Smiling baby

My niece put her youngest in this truck and he still smiles? Wow. He didn't get that from our side of the family. Most little ones I know would pucker up, feel that hard surface on the back of their neck and scream (in baby speak, of course) "Get me the hell outta here!"

By the way. The one pictured above is the youngest of the two I posted earlier in the week. (The girl holding the sleeping boy who missed her.) They are the older siblings of this little tyke.

The ole wringer washing machine

Isn't this a funny thing to find in an elementary building? Maybe not, since I was out in the middle of Amish country. Or, at least on the cusp. Holmes county in Ohio is more Amish, but my districts border the edges. There are a lot of Amish children in the schools.

So, to find an old wringer washing machine in a little elementary is no surprise. This elementary is just now getting fiber Internet connection and dis-connecting their T1 line.

In an area of the county where you watch for Amish buggies as you drive and pass several houses that have no electrical poles leading into their homes, and the wash hangs on the line outside - this is not such a rarity.

He missed her

The older girl  in the photo (courtesy of my niece - her Mom) had a showing at the fair over the week-end. She was gone for about four full days.

Her little brother missed her.

Rainy Days and Mondays

It was not my choice to hold a training session on a Monday morning. I am the kind of person who believes folks should ease into Monday with nothing on their schedule. Keep Mondays open so that we can ease back into the work week. Nothing to jar the system.

Alas, somebody picked Monday morning for the training and I obliged. And it rained. My God - it rained. Driving the interstate was dicey. Although I did not see anybody pulled over, I considered it. Sometimes that is more dangerous than just staying the course. A steady, keep the same speed course.

Then  you have the folks in the left lane who pass you, but they must be nervous because their vehicle is way over the line on YOUR side. Please people!

Anyway, I had my filter training Monday morning. I stopped to get donuts for the crew. 15 of them. You can't really hold an umbrella and three dozen donuts, you know. My beautiful hair-do was ruined. I do have a jacket with a hood, but it also happened to be very muggy and warm. I tried.

At times the folks in the class looked like the picture above. No more Monday morning trainings if I can help it.

The blueberries have it

This is the banana bread recipe I have been making for years. It is in my Pillsbury cookbook. As you can see this is one of the pages that looks a bit used. I copied the recipe to the back of an old used envelope so I would not have to haul this old cookbook out any more. The pages are delicate and beginning to come out.

I (re) use old envelopes from the mail for shopping lists, to do lists, notes and recipes.

I only began adding blueberries to this recipe a couple of months ago. Today I tried strawberries.

Nah. We voted, blueberries are the best with this.

No nuts in the house. Well, no edible English walnuts in the house. Wink, wink.

Summer stuff

Found the charger to my Nook and I have been reading, reading, reading. Since my washing machine leaks, I have had to babysit the appliance during the rinse cycle and after consuming a box of books my sister gave me for Christmas, my nook is my companion in the basement washroom, now.

Currently reading Theroux. My nook is full of about a hundred books and I have so much to pick from and I keep downloading more.

If I am not reading, I am working on my filter training. I have a class Monday morning (why oh why did they pick Monday?) for 16 people. I know the filter very well so I am not too stressed. There will be the occasional question that I won't know the answer to, but after working with a few on the telephone over the past few weeks I can see that I am miles ahead of them. I am not bragging, this is how it is supposed to be. They are very busy with a million other things, while my main focus is the filter. I have had so much more time to learn this and it is a passion with me.

I love sharing my knowledge with them. A lot of times I get the call that says "My district cannot access such and such." It is my job to help them figure out why and fix it. I love a puzzle.

So, not much here at blogdom these days. Not much else going on in my life. Animals are itchy and should probably be treated for their summer allergy/flea/dry skin condition.  I need to buck up and get them in for all their shot updates, too. Kennel cough (bordetella)  is the big one. I think they are due for a distemper booster, too. Some other vaccines are on a 3  year cycle and I believe I caught those up last year. The vet sends me a postcard reminding me.

In fact, I am going to sign off of here and call the vet right now to make an appointment.

What is it with these people?

Well, we had just recovered from the shocking story of this school outrage: /Cover up    ,

and now we are slapped with this story:

This goon

What is it with these people?

Wow! There IS an app for that!

There you are in a movie theater, the middle of a movie and the urge to pee just won't go away. But, you don't want to miss anything important, right?

Well, worry no more! There's an app for that!

Straight from their web page:  http://runpee.com/

Each movie has a list of carefully selected Peetimes. We try to find 3-5 minute long scenes that don’t have crucial plot twists, or LOL moments, or exciting  action.

Blueberry banana bread

This picture does not do the bread justice. I had some very ripe bananas and decided to make my banana bread (or Pillsbury,s rather) and having lots of blueberries decided to try adding them. It turned out great! Very moist. I also just happened to have mixed berry cream cheese (for some blueberry bagels I had picked up) and the combination was heaven.

We can't stop eating it. My daughter and her boyfriend both insisted on taking a loaf to work with them today. I awoke with a stomach ache (having imbibed in two small pieces right before retiring). That will teach me. Pfffttt!

Black icing

I am wondering if the parents were thinking that Minnie Mouse on the baby's cake may not have been such a great idea. Black icing! Photo courtesy of my nephew (her dad).

She cleaned up wonderfully, though. She was clean as a whistle when she returned to open her gifts.

I don't have much guys. I don't know what it is. I don't know if nothing is going on, if I am being lazy, or what?

I forgot my 10th year anniversary of this blog. June 21st or so. I am not stopping, now. I am in for another ten years.

Which brings me (again) to the mystery of writers who just stop and disappear in thin air. No remark of "I'm done, good-bye!"  Or, "I am taking a break. Maybe I'll start posting again."  I have two more that I went to where I was a regular reader, and 'poof' nothing from them in months.

Where do they go?

Too much water

This is the little neighbor boy playing in some standing water between my house and his. He is three years old and I grabbed this photo opportunity hidden behind my front door. As soon as he sees me he comes over and he is stuck to me like glue. Sigh.

Anyway, their basement wall caved in that night. This side of it. There was a crew that began working on water proofing their basement on Monday. The wall fell in on Wednesday (heavy rains on top of this water already standing and no place to go).  Fortunately, for my neighbor the crew that is water proofing the basement will pay for all damages.

Today there is a huge mountain of dirt that divides our houses. And yellow caution tape. I joked with my neighbor after calling my dogs back away from the cave-in. "Now if a couple of dogs go missing when this mess is finished, I wouldn't mind a bit.  Nor, a couple of cats."

They laughed. I wasn't kidding. Oh come on! Yes, I was. Just kidding. ;)

Independence

I grabbed this shot at the end of June outside a Bob Evans near Cleveland. The wind was howling and a storm was coming fast. It rained while we were inside and sunny when we came out. The flag was drooped and lifeless when we returned to our car. I was glad I got this shot when it was windy.

My Independence day was quiet. My town set off fireworks last night. I waited until about two minutes before ten and under the cover of darkness snuck outside, grabbed my lawn chair and quickly made my way to the far side of my house and yard (away from my neighbors). Don't get me wrong, I love my neighbors - I just wanted to be by myself and I was afraid if they saw me, they would invite me over and you know I would have had to go sit with them. And the three year old boy. I have been avoiding them lately - just not in a social mood. I wanted to be independent. LOL!

The trees are either very tall or the fireworks are not reaching as high as they used to. Half of the display I did not see. It just looked like heat lightning behind the tree line. When they started, the dogs in the neighborhood began barking and they never stopped through the entire 23 minutes. My dogs remained silent (in the house) the entire time. They got special treats when I went back inside.

Some one's car alarm went off at the beginning, but either they stopped it or it just quit on it's own. My street was packed with cars parked while their occupants walked up and over the hill to view the display.

I sat in my lawn chair and watched the latecomers. It is kind of sad, really. The ones who are late. They are desperately trying to find a parking space, some even risking it and parking close to the fire hydrant. Then they drag their crying kids quickly through the dark streets with the fireworks booming and illuminating the sky like some eerie B-rated horror movie. If the kids aren't traumatized I would be surprised.

As I sat there, I was reminded of my previous 4th holidays when I would have the big party for the family at my house. It was fun but a lot of work. I don't miss it. At all. (I now do Labor day at the park). I always had them come to my house because they could watch the fireworks from my lawn, but really - the trees have grown too high. I guess after ten  years - they tend to do that. I can do without all the work and the expense, too. I always overdid it - that is my custom. It is genetic. And the alcohol. I don't miss the fact that things can always get edgy when there is alcohol around.

And the weed. I have some family members who smoke weed. It doesn't bother me - they are discreet and smoke in the garage so they don't let the children see or smell. The smell comes out anyway. I can remember one time sitting in a group and chatting with family and I said "Whew. I smell a skunk."  My next sentence was "Where is Jock, Susan and Larry?"  (Not their real names). After a two second pause we all looked at each other and just busted out laughing. Because I smelled the skunk (a lot of times weed smells like skunk) and they are the three that smoke it and that is exactly what they were doing.

I enjoy the quiet times because I have had so many crazy and loud times. There will be more loud and crazy. It is just nice to sit and relax and not have to converse. With anyone. I got to see my beautiful pink fireworks. They are my favorite. Not the red ones, but the pink ones.

I thank the military and the US for my independence and to spend it the way I want to. That is freedom. We have the choice. Some paid dearly for this privilege we are enjoying and I am so grateful to them.

Flash

Photo courtesy of niece. I did not attend these back-yard fire works. I don't usually feel safe when "amateurs" are letting off fire works. I love my nephew and I hope he is always safe.

My sister-in-law is home from the hospital and doing well I am told. I will probably go visit her later today or tomorrow.Or, I may just wait and call instead. I like to give people time to rest and adjust. She did have all of her stomach removed and we are hoping that the cancer does not return somewhere else.

Very quiet around here. I did nothing yesterday. There is a big festival in town for the week-end, but I don't go any longer. I don't need that food that I love so dearly and I don't need the noise.

Weather has turned cool here in Ohio, so just keeping windows and doors open instead of running the air is enough.

A beautiful bird had decided to build her nest on the top of my front door porch light. It is one that sits on the side of the door. I did not realize it until I went out after dark the other evening to retrieve the mail and she went nuts when I went to go back into the door.

I had no idea what the hell was going on and I thought I was under attack. Hearing the flutter of the wings I realized it was a bird and I figured she must have built a nest on my light. I wasn't looking up, I was holding the mail over my head. I felt like Tippi Hedron! I believe I twisted my neck - it was hurting all the next day.

I go out the back door and around the house to sneak into my mailbox, now. It is on my front porch wall. I move slow and she and I just eyeball each other the entire time. No sudden movements!

Bits and Pieces

Just a quick post to jot down what is going on around here, so that when I re-read this post five years from now I will remember.

My sister-in-law is having surgery today. I may post more about that at another time. It is cancer. The photo above was what I sent to her on f@ceb00k.

My neighbor's basement wall collapsed the night before last under all this rain. A crew started water-proofing their basement on Monday. What do you think? Co-incidence or was the crew responsible? Tough situation to be in. I am going to double-check my wall on that side of the house. A few years back I had a company come in and put two big braces on that wall using steel anchors that lead to a brace ten to twenty feet out into the yard underground. Water has pooled in the little ditches between our houses for years.

My daughter's car broke down. Same thing that happened about a year ago. It was a piston then, sounds like a piston, now. She said it is doing the same thing. When I told my appliances (that were breaking down) not to let word slip out to my car in the driveway that I was spending money on them, I guess I forgot to tell them that also includes my daughter's car. Cripes.

I had to go out to a couple of schools yesterday and work with my hands instead of my brain. It was hot and muggy in the wiring closets. The schools are not keeping their equipment cool AT ALL. I was sweating up a storm and guess who forgot to put on deodorant yesterday? Yep, that's right. Not a pleasant morning.

I won (sort of) four tickets to the Pitt$burgh z00. I visit a radio station's web site to read their lost & found (pets) and when they designed a new one, I could not find the l&f. I sent them a message asking where it was. They assured me it was coming and since I commented, they wanted to send me 4 tickets to one of three places. I chose the z00.

My work is switching from 26 pays to 24 this next month. I know it is easier for them to do, but I really looked forward to those two "free" pays every  year. Sigh.

Cool Air

I had to have a new controller card put in my furnace/air conditioner. I now have cool air again. I hope I will have heat this winter.

Two months ago it was the gas hot water heater. Yep. One has to have hot water, don't they. Kind of hard living without it.

I could have lived without A/C this summer, but can't do without heat. Living without A/C would not be pretty. Of my four dogs, three are black and they are always hot. They park themselves in front of the A/C vents and the fans if they can.

Then, there is me. I would be a "hot mess" to quote Chelsea what's her name. H@ndler? I've even read one of her books.  I can watch/listen to her in small doses. She is a bit over the top.

It seems to be a rainy summer so far here in my part of Ohio. I have huge puddles in my yard as I dragged my garbage cans out this morning in the pouring rain. Somebody did not do that task as I asked them to last night. "I will."  Sigh.

Oh, to be 22 again.

Cake

I think most people like cake. Some are either a cake person or an icing person. I am an icing person. I eat the icing and leave the cake.

I went to a party yesterday for a one year old. The parents did the traditional act where they give the little baby an entire little cake to devour or smash or throw or wear as they wish.

Then they clean her up and finish the party. Me? I'd save the cake smashing/wearing for last.

The icing was MUCH too sweet even for my taste. Whew!

I watched the movie "The Railway Man". It was hard to get into it at first. So boring. I am NOT a fan of Kidman or Firth. Both fine actors but YUCK! Something about them makes me cringe. Fortunately, a lot of the film was set "back in time" when Firth's character was young and a prisoner of war.

Based on a true story, the tale depicts how this man survived (barely) the torturous beatings and actions of the Japanese army only to meet his enemy forty-some years later. His life was full of misery as he re-lived his beatings almost daily and suffered severely what is now known as post traumatic stress syndrome. He discovered that the Japanese officer was giving tours at the place he was held captive - now a museum of sorts. He sets out to confront the man.

Nobody knows what they would do given the same circumstances. Do you torture them? Do you kill them? Do you forgive them?

April 31st

I had a vacation day today and I am off tomorrow. I killed some time on Pinterest this morning and this is what I found that tickled my funny bone.

In my early twenties, I used to get asked a lot "When are YOU getting married?"

Finally, I got fed up. I began to tell people "April 31st." 

The look on their faces. I never explained it to them. I figured to myself that they could figure it out - or not.

Usually, I got "What?!  Oh!"  ....then they would laugh. Some just look puzzled.

Needless to say I do not get asked this question any longer.

What prompted this post though, was at a dinner last night we talked about the one lady who is retiring. Somebody said "What are you going to do? Get married?" 

Sunk to a new low

First it was Fr!nge a couple of years back. I caved into what my sister kept pestering me about. Watching Fr!nge. Then it was Bre@king B@d about a year or so ago.  I don't recall who got me started on that one. Perhaps it was the site I visit often that said this was one of the best rated TV shows. Then it was D3xter at my daughter's insistence.

I hate fantasy. I did not like the books by J.R.R. To!kien and I did not care for the movies. I despise the entire fantasy/middle ages theme. So, G@me of Thr0nes looked horribly wrong for me.  And, it is. But I watched all 4 seasons. Much to my disgust. It's like eating an entire pie at one sitting. You know you are not supposed to do it. You know it isn't good for you. It doesn't even taste that great after the second piece. You just lose track of time and boop - gone.

That is my experience watching G@me of Thr0nes. I can barely stand any of the characters and I am quite delighted when they get killed off. Good. Next!

So, Cheyenne  - there you have it. That is where I have been. I got lost watching stupid shows and get addicted to them.

More babies

8 boys, 3 girls. My Mom's great-grandchildren. Nobody is currently pregnant that we know of. Youngest born Saturday. 10 days early. Mother went in for an exam and the doctor said be at the hospital tomorrow morning,  we are inducing. Bam!

Family get togethers are getting interesting. I am trying to choose more kid friendly places that do not allow alcohol. But they bring it anyway. Sigh. Can't even go ONE day without imbibing? They would say they can but they WANT to drink when they get around family. To them it is a celebration. I guess, but they don't remember how stupid they get. Or how ignorant. With all the little ones around now, most of us want the adults to be sober.

Where have you been all my life?

This one is so adorable. Each time I see him I try to grab him and I say to him "Where have you been all my life!?"

He started to answer me. He screams "AT MY HOUSE!"

LOL!

Most of the time I get a hug and a kiss on the lips from him.  Pure sweetness!

Spring

I could not resist posting another one of this little grand-niece (or great-niece).

By the way - the furnace/Air Conditioner people have NEVER called me with a quote on a new system. It has been mostly cool here in this part of Ohio this May. We have been freezing in the house.

I talked to some folks at work who gave me some other places that they use. I guess it is time to call somebody else. I figure if the one I have been using for several years does not need my business... well then.

Fur baby

I am not exactly certain what my sister put on this little one's head.  I doubt that she kept it on for very long. I don't get to see the little ones very often. Understandably it is hard for them to travel.

This Sunday is a big family cook-out, though. I hope to be surrounded by the little tykes.

My house is freezing! Last week I came home from work on Monday and noticed that the house was 84º Fahrenheit. My air conditioner had stopped working. I called on Tuesday- another very hot day.

It is the controller board. Thursday the temps dipped drastically. The repairman wired the fan directly and it blows 24/7. I have wooden floors. I have shut every vent that I can and my floors are like ice. This year Ohio is experiencing a very cold/hot month. One extreme or the other.

So, either I spend over $400 for a new controller board or get a new unit. It is central air and the controller board controls the furnace, too. I guess they were put in, in 1995 or so. I suppose I should replace both of them together.


I just made my first payment on my $800 gas hot water heater. So, this is the year all the appliances fall apart. My dish washer leaks (sometimes). My washing machine leaks so that I have to babysit it and when the rinse cycle fills up I have to hold the basin back so the water does not splash behind it.

My garbage disposal has been out for a few months, now.

Ahhh. And life goes on. I hope my car is not listening.

I got nothing

My days are the proverbial "groundhog day". Still training my schools on using the new filter. So, I thought I would share the above photo courtesy of my niece. She and her brother hiked the Shenandoah National Park this past week-end. Or, a part of it. I have not heard an update from them since they got back but it looked like they had a nice time from the pics she posted.

I do have on little blip update on the filter. That issue where an administrator was surfing p0rn at a school district and I notified my manager. (Again, it may have been a student using his computer). It has stopped. The reports show nothing more from him that is suspicious in nature.

However, my manager has told me nothing. Zip. Still has not even mentioned to me that he received my e-mail. So, I will never know if my manager spoke with the tech person at the school or if they spoke to the superintendent at the school to stop the incident or if it was just a fluke and it all stopped on it's own.

I have no idea what I should do if I see this type of traffic again. Sheesh. Some management, huh?

The English Language

I guess my energy or my creativity for writing has been zapped the past few weeks. I am doing a lot at work and I think it uses all of my energy and has left me with nothing to write about.

I am (almost) over the coughing. I still am caught off guard from time to time with a coughing fit. Like last evening we were in a burger joint. The thermometer on the wall said 82 º . Holy cow! The waitress said it was actually cooler in the kitchen.

Warmer temps have finally arrived in Ohio.

But that isn't what this post is about. Since I am slowly getting better, I am regaining one of my most important features. My sense of humor.

Working with the filter, I come across words that are flagged as p0rn. Here is a list of some that surprised me.

crest white strips
police car lights flashing

I finally figured out the offending words that were flagged must be "strips" and "flashing". I was like "really"? I questioned this with our representative. He said the list was very literal. Okay, but holy cow!

Then I came across:

Woody Hayes
Woody Harrelson
woody allen movies

and of course, Woody Woodpecker.

Clarinet fingering chart
Anaconda swallows man
nymph creature
water jugs

Bulimia nervosa ....wait, what? p0rn?
Right up above that search was anorexia nervosa and it properly appeared flagged as family health.
Okay, I just did a little research. (Bulimia is affiliated with food p0rn.)

Hmmmm. And, you know I've mentioned before that "To Kill a Mockingbird" comes up flagged as violence.

But the one that was flagged that made me laugh out loud. "Out loud"  was :

summa cum laude.

Take that, filter!

One tequila

This is a bottle of tequila. 110 proof the label said. My niece brought it to the family get together at Thanksgiving, I think. She did not open it and took it back home. Wait. Maybe it was March birthdays. Yeah, that was it. March birthdays.

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, four. I don't sing that song anymore.

Had a relapse over the week end. Still coughing. But was sick to my stomach over the week end. Whatever this is, it has a hold of me good.

Work is crazy busy for me.

Finally, I may be starting to feel like doing things around the house again. Gah.

Way behind on yard work. I don't like it, but I am going to have to refuse family invites to do things. They get kind of grumpy when I do that. I get the guilt trip from some who say "No sense in going if you are not going."  That is such a sweet and nice compliment and I feel very honored to get it. But it also makes me feel pressured and I don't want to let anybody down.

I saw some pics of my sisters who were out this past week end. Let me just say this. I am so glad I quit the bar and drinking scene before the digital photo age and facebook. LOL! Good gawd!

That Oh, sh!t moment

Remember Wednesday when I was jacked up on all that prednis0ne and I worked all day on entering schools into the new filter? Well, it appears that I put them all ON the new filter thinking I had them entered correctly to be ignored. I wanted to have all their info typed in , so all I had to do was take their IP range out of the "Ignore" box and they would be ready to go. I guess it did not work that way.

I was attempting to prepare for next week when we were going to test them.

I drag myself into work yesterday and promptly get a phone call. The tech said a few things about the filter blocking this and that and I knew he was still on the old one. At one point he said the new filter's name and about it's blocking screen and I said "Wait...you are on the new filter?" He said "Yes."  I said
"Your district is not supposed to be switched over until next week!" Then it hit me. That "Oh sh!t" moment when I realized that something had gone wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong and I would be getting (see photo above) a flood of phone calls.

And this was me, if the tech could see through the telephone. Thankfully he could not, but I can imagine he figured how it looked because of the panic beginning to rise in my voice. At about the time I began to figure out that something was horribly wrong, a tech stuck his head around the corner and said "Did you block our e-mail?"  Oh, sh!t.

The Treasurer came into my office and asked me if I had blocked something because our grant writers had a dead line to get this grant in and they could not access the site. Oh, mega sh!t.

I spend the next hour in a total panic (actually I was pretty calm) and as quickly as I could began to repair my damage. I was prepared mentally for something like this to happen (as a big move or change like this always has the potential for unwanted chaos and alarm). Mentally I was prepared. I answered calls, I apologized and my fingers did their magic.

It took me about another hour to answer and explain everything in e-mails, all the while my manager calling me every twenty minutes or say saying "Instead of switching EVERYBODY over at once next week, why don't we do them in groups?"

I smiled. My error was a blessing in disguise. Every cloud has a silver lining. The schools can relax, now. We won't throw them all at the same time into the deep end and make them wait until we slowly pull them out one by one. We will be smarter about it, more organized.

It was a little far fetched thinking we could move them all at once, but I am like 'Hey...either way - somebody is going to have a painful experience out of it. That is inevitable."  Most of the time, it is me - but I have had many. I am a veteran. I just need to be prepared and carry the right attitude. That I can do.

There are many things happening "behind the curtain" that at 53 (gawd, almost 54) years old, I know that there is not much I have control over. For example, when my organization decided to perform this test, I began immediate plans. I wrote e-mails, I asked for this, I asked for that. Things I would need to make this switch over possible. I needed to be prepared. I needed to be ready.

Alas. The waiting game. I get my answers four days before we perform the switch over. The districts are scratching their heads saying "You guys are not very prepared."  Yeah, well. It may look that way but know this. Some things were just out of my control. To gripe and whine to them when they speak of it just makes myself look like I am making excuses. All I can tell them is I asked for information that I needed to make this change as easy as possible, and I only received the data at the last moment.

And then there is the issue of them being told what is to be expected of this change. I wrote my part up weeks ago. My manager was to send out the message. He did this yesterday. Yesterday. And the language was all new filter language and the techs did not understand what he (we) wanted from them so they did not answer him. 8 out of 40 answered him. When he re-messaged them, one tech gave him a nasty message berating him for his complicated questions that she had no idea even of what he was speaking.

Granted, she does not come to the monthly meetings (where we speak about this) but it is not OUR fault she is too busy. And round and round we go.

That is okay. SNAFU.  I am ready and prepared for the change. I am geared up. Thank goodness for this prednis0ne. (Another silver lining?) Who knows. Just back off and get out of my way. I am working here! With the over-worked management on one side of me, and the stressed and burned out techs on the other side - I am the bridge that will support them and bring them together. Yay. Go me!  LOL!

Meds

By the power of prednis0ne and Azithr0mycin, I am standing (sitting) strong. Sure, there is the coughing. Still the sputtering (it has to get out somehow) but the energy is outrageous. What is in this stuff? Reminds me when I dallied in speed in my 20's. Yes, I did. Loved them. Stopped them. I never took more than 1 at a time. Eh  - not what this post is about.

Anyway..I probably overdid it yesterday. I worked from home all day. Manager will change my sick day to a "work from home" day. I have a lot on my plate right now and am so very thankful I can do so much of it from home.

But, I kept jumping up and cleaning this and cleaning that. My mind was racing. I plowed through and actually worked about 12 hours on the computer yesterday for work. With several breaks in between to sweep the floor, washed all the pots and pans (the kids will do the dishwasher etc... but I don't put my pots and pans in the dishwasher so they were all dirty).

I was shaking. It was either the prednis0ne or the Azi - or both. I was able to eat (but not like before on the prednis0ne.). And I recall reading that somebody said they can't sleep when taking prednis0ne, so great. Now, I can't sleep. LOL!

I just read a page of side effects. LOL! Most of them I already had, but this one cracked me up. "shortness of height".  Wait, what?

Day two of the incident where I reported the p0rn. Not one word has been said. In fact, there is an enormous amount of work that I am doing regarding the filter, but my manager has not said one word that he even received my e-mail about the report. What would it hurt to say to me "I received your e-mail and report, we will look it over and decide what to do."  Who-ever "we" are. That would be the least I would expect. He could say "Let me know if you see anything else suspicious."  Or, he could say "This is not what we intended when we purchased this product, please mind your own business." (probably too scared to say THAT to me). But what? To ignore it completely? WTF?!

There is a big meeting on Friday and I am certain the filter will be the main topic because we are making a huge switch over on Sunday. I plan to be working 24/7 next week. And the prednis0ne will be gone by then. But that is okay - at least I might have the chance to sleep.

Since I can't sleep, I made my coffee and am drinking it. I pulled a dog hair out of my coffee and no lie, 1 minute later my phone dinged. I checked the message and it was a comment from "Dog Hair in My Coffee". LOL! And, hey - by the way 'welcome back!'  I thought she had done gone "off the social media grid".

Discreet

I may have mentioned a week or so ago about some techs having issue with a new feature our organization's filter has. It is a reporting feature. A school tech can run several reports to see what is going on in their network. At a school district you want to stay on top of things.

Here is my dilemma. I have to learn about the report features so that I can tell our techs that they have this, this and that available to them. So  I run plenty of reports to see what they are.

In doing so, there is one school district, the end user is logged in as an Administrator and several hundred hits are searches for p0rn.

Now, this is where I have to be discreet. The first thing I did was to run a report on just that end user for the past seven days and hand it over to my superior.

Remember - this could be an Admin user who is not logging off of their machine and a student is doing all the searching. Or, the student may have stolen the login credentials. The searches are very young-ish school age searches. The age of the girls searched for etc.

Now, what will be interesting to me is to see what my superiors instruct me to do. Of course, I am not the person to do anything as far as the school goes, but do they want me to continue to turn over this type of report or am I to turn a blind eye?

I mean - nobody was doing this for the dozen or so years before we purchased this feature. This feature was not purchased to do this. It was purchased to make the lives of our district techs easier. The tech should be the one pulling this type of report but this is all new - we are still in a testing phase.

Every end users signed an Acceptable use policy.

Here is my view. If the admin is viewing p0rn during school hours on a school owned computer - they need to stop and possibly be reprimanded. If a student is using the computer under the Admin's login - that needs to stop. Either way - to me - it needs to be addressed.

What I will really hate (and this is what I expect) is that it will be totally ignored. As if I did  not even send the message. Time will tell.

Insomnia

This is pretty much how I feel this morning. I have been awake since 2:30 a.m. I got up at 3:00 and started on the computer. Mostly work stuff. I had Thursday and Friday off. Thursday there were a few filter issues and I am responding to them today. Get out of my way.

I added some links to our Tech web page for the new filter and I am raring to go. Except for this cough. I have discovered that holding my stomach while coughing helps me a bit. At least the headaches seem to be gone for now.

My daughter has run the gamut on this one before. She said "You have this now? Okay, this stage is next." And she is spot on. Now comes the drainage. As if the dry hacking cough didn't do enough to rip out my throat and break my ribs, now the coughing and sputtering.

At least I can go into the office today with very few people working. Most have the day off. I will probably take my Clorox wipes with me and wipe down the phone, door knobs, the mouse, the keyboard, the microwave handle - all things I touch today.

I slept most of the day away yesterday. It was beautiful outside. I did manage to get a chair and let the sun beat down on me for about 15 minutes and get some fresh air into my lungs. It was quite heavenly. I had let the inside house temperature soar to 74º Fahrenheit. I immediately opened windows and doors and turned the fans on to cool it down and get the stale air out.

I am very short of breath with this cough. It is the kind where you start a slow panic when you can't get your breath. I would hate to suffocate. When I get short of breath I have to sit down and have a fan blowing directly into my face or I begin to get light headed and my limbs begin to turn to jell-o.

I don't know if you know what I mean by that feeling, but it is very unnerving. It makes me start to panic and I have to give myself a mental shake and remind myself to breath. Just breath. I can only imagine this is what it must feel like to be asthmatic.

There. I have regained some of my useless babble for the blog. Nonsensical stuff that gives me the chance to purge. Now that it is time to feed the critters and get into the shower, NOW is the time I would like to go back to sleep.

Ouch. One of my cats just nailed me a good one. She is impatient. She knows it is her feeding time and she stretched up and clawed my leg a good one. It hurt and I brushed her off. She got pissed and ran over under the table hissing at me. Hissing! I turned my chair around and glared at her. She glared back. Oh, she is a stinker that one.

Now, she has jumped up on my computer tower under my desk and I reach down to pet her and we are fine again. She licks my hand as if saying "Sorry."  I re-assure her and say "I know, I will feed you soon." I pet her some more and she is soft and furry and ...OUCH!! The damn thing bit me.

Color me miserable

I know I've used this photo before. I am in agony. Each cough brings SO.MUCH.PAIN. My sides ache so bad and my head hurts when I take a coughing fit. And it is one of those gut-wrenching, rib-clutching, horse coughs. I am surprised I have not ripped out my vocal chords.

When I feel a cough coming on I groan and I want to cry. Attempting to stifle the cough only makes it that much worse and twice as painful as the body reacts violently to the attempt.

My breathing whistles and rattles. My daughter wants me to go to the doctor, now. She went.  That is when the doctor sent her over thinking she may have pneumonia.  She went and they told her it was not pneumonia and that  they could do nothing for her. She had to ride it out.

I can still walk around and do things. Although I quickly run out of breath and have to sit down. I find myself not being able to catch my breath. I get restless sitting in my TV chair all day. It drives me nuts.

There will be no dinner today. I am far too sick to place myself in any body's house in this condition and I have not been grocery shopping in ages. We have been surviving on hot dogs, mac & cheese and take out pizza. The two "kids" I live with could care less about ham and potatoes and deviled eggs and any other Easter dinner treat you can think of.

Me? Oats and scrambled eggs. And Popsicles. And Gatorade. I don't like Gatorade. I went back to plain water.

I have sinus pain and pressure on top of the cough and my lower back hurts along with my back where the lungs reside. I don't want the "P" word and I don't mean pneumonia. A guy at work had pleurisy last week. I remember this ailment all too well. I have had it so many times I know the symptoms and I don't feel them yet.

Well, it is off to find the acetaminophen for what good it does. Do you purchase name-brand or generic over the counter medication? I seem to have a mental issue where I feel the generic does not work as well. It irks me because of the monetary issue involved with buying name brand products.

Cranky

I've got the coughing, head achy, sides sore from coughing blues. Restless. Headache not responding to acetaminophen which is what I take now. I have been ibuprofen-free for a couple of weeks. Acetaminophen has the same results as Pez candy.

My doctor thinks ibuprofen may be the reason for my heartburn. Not. I still have a lot of heartburn. I am on a daily medication of  PPI (proton pump inhibitor),  too. The pink stuff was my best friend last night.

Anyway - the cough. My sister had it and my daughter still has it. The doctor sent my daughter to the hospital for chest x-rays etc... she thought she might have pneumonia. She didn't (doesn't). No medication for viral infection.  Just acetaminophen or ibuprofen. They both ran a temperature. I didn't. I never do. I cannot recall ever having a temperature higher than 98 or 99. This could be what the acetaminophen is doing for me.

How convenient that this malady should strike exactly on the four days I have off from work for a long week-end. I don't have to take any sick days off. That is contingent on the fact that this illness is gone by Monday.

Let's see. What did I watch? A movie? I can't recall. My day was a blur yesterday. Oh - I watched a bunch of documentaries. So easy to sleep to. I wake up, glance at the TV - learn me something then drift back into a fitful sleep. It was "Return of the Plague - TB", "The Elegant Universe - String Theory",  and "Photographing Africa".  String Theory is especially a good show to put you to sleep. Trust me on this one.

Rambling on

I have bits and pieces to post about today. Above is a photo of a vehicle of some sort I was following a month or so ago. It is stopped - see the tail lights. We were sitting in construction traffic.

The new study on marijuana smoking. Or is it new?  I always used to say "They should just legalize marijuana."  I don't smoke it. I figured it was not much worse than alcohol. Maybe better. Now that I am in my 50's I see older people who have smoked for great lengths of time and it ain't so pretty. I now personally believe the smoking has had a negative impact on their lives.

I was in a meeting on Monday. I had taken a survey of what various educational organizations around the state of Ohio used for filtering their school districts' networks. A tech was rambling on in his negative view of the product our educational organization uses. He is always negative. I feel he has a personal vendetta against me, but I could be right. (!)  He blabbed out that only 2 organizations in the state uses such and such. I corrected him and said 12 did. There are a total of 23 educational organizations in the state of Ohio.

He stopped and asked me "12?"  I nodded and confirmed "12." I had sent out e-mails asking the directors of the organizations what they used and 22 out of 23 places had responded to me.

And, the others in the meeting would have believed him had I not been there. He did not take a survey. He was just spouting off negative blabber.

This is only one incident. This guy "grandstands" at almost every meeting. What do you do with somebody like that? He is poison. He has a "posse" of other guy techs that gravitate around him. Four at least. I say they "drink the kool-aid" that he is dishing out. The sad part (for me) is the other 4 techs - two at least - are very good in their own right. They are strong techs that work well with me at other times. I guess they just gravitate to him. I may not ever understand why. Maybe if they sit next to him, he will do all the talking and they won't have to.

When he does have a network problem, I approach each incident as fresh and new. I do not keep the negativity on my back when I deal with him. I am polite to him and cordial. He gets the same attentive response I give every other tech that asks for my help. I make sure of that. I won't sink to his level or let him get me down.

But, each new incident where he thrashes my work or my organization's work knocks me back a bit. Some of the female techs are beginning to ask me "What is his problem?" 

Sigh. He is just one of those experiences in life, I guess. The human psyche. Unbelievable.

I see a T-Rex

One morning I sat in my car waiting for it to warm up and I saw a T-Rex trying to eat my red garbage can. So I aimed my phone in just the right position and caught the dinosaur in the act.

A party for my eyes

I am in need of some color in my life. The outside is so drab with all the browns, yellows and grays. Yuck! I have no flowers blooming. I will have to use artificial color, I guess.

It was a difficult work week. I had some setbacks. I am trying not to panic because I have some serious deadlines coming up and I have been running around trying to fix emergencies so I have not had proper time to prepare for the upcoming events.

Sigh. I am missing my sister who is staying with my brother these days. She is trying to start working but still be close to her granddaughter. I can understand that. She and her son are looking at renting a house almost next door to her little granddaughter.

I had some family time Tuesday. My S-I-L has to give herself (or my brother does) two shots in the gut a day for blood thinners. This is to prevent blood clots. The next step in the cancer phase is for them to go back in and look at the liver.

The one doctor that removed the tumor from her stomach said she did peek at the liver while she was in there and the side that she could see looked good and healthy.

Life is kind of getting me down right now.

Strange

It is my daughter's 23rd birthday today. This was one of her gifts. Yeah, my family is strange.

Couch potatoes

We are minus 2 step great-grand children and one great grand baby girl, and there is one little boy still in the oven.  The rest of my family's baby boom are shown here on the couch.

Soon to be released out into the wild world, come what may. No, it won't be long at all until they are working, learning, driving, voting and running the world. God help us all.

The "smoking" road not taken

I found this picture on the Internet and I thought it funny. Of course, smoking is not funny. Neither is high sodium content soup.

I don't think about smoking very much. I was one of the fortunate ones and did not begin in my teens or my twenties. I have no desire to start. I did smoke a cig or two at a bar but I don't think I ever inhaled. I know that sounds funny given the comment from Clinton, but I imagine if I ever inhaled I would have coughed my lungs up.

I think a lot about smoking now that my sister is with us. I think back in the day she and her husband smoked Belair or something like that. Today it is the cheapest she can find - Sonoma Light 100s or something.

My Mom and Dad rolled their own. They purchased Bugler tobacco and my Mom had a cigarette rolling machine. My Dad rolled by hand. When she would go out to a store or restaurant she would smoke Pall Mall.

My brother smoked Camel, I think. He has since stopped. He had a nodule removed from his throat and he switched to cherry cigars and it took a little while but he was able to stop altogether. His companion (who is 17 years his senior) still smokes a lot.

My daughter told her boyfriend he was going to smoke an E-cig and she purchased one for him for Christmas. She told him if she caught him smoking cigarettes it was a relationship breaker. She and I both despise tobacco smoke. It gives us headaches. My sister smokes outside.


This year I have been lucky. Knock on wood. I did not get that awful flu bug that a lot of family got and I did not get strep throat and I did not get that nasty cough. I am in the bout of a misery of headaches because of certain triggers (that I cannot control) but other than that - I am feeling great.

Well, not great. As great as can be expected for my self-inflicted lifestyle.

My brother and his wife have been dealt a serious life threatening situation and I am sharply reminded that life is a fragile blessed thing that I sometimes take for granted.  They found a tumor in my SIL's stomach and removed it. It is cancerous and she is developing blood clots and it is all so awful and scary. They think there is more in there and at first they wanted to go back in as soon as she heals from this surgery, now with the clots they decide to wait six months maybe longer.

They have a long road ahead of them and the incident has all of us sitting up and taking notice of how precious our health and life really are.

Is there a doctor in the family?

As most of you know sister 1956 has been staying with me on and off since January. She does travel back to our home town so she can help watch her granddaughter and then she stays with my brother if she needs to.

She is a heavy smoker and of course being in the middle of a life crisis her immune system is run down. She has had one of the worst coughing bouts for over two weeks. It seriously sounds like she is going to cough up a lung. It is brutal.

My Sister-in-law (married to brother 1953) is in the hospital currently for some medical issues that I may talk about in another post. His son became a doctor last summer. He was visiting also - he works at two different hospitals and this one happened to be one of them. We all settled into the small hospital room and we chatted about things. Listened to each other tell stories - you know - regular family visits.

Sister 1956 left for a while, not sure if she went to the bathroom or just needed to walk around (it was much too far to walk to have a smoke). I was telling my brother about my sister and her cough. I was trying to get her into stat care to get medicine, but she didn't have money. She recently signed up for Obamacare but her doctor visit ended up being $182 and she is to pay $92 out of pocket. She was a bit dismayed about that. We may look for another doctor.

We were not paying much attention to my nephew as he was on his cell phone texting or reading etc...When my sister came back in we chatted some more.

My nephew sat up, asked my sister a couple of questions about her cough and proceeded to phone her in a prescription. His half sister is a Pharmacist in my town. (His sister is a mortician. Not a practicing one but she graduated from the school).

Lickety split. Just like that. My sister had her medicine. A z-pak, cough medicine and a steroid.  She has no regular doctor. She recently started a new one in my town so she could continue her high blood pressure medicine. I did remind my nephew about her high blood pressure. Before this she was getting prescriptions at a free clinic and it was a hit and miss episode as she is not well known for keeping up with taking care of herself. Letting her prescription run out etc...

She has the family curse. Take care of everybody else and some strangers before even thinking about ourselves. Hopefully now she will get well and nip this horrible cough in the bud.

Did I mention that my daughter has a severe case of strep throat and laryngitis? Yeah. She said the doctor is probably going to say they need to come out on Thursday. Wha..?

Mama needs to sit down.

Sake

I had my first "intentional" sake last evening. When a group of us went a couple of years ago, the performing chefs squirted some in our wide open mouths with a squeeze bottle. Hell, could have been water they were squirting at us for all I know.

I liked the immediate "punch" feeling that it gave me. The atmosphere was right. I was with other women from work. I had an empty stomach. The air was full of friendship, laughter and gossip. The first little tiny cup of sake went down quickly and "bang", I was buzzed.

As with all alcohol, after you eat a meal - that same little cup of sake has no effect. Or not near as much. I long remember the days where I had to keep that buzz going and food was forfeited and in return I was blessed with a long, painful hangover the next morning. Ah, those were the days. (NOT!)

Just a "J"

I am on a tech list serve and today the entire list received a message with just the letter "J" in it. Well, most of them did, anyway.

Do folks who use Outlook (Express) even realize that their smiley icons show up as just the letter "J" if the receiver does not use their brand of e-mail application?

I have received several "J"s in my e-mails.  ☺

Enuresis

So there I am working on the network equipment in a little elementary building. I am sitting in the nurses' office because that is where the equipment is. There is a little desk with a telephone that the teachers use to call parents, etc..

While working along I hear an irate teacher. She is screaming and she is dragging a little boy into the nurses office and dialing the telephone. I don't give it much notice but with being only a couple of  feet away I can hear everything.

The first thing that catches my attention is the teacher screaming at the little boy (my best guess is 8 years old) that she is going to call Mrs. Somebody and tell her what he did. She never did say "his mother" so I don't know what was up with that.

She proceeded to dial a number and scream into the phone "Johnny did 'you-know-what' in his pants again today!" And on and on she went. She tried to force the kid to speak into the phone himself , I guess because I heard her say "Well, he doesn't want to say what he did on the machine.."  So I am thinking she got an answering machine.

I did hear her say that "Johnny was too busy playing to take the time to go to the bathroom, again!"

She sure did a lot of yelling and she sure wasn't shy about it. Here I am - a complete stranger to her and she was quite brutal in my opinion. The principal was not at her office, but the teacher sure did try to drag him in there. The regular secretary was at lunch, so there was a teacher from another classroom covering for her.

She made the boy sit in the office for the rest of the recess and screamed at him that he was to sit in the office for the rest of the week during recess.

Well, I at least hope they let the poor boy go to the bathroom during his time out.

I managed a peek at the boy later and he did not seem to be the least disturbed by the event. He was squirming in his chair and when I caught his eye, there was no shame. Just a little boy who wanted to be somewhere else.

I brought the subject up with some of the women I work with and some thought perhaps the boy may be on the edge of the spectrum, which is referring to Asbrgr's syndrome or Aut!sm. The other teacher heard this teacher and later this teacher told the regular secretary why the boy was there. Nobody questioned the boy or the teacher. The principal didn't even seem to notice.

We wonder.

Crush

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Heck, I may as well make this my family photo album blog. I have been negligent lately. I have stories, but just have not put them into the blog.

The boy is the son of my nephew's wife from another relationship. He has Asbrgr syndrome. (Vowels omitted on purpose).  I need to be careful when teasing him (I like to tease children in good fun). He is so wonderful and special.

And, he is clearly smitten with this girl in the photo. She seems to know he is following her and is playing the flirt card very well.

Minion Me

The theme this year was Despicable Me 2. My great nephew turned four this week. My camera was in the car when he made his grand entrance to his birthday party in full Minion garb and goggles. The goggles did not say on long at all. So cute.

Little Girls

My family's cup runneth over. We are in the midst of a baby boom. To me this is a good thing. I love babies and small children. I do very well with school-age children but to me - the pre-schoolers are the most fun.

The above wee one? Sometimes she lets me hold her and sometimes she won't let me within 3 feet of her before she begins to pucker up. She is probably afraid I will try to hold her. I back away quickly and give her the space she needs. I can't stand those adults who grab the baby anyway and act like it is the baby's fault they are crying.

"What's wrong with you?!" 

"Nothing is wrong with me lady, I just don't know you very well and you are kind of freaking me out!"

Oh, but when they smile. Sweet sunshine!

This and That

Saturday we had two birthday parties to attend. The above little girl turned one, is my sister 1956's only grandchild. My sister is staying with me, now.

The other birthday was for a four year old boy - sister 1944's second grandchild. She has three boy grandchildren. They dressed him as a minion from Despicable Me 2. I did not get a photo of him in full costume (goggles) and all. To get an idea you only need to search for the word "minion" in Google, and then click images. He was adorable. We watched the movie while waiting for another nephew from out of town to arrive with his family. They showed me all the little extra things that go on in the background that are just as funny as the movie. Things only somebody who has had to watch a show dozens of times would see.

Twisted my neck (slept wrong, I guess) on Saturday night and still feeling the after effects.

I hate changing time - my inside clock gets all messed up. Was up at 2:30 yesterday and 2:00 a.m. today. Starting to feel groggy. After two cups of coffee I will crash in my TV chair until the alarm rings (cell phone) and probably re-twist my neck.

Work is going to get crazy.

Been reading. Missing planes, shooting through bathroom doors, quakes in CA, quakes in OH, airplane hitting a skydiver, mamas driving into the ocean, and landmines. My head spins.

I have to sign off now because soon I won't be making any sense at all. Must sleep.

Road trip!

My little road trip yesterday. Same thing today. Sa!t F0rk lodge.

Pink decorations

I took this photo while working at a school a week or so ago. The secretary told me that they had already taken down a lot of the decorations. I just think it is amazing that somebody can do this and actually get the decorations to stay attached.

I've never had much luck with decorating.

Note: I am NOT a creepy little school kid creeper. Well, not much. I do get the urge to cuddle, pinch, hug some little ones from time to time but I must resist the urge as I am a stranger.

A while back I was working at a school with the door to the tech room open when a line of little ones marched by. I smiled and waved. I heard one say to the other "Is that your grandmother?"

Wha...?!!!

Dejected

When I asked the other worker at the pizza shop for a photo of his hair, I noticed the other worker duck back into the kitchen looking dejected.

Before I left, I told him "Come on, I want a picture of your hair, too."  He was so pleased. He said "Did you get the curls?"  I said,   "I got those beautiful curls!"