Sunday

[Shirlv]

Good Morning All, It’s a chilly 36°, coffees hot and I made a batch of steel cut Oates yesterday. Have frozen berries, walnuts and a sprinkle of cinnamon, yum. I use a recipe for overnight Oates but do it during the day. Don’t feel like fooling with Oates at bedtime. Oates freeze well in small containers. That’s my itty bitty news. Be safe

[asirimarco]

Another Great Morning to All - You are up early Shirly - it is still dark here in Mazatlan but I woke up and wide awake. Got up so Bill can stay asleep.
Yesterday the heat and especially the humidity broke some. By dusk it was almost cool out. Partly because the wind picked up. By December it usually starts to cool down a little and the humidity drops. I hope. We are pretty much settled in here. Have our Internet, which allows us to watch TV from the US. Got our propane tank filled, first time ever we actually ran out. We are still the only ones in the RV park so it is nice and quiet.
Stayed home most of yesterday - weekends there are a lot of Nationals visiting the beaches. Watched soccer and I am still trying to catch up on my blogs. Also learning a new video program so I can post some videos of the area. Today maybe we'll take a ride somewhere out of town
So far the cases of Covid here remain low and most wear masks. We aren't going in any of the busy stores or areas. Kind of like being in Vegas but the weather is warmer.
And that is all of our news.

[BirdbyBird]

Might as well just check in here as anywhere else. Still imitating a slug on a couch. I am walking and moving better but periodically my stomach seems to want to cramp up and I just get still breathe and count slowly until it passes. There is light at the end of the tunnel it is just a long tunnel right now. I am allowed clear liquids but after attempting some I fine slightly chilled water the best. Not much itty bitty news here just feel like I am marking lines on the walls counting the days. Forward we go..... For Judy, I no longer look like the 70 year old pregnant woman. Most of the fluid retention throughout my body has returned to normal and I am back to my pre weight. I have to admit that I have not reached the goal that was set for me of mil/ whatever. I started at 30. Goal is suppose to be 60 and I am hanging here at 45 coming through the tube. The nurses will understand and let me know how bad I am being. Stay healthy, find some joy in your day, remember to keep the spirit of Thanksgiving alive. Proceed. Tina

[BirdbyBird]

PS. Anne, your package went into the mail Friday.

[PeggyinCT]

Good morning Everybody, Yup, it’s an oatmeal morning here, too, Shirl.
Tina, thanks for the mending update. We are all pulling for you. Carol, I read your posts from Matzalan, and dream of Kino Bay. I truly love being there, but don’t want to get sick so far from home. Another day to enjoy. Peggy

[JudyJB]

Yippee! The campground emptied out this morning and now there are only a few of us, which is much nicer. Not so much noise or cars and trucks driving around. However, a LOT of trash needs to be picked up, and I am parked right next to an overflowing trash can with flies all over the place. Yuck. Tomorrow I go to Camping World to try to get my tail lights and running lights fixed, then will be heading out on Wednesday morning. One night stay near Napa and then six nights at Napa for my son's birthday.

This semester, i have to give my final exam live over Zoom and sit watching my screen for the entire two hours!! Plus, because I have so many students, I have three such sessions scheduled. I think I will read a book while watching. I will not have my camera on, so they will not be able to watch me watching (or not watching) them! Most of my students are a little older and pretty honest, luckily. Plus they each get one of six random, but similar, essay questions for the entire exam, so hard to cheat anyway, but college departmental rules require me to watch them, so that is what I will do.

Glad to hear you are better, Tina, and I think split shifts should be illegal, Barbie!!

[Othersharon]

Good evening! I just finished a turkey dinner thanks to my son and daughter-in-law! Since I had a dental procedure Wednesday my mouth wasn’t up to eating solid food! I took advantage of the beautiful day today and pup and I took a drive to Sam’s for gas and needed a couple of things in the store. Of course I got more than I had planned on! But it’ll all get used! I had used my points at the store here and got a 14 pound turkey so took it over to son today too. I eat at their house often enough so figured it was the least I could do. Then Rascal and I headed home but did get a short walk in where I usually walk him. So now we’ll tuck in and await the nasty week ahead that is forecasted. Sounds like it’ll be a mixed bag of rain and snow with cold temps. Sadly, winter had to come at some point! Tina, glad you are starting to make progress in your recovery. Barbie, split sits are a pain. Hope they change their minds! Judy, sounds like watching paint dry! So that’s all my itty bitty news for today! Have a good evening and stay safe.

[Acadianmom]

Shirl, you have a better constitution than I do if you can eat steel cut oats. I tried them and they do not agree with me. My cholesterol had gone up when I gave blood so I'm eating oatmeal for breakfast now, instant oats not steel cut.

I went up to the lake yesterday to winterize the camp. I figure I would put it off until I didn't have a choice about going and I did. It's going to freeze tomorrow night. It rained all the way going, all night and most of the way home today. We got 3 !/2 inches at home. It must have stormed because things were blown off the porch. The neighbors up there gave me a plate of cooked fish and shrimp before I headed home. Works for me. I could get 4 TV channels for the first time since tv changed to digital. Still not much tv, 2 channels were football, one was Circle and one was ION. I had never heard of Circle. It's country music and someone interviewing a country star. That was ok for a while but then all the shows repeated. If we went more I would try to get a dish installed for Directv since my VuQube quit working.

Tomorrow I need to clean the camper and get ready for our Christmas campout this coming weekend. Not sure if I will go on Wednesday or Thursday. Will have to see what the weather is and how I feel.

Barbie, hope they don't go to split shifts. They make people that work in restaurants do that. Who comes up with these brilliant ideas.

Martha

[BarbaraRose]

Good evening.

Did not much of anything today. Just had leftovers for lunch and dinner. Turkey is much better a couple days later.

I got next weeks schedule emailed to me today. Luckily, no splits for me. The guy I usually work with got them instead but he just lives a few miles from there.

I ate my first strawberry from my new plant and it was very sweet and juicy. Hope I get lots more. I need to buy some netting to cover it so the birds don't get them before I do.

Went for a short ride in my cart but it started to slow down so I figure the batteries were low so managed to get it back home and plugged in. I need to check the water in the batteries too.

Back to work tomorrow...

[Bethers]

I talked with the Mrs of Mr and Mrs GM here today about problems with my manager. Last night I pretty much decided I'd stick around a couple more weeks then give notice for the end of the year. Today I get to work and my manager finally put the new schedule up (which starts tomorrow) and realize today was my last day of my 5 days in a row this week. I'm scheduled to work the next 2 before I get a day off. Now I'm ok with split days off, but I'm not ok with 7 days in a row without being asked and without it involving overtime. I'm doing it but Mrs GM knows it best not happen again. My schedule isn't the worst. One lady was scheduled ALL 7 days next week! This woman is not a good manager IMO. All this said, I like the store. And I keep reminding myself that I'm doing this for the money. But no money is with my happiness, so we'll see what the next week or so brings. We were slower tonight and the manager was off so with the blessing of the other two scheduled beyond my hours, I left 1/2 an hour early.

Barbie I'm so glad you didn't get the split shifts. I wouldn't mind them on occasion here, but I'm right here. It would suck for you with the distance especially.

Thanks for listening to me vent.

[JudyJB]

I was a contract employee for 7 years at Ford Motor Company. That meant that while I worked at Ford, I was not a Ford employee, but rather the employee of an outside company. Ford paid them, and they paid me. The contracting company, which in this case was a woman who was a sole-proprietor, paid me benefits and wages. Except, that after 6 years, she lost her contract with Ford, and Ford switched me to another contracting company. Same wages, same benefits, etc. Actually, I only met someone from either of the contracting companies once each. Companies like Ford do this because they do not want to pay Ford benefits or Ford retirement, but many people believe it is illegal to hire "temporary" employees for 10, 15, and 20 years.

Anyway, when my contracting agency was fired from Ford, Ford paid her my wages, except she sued Ford and lost, and her lawyers attached her checking account and took all the money. Of course, I was not aware of this until the day my paycheck did not come. I was owed a full month of wages. Ouch!! She offered to pay me $50 out of her personal funds for what might have been for the rest of my life if I had lived long enough to collect--not acceptable to me!! So, I called the State of Michigan Wage and Hour Division and for no cost to me and without legal representation, I filed a complaint, which they investigated. Then, we went to a special court, where she ended up agreeing to pay me more like $350 a month until it was paid off. (She had a sob story about her kids college funds and her own 401K fund, but the judge shut her up and told her that was not relevant. I said I was sorry her business failed, but that was her fault, not mine.)

Anyway, the judge and personnel in this office were very nice and sympathetic to employees. They handle things like unpaid overtime and employers who do not give you breaks, as required by labor laws. They also handle things like an employer who asks you to work weird hours or makes you buy things or take training on your own time as a requirement for a job. It costs absolutely nothing to call them and ask for advice or even to go to court! No lawyers allowed or required in court. And actually, the judge told me privately I should due Ford Motor Company for its practices for hiring contract workers for decades. He said since they provided me with a desk, supplies, and supervision, I had a good chance of winning and getting paid for past Ford benefits, but I did not want to get into a fight with them because at this point I was planning on quitting and going full-time RVing.

Here are the California and the US offices of Wage and Hours.

- California (Part of Division of Industrial Relations) - https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/ (Check out list of items on the bottom for employees.)
- US Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division - https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd

If nothing else, these two sites are good sources for information on your rights as employees!!

[JudyJB]

By the way, the first several years I worked for the college I currently work for, we part-time employees were paid as independent contractors so the college did not have to pay benefits or handle other financial requirements. Then a handful of employees sued the college, saying that we were supervised at the college, provided office space and services, and other things, so they had to make us all real employees, though most of us are only part-time. The part-time is acceptable to most faculty there because nearly all work other jobs as lawyers, CPAs, financial officers of big companies, etc. and make a lot more money in their "real"jobs than college teaching pays. Most teach because they enjoy teaching and like the prestige it gives them, but teaching overall, even college teaching, does not pay well.

Most people do not know their rights as employees, and most small employers do not know their legal responsibilities as employers!!

Barbie, have you been getting a premium for working a split shift?? This article says you should get one-hour of premium pay for each split shift worked!! https://www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/2012/05/what-is-a-split-shift/

And a blog on split shifts in California: https://callaborlawblog.com/common-california-labor-code-violations/split-shifts/qa-california-split-shift-laws/

As you can guess, I took a couple of labor relations classes a long, long time ago and get really angry at employees being taken advantage of!!

[snowball]

still in Vegas... will be until Tuesday plan on going back to Q then...
it was a strange day woke up to try and get on the church here's meeting on line but wasn't able to so thought ok then I will go to Sunday School in Tetonia again via of course technology unfortunately that didn't work either so rolled over and went back to sleep woke up way late even for me... so no afternoon nap figured I'd already had it...
fixed supper did chat and watched the final in this series that my sister and I've watched it was actually pretty good... but only think 8 episodes so watched this year... and I still don't remember the name of it so then we decided to watch one called Big Sky... had a lot going might watch another night but it's on Tuesday night which I typically watch all the shows on another network... and unfortunately it had way too much sex for my taste... but it also in the show we saw tonight it had a prostitute almost killed and two teenagers kidnapped by the same person then the father of the teenagers boy friend went looking for them and he got killed by the hwy patrol guy .... totally surprised with that one... so kept one on their seat
Beth do you mean that you might give notice end of 2020 or 2021? I know when you went up there I thought it was through the summer and possibly another year... so now not sure... but life if too short to work somewhere where you are unhappy...
Tina so glad to see that you are much improving ... one day you will wake up and think hmmm I feel good!!! bring it on world!!!
can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of the month where in the world did it go??? need to get my act together and get things out of travel mode and into Christmas mode... want to enjoy it more than for a few days...
you all have a good one
need to finish my sister's laundry tomorrow as well as some stuff out in the truck... might if I have the recipe make some oatmeal cookies ... and need to go to the store we didn't get the chili mix with the order last night so think this one will need to be in person.... besides that I want a couple of things I can only get at Smith's other than I've not looked at other Kroger stores they are in short supply in Q and Parker and Havasu has a Smith's
you all take care
sheila

[BarbaraRose]

Thanks Judy for that information. I will certainly look into that. I have not yet worked a split shift (they start next week) and I won't. I plan to let my manager know that I will not do that. If they paid me for the extra gas to drive home and back, I still wouldn't want to do it. They need to hire another stylist. I think I overheard my manager tell someone that the corporate people said we have to be open at least 11 hours per day during the week. Have they not heard about Covid up there in Minneapolis???

[MandysMom]

Well, Barbara, after reading a LA times report today on what Gov Newsom said today, that argument over split shifts, may be a moot point, as Gov said, if numbers continue to rise, all purple tier counties may be put back in full lockdown within a week or so! Of 7300 occupied ICU beds in state, just under 25% are CoVid, and a number of hospitals are nearing full capacity for their allowed CoVid isolation beds. Only 5 counties in the State are not purple tier. get ready everyone, next few weeks may be a rough ride.
Velda