My Weblog

Very tough day today

I have pain from end to end. I have had the usual feet, legs, hip, back pain today. But to top that all off, my left arm has been a mess from wrist to shoulder. I've had shooting pains in the wrist and elbow areas--kinda like arthritis pain. I've had uncontrollable shaking in my left hand, Also, pain in the shoulder as well. I often have days when I wonder if I can keep this up, and, if so, for how long. It doesn't help that wearing a mask for five straight hours is so miserable. It emphasizes my breathing problems. I think I am inhaling "air" that is very rich in carbon dioxide from what I just exhaled. So, I often feel like I cannot get my breath which does NOT help with mental clarity.

I was forced to sell 23 dwarf fruit trees worth about $368 for $23. These fruit trees had burnt on the tops. So, the top 5 or 6 inches looked bad. But they were about 2.5 feet tall and everything below the top 5 inches looked good. One of the managers discounted those trees down to $1 a piece. They were all citrus trees--limes, lemons, and oranges--and I'd have given a lot (maybe my painful left arm) for one of each. i think all they really needed was to have the dead stuff pruned off and a good watering and they'd have been just fine.

So, which do you want first?

The good news or the bad? The good news isn't as good as the bad is bad. Oh, well, let's do the good news first. There is the vague possibility of a different job for me. I would work from home and spend many hours every day on the phone. I do NOT love the phone, but no matter how much I do not love the phone, I do love the possibility of double my current weekly pay with better benefits, no commuting expense, the possibility of bonuses, and a laptop to use for work. However, it's a vague possibility. If I get an interview, it will be the Lord. I do have some experience relevant to the job which might count in my favor. It would be such a blessing not to have to stand on my feet for hours a day...............I'm already praying for wisdom with regard to this. I want it, but not unless the Lord is in it. Not going to tell you too much about it. I will say the company motto is a quote from John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church and the CEO has close ties to a Baptist church in the area of the company's HQ. If you know me, you know those things are important to me.

So, now the bad news. I had arranged to meet with the supervisor of the guy who did the a/c repairs last week. Yes, right now my a/c is working fine. However, apparently this is a temporary fix on a long term problem. Did you know that the average a/c unit has a life expectancy of 10-12 years these days. That was something of a shock to me in that my previous unit lasted 23 years. Anyway, it seems that our wonderful former President enacted legislation that outlawed the coolant used in a/c of the same vintage as mine. Too terribly harmful to the environment. So, that particular coolant can no longer be manufactured in the US or imported. If the compressor gives up the ghost, there is no alternative to replacing the system. So, indeed, I do need a new system. Not today, but according to the a/c "doctor", soon.Apparently over time the coils of the compressor rust out, and in that my unit is over 14 years old, I'm on borrowed time. So, I am praying for time to save up for a new unit. I'm digging through my budget now to try to figure where I can cut costs. I don't think I can cut much--probably not enough to make a difference, but I shall try.

I work again today

My shift last night included an hour of "cleaning". honestly, this whole idea of additional cleaning is almost laughable. I can disinfect the keypad on the card reader at night, but the moment a covid person touches it, it is infected again. And, probably, it won't be disinfected again til after the store closes. That could mean many hours of covid spreading via that one keypad. Wearing gloves is just as laughable. Your hands inside the gloves may be safe, while the gloves are covered in bad stuff because you touched one piece of merchandise someone sneezed on hours before.

Frankly I have given up on the gloves. When I arrive at work, I SOAK 3 or 4 disinfectant wipes with alcohol or a bleach solution (whichever I can easily find). I then place those dripping wipes in a ziplock bag. I leave the bag open right next to me so I can quickly stick my hand in there and rub it against the wet surfaces. I try to do this between every customer. I will also pull one or two of those very wet wipes out and give my other hand a going over. I figure this way I am not depending on the hand washing I did 2 hours ago, or the disinfecting some cashier did 12 to 24 hours ago to keep me safe.

Of course I try not to touch my face, but I have glasses that slide down my nose. They also push the mask down. They are cheapie drugstore magnifiers so they cannot be adjusted to stop the slide. If I have to push them up, I'd rather do so with a hand I just sanitized with bleach, KWIM?

The thing I value most is the plexiglass that separates the customer from me. And yet, the retail world is full of customers so dumb they try to devise ways to talk to me over, under, or around the plexiglass. I do, on occasion, ask customers to move back behind the screen, but that is risky. One risks being reported as "rude" to management. After all this, they HAVE to know why they should dtay behind the screen............

Nevertheless I am grateful for this job. I may complain about things I think could be done better or more humanely, but I am grateful for the job which allows me to stay in my house.

 

So Great

It is fantastic to sit in my house and not sweat. Last night, sitting here, I actually felt a little chilled so I had to adjust the thermostat upwards.

This past week has been a trip, like a bad LSD trip (though I have no experience with LSD). Monday morning I discovered my van missing. I finally got a call from the police that it had been found Tuesday evening around 6PM. I parked it back in my driveway around 8PM. When I tell you it was found on the other side of town, you'll know by how long it took me to get there and get back with it.

Wednesday I had one loony client call me 5 times in just a few hours but, other than that, an okay day.

Went to work Thursday and set the thermostat at 83 degrees before I left. It was 88 degrees in this house when I got home! When bedtime rolled around, it was still really hot so I laid a wet towel over me and managed some sleep that way.

Friday I went to work again but left the thermostat at 78. When I got home it was 84 in here. We had a lot of wind so I opened the back doors on both sides of the office, hoping for a cross breeze. I finally went to bed around 3AM at which time it was "cooled down" to 80 degrees in here. After work on Friday, I called an ac place that advertises 1-hour service. Yeah, well, they managed to get here 15 hours later.

So, Saturday morning the 1-hour place sent a tech to my door. He was nasty from the get go. He looked around at the a/c up on the roof and came back with the news that he could try to fix it, but what I really needed was a new system for $12,000. I basically told him I thought he had a terrible attitude towards me and asked him to make sure the door was closed tightly on his way out. Then I went on Yelp and researched ac repair places. I found one that had consistently good reviews with regard to customer service, quality of work done, and price. I called them and they had a guy at my front door within 3 hours. He went up on the roof and came back with a diagnosis. He said he had some parts on his truck that he thought would do the trick. He asked if he could do the work as a test with no charge to me unless it worked. How could I go wrong with that? About an hour later he had cold air blowing through the system. The cost? $490. I hated paying $490, but it was certainly better than $12,000!

It's Sunday now. One has to wonder what will happen today...................

She's Back!

Around 6PM yesterday I got a call from the police. They had found my van. I had to find a driver to take me to the area of town where they found the van--about 15 miles away. I called a young man from the store who very graciously did the drive and stayed til he saw me pull away. Yes, it's driveable! Additionally it's in pretty good shape. A few scrapes on the bumper and a funny smell from whatever the thieves were smoking in it, but that's it. They did, however, clean it out. The back had been loaded with stuff for Goodwill. They took all of that except a box of books and a big fancy jack. They also left me a set of jumper cables in addition to my own jumper cables. Gone, as best I can tell: a stash of hand sanitizer, my box of disposable gloves, a 3-pack of disinfectant cleaning wipes, my sun shades, my sun glasses, a polo shirt, a sweat shirt, a pair of birkenstocks, a tube of Liquid Nails, 4 t-posts, a flashlight, a folding umbrella, and my cane. Also an ashtray made for use in a car and a gift from a friend. All in all, I'm figuring about $200-$300 worth of stuff. I don't love that but it beats losing the van by far.

I am so grateful to have her back, intact. That is a miracle in my book. I cannot live without the bit of income I get from work and I would never have been able to replace the van, given my financial situation. I have no clue how I would have managed transportation back and forth to work, to the drugstore, to the bank, etc. Join me in praising the Lord for the extent to which he is willing to go in order to show his love and faithfulness to me!

 

Definite uptick in excitement

It has always seemed pretty boring around here. Just the way I like it--quiet, peaceful. Until 10AM today. I went outside, on my way to run an errand. And, to my utter shock, my van was gone!

I looked to see if by some crazy fluke it had rolled into the street, but it was nowhere in sight. Yup, you guessed it. Stolen.

I am heartsick. I have spent 6 hours on the phone with the insurance company, talking with the police and filing a police report, trying to get a rental car, trying to arrange transportation to the rental car agency, picking up the rental car, and returning home. I am also a nervous wreck.

The van is 14 years old. Nevertheless, I've maintained full coverage on her, knowing I could never afford to replace her. She only had about 75,000 miles on her...........However, the best I'm gonna get is some sort of depreciated value, minus a $1000 deductible. Or maybe, God willing, it will just have been some kids looking to take a ride. Metro says they recover about 80% of stolen vehicles, but then they go through a litany of what to do if it's recovered in undriveable condition.............

Meanwhile I have rented a Nissan Sentra so I can get to work tomorrow. It is kind of low slung and not the easiest thing for an old lady to get in and out of........After driving that van for more than 13 years, I feel like I can barely see over the dashboard of this little thing. It does maneuver well and has plenty of pep. Looks like it should give good gas mileage too. I only have to pay for the first two days and then the insurance company kicks in. However, the first two days is gonna cost me $80.

 

 

disappointed

I told y'all I joined Sam's club. Not only did I join, I went for the Sam's Club Plus which promised free shipping. I hate to say this, but, yes, I am disappointed. First, I was shocked to find that many things are available in store only. They apparently won't ship 'em. With walking being so painful and difficult for me, that is a real deterrent for me. I just cannot see me pushing a cart through that big ole warehouse store............

The second thing that pissed me off is that I was actually charged shipping on one item. I normally get my dog food in 50 pound bags. I order online and the store delivers them. I have them sit that big bag just inside my front door. So, when I saw the Sam's Club price for the dogfood I buy, I was thrilled. It was several dollars less than I pay at Smart and Final. What I didn't realize was that they charged me $8.00 for the shipping. And the delivery guy dumped that bag on my front porch. I had to try to tug it into a vertical position to open it and I have had to make repeated trips outside with my bucket to try to move it into the house.

Experiment

Over the last few weeks I've become much more familiar with the arthritis gene that runs in my mother's side of the family. I have an aunt that is largely crippled up by it. I have a couple of joints which show visible swelling. A prime example is at the vase of my right thumb. You don't need any medical training to see that that joint isn't "normal". The top joint on my little finger, right hand, is also swollen. That isn't really visibly swollen but you can feel it's enlarged. Every now and then I get a twinge of pain in my knees and, of course a shift at work, standing for 5 hours reminds me that I have ankles. I can tell you the weather by my left ankle which was broken when I was attacked while at college. Just this evening my right wrist wanted more attention than usual as well.

I read recently that there are a number of supplements that help reduce inflammation. One of them is ginger. At least that is one I've heard of before..........There are many that are completely unfamiliar to me. So, anyway, I ordered some ginger capsules and I've been taking two a day. I'm also taking turmeric. I can't say I've seen any great changes from the turmeric. However, it seems the ginger may be helping. At least my right thumb is behaving better. Hey, I'll take what I can get..............

Did a five hour shift tonight in Lumber. It was still busier than pre-pandemic days but not really crazy. We did have one customer several of us had pegged as a shoplifter. I saw him prowling around in tools which is a high theft area. He was kind of dirty and as skinny as any meth addict you could ever hope to meet. However, from his body/clothes wafted a cloud of Eau de Mrrijuana. I was glad to be wearing a mask which helped block some of the smell. I knew I was onto something when I saw two of our guys just standing around near the door. One of them went over to "help" him push his cart to the register. Then he decided he needed something else and doubled back to the tool area. I had just replaced another cashier in Lumber and she, too, walks through the store pushing a cart. Next thing I know here she comes back, pushing her cart which is now loaded with his tools. In each case, an employee is "helping" by pushing those carts, meaning he couldn't just break for the door with a cartful of stuff. I rang up part of his order (he wanted two separate orders). He began patting all his pockets and then told me he couldn't pay for the stuff because he'd left his wallet. And off he went. We were all ready to bet that was the last we'd see of him. I'll be darned if he didn't show back up about an hour later and actually check out with two different credit cards. You just can never tell, but when someone loads up with tools, we start to twitch. I'll bet that guy thought those employees at that store were really helpful, helping him get all that stuff to the register...............

not good news

I had one phone call from one of my co-workers. I got some news that is factual, not idle gossip. It seems one of my co-workers has COVID19 symptoms. It had to happen, I think. I'm just not thrilled that I have to to work tomorrow and a couple more days this week. I hope you'll pray for me. During those 30 days I had off with pay, I kept myself so carefully sequestered. And, now this...........................

and then the blessing............

I am not a big fan of mother's day. I never really was. I waited 10 years to become a mother. For those 10 years, if I went to church, the other ladies my age all were handed flowers and were praised as Godly mothers. I felt so disheartened. Then in 1980 I became a mother. My husband usually got drunk the night before so, with his hangover, didn't make much of a fuss about mother's day. Then he left and I was a single mom. First, I felt bad because when I went to church, I didn't have a proud, smiling husband standing with me. I also felt the pain of all the ladies who didn' get a mother's day flower. They had never physically given birth though they may have "nothered" any number of boys and girls along the way. The final thing that always got me was the compulsion of pastors to preach on "the Proverbs 31 woman". I'm not sure what woman could compare herself to the Proverbs 31 woman and stand proud. Certainly I couldn't. And, more recently, my daughter has basically not spoken to me in 7 years. When Joe was alive he used to tell me often what a good mother I was. I certainly know I tried my best. But, when your only child hasn't spoken to you for 7 years, you do begin to doubt yourself..............

So, I generally don't pay much attention to Mother's Day, at least as it applies to me. I did call and send a gift or card to my own mother when she was living. Just a few minutes ago, my phone rang. It was my two youngest grandkids. They'd called to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. You could have knocked me over with a feather. This is the best Mother's Day I've had in a very, very long time!