Friday April 28

[Shirlv]

More All, 54°a gloomy rainy day/weekend. Very windy but coming from the north so hitting the other side of the building. I had a solar fountain on the deck at my house. Solar was good, it bubbled during the day and shut down at night. Sheila, a golf umbrella hooks on a golf cart, is larger than a regular umbrella. Didn’t have broccoli salad because I didn’t feel like going to the store. Had vegetable beef soup and a biscuit. No store today either. Tall lady with bionic knees and little dog scurried past the window at 9. Will look out the window until I think of something interesting to do. Be safe

Karen, what’s for dinner?

[Shirlv]

Youallare in trouble, I have nothing to do but look out the window and think. Sue, fountains prices have soared. If you have a sunny spot, a fun project would be making a solar fountain. Pumps are not expense on Amazon. You can make it as big or as small as you want. Lots of videos out there. Would be perfect for my south facing balcony. Hummm! Lol

[BarbaraRose]

Shirl, I will give you some entertainment to read!

First, I had an apartment once back in MN that faced the lake and had a garden area out back (I was on the first floor) next to the patio and in front of the large living room picture window. I planted a bunch of pretty flowers in it and in the middle, I put a large plastic half barrel with a water fountain in it. It was really cool and I got voted by the residents as having the nicest garden in the area! I don't have the green thumb I did back then tho. My Maine Coon cat, Snuffy, loved to sit on the window sill (just a foot off the floor) and watch the chipmunks (chippies) run back and forth on the outside sill and taunt him! Even if he was in a dead sleep in the bedroom, all I had to say is "chippies!" and he would fly up and run over to the window sill to look for them! He was a funny cat!

Sandy, love your little garden and fountain! I love the sound of moving water! So peaceful!

Now for my current situation...yesterday I went to work and was trying to perfect my joint weights . Then some of us (mostly the newbies) got told we were being moved to another area to work. We went to another part of the building and into a small room with about 12 people standing at a long table. We were fixing the joints that others had messed up. Well, it didn't take very long before my sciatica started acting up. I kept lifting my leg up to try to get relief, to no avail. It gradually got worse. Then, if that wasn't enough, they had the music cranked up to the point that I could barely hear the gal next to me telling me what to do (which was the same issue at the first area). And, not only loud, but rap music with the worst language ever! Tons of F words, and several motherF words thrown in and a lot of sexual content as well. One song after the next! I put on my headphones and turned it up full blast but still couldn't drown out their music. So I have vulgar rap and Billy Joel going into my ears full blast at the same time , along with pain shooting down my leg. I was on the verge of an anxiety attack! I finally had enough! I excused myself and left and went back to the place I had been working, I went in to my managers office and told him this just wasn't gonna work for me, and I left. Too much stress for a minimum wage job!

I was exhausted the rest of the day and finally collapsed in bed by 9pm and slept until 10am this morning! I will keep looking for a better job and probably just part-time. I did apply for a PT job on Indeed yesterday for Barnes and Noble at the mall. We'll see.

Meanwhile, will work on getting my place cleaned up and get my projects done. Need to decide on a paint color for my kitchen so I can get that done before it gets too hot to be able to open my windows and air the paint fumes out.

[MandysMom]

Wow, Barbie, that sounds like an awful place! Will say a prayer that you find a good place to work and soon! For your health, you did the right thing.
It's a gorgeous day here, blue skies and sunshine. Headed into low 90's, it's 84° at 11:37 am. I feel really good today! Best in a long time. I actually got 7 1/2 hrs sleep, with a long stretch of deep sleep. My BP is pretty good and got a call from Dr and all my blood work is really good! I have a few calls to make and my workout to do, and in a good mood to tackle it all.
If any of you have asthma/related breathing issues, I highly recommend looking up Inspiratory Strength Training-IST. It's used to strengthen breathing muscles. A typical IST device is about,$20bto 50. I pad $49. Worth every penny, if used consistently. I started at lowest settings. All you do is hold it in your lips and breathe. Plug your nose if needed. As you breathe in and out, the IST provides resistance, thereby strengthening your breathing muscles. It's often used by athletes to increase their ability to move air, but also by asthmatics. In addition, studies show, those who use it consistently can lower their BP over time, both the systolic and diastolic numbers. Key is consistency ! I use a free stop watch on my phone and am up to 3 min morning and night. I've used it off and on, trying to improve morning BP, but only started seeing results when I made it part of my morning and evening routine.
Sheila, you reminded me I need to dig out my solar fountain for birds I bought last year and see about getting it running. Going to move feeder and fountain to master bedroom deck and see if anyone visits!
Have a great day everyone!
Velda
PS If you decide you need to ask your Dr first, be sure to look up the studies first, print at least one or at least write down name of study and take to Dr, because, I guarantee you most primary care Drs, unless they themselves are athletes, have not paid attention to the emerging data related to BP and asthma. Mine said Wow,good job, yesterday when I quoted data and shared results and said keep it up! He's a really smart guy, who does ER duty because he loves keeping up with the latest, but he's not an athlete.

[Cudedog]

Barbie, I think you did absolutely the right thing. What an awful place!! I would have made exactly the same decision. And being required to stand all day is the absolute worst.

I think there even might be Cal OSHA prohibitions against loud music like that.

I had a job, long ago, that was some type of electronic assembly work. It was horrendous. I worked four hours, lunch time came - I went to lunch and never came back.

Anne

[Bethers]

Sheila, if you want me to post a picture, send it. It just might have to wait. (Like I shouldn't be on here now lol).

Barbie, you did the right thing. I wouldn't have made it through the first day with that music. Good luck on finding something better for you.

Back to work.

[OregonLuvr]

Good afternoon. It is going to be hot here, I dont like it hot but at least we have sunshine. I set my AC to come on this afternoon later ha ha first time it has been on this year. Hope it works LOL
Shirl it is a pot roast in the crockpot kinda day with potatoes and carrots and sweet potato. Yup that will work for a couple of days.
Good grief Barbie I wouldnt have lasted an hour ha ha It is bad enough when I drive up to our local Dutch Bros for a coffee drink and get blasted while I am sitting in my car at the window but to have to do it all day Oh heck NO.

Well too hot to work outside any longer so I came in. I want to go buy some plants but so does everyone else in town because of our nice weekend so.....I will wait until next Tuesday or Wednesday when they get their fresh shipments in. Not going to be very nice this week but that is okay so far I dont see any rain and I am getting my sunshine break.

[Bethers]

Yikes. The winds came in today. Poor Ty got a very abbreviated walk. Temps also went down, winds cold and it means we'll be walking in the morning with temps in the 30's. At least upper 30's and winds gone, hopefully, but brrrr. I'm hoping the wind dies down enough to let me get to sleep in a couple/few hours. Unfortunately I'm going to have to take Ty out once more first.

The director still drives me nuts but I'm somewhat ignoring her. We'll see how that goes lol

[Redetotry]

The last couple of days have been busier than usual. I picked up a friend who had to drop off her car at the Toyota dealership in a nearby town. We went by a small neighborhood grocery known for having a good meat selection. I was sooo happy they had a large selection and two butchers to wait on you. I bought a pound of ground sirloin for $4.99,skinless,boneless chicken thighs 6 for $3.50 and 1/2 pound of pork sausage for $1.11. I make lentil soup with the chicken thighs tonight and it was really good. Had hamburgers last night and the beef had a great taste. We had a similar market here but it closed right before Covid and I've really missed it. Today I had a dentist appointment as I saw a cavity on the top of an eye tooth. He said it was unusual to have one start at the top of a tooth but it was an easy fix. He didn't have to numb my mouth and when he finished said I was good to eat on it like usual. What a relief! After lunch I met friend for our usual once a week meet up at a popular rural tavern and talked for about two and a half hours. Since we are really light drinkers and order food to go I give an extra generous tip for taking up the table for so long. It was warm enough we could have sat on the patio but it was full. This place especially on Fridays is really busy all day. On and off today I put together a large Macy's order as they were having a really good sale. TJ Max it about the only clothing store left here. Macy's closed and all the other nice clothing stores at the mall closed.
Barbie sorry your job turned out to be so terrible but you lasted longer than I would have! I dislike that type of music and especially when it is loud. Sandi your flowers are lovely! Karen your weather sounds like ours, one extreme to another. Shirl I hear the sound of soothing water in your future.
Good grief it is 930 no wonder I'm ready to head to my soft chair to read.

[Acadianmom]

Not much going on here. I was suppose to have a Meetup Meal last night but the lady that picks the restaurants changed it to next Tuesday. She was afraid we were going to have bad weather. The weather missed me and went to Florida. I barely got a half inch of rain. There are severe weather boxes in East Texas and it's suppose to get here tomorrow. There is a big international music festival going on in Lafayette. It's all outdoors so rain is not going to be good for that.

I went fishing at the ponds this afternoon. The nosey cows have to see what I'm doing and get in the pond where I'm trying to fish. I haven't been down there in a long time and the weeds are taking over the small pond again. I will have to get something to spray them.

I have a fountain on the counter in the bathroom. It's copper with blue Iris flowers. I don't have anywhere I could put it outside. The lady that made it was at a craft show here years ago. I didn't see her at the show but saw a fountain she had made. It took me 2 years to track her down so I could order one.

Barbie, sorry the job didn't work out. The music would have driven me crazy too. Loud music can't be good for your hearing.

Martha

[JudyJB]

Yes, there are OSHA rules against loud sounds without the employer providing ear plugs and monitoring the sound level, and music qualifies as a sound. Plus, they are probably breaking rules against internal air pollution without exhaust fans to blow out the smells. Ditto for sexual harassment, as employees are not supposed to be subjected to sexist or vulgar language. Glad you left.

I had a half-day job once, but I sneaked out the back door so the visiting health department wouldn't have caught me. It was a summer when I was in college, and I had had a job as a waitress catering weddings, but the weddings dried up at the end of June so I was unemployed. My cousin, who is a year younger than me, told me the restaurant she was working at desperately needed help, so she talked to her manager, and he told her to tell me to show up one morning.

Don't remember what I did that morning, but the restaurant manager had not sent either my cousin or me out to get the required health department TB tests. So about noon, just as business was getting started on that first day, the health department showed up for an inspection. As they came in the front door, my cousin and I were told to sneak out the back door and not come back until the next day. So, out we went, like a couple of thieves in the night. I never went back, but my cousin did, although I do not remember how long she worked there. I can't even remember if I got paid at all, but it was a funny memory!

Maybe you can file a complaint with OSHA!!! Might help other employees.

[snowball]

I'm glad that you left the job.... to have it so loud that even your ear whatevers didn't block it... it sorta reminded me of a job that I had it was reclaiming damaged food like a pallet of mayo goes crashing down and we would go through that pallet and clean off the broken glasses and mayo (that stuff especially fat free gets really hard) then they reclaimed stuff was put into the sale room... cans were checked to see if the dent was of the type that it shouldn't be sold... but they had on loud music not rap but hard rock and the people I worked with the language was beyond the beyond to these tender ears...I stuck with it but the first week or so I had to talk myself into it each and every hour... then I went to work at the hospital so much better ... I am glad that you left the work...it was suggested that you report them to OSHA might be a good idea can't hurt you might help some others...
if we compare my day with anyone else's I didn't get much done but if you compare my day to my normal day I did accomplish more... mom's shower and hair done, bathroom cleaned as well as Swedish weave and afghan worked on and oh yes garbage bags tossed out to the garage will take it the rest of the way tomorrow when I go out
a solar fountain would be good I need to find a water feeder have one in the trailer but it's in the trailer and not here...
I think all the snow is melted off the east deck if not it's down to a few inches can't see out of the window and the snow that was in front of the sliding doors is all melted off...
we had hamburger gravy and mashed potatoes and corn for supper I thought it tasted really good mom ate all she took but she didn't take a lot...
you all have a great day
sheila

[BarbaraRose]

Sheila, how do you make your hamburger gravy?

[Pooker]

Sorry, Barbie - I think you suspected it wouldn't last after the very first day. I think the B&N job would mean being on your feet all the time, too. Do they still have temp agencies like Manpower, Kelly Girls, etc? I think I remember you have done that in the past. You have receptionist experience, right? I found that getting a smaller paycheck was worth it to have the choice of hours, place, and ability to quit if I didn't like it. I'd just call the office and say this job isn't for me - send someone else. They always wanted to send me on jobs I didn't want, but I'd hold out for exactly what filled my requirements. Upside was two or three times I had offers from the company where I was temping and I actually accepted a job at one place that was willing to buy out my contract with the temp agency. Other companies said they'd hold the job open for me for the required time to fulfill the agency's wait time. Companies use this method to screen potential employees all the time.

I learned about the perks of temping when part of my job was to do the obtaining, scheduling, etc. all the temporary positions for a large company. I had one gal who was always in demand. She was a schoolteacher and told me all about how she managed her hours, days, and times around her kids' school breaks. She's the one who explained how you can be in the driver's seat about where you go, when you go, and what you do. Later, when I had to leave that job, I signed up with 3 agencies and I was able to say yes or no and hold out for exactly what I wanted.

Just a suggestion if there are still some temp agencies around your area.

Good luck, Barbie

Evie

[Irmi]

Evie & Barbie,

I Googled Temp Agencies in southern CA and there are quite a few. Barbie, I think Evie's suggestion of checking those out may not be a bad idea. You can always say no. Good luck!