Today's Blog

I was a day off in my “something bad is going to happen” prediction. One of my coworkers (we have been friends since he before hired in) fell of the top step of a stool. A little back info. He is affectionately referred to as “my old fart.” He is a crusty old bird and a big sweetheart. He is very headstrong and does not show his softer side. Unless he really trusts you. I have gotten to see that softer side. He is 82 and had a very full life. He is also one of those that if he doesn’t keep busy he will stop all together. Thus working part time at the store. So back to our story, this fall is the second one he has had in less than a week. The other one was from a much greater height.

I was on break when they wheeled him in in one of the office chairs. He looked awful. I didn’t really say much. Everyone else was saying too much. Besides, he didn’t look like he was really up for talking… or listening. So I waited and I gave him grief about dancing on tabletops (a lot of people think I am being mean or just plain disrespectful when we banter back and forth. Especially in times of stress like this. The thing is he doesn’t like appearing venerable nor does he like being coddled. Everyone fawning over him just irritates him. So I don’t. He knows that I care. I also call him out on things. Because of that we have become very close over the years. I used the same tactic here. Because of that I was able to drive him home in his truck (he told everyone he was driving himself home as soon as we felt up to it) and I got one of his son’s phone numbers to call and let him know what happened (he blatantly refused when asked at work).

So I am worried. I have a bad feeling that he is on the decline. I keep waiting for a call from one of his sons. He is pigheaded and will fight to the end. But I still worry. I sent him a text when I got up. Hopefully I get a response.

I decided not to go for our walk today. I am just too exhausted. And there is still so much to do today. I let myself sleep as long as I could. I honestly came home last night fed the dogs and went to bed. I tried a few times between snoozes to see if there would be the promised northern lights but no joy. I think our walk will be put off until Friday. Everything should be a done deal by then so I can actually rest and have a real day off. And I really should start on my articles. Thanks for reading and stay safe.

It is gonna be a long day. Archie won’t eat. The sun is out though so I will take that small win. There is just so much to do this week. I have been making my lists and checking things off. The two big things this week are the newsletter and inventory. I am hoping to get things written tomorrow and sent over to my co-editor/co-writer. She has offered to send me what she has written to proof it but right now I honestly don’t know when I would have time to do it.

I have been explaining to people about my Brew Crew idea and everyone is really excited for that to roll out. I am thinking we could have it in time for June. I need to get with the store owner and get stuff finalized. Hopefully this week. I am excited to see how this does. And I have another event with one of our local breweries coming up the first Tuesday of June as well. This one will be better supported by the brewery. I’ll try to get photos to share. I think this will be a fun one to do since I won’t be doing everything myself for set up and such.

I hope to get the pups out for our walk tomorrow morning at the park. Stella will probably have to wear her hoodie again. The temps seem to be hanging around the freezing mark. I am thinking about getting up early and going. I want to sleep in but if I can avoid stupid people at the park…. Then I can come home and try to crank out those article for the newsletter. I made my list of those yesterday and reached out to all the department managers to see what they wanted highlighted (if anything). So I have something to work with. I might start today before work but I still need to shower. And I seem to be spending a lot of time staring out the window.

Chris and I had a really good night together last night. Dinner and a movie, in house of course. I am glad that I told Mom we wouldn’t be coming over. I was just too tired and wanted to stay home. I ought to get this posted. I am rambling. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

I feel as if something bad is going to happen. I don’t know what or why. Nothing I can do about it but try to ignore it. But I feel it there, staring at me.

It has been a weird day. Well, yesterday was. It felt like I was on overdrive the whole day. Having problems before we even opened probably didn’t help. it was nice to come home and just chill. I played with the dogs and watched Chris play Hogwart’s Legacy. (I am the extra set of eyes to help find magical objects😁) I made myself go to bed early but I found myself dreading today because I still have tomorrow to get through.

Both pups ate and both pups went back to bed. I told Archie we could sleep in tomorrow. I might get up earlier than normal to try to get some work done on the newsletter before work. Less I will have to cram in Tuesday. I hear the gentle snores from the bedroom, lucky beggars.

I do have new photos to share but that will have to wait til tomorrow. The clock is telling me it’s that time again. Thanks for reading and the support!❤️ Stay safe!

It’s the usual arrangement this morning. Archie is out here with me and Stella is still in bed with Chris. Neither Archie nor I want to be up. I don’t want to be doing this either if I am truthful. Part of that is next week’s stupid schedule. I get to work 6 days straight and spend the night training a rehire that no one likes on register. Monday was supposed to be the day we got our first draft of the newsletter done. Tuesday was for editing. Now I’m not sure how we are going to do it.

Then there’s inventory. That is happening Friday. But guess who has a Friday off? I am so very frustrated right now. If things for work are expected to get done on time I essentially have no time off because I will be working on all my days off. (With the newsletter I could’ve left the editing all to her and just given my stamp of approval. So Tuesday would’ve been my full day off, if I’d had my normal schedule.)

Yesterday was busy. Crazy busy at times. (I almost dropped my phone. I thought I was late for work, thinking it was Sunday🙄 just now.) I barely got all my orders put away. And I ended up staying almost an hour late to help out. Our gas prices went down but the closing manager wasn’t familiar enough with the system to do it on her own so I stayed to walk her through it. That meant waiting until there was no one at the gas pumps before we could change anything.

Sorry for all the complaining. Thanks for listening. I am trying to be positive but some times it gets a bit difficult. Stay safe!

This will have to be a short one this morning. I am running a bit behind. I need to sit down today and figure out my strategy for work. I found out the other day that inventory is next Friday. Yahoo. I wasn’t expecting inventory til the end of Summer like last year. It looks as though we are doing it quarterly now. Blah. I am the only one that has to count their own stuff (beer and liquor). I will need to find out when I am supposed to count everything by. I know vendors were told Thursday. So I will corner the store manager when I get there today. Or just text him if he’s already gone. I need to also reach out to the store owner with the swag details. And then there is the time I need to sit down and write the articles for the newsletter. That’s just the extra stuff.

Archie is asleep behind me on the love seat. Both pups like the new Rachael Ray canned dog food, thankfully. Archie will get up and eat (although I have to bring the bowl to him to sniff before he’ll get off the love seat). Stella stays in bed with Chris. Yesterday we had some serious storms run through. One of my customers had a lightening strike run through him.

On that electrifying note I need to get myself going out the door for work. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

These mornings are always the hardest. Only a few hours of sleep and back again to work. A lot got done yesterday. Still a lot to do.

Archie likes the new canned food. We are trying Rachel Ray’s. Mom likes it for her two pups. Funnily enough he left the kibble and only at the canned. He just went back to bed with Stella and Chris. I don’t blame him. It’s too early.

I have been busy reaching out to family and friends inviting them to Archie’s first birthday party. It won’t be much (since it is Mother’s Day this year). I figured get out of work an hour early so come home and take care of last minute things and have everyone over around 2pm for cupcakes and ice cream. We can sing happy birthday to Archie and whoever wants to stay and hang out can do so. So far everyone has said yes. So that’s…..9 people. I have one more person to ask. I need to do some sugar free stuff if everyone does show. I have some diabetics so I don’t want to cause issue there.I also need to make extra for Archie’s litter mates. His Nonna still has most of them and will be at the party so I can make a little care package for them.

I see by the clock I need to wrap this up. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

The walk yesterday went well, even with the idiot who had his dog off the leash that was running around chasing a ball. Even after he saw me with my two coming. I am just grateful that my pups listened to me. Why would you even think that was ok? Needless to say we just went around the loop once.

We stopped in at work for a bit so I could talk to the owner. He’s been very supportive and helpful with all my little endeavors. I have a phone call to make once I get settled in at work but then it is business as usual with ordering and stocking. I am going in a little early so I can talk with the owners sister. She is doing demos of her products, CBD oil based lotions etc, and I need to ask her to not only train us so we can help sell it but get better information out there for the customer. I think it will go well.

Stuff around the house got done last night. I had a time getting myself to do it. I just wanted to chill. But I did. So laundry is done, as are dishes and the floor is swept again. There is a lot that didn’t get done but I’m not gonna dwell on that.

I have invited people over to celebrate Archie’s first birthday next month. Not a lot of people but people I think that will care. I also want to make extra cupcakes for his siblings since it will be their birthday too. That also means I need to start cleaning a little more each time I do. That way most of it will be done and I am not panic/binge cleaning last minute. It’s a Sunday so everyone should be able to come. It’ll only be for an hour or so (it’s Mother’s Day as well) so if people need to leave they can. I might make Stella an unbirthday cupcake, Then she won’t feel left out.

I have a few things I need to knock out before work. So, I’d better get myself moving. On a high note all the snow disappeared as fast as it arrived. The temps warmed up enough (and the ground is warm enough) that it is all gone. It is still chilly though. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

It seems to be winter out. Bah humbug! Archie is asleep behind me. He won’t eat breakfast though. Chris picked up some new canned for them yesterday but we still have one more can to get through. I might take back some bottles and cans today to get some treats for the pups. They have been very good. I still plan to go on our walk once this is done. But we will be going to work after so I can talk to the store owner about the newsletter and my Brew Crew ideas. So I might as well take advantage of being there and take back some bottles and cans.

Yesterday went quite well actually. I got some writing done and had a several hour long conversation with my newsletter co-author. We hashed things around and decided that we would push for a May newsletter instead of April. For which I am grateful. I’d rather have a full month to do the next one (June) instead of crank one out for April and then a few days later put out a May one. I also talked to both my parents. I got a bit frustrating though. Dad kept trying to break into the call with Mom even after I sent him a text saying that I was talking with her and would Facetime when we were done. But I was able to talk to each of them for a few hours. Dad wants to chat again today. I don’t know if I am up to two days in a row. I am good with once a week because then I have something new to talk about. I don’t want to rehash yesterday’s conversation. We’ll see.

I need to water my plants again I see. I was just staring out the window and some of my plants are getting droopy. It makes me sad to see the snow. Everything was getting green. My grass seemed to get color overnight. The trees are budding big enough I can see them from across the road. Some even unfurling leaves. All my lilacs have big fat buds as well. So much green in now under white. Again, bah humbug.

I suppose I should go and wrap this up. I will need to quietly coax Stella out of bed to go for our walk. And she’ll have to have her hoodie on. It is damn cold out there. But I want to keep our one day a week walk going. It will be more as things warm up but once a week gets the three of us out. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

This morning has both the pups out here with me. The temperature has dropped significantly. We were in the 80s seemingly all week and now we are barely above freezing, And it’s snowing. On the positive side everything is turning green. That lovely rich new Spring green. Things are trying to warm up though. It will be a rain/snow mix for a few hours before it turns to rain (which we need). But I have to day off to hunker in. I have several writing projects that I need to do.

Before I forget, I wanted to tell you about the weird and wild experience at the mall with the Girls Saturday. We went there ostensibly for the bookstore and coffee. But we meandered out into the wilds and they took me to a rock shop that was in the store. This was a mall I had never been to. I didn’t even know this store existed. But I did. I dreamed about this very store several weeks ago. It was one of my shopping for rocks dreams. (I don’t know why but every once in a while, I have these dreams where I find these amazing rock shops and check my money balance before going in to look around and potentially make a purchase. These dreams seem to alternate between bookstores and rock shops.) I knew this store! I had been here! I had shopped here! The Girls saw that I had paused on the threshold and asked what was wrong. I explained and they both smiled as they gently escorted me in. I left with several treasures. A few of which I purchased in my dream now that I think about it.

Ouch. This might a short post. I managed to hyper-extend my two middle fingers backward on my left hand. This typing hurts and my fingers are beginning to swell. I hurried up and pulled my wedding band off. I could feel it getting too tight.

One more thing though… If any of you like Agatha Christie I picked up a novel Saturday that is about her disappearance. It is told in the first person and looks really good. I’ve not started it yet. I will let you know what I think as I go. (For those of you that don’t know, Agatha Christie disappeared for about 17 days. They found her car abandoned with her purse and coat in it. There was a country wide search (this was in England) and nothing. When she was found she was in a posh spa/hotel under an assumed name. No explanation was ever given. It is one of the great mysteries.)

Ok, this really hurts so I am going to wrap this up. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

Well the conference was a bust. None of us were comfortable there. Something just felt off. But we were determined to try. Until we tried to go into our first session and it was standing room only. The three of us looked at each other and just headed for the door. I am upset because of the money I spent on my ticket but I also know that I would’ve been miserable had we stayed.

Instead we spent the day making memories. We had an amazing time! We spent a lot of road time, thanks to Tom Tom (like Google Maps and just as bad it seems), laughing our heads off making crude references about things we saw along the way as well as our puns and singing to the radio. We drove through farm land for atleast an hour only to find that it put us back on the expressway we could just got right on from the point we started. I am not sure how the route gets chosen on these things. Random pulls out of a hat us my best guess since sometimes it does get you where you need yo be in record time.

Regardless we had a blast walking around sharing stories and wandering bookstores and rock shops… I will tell you a strange tale about the rock shop tomorrow. The clock says it’s time to go to work. Thanks for reading and stay safe!