The "in-between bands" band

This group of singers were friends of the groom. Most of the songs they sang were his songs. I had heard them because he has a web page where he has his songs and I had listened to them. They sang on the small stage between gigs while the bands on the big stage set up for their next set. My niece had arranged bands to play from 1:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on her wedding day. Minus the hour during the ceremony of course.

My niece is very happy. As long as she is happy. She is a bright,  young and very sweet girl. She just graduated with a degree in Psychology. I hate to see her take this hippie route; but again - what do I know? She wants to continue her education in holistic medicine or naturopathy.

All I can say is -what a great way to practice your psychological skills.

Obsessive?

I like to work puzzles. My Mom was the same. I noticed my obsessive-compulsive behavior (of course I did not know it had a name back then) when I would work a book of fill-it-in puzzles. I refused to enter and cross off a word unless I went in order (or down the line, so to speak). This meant all the three letter words had to be placed in the puzzle before I moved onto the four letter words, etc... It was a great exercise in memory. The puzzles with numbers was especially challenging. LOL!

I have a book (above) of picture puzzles where you find the difference. I refuse to move on to the next puzzle until I have discovered all of the differences in the puzzle before it. It can be maddening. I do the same with word search puzzles. I have to find them in order and refuse to move ahead. Would this be obsessive compulsive? I guess it would.

Needs sharpening

Heh, heh. No, not the photo. My lawnmower blade! My spare one has been at the implement equipment place for two weeks, now. I'll bet they send it somewhere else and have them sharpen it and then tack on 30 to 40 percent of the cost and bill me. My niece worked at a local dry cleaner that took shirts to another cleaners for its customers. Funny stuff.

I have resized this photo to 1024 x 800, but in the original you can really see the chewed up ends of the blades of grass.

I was looking over my June photos for this blog and realized two things. I made only half of them and I had very little cool colors (other than spring green) in them. No blues or purples (which I love). So, I went browsing for blues and purples and this is the first one I saw, so this is what you get.

I have always been fascinated by the story of Sybil. I remember watching Sally Field play the character and last evening caught a more recent production. Although I felt sometimes like the character playing Sybil was playing Sally Field playing Sybil sometimes. I swear they dubbed Sally Fields voice into the movie! And that was JoBeth Williams playing her mother! 

How do they get small children to play some of the scenes? In one the poor little girl was tied up and gagged and I know with editing and other such tricks they can put it all together, but still.

My little corner

I am not a neat person. I am messy. My office is messy. My house is messy. I do tell myself a lot "Less mess, less stress."  If I clean it up, it just gets messy again. Oh, well.

Yesterday, I had a lot less problems than I thought I would. One major one I tackled in the morning. This tech is very savvy and he knew his stuff. We worked until we found a solution for his network (broken because of the change I had made). We got it working and my filter is still at the higher security level.

The funny one was the complainer, though. She is the one who was the naysayer. She called me to give me blow by blow details of how their tech support for her machine was sub-par to say the least. Eight minutes I listened to her woes. In the end what she really wanted to say was that it was not my fault and she had it all working, now. 

It was one of those phone calls where you hang up and you look in the mirror and just say "Good God!"

There is a reason people don't call you back, honey. You have no idea why, and you probably never will know why.

Unplugged

The change was made. A snow storm hit. All schools closed. I knew there would be folks still working, so I trudged off to the office. I think I almost gave the custodian a heart attack. He certainly was not expecting anybody to be coming into the office. He was getting ready to leave.

It was very quiet in the office with only myself but after a couple of hours, there were folks out there in my network land. I made a few calls. I had end users test a few things. All seemed to be working well until I got the phone call that things were not. It was a testing site and they did not have the time for me to try a work around, so I changed the setting back. Oh, well. We would go with it another day.

Still. She called. The one I figured would. The one I had trouble with when I gave the alert that I was going to make this change. The naysayer. She had said "This NEVER works! You people have tried to change this before and all it does is mess me up!"  I guess she has forgotten the reason she is in her position is for the better development of our children. She can't think beyond her own needs.

I let her rant a bit and then explained to her that I had to change the setting back - so things were as they were before. She was still in a tiff. She bristled and told me that her computer was  not working, blah, blah, blah. I pointed her to her own tech support and ended the call. 

Yep. I called that one.

It all ended well, though. I figured out a solution for the testing site and I changed the setting back to the way I want it. Today brings a new day and I am ready to face the new challenges. Bring it.

Well, George....

....I guess you said a mouthful. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana.

Wee little thing

See? The fan I replaced yesterday was just a wee little thing. The non-working one sure made a lot of noise though. The room (which actually WAS air conditioned) was vibrating with the racket.

I did forget to take my camera. Ah, well.

My buddy

This little girl shared my seat with me during the first half of the super bowl. I had to leave at half time because I was far from home and the cigarette smoke was getting to me.

She is a little tiny thing. After being around my hounds she seemed like a delicate china doll baby.

One of my rat terriers woke me up at 3 a.m. this morning barking. I couldn't get back to sleep. As I sat here reading facebook, email and blogs I think I know why he was barking. The wind is picking up out there and will take my welcome sign and bang it against my front porch wall. This always seems to spook the hounds. Well, I can see why.

I did a lot of reading. I read quite a few blogs that are political along with ones that are just plain fun. I try not to get too wrapped up in others' views of what is going on. I like to keep my mind open and try not to get swayed by the rants of others.

I consider myself a liberal but I don't pigeonhole myself into an all or nothing mindset. I apply my own judgement to what I say or believe and do. I also make sure that I read the opinions of others who may or may not be liberals.

It goes back and forth, back and forth. The liberals trashing the conservatives and vice versa. I get real tired of it. Like a yo-yo. Each party making fun or mocking the other. Sometimes it just gets old and I quit reading for a long time. My newspaper is pretty much the same. I read the opinions and just shake my head in disbelief. Are these the ravings and rantings that make up the general public? Please tell me no.

I joined in for a while with my local newspaper. I called myself "The Village Idiot" in a satirical manner. The rants became so ridiculous I signed off one day with "this is pathetic" and I never went back again. I don't read them anymore. Is this what it has come down to? At times I am completely aghast at what I am reading. I ask myself "Is this person for real?" Sometimes it scares me to my core wondering if the general public thinks, acts and believes like what I am reading. And I keep searching high and low for some semblance of sanity. Out there. Somewhere?

Angst

Maybe summer 2005?

This photo of my daughter was taken at a park back when her hair was long. I am thinking at least four years ago.

Teenage love is never easy. Well, adult love isn't either. My daughter dated one young fellow for four years on and off. They were apart for about nine or 10 months and recently reunited this year.

She had been attempting to cultivate other relationships with other fellows during their break. With many false starts as they both tried to move on, they eventually found themselves back together. When her old boyfriend returned to his old ways of putting her last on his list, she decided perhaps once and for all, she was finished with this kind of treatment and began to move on.

This last week she began spending time with a boy from school. She did make it to his swim meet this morning. When she told me she was going to go, I was a bit nervous about the old boyfriend. How would he react? Would he even care? Would he be upset and do anything irrational? You never know with teenagers. I had an uneasy feeling. I wanted her to go a little slower in the break-up area, but how can you control the speed of teenage life?

She called me this morning from the meet. Her old boyfriend had texted her to say that his younger sister had attempted suicide by drinking an entire bottle of cold medicine and cutting her wrists. It was unnerving. Just too close to a premonition for my comfort.

I am going to try to find out the details later today and try to reach his mom. Although we didn't become close friends, we were acquaintances at work as well as in our private lives.

My daughter was very upset. I told her that this had nothing to do with her and to relax and we would talk about it when she got back into town.

I certainly don't mean to minimize his sister's attempt and I really hope the girl is okay, but at one point during my conversation with my daughter I admit that I wished it was just a desperate ploy for the boy to get my daughter's attention and his sister is in no danger at all. I don't know if that is right to think that way or not. I don't like for anyone to suffer and I don't wish her old boyfriend any pain, either. Mental anguish can be just as dangerous as physical pain.

I flipped my skirt

After observing this feline activity, I flipped my tree skirt over. Somebody, I won't name names Mr. Tibbs, was found chewing on the buttons. I could not have him swallowing any so the skirt was flipped over and will be discarded after this year. My cats are a pain sometimes, but I wish them no harm. Now my daughter on the other hand...

I had an 'almost' super time with family last evening. We had 17 show up for a family holiday get together. My evening was dampened by the fact that I gave the bar tender (we believe is the owner of the establishment) a fifty dollar bill for my mixed drink, my nephew's soda pop and my daughter's hot chocolate. The bartender mumbled "Out of twenty" when he took my fifty. I kept calling after him "That was a fifty!" until he finally snapped at me, "I know!" Feeling that I offended him I dropped it.

As soon as he took the money, my great niece came running across the restaurant for me to hold her. I am her favorite for now. I picked her up and was gushing over her when the bartender laid my change on the bar. My family filled up the horse shoe bar so I was not concerned about the money and I was wrapped up with family arriving and when I scooped up my change to go and sit at our reserved table, I notice that he had given me change for a twenty. I called him on it. He shrugged it off and snapped "I put your change right there."

To make a long story short I will analyze his conduct about the issue. If he were on the up and up he would have come over and gone over my drink order and explained to me what change he had given me. He would have said something to the effect that if his drawer came up over $30 or so he would call me. He did not. He avoided me like the plague.

This put a little bit of a damper on the meal. I was not going to ruin it for the other 16 people in my family and make a scene or leave. The food was awful. Just awful. I was glad to get out of that establishment and I have an entire year to decide if I am going to grace them with my presence next year. Since I make the arrangements I am going to look elsewhere for our get together next year. We chose this restaurant because of a more central location for all of us to drive to.

It is the season for love and peace and I am forgiving him and moving on.

We had a distant relative pass away and the calling hours are today. It is a 200 mile journey and the eldest children are going to the calling hours. They are the ones who remember them the most. I considered going, but I am just too far behind this holiday season. I was really looking forward to today and hopefully playing catch up. Cleaning and baking.

I have perhaps three more gifts to buy before the big day. I think I can do it.

Now that my daughter has her drivers license I can stay home more often instead of taxiing her here and there. I find that I can clean house better when she is not here. I have not had this opportunity much, or maybe I just notice it more with her being independently mobile now. It wasn't like she didn't go anywhere without me before. Heavens no. I just seem to appreciate it more now that she can go when SHE wants to go. We are already arguing over the use of the car. 24 hours after she got her license she was calling me and snapping "I need the car in half an hour!" I have to laugh. Teenagers.

I also told her I want a dollar for each time she says "Get me my own car!" when we spat about using the car. I'll be rich, I tell you. Rich!

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.