Waterdaughter
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Waterdaughter
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11/6/2005 - We seemed to have over-estimated how many kids would stop by on Halloween night, because we had approximately 3 bags of candy left over - and since I have no self control where candy is concerned, my blood sugar has been really high all week long. I've noticed that I tend to go in "spurts" of eating healthy and then eating junk. I would probably feel better in general if I ate healthy more often I suppose ... but which would you rather eat, a miniature Butterfingers or a plate of broccoli? Scott started working at Crimson Fire this past Tuesday (will be easy to remember his anniversary date because it was November 1). Crimson Fire is located just a short distance from where we live, so he could walk to work if he had to. He seems so much happier now. He had loved working at Arctic Cat, but the drive was eating up most of his paycheck. MidWest Railcar ... well, icky ... we both knew that place had a horrid turnover rate, and Scott had heard unpleasant things about it from former employees. Sometimes you have to see things first hand to understand what those former employees had been talking about. It wasn't just the ramblings of disgruntled people, everything he had heard was true. Between the dust, the paint fumes that made his lungs burn with each breath, being in almost constant pain and nearly falling off the top of a railcar twice because of a lack of safety harnesses - I didn't try to discourage him from quitting. Crimson Fire, not only has a much cooler name, but is a safer and cleaner work environment. He is in the Special Projects group, which is currently working on converting 3 fire trucks to metric so they can be shipped over to Iraq. We're both still trying to adjust to his schedule, but it is already easier for me to get up at 5:00 am and while he's tired every morning, he doesn't dread having to go to work. MidWest Railcar wasn't a complete waste of time though, as it was from someone working there that Scott got a tip that Luverne Truck was hiring. When I called to find out if it was true I was told that they were not looking for welders, but she thought that Crimson Fire was. Scott applied for a position there, interviewed and welded for that production manager, received a phone call the next day letting him know that the position had been filled ... but that production manager was so impressed with Scott's welds that he sent Scott to interview with the manager of another department. Scott went through interview and welding again, was told that there were positions that would be available in January (they are expanding) but that he wasn't going to hire Scott for the January position. Instead he was going to talk with HR to see if he could get Scott started by the next Monday! I think Scott is now a believer in what I've always maintained, that everything happens in the order it does for a reason. 11/7/2005 - Ok, so we met our office goal for United Way participation and now get to wear sweatshirts every Monday. Cool, right? Well, being November and all you would think so... but not so cool today! I proudly donned my Green Bay sweat shirt for our "Theme Monday" for the month of November and forgot to pack a T-shirt to slip into on the off chance that I started to bake to death. It was something like 36 degrees when I left for work and all was good. I didn't really notice a temperature difference until we went outside during first break (have to walk outside to get to the cafeteria) ANYWAY, it was actually warmer outside than inside ... that was until around lunch time. I guess the heat kicked in and it got down right HOT inside. I had my fan on and regretted my decision to leave the T-shirt at home. ... while I'm on the subject to how warm it was ... I just got back from the store and pondered when the last time I wore summer sandals on the 7th of November (outside). I'm not complaining, I love the moderate temperatures, but I am wondering if we will get slammed with snow later in the season. You know, to make up for the beautiful weather in November? Thought for the day: "May we see those around us for who they truly are: Angles, without wings, blessing our lives with the most wondrous things." 11/12/2005 - OUCH!! At work, we are moving our filing area into a more secure area of the building. Yesterday we began the process of boxing up the files to empty the shelves so they can be moved first. I was one of the lucky 6 who were given the opportunity to start the packing process. I wasn't doing any heavy lifting, all I was doing was pulling groups of files off the shelf, filling the box and stacking the full boxes on the floor... no real lifting or carrying involved ... We got lots done in the first hour or so, but all of us slowed down during the last half hour of our 2 hour shift. That was around the time that I noticed both of my hands were "asleep" and tingly. While I was working at my desk after my packing shift ended I noticed that the right side of my neck & jaw line were very tender when touched ... so I'm thinking that I must have used muscles that I hadn't really tested since surgery. Anyway, I was in pain and grumpy so went home instead of going out to help celebrate Jamelee's last day at RCIS (I'm happy for her, but sad for the rest of us). When I got home I took a Darvoset (glad I didn't use all of them right after surgery!) and was sound asleep by 8:00pm. This morning my hands and arms are still tingly, but my neck doesn't hurt the way it did yesterday afternoon. Scott's working overtime today. I'm not a fan of getting up at 5 in the morning, but I'd much rather do that then be alone at night. While getting ready to leave this morning he commented that if he didn't like this job so much he'd probably be bitching about having to be up so early on a Saturday. I am very happy that he likes this job and the people he works with. I started working on my scrapbooks again. I finally got all of the pictures I took at the Omaha Zoo back in 1997 put into the scrapbook and even made some journal entries! It's kind of struggle for me to think of things to write, but know that it will help me remember when I look at the book again in 20 years or so. I've found pictures I took way back in 6th grade ... like I'm going to remember who was who in 20 years, I mean I'm struggling with it now! Actually, getting the pictures into the book isn't as hard as getting them organized is, at least for me. I love taking pictures and have 4 photo boxes full of pictures, plus I've got manila file folders filled with pictures of family members spanning 2 to 5 generations back! Organizing seasonal pictures and event pictures is a snap when compared to trying to decide how to organize all those family pictures. I might never actually get them organized because I spend so much time looking at them and imagining what those people were like and if they would like me... Love & hugs y'all 11/13/2005 - Yesterday, except for the two hours that Scott and I went into Sioux Falls, I spent most of my time updating my family tree information. Several years ago a cousin on my mom's side, Clark Myers, started compiling a family history. The book he drafted is primarily made up of letters that Mom's mother's uncle had written to his wife and other family members. During my internet search I found the family tree that Mr. Myers had uploaded to RootsWeb.com. I was thrilled and amazed at how much information he had been able to discover and uncover. I've found it difficult to get back past my 3rd Great Grandparents on any branch of my family tree, but I know have information going back to my 13th Great Grandfather on one of those many branches, thanks to Mr. Myers' research. My aunt Georgia has done tons of research on the Waterman and Tschudy branches as well, so I might be able to add a couple more generations to my family tree :-) Getting back into genealogy again makes me really miss my laptop. It was great to be able to take that to the library with me and just enter data while I was there rather than hand writing notes. I found some of my hand written notes from back in 1998 or 1999 and already can't remember why I wrote them or what I was supposed to do with them. At the time the notes probably made perfect sense, but I've slept a couple times since then. I think I'm going to call the only place in town that can repair my IBM ThinkPad to see if I can't get a repair estimate. Given the age of my laptop (I bought it in 2000) and how many things I need fixed (won't turn on, mouse buttons don't work and the trackpoint also doesn't work) it might wind up being cheaper to just buy a new laptop instead of having this one repaired. Doing all of this research has also aroused my desire to have children again. I wish I had someone to pass this rich history down to... I have an appointment with my friendly Gynecologist in a week, so I'm sure we'll talk about how long I have to wait after my next Radioactive Iodine dose & subsequent scan to safely become pregnant. Maybe by that time Scott and I will be married? I'm thinking that it would be the preferred order of things, for me to be married and then become pregnant, not the other way around ... but I'm 38 years old and my biological clock isn't working in reverse ... OK, enough of that. Nothing I can do to change what has happened, can only look to the future and brace myself! 11/17/2005 - On Tuesday, November 15, 2005, we received the first measurable snow fall of the season. It was fun to watch the dogs running all over the yard sniffing the air. I don't really think about how snow changes the way things smell, but watching them made it abundantly clear that it does and did. Along with the snow came the strong winds, which made it feel that much colder. Since there isn't anything I can do about it, guess I'll just have to start dressing warmer :-) I decided to find out how much it would cost to have my laptop repaired, so I called around and finally found a business that repairs laptops ... started going over the list of what needs to be fixed and the tech explained more about laptops. To fix one little part I would have to replace the whole motherboard, price ranging anywhere from $300 up and didn't include labor. We both agreed that it would be smarter and cheaper in the long run to save up a bit more money and buy a brand new laptop that is twice as powerful than my old one was. I'm trying something "new" with my ramblings section. I started reading some of the archived pages and found that I was confusing myself because I was reading from the "newest to oldest" rather than in chronological order. Since I'm a big fan of order, I thought I would try having my most recent rant & ramble at the very top and then move it down to the very bottom when I type up the next days rant & ramble. Honestly, I'm doing this mostly for myself, but I hope others find it easier to follow as well. 11/18/2005 - Well, that snow didn't last very long. Today it got up to, I dunno, the low 50s and the snow all melted. Time to start the cycle over! More snow, without the freezing winds and it would be great if it would only fall every where except the roads ... yes, this would be lovely. I could go on about the craptacular day I had at work, but I don't want to start because I'd wind up saying something that would be misconstrued and cause even more hard feelings ... lets just leave it at "Office politics SUCK and only serve to create unbearable tension!" and call it good. Not much else to ramble about tonight... Scott loves his job at Crimson Fire. The cats and dogs are healthy and haven't caused any trouble. My Christmas letter is typed, don't have any envelopes addressed yet, but since I haven't sent any cards out since Christmas of 2002, I think I'm ahead of the game this year! Think I'll work on some family tree research for a while. Later y'all... Love & hugs 11/20/2005 - I just decided that everything that we need for daily living, such as food and water, heat and shelter, should be free - across the board, for everyone. No, I have no idea how to put such an audacious plan into action, but I still think it seems like a good idea. That's about it actually ... maybe I should have waited until after I got some sleep to put my thoughts in type, but I'm not able to sleep right now. Yeah, so it's 1:00 on Sunday morning and my sleep schedule is hosed. Actually, I started a download about 40 minutes ago and it's finally about done downloading. Now, do I want to tinker with the program after it's done downloading, or do I want to try to sleep .... hmmm .... sleep should probably be a priority. Only 4% left on my download ... nighty night everyone (or good morning, it all depends on your personal sleep schedule I suppose) What a waste of download time. I was helping someone with an Excel project that required Excel 2003, so I was thrilled last night when I found that Microsoft has a free 60 day trial offer for Office 2003 Standard edition. So, that's what I was trying to stay awake for last night ... and now that I've had time to use it, sure, it has a few more features than Excel 2000 ... but wouldn't you think that Excel 2003 would include all of the features that are available to Excel 2003, like XML support?? Of course not! In order to get XML support for Excel 2003 you need to purchase the Office 2003 Professional edition for over $400 or around $329 if you were smart enough to purchase Office 2000. No wonder Bill Gates is a multi billionaire... force people into buying lots of extra programs that they will seldom, if ever, use (I think I've used power point once and access twice) just for that one extra feature on the one program that is actually useful to me ... Can you tell I'm irritated and really frustrated?? What's worse is that I don't know anyone who has the Office 2003 Professional edition, so there is no way for us to complete the Excel project, which is due this Tuesday. What I have at home is newer than what we use at work ... mine is Excel 2000 and at work we still have Excel 1997. 11/24/2005 - Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I've been thinking about the past year and everything that has happened. Seems that I much to be thankful for...
Yes, the list is much longer, but those are probably the most important right now. Scott's job is proving to be quite a challenge (for me). Last week he was the only one of 3 people who knows how to weld galvanized steel that was small enough and able bodied enough to fit into the box they needed welded ... so they tied a rope around his waist and sent him into a 20 foot long, 3 foot wide, 2 foot tall unventilated box to weld brackets - several breaks and gallons of milk later the job was done. Then they sent him back into the same box to paint the interior. Yesterday he was putting a side on the truck frame and the crowbar he was using to square up part of the body slipped, he lost his footing and his hand got pinned between the crowbar and the body, cutting his pinky badly enough to require stitches. It didn't break any bones and the tendon was only cut, not severed, so they think that he'll have normal use of his pinky in a couple weeks. The nerve was severed, so he will probably never have feeling in that pinky, but it hurts right now! Love & hugs y'all |
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