My Weblog

Daily Blessing

A most unusual thing happened to me Tuesday. I was working away and i was coughing. Not the lose-a-lung kind of cough, just a recurring tickle in the throat that would not be denied a little cough. I had a gentleman at the register. He asked me if a cough drop would help. I said yes, maybe, but explained that the coughing had just started and I didn't have any cough drops on me. He checked out and wished me well. About 15 minutes later, I looked up to see him in my line again. Next thing I knew, he laid a package of Hall's lemon flavored cough drops on my counter and wished me a good day and left. Is that wild or what? I can't even imagine where he got the cough drops. Maybe at an AM/PM type gas station close by? Would they have cough drops? He could never have driven to the closest drug or grocery store and returned in that time frame. And he doesn't know me from Adam. I never saw him before. And it wasn't that he was flirting--he had to be at least 15 years younger than I. And, yes, indeed, the cough drops helped............

The common belief about men and women as "shoppers" is pretty true. Men go to a store "on a mission". They come to our store to buy one or two items they are missing for some project they are working on, usually. Sometimes they'll buy a lot of stuff, but it's usually all project related. For example, they'll buy lots of little PVC elbows and tees, but still, it's stuff for one project. Ladies, on the other hand, will "shop". They'll come to the counter with light bulbs, cleaning products, new drawer pulls for their kitchen cabinets, a hose, 2 or 3 plants, and a new toilet seat, all in one cart. So, when I get a lady with one item, generally, she is generally running an errand for her husband, picking up something he needs or something he forgot.

Yesterday, I had a lady who had only one item, but no wedding ring. She was an older lady, somewhere close to my age. As always, I tried to find a way to engage her in conversation. She started talking and I discovered she'd been a caregiver for her mother who'd lived in her home for years and her mother had recently passed away. In addition, on the day of her mother's funeral, her husband had moved out. She is alone for the first time in many years and having trouble coping. In addition, she is grieving the loss of her marriage and the loss of her mother, her best friend. She teared up at my register........... She started to hurry out of the store to hide her tears. I called her back and opened my arms to give her a hug. And she just stood there and cried on my shoulder. Not great rousing sobs, just melting into the hug and sniffling a lot. As she left the store, she told me her name is Judith. So, can we all pray for Judith? May God comfort her and bring her through this difficult time in her life. I was so blessed to be able to love on her just a little............... I can think of no other reason why God has me working at this job.............

So, those are the high points of my day. My neck still hurt when I got up but I took some ibuprofen and that handled the pain. My back behaved well and the legs pretty well also.

I set out to deliver "the box" to my DGS. As of yesterday, it had been in my possession for 6 weeks, sitting in my entryway. He finally sent me an e-mail on Sunday saying he still did not have the time or the money for gasoline so he could come and get the box. Okay, I e-mailed him back saying i would deliver it after work on Tuesday. Getting there was not much of a problem. In fact, I left from work which is about 4 miles west of my home. Still, on surface streets, it took me only 20 minutes. When I got there, the house was locked up tighter than a drum. I even wondered if the family was out of town. I had called 3 times to say I was on my way, to say I was there, to say I'd left the box outside more or less hidden behind a wall. No answer, I had several conversations with DGS's voicemail..........I had to make several stops on the way home so that part took a while. But, once I got here, I started to worry about the stuff being rained on or stolen. It was threatening rain yesterday afternoon and overcast all day. I e-mailed DGS and my son-in-law and SIL went outside and got everything and brought it inside. That relieved my mind. There were a couple of things in there that might not have stood up very well to rain. Oddly, SIL told me DGS was home all day yesterday...........

This morning, walking out here, I passed the entryway. It looked so strange to me, roomier somehow. Yep, that was a BIG box..........

I did manage to do some work on the house last night, but mostly I worked on a couple of tax returns. They are both ready and will be picked up tomorrow AM and by Friday I should have added enough to my checking account to cover the cost of the software. PHEW!

One of my stops yesterday was at an Office Depot where it cost me over $8 to fax some stuff to the IRS. Yesterday was the final day of the 15 days I was given to get that stuff in. Got that done, even though most of what I faxed was unnecessary from a logical point of view..........

Here's a strange one: The Assistant Store Manager who is in charge of, among many other things, facilities, is a very budget conscious person, to put it kindly. Somehow, the new HR person wangled a water cooler for the employee breakroom. This should not even have been an issue, IMHO, but she gave me the impression she more or less smuggled the thing out of inventory and into the breakroom without his permission because he didn't want to "spend the money". Well, goody for her! She claims now she is going to try to get new mats for the floor in front of the registers. I swear, the ones we have were cheap, cheap, cheap and I'd bet money that they were put down when the store was built, somewhere more than a decade ago. I REALLY don't think they're much good anymore..............

Well, that's it for now. I have to go to a client's home tonight so I may not get here. Just want to say "THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS".  It means so much to me...........

 

Wrecked............

I had great plans for tonight. I have no idea if I'll accomplish any of them. If you remember, I tried to take a nap yesterday morning after the meeting, the grocery store, and the water. Somehow, I woke up 1.5 hours later with my neck thoroughly screwed up. I have been medicating myself all day with the non-narcotic muscle relaxers and pain meds. By now, it is feeling really stiff and sore. I was not even sure I should be driving. I had to back out of a parking place and was in such pain trying to turn my head this way and that to look for approaching cars.

Throughout the day, I have managed to get one vertebra/disc to pop, presumably back into place. But, that is certainly not proving to the the "answer" to the problem. It's really painful up around the base of my skull and just seems to radiate from there.

I got through work just fine today. No nasty customers and the pain meds took care of my back better than they took care of my neck. Guess what? They're cutting hours again. They were locked in a room, calling people and telling them about modified work schedules, I presume. So far, I'm solid, but it's unsettling. I'm just counting on my heavenly daddy to take care of me through whatever comes.

Word is that the hiring they are doing now is for later in the spring when business usually is heavier. Sorry, but my skeptical self just wonders how many of those people are going to wait if anyone offers them a job between now and then. It's not like there's a dearth of jobs for unskilled labor around here...........

Tomorrow I am delivering "the box" to my grandson. It's been sitting in my foyer for 5 weeks. I got an e-mail from him saying he couldn't find the time and he couldn't find the money for gasoline. So, if I want to walk unimpeded through the entryway of my home, the only choice is to deliver it. Besides, I've been accused of keeping the package from him and of making him wear hole-y jeans. Shame on me............I packed up the Bath & Body Shoppe goodies in there as well. I did use a smidge of the lotion, but once I learned it was not intended for me, I haven't touched any of it. Now it can go to the person for whom it was intended.

So, I want to take a SOMA and knock myself out in hopes that my neck will be more functional when I get up. But, I think I will try to accomplish some of the things on my to do list. It's a long one and there's no one here but me to do this stuff. Not like I can delegate it to anyone...........

Mostly a waste of time........

I went to bed a little after 8 last night. At 10-something I got back up--couldn't sleep. Finally, around midnight, I went back to bed and got 4 whole hours of sleep! Wow, huh?

It was 5:30 when I left here, 34 degrees, and pitch black. Oh how sorry I feel for the people who regularly have to report at these early hours.........

It lasted for just about the 2 full hours. Most of the time I was too far away to read the TV screen they were using. And, I couldn't hear much. They finally convinced the store manager to give up her PA system. That would have been a good thing if she'd stood still, say behind a podium. But, she kept turning to address the people in the front and as soon as she did that, the people in the back couldn't hear her. So, when you can't hear and you can't see, it gets to be boring and a waste of time..........Last time we went through this craziness, I mentioned to one of the Assistant Store Managers that half the people in the back were asleep and the other half were playing with their phones. I suggested another screen would help. His answer was "but they only sent us one". Well, the store sells TVs. Surely they could afford to take one out of stock. And, they are paying 70 or 80 people to play with their phones and sleep for 2 hours. Surely that's pretty costly. In management classes, the total waste of the money used to pay the sleepers and players is the opportunity cost of not ante-ing up for another screen. What is that old saying? Something like "the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". Oh, well, not my circus, not my monkeys..............

Here's another anomaly that fascinated me. They lauded themselves on hiring many new people. The question to ask is why was that necessary. it wasn't to increase staff. It was to fill behind folks who left. If that many people are leaving, think about the cost of interviewing droves of people, training them, and if they hate the job or can't do the job or are just biding their time til someone makes a better offer, are we wasting our money hiring and training them? Or maybe we are not paying them enough? Or maybe they are frustrated with the staffing crazies? I wonder if anyone has ever calculated the cost of hiring and training an employee. And, if they ever calculated that, would they be patting themselves on the back? I kinda don't think so, but I am not in a position to make that kind of analysis.

There are all sorts of technological "improvements" coming. Not that we don't need them. We do. My best guess is that our operating system is still DOS based. But, the funny thing is that you are still going to need employees to operate the improved technological systems and staffing cuts aren't going to work well in that situation.............

So, all in all it was a mixed bag. One of the guys near me said "Just nod every now and then and clap when everyone else does". And that about sums up our big semi-annual meeting.

I went to the grocery store on the way home. The Kroger-owned Smith's store had some ground beef and chicken breasts on sale. The ground beef was a decent deal, but I found some in the manager's mark down area that was priced even lower. In fact I was able to buy twice as much there as I could have gotten on the advertised sale. of course, it's expiration date is close, but I own a freezer and I know how to can, LOL. I also got some bananas. I discovered recently that if I'm not in a hurry and I'm careful, I can eat banana chips again. That's certainly healthier than some of the stuff I've been eating at work lately.

I've been looking for something to serve cream (half 'n' half) in. I tend to leave a container of that stuff out for long periods of time. So, a small container that I refill makes more sense. I have two creamers now, but I don't necessarily wash dishes every two days. I finally bought a 1-cup measuring cup which will serve a dual purpose.

I also bought some gallon sized freezer bags. I don't often need them, but when I do, it's a PITA not to have them.

Anyway all in all I spent $30 dollars, more or less. And I got meat for many meals!

Then I stopped and got water on the way home. I don't think I told you my latest water story. You know I've not liked trying to carry those 3-gallon water bottles into the house without lids. I've even taken to just putting 2 gallons of water in them in an effort to get them into the house without soaking my feet. Well, I ordered a stackable 3-gallon bottle with a screw on lid from Amazon. I paid $18.99 for it. It arrived the other day. I couldn't figure out what in the world a Walmart box was doing on my front porch. It was the water bottle. Well, I'm not dummy. I went on Walmart.com and priced the thing there and it's less than $6. And, of course, I can pick them up for free at a Walmart store. So, guess where I'll be buying water bottles from now on.

Today I discovered the place I've been buying water has raised the price $.05 a gallon, bringing the price to $.35 a gallon. I was buying 3 3-gallon bottles at the store and, with my discount, it was costing me $16.67 every 2 weeks. I suppose I can handle paying $3.15 for the same amount of water..........and laugh all the way to the bank............

I took a nap when I got home. Only managed 1.5 hours before my phone rang and woke me up. And now my neck is stiff. BUT, 5.5 hours of sleep is better than 4 so I'm grateful for the nap. Now to see what I can accomplish with this day..................

 

I'm pretty tired now......

And I have to be up sometime before 4AM because we have another one of those mandatory store-wide meetings tomorrow. I'm happy for an extra 2 hours of pay (particularly in that I went/was sent home 2 hours early last week). But, it's just painful, trying to get up and get pulled together enough to let innocent people see the sight I am at that ghastly hour. I figure I don't have long til I have to be heading to bed and praying to be able to sleep.

I don't think I've done too badly today. The light colored clothes were hung to dry and I'm going to try to get them folded and put away before I go to bed. The wubbie and all the cleaning cloths went through the sanitize cycle on the washer and are in the dryer now. The sheets will have to wait til tomorrow........... That sanitize cycle takes an hour and 45 minutes and then the stuff still has to be dried.

I hauled all that dogfood in and got it put away.

I have two trays of butternut in the dehydrator. That includes one that was left over from last week. I almost forgot it was there. I have cleaned the last two butternut squash and they are in the oven.

I got the vacuum cleaner going and it is now hiding, out of steam, somewhere in my bedroom. I guess I'll have to crawl around on the floor and try to find her............She's probably under the bed, God help me...................

I hauled a couple of somewhat heavy items out to the curb where they will sit til trash day on Tuesday unless some scavenger picks them up.

I have several things left on my list of things to do, but those will have to wait til tomorrow. I usually sleep a lot on my first day off, trying to recuperate from the week. I didn't sleep but about 2 hours today. So, I''m running out of steam and I'm running out of time.

And, as always, tomorrow brings its own list of to dos.................

 

Ah-mazing!

Something just happened that hasn't happened to me in, literally, years. You know, I stopped at the grocery store after work the other day and bought, among other things, a BIG bag of dogfood. Of course, I had to have someone lift it off the shelf and bring it to the checkstand and then take it to the car for me. It needed to come in, but it's been really cold and really windy ever since. I was still able to scrape enough dogfood from the bottom of the can to keep Parker happy, so I just drove around for a couple of days with that bag of dogfood in the van.

Well, it's a day off from work. It's cool but not cold. There's a breeze but not "wind". I wanted to move as much of that dogfood into the house as I could. You know, I really don't like having heavy stuff in the van because it messes with my fuel budget. Normally, I set my timer for whatever period of time I've decided I will work at the moment and, first thing, after getting out of my chair, I do an outside trip. Once that outside trip is done, I reattach myself to my umbilical cord (the oxygen machine) and do less strenuous things in the house. Well, today I decided to bring in a bucketful of food. And when I came back in, my legs did not hurt. So, I decided to make another trip. And when I came back in, my legs did not hurt. So, I decided to try to do another trip. Long story short, I walked half a mile hauling ALL of the dogfood in and, though my legs were tired, they were not hurting. I have no idea when was the last time I was able to walk a half mile without sitting down to rest or at least leaning on something (which is what I have to do when I walk any distance in the store). I am truly amazed.

I wish I understood it better. Is it divine healing? Is it just because it's Saturday? Maybe it's because I did it before 1PM? Or because the 24th day of the month is magical? Or maybe because I'm fully hydrated (which I'm not but I'm working on it). Did the moon and stars align in some special pattern last night to cause this to happen? I have no idea. I've seen lots of Saturdays, mornings, 24ths, etc., go by without such results. Whatever brought it about, I am SO VERY GRATEFUL. It gives me hope that it will happen again! I am giving God the praise because His intervention makes more sense than any other alternative I can name.

I cannot help but remember Deuteronomy 28. We are told that, among many other good things, we who are righteous (the New Testament refers to us as having the righteousness of Christ) have blessings that chase us down the road and overtake us. (Not the exact language, more the Marci interpretation.) Surely that is what just happened to me...............

Using the store gossip............

Last night, after finishing my shift, I hit the "housekeeping" aisle and picked up some cleaning products. One of the products was in a "silver" colored spray bottle. It was sitting in my "silver" colored cart. I didn't even see it. Neither did the part time head cashier who handled my transaction. When I got to the van, there it sat staring at me. And my legs just hurt too darned bad to go back in. So, I just put it into the van and came home. Of course, it occurred to me that since no one knew what had happened, if I just kept my mouth shut, I'd have a free spray bottle of cleaning product. And that thought occurred to me more than once. It was tempting, particularly with hours being cut. This morning I decided that if I made sure to pay for it, telling the story of what had happened last night, I just might be a witness for Jesus. So, I made sure I checked out with the most "gossipy" person around and made sure I told her why I was paying for a bottle of cleaning product and then telling her to put it in the "go backs" to be returned to the shelf. I hope Daddy God got credit for at least one honest kid...........

Another day of my life............

I got through the day. The customers were fine. No cranky customers. LOVE days like that. Small victory: We have 3 head cashiers full time and one part time. The newest of the full time people may be in over her head. The position is quasi-managerial. They oversee and assist the cashiers, make sure breaks & lunches happen, approve certain transactions, etc. I've spoke before about a few of her bad managerial faux pas. Lately she seems to be walking around with her face all scrunched up into a frown. I know she has a lot of stress. First the job. Then she bought a home in an area that is at least an hour's commute. She claims the commute doesn't bother her, but because you can't predict weather or traffic very well, it seems to take her longer to make the commute than she'd thought which just adds to her tiredness quota at the end of the day. I think she bought where she did because homes are understandably less expensive out there, but my experience with this, many years ago, was that gasoline, insurance, and wear and tear on a vehicle made up for it. And, she just has an air of being uptight and possibly confused most of the time. While she has her flaws, in some respects she may be a better manager than the others, or maybe she's just confused and forgetful. It's hard to figure out which........... In any case, there's that frowny face. I've been teasing her about smiling. And, I've noticed this week she sees me and gives me a big smile. She should do it more often. It certainly makes her more approachable and prettier. But, I'm just happy to see the smile! And the other day, she gave me a hug. When I asked her why, she told me she always feels like smiling when she sees me because I'm there when I'm supposed to be. Okay, well I love the smile and I'm pleased with the feedback as well.

It was COLD here today. The wind was whipping and we even had what Nevadans call "snow". Really, it was more like sleet. Teeny tiny mostly frozen bits of water falling from the sky. But, so close to melting, there would be no way you could capture one and look at it under magnification. NOT real snowflakes like midwesterners or northeasterners would think of them. But a) it was announced over the loudspeaker that it was snowing, and b) customers and staff alike were trooping to the exit doors to run outside and enjoy the "snow". It was 44 degrees, according to the van, when I arrived home. That's pretty cold around here. Colder still because the sun was well hidden behind clouds and because of the winds.

I SHOULD have stopped for water, but I once again decided it was just too cold and windy to do that today. Tomorrow it will be at least 4 degrees warmer, lower winds, and sunny! Yay!

At the end of the week, I was tired enough to take a nap when I got home. And I had another nightmare. Lately, I've been having bad dreams that have to do with working in a store. I rarely see people I recognize in these dreams but I'm always on the verge of being in trouble......... Don't like to think my subconscious mind harbors feelings like that about the job, but it is what it is.

I got sent home half an hour early again today. My feet are always happy at the prospect, and usually my back is too. I doubt my wallet will celebrate it though.........So, my one-time Trump tax cut bonus amounted to roughly 7 hours pay and just this week they've taken back 2 hours in reduced work schedule...........

I remember that in the 80's, communication within a corporation was a BIG deal in managerial schools of thought. I happen to agree. Communication is vital. Here are two instances this week where the company for which I work has failed at that, both locally and nationally. First, they came to the conclusion locally that they had to cut hours. The managers locked themselves in a room for 2 hours. And, in that process, they called employees and told them not to come in or told them to come in at a later time, etc. But, what fun--they didn't tell the head cashier about any of that. As mentioned above, the head cashier is responsible to assure coverage at the registers and to make sure folks get breaks and lunches on time. So the head cashier was planning to send employee Mary to lunch at such-and-such a time when employee Susie reported for work. Susie could cover for Mary's lunch and all would be well. But no one told the head cashier that either Susie wasn't coming in at all OR Susie was coming in 2 hours later. Can you imagine the stress of trying to do your job and not having any idea of what you have with which to work? Yep, that's what happened.

Today I was working away on Register 10. I scanned the customer's only item, hit total to compute tax and get a total and the machine just froze up. I hit the total button numerous more times and nothing happened. Then I tried to back out of the whole thing and just start over. And nothing happened. Then I tried to sign off the machine but nothing happened. No matter what, I was just standing there looking at the results of my scan. Finally I moved the customer's merchandise, the customer, and the line of customers behind him to the adjacent machine. When I got the line taken care of, I went back over to Register 10 and rebooted it. And it rebooted but it would NOT let me sign in. I was completely baffled. Turns out that corporate decided to do some kind of work on the registers remotely to make sure there were no viruses in the system. And they shut down 5 registers of our 11 with no notice to us. That was the reason for the machine just freezing up. Folks were moving from machine to machine and just standing around trying to figure out what had happened while customers waited. NOT a good thing.

So, that was my day so far. I'm going to see what I can get done tonight around here to redeem the day..............

 

 

Hope's Perfect Stainless

Have you ever used or even heard of this stuff? I'm here to brag on it. I bought some at the store where I work today. I had some nasty streaks down the front of my stainless dishwasher. I've tried water, soap and water, windex, microfiber polishing cloths, and whatever else I could think of to clean those streaks. Nothing worked. Until tonight. I don't have any idea what is in Hope's Perfect Stainless, but I sprayed it on and I could see it going to work immediately. By the time I finished polishing the front of the dishwasher, there was absolutely no sign of those streaks. So, if you want your stainless appliances to sparkle, this is the product for you!

The Trump tax cut bonus

I keep forgetting to tell you. We got our "tax cut bonus" on the last paycheck. Even though I'm at the low end of the totem pole, seniority wise, I was still shocked at how little it was. Taken over a year, it works out to about .06 per hour.............And, now they're cutting hours. I've already gone home early 1.5 hours this week..........

4 of 5

So, I found out today that I am not the only person using CBD for pain relief at the store. We have one lady who works a lot of hours and she does excellent work, something that would likely not be possible if she were high or if she were in pain. She has found some sort of chewable form of CBD. I may investigate that next as according to her it's the cheapest yet of the stuff I've tried. She is going to bring me one to try. She has all sorts of back injuries too but she cannot take any kind of pain pill. They mess with her stomach but apparently this stuff doesn't.

I got invited to a birthday party today at work. We have a young lady working as a "loader" for whom I have a great deal of respect. Though she is young (she just turned 20 a few days ago), she understands "work". She gets the whole concept that a person is expected to do something in exchange for a paycheck. In my opinion, you don't find many 20 year-olds who get that these days. So, a couple of ladies went and bought pizzas and another lady brought in a cake. I was working in Lumber and the people who were invited were all from that area except one or two. They've been sending me down there more often lately, but I'm certainly not a regular down there. Nevertheless, I got a piece of pizza and a piece of cake. The pizza was from Costco next door. I will say one thing for them--they certainly don't get cheapo with the cheese. Anyway, it's such an unusual thing for me to eat anything substantive at work. Mostly I munch on whatever I can cut into small pieces and hide in my pocket. I did move more or less out of the area so as not to push my way in, but the birthday girl came over and specifically invited me. I was honored to share her birthday celebration.

I made a trip to Smart & Final after work and, thankfully, they had the BIG bag of dog food. Last time I went there, they didn't have it. I got a few other items. I got another #10 can of tomatoes. I would love to be able to can those this weekend. I bought 2 gallons of white vinegar. I am going to war on the mineral ring in my toilets which developed after the December 2015 pneumonia when I was SO wiped out. I'm going to try pouring a cupful into the water tank every few days and see if that will knock some of that mineral ring loose. Of course, I bought half and half. I bought a little jar of pesto sauce and I'm planning on eating that on some spaghettini tonight. I also bought a pork roast which was on sale for $.40 off per pound. Didn't buy any fruit or veggies and the pork roast was the only meat I bought. I opened my reserve of Sweet 'n' Low yesterday, so I bought more of that. I also finally got a can of red enchilada sauce so I'm going to try to get some enchiladas made this weekend. I may have bought one or two other things, but that's about it. Anyway, I've lugged it all in from the van and put it all away.

I got all of last night's casserole packed up for the freezer. It ended up making 5 more meals. I guess I should note that I didn't measure the egg noodles, in case you decide to go find that recipe on Pioneer Woman's website.

I didn't bring any of the dogfood in. It's just going to have to go to work with me tomorrow. It's turned really windy and cold this evening. Not a good time to be standing out there trying to fill my little bucket with dogfood. Besides, I'm always a little afraid to open the bag and just take one bucket full out for fear the bag will fall over and I'll have dogfood all over the car. And, even if I could have talked myself into making one trip out there, I would have been doing it in the dark by the time I got to the second trip.

I've also gone after the dishes from last night. Honestly, I got through most of them last night so it was just odds 'n' ends and the pan I baked the food in, but all of that is either hand washed or in the dishwasher. I also can finally declare victory over plastic bags. It's been a long hard battle but it shortened a good bit when I started really searching for places to dry them.

On the way home, I passed right by the corner where the water machine lives and I had 2 empty water bottles in the van. But, by that time, I was about done for. Tomorrow..........

So, still much on my to do list for today. But, progress is being made. Later, maybe.............