Another Unwanted Adventure

This morning I got up and wandered about lazily just like I do every Saturday until I feel like starting my chores.  It's nice not to have to just jolt out of bed, run around the house like some crazy thing and immediately go to work.

Then I smelled a burning plastic smell. This is pretty unusual...as in I've never smelled that inside the house before.  So I lurk around our bedroom where the smell is stronger, touch the walls, feel the outlet where the air conditioner is running...mildly warm...air conditioner cords are usually mildly warm, just like vacuum cleaner cords. I go into the rabbit room...and...there/s smoke...and the smell is atrocious.

Jon and I think its the ceiling fan, so we immediately cut the power to it.  I go outside to get the bunny box so he can be evacuated into not noxious fumes...and there is still oodles of smoke. Jon notices an outlet is glowing red...the outlets in that room are not used because bunnies like to eat cords and pulls the main switch.

Neither of us really know what to do, we just sit in the house, windows open, with the power off and kind of stare at each other.  What if we'd gone somewhere? What if we'd been at work?  We'd have come home to no house and crispy or missing critters.

Jon finally called his dad who got him his Uncle Wally's phone number. Wally, blessedly, is a semi-retired electrician.  We had let the outlet cool, took it apart, and phoned him to tell him what we found. He didn't like the sound of it so he drove an hour to our house to take a peek.

Wally inspected things, trimmed some wired, and wired it all back up, thinking that because we have old style metal boxes in the wall (original in 1949) one of the wires on the outlet was arcing and just got really hot against the box and started the fire.

Of course we don't have a breaker box; we have an old style fuse box with 15 amp fuses in it...which is actually the correct size fuse. The mystery here is why didn't the fuse pop?  We asked Wally and he said he hates old school fuses for this reason, most of the time the do pop...and then, there's times like this where they just don't.  So of course we asked him how much it would cost to install a breaker box...he said around $400...but that it would be awhile. He works for people part time because of the government being all worried about him working full time and being retired....our government is just dumb..so he said probably October he could swing it.

He suggested we tear apart ALL the outlets, make sure the connections were secure, and that there was electrical tape insulating the outside of the outlet OVER the connections just so it couldn't possibly arc to the metal wall boxes.  I didn't think we had 20 outlets in the house, but guess what, we do.  Went over every single one...two people...four hours...but we had quite a scare.

Why Can't a Girl Catch a Break?

I came home yesterday and let my dogs out. Then answer the knock at my door and its my neighbors telling me they caught my dog--he'd escaped due to the power company cutting limbs and--they'd pushed in my gate, which is always locked to prevent-- anyone who just walks by-- from letting my dogs loose on a whim.  He then helped me push the gate back to its proper position. I thanked him and was pretty upset.  I mean, really, I left the gate locked, its NEVER unlocked...even the meter reader knocks at a locked gate and won't enter your yard if you aren't home to admit him.  If the power company had bothered; either by phone call or letter, to inform me that they were going to trim power lines in my yard and an estimated time, I would have left the gate unlocked for them. However; I got no such warning. 

Apparently city power company workers are less concerned about getting shot than their country counterparts.  My countrified power company in Ohio warned folks so they wouldn't be caught unawares...and, I would assume, for the safety of their workers they wouldn't want folks to be caught unawares. 

Also, if a gate is shut, shut the damn gate!  Ever want to piss off a farmer, a horse owner, ect, leave a gate open.  Common courtesy, open the gate, shut the gate so animals won't escape and cause a larger problem either for the property owner or for someone  such as passing motorists. Cows and horses are not big respecters of cars. 

I'm just glad both my dogs are safe and didn't get hit by cars as I am super close to a busy freeway.

Lesson learned.  Gate will now be chained as well as locked. Fuck you, DTE. Notify me. I will comply. I'm a fan of electricity and tree trimming is often necessary.  Want to enter my yard without notification?  Go ahead, jump the fence with a chainsaw, see if I care.  Cut through the fence, I press charges.

I noticed my other neighbors who always, always, ALWAYS left their gate unlocked...now are sporting a gate chain.  I wonder if their dogs also escaped.
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Super busy at work yesterday. Not even funny.

Here is the listing of deliveries:

9 softener salt pallets...unload time, 30 minutes, paper work time, 10.

"Partial" DC...meaning a full truck minus 4 pallets that were dropped off at some other store. Unload time one hour...paperwork...45 minutes...and I had help from Crystal or it would have been much longer for just the paperwork.

Tarter Gate. They merrily left me about 30 gates and other things that have yet to be socked away correctly as I haven't had the time and it is labor intensive, hot work, in the sun, and its way too hot to be doing this lately. 90 plus all week.  Unload time: 45 minutes because its all wonky and complex. Paperwork, about the same since they pack the gates with bar codes facing wrong directions for the RF guns sometimes just to be obnoxious.

Bird seed...9 pallets. Unload time, one hour due to rotation of old bird seed to the front and new to the back. Paperwork, ten minutes.

UPS.

Fed Ex.

Recycled Pallet truck guy:  I was able to pawn this off on Jason as I was too damn busy and he didn't mind doing it.  Was trying to get Crystal to do it since, its empty, stacked pallets and what the hell can she break? Nothing.  But she was too scared.

Checking in of UPS, Fed Ex, POs from the truck....at least an hour.

Helping Crystal finish sorting totes (she was totally off her game because her room mate was threatening to "do things" to her cat or some shit., she moved back in with her mom after work yesterday.)  30 minutes.

Sorting pallets with Crystal....an hour and a half, possibly?

Lunch; half an hour. It was socked in there somewhere, don't remember where...everything was so frantic all damn day.

 Finding most of the rain checks, calling those people, (I feel like this is always endless and it eats up time like nothing else.) No one ever answers their phones so it rings and rings and rings and goes to voice mail. Those same people later come in to bitch that "No one called."  I've decided they just don't know how to listen to their voice mail.  Answering their phones would prevent that.  I'm not calling more than once. 

End of day paperwork and I ran out the door ready to just hibernate.

In reality I came home, let the dogs out for a potty break, was notified Doggles was loose, dealt with that, and then went to pick Jon up from his job...and came back home, showered, and farted around on the web, then eventually went to sleep...to wake up at 4 am to go back to the old hell hole.

There is still freight in the backroom.  All the computers went down and we had to write down everything, do the math and tax...and it takes forever. Freight stopped for about two hours.  We were chugging along until the store had to open.  It broke our momentum and we never recovered, and we were two people down for two hours and then one person down for the other 6.

I'm glad its a three day weekend...except, on Tuesday, I'll have double the work as I will have to do Monday's work as well....

Mystery Rash

Last Sunday we had a store meeting. It was lamer than lame and mostly served to remind me that I'd had much more fun at other store meetings. Namely, at Howell with the Dread Pirate Roberts, Jason, Ruth, Ashley, Ray...there was lots of sniggering...poking, inappropriate comments and laughing.  I'd had better boring store meetings even at New Hudson, in particular the one where Pam used a counting device to discover that the Spurminator said MMMMkay...over 200 times during the meeting...there was lots of snickering and laughter then, too.  All in all, it was a dreadful waste of time and I'm not sure why we even had a meeting. 

My biggest adventure this week has been Mystery Rash.  Stupid, itchy bumps that appear, disappear and reappear and spread...and when scratched with much bliss...(there is actually nothing as pleasant as scratching an itch) become larger and more itchy (of course).   There is rash on my scalp, under my arms, on my sides, my back, in between my fingers, the only actual place where I haven't discovered a rash this week is on the stinky bits.  Even the palms of my hands!

I haven't used any different detergent, soap, lotion, nothing.

I, as far as I know, haven't been exposed to anything containing penicillin (which when I had strep throat was given as the antidote and made me have horrible itchy spreading hives...and so I learned I am allergic to penicillin). But this does act like the penicillin itch.   

The last antibiotic the cat was on was tetracycline, so its not that.  She was on a form of penicillin two months or so ago but I exhibited no symptoms while administering that to her, but I was very careful to not touch it or if I couldn't avoid it due to beastly cat, I was very careful to immediately wash my hand or whatever had gotten exposed.

The only thing I did different was eat hot dogs.  I usually don't eat them, but as we had been given a vast amount of hot dogs and had had a BBQ last weekend, I ate them.  With GOBS of mustard to help hide the flavor.

I suppose I could have a hot dog allergy...or more, realistically, a preservative allergy.

My cousin also suggests I could have somehow come in contact with penicillin mold.  Possible. Weird, but possible. Who knows what I come into contact with on a daily basis at work, really.  I am always dirty, sweaty and in contact with numerous dirty things like lawn mower batteries, tires, feed sacks (including sometimes ones that have mold, though I wouldn't think it would be penicillin mold), lime, and various unidentifiable yucks on the insides of semi trailers.

Mystery Rash sucks.

That is unchallengable.

Mystery Rash is also miserable while sweating heavily and it is hot out.

It is miserable when not sweating. 

GO AWAY, Mystery Rash!

Another Week in the Life

My first week at work after being on vacation for two weeks was, as expected, rough.  It took hours on Monday just to figure out what was even happening with the paperwork.  It was all so confused.  My "replacement" had not been trained whatsoever so I can't be angry with her as she called me several times to ask questions.  I am, however, disappointed with my supposed superiors in not considering that she hadn't the faintest idea what to do and had scheduled her with no one who had the knowledge she was lacking.

Jon has been battling depression. I can understand why.  It's just difficult to deal with.  He was supposed to have a guy from work come over today and help him drop his oil pan so he can clean the sludge out of it and put in a new oil pan and rear main seal but, of course, the guy flaked out on him without even so much as a phone call.  So he's bought all the parts and we moved (pushed) cars around in the driveway (lucky for him I have lots of experience manually pushing around a ton or more of feed pallets) because it came in handy today, being strong like bull.  He's now gone off to somewhere to get a manual...I think...with the cash he was supposed to have paid the guy who flaked out on us.  So he hasn't actually gotten started yet.

Tomorrow I have a store meeting (just the place I want to go on a day off) but only have to be there for an hour.  I traded hours with Crystal so I wouldn't have to work alllll day on a weekend.  I usually don't work weekends...and if I miss a weekday I end up so far behind I can't dig my way out.  Plus I won't have to deal with phones, customers or moving things...I can just sit there and listen to the manager say "BLAH BLAH BLAH..."  This manager doesn't say "mmmkay?" all the time, and I've never been to one of his meetings so we shall see how it goes.

We had a very short notice barbeque last night.  It was okay with a very small turnout. But was still fun. Levon pretty much did all the work and bought all the things. But, he was on vacation this week and wanted to have a barbeque, so we did.   So its our turn next time to buy all the things.  Levon, I think is...a month or more sober.  Good for him.  I'm proud of him, really.  He'd stopped drinking in the heat and found himself passing out at work from the DTs.  Yep. That bad.  So bad he even went to a doctor to get help detoxing.  He's stuck to it.  He's not even all weird about people drinking in front of him.  He says its just something he's going to have to learn to tolerate so just go on ahead and drink.

Dave showed up for a short time and was his usual, nice, quiet self.  He said his work had been talking of promoting him to assistant manager...but he hates his job so I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

I have been  reading and reading and reading.  Although today I did do laundry, and the usual lame household chore type stuff...like wiping the dog spittle off the insides of the windows. I really really wish Emma would stop foaming at the mouth every time a mail man or some random person walks by the house. It's actually pretty damn gross because dog spittle is slimy and I have to wet the slime to wash the windows, reanimating the slime.....and smearing it around with lots of dish soap before it comes clean.

I don't remember a summer with as much nice, comfortable weather as this one or as much rain when needed. My grass is still green and not brown, crunchy, and just plain dust like last year. Weird.  Even in other less dry summers the grass still seemed to turn brown.

I am not looking forward to receiving in winter, however.  The cold and the snow really really suck when riding a forklift.  I learned enough about that this spring to dread it.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Started reading the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe and was surprised I'd forgotten I'd read the book.

How weird is that? 

Once I saw the page layout and began reading, I remembered having read it one summer while at my Grandma's trailer; possibly while I was still in high school, or even junior high. 

What I'd love to be able to remember was how my Grandma came across it.  She didn't go to the library and she didn't read much other than her sewing/crocheting books, Reader's Digest, and the local newspaper.  I'm wondering if one of her friends had given it to her or allowed her to borrow it.  I really don't know. I only vaguely even remember reading the book back then.

Of course, I would have read it at the very least 17 years ago...and I'm thinking I could have read it as long ago as 20 years ago. I was a wholly different person back then and it seems like a lifetime ago...and while I am getting older...its still a few years shy of double my own life span thus far.

Memory is a funny thing.

I can remember, with clarity, reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells at the age of 9 (abridged, children's version) but I can't remember clearly reading Fried Green Tomatoes. I vaguely recall the where...and the general age...but I just had no clear memory of reading it.

 I guess I'd better get used to flaky memory...I'm definitely not getting any younger.

Vacation

Had a nice visit with the folks.  Quite nice waking up in my old bedroom (changed though it is)  when I felt like it (or the sun or the dogs woke me instead of an alarm clock). 

We didn't do too much, being fairly broke.  Bought some wine, some cheese and some food.

Jon cooked a few meals for my parents and everyone seemed to have a good time. 

Dad seemed to like having company for a change. He spends too much of his time on his own, I think, while Mom is at work ten hours a day.  I am glad he has kitty friends and our old pal Bean.  We went a few places with  him, an antique store, small things like that.  Our favorite Antique Mall has since gone out of business...sadly, the place was huge and had so many things to see.

I took my Kindle along and read a couple books and began reading Wuthering Heights.  While reading it, I keep thinking, wow, it must be nice to be just at home and somehow taken care of all the time.  Apparently this makes you more likely to become mad but better a raving lunatic at home with loads of money....but I guess being at home with all your meals, cleaning and laundry taken care of leaves an excess of time for obsession.  Perhaps that is why teenagers act so abominably...well, other than the hormones...

Jon took his PS3 along, and the tv (yep he did) because he really just wanted to loaf about and play video games all week. The PS3 broke two days in....and once we got back he researched it on the internet (my parents don't have internet)  and found it is the red light of death or some such which just means a thing came loose inside it so it won't work.  So it needs fixing....of course Sony will fix it for $150 and will return you a PS3 (not the one you sent in at all, not even the same STYLE PS3)...so he doesn't like the sound of it because he's taken really good care of his.  Other option is to pay $75 at a game shop (Sony doesn't approve of this at all and will refuse to work on PS3's that are not opened by them, of course) but then you will have your original  system. So I think Jon will do that eventually.  There are more pressing matters currently.

The Jeep title did finally come...the tags are now expired, and the dealership OVERNIGHTED the title to our house...it cost them $20 to do this...so it makes me think they totally fucked up.  So we have to retitle and plate it and fix it still, of course.

I woke up to a staple gun this morning. The neighbors behind us seem to be having a garage or shed reshingled. Kind of annoying.  The only annoying noise at my parent's house while sleeping with windows open was a few really vocal birds that seem to have lodged near the bedroom window.

Moose kitty is so happy to see me she's barely left my side.  I missed her, too.

I got to become more acquainted with my parent's kitties than previously as dad had locked them up in the basement so the dogs wouldn't chase them.  The Spooky kitty acts loads like Moose. I like him, he's temperamental, loving and kind of vain about his fluffy hair.  Slick, now, he's huge, loveable and less vain, but just as nice a cat.

Bean is doing worse and worse, of course, as old dogs rarely get more well.  His will is strong.  He wanted to walk and walk and do all kinds of things his body didn't want to allow.  We had to physically restrain him from following my dogs on their rather longer route as he just couldn't do it.  His front end is starting to stumble now...as before it was only his back end.  Poor old friend.  I don't know what my parents will do without him.  He is going to leave an enormous hole.  They are so patient with him. Taking him for walks takes nearly an hour even though they merely walk him around the woods behind our house.  He stops, pants hard and lies down.  But, every morning, without fail,  he WANTS to go. 

Sometimes, I think I could just go back home and never return here.  But my parents do get on my nerves after a bit, just as they always did no matter how I love them.  That's a fairytale anyway, I'm not independently wealthy, damn it.

This week I am off, just hanging about. Doing whatever. Jon is at work so I have no car, not that I'd go any place but Ruth's any way, and I've invited her here.

I wish I didn't have to go back to work next week as I'm sure it will be a wreck.