Oops to the nth degree

This post may be a long one. Depends on time and how much emotion I can purge out through this miracle of miracles "the keyboard".

The incident I am about to post is work related. I am going to try to keep things as inconspicuous as possible.

I will call this tech/school my valley nemesis. I have posted about this tech before here  and here.

Big breath. Okay.

This valley district tech has determined that his school needs three hundred Mb/s of bandwidth. Most of my schools run on 100. A handful are moving to 200 this year. I know that may not register with some of you but just an idea. Most have 100, he wants 300.

That is okay. It is do-able.

My co-worker (who used to be my manager and was demoted) set up the order. He used to do all of this as a manager and now he still does this work. Since I was hired in 1995, the home office techs rarely have to go to a school in my area any longer. Note that this co-worker (former manager) still gets the same pay because they cannot take money away in our system. I bet they can if they really want to, I'm just stating the fact about him and his role.

He has not been to this valley district in years. Years and years. To move to 300 Mb/s this valley school needs to switch from an rj45 cable to a gBic module. If you worked with your Internet equipment you may be familiar with the rj45 cable. It is the big clip cable that looks like the old phone cables (actually the phone cables are rj11) but are bigger. If you do not have wireless, they are the patch cables that connect your PC or laptop to the Internet modem/router or a switch/hub.

The factory-made ones are very nice with their moulding that covers the clip so it does not catch on stuff and snap off. My hand made ones are not nearly as pretty and most all the clips have been snapped off. LOL!  Here was my cabling bible for years.  (For anyone who crimped cables, sing it with me!  Each three syllables:


Orange/white, orange,
green/white, blue,
blue/white, green,
brown/white, brown!


UGH!

My fingers began cramping up with sympathy pains just writing this from my nightmarish memories.

To move to 300Mb/s they need to convert to THIS type of cabling. Fiber optics.

 

I won't go into single mode and multi-mode here. Now, at the time I was told to go to this school and perform this switch over, I had no idea what lay ahead for me. I knew the configuration of our equipment. I figured the rj45 cable would plug into the gBic module with an rj45 interface (hole in layman's terms). I really thought it would look like this:

 

I would go to the school, simply unplug the rj45 cable from one interface (port or hole - whatever you want to call it) and plug it into the new "fiber" interface. The hole where I would insert the above pictured module. When I plugged it in I noticed the module had a  fiber interface on it and not an rj45. I looked at the tech (if you read the links I displayed above, you will know that this guy is not amicable). 

I asked him if the telco had pulled fiber to this room. He looked at me incredulously. "No."  I said perhaps I brought the wrong gBic module. My co-worker (former manager) had handed me six in little brown boxes but never told me that they were different. I had assumed they were all the same. There was no writing on ANY of the boxes. I sighed thinking I would have to fly back to my office and look at the four I left there (I had brought two. I did think ahead enough in case one was D.O.A.).  They were both gBic modules for fiber.

The tech called my co-worker (former manager) and asked him about the module he had given me. This is where it started to turn sour. This co-worker (former manager) was in a meeting. He has been given the duties of moving their home office into a new building. The amount of work this entails is enormous. He has stated several times that he does not feel he is qualified to perform this job. Yet, he is still doing it. In some situations you do it the best you can. His stress level is beyond enormous.

My co-worker (former manager) told this school valley tech that it HAD to be fiber optics. Now, at this very moment the tech and I did not know the distance between this wiring closet we were currently standing in and the electrical room of the building. We measured it with our feet (walking and counting) later and discovered it was about 230 feet away. 

In other words my co-worker (former manager) was telling this valley tech that they needed a fiber cable run from the electricity room to our wiring closet for this to work. My co-worker (former manager) since he had not been in that building in years did not realize that the telco equipment was that far away from our equipment.

Now you see where the Oops comes in.

To be continued....

Mixed Nuts

You are going to have to excuse my ignorance about this one. At the time I read it, I did not know that there was a difference between a peanut (legume) allergy and other "real" nuts. I did not know that somebody allergic to peanuts can safely eat other nuts. Sometimes.

But why would you even take the chance?

Before I was educated on peanut allergy (forgive me for not knowing) the wording of this recall just cracked me up.  I was like "Really?!"  To me it was obvious that anybody with a peaNUT allergy would steer clear from a package of mixed nuts. Oh, contraire!

Well, here's hoping that all packages get out of the consumer's hands safely and anybody who has an actually peanut allergy can eat anything called "mixed nuts" safely.

I go here at least once a week:  http://www.recalls.gov/     and choose "Recent Recalls" and catch up on many different types of recalls. Cars, tires, childrens' toys/clothing, food etc...

Swan towels

I always try to tip the help very well. Not just on my last day at the place where I stay but each morning. The first tip got me the display above.

The next morning I checked the box that I did not need service at all. I had plenty of towels and barely moved while I slept so the bed did not need to be made.

They bumped me up to a King with a hot tub and fireplace for the same price as a double.

My grand nephew enjoyed the hot tub as I did the first night (my aching feet) but did not use it again. I am not a "hot tub" or a jacuzzi person. I do not like the heat because it can bring on a headache.

I turned the fireplace on once, but did not feel any heat. My niece told me I needed to adjust the fan at the top. It wasn't near cold enough - I was just investigating.

I found this place (C0urty@rd M@rri0tt) to be very accommodating.

Spray

Splash from the Whirlpool Rapids at the White Water Walk - Niagara Falls, Canada. I cannot believe I did not take one photo of the falls this trip. WTH?

Well, good thing I took plenty of shots in 2007. You can see them by clicking on the link "See more of my photos" on the right bar of my blog underneath "About me".

Legs (calves and shins) very sore from so much uphill/downhill walking. At least in Key West all was flat walking. Huh!

It only hurts when I bend my knees! That left some funny looks from people when we would crawl out of the car at a rest stop and walk stiff legged into the restroom or restaurant. Do the robot walk - old school! LOL!

On the line

My daughter's current beau works in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant. His brother also works there. His brother is younger - nineteen while my daughter's beau is 21.

The brother was in the hospital four days last week for his back problem. Neither one have medical insurance of any kind. Their father (still do not know which one is their biological - they have had several step dads) is out of the  picture. Neither son gets along with current step dad and their Mom kicked them out as she prefers her current husband over any child she bore. Three siblings share an apartment in town.

The brother is small in stature. His diagnosis was spinal cord trauma. His brother said it is from lifting large vats of chicken, grease etc... One is supposed to ask for help when lifting them but some people are stubborn and get an attitude of  "I don't need no stinkin' help!"  Or mostly, there is no available body to help. Sadly.

So, he left the hospital with a prescription of Vicodin. How American. He is back to work. There was talk of him filing for workers compensation, not certain if he is or did. Maybe his employers talked him out of it. He is supposed to be doing light duty, but we all know how that goes, right? When you are young and you have no parental backup, you have to take what you can get.



My daughter's beau is working 12 hour days. This upscale restaurant cannot keep help. Listening to the way he tells it, the managers and supervisors are all screaming at each other and people just leave. The turnover is tremendous.

My daughter's beau is applying for two other jobs this coming week. We are hoping he gets it. Twelve hours Friday, Saturday and Sundays really stink.

I always crowed about how "good" the food was at the restaurant. But at what price? At least I don't hear any horror stories from my daughter's beau about slimy food or bad food. That all seems to be on the up and up or he just does not speak about it.

If it wasn't for their darn bleu cheeseburgers (picture above is stolen from the Internets again - not in any way affiliated with the restaurant) - which are to DIE for, I would ban that place. Aw, have mercy.

Just a side note (if anybody cares) my daughter's father was never in the picture, either. I preferred it that way. (I only owe her an explanation). I never have accepted one dime from public assist or any man. I made certain I had a good job with good insurance and was able to care for a child all on my own before I decided to have one. Call it a trust issue, call it what you may.

Regardless, I give my daughter full support when she is having work issues. She is still covered  under my insurance (thank heavens for that law) and is very close to going full time at her job with her own benefits. I would advise her against working in an establishment that was so careless for their personnel that they would suffer in such a manner. She has my total support.

I feel for those young adults (and any person for that matter) who do not have health insurance. The stress of deciding whether or not to go to the doctor or the hospital is a huge risk.

I hear him getting ready, now. It is 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning. Another twelve to fourteen hour day coming up. And, he goes. He grumbles, but he goes. I have never seen him drink caffeine of any kind. I would imagine it won't be long until he leans on that crutch as most of us do. I ask him if they feed him. It is a restaurant, of course they do. I advised him to stay hydrated. He said "yeah." Sigh.

Rain Pain

I used to love a good soaking rain. These days it is all about pain. Before the rain began last evening I was almost ready to throw up with the sick headache. It was not bad enough to take a migraine med, but I felt absolutely lousy. I was okay in the house with the A/C.  I needed quite a few things, so I did a "quick" run to the drug store. Heh,  heh. I needed a LOT of things.

I had actually been taking the migraine med about every other day (I know about rebound headaches and am not doubting this may be part of the problem).

I got into the store and I got sick. I made the mistake of picking up my daughter's prescription near the end of my trip and they had to prepare it. "This will take about twenty minutes." UGH!

Why didn't I stop at the pharmacy counter first? WHY?

I had everything in my cart except for the milk, so I sat down and waited. I really started to feel lousy. I could feel the sweat start all over my head. I had to wipe it away several times on my forehead. What is wrong with their A/C?  I can only imagine what the other customers thought. "God, she IS sick. I hope her medicine she is picking up works." 

When I went outside to put my purchases in the car, I realized that the drug store DID have their A/C running. You could have cut the air with a knife. It was so humid and thick. My head pounded.

The A/C in my car gets  a work-out.

I arrived at home and I unloaded the car. I tried to relax.

About an hour later (no medication involved) - poof! It was gone. I was typing away on the computer etc.. Before bed I took the dogs out and it was pouring. I stepped off the porch in an effort to get the timid boxer out and into the rain. He thinks he is a sugar cube. I let the rain just pelt me. I knew I shouldn't get this wet this close to bedtime but I didn't care. He did follow but he didn't dally around. He quickly peed and zoomed back onto the porch.

I just stood in the rain and wondered about headache pain and the weather.

Random

I closed my eyes and picked a picture from the archives. This is what you get. Vegetable beef soup. Or beef vegetable soup. Whichever way you want to phrase it. It is a winter dish. I made pot roast with potatoes and carrots this past week end but I did not get any pics of that. It went way too fast. :)

Mangers lie

I am trying to figure out why my manager lies in this fashion. This is about the third time this has happened.


In this circumstance the school districts want a service from us that will tell them and help them control what is eating their precious (expensive) bandwidth.

Sites such as YouTube and gaming can sap all the bandwidth, thus leaving nothing available for actual work.

Where are the teachers? I don't know. I have been in some situations where there is no teacher to be found and the kids are really going to town on the computers and the Internet.

I think a lot of teachers treat the computer lab as a babysitter. Plop the kids down in front of the TV computer and go to the teachers' lounge.

Back to the application. We (as a department) have been talking about such a program for a year. We have a program in place that monitors our equipment and lets us know when a device loses connection, etc. We can investigate - did the building lose power, did a janitor unplug the equipment, what happened? Stuff like that.

This application has a sister app that will tell the district what their traffic is. For example: Pandora. If you are not familiar with Pandora - it is a streaming music application.  Streaming radio is a huge hit with office personnel. I can't tell you how many times I will go to work on a secretary's computer just to find she has the radio streaming to her PC, but the volume is turned down low or muted - she forgot it was running.

Big bandwidth sucker there. Another one - video. YouTube. If a computer lab teacher tells students to watch a video and 25 end users all go to the same video and watch it - wow. Bandwidth usage skyrockets. The teacher is supposed to stream it to an overhead projector so all the class can watch it at one time. Thus only one machine is viewing the video and streaming it down the Internet pipe, instead of 25.

Or, the teacher is out of the room and some kid finds a great dirt bike video and the kids around him see him watching it and they in turn, look it up and watch it.

Chaos.

Anyway. This post is already getting too long.

I told my manager that I was very interested in working with this program when we get it.

Now, I am not a perfect employee. I slack off now and then. But there I was sitting around this summer, knowing that I have three huge projects looming. I am always waiting for something. Somebody to get this ready, somebody to order that. I sigh. I fear that everything will come at me at once. It usually does and then I do things half assed because I don't have the proper time to work with it.

Don't misunderstand. I call or communicate many times asking my co-workers or managers who I am waiting for, if there is anything "I" can do to speed up the process.Can I make some phone calls, can I come to the office and physically install equipment? Can I do the legwork?  ANYTHING! Nope. Zilch.

I get anxious and I decide to download the evaluation copy of the program. I try and do not succeed. I am naive and try to run it on my stand alone laptop with just adequate CPU power and memory. The program (even the evaluation part) needs a server with more power than my piddly laptop.

The company that sells the program contacts me and is very anxious (salesmen) to get me using this. I am stalled but at our staff meeting at the end of June my manager tells me we have it and he needs to install it on a VM (virtual machine) then I can begin to use it.

I am beside myself with excitement! Okay! I ask "Can I tell the techs about this program?" 

And this is how I remember this incident vividly.

He meant to say "You will want to play with it for a while first" instead saying something like "Play with yourself".  Well, that was all me and my delinquent co-workers needed. We started laughing and making jokes. That kind of conversation sticks with you, you know?

A month goes by and - nothing. Just e-mails back and forth where he says "Next week, I can get that done." I began calling him "Next week Andy".  Not his real name.

I sit and try to think of a way that I can be proactive instead of bitching about how much of a slacker my manager is. He is not a slacker, I am sure he works his ass off. But I found myself grumbling because I was anxious to go and here I was - waiting again.

I heave a big sigh and I decide to use an old server that was given to me a few years ago to "play" with. It may not have the power, but I have to do something. I had installed Linux on it (my Linux playing days) and decided next time I was in my organization's home office I would ask for a Windows Server disk and install that OS so I could download and work with the evaluation copy properly.

I was there on Wednesday for training. My manager was at lunch. I asked a co-worker for Windows Server disks and he began looking through a tray of disks. Another department co-worker asked me what we were looking for. I explained the situation to her. She said "I can have you a VM up and running in 30 minutes."

My heart sank. Really? I explained to her that the manager has been promising me a VM for weeks. She said "I'll do it." I gave her the specs. I told her that this was an evaluation copy and after 30 days we hoped to roll it over to the real program. The company that sells this product told me we could do that.

By this time our manager came back and got in on the conversation. I told him and he said "We haven't bought the program, yet."

I just looked at him. Somehow I knew this. Deep down I suspected as much.

I should have called him on it right then and there.

But to tell you the truth, I was so damn happy to have a VM to work with and they had just purchased me a new laptop I did not want to spoil my good luck.

I have been told many times that I have a "bad attitude" so I try very hard to never say anything negative.

I like my manager. I have to believe that he does not mean any harm when he lies like this. I am trying to figure out why he tells me they bought the program (remember the play with yourself conversation - I did not imagine that) when they did not.

Some things that come to mind are - he does not want to disappoint me. Or maybe he likes to make me happy. That is my "positive" thinking. What he does not realize is that he jeapardizes his integrity with every lie. When I discover the lie, I think less of him.

I am just trying to understand. There are many reasons I never take a management position when it is offered to me and it happens at every job I have worked at.

I was an "office manager" in my early twenties and really just managed myself. I didn't have big staffs or have to decide pay raises, etc...

I would not want to be a manager. Just like I would never want to be the president or the mayor.

I am a worker bee. I do best working by myself. Managers need to delegate and make hard decisions. And lie, I guess. For whatever reasons, managers need to lie and I have to tell you - I'd have more trouble with that than anything else.

Oh, woe is me

I had some training at my home office yesterday. When I got there they hand me a brand new laptop. One that swivels and can be used as a tablet. I am off for a long week-end Friday, Sat and Sunday. I am scheduled out (that same school construction site) on Monday.

Wah! I only have today to work with my new toy and then maybe I can get back to it on Tuesday. I am going to try to force myself NOT to work over the week-end. There is so much to do before schools start up again this year.

I have three new projects and I want to give them all my time (but there is not enough of it).

Sigh.

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.

Pretty in Pink

Oh, yes! I did! I had me some baby time with this sweet pink baby yesterday. My sister let me hog her all day. As much as I wanted. (My sister is the grandmother).  I told her she has another grand baby coming in December and I have none. All my sisters have little ones to snuggle as grand parents and I have none.

The guilt trip worked. Along with the fact that I growled at my sister each time she came near me while I was holding this sweet pink fluff of joy.

She was 8 days old yesterday. The only time she opened her eyes was to glance at my boob. Completely covered in clothing sweet baby. Kitchen is closed. She grimaced and back to sleep she went. Ugh. Not the mama!

Blech!

I did not like the movie Passion. At all. 

I'll use my favorite word this month for it. Vapid.

Do not confuse this title with Passion of the Christ. I would only watch that movie because JC stars in it and I don't mean Jesus Christ. Then again I would not watch it because I heard it is full of violence. I'll pass.

Anyway, back to the movie I am speaking of. Passion. Vapid. Very, very vapid. There are a few people that I mentioned I cannot look at. Or, I am uncomfortable looking at. N00mi is one of them. I hope she never reads this (and I am not vain enough to think she ever will - Just sayin')because I don't like to hurt others feelings.

However, I will admit. I had a hard time looking at D0ris Y0unane on McLeod's Daughters at first - and now I think she is rather striking looking. So maybe I just need to get used to certain faces.

Cousins

Photo courtesy of sister 1944. I just adore this photo. I just have to wonder what the little tyke is thinking here. My first thought was he is thinking "Isn't this just the greatest fun?"  Or, how about "Don't you just love wearing orange?",   or even  "I am so glad I am not the only one who wore orange today!"

Both boys are the sons of two of my nephews (brothers). It touches me somehow in my "family-oriented" pleasure in life. I love family and I have a strong bond to my family.

I was aghast when I ventured out into the real world and saw siblings fighting and hating one another. Most of them were from 'well-to-do' upbringings.

You have to wonder.

The beginning of vacation

A suspension of work. Well, work I get paid for. I "hope" to be doing plenty of other work. Around the house. I start today with recycling. The trunk of my car is loaded with old technology equipment. Two big old ugly monitors (before the flat screens) and a bunch of other stuff. I am headed to the basement after this post to see what else I can throw in the car.

I have a plastic coffee container full of used batteries. Most double-AA. It is heavy! I did not realize how heavy batteries are.

I had 3.5 vacation days that I was going to lose if I did not use them. Never in my life did I dream such a thing could happen (to me). My one co-worker is always taking his vacation days this time of year because he has a risk of losing them.

Our year ends June 30th and starts over July 1st (for vacation days). School schedule, I guess. So I took this week off.

It is kind of a bummer because I have plans in July and August to go with different family members on vacation. I will be using up a quick 14 days by the time August ends.

My daughter and I will be joining my sister and her granddaughter to see The Lion King. Our second viewing. We went in April 2007 to see it in Cincinnati. Then we are going to an aquarium nearby.

In August it is another trip to Niagara Falls. Not my choice of destination but a branch of family are going and I told my sister I would go this year. My daughter does not know it yet, but she is staying home and taking care of the dogs this trip.

Sigh. But this week is a work week. Hopefully, outside work. If my back, arms and legs hold up. I am just coming off of a bad week of coughing, sneezing, an ear ache and sinus pressure. Not certain if it is a bad cold or allergies or both. Regardless, it was not fun. I am still a bit short of breath when walking the dogs.

My daughter went to stat care and was diagnosed with an ear infection. sinusitis and pharyngitis. I became sick a few days after she did, but not nearly as bad.

I have gift cards for Lowe's (thanks to my friends) - so flowers, mulch, potting soil, shovel, spade - here I come!

Oh, did I mention that my daughter's current beau took landscaping in school? Peruby gives a very devious and mischievous grin. Heh, heh, heh. Rubbing my hands together. Now, where IS that never before used hedge trimmer? Want a before and after shot? Okay, but promise not to laugh! I don't profess to be a yard expert (or any expert for that matter)! LOL!

The hinge

 Here is a picture of the long hinge. There was no getting this sucker off even if I did have the right tools for it. When the door  is closed, the hinge is invisible.

 Here are the three stalls showing how the door goes all the way to the floor

This is the wall on the other side. I got up to the top of that wall, but hesitated to swing over and drop myself down on the other side. I could have done it but I was using that as a last resort because I figured I would have hurt myself someway.

They put another latch on the third door - the same latch that the other two have and all is working again. Good timing because we had two in services where there were more than fifty women in the building yesterday. That was one busy bathroom.

Under or over

Seriously. I would not have been able to crawl out from underneath these doors. This photo is lifted off the Internets. I may take photos of our buildings bathroom this coming week. Since I have to take my phone with me every time I go, now. Or, maybe I will spare you. LOL!

Up and over. Yeah. I could easily get UP there. It was coming DOWN on the other side I was worried about. The stall I was in just happened to have the handicap bars on the side and I was able to get good leverage by standing on them to get UP. The other side had nothing but two toilet roll paper holders and it was a long way down until I reach the toilet seat. Hopefully, the back of the tank would have been easier. We may never know. :()

Anyway, a few have asked about the door removal and its hinges. I tried to find a picture on line that showed a door hinge that is well over three feet long. It is the normal hinge you see on a door (usually builders will use three of them) but whoever built these put a three(or four)-foot long hinge that ran the entire length of the door. If I had anything, I was unable to reach the screws that held the door fast. The door would need to be open for me to reach the screws.

And - the custodian may just leave over this incident. Our custodian is a great guy. In my opinion. He and I hit it off very well! We joke, we laugh, we talk. We tell stories. We agree to disagree on politics. I think a great deal of him.

He never professed to be a great handy man.He is part time. He cleans our garbage, he cleans the bathrooms and he mows the grass. He is great at lifting, delivering etc.. He is a retired postal worker. He does not profess to be a fix it guy. He was the one that replaced the handle on this stall a while back. He probably went to the hardware store and bought a handle and installed it. It worked for a long time. It was probably a cheap model that gave out over time. Our other two stalls unlock automatically when you push the handle down (when inside). This new handle, you had to turn the button on the knob to un-lock it. Several times it was jammed down (when it was locked) with people thinking it worked the same as the other two stalls,  and this probably hastened it giving out sooner than usual.

He seems to be bothered by this incident because everybody is talking about how "This should have been done, or that should be done, or somebody should do something!" I think he feels responsible.

He told me that he was done in December of this year anyway, something about his medical will go another year if he waits until December or something will be extended. He told me but I don't remember. A few of the ladies there cannot stand him. I am trying to figure out why.They are the ones whispering that something should have been done or something was not done correctly, blah, blah, blah. The custodian can get irritated and mad and if somebody does that - he is indifferent to them. He seems to hold a grudge against the ones who are cold and do not appreciate him. For the ladies he likes, he bends over backwards for.

The guy did something right. He has two daughters. Both with masters degrees and very successful occupations.

Busted

Ack! This photo I found looks so much like the broken door handle after I pulled/pushed it off the door. The lock mechanism held fast. They were able to open from the outside by inserting a screw driver/knife into the mechanism and turning it.

The day after I was locked in, another lady got locked in. She was from China (our area teaches Mandarin-Chinese) and was attending a workshop at our location. The door was standing wide open so she did not see the sign.

Now, why somebody would use a stall with no door handle/knob is beyond me (but look what I did, I can't talk) but somebody else said "Well, maybe in China this is normal."  Yep. Could be.

Why don't we just get it fixed? LOL! Exactly. The excuse I heard was we cannot purchase anything until after July 1st because they are closing out the books. That is righteous! And we do not have anybody that can fix it. We are an office of about 30 women and 5 men. I know of two guys in the office that could do it. (Heck, the one guy is the one that got me out). They have done plenty of building walls, hanging doors around this office building so I don't know what the heck is going on and why they were not tapped to fix it.

One of the women - her husband built the stalls so I don't know why they don't tap him, but I guess the real issue is the Treasurer. She won't spend the money. It is all political bullsh!t or it is a power struggle or maybe there is a very good reason why.

I am not privy to that type of information, the only thing I know is that it made wonderful conversation fodder for the better part of the week around the office. So much laughter, I love it!

Well....

In my Samantha (Bewitched) voice:  "Wellll?"  Sort of a question, sort of a statement of "What can I say?"

And why I have a picture of a bathroom stall door at work is even a bigger question but we won't go there.

Do you ever have one of those times where you ignore the warnings? The sign? You get the "It won't happen to me" thought in your head. It wasn't exactly like that.

We have three bathroom stalls at work for 30 women. On any given day there may be 20 women in the office. More on training days.

The stall doors go all the way to the floor. If the door is closed it usually means the stall is in use. We have cheap doors made of plywood that somebody built. Not the metal doors as most bathrooms have.

For two weeks there has been a sign on one of the stall doors that explains the handle is broken and you may get locked in.

This day (yesterday) I went to use the bathroom. The two "working" stall doors were closed. The third stood wide open and available. I played with the handle. Huh. Seems shaky, I just won't lock it.

And I went in. I did my business. I heard somebody leave. The other stall was empty - somebody had closed the door. Sigh.

I could not get out. There was nobody about. I jiggled. I jostled. I pulled. I pushed. I banged. Nothing. After was seemed like forever (but was probably two minutes) I attempted the over one side of the brick stall into the other stall. I could get up there but I was certain I would fall when I attempted to scale down the other side (having no upper body strength). I figure I would use that as a last resort.

I waited some more. Tick tock. Tick tock. I jiggled the handle some more. It was very loose. I began to bend it. I broke it clean off. On my side. The door latch held fast. I pushed the other side of the knob out and onto the floor outside the stall. The latch held fast. I poked, I prodded. My fingers became oily.

Finally somebody came in. She tried to help me. She could not, so she went to get one of the guys. This office closes early during the summer hours (I don't) and I was lucky there were still people in the offices. She found one of the "guys" who knew about locks and he picked up the handle on the other side, inserted into the latch and click - it opened.

Now, why with all her pushing, turning and this and that didn't it open for her? He explained a bit to us about how locks work and I could tell he was uncomfortable being in the ladies bathroom. I washed my hands and called him my hero and thanked him profusely.

Ah, such is the life of Peruby. Nobody can get stuck in that stall now. I made certain of that. I ripped that sucker right off the door. Granted they were wee tiny little screws holding it into the plywood.

I laughed about it and joked about it to everybody. It is a fun story to tell. I tell them all I was traumatized and thought I would have to stay in there all night. Not a bad place to be if you are stuck overnight (better than an elevator).

Maybe they will get that lock fixed right this time. And for Pete's sake. When you build bathroom doors, leave a foot or so at the bottom so we can peek under them to see feet, okay? Or, worst case scenario, so Peruby can (unladylike) crawl out the bottom when she gets stuck again in one. Sheesh!

My big boy

I see that I have not posted a photo of my big boy since I got him back. He was gone for a year. A year! He came back and it was just like the day after he left. No changes in him and everybody remembered and loved him. And he loved everybody. He carries on with my other three dogs (well, Sable will only tolerate so much). He is the clown and he is the one who gets everybody outside running around.

He is big and beautiful. Once you get past the mug, that is. When I first brought him home in 2009, my daughter said he was the ugliest dog she had ever seen. He really grows on you.

My floor is taking a beating because he won't stop marking his territory at night. I must get a big cage! (Mentally kicking myself).

He was in a fight a couple of weeks ago. We have some renters about three houses away from us. A duplex and both have a boxer. One boxer just came running into our yard one day when I had all the dogs out. He decided that he did not like the looks of Slade and they went at it with lots of (encouragement?) from the other dogs. My neighbors' dog was out as was a friend of his who was visiting - his dog was out.

It was noisy. I was attempting to get my boxer before they confronted each other but I was too late and all I could do was just try to get out of the way. Everything happened in a blur, but I think our little Cheech got the other boxer's attention because all of a sudden he went after Cheech and Cheech ran and started to yelp.

That seemed to end it all. My neighbor got his and his friends dog in their garage. I got my four in the house and the neighbor lady (who drove her car over) tried to retrieve her boxer. She was not having any luck. He had a collar but they did not have a leash. She had left a young boy in charge of the boxer and he (I think it was a he) could not control him. I gave her a leash and she finally got the boxer into her car.

I checked my dogs over. Lots of slobber but not blood and no cuts. She came back to apologize and she said the same of her boxer. No blood. We got lucky.

The next day I drove past their duplex and the boxer was tied outside stretched all the way to the end of his rope with a cat laying about four feet away just swishing his tail taunting him. The boxer was going nuts.

To be fair, a while back when I let my dogs outside one morning to do their business they spotted that boxer in our yard and they chased him all the way home. I had to go get them. That was early morning and I know it must have awoken all the neighbors. I was half asleep at the time. Now, I check carefully before I let the dogs out (spotted deer two mornings ago in the alley) because of other critters and it creates less chaos this way.

Yep. Still a zoo around here. But you know what. I feel as though I am getting too old for this sh!t.

Log home

My Mom was born in this log cabin 93 years ago today. Her Mother was unwed, which was very unusual at the time and my Mom was mostly raised by her maternal grandparents. This photo has been enhanced a good bit.