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. 

 

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.

Just tired

I’m so damn tired of living in “unprecedented times.” Like, genuinely exhausted. If I could click my heels together and teleport to a new timeline, I would—because this one? This one sucks ass.

I do still have a job, at least for now, but who knows how long that’ll last. Everyone keeps saying DoD is “safe,” but let’s be honest—no one who works for the federal government should be feeling secure right now. And being in natural resources? Just makes the target on my back a little bigger. So yeah, no high-dollar purchases happening over here. I saw this coming and voiced my concerns, but apparently, I was just “overreacting.”

I’m not gonna dwell, but man—it’s hard not to think about this stuff constantly. My therapist told me that most people can go to work and mentally “turn it off.” Must be nice. Meanwhile, I’m just sitting here waiting for the next ominous email to drop.

I’ve been limiting my time online, so I’ve been pretty out of touch with all your lives. I miss catching up. But I figured out a way to blog using my reMarkable tablet—it lets me handwrite, convert to text, and copy/paste. It’s a little 101, but also kinda therapeutic.

Nothing major has really been happening because I basically shut down once I get home from the office (which I go to five freaking days a week). My stubborn streak has actually helped—I’ve been refusing to eat out for lunch, and I guess that means I’m not boosting the economy… but hey, my diet might’ve improved? Lots of car sandwiches, though.

I also signed up for the exercise hour at work and have been hitting the trail twice a week. Okay, full transparency: last Friday was super windy and I just sat in my car in the parking lot. But the sun was out, and it felt good to be anywhere but “here.”

There’s a possible deployment to Louisiana on the table, but it’s being held up by AP, who’s got a project sitting in her court. Been there for a while now, so I’m betting it won’t happen. Brooke is already down there and said it’s miserable—literally just standing around while contractors clear debris. Someone on her team got chewed out for sitting. Sounds like a loooong 12-hour shift. The money’s nice, sure, but sometimes it’s just not worth it.

The week after I got back from Pittsburgh, my sister Laura had a scary health episode. She sent our mom a text saying she needed to go to the ER—no other info. I knew it was serious if she was contacting Mom. Mom hasn’t driven at night in years but was on her way out the door, so I told her to go home and let me take care of it. I live closer, I’m a night driver, and, let’s be real—I drive like a bat out of hell.

When I got there, Laura was outside in sunglasses and a hat, saying it was the second-worst headache of her life. I got her to the ER, dropped her off, parked, and made sure they knew she had a history of a ruptured brain aneurysm and has a coil. They took her back quickly, around 8:15 PM. She was back there for hours, came out to the waiting room around 2:00 AM, and then Mom called to say Heather would bring her and switch off. I was supposed to go to a co-worker’s funeral that morning, but I didn’t. We finally got Laura into a room around 6 AM, and after all that… it was the flu. I get it—they had to rule stuff out—but why not run a flu test up front? Anyway, I’m glad she went in. People die from the flu, and she needed care. I got Tamiflu from my doc, and luckily didn’t get sick.

On Saturday, HMF and I went to see a regional production of The Play That Goes Wrong. We needed that escape. A has been totally out of control. HMF told me he went ballistic in a parking lot—screaming, breaking the car door handle, pounding on windows, calling her names. It was scary. The clinic staff separated them, and when she left, they asked if she felt safe getting in a car with him. He got his permit the next day and expected her to let him drive. When she said no? Another fit. Lord have mercy.

The play was actually better than I expected for regional theater. The people behind us almost made me snap—they were mansplaining everything—but one guy had a ridiculous laugh that somehow added to the comedy. At least I got to laugh a little.

My focus has been all over the place. Some days I’m shockingly productive, and the next I’m in a complete funk. My dryer broke, Dennis fixed it, and I took that moment to finally sort through old bins of clothes. Sizes 0 through 18. Found a few things that fit—win! I’ve got two lawn bags in my car ready to donate, and more to wash. I’m planning to buy a portable rack and stick it in the garage to keep them cat-hair free. Some bins just need to be recycled—those clothes are way beyond saving. I hate contributing to the landfill though.

Tomorrow, I’m going to a retirement seminar. Word is they might offer another round of early-outs, and I’d be eligible even without the age. But let’s be real—I probably can’t afford it. I want to pull my TSP and let a private firm manage it because there are few things in this world I trust less than the assholes in charge. I haven’t even looked at my account because I know it’ll make me sick. Now that I’m about five years out from wanting to dip… of course the economy nosedives.

It’s an all-day thing, so at least I won’t be in the office. And I’m taking Friday off to get my hair done. Small wins.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I’m spent.

Won’t you be my neighbor

I was absolutely shocked the trip to Pittsburgh actually happened. It is kind of an offshoot of the SA program but on a mental first aid level. Not sure how it slipped through the cracks. The guys that taught are amazing but I have my doubts about the efficacy of the program itself. I have trust issues so talking to peers is not something I would personally do but I do have a lot of people who know my history that like to unload on me. The most important thing is it gives me opportunities to deploy. I met some amazing people too. 

We had a pretty busy schedule, they even had lunch brought in, but we generally got out around 4 to check email and ‘self care’ The hotel had happy hour and those of us that stayed there got together and bonded. I had 2 goals for after hours; the first to see the Mr. Rogers exhibit and to see the broadway tour of Kimberly Akimbo. I got to do both. 

Exhausted

 I am worn out on so many different levels. Today we had our annual ranger workshop which was…interesting. We were supposed to have it last week but we ended up having terrible weather. A lot of the city was pretty much shut down Tuesday through Thursday. The workshop was scheduled for 2 days at the zoo with some mandated fun, a scavenger hunt which would give the ranger a chance to explore.  Instead it was condensed to one day cram packed with stuff that was drowned out by the looming future. They cut the lunch break down to 30 minutes. There is nothing close to the zoo so leaving wasn’t an option. There was one grill opened and it is a brisk 8 minute walk from the venue. I was initially in charge of planning and I told them there wasn’t enough time for 60 + people to get to the one open grill, my poc sent a reply to the schedule update telling the people over me it wasn’t enough time, and guess what, it wasn’t enough time. Rangers had to change out of their uniforms for personal protection refresher and get lunch. They had no time to explore or do anything but order, scarf food, change, and get back to their seats. I know we are going to get complaints on the location but I tried. Last year (which I didn’t plan) there were several, as in over 10 vehicles with windows smashed and pillaged. 

On a positive note, once I got things up and running I could sneak out since I’m not required to take the training. There are several babies out and the weather was gorgeous. On the way to the grill for lunch there was an exhibit with 5 Malayan tiger cubs that was born in late August. 

There was also a baby gibbon that was born in late October. Cutest thing I have probably ever seen. 

I abandoned this on Wednesday night, I ended up falling asleep at 9. I was beat. 

Thursday morning I had an endoscopy done. The hiatal hernia hasn’t gotten any worse and they diagnosed me with Barrett’s esophagus. From what I have read it is basically just the lingering effects of GERD. It might be why my vit c and iron is so low. They did biopsies but I can’t imagine they will find anything significant. I slept most of the afternoon. I met my sister and her friend for the ballet, Alice In Wonderland. The costumes were really neat. My sister and her friend were at least a bottle of wine deep when I got there. They bought doubles at the theater and pre-ordered doubles for intermission. My sister’s friend was passed out before the finale. I will never understand why someone would pay that kind of money to pass out and miss the show. At least my bil dropped them off and picked them up. I know I probably shouldn’t have driven but I had pretty much slept the small amount of narcotics off. I took Friday off as well because fuck that place. It was rather pleasant. Me and a co-worker are going to a meeting in Pittsburgh, leaving tomorrow and I got a text telling me that the shitzi turned our credit cards off so we will probably have to cancel our orders. Somehow he hasn’t figured out that DoD has civilians so he decided to exempt us. I am packing now so we will see what happens when I get there. I also got a text telling us we have to answer the next 5 bullets email. Fucking idiots. I ran their email through AI and put the parameters in that Reddit said to use to fuck with the bots, zero width spacing and using foreign letters that look like English. I asked it to spin the parameters to make it appear that I am giving my info without actually saying anything. I plan on doing a copy paste every week. This is what it came up with. 

• Engaged in multi-​faceted oper‍‌​ational paradigms enco​mpassing project-specific deliver‍‌​ables within the scope of delineated functional expecta‍‌​tions, ensuring alignment with overarch‍‌​ing strategic frameworks.

• Facilitat‍‌​ed integrative synergies within mission-‍‌​critical security-centric initiat‍‌​ives, leveraging cross-discip‍‌​linary methodo‍‌​logies to fortify infrastructural resi‍‌​lience and adaptive risk mitigation.

• Orchestrated procedural cont‍‌​ingencies in emergent respons‍‌​e modalities, embedding iter‍‌​ative refinements into pub‍‌​lic safety constructs and inter-agency interoperabi‍‌​lity matrices.

• Enabled backend opera‍‌​tional continuity through nu‍‌​anced facilitation of core adm‍‌​inistrative architectures, underpinning systemic efficacy in mission-execut‍‌​ion workflows.

• Maintained stringent ad‍‌​herence to regulatory codifi‍‌​cations and procedural directives while dynamically interfacing with oper‍‌​ational throughput variables to sustain perfor‍‌​mance integrity.

This makes it more difficult for bots to parse the text while still being readable to humans. Let me know if you need further modifications!

Fuck you elmo and shit stain. I also called my elected officials (my daily call) and told them I expected to see their 5 bullets within 48 hours as well. I added a special message to markwayne billybob and told him that him and his colleagues humiliated the country with their treatment of Zelenskyy and real hero’s pick up arms and fight with their country instead of hiding behind a chair in a locked room (j6 reference of him being a giant pussy with photographic evidence). The rep is having a lunch town hall Friday and I am very disappointed I won’t be here for it. Dennis signed up but I wouldn’t be surprised if the fuckwad cancels it. 

I got a text out of the blue this morning from that bitch Kim I used to work with, the one who told me she didn’t want to be seen alone with me during the re fiasco. She is friends with the daughter of my ex-boss and she wanted to let me know he was on a vent in ICU and wasn’t doing well. Gary, my old boss was married to another one of my ex-bosses. He has long retired as a 100% disabled Vietnam vet. Ex wife was younger than him and stayed on and worked for several more years. Gary ended up having a pretty serious stroke and was having optical seizures and couldn’t drive and I guess she got tired of taking care of him because she pretty much dumped him off on her youngest daughter and divorced him. It destroyed him. I lost all respect I had for her. Not long after the divorce she married some yahoo on her youngest daughter’s anniversary without telling anyone. So, yeah. I ended up going to the hospital this morning to see how he was doing. I’m afraid he won’t make it and I wanted to see him while I still could. He still called me from time to time and it broke my heart to see him like that. That bitch Kim said that ex wife was throwing a fit because she wasn’t getting some of the survivor’s benefits like she thought she would. TBK said she called ex wife and told her to knock her shit off. 

I feel like there is missing context, her is a quick backstory, tbk was bffs with the bosses oldest daughter since they were in kindergarten so they were pretty much raised together, oldest daughter is a bitch that lives 2 hours away and can’t be bothered to held. Youngest daughter always wanted to work for USACE like her parents and she works on the same floor as me. She is really sweet and timid and doing her best to raise 2 small kids, work full time and help her dad.  That probably made zero sense but welcome into a glimpse of my brain lol. 

Ok. I need to go finish up laundry and get packed. At least my flight doesn’t leave until 10:30. 

The Forking Rant

 The Forking Rant: A Civil Servants Fury

Buckle up, because I’m pissed.

If you voted for 🍑 and still can’t see how royally you fucked everyone, I have no use for you. I will hurt your feelings. I don’t have to be nice to someone who supports that jackass and his minion, Elmo two corrupt, incompetent assholes who are actively and illegally trying to gut the careers of people who have dedicated their lives to public service.

We don’t do this job for the money trust me, we don’t get paid nearly what we could in the private sector. We do it because we give a damn about this country and the people in it. And now, these motherfuckers want to tell us that we should leave our so-called low-productivity government jobs to go work for the oh-so-efficient private sector? Fuck right off.

Dennis and I have called every elected official we could. Total waste of time. One of the aides had the audacity to tell me they’re re just trying to make the government run more like private industry. Oh really? I reminded him that the work we do is the kind of work private industry wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole and the stuff they would take on would create such a catastrophic national security crisis that 9/11 would look like a fucking trial run. His response? More bullshit talking points. I let him know that talking to someone who puts party over people is a lost cause. He can go ahead and live his privileged little life, where he never has to worry about bleeding out in a hospital because some dipshit politician cares more about egg prices than human lives.  Spoiler alert, they don’t care about that either.

And lets talk about that goddamn fork email. They can bend over, and I’ll be more than happy to show them exactly where to stick that fucking fork. I was deep in a Reddit thread about federal workforce news (I’ve mostly stepped back for the sake of my sanity), and what I read made my blood boil. Thousands of feds have already been fired illegally with plans to purge thousands more. This isn’t some Twitter layoff; this is firing the people who literally run the nuclear program. But wait it gets better! These dumbass motherfuckers deleted all their contact information, so they can’t even find the people they fired to offer them their jobs back because they didn’t have a clue WHO they were firing.  And the people who took the bribe?  They are getting fired so Elmo and 🍑are showing their true nature, lying and reneging on paying people. Who could have seen that coming 🙄 

And so far, DoD has been left alone. So far. But it’s only a matter of time. Since I work a niche job in natural resources, I might as well start packing my desk now.

So yeah, I’m angry. I’m disgusted. And if you still don’t see the problem, then you are the problem.

Forgot to publish

 Before I get into the profanity laden rant I will go through the non-political topics out of the way so you can skip that part.  

I drove down to Dallas after I got off work on Thursday.  My friend Linda backed out at the last minute.  She is 30 miles away so I kind of thought she was just not wanting to go.  Turns out her MIL died shortly after I got back.  This is the friend with the SIL that stole one hundred thousand dollars from the MIL.  SIL, her boyfriend, and nephew were all charged and were supposed to be paying restitution.  Not sure how that will affect that.  Last I heard SIL had made a couple of payments and noped out.  The other two were slowly chiseling away.  I think it was one of those things where they are kind of relived because she was not in a good place but friend’s husband is in the guilt spiral.  He wants to have a service so they will be here in the next couple of weeks for that.  

Brooke brought her sister and I can’t say I am a huge fan but it was fine.  She had to work on Friday, she also works for USACE and has (had) a remote job so she wasn’t around too much.  There was a Chili’s by the hotel, we were tired so we just went there and had a little food and a lot of drinks.  We were all raging over the goddamn fork email and just needed to unwind.  We sat in Brooke and her sister’s room for a bit and talked until sister kicked me out because she had to work the next day.  

Friday morning we met up and went to Meow Wolf.  It’s in Grapevine Mills so we did a little shopping while we waited for our reservation time.  We knew we were going to Fluevog Saturday so we were a little reluctant to spend much money, plus I am on a spending hiatus.  Well, a slow down.  I really didn’t spend much.  I got a really cute top from Neiman and a Pixar Up sweatshirt for me and a t-shirt for Dennis.  We had a quick lunch and headed to Meow Wolf.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was fun.  There is a mystery you can solve but we didn’t really follow that and just played in the hidden rooms and tunnels.  We stayed a couple of hours but if we had done the mystery it easily could have been 4 hours because they only have one of some of the lap tops, tablets, and diaries and you have to find them when they are free.  I am glad we decided to go on Friday instead of Saturday.

Oh yeah, I got my haircut.  

We went back to the hotel and got ready for the dinner and the show, & Juliet.  I had seen it in NYC and really enjoyed it so I was really looking forward to the escape.  The same actor that played Juliet on broadway played on the tour.  I liked the Anne they had but Ben Jackson Walker will always be my Romeo.  Brooke said she really liked it but her sister sat there without any expression, not laughing, nothing. It was odd.  We ended up dropping her sister off and going out for a drink.  We weren’t out too late because I’m old.  

Stolen from Brooke

The drink had elderberry in it that made the drink change colors

The next day we got up and went to Deep Ellum to shop.  They had a street market and I got a really cute burn down the patriarchy shirt.  We all got spoon rings but I ended up giving mine to my sister because it was too chunky for my stubby fingers.  We ate lunch and headed out about 3.  I pulled into the driveway right at 7.  Dennis loved his Up shirt.

Tuesday was my sister’s birthday so I took her out to eat.  She wanted fried chicken and cake so she picked Cheesecake Factory.  I don’t go often but it is consistently good, just not my cup of tea.  My sister talked pretty much nonstop about her ‘near death experience’.  I am not sure what she went through is really a NDE because she didn’t die.  She has a whole story about someone she met on the other side and elaborate conversations. She has all the answers now.  I wasn’t in a great mood due to work issues so I let her go off and she wore me smooth out.  It was a lot.