Friday Funny

What a night!

It as a dark and stormy night....*

I'll admit it, I'm a bit of weather geek, especially when it comes to thunderstorms.  When I was child, mom would take us out to the porch to watch the storms come in until the rain started. Although I have no memory of the event, she told me when I was 18 months, recall from the thunder sent me tumbling down the steps.  She picked me up, I cried a little, then got interested in the storm again. No fear.

For most of the summer, the major storms have missed the city of Regina.  We've definitely had rain but the light shows have been ...meh.  Not so last night!  For several hours I was watching the radar, tracking the storms as they moved closer to the city.  At two kilometers out, I turned the lights off and called to my son to come watch.

We sat in the sun room for nearly an hour watching the storm move closer.  There were almost constant flashes of sheet lightening but little thunder.  While it was pretty, it wasn't the storm I was hoping for. (Like I said, total geek!)

And then it hit...

I grabbed my camera and tried to get a few shots.  The quality isn't great but these are the best I could get.

There was a loud clap of thunder and the sky opened up.  This is out the front window of the house.


 We headed back to the sun room to watch the storm out the multiple windows.  It was freaky, as the lightening was colored red and blue. C used his camera as a light source so I could take this photo. The poor petunias took a beating from the rain.



I obviously caught this just at the right moment, as the lightening lit up the sky.

The two photos were taken a minute apart and yet the second appears to have been shot in broad daylight.




It was definitely the storm of the summer!  The show lasted another fifteen minutes or so before the storm moved to the east.

We lost our power for nearly three hours.  I'd left lights and television on, so when it came back I woke up to the noise.  Before the night was over, another thunderstorm came through.  I got up and watched from the living room for a short while.

We're getting more rain today but there are no storms on the horizon.  That's okay, because last night was stormy enough to last me for awhile.

Have a great weekend everyone!

* With apologies to the great writer, Snoopy

Friday Funny

Random Saturday

It's August long weekend here in Saskatchewan.  I took yesterday as my EDO so I get a four day weekend out of it.  Hooray!

Yesterday I started applying the waterproofing to one of the sheds in the back yard.  By 10 a.m. I had completed one side (the shady side) and it was so hot I gave up and came indoors.  Then, of course, we got a thunderstorm and rain last night.  According to the instructions it should have two days of drying time, but it seems to have worked as there is a difference in the color between the other sides and the coated one.

I won't do anymore today as everything is definitely damp.  Perhaps tomorrow or Monday.  What a wonderful feeling to know I don't have to rush.

*******
I spent the rest of the day shopping and pampering myself.  I wandered through several stores looking for a small round table.  With my daughter moving away from home I have an empty room, so I have to fill it right?  I'm planning to turn it into a craft/sewing room, and library/office.  That way I can get the bins that are tucked beside the couch out of the living room and have a small sitting where I can go to read (or the cats can nap....who am I kidding).

I didn't find a table but I did find this mirror at Winners.  I've been planning on replacing the picture I had hanging there for some time but couldn't find a mirror that I either liked or was a reasonable price.  This one was $40 so right on budget.

Now that it is hanging I'm not sure I like it as much as I thought I would.  I'll leave it there for awhile before I make up my mind. It may end up being switch out with this picture on the other wall at some point, but I'll decide that later.

I also picked up four lunch plates that match dinner plates I'd bought earlier this year.  They were on sale for $2 a piece so I was thrilled. I can finally get rid of what's left of the stoneware I bought from Sears 36 years ago.  It was a catalogue purchase, for about $60 I got a set of dishes for eight including mugs and cutlery.  All I have left is a few of the smaller lunch plates and two dinner plates.






After browsing for a while I went to my hairdresser and had my hair cut and colored.  It's much shorter and should be much cooler for the rest of the summer!

*******

I've been having a bad time with my forearm and elbow recently.  Earlier this week, I woke up one night and was unable to unbend (is that a word?) my elbow. I was in excruciating pain
so got up to take a pain tablet and try working out the kink.

On Thursday I saw the doctor and was told to get a wrist support wrap.  I've been wearing it in the evening and through the night, and it seems to be helping a little bit.

Wearing it is real pain (pun intended) as it hampers my use of the mouse.  I've also learned, that though I write left-handed, I do a lot of things with my right hand.  Brushing my hair, brushing my teeth, cutting with a knife, and even eating a sandwich.  Perhaps I'm not as left-handed as I always thought.

*******
Since the weather isn't cooperating, today will be a housework day.  My daughter is coming over to do her laundry, and while she is here I'm going to get her to finish cleaning out the closet in her old room so I can start moving some of my stuff in there.

Then there is the kitchen floor to be washed (if you've the cat's blog you'll know why), bathrooms to scrub, vacuuming, and cat litter to be cleaned.

Later in the day our Riders are playing the Ottawa Red-Blacks.  I'll be planted firmly in my chair watching every play. Go Riders!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Funny Friday

Fogged in

This is the view that met me this morning when I walked out of the house to water my containers.

The fog matches my current state of mind.

I'm struggling these days to keep myself on track.  I'm tired, often cranky, and forgetful.  Frustration is my middle name.

At work, management would say I'm not engaged.  They'd be right. These days I am either sitting staring at my computer counting the hours to the end of the day or in a total snit about something stupid someone somewhere in our organization has done.

I'm not sure which state I prefer.  Though being in a snit does makes the day go faster! :)

It's not as though I have no work to accomplish, because there is always something needing to be dealt with. The issue is that there is no longer any trust at any level and everything must be scrutinized by someone higher up. For example, recently a peer and I revised an internal document; it's not meant to be used by any other office or area, and is simply a "cheat sheet" if you will for our employees and supervisors to use as a reference for performing a specific and infrequent process.  The goal was to give them the information so they wouldn't have to contact one of three of us who have significant experience with the process.

We sent it off to our managers to review, requesting approval to provide the information to the staff and supervisors.  My manager said okay, mostly because he's less than two years from retirement and is in coast mode, so he really didn't read or review the document.  The other manager, an up and coming individual returned it to my peer because......it didn't meet their senior manager's formatting standards.

WTF?  Apparently we're not the least bit concerned about the content, but heaven forbid if a margin is an nth of a centimeter too wide or narrow, a comma is missed or out of place, or the section headers are the wrong font or incorrectly spaced.  Thankfully my peer is willing to revise the document once more because my immediate reaction was to tell that manager (and senior manager) to stuff it someplace uncomfortable.

We're also taking away the capacity of people to think and creating mindless robots.  On Friday I got a piece of correspondence that's been floating around for about a month.  Actually a month is pretty good.  It was passed from an office in Ontario to one in B.C, then onto Alberta and finally landed on my desk because, besides my regular duties, I've been tasked with this workload.

When I looked at the document, I realized it should never have come to me because it didn't fit the criteria.  So I sent off an e-mail to the three offices to ask where it should be sent to be completed since it was not something within my purview.  I received two e-mails, both indicating they were simply following instructions to send to the next place.  NO ONE had looked at the damned document, because if they had they would have realized it was not what they thought, but instead they had blindly followed instructions.  So now apparently it is my problem, even though it's not my problem.  As a result I'll handle it because someone has to, but I've sent an e-mail off to my senior manager to express my concerns.

When an immediate issue is not causing me frustration, I'm dreaming of early retirement, voluntary or otherwise.  The lottery has to come through soon, right?  Or maybe management will get tired of my rants and ask me politely (and with a large final cheque) to move on?

Now that my daughter has moved out, and my son knows he's next, I've even thought about downsizing and moving into a smaller place.  I could find a job that pays less (with less stress perhaps) and still manage.  The fly in that ointment is a smaller pension.

What is really frustrating is that work is spilling over into my personal space and time.  I find myself dreaming about work.  The other night, I was meetings all night, trying to help the staff explain to management the impact recent decisions have had on morale and productivity.  Just like the real thing, I woke up knowing I'd not gotten anywhere.

I know I'm neglecting all the things I like to do, like this blog, my yard work, and spending time enjoying the outdoors. (If only the housework could wait forever, but when the dust bunnies are bigger than the cats something has to be done).  And yet, like tonight as I write this, I feel an ease of some of the pressure.  Simply writing it down really helps.

Thanks to all who have read this through. Knowing you are there reminds I have supports in my life.

Like the fog, this too shall pass.

Most definitely in four years, 7 months, and 30 days.

What a weekend

I had a nice weekend out at the farm, though I did a lot of driving.  The farm is about a 1/2 hour drive from my home; I made three trips out on Saturday, back in on Sunday, out later that day, back in on Monday, then out to the vet's office, and back on Monday evening.  Lots of miles....I'm not sure how my brother and his wife do it on a daily basis!

Of course I always make sure I take my camera.  Here are some of the shots from this weekend.

On the lower part of the yard, there is the barn and an old train station.  My brother R has built a deck on the side (or the dance floor as it is more affectionately known). It's an awesome place to watch a storm in the distance, or the northern lights.

The station was moved to the farm site by the former owners.  It's most frequently used for birthday parties!

R recently created a 1/4 mile running path through the bush, up the hill and then back around for he and his children to use.  I didn't run it, though I walked more quickly than I might normally have because of the annoying mosquitos!

Above is part of the flower bed they planted a few years ago.  One of the neighbours was clearing out the bed and gave them massive amounts of perennials.  They've thrived in this environment.

The rose on the left, is a wild prairie rose.  These were on the side of the road, and I don't think there was a blossom without a bee.

I tried all weekend to get a photo of this little chipmunk, and with this exception he was too fast for me!

The horses didn`t realize I was taking a photo because I was across the road.

Of course the reason I was there was to take care of this lovely lady Hollywood.  For those of you who don't read the cats' blog, she had an eye surgery a couple of weeks ago and I had to give her meds over the weekend before she went the vet for her final checkup and removal of stitches.  All went well!

Finally, I leave you a photo of the quintessential Prairie view from the drive home to the city.  The weather was perfect!