Axed Again

I haven't done an update on my broken 5th metatarsal in a while. I went to see my doctor towards the end of March, and he took a look and declared me mostly healed and said I didn't need to come back, unless I had a complication. At the previous appointment, he'd said I could go from the boot to a “hard sole shoe”, which isn't really a hard sole shoe, but a low-top version of the boot. He can get me one, for about $35, or I can get one myself for probably around $20-$25, so that's what I did. I've been going around with that for the most part. I asked the doctor about if I should keep using it, and he said it's up to me, some people are just done with it, others wean themselves slowly. I'm still feeling some movement, and a clicking feel, without it, so I've been sticking with it, and probably will for some time still.

Anyway, long story longer, I'm finally able to drive again, so the week before last I go in for my 2 days, and then again this week. I'm not crazy about it, my start time is 6 AM, and with going in I have to get up around 4 to shave, shower, get dressed, and drive in. Makes for a long day.

Yesterday in the morning part of my day, my supervisor (I've had a lot of supervisors in my time there, and I think he's been one of my favorite ones) asks me to join him in his zoom room. He lets me know they are letting me go. They are giving me, what is to me, an amazingly unprecedented severance package.

When I was interviewing with them, after hearing some about the company, I told the interviewer I could see retiring from there, and I would have liked to. Apparently it wasn't in the cards. Oh well, I had a good run there, and as I said after I started there, it's the best company I've ever worked for.

I had made mention previously that axing day had traditionally been on Thursdays, but they had gotten away from that for a while. Coincidentally, it was also a Thursday the last time I had been axed as well. We are parting ways on much better terms than I was with the previous employer!!! Almost made it a full 19 years.

There's a song lyric I know that I've heard, something along the lines of “Wonder what I'm going to do with all this free time”. Haven't been able to figure out what song it's from (if I ever figure it out, I'll post in the comments most likely). I have a bunch of thing swirling in my head that I can do. My wife suggested yesterday that we could go on a cruise. That sounds good. I've been working fairly non stop since 1987. Since they are taking such good care of me, I'm thinking I'll take something of a sabbatical from working for a while!!!

Good times!!!

Kutcher Swallows a Water Heater

Welcome to the season of blogging very much!!!

On Monday afternoon my wife was doing the dishes, and she says, “Why isn't the water warming up??” Huh. I've heard this kind of thing before...

Down to the basement I go, and sure enough, it's wet on the floor around the water heater. Not a lot, I've seen worse, but bad enough to put out the pilot light. I tried re firing it, and it came on for a moment, but wouldn't stay going. Back upstairs, I dig through my warranty file, thinking it was a while ago, but not that long. Thought I had a 10 year warranty, but that was wishful thinking, it was only 6. Now, when did I buy it??? Here's where there's a practical application for blogging!!!

When I first did the math in my head, I'd thought it was just about 7 months out of warranty, but it's actually 2 years and 7 months. Shopped around that night and ordered the same brand, but with a 12 year warranty. Not making that mistake again!!! Or rather, I'm paying the extra $300 to get one with twice the warranty. I'd also broke loose the water inlet and outlet pipes, and ran a hose out to the street and started it draining.

I don't think I've made mention recently, but I'm back on the weekend shift for a little more than a year now. When I'd started doing this shift, it was 4 hours on Saturdays, and Tuesday through Friday for 9 hours a day. Once again, they bump your pay some for doing the weekend shift, but in my current role, it's a good amount more than when I was filling. Found out after I'd started, when the company has a paid holiday and it falls on a day you have as your day off... they give you your day off. No extra, no you get to take a different day off. I voiced my view on it and was told, “Oh, it all evens out!” SO, for Memorial Day, Labor Day, and both Christmas and New Years I got boned. When the time came around this year, I had a couple of requests. First, can I get a different day off, either Tuesday or Wednesday, and is it possible to start my Saturday shift later. I had been starting on Saturday afternoons at 3:00, and it put a time crimp in the afternoons sometimes, I asked to start later, up to 6:00 PM, and they came through with starting at 5:00, and so far (2 weekends thus far) I've liked it fine. And, long story short, now I have Tuesdays off!!!

The younger and I got in the wife's Matrix and headed over to pick up the new water heater. Took a bunch of rope, being unsure how it would fit. Slid the front seats all the way forward, and it slid right in , and the hatch closed without issue!!! If Scruffy can do it, then so can the Kutch!!! (None of us ever call it Kutcher, it's always the Toyota or the Matrix) Will It Fit: Matrix Edition part II!!! Driving back was a challenge, though, I was so far forward I couldn't really move my right foot over to the brake, so I was 2-footing it!!!

The younger and I were able to move it around fairly easily, the hardest part was the 4 steps from the street to the foot of the house. The box had instructions to cut along a dotted line around an inch up from the bottom, so that's what I did, and from there was able to roll it on the edge of the base pretty easy. The removal of the old one was easier this time, too, it seemed to have drained most every drop by having the hose attached to the drain all night. None of the fittings fought me, and about the hardest thing was locating a roll of Teflon pipe sealing tape!!! I know I had more that I'd bought from my work, but I found a roll that may have come with our house, so over 25 years old, but it worked just fine!!!

When I had gotten up on Tuesday (actually before I got out of bed) I had the thought that I should take the aerators off the kitchen and bathroom sinks, since having the water off gets a bunch of air in the lines, and it seems to knock a lot of crud loose when it comes back on. Didn't do it, and the bathroom one ended up nearly plugged. It didn't come off easy, but I flowed good once I got it off and cleaned out... but it kind of ovaled from the removal, and it seems like it's leaking down the inside now. Might be able to get it fixed up, but I'll probably be installing a new faucet soon.

Spooky Season

Happy slightly belated Halloween!!!

This year my younger wanted to get a deer skull mask for his costume. There are a few of them out there, but they aren't cheap. I looked around and found a goat skull one instead, with the thought that the horns could be modified into antlers, but he decided that goat was good enough.

I don't know if I've made mention, but I'm back on the weekend shift!!! Since mid-summer, I've been doing 9 hour days Tuesday through Friday, and then 4 hours on Saturday afternoons, 3 to 7, and I like it pretty good, but it can interfere with Saturday evening stuff.

Some friends of the family just recently bought a house, and it's actually fairly close to ours. It's a very cool old place, with lots of rooms. A couple months ago they threw a housewarming party... on a Saturday evening!!! The rest of the family had gone when it had started, and I showed up a few hours in, after I was off. The Saturday before Halloween, they threw a Halloween party, and once again, the rest of the family had gone when it had started, and I showed up a few hours in, after I was off.

When I showed up, they were doing a pumpkin decorating and carving contest. The boy and wife had done a pretty good black cat on one side, and a bear on the other. I arrived, and touched up the standing fur on the cat and zig-zagged the top. It was a good time. Oh, and of course, the only picture I got of the aforementioned goat mask, I'm wearing it!!!

On Halloween, the boy and I dressed up and wandered the neighborhood as we do. The chili house was open for a snack stop. The lady of the house asks, “You just got that cool yellow sports car, didn't you? What is it?” I get that a lot!!!

And, of course, no spooky season would be complete without the early November tradition!!!

Looking Back: The Christmas Party

I've got a big ole' backlog of things I could post about!!! I was planning on sitting down and posting about our actual Christmas, but scrolling back through the pictures, I came across some of these, and did a course correction!!! Maybe I'll get to that one eventually, but until then, here's what I've got!!!

Last year, the company had their 'Holiday Party' at one of my favorite buildings, the Westin Bonaventure!!! They had Christmas lights strung up around the tops of the cylinders, very festive!!!

It had been raining, the start of what has shaped up to be a very wet winter, and it was chilly outside.

Got to see a lot of my friends who are still in the warehouse, and a lot of the office crew. It's always nice to see the people I haven't seen in a while!!!

Of course, you can't go to the Bonaventure and not take the epic elevators for a spin!!! The ballroom floor, where the party was being held, doesn't have any elevator stops, so we had to go down a level to catch them.

In the name of security, these days you have to have a room key to get higher than the first few floors. As luck would have it, we caught a ride with someone who did!!! Took it all the way to the top, and got to see the lights up close!!!

On the way out, we went by a wall that had several of the movies that had been filmed there featured.

Good times!!!

8 Weeks

It's been a while since I've done any updates about work. The last time I'd mentioned anything, I was the only person doing sourcing for information for our CAD builds. That wasn't a lot different than what they do for photography for the catalog, so they added me to the photography & art direction team for doing that kind of thing, too!!! Towards the end of last year, they started discussing returning to the office. The plan was to have various teams come in for a few days each month on a rotating schedule. The only thing is, the rest of my team is located back east. I don't mind, I'll head back a few times a year!!! Instead of doing that, though, they decided to transfer me to a department that is represented locally. They trained me for a customer service position, dealing with e-mail and text contacts. Since the beginning of the year I trained in that department, and then was working doing that. April was my first rotation coming into the office for three days of the week. The second day, they called me in, and told me that they've been struggling in my old department, and asked if I could, on a temporary basis, come back and help out.

This is one of the first of my old friends that I saw when I came back. He's the one that I'd gone to see Brian Fallon with a few years back, and he wanted to get a selfie with me to send to his girlfriend, who occasionally asks after me!!!

The opinion of several of my co-workers was that I would probably be there longer than the time they had specified, the 8 weeks mentioned in the title. They took a couple of days an re antiquated me with the process and show me the changes. After that, I was able to get back into my old role fairly easy. I told my co-workers it was like getting back on the world's worst bicycle!!! All the old aches and pains came back to me, too!!! Since I wasn't working from home, I wasn't seeing the cat, and one day on break I spotted this shaggy fellow out in the quad, so I got a picture of it!!!

I don't know if I've ever made mention, but one of the break rooms features a cool curved glass block wall. It used to have a couch, but they took it out on account of the Wuhan. One day I went in and both the chairs were taken, and I asked if I was going to have to sit on the floor. One of the girls I work with said they would lay back with their legs up the wall, and it would give them a good stretch on your back and legs. That sounded good, so I tried it, and after that, almost every day I'd do that on my afternoon break!!!

Of course, I was finally getting my steps in every day, so I would get my Pokemon GO buddy out. One day, I tried getting my buddy out while reclined against the glass block wall, and this is what a mamoswine looks like from underneath!!!

And the same mamoswine down one of the asiles.

The second week I had a vacation scheduled, which I have yet to post anything about. My wife is having another surgery this coming week, so I recently asked how they were doing on getting things staffed. I could tell that things have been better than they had been at the start. I told them that since the recovery is an uncertain process, it would be great if I could return to the customer service position and go back to working from home, and they arranged to get that taken care of, so I held them to the eight weeks that they said to begin with!!! It was honestly a nice change, other than commuting during the worst gas prices ever, but I don't mind being back to working from home!!!

I'm Dreaming of a Hillbilly Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving I set up the outdoor Christmas decorations. Previous years, I've had Christmas lights, starting soon after we'd moved in with strings of incandescant lights. I bought a few strings, and later found some true vintage ones that came with the house. In the last 5 or 6 years, I replaced those with LED lights. The last couple of years, I hadn't been able to find them, since the firstborn moved into the basement and moved a lot of stuff around. Last year I picked up a laser pattern projector for a very reasonable price. It's a great little device, easy to set up and makes a good look.

Right before Thanksgiving, one of my co-workers had their Christmas tree set up in the background in one of our video meetings. It got a little attention, and got me to thinking... I've got my workspace set up in the corner, one of the best seats in the house, with windows to my left and behind me. I could do some decoraton behind myself, some lights or garland or possibly a wreath, but there's no way I could set up a Christmas tree. Or is there??? The wheels began to turn...

We have aluminum awinings over the windows, and we have a fairly campy and hideous pink artifical tree. A few years back, we replaced pinky with a white one to work with the color wheel that was also in the basement that came with the house. It's fairly lightweight. I took some bailing wire and wrapped it around the upper part of the tree, and suspended it from the awining, just over my left shoulder while I'm working. The second picture, you can see some of the laser projections on the house.

I also bought another string of lights, solar powered LED with a remote, that I used on the tree, as well as about half of the awning along the front. I set the solar panel up on a board under the air conditiong unit for now. I may just keep the lights on the awinings permanent, and if I do, I'll make up a better mount. I'm not sure if I will, the remote doesn't work very well.

When we have our morninig huddle, it's still dark out, so I can turn the lights on for it. It shows up nice in the afternoons on the video, too. My co-workers have voiced their approvoal, and I'm pleased with the way it came out. From the outside of the house, though, I have a feeling it may look more than a little bizzare to passerby!!!

Changing Gears

It's been almost 14 years I've been at my job, and for the most part I've been doing pretty much the same thing. The work is fairly straightforward, but is pretty physical. Four or five years back, I finally got on the weekend shift, which is nice in that there's less people around, so it's easier in that regard, less drive time traffic, and there's a little bit of a bump in pay for it. A few times I've been asked by supervisors if there is another department or position I'd like to be in, but nothing has ever materialized. I even had tested for some electronic correspondence customer service at one point.

A month or so back, (we are an essential service, so there's been no stop at my work, although almost all of the sales and support staff are working from home) there was a meeting time blocked out on my daily schedule. Hmmm... I meet with one of the heads above my department, who I've never had any interaction with, and she tells me that they have combed the employee bios, and saw that I had been formally trained in Surfcam, as well as having self-taught AutoCad, BobCad, and Solidworks. For a while, I did a ton of work in Solidworks, because it renders very realistic looking designs, and once you've created them, you can make a pretty good drawing of the part fairly easily. Turns out, Solidworks skill is just the sort of thing they're looking for!!!

They set me up with a couple of the technologies they use, and gave me a half day or so to mess around in Solidworks, to get a feel for it again. A couple days later, they gave me a couple test parts to design and generate drawings for. Apparently, I did well enough for them to offer me a position on the team coming up with the files. The down side is I'd be off weekends, the up side is I'll be working from home!!! I'll be saving money on gas, and saving an hour to an hour and a half of commute time a day, so I'm good with it, as well as being able to use some long dormant skills. Last week they gave me the equipment to bring home, and a day to set it up. The project is supposed to go for around 9 months to a year.

This has been my first week, learning how the process will go. There's a lot of new stuff, which I don't think will be too tough, but I've been on Central Time for the learning, so I don't care for the hours, but that will get better. First time I've ever had a dual monitor set up. I used my old desk I had my home desktop set up on (which I mostly only use for the printer connected) and cleared out a spot in the corner, by the windows. Using the suddenly very popular Zoom any time but early on, I'm terribly back lit, but apparently it's not a big deal. Since I'm much more sedentary, I've been walking a couple miles every afternoon.

Oh, and the design there is something I did in the practice day. It's a rough representation of one of those Saturn Ion rims.

Lil Irv

So, once again with the Pokemons!!! One of the daily things to do with your buddy Pokemon to keep your level up is take a picture with it, so I've got several pictures on my camera roll!!!

First up is from back when I had a Bulbasaur as my buddy. Back when we'd vacationed in Encinitas and had gone to Legoland, I'd won a stuffed Bulbasaur, so I posed them together. Back when the firstborn was a youngster, he had a Pokemon VHS tape that, of course, he would play fairly constantly. It had a scene of them stumbling upon an evolution ceremony of bulbasaurs, so that is permanently etched in my brain.

Then I've switched to Lil Irv, my buddy Flareon. Here he is, outside, after I've given him some berries.

And again, at my work.

Then, when I tried to see if I could get a shot of him from behind.

And there he is, just this week, you'll notice he has a best buddy badge now!!!

While we were out shopping, and he had found some goodies. My wife in the background, reminiscent of when she didn't approve of my Baja Blast!!!

One of my favorite pictures of 'em!!!

Then, I tried to get a shot of him with the cat, and was photobombed by a Smeargle!!!

This week I also came upon my first Flareons in the wild. Caught one, and it turned out to have a higher level than Lil Irv!!! There was, of course, some debate as to what would become of them, and I finally decided to re-name it!!! Meet Big Irv!!! This is now my top six, the Virizion (from the raid we had done at Universal Studios) had for quite a while held the top spot.

I'm generally not in the habit of re-naming my catches, but here's the only other one I've re-named!!! See why??? Do not vote for the socialist!!!

And, just today, caught myself a Snorlax!!! Went up to my younger boy and asked him, "You Jealous???" He asks why, and I show him and say, "You Jealous."

Season-Spanner

Here's my latest card artwork progression!!!

For the Halloween season, I'd had a card with an eyeball flying across the board, trailing the severed optic nerve with a few droplets of blood, which I've used for two or three seasons so far. It was time for something new. I've also got one I've used for several years of Jack Skellington in his Santa suit holding up a present, with the caption "This year, Christmas will be OURS!!!" that I've used for Christmas. Thought I'd do another one, this time with Jack and Sally.

It came out pretty good!!! I added in the brambles along the bottom of the moon, and more landscape detail, as well as a few clouds. Of course, I'd been searching web images to try and get it right, and I'd come across one that was the moon, with a couple clouds forming Jack's face. That was my original plan, emulate that style, only with Jack and Sally in the foreground.

I stopped short of doing that, but of course, it's always an option to update it later!!!

I figure I can use it from Halloween to Christmas!!!

The Ketchup Random Post

It's been a while, I have several things I've been wanting to post some about, so the time has come to catch up!!!

Speaking of ketchup, found this last time I was at the dollar store. Spicy, it's interesting but not great. Last time I found a ketchup there, it was a grilled onion flavored, and that was pretty great. Of course, none of that there anymore. But I digress.

Had a week off in July. Back when my work had the Spring ticket drawing, my name was pretty low on the list, so there weren't a lot of good ones left. Then I realized that I had that week off, and thus far nothing planned, so I took a Monday evening game, for a change an Angels game!!! They were playing the Houston Astros, so there was a Texas connection. It was pretty good, the area we were in had food service to your seat, so that was nice, and getting in and out is better. Had some pastrami fries!!! There's the moon rising over the lights.

It's a bit of a haul to the area, and rather than heading back and forth, I booked us a couple nights at an Orange County hotel. Had the thought that we could get in touch with my niece and drop into the Great Wolf Lodge again to get wet for an afternoon, but instead we dropped in to Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Turns out the Chick-Fil-A will set you up with a chicken sandwich if you had been to an Angels game the next day!!! Afterwards, we headed to a very picturesque beach in Crystal Cove State Park. The next day we stopped in at Boomers down there, and that was our little vacation.

The younger boy graduated from high school. He's planning on going to trade school for electrician training. He never expressed much interest in it before, but I'm sure he'll be able to pick it up pretty well, and it's a good paying profession.

He'd found an aloha shirt at the St. Vincent thrift store a while back. He wanted to get some louver glasses to go with it, and not long ago, on a 20% off day at Big Lots, we went to one that happened to be by a Party City. Went in to take a look, and they have 'em there, so we set him up with them.

Apparently, the impetus for both of those was another Homestuck adjacent troll, Murrit Turkin!!!

Finished off the week by sanding down and spray painting the rest of the right side of Scruffy. Got a couple of runs, sanded them out, sprayed it some more... Always looks far too shiny when it's fresh sprayed. I was getting antsy to get the other side done. All that remains is the rear hatch and bumper, but I've been working on the front bumper, too, eliminating the holes for the front plate mount. Not a great picture, but I did a bit of a long shot to get 2 of my 3 classics in the shot.

While I was doing so, I had the lower rocker off (it's a molded black plastic part, easier to remove than to mask) and it nicely revealed the upper part of my new exhaust tip!!! Also, the only way besides removing it that you'll see the 512 Labs inscription on the top side. I've only driven it a couple days in the last few weeks, as we've been having a heat wave, and I still haven't fixed the air conditioning on it. My birthday is coming up, maybe I'll buy the parts for myself.

I participated in The Oinkster's Burger Week again this year. The shirt is a take off on the Chili Peppers, and I don't think that anyone has picked up on that it isn't just that every time I've worn it. If anyone has, they haven't said anything.

Back before the end of the school year, they were taking the senior class to Speed Zone in City of Industry. I had been working in the area when they built the place, back in the late 90's, and have driven by it several times. It sounded like a good time, but I'd never made it over there!!! Anyway, it was on my day off, so I was able to get in on it.

There's a go-kart track, a slick track, and dragsters!!! There's an arcade and mini golf, too. The day pass was $56, but a season pass was $51!!! What would you do??? Yeah, that's what we did. We've been back twice.

They've been giving me the middle shift at work more these days. Don't know if I'd mentioned, but they eliminated the late late shift, and moved the late to 10:25 AM. Middle shift is two hours earlier. I like the way it works out, I never have to get up early on Mondays. Of course, the drive is worse. ANyway, that's the prelude to the next part of my updates!!!

I had been hearing for a while that Alt 98.7 and The Woody Show were doing a night at Medieval Times. Ravey and Menace were going to be there, and they had a promo code to get a good discount. It's been years since I've been there, but it starts 15 minutes before I get out of work. The day before, they ask if I can work middle shift the next day. Hey, I could make it!!! And, so I did!!! Made it there and visited the Alt 98.7 tent. They had one Woody Show pin left, which they gave me, so cool. They put us in Ravey's section, and our knight gave the first rose to her. We were able to meet up with them after the show. I've met Ravey before, but this is my first time meeting Menace. He's taller than I thought.

And I got one shot of Menace in his natural state, playing on his phone!!!