

Cool!  And a little scary.  My Kindle is watching me.

But the good news is I can read on my lunch break at work, now!  Without having to worry about the Kindle getting broken, or a book getting torn or grease stained.

Books.  You remember those.  The bulky things with the weird paper pages.

Yeah...those. 

Happy Vernal Equinox!

I would say happy first day of Spring, but Spring is already on the way out here.  The daffodils have quit blooming.  The plum and Bradford pear trees are green. 

And the temps are in the mid 80s. 

Nevertheless, according to the calendar, it is the first day of Spring, so Happy Spring!

Monday Blues

Part of the reason you no longer get witty and entertaining blog posts is because my computer has gotten so frustratingly slow.  I've done all the tricks-- defragging, clearing cache and cookies, etc, etc., but it hasn't helped.  So, by the time I get the page opened up and everything, I'm so aggravated that whatever it was I wanted to post about has long since fled my conscious.

I've got some pretty good stuff rolling around in my head, too.  I still haven't forgotten that book review, even though I've read two more books since then.

I've got one about a meme I've been seeing on FB, and one about judging people.

But for right now, you've just got to settle for some football talk-- and a music video at the end.

You know the Colts cut Peyton Manning, right?  Well, it seems he has finally settled on a team, the Denver Broncos.  Now the Broncos are looking to trade Tim Tebow.   I'm no expert, but this seems like a bad move to me.  After all, Peyton is getting on up there.  He'll be 36 on Saturday, which in football years is like 70.  Plus, he's had this neck thing going on that kept him out of the entire 2011 season.  There's no guarantee he'll be able to play again at all, much less up to the level he was playing before.

The good news is, Matt Flynn has signed with the Seahawks where he will compete with Tavaris Jackson for the starting job.  Matt is probably the most under rated QB in recent history.  The Packers didn't draft him until the 7th round, but by the end of training camp his rookie year, he'd beaten out second round pick Brian Brohm for the #2 spot.  By the end of the next training camp, the Pack cut Brohm.  They didn't need him.  They had Flynn.  Though he's only gotten two starts, he nearly pulled off the upset of the Patriots in 2010, and this past season he threw for 6 touchdowns in the season finale against the Detroit Lions.

And everybody forgets that he did win a National Championship when he was at LSU.

Yeah, I think he'll be OK.

Finally, the Cowboys have signed Kyle Orton to back up Tony Romo after Jon Kitna announced his retirement.  And the fans are once again displaying their stupidity in all its glory.  "Finally, someone to light a fire under Romo."  Morons.  Are you so ignorant of the game that you really think Romo needs someone to push him? Come on, the man played nearly an entire game with a punctured lung.  If that isn't enough fire for you, then there's no pleasing you. 

Another one that gets me is, "Come on, Jerry, loosen up the purse strings a little".  Dummy.  Don't you know there is such a thing as a salary cap?  Jerry can't loosen up the purse strings any more.  Especially not after Goodell slapped that $10 million fine on them for breaking a rule that wasn't a rule back when he broke it.  Besides that, the league approved every single contract during that uncapped year, and now, two years later, they want to say, "Oh no, you shouldn't have done what we said you could do."  So the other 30 teams (the Redskins were also slapped with a similar fine) get to share that money.  Even though they did the same thing and weren't penalized for it.

Sheesh, who needs reality TV when you have football?