I saw this story on the news today! What was she thinking, swerving like that?
I’m awake and it’s eeeearly! Going out to breakfast, although I hadn’t intended to wake up until right about now. Instead I woke up about an hour ago. Now I’ve had my shower and am in drip dry mode. 
Have a great Thursday, everyone!
I’m sure she does, Bob. My girls are furry and scowly right now. And bright red.
I just saw them, and Miriam is off the ventilator! She looks much less Borg now, and eerily like Mr. Lissar’s Dad when he’s grumpy.
No midnight emergency calls, so I hope everything is okay at home.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffienatin’. YAWN 'Tis 42 Amurrkin out with a predicted high of only 64. Well brrrrr! 
Oh and we have a pollen alert. Pollen already. Sigh. Actually I’ve seen the big yellow pine tree stuff already. So, soon, everything will be covered in yellow. Dang pine trees! I don’t even have any in my yahd. My neighbors need to keep their pine tree pollen in their own yards!
LiLi yay for holdin’ babies! Here’s hopin’ whatever TomKitten has is not contagious. Also, yay for Miriam bein’ off the ventilator.
I’m glad to know that ASL classes also include learnin’ how to cuss. 
I need more caffiene and shall feed rumbly tummy. Since I’ve been up a bit I decided to be productive and turn on the self-cleaner on the oven. Is too productive! It does not turn itself on after all. Da cave was kinda chilly when I got up but the self cleaner thingy has warmed things up quite a bit. It’s hawt in the kitchen!
Happy Thursday Y’all!
Good morning. Funny, I was thinking about a dreams post also - get out of my head, BBBobbio!!!
I have recurring dream subjects, although the dreams themselves vary, either about the same places or the same people. This was a place dream. Over the years we were in Florida, we had 2 different houses on a lake, and this morning, I woke up dreaming about the second one, sorta. That is, in the dream it was the second place, and the view of the lake was correct, but the house I dreamed of was very different from ours. And for some reason, I had snuck back into that house to… I don’t know what I was there for, but I was watching TV, looking at some photos of work that had been done, and looking out the window, when I heard the owners return home and I was in a panic trying to remove all evidence of me being there and get out before they came in. Then I woke up, so I guess I got out.
It’s weird that I keep dreaming about those two places. They were nice and all, but while it was a very desirable neighborhood when we lived there in the 80s and early 90s, it’s less desirable now. Across a main county road from that neighborhood, several developments of crammed-together suburbia homes have sprung up in place of dairy farms, along with a new middle school and a shopping center. I just know traffic there is now horrific.
I should also mention that the network of lakes were man-made and there was no public beach or access for non-lakelot owners - we paid a special tax assessment for maintenance and insurance, and it was ours, not just anybody’s. In fact, if you didn’t join the association and pay dues, you weren’t allowed to put your boat in the lake either.
Anyway, one road crossed a dam between the two larger lakes (there were 4 in all) and another dam was between the largest lake and an adjacent creek. These were public roads, so anyone could drive or walk across them, and that’s how some kids accessed the lakes from time to time. When we lived there, this happened rarely because there were hardly any homes other than from our neighborhood. But now, with 2 or 3 developments just across the county road, I just know they have to deal with a bazillion kids on bikes coming over. So between that and the traffic, it’s not the same nice, quiet area where we lived. I don’t regret leaving, but I guess I’m longing for what it was way back then.
Or my brain is just wacky. Either way…
Near as I can tell, we didn’t get snow last night, and the rain stopped early enough for some of the pavement to start drying. We’re supposed to see upper 40s today, ahead of a very cold weekend, before it gets near 60 again next week. This is one bizarro winter! I’ll be cooking up a chicken carcass today, and probably running the vacuum. I think there are enough dirty dishes to warrant the dishwasher running. And I may scrub the bathrooms. Maybe. My daughter is coming for dinner, and I’m still deciding between eating here or going out to the new Chinese place that opened a few months ago. Chinese may win.
Other than that, just another grand and glorious day in paradise. I’m nervously awaiting the lights on the aquarium - they’ll come on at 9. Last night, our newest fish was looking kinda iffy - we shall see if he survived the night. If not, that’ll be $50 literally down the toilet. Stoopit saltwater fish.
Happy Thursday!!
How appropriate, sayeth the ex-fireman. 
Morning! Happy Almost Friday!
Yeah, we expected news crews to descend Tuesday amid all the ruckus but instead they set up one of those telescoping antennae trucks yesterday afternoon, thus bringing every kid in the neighborhood back to our yard again to get on TV. As you saw though when they shot it live at 6:00 all the kids were inside eating supper. 
(The grey stucco is mine.) I can’t believe we hardly got a scratch.
And Dolores, I can’t explain the weaving other than panic or a blown tire. She did have one but I assumed it wasn’t until the median because of the speed she was carrying when she hit it. I’ll send you pics that better show her trail.
It’s funny, calming all the shook up kids down was relatively easy. What was emotional though was watching them reunite with their parents. They were held on the bus until each parent came to claim them. Lots of huggin’ and cryin’ there, which was pretty emotional to watch.
Anyone else do the 9/80 thing? Fridays are always good but those are durn near golden.
Thanks for the pics!
I do 9/80’s. Tomorrow is my Friday off! w00t! Except I have two doctor’s appointments. That’s normally what I do on Fridays - go to the dang doctor. It’s just routine stuff, every three months. Grr. But my next Friday off I will spend all day at the Wildlife Center. Yay! And I’m going this Saturday. That place is so cool!
My friend and I have just about decided it’s time to resign from A Simple Thread - the homeless non-profit we volunteer for. The president is kind of controlling and bitchy and it’s not as much fun any more. Plus they have lots of volunteers now, and lots of donations have been coming in. We’re not needed so much, and they can afford to lose us.
Oh - yeah… My dream last night! It was thoroughly bizarre. I was dreaming about work, and about this one machined plate I had to do a drawing for. But it was made of salmon??? So freakin’ strange! I’m glad I woke up.
Ok - I better get to work on my drawing. The plate is made of steel, thank goodness. 
What are 9/80’s? I can’t even think of a smart-alec definition.
Tis sunny today but with a high in the mid 30s. This is the 8th warmest winter on record for the Chicago area. I think some of swampy’s neighbor’s pine pollen got up my nose because it’s kinda sinusy-achy. I need to take an anti-inflammatory. I’ve already taken my Allegra and done my steroid nose spray but it’s still achy. We need several days in the 20s to kill all this nose achy stuff.
Some places have work schedules where, over the course of 2 weeks, you do your 80 hours in 9 days, getting every other Firday off. I worked one place where you did 8 nine-hour days, and one 8 hour day. Other places may have different schedules.
I never liked such hours - honestly, an 8-hour day was all I could manage most of the time. Retirement is better.
Yes, that’s right. I work 6:30-4:30 every day (with an hour off for lunch.) Then on one Firday I work 8 hours.
So one week I work 44 hours, and the other week I work 36 hours. Fridays that I am here are very quiet because half the department is gone, and I get a lot done.
I work 4 10 hours days each week, and take every Firday off.
Well, except this week. I took yestiday off and I’m irking tomorrow instead.
Recurring location dreams - had them (and very occasionally still do).
My parents had a vacation home on a small property near the mouth of the Choptank River along the Chesapeake Bay. Dad bought the property in the 50’s and in the 60’s he built an A-Frame vacation house all by himself. It was always referred to as “The Point” both for the pointy house and the land it sat on. I was born and raised spending weekends and four weeks of summertime there every year until I was 18 or so, when Dad sold it, as he had retired and the possibility of maintaining the property or retiring to it was slim.
For decades after it was gone I regularly dreamed of returning there, getting settled in, trying to relax, but then knowing the owners were on the way and I had to leave. It was distressing in a way, but so regular in my dreams that I never let it bother me too much.
The dreams have finally died off in the last few years. I spoke to my sister a few years ago (who is 10 years older than I am) and she reported the exact same dreams. That place was so fundamental in shaping us, to see it go like it did cut cruelly, but there was no way my parents could have kept it (many mitigating factors - I would never fault the decision.)
One nice thing is the boat Dad bought, a Boston Whaler Mauntauk is still around. He bought it a month after I was born in 1966. It’s on it’s 3rd engine and still runs like a charm. He keeps it in shape for my sister & I to take out when we visit. My children have spent many a fine hour on the boat I grew up on.
I hope someday they have some good boat dreams. I’ll keep the boat until I die, then I will pass it on too. My sister’s husband was so inspired by the Whaler and the shore he found a 1967 Mauntauk which he is fixing up as we speak.
A cool morning in Charlottesville today,should warm up to 50 or so. Ready for this week to end so I can get home for the weekend and reset. Getting tired of the hotel room…
I’d do that if I could VunderBob. 3 day weekends rock.
I’m 6:30 to 3:30 because I work through lunch, just grabbing something and eating in my office. That get’s me both in and out before most of the crazies hit the road. In a crowded town like this it pays both in time and avoided aggravation.
I asked if I could do that, but “We’re sorry, this department does not offer flex shifts”. There’s no reason on earth why we don’t except that when we condensed into our current building back in '08, someone decided that we all needed to be a “normal office hours” department. No clue why. We don’t spend the day talking to customers or external clients. Everything is email and fax.
**rosie **- I’ve always hated the “We’ve always done it this way” management philosophy. And of course there are the trust issues - apparently *all *employees just want to goof off, so they have to be in the office being supervised and micro-managed rather than tele-working from home. And let’s not be bothered to find out who will work well from home and who needs to be watched - let’s just make everyone play by the same rules…
That’s all. I’m going to have some lunch now, and think relaxing thoughts.
I do the 9/80 thing too. I have every other Friday off, and tomorrow is my RDO. Hopefully, I will actually get to take it.
I wouldn’t mind telecommuting too, but the connection to the secure network is so slow, it’s just more pain in the ass than it’s worth. They’re talking about getting new laptops and cards, but I don’t know how we can afford that with all the other budget issues we have.
My husband and I decided a couple of days ago that this weekend would be a nice, quiet stay at home weekend. No company, just us. He plans to cook too. We’re going to work on getting the storm damage cleaned up and I need to do some serious tidying upstairs. My sister is coming from out of town for a visit next week. I’d like to be able to let her sleep over in one of the kids’ old bedrooms, but one of them has become the laundry folding room and one just needs the bedding washed.
Well, I should get back to work.
Tomorrow is mine too. I mentioned in a thread all the damage squirrels had done to my Italian Cypresss that I had as a screen for the neighbor’s house. They chewed a bunch of the limbs off so tomorrow I’m buying and planting Japanese Yew and Yaupon Hollies to regain some of the blocked view. The formal name for the yaupons is Ilex Vomitoria, so I’m goonna vomit up me a fence.
You know, you’re not supposed to eat the stick attached to the ice cream… 