Summer is a coming

Here on the coast there are afternoon showers nearly every day.  This week has gone above and beyond and given torrential rainstorms that last for a while.  Naturally knocking me offline and out of power on and off.  Nevertheless it gives me great shots and some writing time. 

I've heard comments that I take a lot of sky shots and such from Facebook family and friends.  There's a reason.  One of my friend's has a son who is dying by inches.  He has a severe case of MS and is allergic to most of the medications that can give him any relief or normalcy.  But every morning his dad puts up Facebook and looks at his family and friends pages.  I take pictures many times just for Nick Jr.  I saw Nick Sr last weekend and he said that his son still enjoys them.  Jr talks in mere whispers now if at all.  Heartbreaking.

Sunset

My cousin's husband makes comments about my pictures on Facebook all the time.  Mostly about how there always seems to be telephone lines and power lines in them.  I don't edit them out with any of the programs like photoshop and such like.  He wanted to know why there are so many here.  I told him they were for hurricanes to launch through cars, houses and assorted scenery.

Hurricane season is a week away.  I've not been 'in' one yet.  They have brushed pretty dang close but not hit us directly.  One of the big ones last season took most of the beach sand and part of the end of the newly refurbished pier.  Piers get hit pretty much first and that adds to the flying debris along the coast.

Getting some writing in but never as much as I'd like.  Part of the trouble with living in such a lovely place is I tend to go outside and walk or friends visit.  Lately it's been raining but that still gave me chores.  Weeds tend to spring up a foot tall overnight.  I planted my basic veggie garden last weekend but with all the pounding rains this week not sure how well it'll go.  90 plus degrees today so that ought to weed out the good from the bad on my tomatoes.  Creole, Early Girl and Big something - beefsteak hybrid I think.  A few peppers, chives, parsley and basil round out the space with marigolds in between to keep the bugs down.  Time will tell.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

April rains??? hello????

I'll drop the picture in later.  I am tired of fighting with computers.  Full moon has passed but dang if it hasn't still been bouncing around and interfering with my life.  I took Friday off as personal day because if I didn't I wouldn't be just writing about slaughter but in jail.  Work has been brutal and I know when to use my free money time.  5 or 6 hours of overtime every week and still treated less than dirt.  Enough said - no energy.

So my work polluted me and I was sick on and off with nasty scary illness bouncing between 100 and 101.6 degrees for fun. I think Dan mentioned having something like this a week ago...Dan...I get it...argghghghgh.

I did get garden started.  It was supposed to rain massively tonight so naturally not a drop.

Work this morning only 88 emails.  Most were okay but then the wheel turned and it went sideways.  Nothing to do with me being off Friday but stuff I didn't have anything to do with but had to deal.  Sigh.

Good news got some writing in and with weird nightmares over weekend some fun ahead.

Evening sky

This was taken a few nights ago.  The setting sun letting us know that the weather would turn soon.  It did.  The office BBQ happened without a hitch on Friday.  Of course we weren't paid for the time we had to spend outside 'being nice' to other departments.  The food wasn't bad but it wasn't anything particularly spectacular by my rather picky standards.  If you serve corn on the cob please cook it completely...maybe have butter, fake butter or even salt and pepper for anything you serve?  Slotted spoons for the oddly flavored baked beans (I think they dumped a half cup of liquid smoke in it).  The shredded beef was good, the chicken too dry and I didn't bother with the pork.  Sadly I did something I rarely do - I threw out food.  I have a hard core belief that is a bad thing to do.  No choice.  Inedible.  

The rain did come middle of Friday night and on and off on Saturday.  Sprinkles and threats today but nothing like promised.  It didn't matter.  My latest neighbor in the little compound of 4 units rents the efficiency on the shared wall of my place.  She was a quiet little Brazilian woman with 'no friends' when she house sat for the lifeguard who smoked out there (not kidding - I never walked past his side of the complex cause contact high possible).  Two days after she moved in she suddenly had an older boyfriend with two small boys.  Small noisy boys...in an efficiency!  Oh, who are in the pool all hours without supervision. 

I've had someone I know died by drowning I wouldn't wish that on anyone.  Here are two boys at risk!  They toss in the small fakey life preservers to the boys to play with - horrifying no?  This morning after the gal partied all day with her friends on Saturday the boys were out unsupervised before 8 am yelling and screaming.  So loudly I could hear them outside the backyard and on the street.  I am unhappy but love the rest of the area.  The good thing is eventually one of the many neighbors these screaming boys are waking up will call child protective services and report them.  In my state it is illegal for unmarried couples to have children living without their own rooms.  There are no 'rooms' in that small place.  The gal is a sweetie but still. 

Next weekend is the last weekend for my local farmer's market as it gets too hot during summer.  Summer has pretty much already hit so I don't blame them but still.  I loved walking across the bridge and bringing my recyclable bag and picking up veggies.

March Madness

Last month I did a few things outside writing, working and worrying.  The usual "W" things I tend to do, not necessarily in that order.  I went to the Renaissance Festival nearby with some friends.  We had a fun time.  One of my friends had never been to one before so she was more than surprised by the chaos that made up the day.  She also didn't understand how pirates and Vikings fit into the mixture but then she went with it after the first pirate swaggered up and pretended to be Captain Jack.  Pretty little boy dressed well who flirted madly with all the girls and women.  The Vikings had Raggedy Ann orange wigs and thankfully didn't bother with us.  She was mildly interested in the costumes until she found out that a little cute steel ribbed corset ran nearly 150 bucks and that was just one piece of costumes that seemed to have a half dozen or more pieces to be 'authentic'.  I think that explained the pirates rather well.

I've been to Renaissance Festivals in California, Nevada, Michigan and Florida.  They have gone from free and fun to progressively more and more spendy.  I was proud to get away with just buying entrance ticket and gyros for lunch ('ye olde' gyros?? so not Renn Fair foods of old - used to be turkey legs and meat pies along with lots and lots of beer.  The beer is still there but the food is like any state fair now just as pricey too).  I gathered most folks spend on average $100.  I don't think so.  There was nothing I needed that much.  At all.

But I wasn't able to catch all the oddities on camera like the lady who was dressed as a belly dancer and I wasn't sure if she was pregnant or just looked like mid second trimester carrying triplets.  The Vikings and pirates eluded me because I was too busy snickering.  But this was one of the 'entertainers' that wander through the fair.  I kept teasing our other friend she just found a new boyfriend.  She didn't swear at me because her 21 month old boy tends to repeat all the 'new words' mommy says. 

He walked on stilts and did puppetry stuff that included 'pooping' candy and toys out along with silly string used as urine.  Low humor to say the least.  Naturally the kids all love him.  I on the other hand walked faster.

Okay...time to write.  Just looking at this month knowing it soon will disappear in the rear view mirror.

Wandering through my dreams

Tangled groves of trees line the waterways around my work.  They seem to work their way through my dreams weaving and wandering with little notice until suddenly I am surrounded.  It helps my writing but doesn't do much for the sleep.

The chaos of work hasn't been getting any better but I am learning to compartmentalize it much better - in theory.  Until my dreams. And we still haven't had our department reviews that were supposed to be done last December at the latest.   Not making anyone happy and most folks are too scared to question authority.  Grrr.....

So it goes.

February and changes

I know changes are coming.  What with the supervisor being 'terminated' (the difference from 'fired' seems to be some sort of check given upon her accepting her new lack of job status) and all the new folks in the office it is just a matter of time before things go to hell in a rather sizable hand basket.  My department has been experiencing some major growing pains.  The company is 60% larger than it was a year ago.  We are nearing the 20,000 tower mark.  The last week of 2011 we got plastic placards with the 10,000 tower milestone.  That's a lot of towers. 

That said, we haven't hired anymore people in my area.  Nah, why when we will work overtime if we have to?  My team leader put her foot down and demanded someone to take on some of the overload.  We got a kid right out of college with an empty resume.  Sweet kid.  I think she may even be twenty-one but not positive.  We will probably break her. My company is good at that.  Raises and reviews have not happened yet due to various questionable reasons.  Mostly it seems they are too busy buying up more stuff to see that we get told how hard we work.  There was talk about a computer crash but the month before the excuse was too many other people were involved so that was causing delays.  The stories don't match up. But any and all raises would be retroactively paid.  So that is supposed to make us feel happier?

The annual outing for last year still hasn't happened (picnic in park three years ago, two years ago the mini cruise and last year more work).  It was supposed to be next week but that's been cancelled for now.  Seriously?  Just give us 50 - 100 gift cards and we will all grin!

My writing time is suffering because of all the overtime.  Next week I am carving time out however I have to.  I need to write!

Didn't even get time to dig up any new pictures from my camera so this is probably a recycled one below.