Purple Thistle

Prickly purple thistle by the lake. Been busy at work and been reading books at home. Just finishing up July in an all too short summer. Looking at short term plans to go to a zoo and a lake. Long term plans for Hawaii? Maybe.

A d-fly

Dragon or damsel, I am not certain. I almost didn't see the flying insect while taking pictures of the lake yesterday. It stayed around until I got bored with photographing it. The sun was intense.

One lousy dinner

The above photo was taken today on my way back from working at a school. I used half of my lunch hour to stop by the lake and catch some pictures. It was hot and I paid for this endeavor in the way of obtaining a sun-induced headache.

We had about twenty family members at dinner last evening in the Garden of Olives. It was by far the lousiest food I have eaten in a restaurant that I can ever remember. I ordered the Mixed Grill. Steak and chicken with potatoes. It was as if the potatoes had sat out all day. They were dry, tough and tasteless. The chicken and steak were not much better. The meat was covered with what I can only describe as a beef powdered gravy mix that did not have enough water added because it was almost pure salt.

I did not complain. Usually I would have. I was with twenty people who were obviously enjoying their dinner. I was not paying for the meal. I ate what I could and told the waiter twice that "No, I do not care to have what is left on my plate boxed up to take home." Even I have limits as to what I will place in my garbage.

I wasn't there for the food, anyway. I must remember if I am ever again caught at this particular restaurant, to stick with Italian cuisine.

Night sky

This was a quick, unplanned photo of the sky last night when I let Sable out to do her business. No tripod. That explains the neighbor's light at the bottom right corner that is shaken up pretty badly.

I must have a new newspaper delivery person because my Sunday morning paper isn't here yet. Sigh. Sometimes I like to grab my morning coffee, the Sunday paper and sit on my patio while reading.

I have an older relative coming in from out of state for dinner today. So far 18 family members are meeting him. We are concerned because he always foots the bill for this dinner and we always feel weird about it. My sister and I are making photos of the family up for him. She is getting him a gas card and a restaurant card. I'll think of something. He is driving to Colorado after this visit. He has no family. He is my Mom's half brother.

I received a letter from my sister in prison. A while back she asked me to send her information on Helen Keller. She was required to do an oral report on a strong woman, and Helen was her choice. I guess I sent too much. What I failed to realize is that somebody must read all the data sent to inmates and I must have sent 30 Internet pages. They have over 2,500 inmates there. Oops. Unfortunately, my visitor papers got tossed. They let my sister have a couple of the pages about Helen and tossed the rest.

I have to go on-line and fill the paperwork out again. Delays, delays. Things were different this last go round. When she was out for three months over the holidays she did not imbibe. One sister and I have decided to visit her this time. Along with her children, of course.

My daughter and I saw The Dark Knight on Friday. I am wary of watching movies in the theater. It has to be a good day. The volume of the sound and the fast moving of the images can trigger a migraine. It worked out well. The movie was "eh". I didn't like Maggie Gyllen. in this role. I like her in other movies. I didn't care for watching half of the movie with one guy showing half of his face burned off. This grosses me out. I would have liked to have seen more of Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. I really liked Gary Oldman in this role. I just checked as to where I have seen Christian Bale before. Little Women. I watched 3:10 to Yuma but I don't recall his role in it.

I got a surprise when I opened my cell phone bill. My daughter got a Blackberry this last time and I checked twice with workers there to make sure she could IM and access the Internet for free. I got it straightened out. Billing error. It is all covered under our plan. Unlimited texting, IM'ing etc... Sheesh! I guess I won't be turning them over for automatic payment anytime soon.

Big hug

Someone has been wanting to visit where "Sable the coffee table" lives. He came today after spending the day at the lake nearby. One I have many photos of. He wanted to see the bird, explore downstairs and kept opening my refrigerator.

It was a long day. I started out by returning to the dentist. One of my fillings from (probably 40) years ago had cracked and needed re-filled. I did this on Monday. By the time the Novocaine wore off I noticed that one tooth was rough. Covered in something. When you roll your tongue over your teeth usually you feel smooth like that of a glass stone. I do, anyway. I was rolling my tongue over my teeth when I felt smooth, smooth, smooth, sandpaper, smooth, smooth. What the heck? I tried brushing it away.

I called the office the next morning. If it was still there by Thursday, come in at 7:30 before work. I was there at 7:28. The dental hygienist couldn't see anything, but she scraped away. Every time she would stop and say "How's that?" I could still feel sandpaper. Both the outside and inside of the tooth. Not the part where you bite down. The overall surface of the tooth.

She was getting exasperated with me. She called the doctor in. He scraped, he buffed, he polished. Each time was the same. I began to feel very guilty. At least he did say he "heard" something when I scraped my finger against the enamel. Finally he said if he did any more he was worried he would damage the enamel.

I said "As long as it isn't hurting anything, I guess I'll get used to it."

What can I do? It is better than what it was and I will get used to it. It isn't like I am going to tell him to keep scraping away.

Of course I was very tensed up and I twisted my neck again. After that ordeal I went to work and installed a switch in a school wiring closet.

The room is hot. I have come to realize that the humans making the decision to air condition the office where the administration personnel sit, are the same ones who say there will be NO air conditioning for the computer equipment that runs the network. Out of sight, out of mind. Until it stops and then it is too late. The way heat damages electronic equipment is little by little. Getting hot, expanding, overheating, cooling and contracting. Over and over again. Mix in some dust and time and pretty soon the equipment is toast.

Anyway, the technician of the school had to leave and I was left by myself. I have to hold this equipment above my head. Balance it with my left hand while I screw heavy bolts into the rack with my right hand. This did not help my neck.

By the time I got to my office I was overheated, overwrought and in pain. A co-worker from the home office called to say they had an emergency. They had tried to call me. I had forgotten to take my work phone with me.

But, they were more interested in where my office co-worker was. They could not find her. "Tell me about it!" I snapped. "It is a daily occurrence for me!" Ah. So much for me keeping my mouth shut. She overslept. It is not looking good for her. She has been eating pain stick lollipops for about two years. She said she didn't know how she overslept.

I scoffed. Let's see. She comes in late every day to work. The home office is oblivious. She is a smoker and she says she is going out for a cigarette and returns 90 minutes later. Three times a day. Along with the lo!!ipops she wears pain p@tches. The last time she shared information with me (she finally got smarter and stopped bragging about all of her drugs, I mean medication) she was also taking muscle relaxers and X@nax.

How awful. She is driving a vehicle. I am fairly certain all of her medication has been prescribed by a doctor or doctors. She feels as if she is doing nothing illegal. Perhaps so, but would you ride in her car with her driving? Do you want to be on the road when she is driving? She slurs her speech when she talks. Her family has washed their hands of her. She has one guy that hangs around. A partner in crime, I suspect. She mentions that he has given her "pills" when she runs out of medication. (Throw that remark out about all meds being doctor prescribed.) He is a maintenance employee of a hospital. Interesting. He was close to losing his job a few months back, but I am not clearly certain as to why. I know that he was on a medical leave of absence. Something about his knee.

What really amazes me is how some folks who are hooked on pain killers keep having accidents or operations to obtain more of the drug. From what I can see, just shop around until you find a doctor that doesn't care. Sounds like they are a dime a dozen.

My blue heaven

This is the sky from my backyard a month or so ago. I am in heaven at work.

Just a quick "Hi!"

Been busy doing outside work this evening. Just time for a quick "Hi all!" before getting ready to retire for the evening.

Bee nice

I don't have a fear of them as some folks do, but I give them lots of room and respect. This photo is over a month old. I have not taken any photos in the past week. Just the horses in a field near our house.

On June 26th I posted a story about work. When I was told to clean out the garage on a very hot day. Dirty, hot and lifting heavy equipment is not my idea of a good time. I was short with my boss, I was short with everyone.

About 3 weeks later, he gives me an evaluation. I am thinking my last eval was over 5 years ago. He gave me a bad rap on my manners and my attitude with co-workers. I told him to give me an example. He cited that I was short with him that day. I blasted him. We went back and forth for about 10 minutes. It was not pretty. I signed the eval and was done with it.

I stewed for a couple of days. I considered writing a rebuttal but just thought it would stir things up. It occurred to me later that perhaps he gave me an eval to get back at me for being short with him. Who knows? Like I said it was hot, dusty and I was lifting heavy equipment. A couple of co-workers laughed at me (which I told my boss). My co-worker (a diabetic and recovering from a serious heart attack was the only one assigned to help me). And, they wanted Miss Congeniality? So I was short with him, big hairy deal. One day in 5 years and this is what he bases my eval on?

Besides, the person over his head is the same gal I got into confrontations with in 2005. When she was the manager of another department. She was attempting to manage everybody and I didn't take kindly to it. She got the last laugh, now she is the director over all of us. I've more or less mended fences with her.

I run into this at most every job I work at. I am a good worker. That's why they keep me around. But, I don't kowtow. Insecure managers have a problem with that. And sooner or later I butt heads with them. I am a repeat offender. I do recognize the behavior and I do get better at it with each job. Usually, I move on because my nerves, health and mental well being are affected. I take my job very seriously and I am proud of what I do. When I have to deal with managers like this, I get depressed and wonder why I put up with it. It gets harder to move on every time as you can imagine.

I have to work through it and get through it. I sit every day, every week, every month and watch a co-worker sleep her way through the day. I pointed out to my manager that day of the eval that if he hears any complaints about me not speaking to her, let it be known that if she talks about work, I will answer her every time. But when it comes down to what color or shade do I think she should get for her kitchen counter, sometimes I am not so nice. I let her have it the other day. I told her "I don't care! I REALLY don't!" She sniffled a little bit and picked up all her samples and put them away. This is what she does all day long! She clearly does not have enough work to keep her day occupied. But, she gets all the accolades because she is a mammoth kowtower. We are in a remote office and it is more or less the honor system for us to keep a good work ethic. I know, I know. I have peace of mind knowing that I am doing the right thing. It just builds up and gets to me over the years and I have to purge it out. So, it is out. Move on.

On a side note, I am not a prude. If a co-worker talks to me about home stuff, I listen. But there is a limit and a mature person should know this. I am talking hours here. HOURS of nonstop, chatty, diarrhea of the mouth.

My schools (my clients) have not one bad word to say about me. This is what I base my evaluation on. Co-workers and managers be damned. Peruby may bend a little, but she is not changing. Not now, not in the near future. If you rub me the wrong way, I let you know it. And most of the time, not in a nice way. Get over it. You're a manager for Pete's sake. I figure it was a "pecking order" scenario happening here. He got pecked on and he needed to peck on somebody else to make himself feel better. This chick pecks back.

Something peeking at me again

As I took photos of my hydrangeas a few weeks back, I notice somebody hiding in the flower pedals again. But not until I get the memory card inside and blown up on my computer screen. Sheesh! I am glad I don't see them when I am taking the pictures. I would never get down on the ground or very close to the flowers. This was zoomed in from a safe distance. I don't really know what it is.

I finished reading my books from the library. If I get into a book, I usually spend every free second devouring it. I come from a long line of book lovers. I just can't accept our library being noisy and tacky. I am going to try again to pick maybe a less busy time to go and read the magazines that I am interested in.

I watched a few minutes here and there of JitH over the week-end. There is a local channel that covers it every year. The performers looked miserable. They put on a good show, but you couldn't mistake the fact that they could not keep the sweat out of their eyes. I know how it feels to be mowing and having the sweat sting and burn the eyes. I am sure they had air conditioning before and after their act, but I didn't watch too much of the audience. What a hot sweltering mass of human sweating flesh. I cannot think of anything enjoyable about this event at all. Each to their own.

I chose air conditioning. Big house repairs coming up. I am getting one basement wall re-enforced this summer and getting my gutters checked. I had some rain come in under my root cellar and the wall has water damage to it. They are going to place wall anchors for support and run a drain along the bottom to my sump pump. Then I get to clean the root cellar with Clorox to erase the mold and mildew that has surfaced. I hate this type of cleaning. I'd pay somebody any day to do this. I am going to have to wear face masks. Fun stuff.

Little Horse

A couple of blocks away from our house is a field where horses are boarded. I have not see more than three in there at a time. There are three in there now, and some goats in the barn. I can hear them. They want me to come and free them. Or feed them. I am not sure which.

This little fella came up to the fence. When he discovered I had a camera in my hand instead of a carrot or a nice juicy apple he wandered off. Back to the grass. He had some friends up in the left corner of the fenced in area. Deer were playing up there. Too far for my small point and shoot to grasp a decent picture.

Today I travelled south a little for work. At lunch I ran into a group of rowdy, young tanned folks. They were all wearing colorful beads (ala Mardi Gras style) and bandannas and hats. I asked them where they were from or where they were headed. Jamboree in the Hills!

Ugh. I have a story about that. 28 years ago. I was there. With pictures like this, this, this and this, you will want to stay away. Far away. "Let's check each other for ticks" must be the words in a country song. Red necks, white socks and blue ribbon beer.

1980. I worked in an office in an automotive/hardware store. My sister and her husband decided to go to JItH. I was not used to the hot sun. I was inside air conditioning 6 days a week. The 7th day I usually went shopping with my Mom in a cool mall somewhere.

My sister worked at Sweet Williams. My brother decided to come along. A friend of my sister's husband decided to come along. My brother, sister's husband and friend rode motorcycles. We would meet them at the mall near JitH. I would pick my sister up at Sweet Williams after she got off work on a Saturday night. We would drive down, spend the night along the road and go to JitH on Sunday. I was 20. I could sleep in a sleeping bag along the road.

I went to pick my sister up. What a surprise. She was bringing a boyfriend. This ought to be interesting. Oh, boy. After two hours we finally met up with the rest of our party. My sister and her boyfriend drank all the way down. What I didn't know is that they both took a queaaude. Real nice.

Well, my brother-in-law was mad as a wet hornet. He took off on his bike with his friend following close behind. We didn't see them until later the next day. My brother-in-law is a REAL red neck. He had native American blood and his neck would turn beet red when he got angry.

After very little sleep, my brother, my sister, her stupid boyfriend and I checked into JitH. Boy was it hot. I was not even close to being exposed to the sun that summer. I was broiling. I couldn't even drink beer because I was so miserable. I thought I was going to die.

It got worse. My brother had enough. He left for home on his bike. I was stuck with 2 coolers of beer and my sister's stupid boyfriend. Everybody else had abandoned me. My sister took off and ended up going home with some other boyfriend she knew. My brother-in-law ended up in jail because he got drunk (wouldn't you?) and hit a security guard.

I got her stupid boyfriend back to the mall and vowed that I would NEVER, EVER go to JitH's again. It is a vow I have kept.

Exposed to the elements

Every summer I place my old CD player out on my patio. I get it out before my party so we have music. It sits in the middle of the patio so if rain comes in on either side, it usually is safe. This past week we go such a downpour it got wet. Whoops. I am giving it a good week of sunshine to dry out before I try it this week-end.

Not been blogging because I have been reading. I checked out "The Mistress's Daughter" by A.M. Homes and "Crazy in Alabama" by Mark Childress. Funny thing is the movie "Crazy in Alabama" came on the other day and I had to watch it. I liked it. Melanie Griffith has a black wig, and I am not sure why. Her character in the book was blond. So far. Maybe she dyes her hair. I have not gotten very far.

And, I have been fixing a friend's laptop. She had a very annoying problem. The browser kept opening up and starting by itself. Window after window would open up at random. It was very annoying. I finally fixed it using a program called Malwarebyte Anti-malware from "www.besttechie.net". Great program. Fixed it after trying many other promised fixes.

And, I had unexpected company come to town. She is an older friend that isn't doing well, but tries to get out once a year with her daughter and grandson. This year they went to Amish country and stopped in to see me for the day. She can't breathe well in the hot, humid air.

So, July is flying by. As I knew it would after my party.

Drawing water

Here is my great grandfather drawing water from a well. I have no idea what year it is.

Techno Geeks

Above photo was taken November 2007. Nice drive, nice day.

We are currently dealing with new cell phones. My daughter picked a Blackberry Pearl. I get her hand-me-down. (Razr). Let's face it. I want it for a phone tool. Period. She IM's, texts, takes pictures. She can text quicker than she can talk. See Sunday's (7/06/08) comic strips "Foxtrot" and "Zits". It is a craze.

Summertime Blues

Once again Sable provided the backdrop for a photo of my flowers. She always knows just went to walk behind them (or in front of them). I checked back and have shown a photograph of all my flowers except the tiger lily. My hydrangea has about seven full lavender blooms on it, so I'll have to recapture it soon, also.

Whew. Another party in the past. I was wiped out. It was a great crowd and the weather was perfect. Half of the amount of people that I had last year. I had 20, and it was all family except for a couple and it worked out great. I had more than enough food and drink. The fireworks were not all that great except until the end. My dog decided to shoot across the yard and (almost) into the street during the show, but we stopped her. I have no idea why she was running or where she wanted to go. We have very little traffic, but I still didn't want her running into it.

I just finished cleaning up the kitchen today. Food that can be frozen has been put into the freezer. I gave as much away as I could. My Italian sausages in the crock pot were another big hit this year. I made double the amount as last year so that I did not run out. Everybody who wanted one, got one. I also fixed corn on the cob this year.

I may visit a brother who could not make it to the party and take him a basket of food. I was left with a lot of pop, also. I had tea and beer. People tended to drink that more than the pop. I have a going away party today and it's back to work tomorrow. It may take me all week to recover. I have been running on 5 hours of sleep an night for about four days straight. I always feel like I need a nap. My cats are trying to get me to, but I always see something that needs done.

One other thing that kept the level low this year was my party was on a Saturday night. Three sets of family had a party on Friday night to attend and they were not as into the drinking and craziness this year. So that kept it low key. (Probably to my advantage).

It was a great time and I am ready to enjoy the rest of July. I think I ate enough this week-end to last me all month. LOL! I didn't make it to the festival over the hill in our town, but my daughter went a couple of times. No pictures. I was just too darn busy. If my nephew or my sister sends any, I'll post one or two of them.

Welcome

Yes, it's "made in China." But, it was a gift. When I make a birthday list I usually ask for yard ornaments (mostly red, white & blue for my party) and I take what I get. I really like the sign and it hangs by my back door (friends and family know to use my back door) and welcomes everyone.

Well, the weather has dampened my progress again. Along with the rains come the headaches. Both daughter and I are experiencing general malaise because of it.

Although the weather channel did change Saturday's forecast to partly cloudy/sunny instead of isolated t'storms. We'll see.

Agape

In between mowing, weed eating, trimming, and pulling thistles yesterday, I took breaks inside the house and let the air conditioning cool me down. (I love it when the headaches go away!)

On one so called break, I played with the youngest of our feline clan (Titten). We purchased a feather toy at the pet shop on one of our many trips lately trying to get this aquarium up and running. My daughter has researched her project on the Internet to the point of obsession. It reminds me of the hypochondriac who has been given a medical book. They believe that they have every illness by reading the symptoms. Well, it's "her fish have this", or "she needs to do that", now she needs a new heater because she thinks the first one is malfunctioning. Good grief.

Here is the full photo of Titten biting the feather toy.

Morning light on a hydrangea

Yeah. I'm supposed to be cleaning out a back bedroom. You know how it is. It is vacation and I want to play first. I was outside for over an hour, capturing the light on my flowers. Until the ants got to me. I lay down to get shots of the flowers from underneath and while snapping the tiger lilies, I may have disturbed an ants nest. It didn't freak me out, I got some pretty good shots, but I still like the morning light peeking at this hydrangeas blossom through my huge lilac bush.

It appears as if we get a break from the rains today. My head is fuzzy from the last three days of taking migraine medicine. I hope it clears up soon.

Work had to call me yesterday for a problem. I had the solution on my PC. My co-worker in my office did not remember my password to get in. It is no wonder. I gave it to her six years ago. She sounded drunk on the phone. Slurred speech and she kept mixing her words up. She doesn't drink. She is on high levels of pain medication.

I wonder if I am the only one who notices it.

Well, I must get started. Time is marching on and is not waiting for me.