Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Rainy days

 Well, it seems as if I just bring the rain everywhere I go if anyone is needing a good spring flood.  NC was soggy, and it has rained everyday I have been home.  Pretty sure it is supposed to rain again today.  I saw that they deployed the sandbag machine but not sure where to.  I got a call on Saturday from my emergency management office saying they had decided to cancel the LA tasker and put me back on the list for NC.  She told me the start date was 6/9 but I looked on the heat chart, which is what they use to track people, and they have me down for 6/6.  Either way I am fine.  I would love to go back and make a little more money.  I just hope it is as chill as it was last time.  Brooke is in LA and she is not particularly happy with the assignment.  Still better than being in the office but she had a few problems with her QAS, then they reassigned her to complaints and disputes, and now she is back in the field, but I haven’t talked to her to find out exactly what she is doing.  They made them take off Memorial Day, which she wasn’t thrilled about. 

I can’t remember if I talked about my sister’s procedure.  She pretty much had the lower face and neck lift.  She didn’t want anyone to know so I took her Friday morning bright and early.  We had to be there at 6.  I was so tired I went to my car and slept.  I think she was in recovery by 10:30. She is still really swollen, got her drains out on Sunday and is supposed to get her stitches out today. 

Saturday was a rainy dreary day, just like I like it.  I bought a new bag in Ashville and needed a wallet to go with it since I normally carry crossbody wallets all in one.  I went to Nordstrom Rack and a few other placed but didn’t find anything I liked.  I ended up at the outlet mall and found a wallet and a band for my apple watch that I really liked at Coach.  I went into a few stores but really didn’t find anything I liked.  Gap had a bunch of stuff I liked, and I had a bunch of stuff in my arms to go check out when it just got very peoply and the thought of standing in line was just too much.  So, I dumped the stuff off at the fitting room rack and left.  I am sure I saved myself at least $100.  I went by my sister’s house and checked on her.  She asked me about emptying her drains and I told her that I have my limits.  I don’t think she ever drained them, but since she was getting them removed the next day, I don’t think it was that big of a deal.  She has sent me some update pictures. If my phone feels like working I will attach a few.  She seemed to be doing ok. 



Dennis decided it would be a good day to take his mom to eat for a belated mother’s day so we did that and then I went home and did laundry and organized my stuff just in case I do go back out. 

Sunday, I took my mom to eat at Texas Roadhouse.  There was on in the parking lot of the hotel I stayed at in Gastonia.  I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten there but it was as good as some high dollar steaks I have gotten.  It was just as good here.  I got enough for leftovers and Dennis ate them when he got home.  He made the comment that it was so tender he could cut it with a plastic knife.  We never went there because the parking lot is always packed, but they have a place to put your name on the waiting list before you go if there is a wait so Dennis and I may have to go eat there.  I really can’t think of anything I did.  Oh, I went to Costco but other than that my mind is a blank.

Dennis had been wanting another pair of steel toed boots, so he has a spare if the ones he has gets wet (which has happened several times with the weather) He found the pair he liked that he had tried on previously and I found a pair for him on clearance.  Now he has 3 pair so that should get him through.  After that I needed to go to bath, and body works to get laundry detergent, and we went to Old Navy to see if he could find some cargo pants or long sleeve shirts.  We left there empty handed.  Super proud of myself.  We stopped for a quick lunch and headed back home.  It was raining again or still so we sat around and watched the documentary about the Tylenol murders. 

Yesterday I had an appointment to get my eyes checked.  My left eye has a slight change but mot much.  My appointment was at 7:45, which sucked because I had my eyes dilated and couldn’t do much.  When I got home, I asked Bailey if he wanted to go lay down with me and he beat me to the bedroom.  We slept until noon, and it was glorious.  



I went to the optical place and ordered new glasses that afternoon when I could see again.  Although my prescription wasn’t enough of a change to warrant a new pair, I get up to like $350 a year for frames so I wanted to get them ordered because if I don’t do it while I am thinking about it there is a chance it will never get done.  I decided to go back to the place that I had used a few years ago, they are more expensive, but they have a larger selection, and they have frames that you can customize.  I got them the last time I ordered from there decided I would just suck it up and pay over my allowance to get what I wanted.  They are a fun shape that I haven’t gotten before so I can’t wait for them to come in.  I also ordered a pair of clip sunglasses to put over them because shuffling 2 pairs of glasses doesn’t work out well for me.  I am curious to see how I will like that.  I told them that I might be leaving for 30 days the second week of June so they said they would get them out immediately.  I let them know it wasn’t a big deal, but I didn’t want them to think I just didn’t pick them up if that does happen.  I also called and got my rheumatology appointment rescheduled for next Friday.  I had to cancel my last one since I was out of town.  I ran out of my meds while I was gone and wasn’t sure if he would refill so like a moron I just suffered through.  I remembered quick how bad my hand cramp and hurt without the meds.  I did get the refill when I got back, but I think I probably need a short dose of steroids to combat some of the swelling. 

Work is just as strange as ever.  It is so quiet.  There were a lot of people that drp’ed while I was gone and the week, I got back there were 3 more from RE.  Someone asked me if I regret not taking it and I really don’t.  There are far too many unknowns, and I still have 4 years until I can claim my supplement.  I think I did quick math and would be bringing home under $20K a year one the paid admin leave is gone.  Why would I make my situation worse because I would 100% have to find another job.  I don’t want to deal with all that stress.  I used to be close friends with one of the people who left, and she said something about driving uber?  Surely, she was joking because hell to the naw.  Her mom passed away recently so maybe she has inheritance money or something.  None of my business but I also know that isn’t my situation and I am not going to have to start worrying about money if I don’t have to. 

We also got an email last week telling us we no longer must submit our weekly ‘5 bullets’.  It said to conclude the exercise the need one last thing from us, our input.  One idea that will improve the efficiency or root out waste.  I haven’t sent in bullets in a month and I’m sure as hell not going to give them suggestions.  These people done gone nuts.  The audacity.  I would, however, love to see the feedback they get!

 

OK, I gotta get busy. 

 

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Spring in North Carolina

 Hard to believe I have been out of the loop for a month.  I feel like so much has happened and nothing has changed at the same time.

I am currently in Gastonia NC working a FEMA mission for waterway debris clean up after Helene almost a year ago. I have been here almost 30 days already, going home on Sunday.  I will be back for a couple of weeks and heading out to LA wildfires.  I started out here, was here for a week and got moved to Union Co about 45 minutes from here.  Gaston Co. is well organized and a small operations that moved like a finally oiled machine.  A week in I got moved because they didn't have a tower at the debris dump site and had to use a scissor lift.  The harness was way too big for me so they sent me to a site with a tower built.  It was also a shit show.  I met a lot of great people that I really enjoyed working with, and a few that I wanted to throttle.  It has rained a lot over the last 2 weeks so we have had some admin days.  The first one they had us going to all of the sites they were pulling debris from (TOLS) just to keep us busy.  I knew that they would let us go back to the room once we had checked all of the TOLS but the jackwagons couldn't get their shit together.  I made the mistake of making a list of all of the sites and coordinates and trying to make sense of it all.  This landed me in a supervisor position that I don't want or ask for.  Luckily they got the tower constructed and moved me back to the good county.  



So far this deployment has been pretty sweet though.  One of the contractors at the disposal sites brought his 3 month old puppy with him everyday.  When I was alone at the tower I would go get her and bring her up in the tower and play with her.  She is a cutie.



I moved back to Gastonia on Sunday and as I was driving to the tower I looked up and saw a big fluffy boy running down the middle of a curvy mountain road.  Traffic had stopped but no one was doing anything.  I just opened my car door and yelled for him to get in my car.  And just like that I had a dog. He had a collar on and was dragging a leash but had no tags.  He is one of the most stunning dogs I have ever seen.  I ended up taking him to a pet store and they held him in a grooming cage  and called the non emergency police line.  Someone from animal control picked him up later that day.  I was actively making plans to drive 16 hours one way to come back and get him but alas his family found him.  I am glad he is back where he belongs but I really wanted him to belong with me :(



It worked out for the best though since I am only going to be home for a few weeks before I turn around and redeploy.  

The worst part of getting moved back and forth is that I made a tattoo appointment and had to do some finagling to get it worked in.  It is a lot bigger than I planned but it turned out great.



Since I have been gone, Dennis started a new job as a facility manager for habitat for humanity. I think he really likes it.  He is in his element.  The second day there the loading dock was about to flood and he engineered some pump from donated parts and saved the day.  I know he loves that kind of stuff.  He is only about 10 minutes from my house so he has been able to go by and check on the kiddos during the day.  

I am so looking forward to being home Sunday.  I am taking a couple of days off and can't express how excited I am to sleep until my body is ready to wake up and take a short break from working 80+ hour weeks. I need to stop and get some cat treats before I get home because she has a tendency to pout and ignore me for a few days after I get home.