|
|
Post by staytuned on May 30, 2022 13:09:37 GMT
Good morning, everyone! Hard to believe May is at its end and into June this week already. Today is Memorial Day, a day to thank and celebrate those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable week!
 |
|
|
|
Post by Emerald_Door on May 30, 2022 14:55:21 GMT
My son is coming here this afternoon before driving to Colorado for a new job. He just earned a master's degree in medical physics and has a job with a branch of MD Anderson Cancer Center. He'll leave here tomorrow morning and plans to arrive there on Friday morning. Great opportunity for him, but I'll miss him. He's been living about an hour and a half away, so I haven't seen him that often, but now he'll be about 1700 miles away.
My other son will be leaving (from his college town) tomorrow for Fort Knox, then will go to Fort Benning for advanced training. A couple of weeks after all of that, he'll start back for his senior year in college, courtesy of the Army's Green to Gold program.
It's hard when the kids leave.
|
|
kritter
Mod Squad
When we lose sight of how we treat animals, we tend to lose sight of our humanity
Posts: 19,564 
|
Post by kritter on May 30, 2022 16:26:40 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by chapeaunoir on May 30, 2022 19:01:09 GMT
Dayyyyuuuummmm! Some bozo took out all of our mailboxes - ALL of them. The bracket they're placed on was snapped off, the boxes (7 or 8 of them) were thrown down into the ditch along the side of the road and are laying in the water, with the roof that protected the boxes on top of them. The big strong guy next door asked me about it - he managed to get his mail, but he seems pretty helpless about it all, and no one else was around, so it was left to me to put wellies on and get some heavy gloves and climb into the muddy weed-clogged ditch and haul away the stanchion and grunt the roof off the mailboxes so people (other than that neighbour) can at least access their mailboxes. I have to wait until the DH gets home from his ride so he can help me get that entire roof off and move it aside and get the boxes at least sitting along the side of the road. The roof is big and awkward and it really takes two to get it moved completely aside.
This happens about every 4 years. The last time I threatened to sink steel posts into concrete and cover them with wood, so the next idiot who ploughs into it can get pronged, but my other neighbour, said he thought that might spell l-a-w-s-u-i-t given how litigious our society is. He had a point, but I'm thinking about it again - those cluster boxes are all metal. They don't work for us, though, because the ground is too wet and there's not enough of a footprint for the base (I investigated it before), but we may all have to discuss it again. My other solution is to stop the mutual bracket and simply each of us sink our own mailbox post - that way there won't be a heavy structure to possibly topple.
|
|
|
|
Post by labbypaws on May 30, 2022 22:13:02 GMT
Working this evening until 1 or 2 AM. Depends how I feel. Grabbing a gate shift to help pay for gasoline to get to work and back. I am going to try to get 8 hours a month each month this summer.
|
|
|
|
Post by denise15601 on May 31, 2022 3:04:46 GMT
My son is coming here this afternoon before driving to Colorado for a new job. He just earned a master's degree in medical physics and has a job with a branch of MD Anderson Cancer Center. He'll leave here tomorrow morning and plans to arrive there on Friday morning. Great opportunity for him, but I'll miss him. He's been living about an hour and a half away, so I haven't seen him that often, but now he'll be about 1700 miles away. My other son will be leaving (from his college town) tomorrow for Fort Knox, then will go to Fort Benning for advanced training. A couple of weeks after all of that, he'll start back for his senior year in college, courtesy of the Army's Green to Gold program. It's hard when the kids leave. Wow! How proud you must be! Congrats!
MD Anderson! Please thank him for me for helping cancer patients!
And please thank your other son for his service!
|
|
|
|
Post by chapeaunoir on May 31, 2022 3:11:59 GMT
Emerald_Door - it must be a source of pride, though, to see your sons doing so well! The DH and I managed to get the roof up and over to the side - it must weigh a couple of hundred pounds - our neighbour who made it kind of over-built, I think. We couldn't get the mailboxes up until another neighbour came out and gave us a hand - three of us finally grunted them onto the road. Then another couple of neighbours came out to help - they'd all been gone before. Someone (?!) had also ploughed into the fence belonging to the house right on the road (I know it was murky and raining hard last night but geez, one of the two street lights on our entire road happens to be RIGHT THERE. At any rate, the handyman fixing the fence said he could fix everything for us, resink the mailbox bracket and get it all set up again for about $350 cash. We're all pitching in. So that was a lot easier than I feared.
|
|
|
|
Post by sunsetpainter on May 31, 2022 4:59:55 GMT
There are 3 mailboxes on our post and about every 2 - 3 years someone plows into them smashing them all to bits. They're just the basic gray metal rural mailboxes we get at Menards. We all take turns replacing them. The last time it was a woman in a mini van who totally freaked out because there was a tick crawling on her daughter's arm and she tried to "kill" it while her daughter was in the back seat car seat and she was DRIVING! She hit our ditch and went airborne into the mailbox post. She's so lucky she didn't flip that thing.
When we first moved here in 1998, we spoke to the cops about crime in the area and they told us the biggest problem they had was the kids who went Saturday night mailbox smashing! That happened a few times too.
|
|
|
|
Post by frakinfashion on May 31, 2022 6:07:37 GMT
My son is coming here this afternoon before driving to Colorado for a new job. He just earned a master's degree in medical physics and has a job with a branch of MD Anderson Cancer Center. He'll leave here tomorrow morning and plans to arrive there on Friday morning. Great opportunity for him, but I'll miss him. He's been living about an hour and a half away, so I haven't seen him that often, but now he'll be about 1700 miles away. My other son will be leaving (from his college town) tomorrow for Fort Knox, then will go to Fort Benning for advanced training. A couple of weeks after all of that, he'll start back for his senior year in college, courtesy of the Army's Green to Gold program. It's hard when the kids leave. Emerald--special congrats to you. It sounds like you have two great boys! |
|
|
|
Post by labbypaws on May 31, 2022 6:54:28 GMT
Just getting in from work. Guy on night shift is out sick another 4 days which makes about 40 sick days this year. Mostly drama wimpy days. They keep letting him get away with it. And the entire shift that has no sick days in the bank get a new set of 12 sick days each on July 1.
Anyway the college kids are gone except those working at the college this summer. Camps don’t start coming in for another 3 weeks. The deer are out. Saw 2 doe tonight around 7 PM.
|
|
|
|
Post by Emerald_Door on May 31, 2022 11:01:54 GMT
Just getting in from work. Guy on night shift is out sick another 4 days which makes about 40 sick days this year. Mostly drama wimpy days. They keep letting him get away with it. Years ago, I worked with a woman who often took sick days for what she described as "the sniffles." She'd come in to work the next day and tell me that she went to McDonald's (on the sick day) for an Egg McMuffin. I didn't say anything, but my feeling is that anyone who's well enough to drive to McDonald's is well enough to come into work, even with "the sniffles." |
|
val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 29,877
|
Post by val2525 on May 31, 2022 15:26:03 GMT
Years ago I would have agreed with you, Emerald, about the drive-thru. But then I found out several of my single friends don't cook and pretty much live on take-out. If they wanted to eat while sick, they would drag themselves out of bed and use the drive-thru. It's easier for them now, they can get the food delivered.
TBH, I'm at the point now that I WANT my coworkers to take the sick time they've earned and not come in to the office. Fortunately for me the firm I work with has the attitude, "if you're sick we do not want to see you". Now that we're remote it doesn't really matter, but when we were all in the office it was a nice policy to have. I've never respected coworkers who "saved" their sick time, came in to work sick, then bragged about never taking a sick day. Nor have I respected company management that promoted that mindset.
What I do dislike are companies that have use it or lose it policies on sick time, and don't let it roll over to the next year. All they're doing is encouraging employees to call in sick close to the anniversary/renewal date so the time can be used. Bad policy IMO.
|
|
|
|
Post by Emerald_Door on May 31, 2022 15:52:56 GMT
There are a few things that I didn't make clear in my post. I don't think she was sick at all. She was married, and didn't need to drive to McDonald's for breakfast. She always extended her lunch time for recreational shopping. She once was gone for lunch for well over three hours, came back, and told me about her clothes shopping. One time she claimed to have worked from home on a Sunday (which paid double time) but she wasn't authorized to work from home and didn't produce any work that she had done over the weekend. In other words, she was stealing from the company. She didn't try to hide it from me.
I agree with you about people who come to work or school when they know they're sick. When my kids were in elementary school, there was a girl who would come to school when sick. One time she became physically sick (you know what I mean) and her mother had to come pick her up, but she proudly received the "perfect attendance" award at the end of the school year.
|
|
val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 29,877
|
Post by val2525 on May 31, 2022 16:22:04 GMT
I took the cat blanket from the desk and from the bookcase behind me and put them in the wash this morning. Trixie hopped up on the desk at sat there and stared at me until I put another temporary blanket down for her. Then she moved to the bookcase and did the same thing.  She's definitely taking her promotion to Queen seriously  |
|
|
|
Post by frakinfashion on May 31, 2022 16:25:56 GMT
Sounds like parent(s) had to work and there was no one to care for her if she stayed home. Emerald_Door |
|
|
|
Post by frakinfashion on May 31, 2022 16:27:36 GMT
I took the cat blanket from the desk and from the bookcase behind me and put them in the wash this morning. Trixie hopped up on the desk at sat there and stared at me until I put another temporary blanket down for her. Then she moved to the bookcase and did the same thing.  She's definitely taking her promotion to Queen seriously  Well, the Jubilee is coming soon and everyone is rehearsing. |
|
kritter
Mod Squad
When we lose sight of how we treat animals, we tend to lose sight of our humanity
Posts: 19,564
|
Post by kritter on May 31, 2022 16:35:07 GMT
|
|
val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 29,877
|
Post by val2525 on May 31, 2022 18:32:54 GMT
I took the cat blanket from the desk and from the bookcase behind me and put them in the wash this morning. Trixie hopped up on the desk at sat there and stared at me until I put another temporary blanket down for her. Then she moved to the bookcase and did the same thing. She's definitely taking her promotion to Queen seriously Well, the Jubilee is coming soon and everyone is rehearsing. The show they did was awesome. BritBox is streaming it. |
|
|
|
Post by Emerald_Door on May 31, 2022 21:04:21 GMT
Sounds like parent(s) had to work and there was no one to care for her if she stayed home. Emerald_Door No, the mother was at home. She frequently volunteered at the school. |
|
|
|
Post by pyrexandpearls on May 31, 2022 22:49:14 GMT
I agree with you about people who come to work or school when they know they're sick. When my kids were in elementary school, there was a girl who would come to school when sick. One time she became physically sick (you know what I mean) and her mother had to come pick her up, but she proudly received the "perfect attendance" award at the end of the school year. I have seen a few small "movements" about getting rid of these awful perfect attendance awards. First, like you noted, it incentives people to come to school sick. Second, it is steeped in privilege. Kids from super unstable home environments just don't have someone invested in getting them to school everyday. It also penalizes kids with health issues who could never get such an "award". They need to go so this exact situation you described doesn't happen. |
|
val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 29,877
|
Post by val2525 on May 31, 2022 23:23:31 GMT
NM passed a mandatory paid sick leave law that goes into effect on July 1. We messaged our business clients this afternoon with key points and assorted handouts they'll need. One replied back complaining about the "f'n liberals". I decided not to tell him that his accounting firm was made up of "f'n liberals" who fully backed the paid sick time off law and already had a paid sick time policy in place that exceeded the policy required by the state. I also didn't point out to him that businesses like his, that offered no benefits at all, were the ones always whining about not being able to find quality hires. I expect a few more replies like this one tomorrow. We have a small betting pool on who the next one to reply in similar fashion will be. |
|
|
|
Post by labbypaws on Jun 1, 2022 2:24:52 GMT
I have something like 110 days on the books and will add another 12. I use 4-5 a year. We can accumulate up to 140 plus that year’s 12 days. We can use them for child/parent care or doctor appts etc.
|
|
|
|
Post by chapeaunoir on Jun 1, 2022 4:07:02 GMT
NM passed a mandatory paid sick leave law that goes into effect on July 1. We messaged our business clients this afternoon with key points and assorted handouts they'll need. One replied back complaining about the "f'n liberals". I decided not to tell him that his accounting firm was made up of "f'n liberals", fully backed the paid sick time off law, and already had a paid sick time policy in place that exceded the policy required by the state. I also didn't point out to him that businesses like his, that offered no benefits at all, were the ones always whining about not being able to find quality hires. I expect a few more replies like this one tomorrow. We have a small betting pool on who the next one to reply in similar fashion will be. Since these rants are all the same you can probably write them yourselves and save the clients the trouble of whining. |
|
val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 29,877
|
Post by val2525 on Jun 1, 2022 4:41:02 GMT
A lot of our clients offer paid sick leave already but don't have a formal written plan in place. They're the ones we'll spend our time on, helping them to get an employee manual set up, written policies, etc. The cheap azz whiners won't like the new policy but we really don't care. We did our part by notifying them, now it's up to them to comply. We WILL be adding the accrual to all employees of all clients effective the first payroll in July whether the client has notified us of their sick-time policy or not We are SOOOOOOOOOOO tired of whiny clients. Meanwhile, I stumbled on a documentary on the Mt St Helens erruption back in 1980. It was quite interesting! |
|
|
|
Post by Emerald_Door on Jun 1, 2022 13:43:15 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by allikat on Jun 1, 2022 18:31:16 GMT
|
|
val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 29,877
|
Post by val2525 on Jun 1, 2022 19:45:02 GMT
Your backyard looks gorgeous allikat! I can't wait to see the flower pics. I accidentally spritzed Simon with an essential oil spray I use. I didn't realize he was in the tub, and he got hit with it when I sprayed in the tub. Cats don't do well with essential oils, so I had to give him a bath because some of it was on his fur  He was surprisingly well behaved while in the sink. He wasn't happy, but he didn't bite or scratch me and cooperated with me. He's now clean and dry and not holding a grudge.  |
|
kritter
Mod Squad
When we lose sight of how we treat animals, we tend to lose sight of our humanity
Posts: 19,564
|
Post by kritter on Jun 1, 2022 20:16:24 GMT
It is a great mindset to be in. I have been in that mindset for a very long time and wouldn't have it any other way.
But then I have never been the shrinking violet personality so there is that.
|
|
|
|
Post by treetop on Jun 1, 2022 21:32:53 GMT
Beautiful, Allikat. I especially love the water feature, so relaxing and picturesque!
|
|
|
|
Post by allikat on Jun 1, 2022 21:34:37 GMT
Next goal is to learn to use the pressure washer, need to pressure wash deck and paint. I have a huge commercial gas powered one here, DS has a harry home owner pressure washer he is going to let me borrow to learn on. He said the one here is too powerful and I will have trouble controlling it because of my size.
And I have to decide what to do about the weeds in my second driveway, DH used Roundup, I have been pulling them and spraying with Dawn/Vinegar/Salt solution and the weeds are laughing at me. I am weeding the driveway every other day. I may have to breakdown and use an actual chemical. I have a well so I really didn't want to use chemicals but since DH used them for the last 20 couple years here I guess my well concerns are sort of late.
And I have a hillside garden that needs work, I think I am going to weed it and rough up the dirt and plant wildflowers and see what comes up.
All the birdies have fledged out of the nests now to clear out the nests and clean the porch.
DH always told people don't let her size fool you, she is force of nature. I always just shrugged it off as it's my DH, now I am taking it to heart.
|
|
She's definitely taking her promotion to Queen seriously 
She's definitely taking her promotion to Queen seriously 
He was surprisingly well behaved while in the sink. He wasn't happy, but he didn't bite or scratch me and cooperated with me. He's now clean and dry and not holding a grudge. 
