My Weblog

Time to go to work.........

Well, not really, but, yes......... I've been watching movies on my work break. Sad, romantic movies. I watched this one with Sam Elliott and Blythe Danner. She's been a widow for 20 years. She meets Sam Elliott and they're just beginning to fall in love and he dies. Can you imagine anything more depressing? Sam Elliott has been my heartthrob for ages.......  I may never recover from just the thought of loving him and losing him.........

So, yes, I need to go to work! Meet people, smile at them, try to add to their day in just a few short minutes that they are in front of me. Will take my mind off dear Sam.

I spent time trying to clean this big spot on the carpet. It's better but not "fixed". However, I turned around this morning and Parker has made another spot on the carpet. It never ends! But, I guess he's my best friend, so it's okay....... Besides, I need the exercise, getting down there and getting back up.......... Keeps me limber......

The sewing machine arrived today but I haven't opened it yet. I know when I open it, I will want to play with it and that's not possible right now.

Out of time. Gotta run. Maybe later...........

 

trying to recuperate

I was just adding it up in my head. I think, between last night and various naps today I have slept about 14 hours! Not that I was exhausted or anything, right? Yeah........ 

My back is sore and my thighs are sore above the knee. Other than that, my body is beginning to feel more like it belongs to me.

I hate sleeping so much. However, when I am exhausted, like I have been, I tend to just sit and stare at the walls. So, being awake is not an advantage. I'm better off just lying down and sleeping. At least that way my body benefits.

I do not want to allow myself to be totally exhausted. I am trying hard to make sure I get enough sleep to keep my resistance up. I do my best to guard against getting sick again, both through getting whatever sleep I need, through vitamin supplements, and through LOTS of prayer for God's protection.

I have finally dipped my toe in the water when it comes to fridge clean out. A few weeks back, I bought a big bag or fresh broccoli. I split it out into various suck-'em-up bags for future meals. Well, what I think we have discovered is that broccoli is NOT a good candidate for this. There are some veggies that let off gases that will break the seals. And that is what seems to have happened with the broccoli. So, lesson learned. No more broccoli in suck-'em-up bags. And frozen broccoli highly recommended henceforth........ 

Right now the house reeks with the horrible smell of broccoli that has gone round the bend. Phew! I have some floral scented was melts and I'm going to get some of that wafting through the air. It couldn't help but smell better than what is assaulting my nose right now!

So, that was late last night. I DID put a scented wax melt in the warmer and I think that may have had some ill effects. I woke up in the middle of the night with a headache. I got up and as I stayed up for a while, I think my sinuses drained and I felt better so I went back to bed. However, the headache came back and I just took some ibuprofen. Ibuprofen is the only thing I've found, other than some sort of decongestant, that will relieve a sinus-related headache. I'm starting to feel better.

I tried to figure out how best to use today. I think I am going to try to spend 15 minutes in each room as best I can. There's not one room that is the "p" word, and most are way far away from "p". 

With regard to the shades: I finally got that piece of furniture moved. I found a mountain of "stuff" under it. I got all that cleaned up. Then I quickly ran a dust cloth over the door. I am at the mercy of way too many spiders in this house, and there were cobwebs on the lower part of the door where I was previously blocked from dusting/cleaning. Now I'm going to work on washing the windows. 

In the kitchen I will continue searching for science projects in the fridge. 

On a side note (sorry, talking about the kitchen tweaked my memory), we had a moment today when Parker remembered that he's a dog. He barked! I got up and he led me to the front door. When I opened the door, there was a small package on the stoop. It was a package of Lemi-Shine dishwasher detergent. I love that stuff. It cleans my dishes and takes care of spots and other hard water problems like nothing else I've found. AND, since my dispenser for rinse agents is not working, I'm thrilled to have it. Around here, so far, I've only found one place that sells this diswasher detergent--Target. I'm not planning on going to Target, so I ordered some from Amazon.

In the living room and dining room, I am planning an all out attack on some carpet spots. I also have two tables I need to clear. Neither is absolutely horrible, but both could be improved.

Out here, I think I will work on the table that is adjacent to that piece of furniture I moved. It's a wreck. It's here that I do mountains of shredding so there are bits of paper, paper clips, and all that jazz over there. There are also things stored under the table and I have no idea what's in those boxes so I guess I'd better try to find out..........

The hall bath looks pretty good so I'll just try to work on the mirrors. That is the primary area of concern in there. I'll also check to see if the toilet needs attention.

In my room, I cleared my dresser of various debris the last time I had time off. I think this time I will do an actual dusting of the dresser, the real heavy duty kind where you take everything off, dust the dresser, then replace the items that belong there as they're dusted.

The Master Bath could certainly use more than 15 minutes, but that's what it's gonna get. I will concentrate on the mirrors, the countertop, and the toilet.

There are two other rooms but those will be ignored today. If I have time, I will do some more cleanout of the van. I've been picking at this for a few days and it's improving but it has a ways to go. This would include carrying in one more bucket of dog food and then bringing in the bag. I also have an empty water bottle I need to put in the van so I can exchange it for a full one.

If there is more time available (and I seriously doubt that, LOL), I need to pick a spot somewhere in the garage and work on it. It's cooling down (highs generally in the high 90's) but it's still pretty hot so this will probably not be attempted (if I get to it) til the evening.

And that's the plan for the day. I do have a kit I need to upload and get out to my creative ladies as well.

 

 

slow going.............

One of the problems with these marathons at work is that by the time I get to a day or two off, I am exhausted. I slept about 6 hours last night and went back to bed this morning for almost 3 hours. And I am still having trouble getting going.

I tackled that piece of furniture that is in front of the #2 French door. Oh, my goodness! That thing is a real challenge. Joe had his computer sitting on there. I have the computer sitting by the front door and it will be hauled to the curb soon. It is WAY outdated! Do you remember quite a long time ago when I got thoroughly disgusted with trying to vacuum around "cord spaghetti" under my desk? I got down there and traced down every cord. I found out that Joe had unplugged peripherals from the computer but never unplugged them from the power source. Remember that? Yeah. Well, I am going through the same thing with this piece of furniture I am trying to get cleaned up and moved. Cord after cord connected to surge protectors but not connected to anything on the other end. I will have to sort through that stuff. I identified one cord as a power cord. Another is a cord connected to some archaic speakers. I believe Noah had a set of speakers just like these when he was on the ark. My guess is that when the lions were roaring and the elephants were trumpeting and the pigs were squealing and the horses were snorting, he used these speakers to pipe in music so he could enjoy a moment of sanity............Oh, and I also found a stray mouse....... I don't know what the rest were.........yet.

SO dusty. Obviously, it's a real challenge for me to move furniture. And moving a computer is no fun either. So, there was just a mountain of dust on that thing. I cleaned off the top and 4 shelves and made 5 trips to the kitchen to rinse out the dust and debris. Still, I couldn't help clouds of dust forming. If I have a headache later on today, it will be my allergies protesting the exposure to dust. Absolutely unbelievable.

I also marked where I want the hem to fall on the shade that is on the west-facing door. But, of course, I am NOT going to take that thing down til later in the day after the sun starts to set. I don't want all that extra heat in here! 

I gave up and ordered that sewing machine I've been looking at. I got it for almost $11 less than I thought I would so there's some savings there. I feel like my time is really limited right now and if I want to make real progress on these shades, I need to have a functional sewing machine ready to go. My 46-year-old beauty is going to be laid to rest. I think she has earned it. I did explore Craig's List for deals on sewing machines, but I didn't find anything deal-wise that knocked me out of my chair. I was surprised that the selection was pretty limited for a town this size. There was one REALLY AWFUL antique sewing machine. Someone should be shot as they've left that thing out in the weather. Anyone who ever wants to use that thing will almost certainly have to put all new veneer on the top of the furniture part of the machine. So sad to see it peeling from all directions. So, anyway, in a couple of days I will have a new sewing machine. 

I did NOT get anything fancy. I don't plan to do embroidery with the machine. I don't feel a need for computerized decorative stitches. I remember my mother did some stuff when I was a kid with those decorative stitches and I thought they looked pretty hokey. I'm sure they're better now, but I don't need them.  Besides, in my mind, nothing screams "homemade" more.......... That, of course, is just my own personal prejudice showing through. Are we still allowed to be prejudiced against decorative stitches, or is that also no longer politically correct? The machine does all the standard stitches and comes with 10 different presser feet (including a gathering foot (hooray)). It also does automatic buttonholes. Those are two things I really wanted. So, it may not be fancy, but when it gets here, I will love it anyway. Of course, she and I will have to learn to communicate, but once that is achieved, I'm sure we'll be best friends.

I've also gotten some work done in the kitchen which is looking a bit more spiffy than it was. And, believe it or not, after filling that little swamp cooler almost to capacity last night, I've made 4 more trips today and I can easily add at least another gallon of water now. And that's with the cooler turned off while I slept! 

AND, I've been working on the budget which has been sadly neglected the last little while. SO grateful for a bit of time to catch up on that. It is VERY important in my life! I am working very hard to be a good steward of what comes into my hands.........

Well, that's it for now. I'll probably be back later. 

 

Very close to done........

As my DH used to say, "Stick a fork in me..........." I have gotten some things done but not a lot. I'm not going to be too hard on myself about this in that I wasn't sure I could motivate myself to do ANYTHING. I have carried water like a trooper for the swamp cooler. I thought I would try to get that thing filled up so that tomorrow all my "fetching and carrying" can revolve around clearing things out of the van and dragging trash outside. Tuesday is trash day. And, then again on Friday, but I work late Thursday night and they come at the crack of dawn on Friday so I don't want to be facing full trash cans at midnight on Thursday night. If I get everything out tomorrow for Tuesday's pick up, I shouldn't need to worry about the Friday pick up. 

I have also done a fair amount of kitchen cleanup although I really did not launch into trying to clean the fridge. I couldn't face that tonight, so I'll go after that tomorrow. It occurs to me that since the weather is cooling down, some part of my days off ought to go to working on defrosting the garage freezer and doing a bit more organizational work in the garage. It surely needs it!

I have not been as faithful about watering everything the last few days. So, I watered the garden well. I also have some shrubs in the back I'm trying to save so I watered those. And I watered the big row of shrubs out front. 

I washed up all the light colored clothes (save one shirt which I'm washing separately now) and got them hung on the indoor drying rack to dry. I did dark clothes the other night after work, so I don't really have enough of those to make a load. I think I'm off the hook with laundry for a while.

I've also been doing a bit of straightening on the desk. 

And that's about it for what's been done around here. I think I am actually going to get all my vitamins into me for the first time in days. I'm working on that now.

I found out there's some chain of supposedly "cut-rate" outlet-type grocery stores in Vegas. I don't know if that ends my hopes of us ever having an Aldi in Vegas or not. Anyway, for now I'm doing the old eat out of the fridge, freezer, and pantry thing. I have all the food I need. God is so good. But, I think I will explore the new-to-me grocery the next time I need to do a good sized grocery shop. I don't foresee buying anything other than milk and half-and-half for coffee for the next week or two.

I mentioned the last time I went to Smart and Final that I bought a BIG bag of nacho chips. These are NOT Dorito brand. In fact, they're a brand name I've never heard of--Montecito. This bag is 4 pounds! I bought it for stuff to munch on when I'm at work. If I don't bring it from home, it's more expensive to buy at the store and I'm not allowed to buy even a stick of gum while I'm on the clock. I was not sure I'd like this "off brand" thing of nacho chips and in that it is such a huge bag, I was really taking a gamble. But, the price was right. Anyway, turns out, they're every bit as tasty as Doritos. So, that was a big win for me.

I am going to work on shades tomorrow and Tuesday. I will take a run at getting the sewing machine to work. If that doesn't work, then I'll do things that don't require the sewing machine. I have one that is ready to hem. I have mostly cleaned that piece of furniture off that has been sitting in front of French door #2. I'll get that finished and get sticky Velcro up on that door. And, then, I can work on getting accurate measurements for the 2 windows and maybe cut the fabric. If I get any further than that, I'll be shocked. Actually, I sincerely doubt I'll get that far, but it helps to lay out the steps in my mind so I know what I should go after next. 

I thought I should mention that I finally conquered the water bottle problem. Last night, around 10 I filled that silly thing up and put it in the freezer. This morning, it was frozen solid. So, yes, I did have cold water all day at work today! I pulled it out of the freezer around 6 this morning and it still had ice in it when I got home around 2:30PM. Yay! Now, if I can just get into the habit of getting it into the freezer each night before I go to bed, I just might have that problem licked.

I am still loving the tumbler I got from Amazon. I put ice in it this morning around 6AM and just threw in my instant coffee, Nesquik, sweetener, and milk and ran out the door. I dumped it out to clean the cup around 8PM and it still had ice. I'm thinking you can't beat that! If I had the $$$ to spend on yet another water container, I'd buy another of these tumblers. But, I think I'm going to try the above process with water for now. Well, darn. I was going to show you a photo of the cup I bought, but that's not working and I'm too tired to figure out why. So, here's the next best thing, a link to it on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AAXA3W6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you look at the related items in the middle of the page, you'll see that you can also get a different style lid (one that limits potential leaks if the tumbler is knocked over) and handles, etc. Anyway, NO, I don't make a cent recommending this product. I just think it's SUPER. If, at anytime you have occasion to want to carry water with you without drinking from plastic bottles and adding garbage to the landfills, this is a fantastic product.

Okay, I'm outta here. See you tomorrow.............

HUGE sigh of relief.........

The 7-day marathon is finished. Phew! The last 2 days have been really hard, primarily because of really rotten sleep, another leftover from Levaquin. Both nights I have gone to sleep in time to get a decent amount of sleep. Not really enough sleep to heal a tired body, but enough to function. And both nights I have laid there and prayed the world around for at least 3 hours. Yesterday, I went to work on 4 hours of sleep and as soon as I got home, I took a nap, about 3-4 hours. I had to be at work at 6:30 this morning, so that meant I really needed to be up by about 4AM. However, it was well after 1AM when I finally went to sleep--went to bed at 10PM. When the alarm sounded,  I reset it for 5AM and tried to make that work. So, around 3 hours of sleep. I got almost no time with the Lord in the morning. I could only hope that all that prayer time at bedtime would make up for it.........

I did actually make it to work on time both mornings. However, this morning, I forgot to take my meds! See, this is why I don't do rushed mornings if I can avoid it. I was given an hour for lunch today so I drove home at lunatic speeds and took those pills! I DID have a different pill in my pocket which helped to keep the blood pressure from skyrocketing til I could get to the "official" blood pressure meds. Praise God for that. It allowed me to work without thinking about my blood pressure. 

This morning there was a store-wide meeting. Ugh! Our store manager is NOT a public speaker! I have never in my life, not even when I was in government service, encountered so many acronyms and abbreviations. And, most of them I have no knowledge of and they weren't defined. So, most of what was said went right over my head. She also had a microphone which really did not seem to amplify her voice much and, being hand held, was in the way when she wanted to turn the page on her notes. So parts of sentences were lost in that process. They DID feed us, which I'm sure wasn't cheap, but we were given the least expensive Jack in the Box breakfast sandwich and the greasiest potato cakes I've ever seen. I am telling you, the waxy wrappers around the potato cakes were so greasy that you had to be really careful, no matter what else you were carrying, not to let those things touch your clothes or any sort of papers. But, the sandwiches were pretty much all eaten. They also had some oranges and apples and all of the oranges were gone by the time I left for the day. Greasy or not, the food definitely hit the spot when you're reporting to work so early. We were all wondering if they'd called ahead to Jack in the Box to forewarn them about a huge order. I hope so, or they may still be trying to get some Jack in the Box store manager to breathe, in and out, just breathe.......

So, I spent the first couple of hours in lawn and garden and it was the busiest I have seen it out there. It was still NOTHING like working inside, but busier than usual. One of the problems is they see you wearing your "uniform" and working in lawn and garden and assume you know something about gardening in southern Nevada. Well, I sure don't know enough to be very helpful! But, thankfully, there was one guy who has worked lawn and garden for years and he was very helpful. Then I moved inside.

It was a busy, busy day today. Sometimes there are only two registers going and if the registers were any closer together we could have some nice chats. Other times, they open one register in the middle between the usual two registers. For parts of today, though, there were four registers humming. And I had very few minutes where I didn't have a line of customers waiting to check out. For the first part of the day, there were no head cashiers on duty. The capo di capo was subbing for them and I noticed she had a machine going every now and then too. I came home and settled down a bit and tried to take a nap, but I only managed to sleep about an hour. I guess that's better than not sleeping at all. I am tired enough, though, that I don't feel like I have much energy left for the house or anything else and that will never do. 

I'm going to be off tomorrow and Tuesday. I think I will try to make a list of things I want to get to over that time (as well as this evening) and see if that motivates me to get started. 

One of my customers today looked really familiar. I told him he looked familiar to me but I could not place him. His eyes twinkled and he answered "Prison?" No, of course not. Turned out that he is a local "celebrity", a news anchor on one of our local stations. We discussed TV news vs. the internet. I admitted to him that I don't have TV anymore because I really don't want to spend money on cable. I told him I usually track down specific news items on Facebook and mentioned that Facebook had recently changed their "news stream" postings and how lame what I am seeing now seems to be. Later, he came back to purchase some additional items. By then, I had changed to a different machine but he looked me up. He told me he had had a conversation with his wife about what I'd said and she told him the same things about Facebook's new "feed". I thought it was quite interesting that he actually discussed what we'd said with his wife and then went out of his way to look me up and tell me about it. IF I could watch TV news, I'll bet you I'd be watching the station he broadcasts for tonight, LOL. 

I have been looking back over my life lately. I REALLY wish I had been raised differently. No doubt, my parents did what they knew to do. However, there was little about what they knew to do that was effective, particularly in preparing me for Christian life. IF I had been raised differently, I, too, would have raised my daughter differently. But, like my parents, most of what I knew to do came from them. There was no internet then and not many "help" books. And if I had been aware of "help" books, chances are I could not have afforded them anyway. I feel, though, that my spiritual life is stunted because I have had a lot to overcome. I have had to unlearn a lot of what I was taught. Not just specific lessons someone taught me, but I have had to unlearn living in an environment that wasn't particularly "healthy". I am glad that the Lord only judges us by the way we walk in the light we have............

And yet, I am proud of how far I've come. I used to watch Joyce Meyer "religiously" (pardon the pun). One of her sayings is that she's not where she wants to be, but she isn't where she used to be either. Yeah, I know that feeling. I am FAR from perfect but improving. It makes me happy to be able to say that...........

I'm going to get to work on that list of things to work on over the next couple of days. Then I'm going to see what I can motivate myself to get done. I hope you are having a BLESSED day!

Closing this chapter.......

Well, the August 27, 2016 chapter of my life is ending. Time to spend some time thinking about the next chapter. 

I did a good bit of kitchen clean up and dealt with some of the stuff I needed to deal with in the fridge. TO BE CONTINUED tomorrow!

I did not hear another word from Mr. Fixit.

IF I hurry, I can get about 6 hours of sleep. Now, the greatest thing will be when I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. (From my keyboard to God's ears!)

I watched a series of video clips, between work periods, from a minister I never heard of before. I'm going to continue to check him out. He teaches practical stuff about how to walk through life looking like, talking like, believing like, a Christian. I need that sort of thing poured into me. I learned a new prayer for folks I care about and I'm praying it tonight when I go to bed! Things will change because prayer changes things, right? Right.

Anyway, I have to be back up by 4AM so I need to say good night. I hope you've learned a little something about Jesus today, or at the very least spent time with Him today. I got to thinking about the Ms. Cranky thing, and it was 99% my fault. I spent very little time with the Lord before I ripped out of here this morning. And, instead of talking about how I had all the strength I need (from God) to make it through the day, I talked about how tired I was. WRONG! My mind heard that. My heart heard that. Wrong attitude developing.......... I will do better with this tomorrow! I firmly believe your mental attitude can change the way you act, the way you feel. I have to have a better attitude to act better. My ears need to hear the right stuff!

A little better.....

I crashed and slept over 3 hours. So, I am more "normal". I could have slept longer but I had to keep in mind that I have to get up about 4AM tomorrow to make it to work by 6:30AM because of that all store meeting. So, I guess my thought was maybe if I stayed a little tired, sleep would come a bit easier in a few hours.

I didn't get a chance to tell you that we had rain overnight last night, and a decent amount of it. So, I did go outside and look at my plants, but I decided not to water tonight. 

I have only a few hours til I need to try to crawl back into my bed. I am going to do as much kitchen clean up as I can. I just finished emptying the dishwasher and I'm starting to put a few things back in there. Then, I need to do whatever I can with the refrigerator. I have no doubt there are science projects in there that I need to check on, LOL. I won't get through all that tonight, but I can continue with it tomorrow when I get home from work. 

Of course, I'm carrying water for the swamp cooler. back and forth, back and forth.

The other main thing I need to do tonight is try to get the current kit into the store. I wanted to do that this afternoon, but I was in just no shape to attempt anything that required that much logical thinking........

Mr. Fixit called. He has apparently finally decided it's time to work on fixing the patio. What a great sentiment, particularly since summer is winding down. Anyway, he wanted to start tonight. I called him, as we'd arranged, on the phone he wanted me to call him on, and he did not answer nor did he return my call. At this point, I'd be calling time in two hours, so I just don't think it's worth it to even start. 

He started pushing me about having his son come over and do some grunt work. Yes, indeed, I do really need that. However, I do really need other things as well. The man simply does not get the concept that I have to watch every penny. Ugh! He is SO hard to deal with, particularly since I do not want to be "nasty" in any way to him. I couldn't tell you how many times he told me to call him when I woke up so he could start on this work. And, I thought I'd lose my mind if he said it even one more time. And, now, he doesn't answer or return the call. YOU figure it out, LOL

Call me Ms. Cranky......

I FEEL Cranky. I think I have avoided acting cranky. I hope so. I prayed for God's love to give out to my customers today...........

I had one not very nice old man. As far as I'm concerned, he lied........ He walked up with a garbage disposal. He handed me his credit card. Well, I didn't want his credit card; he is supposed to handle that himself. I would prefer never to touch a customer's credit card because I don't want ever to be in a position where someone thinks I've done something inappropriate with their card. But, I thought I would help him out since he seemed pretty feeble. I inserted it into the Verifone machine (card reader) for him. He started processing the transaction. Then he asked me if I'd given him his veteran's discount. He never said word one about a veteran's discount. He claimed he had shown me the card. NO, he didn't. But once the transaction starts processing, I cannot shut down the thing from my machine. (I learned later that there is a way using the card reader, but I didn't know that.) I couldn't even get the machine to back out of the sale, no matter how many times I pushed the button to cancel it. I finally suggested he go ahead and process the sale as is and then go to customer service to ask them to process his veteran's discount. 

Well, he went just walked away and went over there and had to stand in line. Then he basically told them I didn't know how to give him his veteran's discount. Of course I know how. I handle 20-40 of those a day! Nevada is a retirement haven for retired career military as well as retirees who served in the military in WWII or the Korean War or in Nam. To her credit, the capo di capo made the man come back to me. She assured him she'd "teach me" how to process his discount. Of course, I executed the sale WITH military discount flawlessly. But, I am also smart enough to know that sometimes folks mistake where the problem lies. It did not lie with me! He never told me he had a military discount. Before he went off to customer service he made a comment that he has trouble with "you people" every time he comes there. I apologized to him and assured him no one was trying to deprive him of his discount. I guess that didn't matter. I suppose I'm a little weird, but if I had trouble every time I went to a store, I'd be trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and if I couldn't find fault in the way I was handling things, I'd probably go to another store..........

Other than that, the day went flawlessly. 

It was a little crazy at the start. I clocked in and was asked to go to lumber to relieve the cashier who needed to use the restroom. I have to be honest with you here. By the time I walk in from the outer edges of the parking lot, walk 3/4 of the way across that huge store and clock in, double back about 80 steps to go to my locker and get my vest and appear ready to work, my legs are unhappy. Of course, I am hustling all the way......... But I went down to lumber. After a while the cashier from lumber returned to the machine and I walked back up to the middle of the store to ask where I should go next. I was asked if the cashier from lumber had taken her break or just used the restroom. Well, I didn't ask her, but I guessed that she had just used the restroom. So, I was sent back to lumber to relieve her for her break! I kinda thought I'd walked a good many steps by then, LOL! But, it burned calories, right? And, it built muscles. All good.

Speaking of burning calories, do you remember that I have one pair of work pants that is too big for me. Well, it's getting serious! I stopped at Walgreen's on the way home, and my pants had slipped down a good 2 inches from my waist! 

I suspected that 4 hours of sleep would not be enough to carry me through. On my best days, 20 years ago, I survived quite well on 5 hours of sleep. But, these days, particularly with the stress and strain this job puts on my body, I need about 9 hours, give or take. That is the healing time required for my abused body. BUT, I just kept working and I just kept smiling. I don't know what happened, but we had cashiers coming out of our ears today. So, they sent me home at 12:30. I did not argue for even a minute! I need the rest.

So, with that I have to go lie down. The heating pad does help the pain in my back, but it can't make up for sleep! I'm headed for what I hope is a LONG nap..........

It just might be a rough one

if God doesn't show up! I worked til 10 last night. I went to bed by 12. At 1:30AM I was still awake, praying for God to hit me upside the head and put me to sleep. At 5:30AM the alarm went off. I have to be out the door by 7:30AM.  Is this even legal? Isn't there some minimum # of hours you have to be allowed between ending one shift and starting another? Well, no, it appears there isn't. Only if you are in certain specific occupations and what I'm doing isn't one of those occupations......... However, it does appear that in Britain, the minimum # of hours between shifts is 11. Maybe I should move there.

In any case, it's only a 5-hour shift, but without God's help, I probably won't do very well. Additionally, I won't be able to get my water cold enough to last the 5 hours. And, I'm so groggy, I don't know if I'll even get that magic elixir, iced mocha, made..........

And remember, this is day 6 of a 7 day marathon............so, I'm tired........

And tomorrow I have to report at 6:30AM. In fact, I think a lot of people, maybe even the whole store, have to report at 6:30AM. They're having some sort of rah-rah meeting over good results for the first half of the year and they want us all to cheer. Good luck getting me to cheer anything at that hour of the morning. Even more so as I am not assured a job there except for another month. 

In short, I am not amused. But, I don't have time to talk about it any more. I have to get ready to go to work. I will keep reminding myself that I can go back to bed when I get home. And that I need the money. And that the joy of the Lord is my strength. Dear Lord, please help me find the joy!

Life in a garden.........

Yeah, you guessed it. I ended up in outside lawn and garden again. Oh, my Lord. The temperature was down but the humidity was really high. Of course, I got hot and then a hot flash hit. And my hair was completely sweat soaked. I was out there two hours and by the time I went back inside it had cooled down some and my hair was almost dry. Someone had pulled a bucket over by the swamp cooler and the person I replaced at 4 was sitting on the upside down bucket. I was not about to do that. I "stood my post".

I have been taking notes now, for weeks, on various functions that are required on the computer to do my job. I decided today to switch to a different style binder. Primarily because someone gave me a valuable list of what is where in the store and that list is 3-hole punched. I had been using a wire bound notebook and it became unwieldy once I started trying to figure out how best to use the 3-hole punched stuff. So, while I was out in Lawn and Garden where it was quiet, I got all the 3-hole punched stuff integrated into a new ring-type binder. 

I'll work on typing up my various notes and try to get them into the binder over the next few days. Once they are printed out, they should be more readable which will be an advantage.

I had more of those folks who eat God-knows-what and whose breath knocks you over. Yes, they were Asians..........

It was reiterated to me that the reason we are all putting in so many hours is because they are short on cashiers. I hate to say it, but I'm still happy about that. I figure as long as they are short of cashiers, I have job security, LOL. 

A couple of nights ago, I cut loose and bought 2 3-gallon bottles of water. Tonight, I bought batteries. I had been noticing that the fob that opens and locks my car was not working as well. Primarily, it makes a sound when I click it, which, if I'm in a crowded parking lot, makes it easier to find my van. So, I figured out how to pry the fob open and replaced the battery. I do not want to be fumbling to get into my van, leaving the store late at night. 

I talked to the guy from tools tonight. One thing that would make my life easier as I get ready to launch into making the shades for the two windows in this room is a "T-square". I searched for that on the store's website and came up empty. It was as if they don't exist. However, he says they still exist and he told me where to find them in the tool department. He hinted that I might find something useful on clearance and told me where to find the clearance items as well.

We had a cloud burst at the store. I think, though, that it was west of the house. I didn't see any evidence that any rain fell here.

I spotted some blueberry bushes on clearance. I'm signing off now to try to find out if this is an okay time to plant those and where they should be planted. If I decide to get them, I'm planning on asking the garden area manager if he has any on markdown and see if he'll take the bait and mark them down further........ I have to be at work early tomorrow morning so I'm outta here and off to bed as soon as this week's kit finishes uploading.