Shaking our heads

The above photo is lifted from the Internets. It is not the school construction site I visited yesterday. But, this is pretty much what a construction site looks like when a new school building is being built. If you have never visited one, you can probably imagine the mess.

So I go there yesterday morning to meet with the School tech and the telco (telephone company) that is supplying the fiber. The telco arrives with no hard hat and open toed shoes and she did not bring any equipment. Then she asks us if the fiber has been installed. Really? Your organization is supplying the fiber and you don't know?

The tech can provide her with a hard hat, but there is nothing we can do about the shoes. She is not permitted on the property.

I saw later that the room was not near ready for any equipment, but she didn't bring it anyway.

This left the school tech and I shaking our heads. WTH? She just drove out here for a joy ride? The tech and I had another meeting and she gave me a tour of the building and I at least was able to see where our equipment would go even if they are not ready for us.

It just reaffirms my yesterday post about some organizations and their business practices.

Seriously

I have worked with telcos (slang for telephone companies) for almost 20 years. Now, I am working with fiber optic organizations. I am serious when I tell you this. Telco workers always had to come back to finish the job. They never did a complete installation in one trip. There was always "I need a part, I'll have to come back tomorrow (or next week)".   It was to pad their hours. It had to be. Every single time the tech would pull this. It was not always the same tech.

I can remember one tech bragging on a Wednesday that he already had his forty hour week in. He said (with pride and glee in his voice) - everything from here to the end of the week is overtime! He almost sang it.

I am curious to see how fiber optic techs handle such installations for fiber. I am meeting a tech at a school today. This is my first time working with this company. I hope they don't waste my time or the school personnel time (all tax payer money) with their greed.

8th Birthday party

This one (a new big brother) had his 8th birthday party yesterday. He is diagnosed with @sberg3r $yndr0me. I typically have fun with children by teasing them. I had to be careful with this one. When I told him I got him a pink tutu and pink fingernail polish he became quite upset. Then he looked at me and said "Are you joking with me?"  I smiled and said "Yes."

He is high maintenance but he is adorable. His mom looked exhausted. She had "baby brain".  The article I linked to speaks of controversy of baby brain. Well, I think it exists, if only because of sleep deprivation and stress. Day after day, night after night and a high maintenance sibling to cope with. She was stressed.

For some reason I have a lot of luck with their new little pink bundle of joy and I sat with her while the Mom was able to enjoy the party. Their sweet new baby would fuss (she wanted fed and this was something I was unable to do - wink, wink) so I let her suck on my finger. Yuck! Thank God I don't smoke. She won't take a Binky (not sure the parents want her to) and she is not on any bottle feeding at this time.

She is a sweet baby - but wait. This post is about the big brother, darn it. He loves gadgets. He was focused on his presents (as most 8 year old children would be) and he tore through them and opened them as fast as he could. Then after the party, he went through all of them again. I got him a bag of "stuff".  I believe at that age they like quantity over quality. He already got big gifts from parents, grandparents etc... I went for the fun stuff.

I got him a spy set and a bag of little things. I did tease him about getting him rings. He said "I hate rings!"  I told him you will love these rings. He said "Are you joking with me?"  I shook my head and said "No, I really got you rings."  He groaned. I actually got him "ring pops." Of course, he loved them.

There was a cook out, cake and a piñata. I missed the piñata because I was holding little sister. I did not mind one iota. She is the kind of baby who will stretch, make a face, fuss, cry a wee bit and then smile and go back to sleep.

Ack! Here I am talking about the wee baby again! I am enchanted with her.

Good thing she is over a two hours drive away or I would be there every day wanting to hold her. Sheesh!

To get the "ñ" for the word piñata, hold the Alt key down (Windows machines only) and ensure your Num Lock is on. Using the keypad, (and still holding the Alt key down), type 164.

Atl + 164  =   ñ

For a list of all Ascii characters, go to:  http://www.theasciicode.com.ar/.

Enjoyment

As my daughter did years ago, my great niece always brings a friend along when going somewhere with family. It is much easier for two girls to entertain themselves than for adults or one adult to constantly keep the child from getting "bored".

And, as with my daughter and her friend - the children enjoy the pool of the motel and the motel room romping just as much (if not more) than the scheduled activity. LOL!

Uprooted

There was a lot of this after the Ef1 tornado a couple of weeks ago. This was in my brother's yard in the small town where the tornado hit. In my town (11 miles away) we had many, many trees like this. Some fell on houses and some on cars.

Dirty

This was (by far) one of the dirtiest phone sets I have ever seen in a $200 a night motel room. They sent me an e-mail survey and I told them about the phone and that I thought the furniture was old and worn. (Gross!)

They published my survey, but alas - it is lost as the only below average comment in a sea of Excellent rating posts. Sigh.

Rock on!

Her daddy (nephew June 78) is a rocker. Sings in a rock and roll band. Looks like she is saying "Rock on da-da! Rock on!"

You may Pass..

I have never needed a passport before now. I've only traveled to Canada. About five times or so in my life. I am going again next month. I received my passport yesterday much to my sisters' relief. I won't have to stay on the American side and wave at them from across the falls.

I have been to the falls quite a few times. Probably five times (every time I have been to Canada). It is not a big deal for me. I am going to be with family and have fun. I could care less if I see the falls one.more.time or ride the Maid.  

Now, I can pass the border with them.

Hey, who knows? Maybe this will start me on a voyage of trips outside of our borders. Bahamas, Cancun, Italy, Australia - here I come! Hah! Don't count on it. Something tells me a little thing called money may be stopping me.

Nice to have ice

This photo of an ice maker I found online is exactly like the one we have at the office building where I work. I say it this way because as most of you know, I am not employed by the office I work in. My paycheck comes from another organization in another county.

My office was moved months ago downstairs next to the kitchen area. I was (am) very happy with the move. To hear some tell it, I am lucky they give me an office to use.  Again - this arrangement was made by two guys in 1995 - one has passed and another retired to Arizona. The office move has many advantages to me. The only negative was I lost a window. I deal with it.

I venture into the kitchen to wash out my coffee cup. I notice the sink is full of ice. One of the managers at this building dumps the over-full ice into the sink when it gets too full and begins to freeze into a big block. I personally believe that this ice machine is too much for the few employees at this location. Especially during the summer months when more than half of the staff are gone.

I heard drip, drip, drip. I checked on the table that this ice maker was on. Seeing that water had pooled around the bottom, I grabbed some paper towels and wiped it up. Soon realizing I was going to need more than paper towels, I began to look for the dish towels. There were none. I don't know where they go. I remember there were some (I even brought a couple in). Somebody takes them  home to wash them and never brings them back. Sigh.

I went to the utility room next to the kitchen. There were some old rags the cleaning ladies use. I used them to mop up the water.

I also wiped out the empty machine because there was a lot of water laying in the bottom of the unit. So I am thinking to myself "Okay. Somebody empties the ice in the sink, leaves the unit open (they did unplug it) and walks away and does not come back to check on it. Whatever!

Satisfied, I go back to my office. A couple of hours later I check and the rags are soaked and saturated and more water is leaking out. I tell the manager that empties the ice maker. She looks it over. Humph.

I lay the rags in the utility room sink to dry and look for something - anything to mop up water. There was a brand new dry mop (the kind schools and big buildings use to sweep floors) and laid that next the the leaking part of the ice maker.

I check it the next morning after I get to work two hours late due to a migraine. I missed talking to the custodian who works from 5 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.  The mop I used was saturated. I tell that manager again. She asks one of the "guys" to look at it. The "guys" are the manly men in the office. (Excuse me while I stereotype here, but education and tech usually do not produce big muscles and brawn). I know the "guys" resent being asked to do all the lifting, hauling and manual labor.

I buy this one a pop and hand him my screw drivers (because this office does not have any tools whatsoever).  I ask if we should unplug the unit while he does this. He says "na".  I say  should we unplug it anyway? He said that wouldn't stop the water. The water would just keep coming in and it would still leak. I said "Then let's turn off the water."  He said "Can't. The valve is broke." He shows me where the water tube feeds directly into the water pipe on the other side of the wall. He takes the back off the unit and we don't see anything that can be put back on or replaced. . I go back to my office. He leaves the back off the unit and never comes back.

I find a dry rag and shove it under the ice maker.

The next morning I see the custodian. He said he saw the back off the unit and thought somebody else was fixing it. I said "He didn't find anything." The custodian said "Well, I don't know what to do." And he walked away. Sigh.

I got mad. I looked at the unit. The rag was soaked and more water was spreading across the table. There is a microwave on the table.

Now, the kitchen is used quite often during the school months. During the summer it is mostly just people passing through. I think we have one ice user during the summer. Maybe two.  I know this from hours sitting at my desk and hearing that loud noise when somebody shoves a plastic cup into a huge container of ice. Maybe once a day during the summer - if that. The two ice users do not say anything or just ignore this issue.

I marched up to the front of the building. The superintendent is talking to a couple of employees. Not work related, so I did not feel bad interrupting. When they pause and look at me, I tell them the situation. I said "It has been days. Nobody is fixing it." I told them I put rags under it, blah, blah, blah.

The superintendent goes back to look at it. He comes back up and says he smells mold. I said I didn't smell anything. I go back to my office. I see the superintendent go back to the kitchen later that day. I am out of rags.

I notice that afternoon that the rag is still saturated. The water has now spread under the microwave. I sigh again.

That evening happens to be one of our "Gals night out".  The office ladies get together once a month and go out to a restaurant for a meal and some casual talk or gossip. The topic of the ice maker comes up. I said something. The superintendent's secretary says something. I said "Didn't Mr. Super arrange for somebody to come in and fix it?"  She slowly moved her head in a side to side motion - the universal signal for "no". I also read between the motions and saw "He's an idiot."

OMG! I told them there was water all over the table and under the microwave. I could not believe it. She just shrugged. The lady next to me said she would have her husband come in tomorrow (today - Friday) and look at it.

I just can't believe it. I can't. Do they just stick their heads in the sand?

Giggle or snicker?

I don't know guys. About this one. Pre School teacher is cautioning his Mom that this one has a bit of covert malice in his nature.

He is an only child.

Now, the other nephew's boys? They beat on each other something horrible. Talk about your hostile tendencies. When they get to school they are loud and physical. Nothing covert about them.

But this one? He is quiet and sly about it. Hmmmm.

This is all here say. I have not witnessed it myself.

Eatin' a bit of crow

I had to eat a little crow yesterday. Blah!

Seems I didn't know everything.

Imagine that.

What I posted  yesterday is still spot on. That post was about attempting to help an end user use the ftp program to transfer a file to her PC at home.

This incident that I am speaking of is something she said about a different application that I said "No, that isn't how that works." Un-related to ftp. She was right about that and I was wrong.

Sigh.

Well, when I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong. And I offer an apology.

Now, excuse me while I go brush my teeth.

Secede

I have worked with computers and people for years. YEARS.

I have been praised up one side and down the other for my teaching ability and my demeanor when training or explaining how to do something.

I always thought I was stellar in this respect.

I love what I do and I genuinely want to help people.

Yesterday, Wachte1 has proven me wrong.

Yesterday,  I seceded the session over to her.

Her ability to play dumb to win has completely squashed my ability to succeed in getting a program to work. Now, this is over the telephone.

If I were sitting right there at her laptop, it would have worked.

Me thinks she was blocking our success for whatever reason. I have worked long enough to recognize when somebody is playing dumb about what they are actually doing on a computer.

At one point she has no idea how to do something, but forty minutes later she did that (and more) with no prompting from me.

Hmmmmmm.

Hydrangeas

It has been a very good year for flowers. I have not added the aluminum to my hydrangea plant for a while, so the flowers are purple. They would probably be total pink if I didn't add the aluminum.

The plant is getting very big. I purchased another, but as I may have told you - killed it by adding too much aluminum. Hence why I don't add any recently.

I wanted to get a big hydrangea line going along the front of my patio.

The plant (the first one) is half hidden behind the lilac bush. The instructions said to plant in partial shade, so it could be that the others wouldn't do that well anyway because they would have total sun.

I've killed one earwig, two spiders and what looked like a tiny white/green aphid since I brought the flowers in. Yuck!

Crumbled

And this was the GOOD side of the fire station.

My brother and his wife's family were toned out Wednesday early evening in their little town to sound the tornado alarm. They man the fire department as volunteers.

They got in one blast before they themselves were hit.

The other side of the station was much worse than this side.

The building is a total loss.

Thankfully, there were no injuries.

Clean up and recovery will be a long haul.

Oh, and an interesting tidbit. Just after the six nearly lost their lives, they actually drove through town helping others in need because that is what they do. They are there when nobody else is. They do not get paid.

Now, granted - some are grand standers and glory seekers. My brother admits that he gets a "rush" when there is trouble or a disaster (or wince - a car wreck). Most of the volunteers do. That is what drives them. And for that little bit of "rush" or glory seeking - bless them. Dealing or living with their "rush" is a small price to pay.

My brother does state one thing. Most marriages will not survive unless both are involved in the volunteer entity. That fire station is (was) their second home. It consumes them. If one spouse is not involved, they feel left out. Perhaps that "rush" is an addiction of sorts.

I remember back in the early 80's my employer made the remark that he didn't understand volunteer fire fighters.

I made no comment at the time. Two of my brothers were volunteers at that time in my little town fire department.

It was later that I came to realize that some people just don't get it. He was a businessman. He was out for himself. Greed ruled his life. He never had any empathy for others.

Sort of like torture

First of all let me load up on the good stuff. The nice words. The performance of "The Lion King" was stellar. The players were spot on and brilliant. I cannot say enough about them. Every move, every note, every word was perfect. And then some. The humor was great. Except I never laughed. Not once.

The beauty of the theatre was beyond compare. This building had age and grace on its side and every detail was exquisite. The chandelier was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

The ugly. I was miserable. I could not wait until the show was over. I have never been in such an uncomfortable theatre in my life.

There is NO leg room. I even had an aisle seat. I was able to stretch one leg out onto the side stairs. Others around me were just as uncomfortable. They said so. They squirmed. It got to the point where I was praying for the intermission. As it were, they timed the intermission at 3/4 the way through the performance and when we returned it was zip, zip and the show was over. The feeling in my left leg was not pain. It was so uncomfortable that I could not bear it. But it really wasn't pain.

And it was hot. The sweat was rolling down my back and my neck. There was plenty of air out in the lobby, but none in the theatre.

Since I purchased my daughters' ticket on line they sent an e-mail and asked about my experience. I told them. I told them it was the most uncomfortable show I have ever set through. I could not wait for the performance to end.

I will never recommend or return to the State Theatre in Playhouse Square in Cleveland Ohio again unless they revamp their air conditioning and rip out the seats and add more leg room.

One family member said "But what if they are upset at your review and send you free tickets to a future performance?"  I said "That's easy. I'll give them away."  And hey - I won't hold my breath. I lay odds I don't even get a response back.

Google is (was) down

Like Black Hawk Down and White House Down, yesterday Google was down.

Here is the link to see if Google is having issues:

http://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status&ts=1373538185087

Blogger is a part of Google. It was July of last year that I created my similar blog page on wordpress.com. Have not had much problem since then, so no need to jump over. Yet.

Give me a break!

Seriously. At the bottom is Patrick Wilson and on the top we have Cole Hauser. I get these two mixed up in movies all the time!

Anyway, Hauser is in one of the movies I watched this past week-end, Wilson is not.

White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen.

Two (almost) identical movies.

WHD written by James Vanderbilt, stars Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Richard Jenkins. Child in peril is a little girl.

OHF written by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Dylan McDermott, and Cole Hauser. Child in peril is a little boy.

Wilson is not in either movie, but I never know which one is which (Cole and Patrick) until I look up the movie in imdb.com.

Which is the better movie? Hell if I know. Haven't we had enough of the shoot 'em up violence? People get mowed down like grass in both films. The rifle (or automatic weapons) shoot them, blood spurts out - we hear that godawful sound of splunk when the bullet rips their body tissues apart and pieces of human flesh fly all around the screen. Fun stuff!

Both movies tell of terrorists over-taking the white house and kidnapping the president. OHF got really graphic in beating up a woman. Not pretty and not pleasant. 

Both movies threatened to shoot the main characters over and over again, while the lesser characters got shot first glance. The terrorist threatens an agent. The president spits out he will not negotiate and "bang" down goes the agent. However, for others (such as the president or the child) they hold the gun to their head over and over screaming "I'll do it! I'll shoot him/her!"  They don't. You can pretty much figure if they don't get their head blown off right away by the terrorist, then they are going to survive.

Explosives, explosives and MORE explosives. Do they film a few scenes and then just repeat them through-out the movie? Using the computer to change the perspective so we don't recognize it? Fire, blowing up buildings, blowing up glass, blowing up people over and over and over again.

Oh, and what is with the jokes when there are literally dozens of bloodied corpses on the White House lawn?  "Heh, heh,... sorry about the house."   "Oh, no worries. It was insured." as they stumble through the blood bath of bodies all around them.

Have we seen enough of Channing Tatum and Gerard Butler?  Channing busts through glass windows. Gerard does the "Bruce Springsteen" slide. The power slide he does during the 2009 Super Bowl half-time show. I think it was Gerard.

Anyway, maybe you aren't tired of looking at Channing and Gerard. I am. I am tired of seeing people mowed down with automatic weapons, rifles and hand guns. I am tired of that splunking sound. I am tired of the blood spurting out and mass amounts of bloodied bodies lying around. I am tired of hearing bones break and necks snap. I am tired of terrorist movies.

Hell, maybe I am just tired.

Where's my hair?

This baby had more hair when she was born than now. She is four months old. Not certain who took the photograph. Perhaps my nephew - her daddy.

I have been on a movie kick. I watched "The Heat" with S Bullock and M McCarthy. They said the "f" word so  many times. It used to bother me. I have become de-sensitized to the word. In fact, it comes flying out of my mouth more times than I like to count. Sigh. Another habit I need to break.

This movie had me laughing out loud a couple of times. I hope Sandra and Melissa do more movies together. I always considered Sandra as kind of one dimensional in character, and she is still playing the part of Miss Congeniality but I do like these two together. They are wacky together and it makes for great comedy.

It still bothers me that Sandra looks so plastic. They try to rough her up a little in this movie, mussing her hair up at times and ripping her clothes, but the rest of the time she is just plastic looking. Like she is not real. I wish she would stop smoothing her hair down until it is plastered to her head like it is fake. I wish she would just "soften" her looks up a bit. But then again - maybe her hair is unmanageable. I never had lots of hair, so I never had that problem.

But I love the way they make fun of each other and allow the jokes to be on them. When McCarthy's movie family asks Sandra if she were a male or a female, I was cracking up.

And let me make one more shout out - I could just melt looking at M Wayans!

Oh, according to my movie bible (imdb.com) they have already announced "The Heat 2". YAY!

I said the n-word

Yes, thirty some years ago - I said the "N" word. What I am going to tell you is completely humiliating for me. It is the tale of an immature naive girl thirty years ago. Me.

My mother did not tolerate racism. My dad - I don't recall. I grew up with jokes about Italians (What happens when an Italian has a flat tire? Dago wop, wop, wop.), Polish (How many Pollocks does it take to screw in a light bulb?), the R-word, etc... You get the idea. There were lots of children in the house and we were not permitted to curse, so if we told an off color joke we were sticking our neck out and taking a chance of getting in trouble.

My last name was easy to make fun of. I was called many versions of a slang form of my last name. It toughened me up. (I always relate it to 'A Boy Named Sue' - the Johnny Cash song).

Remember the eenie, meenie, miney mo? I grew up with "catch a tiger by the toe". Whereas my sister recalls the N-word being used. We called Brazil nuts N- toes. Yes, we did. It was the 60's. It rolled off our tongues as easy as bread and butter. I forced myself to break the habit of calling them that.

The first year my older sister (1944) taught school it was in an all black school. I remember she took me to her class on the last day of school. I think I was the same age as the other children in the class. The only thing that stuck out was when we washed our hands. I looked over at the little girl next to me and saw the pink palm. I had never been around black people/children at all in my life.

In our house we never made Jewish jokes. I don't know if it was just not popular to do so, or if we just were unaware. One of my first employers was Jewish and I knew very little about his religion. I never gave the holocaust a second thought back then. Just like the civil war (I found out when I moved to Virginia that some folks still held animosity against Northerners). I was shocked because I did not think anyone ever thought about it.

Anyway, I am getting off track. At 17 I worked at an ice cream stand. One girl worked during the day and two at night. I arrived early for the night shift and let the day shift girl go. It was hot and the A/C was on. I saw my co-worker arrive. Being a brat (and very politically incorrect) I opened the back door and yelled to her "Hey Vick!  We don't allow no niggers here!"

I don't know why I said it. It was a derogatory remark that should not have been said. But, out it came. In the entire summer that I worked at that little ice cream stand out in the country not one black customer ever came to our window.

Sigh. Except that day. As soon as I uttered the words, I looked to my left. Getting out of a green sedan was the nicest, sweetest looking elderly black couple I ever laid eyes on.

I wanted to die. I can only imagine the horror on my face. I was indeed horrified. If my Mom were there, she would have back handed me, I am certain. I am certain I deserved it.

I did notice the look on my co-workers face. It was shock. She ran as fast as she could into the building. I slammed the door shut. She was laughing so hard she had to squat down because she could not stand.

I wanted to die. I did not think it was funny at all. I was sorry the instant I did it.  I made her wait on the couple. She said they were not upset at all, that they were even laughing.

I didn't care. I still wanted to die. All this time later - 36 years to be exact - I still want to die. I want to beg that couple for forgiveness.

There. So, if in the future I become a celebrity chef and gain a net worth of 17 million dollars or so - you can bring me down and knock me off my golden pedestal.

My net worth is probably 17 dollars. I never forgot that incident. In fact it is the first thing that comes to mind when somebody mentions or asks "What is your most embarrassing moment?"  Yep. That is my biggest, my most stupidest moment. It still makes me cringe.

I can only hope that incident taught me self awareness. I believe it made me more aware of what I said and how I treat people. It took me a while but I realized after I became older that I did not have to laugh at off color jokes. I didn't have to say anything to the joke teller, I just did not have to laugh.

Hey - I still tell and laugh at blond jokes. I hope that is still okay.

Bombs bursting in air

I have read that is why we celebrate Independence day with fireworks. To remind us of the "bombs bursting in air".  Really though, if the bomb bursts in the air - does it fail to achieve it's purpose?

Or is that the bomb "spray" so to speak? I have to say, I am no bomb expert. However, off topic - I did watch Nova's Manhunt: Boston Bombers.

I have passed on my "annual" 4th of July celebration for the second year in a row.  It was way too much for me to do any more. Money wise and energy wise. I just don't have it in me. Maybe I'll pick up the tradition again some day.

I guess my family date has more or less been moved to Labor day. That seems to be my date, now. Since the trees in my neighborhood have grown tall enough to obscure the family from seeing the fireworks from my front lawn. Ah, such is life.

Evidently not MY trees, since they are gone.

At one point yesterday when I took my dogs out to do their business, you could smell the sulfur in the air. It was SO strong. It must have been the rainy weather held it still around the area.

No more, please

My neighbor had their dog put down yesterday. This is an old picture of Hogan. The front leg you see there had lost all muscle and was a stick bone. He had to hold it straight out when he tried to walk or run.

The last few days he did not get up from his bed. Yesterday  he was laying in his own feces and vomit and still would not get up. He stopped eating.

The vet said if it were his dog....my neighbors had him for 13 years.

But this is not the end of it. Oh, no. I have four blogs that I read who recently had a dog pass and one blog I read, their dog has a very serious illness.

Ugh. Such sadness all around.

Retirement Car

A co-worker at the building I work at retired this year. Her husband (second) purchased this convertible for her. She was so happy and showing it off.

Take me back 14 years to when her first husband left her for a new model. She was devastated. It is so wonderful to see her happy and on top of the world again.

Sometime last week

I missed the ninth anniversary of my blog. I think it was June 24th or somewhere around there. I am really slacking in the posting department. Most of my photos are one I download from facebook of family grandchildren. They aren't even pics that I take any more. Hmmm. Must remedy that.