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What will today bring?

Well, in that it's a weekend, we're likely to be busy. I wonder if there'll be added excitement because a bunch of my colleagues will call in "sick". 

I have two things that I need to accomplish this evening in addition to my usual. I need to get gasoline and I need to move that big empty compost bin. I really need to empty that container I use in the kitchen. It's getting really hard to get the lid back on it and if I can't get the lid on it, it's gonna sprout fruit flies. I hate those things. By the time I make it back into the "hood" after work, the gas tank will be below half full and that is beyond my comfort zone. 

Weather.com shows 10 days of high temps in the low 100's. That sure beats 115! Today is supposed to be partly cloudy, but from where I sit I can't see a single speck of cloud. Maybe a few clouds will float by this afternoon? So far, there is NO indication of real precipitation in the next 10 days. Some days the chances of precipitation are listed at 20% which almost certainly means it isn't going to rain......... We sure could use some rain.........

Last night was spent largely on watering and kitchen clean up. Tonight I'd really like to "broaden my horizons" a little, branch out into some other area of the house. We shall see. Gotta run. YOU be BLESSED today!

Smoothie Queen 15

This morning's smoothie is pretty tasty. I combined some fresh mature kale, 1/2 an orange (the orange is reputed to be what kills the kale taste and it certainly seems to work), 1/2 a banana, a handful of mixed nuts, some dried apricots, a small handful of blueberries, 1/4 cup of oatmeal, 1/4 cup of garbanzos, and another of those pouches of baby food. I think this pouch was pears, mango and spinach. Yucky, I'm sure, but it all gets mixed in so it makes no difference. I also added cranberry juice and water. All in all I think I covered all the bases--greens, potassium in the orange and banana, nuts for protein and omega fats, dried apricots just because I need to use them up, blueberries for anti-oxidants, oatmeal for fortified whole grains, and garbanzos for more protein.

I priced protein powder again at Sprouts last night. The cheapest I saw was $25.99 for a "can" of this stuff. That's just too pricey for my budget right now. However, I did have to reduce the amount of garbanzos in my smoothie because of certain "side effects"..............

Quite a day........

I arrived at work this morning to find that 3 people in our department had called in sick. So, we scrambled for hours, short-handed. They called in folks from all over the store who had once been cashiers and put 'em to work up front. Let's see, there was the capo, she-who-hates-me, the head of the install department, and more. One of the 3 was the "blessed one". So we had another guy, I'll call him "the go getter" as the customer service manage up front. I admire this guy in a lot of ways. There is really nothing he won't do, from moving a heavy pallet of water softener salt by hand truck, to helping customers load heavy purchases in their vehicles, to running a register, to sweeping up the floor. He's not a great big guy but he IS a human dynamo. If he sees it needs to be done, he's on it and I think he's a real asset to the store. 

So they were short people in customer service and short people on the registers. I had customers one right after the other, pretty much all day. It was another of those days when it was hard to find time to even grab a swallow or two of water. I paid for that one later. 

On the way home, I stopped at the bank and deposited the $$$ the envelopes owed the bank. So the bank account is a little less anemic. Then I stopped by Sprouts. Do you have a Sprouts in your area? They really are kind of a hoity toity store, more or less like Whole Foods. Today their fresh produce went on forever. If it can be grown anywhere, I think they had some of it, all displayed beautifully and taking up the entire back wall of the store and table after table taking up at least two rows of the center space in the store from back almost all the way to the front. Every now and then, they have a loss leader or two that I can't pass up. I don't like to go there, though, unless they've really got a good deal going because their parking lot is like a game of bumper cars. Today they had big bunches of fresh kale for $.88 a bunch. They also had zucchini and summer squash for $.88 a pound. And, red peppers were 2/$1. I grabbed two big bunches of the kale. I also got 3 each of the summer squash and zucchini. And, I got 4 red bell peppers. My plan is to dehydrate the red bell peppers. I will most likely make zucchini patties and then I'll saute the summer squash with a bit of butter and some onion. I do the zucchini patties in the food processor which makes them pretty quick and easy. And cooking up the summer squash will be quick and easy as well. Between the zucchini and the squash, there's 3-4 meals for me. Of course, the kale will go into smoothies. I've learned that the best way to store them is in a glass of water. You just whack off the very bottom part of the stems and stand them in a glass of water, much like you'd do with a bouquet of flowers.

So, those were my two primary tasks for after work today--the bank and Sprouts. It was around 104-105 degrees outside and HOT. Of course, I had the a/c pumping as hard as it could in the van, but it was still miserable. I then came home to a hot house. Again, I dropped the temp on the thermostat and the a/c was pumping hard. However, the temperature inside the house just didn't want to drop. Over an hour later, it hadn't cooled a single degree. I was hot and sweaty by the time I pulled the van into the driveway. It only got worse after I got into the house. I think it was another of those dehydration moments. I drank about 10 oz of water once I got home along with as much as I could drink in the van at the various traffic lights when I stopped. However, I think it just could not get into my system fast enough.........

The commute to work this morning was not so hot, but it WAS stressful. This is the honest truth: I got stopped at 8 traffic lights in a row. That certainly extended my commuting time. I still managed to clock in only 1 minute late, but I also have to admit I did not obey the speed limit during the commute. 

So, crazy day! I won't be fighting it when bedtime finally rolls around, LOL. I hope you had a BLESSED day.

Smoothie Queen 14

This is something of a "retread" smoothie but I've added some fresh ingredients. I had some of Thursday's smoothie leftover. First, I added a carrot cube. And I added 1/2 banana, 1/2 orange, and a good handful of greens. I also added some additional cranberry juice. It's strongly orange flavored and it's really delicious.

I am going to have to cut back on the garbanzos as a source of protein. Since introducing those, I have been "methane powered". I don't want to explain that, LOL. So, by "diluting" Thursday's leftovers, I am hoping to help control the problem. I've been using 1/3 cup. I think I will try using 1/4 of a cup for the next little while. And, to think I used Alton Brown's recipe that's supposed to take care of this problem.........

Slow release........

The lady who has been teaching me about smoothies talks about getting an instant boost of energy the moment she started drinking smoothies. I had no instant energy boost. However, maybe I am having a slow release form? Let's talk about today:

I carried in 75 pounds of water (3 bottles). I've never before in my life managed to carry 3 bottles of water in from the van on a single day.

I have carried in a good 30-35 pounds of dog food. 

My outside watering is well underway--more than halfway done.

My inside watering is complete.

I've washed 3 loads of laundry and 2 loads of bed linens/towels. (My black sweater from work is washed, hung to dry, folded, and back in the car to take back to the store tomorrow.)

I've vacuumed this room and I may get more done. (The beater bar is not working well on the Simplicity. The beater bar is not working at all on the Dyson. What kind of world is this?)

I completed the reconciliation of the cash envelopes to my list of items paid with the debit card and/or paypal. (My paypal account goes straight to my bank account.)

I just took the bottom plate off the Simplicity. The belt is properly attached, the beater bar turns properly by hand. I pulled about 5 threads off the beater bar but I wouldn't think that would be enough to slow it down. So, while it's not doing a great job and it's slow, it's doing something which helps the problem of accumulated dog hair.

I did kitchen clean up and cooked something edible for both lunch and dinner. Dinner was especially good: Some lump crab meat defrosted. Added it to a tortilla browned in a little butter. Added shredded Mozzarella cheese, and topped it with another tortilla. Lump crab meat quesadilla, anyone? I paid $8 for the lump crab meat at Trader Joe's and was a bit horrified at my behavior. Such extravagance! Well, not really. Seems as though I have enough crab meat for about 4 meals. I'll take $2.00 plus the cost of cheese I shredded myself and a couple of tortillas as a reasonably budget conscious choice, wouldn't you? 

So what's left on the list?

Windshield wiper blade. I will catch this after work in the next day or two.

Cleaning the hall bath. At worst, I should be able to get to this Wednesday or Thursday when I have 2 days off in a row.

Moving the compost bin. I don't exactly know when I will do this, but I know it will be daylight when I do. 

I meant to tell you I ordered some freeze dried food. I didn't want to order much until I tried it out so I ordered just 2 items: some freeze dried kale and some freeze dried butternut squash. I figured the freeze dried kale would make an excellent standby for smoothies in case I run out of the fresh stuff. And, I want some butternut squash but I sure don't want to peel it, etc. I figure this also can go in smoothies as a source of Vitamin A, C, B Vitamins, and potassium. Anyway, I'll let you know what I think. But, this stuff comes highly recommended by some folks I trust and respect............Anyway, I ordered it a couple of days ago and it shipped today............

So, anyway, that's probably not an outstanding amount of work for most folks, but, for me, as lacking in energy as I've been these last few weeks, it's darn near miraculous. Please, God, let it continue......... 

A one day "weekend"......

So, I have one day here at home and tomorrow it's back to the store.

First things first: I made an incorrect statement in the previous post. I indicated it was a branch of the store for which I work that was robbed. That was not correct. It was a Walmart. Nevertheless, my store's management is apparently concerned. Further evidence of concern: Just as I was about to go off shift yesterday, a policeman entered the store in full uniform. He walked in through the "returns" door and straight into customer service (which "no one" is allowed to do). Then he headed to the Managers' office. Just because of native curiosity, I would have loved to morph into a fly on the wall. I was told he was there because of "all the robberies". 

I'm trying to figure out the best way to use today. A single day off requires careful planning. I don't get the chance to relax a bit on one day and tend to business on the next. I feel like I really need both and that's why I don't love single days off. I'll probably sneak in a nap later on. My back is achy and I may just decide that, no matter what chores are on my list, I need to give it some horizontal time.

So, what's on the list:

I have an inside compost container. It's getting full with all the peelings, etc. from the smoothies. I need to get my "old" compost bin moved into place on the patio and start feeding it. I'm going to guess that all the goodies in that container are going to break down into some rich soil somewhere along the way...... I wish I could just throw the stuff directly on the garden and let it decompose there but I know Parker would be out there eating banana peels and then coming into the house to barf all over the carpet! 

I have three bottles of water and a bag of dog food in the van. Fetching and toting are in the picture. Need to lighten the load and conserve on gasoline.

I need to water all the inside plants

I will do laundry. I don't have a mountain of things to wash, but I don't want a mountain of things to wash. So, best to keep up with what I have. I have a black sweater that I keep in my locker at work. Lately, I carry it with me all day long in case I get sent to Register 4. I brought it home to wash. It was starting to smell rank! Now, once I get it washed, if I can just remember to take it back to the store with me tomorrow.......

I went through and figured out what the envelopes owe the bank (amazon and store purchases funded through the bank account for which there are budgeted funds in the envelope). The bank account is looking kind of puny. Example: I decided to buy 2 pairs of shorts to wear to work this summer. The purchase was charged to my debit card through paypal. But, I have an envelope with $$$ in it for "clothing".  So, the "clothing" envelope owes the bank. Follow? I need to pull the money out of the envelopes and get a bank deposit ready.

As always, vacuuming is sorely needed.........

I have noticed that dog hair has settled over just about every surface in the hall bath. I need to clean the bathroom. I rarely use anything in there but the toilet so I don't really have cleaning the tub, for instance, on my radar. But, it looks bad. You might not notice it the first time you ran in there, but the next time you'd probably see it and be turned off.

I need to do something about wiper blades. (I checked and I have a 2-day "weekend" next Wednesday and Thursday and we're showing NO chance of rain til next Saturday. I will probably put this one off. 

I'd love to make a trip to the dollar store--I'm out of canned clams. So, I can't indulge myself in pasta with clam sauce..........

Sprouts has some produce on sale that interests me. I'd kinda like to take advantage of that sale......... However, I can make a trip to Sprouts for very little gasoline after work--adds about 2 miles round trip to my commute. Sounds like a better idea..........

As I think of things or notice things that need done, I'll add them to my handwritten list and if I don't get to them, I'll just carry the list over to another day.

I made a trip to Trader Joe's Wednesday evening. I did a STUPID thing. I bought a frozen pizza. I can't imagine how I thought I could eat that. I couldn't bite it and even tearing off itty bitty pieces did not work well as I couldn't chew it when I got it in my mouth. I ended up kinda scraping the cheese and arugula and bits of tomatoes off the top and eating that stuff. Sadly, the crust went a little bit to Parker and the remainder to the trash.

I noticed at the beginning of the week that my chest was "sore". Not the outside, the inside. Didn't know what it was, but soldiered on. Tuesday, it was VERY humid and the air was unusually "heavy". I was having trouble getting my breath and my chest hurt. They were looking for folks to send home. I volunteered to go home early. Stupidly, I did not have my inhaler with me and I knew I needed to get to it before the chest thing got worse. It helped, temporarily. So, I've been sucking on that thing ever since. That's exactly what I'm supposed to do, daily. I was not doing this because it's VERY expensive. But, it's also expensive to miss work. So, I guess I will just pray that the price goes down. 

Anyway, even though my chest was still hurting, and even though I had volunteered to go home because I was hurting and I told the manager that, I couldn't believe my ears when the head cashier sent me to Lawn and Garden to relieve someone for break. I was very upset. Normally, I just say "yes ma'am" or "yes sir" and go where I'm told. I couldn't help but just stare at her when she announced she wanted me out there. UTTER disregard for my health. I was dumbfounded! This just reinforces my need to get a PERMANENT excuse from the doctor! August 17th!

So, that's all the drivel for today. At least for now. Later, maybe..........Be BLESSED today! 

 

 

They're droppin' like flies.........

So, by my count, the store has lost 3 cashiers this week. First, a lady I like very much who has had medical woes without end. She is moving back up to Carson City, NV and trying to work things out with her ex-husband. Only God knows how the ex-husband thing will work, but she is excited to be "going home". The second is a young lady who has probably only been at the store for about two months. She's going to another store as a head cashier! We are all kinda wondering how that will work out. Rumor has it she has not disclosed to them that she is 6 or 7 months pregnant! However, she was a head cashier at one of our primary competitor's stores so maybe the new store will be happy with her experience. She has a really zany, crazy personality and she's been fun to have around. But her last day will be 8/4. And finally, we have an experienced cashier who transferred up here from the LA area. She's an older lady and the story is that she is going blind in one eye so she is just not going to be working anymore. She also has a lot of experience but I've heard rumors that she complains about everything and I think she kinda gives the head cashiers some trouble. But, she has always treated me just fine. So that is about 15% of our current cashier staff that is going elsewhere. That may mean more hours for me, though I'm pretty happy now that I'm getting 6 hour shifts.

Staffing this week has been crazy. We've had days when we're overstaffed. We've had days when there weren't enough cashiers to cover breaks and lunches. It's been a real rollercoaster for cashiers and a headache (and stresser) for the head cashiers.

We had an incident in the store a couple of days ago. We have a lady who works customer service pretty much every day. According to her, a customer came in trying to return a toilet seat that had pubic hairs stuck to it and pee stains on it. She was grossed out and couldn't handle it and I guess she and the "blessed one" got into it. And, lucky me, I got to deal with one very pissed off customer who wanted to buy a replacement toilet seat. I can understand she didn't want to touch that thing. On the other hand, it's a simple enough thing to pick it up with two fingers, do what has to be done, and run to the restroom to wash your hands vigorously. I think the "idea" of it got to her as much as anything, and, unfortunately, she showed her attitude to the customer who was then very angry..............

I learned today that there's been an unusual robbery at a sister store on the other side of town, just two days ago. That store is actually about 25 miles away from our store so I'm not too worried. However, the Assistant Store Manager who is responsible for our area up front made a trip to my register to tell me about it. Apparently 5 guys armed with guns marched into the store simultaneously and ordered the entire front end down on the floor. They then proceeded to open the cash drawers and clean the store out. I guess there is some concern they may either try other stores next OR that there may be copycats around. The average person might think that our store, being in an upscale area, would have a lot of money lying around. Anyway the instructions I received were to hand over whatever was asked for. The cashiers in our stores cannot open the cash drawer unless there is either a cash sale OR a manager is standing by to watch. We have to actually scan the manager's ID card to open the drawer. I was told today that if anything like that ever happens, there is a procedure that I can follow to get that drawer open. Apparently the story of this robbery has been all over the local news..........

Here's something a little crazy: My schedule was increased to 6 hour shifts. I'm happy about that, but they're back to the "we're cutting hours" thing. So, for now, I have more hours, but that could be turned upside down tomorrow! Sometimes I think this place is schizophrenic!

I got an e-mail today saying that my mother is headed back to her Assisted Living place on 8/1. I know she'll be happy with that. It has been a pistol trying to communicate with her at the rehab place. They don't seem to believe in REAL phones, you know, the ones where the person can actually HEAR what's being said. It's been exhausting just trying to get a phone to her which is hard for me to understand since there is a phone in her room! 

I'm home tomorrow and then back to work on Saturday. No big plans for tomorrow though I may venture out to have a wiper blade replaced on the van. I noticed the other day that the blade on the driver's side is torn and needs replaced. We've had rain 2 out of 4 days here in the valley though I'm convinced not a single drop fell on my property. Rip off! 

Giving it up for tonight. I'll see what I can accomplish tomorrow............

Smoothie Queen 13

There have been several days of smoothies since the last "Smoothie Queen" post. I've been using up as many of those cubes of pre-made smoothie as I could. I've whittled the supply down to 4 cubes, but today I just really wanted a "fresh" smoothie.

I started with a mix of greens--spinach, arugula, and whatever else. I added a carrot cube. I also added a scant 1/3 cup of oatmeal for whole grains, 1/3 cup garbanzos for protein, a good handful of mixed nuts also for protein, some chopped cabbage (about a handful), half an orange, half a banana, and a bunch of blueberries. I used cranberry juice and water for the liquid. 

The color reflects the presence of blueberries--it's a lovely shade of purple. However, the predominant taste is orange and nuts! By the way, I did not rinse the salt off the nuts today. My thinking is that when we perspire, we lose water, salt, and potassium as well as other electrolytes. I'm replacing some of the water and the potassium in the smoothie. Why not replace a bit of the salt as well? Considering I've made about 40 oz of smoothie, the amount of salt is extremely small and I cant taste it at all. Oh, and here's a flash. I learned this AM that these greens actually have a bit of protein in them. Who knew?

Still doing smoothies.........

You haven't seen a Smoothie Queen post from me in a few days. I'm still doing them. However, I don't really know what's in them, LOL. I decided that, for now, the chia seeds have to go. They have been working their way in under my bottom plate and causing pain and irritation. I figure this problem is just going to get worse as the "swelling" in my gums continues to go down, leaving less and less of a seal on the plate. So I am using up my smoothie cubes--the leftover smoothie, frozen into cubes, that I had in the freezer. I throw a little extra whatever into the blender from time to time, but it's not a real "process". 

Yesterday I threw in my last handful of kale. I also threw in a strange ingredient I'll tell you about in a minute. Today I added extra garbanzos for more protein and an extra carrot cube. The mystery ingredient yesterday was pumpkin butter. I tried making this a while back and I didn't much like it. It had a LOT of clove in it, too much for me. So I just froze the stuff, thinking I'd find a way to use it later. Well, later has come. I added about 3 tablespoons of the stuff to my smoothie yesterday. And all day yesterday as I sipped my smoothie, I tasted............you guessed it--cloves! I figure I added a little Vitamin A from the pumpkin and the clove taste was MUCH diluted, being mixed into about 40 oz of smoothie. It was different but good. 

I figure this could be a valuable discovery. I could play with this in various ways that would be good for me. For example, what if I added some turmeric? It's supposed to be good for everything, but particularly for blood pressure. Or, what if I added some cinnamon? It's thought to level out blood sugar. I did an apple based smoothie the other day.......wouldn't that have been good with some cinnamon? Anyway, I'm thinking about the best way to utilize some spices in my smoothies.

I think I am definitely going to try for a VitaMix or Blendtec blender. Haven't decided which. However, the frozen cubes are proving to be a REAL challenge to my Oster blender. And I keep finding mealy stuff in my smoothie--I think it's ground up garbanzos or ground up oats. Ground up, but not thoroughly. I get the feeling I wouldn't be hearing the heart-rending cries from the blender if it were a heavier duty one. I have visions of a broken blade when I hear the noises poor little Oster makes.........

I've had it.........

I have slogged for hours through a mountain of paperwork. But, finally, I'm mostly done. I have a few questions, marked with post-its, to which I need to return. But, other than that, I think I've done it. Of course, I'll go over it all again, just in case. 

The kitchen is in reasonable condition. The outside and inside plants have been watered. My other accomplishment for the day is cleaning out debris of life in the hall vanity. I still need to get to the center section, but I've now done all the drawers.

That's about it. I do not feel well today. I don't know what's up. About 2 hours or so ago, I got the shakes. Bad. I took my blood pressure. It checked out okay. I checked my Oxygen level. It checked out okay. Then I ate some protein. No change. Then I ate something sweet. No change. And, I've consumed a lot of water. No change. So, with my hands having a mind of their own, I won't be doing any more typing. See you in the AM.