A Christmas Story

I am not a big fan of Christmas trees. I have been looking for some years now for a ceramic tree but had not found one I liked that I wanted to pay for. Yesterday, at one of the thrift shops, I found this little tree that is about 8 inches tall with a light in the base. It was very affordable at only $3. The only thing is, several of the little colored bulbs were missing. These are not actually light bulbs, but just colored globes. I do not think you can buy replacements. However, there were two more trees sitting beside this one that were not as nice but also priced at $3. Several bulbs were missing from each of these trees. I took some of the bulbs off one of the other trees and put in this one to make it full and went up to pay for it. The really nice lady was wrapping it up for me when she noticed that one bulb was missing. She started looking all over for the missing bulb, with me telling her not to worry. It is alright. As I paid the $3, she said if I would leave my number, if she found the missing bulb lying on the floor or something, she would call me. I did not leave my number. Merry Christmas Tree.

You heard it here first

Watch out world! If you live up this way, better be on the look out for UFO's. The baby boy turned 15 last week, and now he has a driving learners permit. I just can't believe it.

And news from the financial world. I was planing on venturing out early next Friday morning and brave the rush at Wally World. They have a great deal on an HP laptop, but it is one of those door busters that you have to go in early (before 5 am) and get in line for. But, I guess not now, unless someone wants to loan me the $500. My credit card has been canceled. Yesterday, I got a call from the card company saying 29 cents had been charged to my credit card, did I buy something for 29 cents? Well, no. I might charge $500 but I think I can pay cash for 29 cent items. So, someone must have gotten my card number someway, and they canceled my card. I will get another one, but probably not by next Friday. I couldn't understand why they tried to charge 29 cents, but Lisa tells me that sometimes her cards get that when she is making online purchases. It is the store's way of testing the card to see if it was good. Well, it was good, but it is not now. At one time I had several credit cards, but now we only have two, so I guess someone did me a real favor and saved me $500 with a 29 cent charge. Cause, you know, when they tell you buy this and save $$$, they are lying. Really when you buy you spend.

Unless you are husband. He told me this evening that he went to town today and did not spend a cent. So, I asked why he went to town, as usually the reason is he needs to buy something. He said he got dog food. I asked if he stole the dog food since he did not buy it. He said no, he got it at Evans feed store. This local feed store is still like it was when we were kids. You go in, get something, and say put it on my bill. Or, you can call and tell them to set it out on the dock and you will be in after they close to pick it up. And, they have never, ever, ever sent us a bill. Which is a problem when you only charge things once in a blue moon. Sometimes we forget we owe a bill there. I think we went 6 months once owning them $20 or so for corn because we had forgotten we had bought anything. Still, we did not get a bill. Eventually, we went in and charged something else. When we went to pay for something else, the corn was on there also. That is what you get when you live in the sticks.

So, George charged the dog food, which he says means he did not spend any money and he did not buy anything. New math.

And Sister up the road has the crime beat. Today as I talked with her on the phone, she told me a relative of her husband had died. I said I did not know that, but I had read in the paper a month or so ago about this relatives son dying. She said, no he did not die. I said, I read it in the paper. Sister said this cousin's son was in a little trouble with the law concerning a self-authorized prescription for pain meds. It had been some time since his run in with the law and he had not heard what they had planned for him. He came up with a plan. He called the newspaper and placed an obituary for himself. I am guessing he give them a name other than his own as the caller. When his self-authorized obituary ran in the paper, his aunt that lived only a few houses from him (not Sister), called the law to inquire what had happened to her nephew. They did not know. She told them it was in the paper that he died. I am thinking the moral of this story is, if you are going to pretend to die, you might want to let close relatives in on the secret.

Remember, you read it here first.

Blue Sky in the evening

I guess I will not be posting any more after today. Patsy says we are all supposed to stop.

At work, I always say if I am told to do something, I may of may not actually get it done. But, when they tell me to stop, I immediately comply. In fact, many times, at work, I stop doing things that no one has told me to stop doing. If I am doing things that do not appear useful to me, sometimes, I just quit doing whatever it is and see if anyone notices. After working where I work for 22 years, I usually know what has to be done and what can be left undone.

I have worked with many people over the years that do just the opposite to the above. Once told to do something, they continue on over years and years long after the usefulness of the action has disappeared. And, these same individuals, when told to stop doing something they have been doing, will continue on with the task over years and years.

When we got our last plant manager several years ago now, I remember him asking me why I sent out a certain report. I have forgotten what the exact report was now, but I said because someone had in the past asked me to do this. He said, why not quit sending it and see if anyone notices. So, that is what I did. Several weeks later he asked me about this same report. I told him I did not do that report any more. He asked why not. I said because you said to quit sending it and see if anyone noticed. He noticed. I had to start sending that report again.

So that is my stop story, Patsy.

When I had my evaluation a couple of weeks ago at work, I gave my boss a list of the things I do and told her that it was not possible to do all these things in a 40 hour week by myself, and if I took a day or days off, every thing on the list was just left till I came back. Every week, I ran out of work week long before I run our to work. She has now assigned out many of the things on the list to her managers. But the complaint thingy that I hated and that takes most of my time is still on my list. Now, I have to be careful and make sure that I do not run out of work before I run out of work week. That is not really very difficult when no one knows what I do anyway. I do not intend to have any of those things come back to my list.