Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Well, here it is, 3:55 p.m., and this day is one I got started wrong. I left my phone, papers I had set out to bring, and some medical receipts I needed to turn in, and when my office phone rang, and I saw it was Butch's Cell phone number, I realized what I had done. We are really lost without that cell phone that connects us to the rest of the world. I wanted to call my daughter and ask how the babies are, since the little one was sick, but can't make that call on the work phone. I ended up working very hard today, because I won't be at my desk tomorrow. I will be working at a co-secretary's desk because her desk is in the main building, and there are certain parts of her job that have to be done in a timely manner. I call us 'Secretaries-in-law', and she is responsible for filling off duty jobs with police officers, and scheduling funeral escorts, and it gets hectic. Especially now when people, who have had all year by the way, want a police officer or two or three to work to control the crowd at a restaurant or a hotel for the New Year's Eve celebration. You know, if I had a restaurant, I don't believe I would wait until the 30th of December, and then call both secretaries in a frenzy because you want someone, and then get ill because it may not be possible. I believe I would figure that New Year's Day is always a year apart, and for a restaurant who has been in business here for the past two years to wait and expect miracles is ludicrous. At this time of year, police officers are A) already working a shift, B) already scheduled for off duty jobs or C) off with their families because the put in for it months ago. 9 times out of 10, the officer WANTS to work all the off duty he can due to Christmas bills. So, asking for one last minute is ignorant. Treating the secretary like she personally engineered it so the officers wouldn't want to work is ignorant. I have told people in the past, "ok, wait, let me get this straight! You are asking me to help you and you are talking to me HOW?" Really, the secretary or the administrative assistant is the one who really knows what is going on in the office. And if we have trouble filling an off duty job, it's because there is no one who WANTS to work it. Or at least wants to bad enough to cancel plans. In the case of the current, very upscale restaurant, it is because the management has had officers scheduled, and then called them the afternoon of the work day, and cancelled, and done this repeatedly, and some of the officers have quit because they can't count on that job, in favor of one that doesn't get cancelled. So, then, they call last minute because none of the ones who have worked for them care to do it. Like Bugs Bunny said, "What a maroon!" These morons don't have a clue, or don't care. There, got it off my chest! And it is because I have to work in her place tomorrow, and I am not looking forward to dealing with idiots. Maybe I should put my sign up, "I will suffer no fool gladly this day!" It used to work. Maybe because most people weren't real sure about what it meant! Then this 'getting to be old fogey' will maybe pick up take out, or not, and go home and start getting the stuff out of the building and seeing what is destroyed. I don't even want to look at Sarah, Andrew, and Carlie's things that have been stored out there, or the Junior Edition books that I saved for when Sarah had kids, and our camping,and all the other things that have probably been ruined. The one good thing is that the insurance company is renting us a POD for a month to get our stuff in and determine what is ruined and what is salvagible(is that even a word?). So, hard work and long hours this weekend. Yuck. Maybe some good with all the bad. We might get things organized that we have needed to do for years. We'll see.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Well, today I had to be here very early (I got here before 7:00 a.m., because it is the last pay period of the year, so Payroll had to close out their books)to do timecards. I woke up at 6:05 a.m., and thought thru my sleepy eyes that it said 5:05 a.m., and started to go back to sleep, then looked again, and jumped straight up. I had to rush and get ready without coffee or newspaper, and wake up Butch to tell him I was leaving, move his truck, scrape ice off the windows, and drive to work and make it before 7:00 a.m. I did it, and had a Slim-Fast at my desk along with coffee I brewed at work, so I did ok. Got all my timecards done and across the street with no problem, even though I did have to call one of the officers at home and ask where his was. The answer was 'in my hand' and he was on the way to give it to me. So, now, I am doing busy work, and trying to get end of year paperwork done, and just taking a break to do this. Insurance adjuster couldn't come out today to check the damage to our roof, so I hope it doesn't rain again before he can come out. At least we have a tarp over the roof, and it is tied down pretty good. The poor neighbor didn't know it had happened until Butch went over to talk to him. He has just (within about the last few months) finished a new wooden fence, which was crushed along with our chain-link fence in addition to the roof. All done by a dead tree which should have been removed before the fence was put up. Oh well, just things. It could've easily been another tree and into our bedroom instead of the shed. Right now I'm listening to Edith Piaf, France's 'little sparrow', on the Playa Cofi music site that plays in the background on the computer. I choose only instrumentals while I am doing time cards, then when I'm done, switch to something else, 1965-69, 1970-75, etc., or different genres of music, and have the police radio going in the background, a candle burning, and there is no one here today except a Lt. who is working on stuff in his office. He and I are the only people in the whole building. Nice. Get to get stuff done. Lunch break almost over now, so I will get back to paper pushing.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Well, at the suggestion of two friends and my daughter, I will write in this journal, and pour my words and my feelings into the posting. I sit here watching the last CBS Sunday Morning of 2008, telling who has died this year, and the list is very long of the people that we remember for whatever reason. Some for good reasons, some for bad, all interesting. Right now, Charleton Heston, and Earl Hagan who wrote the theme for 'The Andy Griffith Show' that everyone learned to whistle, Harvey Korman and Dick Martin. I sit here in my chair, with my robe and slippers on against the chill, wheezing with asthma that has come back after not having had it for several years, wishing I could breathe, and wondering if any of the medicines that I have for sinus and breathing problems will work any better than they did yesterday. Yesterday, when taking the dog out, my husband, Butch, discovered that the Christmas Eve storm we had took off part of the roof of our storage building in the back yard. The same storage building that had tools, stored books for my granddaughters, Violet and Cara, Holly Hobbie collectibles including an old kitchen set, and sewing material. The same storage building that was built 15 years ago, so it has 15 years of accumulated bargains bought at yard sales, estate sales, flea markets, antique stores and auctions. The same storage building that housed things that I have said for years we need to sell due to their value to someone else, and lack of value to us sitting in a storage building. Therefore, the fact that the roof was torn off of the storage building, and undoubtedly all of the contents ruined to some extent, seems to be vindication to my idea that we sell rather than sit on the contents. Contents that include the bed that we were going to put together with drawers to make an IKEA-type platform bed, and the shelves that were supposed to go down the hallway. Papers, sewing materials, and clothing, tents and camping supplies, boxes of toys and things from past years and for future play. The dead tree from the neighbor who just finished his wood fence came crashing down sometime while we were in Birmingham seeing Butch's grandmother, MawMaw, who is in Princeton Hospital with a gangrenous infection in her leg which will not heal. She is in her mid-80's and has been there since December 6, 22 days, and on the third different antibiotic, and the doctor not sure why it won't heal. She did recognize Butch when we got there, but has a memory span of 45 seconds to a minute, and must have asked 10 times in the time we were there who 'Sue' was feeding across the hall. Sue is her younger sister, and the lady feeding her husband across the hall was not Sue. MawMaw had just been given her lunch of turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings, with jello and fruit for dessert. She ate about 2 bites of jello, and nothing else, and Butch tried to get her to eat. She said she wasn't hungry, and he suggested that she drink the Ensure that was given to her, and she said she didn't want it. She had a whole stack of Ensure that had accumulated and was placed on the sink ledge. Butch was concerned and talked to the nurse when she came, and she was very concerned. A nurse came in and told MawMaw it was time for her breathing treatment, and put her on a nebulizer, and at least 3 times she took off the mask and asked about it, and Butch had to help her put it back on. It is bad that she will be undoubtedly going to a nursing home for good. That it something that I said I would never let happen. 'Time and unforseen occurrance' have taken the option of keeping her at our house away from me. With Butch's back injury, and the fact that he can't do very much at all, and couldn't possibly pick up MawMaw in any circumstance, along with my fibromyalgia have made that impossible Anyway, I digress. We had stayed overnight at Butch's mother and dad's place in Vance so that we could visit with MawMaw, and be with his parents, too. So, we were away when the tree came crashing down. We spent the time we were going to use to organize on Saturday morning to get Juan and his uncle from next door to put a 100' tarp on the roof after making the calls to the insurance company, and taking photos. Blah, puey! So, today, if I feel like it, I have a lot of work to do, and the work is just beginning for the cleanup of the building. And, I can't take off work until after the 1st of the year, and the first week, I have classes, meetings, and doctor's approintments. So, busy, busy, busy. More later.