Fall slowly arriving

One of those odd studies came out this past week saying that rats found Oreo Cookies more favorable than cocaine or morphine.  Had they offered the rats pot first wasn't mentioned to explain the jonsing for cookies.  I didn't have any 'normal' Oreo cookies to picture but oddly enough the new vanilla ones...so there may be something to the story.

As my frequent readers know my life tends to flow in odd circles.  My co-workers die or get fired and as of Thursday get demoted and docked $3 an hour and given a month to become perfect.  Cap it off with a sudden call into a 'meeting' for me at nearly 5 on Friday to say I am not nice enough.  Nothing was said about the JOB I am PAID to do.  Just that I get snippy?  Anyone else find that totally stupid?
I already am privy to some of the changes coming up this week so I figure it is a preemptive strike in case I get upset.  I didn't do the stupid things that resulted in the changes causing these folks to be fired and demoted and actually warned the folks it was going to get ugly so I can't speak to that.  I was asked by one of the gals in the mix to head to HR and tell them how horrid my working environment was.  Ah, hello to the no?  I lived through more than one bad job.  Granted I need to add in that it didn't end well for any of the others who've done that in the past four months.  I like my job it pays my bills but this is pretty ugly.

This is the pretty side of my job.  The right hand side of the monopole cell tower my company owns has an osprey nest.  With the protection laws there is limited time to remove the nest.  They missed the window this year from what I heard and the Sprint network rents that platform and can't do any work on it.  You can't see but there are small green parrots called Quaker Birds here that were pelting us with seeds below.  I like that my company keeps track of nature.

October Falling around

With the current state of my job I am taking Fridays off when I get a chance.  This morning I actually went outside before dawn and went two blocks over to catch the sunrise.  Naturally I took a ton of pictures and peppered Sand with them as well as putting them in cyber.  The rest of the day I spent cleaning the house.  Yeah, silly me wasting such a gorgeous day inside - but I still have Saturday and Sunday!  Cleaning hardwood floors and the bathroom and kitchen takes time. 

Still don't think I am doing NaNo but then I've said that before and November first hits and I can't resist.  So we will see.  Until then let's see if that Tropical Storm is going to rain out the rest of my weekend.

Blue sort of day

Work is going along like work does.  It's not called 'fun' or 'play' now is it?  I actually caught up on a few chores that I rarely have time to do so I knew that something would happen to derail the buzz.

Then I saw the head of Finance (ie my bosses, bosses, boss...I think there may be another boss in there) coming down from upstairs where HR roosts to be more specific.  About ten minutes later two women from HR were closed door with our department manager for a while.  Naturally I knew something was up.  I was thinking that one of the middle level managers gave notice.  Sadly that wasn't the case.

The third person from my department to die.

Yup.  I've been with this company a little over three years and the core group of seven I started with are down drastically.  A few quit.  Now three have died.  Only one other guy and myself are left from a picture we took back in October 2010.  I am going to convert it and hopefully post here soon.  Still so weird.  Diane was fun and had a great sense of humor.  A cancer survivor and a sardonic lady.  She caught pneumonia and died last night.

This aging thing is really strange.  

So she's in the center and I am unable to rotate this fricken picture!!!

Friday the 13th pic

I found an Eagle or an Angel in the sky. Depends on your point of view.

Yom Kippur.  The day of atonement the beginning of a new year.

Lately my life has been more than a bit chaotic.  And for those of you who know me you realize that's an understatement.  My friend Suzanne and I decided today over wine and sushi in my backyard to consider this the beginning of a new year.  She had a rough few weeks as I did.  Some of my best decisions were made over sushi.

I keep trying to remember some of the nasty stuff that happens is 'character' building.  Or grist for the mill in a future tale.  Either way I am taking Monday off as 'vacation' day since I found out all of our vacation and sick days are disappearing as of December 31st and I have no desire to donate time to the company.

My current story in http://www.pikerpress.com is going well I just need MORE time to write. 

So humor for today.  I went to 7/11 to buy my lotto ticket for tonight's MegaLotto game.  My total purchase was $7.11.  The cashier selling the ticket was born on 7/11.  And Suzanne's child was 7 pounds 11 ounces.  Hopefully that is good.

Anyway.  Hope you all have a great weekend.

August leaving

Well it's been tumultuous to say the least.  Work has been a box of mixed messages tossed in with some extra notes just to screw with our heads.  As of today we have not been restructured like 'promised' in a meeting a few weeks ago.  It's nothing that I have any influence over nor any choice other than changing of jobs.  I like the folks I work with and actually do a good job.  Change is inevitable but then it's my choice how I handle it.  Right now I am cruising along and trying to see the sunsets and sunrises with a serene air.   Yeah we all know how that works out for me.  I feed the mosquitoes and end up mumbling things about how best to slaughter - my characters yeah - mumble.

Sister-in-law completed her third chemo treatment this week.  Her sister runs the 'family' blog and hadn't posted for over two weeks since saying my SIL was home from 'the spa' (the cute way they refer to going to the hospital and not being able to visit with anyone unless they are in a hazmat suit).  I nearly called my brother to find out what was going on but then figured bad news travels fast so she was probably okay. 

And speaking of bad news my cousin's husband passed away last night.  He was a cop in VA/DC area for decades when he got leukemia.  He had a long nasty battle and last night I was online and caught up with one of my other cousins so at least I heard it was likely before seeing my aunt's rather stark email this morning reporting his death.  Not that I hadn't already realized he was that ill it just is sucky news with breakfast. 

Long holiday weekend ahead.  We used to have challenges in Piker Press http://www.pikerpress.com with the theme 10K for Labor Day.  I don't see that happening but did get in a nice 1,100 words this morning that I liked.  I have some nice twists and curves in the road ahead for my character Emma that keep spilling onto the page. 

Hope you all are well.

Rain and expecting more rain

This was probably the last good sunset shot I got. Woke at O Dark to the sounds of rain pounding on the bedroom window pane (East facing side of house usually doesn't get much of anything).  Only drawback for all this rain is it really kicks the mosquitoes into overdrive and the humidity is pretty much 90%.

Last weekend had a 'pop up party' as a friend of mine wanted to introduce us to her latest boyfriend.  I sorta remember his name and took no pictures of him.  This is the third guy I've met in her life in past year.  They seem to have an expiration date from what I've observed.  This one seems nice but has more baggage than she needs given she's pulling around a two year old in her life.  He wants to 'take her all away' because he has a possible job in Nicaragua. Nicaragua where they don't speak English but Spanish.  Right smack dab between Honduras and Costa Rica.  That could be a tad bit of a challenge.  As all my friends showed up (some I invited others just found their way over) most of them agreed he wouldn't last a month and we had fun anyways.

Back to the grind.  Hope you all are doing well.

Dog days of Summer

Yes, this is the sky for most evenings.  Drizzly rain at times and then thunder accented by lightning and sudden downfalls.  August is hot and nasty so naturally the A/C shut off Wednesday.  I came home to nearly 90 degrees inside the house.  The landlord said it would be fixed on Thursday.  It was but late Thursday.  Two days of hot, muggy weather and I am exhausted.  Add in naturally I had to cook.  My friend's mother in her 90s passed last month so a group of us had a celebration of life party for her last night.  I was the volunteer for desserts. 

Cream puffs and eclairs - which thankfully I had baked the puffs on Tuesday - but had to whip the cream when I got home yesterday in only high 80s temp.  The bitch of it was I'd promised to make banana cream pie with meringue topping.  I had bought all the ingredients before I got home on Wednesday or I would have wiggled out of it.  So at 10 pm I baked the pie since it wasn't like I could sleep in that heat. 

Now the skies are filled with the dust of Africa.  Seriously.  The dust blows across the Atlantic Ocean and onto US soil.  Plus side is the fabulous sunrises and sunsets because of all the particles in the air.  Also pushed hurricane patterns away from us.  Major minus is my house was open and the pollen count is through the roof and most of my life.  *cough cough *

Work is still "peachy" (ie hard pit in the middle surrounded by rotting fruit).  Changes in the wind from everything I am hearing and seeing.  The mid August bonuses have been delayed which is causing more and more rumors to swirl. 

That's about all I have the energy for now.  I hope you are all well.