I really have to find another job...

I am so grateful I wasn’t working yesterday! There was a 911 call for a belligerent customer harassing the cashiers and that attacked another customer with something sharp and took off. A transient, homeless, whatever. Probably a druggie. Lots of panhandling and squatting here even tho it is illegal, especially in the winter. But I really do need to get out of DG as soon as possible. Customers are enough of a pain in the ass without being dangerous as well. I’m just glad it wasn’t on my shift. Not sure how it all played out, but I think they got him.

I had a quiet day yesterday. I watched all four episodes of Gilmore Girls, but I snoozed through some of it, especially the first one. I think I missed most of that one. I did have my thanksgiving dinner and it was pretty good. Now I am over it. The critters are going to get the leftovers, one of my goals today is to get the fridge cleaned out. I’m sure the veggies I bought three weeks ago are ready to be tossed too. I have fresh leftovers that I made last night, and I think I will have a piece of ham with that tonight. 

I had to repair the roof part of the garden plastic yesterday. I had it in layers since it wasn’t big enough to cover the whole thing, but the rain got in between the layers and there were rivers of water dropping onto the garden. I may have lost a few things. But the wind also opened up a section, so I got that taped back together and went online and ordered a reinforced clear tarp big enough to cover the whole top and two of the sides in one piece, with grommets. For now, I will just put that over the existing plastic…added insulation. I never even considered the water since it hardly ever rains here. Everything is sopping wet and I need to change the watering timer to every other day on both the garden and the grapefruit. It isn’t getting a chance to dry out. 

Everything was covered in dew this morning. If it had been a few degrees colder it would have been a heavy frost. Brrr…I will rest a little easier when I get the new tarp for the garden on. Will still have to figure out how to keep it from freezing when it drops below freezing, but I should have a little time before that happens. The grapefruit on the tree are starting to ripen. I hope they will be edible. There aren’t many but they will be my first ones.

I have ordered a new battery for my phone. It has been giving me lots of trouble lately. It is plugged in more than it isn’t now, and drops like a rock when I use it. From what I can tell, it is four years old. Mike had it before me and I have had it two years now. So I guess it is time to replace the battery. I will have to go online and find the instructions to do that. The battery comes with the tool kit needed to open it up. I changed the one in my old phone and it was a pain in the ass. I am assuming this one will be too. But at least I will be prepared this time. I will have to think about upgrading at some point but I refuse to spend more than a hundred bucks for a new phone, so it probably won’t be an iPhone unless I get another of Mike’s hand me downs.

I need to go to the post office. Not sure if I will do that today or tomorrow. I should also clean the bathroom, it has been a while and the corners need attention. 

There isn’t going to be a christmas potluck this year. Two have ruined it for the rest of us. Politics and unrest are everywhere. It only takes one or two trouble makers to ruin it for everyone else. I was looking forward to it this year, it would have been my first since I went to Phoenix the last two years. Maybe we will eat out instead. Whatever. 

Today will be my Thanksgiving

My goal for the day is to do pretty much nothing. I have everything I need to make a Thanksgiving dinner, don't even have to cook the turkey. I have stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and even a mini pumpkin pie from one of my neighbors, so I will be fixing myself the meal that I missed on Thursday. My other goal is to watch Gilmore Girls, A Year In The Life. All at once. A marathon.

Of course, since I worked last night, I will be napping off and on as well. Sounds like a good day to me.

I have decided to downsize the bed in the bedroom. Since I have been sleeping in the chair more and more, the big bed is just a waste. I haven't used it for company more than once and that was a single individual, so I have decided that space could be put to better use. I ordered a twin mattress and will separate the two halves of the bed frame and make a daybed. Then I am going to move my desk and chair and a couple other things in and use it as an office/spare room type of deal. I hope to be able to sleep in there again, but for now I am getting more sleep in my chair, so am going to go with that for a while. I don't get enough sleep as it is.

I started my third year in Quartzsite on the 26th. A milestone. Doesn't feel like I have been here that long and so many changes since I pulled in with Ody. Nothing ever stays the same, and that is a good thing.

Worst Thanksgiving?

OK! I am finally settling down to write this morning. I think I can safely say that yesterday was the worst Thanksgiving I have ever had.

It was a miserable day, surprisingly busy at work, but I guess we were the only game in town. I was all set for my six hour shift, then the cashier that was supposed to work last night called in with an emergency. I was the manager on duty and there was no one else to call so I ended up working a double shift. 12 hours on three hours sleep. 12 hours constantly on the move and on my feet. It was a very long day. In spite of being so tired, my drawer was only off by twenty cents. I wish it had been spot on, but I will settle for 20 cents over. I knew I was tired, so I was watching myself and not working on auto pilot like I usually do.

My Thanksgiving dinner was a Hormel Completes turkey, gravy and stuffing and it was horrible. We didn’t have any frozen turkey dinners in the freezer. I did have an eggnog with that. As bad as it was, it lasted the shift and I wasn’t starving by the time I left.  This morning Judy dropped off my plate that Diane saved for me, so I will have a good lunch before I go to work today. And tonight, one of my customers is supposed to bring a fish fry dinner for me. I work every Friday night, so I don’t get to do that any more. I missed that. She gave me hers last week and it was really good. She comes in and buys beer every night, so I think I will buy a six pack for her. It is much less than I would have paid for the dinner and she refused money. I really need to get her name…I’m horrible with names.

Tomorrow they are going to have turkey noodle soup at the club house, I will be able to do that before I go to work. It is supposed to be at 1 and I don’t work until 3. I really would have liked to have been at the potluck yesterday, but I opted for the extra pay. I didn't know it was going to be a double shift.  I would have been called in anyway since Marie didn’t show again. I will be able to do the Christmas one tho, the store is closed that day.

I ordered two wrist braces online this morning (I can’t find my old one). One for daytime and one for night. My carpal tunnel is beyond the point of just numbness, there is also a pretty heavy duty ache with it. Surprisingly it wasn’t the lifting and stocking that has bothered me, but all the time on the register. I have been spending a lot more time on the register lately and that will be a regular thing until April. They keyboard is about shoulder height and is very bad for me. And since I got extra hours yesterday, I also ordered a new shredder. I had been wanting it for a while now and figured I would just bite the bullet and get it. The little one I got at Salvation Army just isn’t big enough for what I shred. I wait too long to do it and have too much. It keeps over heating and a twenty minute job turns into several hours while I wait for it to cool down and work again. Pain in the ass. Plus, it has a bigger container and I won’t have to empty it every time I use it.

I got the garden covered just in time. 38 degrees last night. I just went in and it smells so good. Smells just like a greenhouse and the plants seem pretty happy. I should probably put my pots in there too, but I haven’t figured out a shelf yet. That is on my list for Monday. I think I am going to suspend it from the roof somehow since there aren’t any walls or uprights to attach it to. I think I have just about everything I need to do that except the board, and I can get that at Herbs. I will see what I have here first that I might be able to use. I might have a wire shelf that I can just sit on the U or hang. The first batch of lupine that came up don’t look very good and I haven’t checked any of them this morning to see how they weathered the cold. They will probably do better enclosed.

Surprisingly, other than my hand, I don’t feel as bad as I had expected this morning. I took some Aleve as soon as I got home and I think that made the difference. I slept about six hours and plan to get some more before I go to work tonight. 

Gilmore Girls, A Year In The Life, is finally on Netflix! Yay! I hope it comes out on DVD so I can complete my set. I’m going to wait until Monday to watch it tho. We had to wait long enough for it to be released, and I want to be able to watch all four episodes without having to worry about stopping it and going to work. 

I had a website update to do this morning too. That was supposed to be done last night. I did that before I did anything else this morning. This will be my last year for those. I am going to let them know at the end of the season to give them plenty of time to find someone else to maintain their sites. I’m tired of it.  I have been doing it over ten years, mostly free, and since I am not there anymore, it is time they found someone else. Especially now that I have to work again. It just takes time out of what little time off that I do have. 

Well, I guess that is about it. Time to think about getting a nap before work. It is amazing how fast the mornings go. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends and friends that have become family! I am thankful for all of you!

I will be working a five hour shift today. I had the option to take the day off with pay, but volunteered so that people with families could have the day off. I will be missing the Thanksgiving potluck, but will be here for the Christmas one.

I am thankful I have a job, my home, my health, and my family and friends. Thank you.

Monday and Tuesday

Monday morning, in spite of being exhausted, I went to the post office to pick up my packages. There was about a half hour wait. Reuben was the only one on window and this was the line. It isn't even December yet. 

Before I went to the post office I stopped at Salvation Army. They have all their Christmas stuff out and I found several things. This is my haul and I only spent $3.50.

Got the house mostly cleaned yesterday. The vacuum did bother my carpal tunnel, but the floors needed it. I even dusted. I also did my shredding. That took a lot longer than it should have, lots of little time slips and receipts. It kept over heating and shutting down so I had to wait for it to cool off before I could continue. I think I am going to get a bigger shredder, something with an automatic on switch when I put paper in and a larger receptacle. I might do it more often then, like whenever I need to get rid of a time slip or a receipt so it doesn’t build up. And if it does build up, it won’t take as long to do. I hate shredding.

I decided to get rid of the Halloween decorations and dug out my xmas stuff. I put up the new tiny tinsel tree and put lights and a bead garland on it and my two snowmen ornaments with Jake and my names on them. We bought those on one of our last vacations together. I need to buy some tiny ornaments to finish it up, most of mine are way too big for the tiny tinsel tree.

I have more to do, but didn’t want to go overboard since it isn’t even December yet. I will probably add stuff as I find it. I'm not done with Sal's yet.

This is the carved wood santa I got the other day. He has glue around his mouth and I’m not sure how to get it off. You can’t really see it unless you look closely, I may not try as I don't really want to have to repaint it.

And these are the dishes. I found two plates and a platter to match on eBay and ordered them. They are the Gibson 2002 series. Those of course cost a lot more, but I really like them..

Both amaryllis pots fit in the new basket although it was a tight squeeze.

Cleaning and decorating took me up to about lunch time. I had already eaten lunch when Glen and Diane drove up and asked if I wanted to go for a burger. Unfortunately I hadn’t showered or dressed and had on my daytime jammies. They tried to convince me that I looked fine, but I said no. I would have liked to have gone, but a little notice would have been nice. I won’t go out in public in my jammies, daytime or night time.

A quick nap in the afternoon, some reading, and then some TV. 

That was the extent of my two days off. Looks like I will be having some website work later today or tomorrow for one of the snowmobile sites. 

I still need to enclose the garden. The nights are in the 40’s and I think I am going to change the watering to every other day for a while. But I will save that for Monday and Tuesday. Of course I found the staples that I knew I had but couldn't find for the staple gun after I ordered and received ones that fit. Sigh...

My work schedule will be changing now that we have another full time key holder. Looks like I will be getting some days and not closing five nights per week. We’ll see how that goes. Right now I have no life and I don’t like it. Today I go in at 3 and tomorrow is 10 to 3:30. Then back to nights for at least Friday. I should get the new schedule when I go in today. 

Sorry it has been so long....

It has been a while since I have written anything and I was reminded of that fact yesterday. Thanks Jerry!

I try not to write the same thing over and over, it gets boring even for me. My life these days consists of working and sleeping. When I am not working I am trying to get enough sleep that I can work. I only sleep three and four hours at a time, so it is a long drawn out affair.

Work is getting crazy. It is that season, and it is only going to get worse before it gets better. If I survive the month of January at DG Quartzsite, I can survive just about anything. We just need enough people on register to keep the complaints down to a dull roar. No one is ever happy. But we do our best.

My garden has green and growing things in it. Yay! Now I hope I can keep it going through the coldest part of the winter. I brought home my clear vinyl shower curtains that I will be using to enclose it and make it into a makeshift greenhouse for the season. I bought a dozen of them, so I should have enough plus some extra in case of a failure. I only bought the lightweight ones as they were half the price of the heavy duty vinyl curtains. It still cost almost $50.

I bought a bike last week. I finally found one with a color that I could live with that was less than a hundred bucks. I didn't want to spend more because I probably won't be using it all that much. It was even pre-assembled. I have to order a gel cover for the seat before I can use it tho, the couple of minutes I sat on the seat, it hurt.

It has way too many speeds, I would have been happy with three, but the price was right and the color was livable. No fancy tires or pastel colors. I will have to figure out a basket or a rack for it if I am to use it for a quick trip to the store, and I would like to find a lock that isn't one of the coiled cable ones as I hate fighting with that. But in the meantime, the gel seat cover is ordered and I do have a lock I can use. 

Here are a few garden pics from a couple of days ago. All of the zucchini seeds have sprouted, everything looks like it is doing well. I added the first worm castings the other day since most everything is above ground. 

So far, so good.

The other day I finally got the railroad ties dug into the ground. Now I can touch them with my tires without moving them. No more hitting the fence when I back in. 

I also aired up my car tires, got the tire sensors working again, cleaned the windows and then proceeded to wiped down the car since it was covered in dust. It looks so much better now. 

I have started some seeds in pots outside of the garden too. The tubers I put in haven't done anything, but most of the seeds have. I started geraniums, two different varities of lupine, another shot at the desert willow, and of course the walking onion from Deanna in Saco. Those have taken off like wildfire. 

Today is a work day. I work 3 to 11:30. The last few weeks I have been working 40 hours - nights. I will spend most of the morning trying to get a little more sleep since I only get about three hours at night. I can't function at DG on that little sleep. The job is way too physical and demanding. I am still hoping that I will be able to find a normal job that I can stand to replace the DG job at some point. In the meantime, I will do the best I can with what I have. 

Garden update

The bales of pro mix arrived on Friday and I got them in the garden Saturday morning. I should have waited to plant, but I didn't, and it settled over night after being watered. I can't afford to order more soil anyway, so it will have to do. I planted mescalun, turnip greens, spinach, radishes, herbs, tomatoes and several other things. I didn't have any lettuce seed and will have to get some. I also started several pots with geraniums. my bulbs from DG, and am trying one more time to grow a couple of desert willow trees. Hoping the pro mix will make the difference.

Thursday I was informed that the store is now open until 11 PM. So I am getting home an hour later at night. With the way I sleep, that isn't a good thing. But I will have to deal with it.

I got to go to breakfast on Sunday and coffee on Monday. A bunch of us also went to the Roadrunner floating bar and grill last night for burgers. We had a good time.

We had an awesome sunset last night. I took pictures, but was in a moving vehicle at the time, so they aren't all that great, but here is one that isn't bad.

Today is my day two of two days off. It goes way too fast. I wish I didn't have to work to eat, but it is what it is. 

I had a moment last night, and it almost made me cry. I was really enjoying the water, the breeze, the scents in the air, the whole atmosphere, and I realized that Jake should have been there with me. I could almost see him standing beside me. It made me so very sad. It actually physically hurt that he wasn’t there with me. Even after seven years I still have moments that take my breath away. I still miss him each and every day.