Feel Like Complaining

Hubby had two opportunities come up at the same time. One was for our local newspaper for who he worked for 30 years ago. He worked at the very end of production where workers put all the ads in the paper (and also where he received a hernia from all the lifting and twisting). He filled out an application and saw that his old supervisor still worked there. I can't even imagine how old he is now. Although it might have been a job in his comfort zone there were more things in the 'con' list. The night shift ran from 7 pm to 4 am. Downtown parking was a pain and you had to pay for it. Plus, imagine getting off work at 4 am and have to walk to get to your car. Downtown Spokane is not a place you really want to be at that time. I also think they worked weekends too. He then saw a plea for school bus monitors which are assigned to the special needs buses. He was told there were routes available immediately! He fills out his app and then starts training. It went on for 5 days an...

Did anybody else wear these bracelets in the 70's? I wore one in high school and can still remember his name. For me to remember someone's name from 40 years ago, the experience must have made an impression on me. It may have been a school project I'm not sure, but I do remember writing his family in Hawaii. I don't have the bracelet anymore but I wish I did. After I was finished wearing it, I know I flattened it out and probably used it for a book mark for awhile. But from there I have no idea what happened to it. I got curious and did an online search for him one night, a luxury that was not available back then. Apparently bracelets of the same name were wore by many people as I found this picture on Vietnam Vets Memorial Fund site. Luther Lono was in the Marines and had the same birthday as mine, born in 1931. He was from Tacoma, Wa., but his family was from Hawaii. Both pilot Lono and his bombardier navigator (Patrick Curran) were sent on a recon mission over ...

Several months ago I saw a picture on FB of a new craft involving old keys. I'm always looking for new and different things and thought this was something I could do. You take old keys and add old costume jewelry and a chain and you've got a necklace. I found some old keys but didn't have any jewelry so I ordered a big assorted box from eBay. Oh my, what fun going through all of them. I took the box to my Moms and we spent hours pawing through it. I set up a card table in the Kid's room to keep the mess off of the dining room table. Yes that worked but many days I have trouble just going in there so I'm not really creating as much as I would like. It's fun finding the jewelry to glue on the key but the hard part is finding the right sized jump rings or bails and then a chain. I've already run out of chain that came with the box of goodies, so had to buy some. They have used ball chain but I haven't looked into that yet. I don't want this turning in...

I dread this time of year. It's when the yard turns brown and ugly because we put away all things Summer. The beans have long been yanked after a very productive yield. I have some in the freezer when we're needing a taste of summer this winter. The last of the red tomatoes have been picked and I despise having to buy the hard red orbs the grocery stores call tomatoes until we can plant again. I have made fried green tomatoes 3 times this year but it's really a chore so I'm not sure what I'll do with the rest of the green ones. We had a fair amount of cukes, enough for us I guess, but not as much as in the past. My husband gave away some of the larger zucchini to people he would see at work. One promised him some zucchini bread but he never saw it. Then production almost stopped so we didn't get many for ourselves. Our small patio has to be cleaned out to make room for a grill, yard swing, buckets of bird seed, and the snow blower. Our antique cast iron benc...

I love my little blogger family. It's great how we feel free to share our triumphs and downfalls (personally had a lot of these lately). One triumph I'm happy to share is that our own Mr. Shife has written a book; a compilation of his blog posts as well as personal thoughts. He was kind enough to send me an autographed copy last week. You can buy the paperback through Amazon , as well as a digital copy, which will be for sale on the 31st. Not to brag Mr. Shife, but you know I wrote 5 books about my blog. Ok, I just had them printed online and only 1 for each year and I kept them all for myself. But still :) What's cool about Mr. Shife is that he will be donating part of his book sales to the Idaho Veterans Network and the Utah Friends of Basset Hounds. I've been reading Mr. Shife's blog for several years now but like many I read, I don't know who found who first. And I didn't get in on the early years of Awesome Shifeness, so for me this book is a ni...

ORI.EN.TA.TION....loosely translates into 'cramming as much information as possible into a human head.' My head was spinning, but it was over. Our instructor said we would be overwhelmed and she didn't expect us to remember anything, for now anyway. But it's the law and they have to do it. I passed my food handlers test, and filled out more background check papers and had fingerprints done a few days later. TB test and a Hep B too. But it was all for nothing. I am embarrassed because of all the well wishers. I am embarrassed because I couldn't do it. And I feel like I let everyone down that gave me excellent references. Let me tell you why. I arrived on time at 6:00 am and clocked in. The cute little girl that was to train me must have been 30 years younger; I'm sure that played a big part in it. There were instruction on making tons of coffee and how to set up the sides. Sides? The facility consists of a main dining room with 2 wings (or sides) where the re...

The last month has been stressful, very stressful. At the same time my husband lost his job, I knew I would have to start looking for work. So as my husband started looking for work, so did I. Every night we look on CL and send in our resumes. He has had no nibbles, which honestly doesn't seem to bother him much (which leads to more panic for me). After our last visit to a facility I got to thinking about the company's website and if they had any server openings. When we used to have dinner at Hubby's ex's place (owned by the same company) I always was impressed and thought it would be a good place to work for. Low and Behold there was an opening for a server at one of the 3 facilities in town so I sent in my resume. This place is smaller and different as they house only memory care residents (Dementia and Alzheimer). I didn't really notice that until later and  kind of freaked out wondering if I could handle it. I got a call two days later from I assume the...