What did you do today?

Yea, I'm not a fan either. The older I get the more I like 68°f-72°f with a light breeze.

Been trying to fix my wife's favorite water feature.

Gary, that sounds about like the right temperature range for me. I like to have a breeze going. In my room I have a desk fan on each of my nightstands pointed at me and I have a ceiling fan. I have trouble sleeping if I don't have a breeze. Even in winter I still need a fan on low to circulate the air and help me sleep.
I've been taking care of my dog. I didn't know a dog that size could hold so much fluid and excrement. She soaked 2 puppy pads and it still ran off on to the wood floor and soaked the surrounding area. I had to clean around her and then move her and try to lift her without hurting her to clean under and get fresh pads under her. You'd think she was the size of a cow from the size of the excrement. And the poor thing can't stand up and then gets upset when she messes on herself. She can drag herself a bit to move away from it, but that's about it. She did manage to turn herself around, but it apparently took a lot of effort and she yelped while doing it. I was up all night with her. So, I was trying to get some sleep in this morning and my brother woke me up a few times to give me progress reports. He gave her the shot this morning and she perked up. He gave her some roast beef and that seemed to make her happy. Right now she seems to be resting comfortably on the anti-fatigue mat. I need to see if I can find some extra large puppy pads or something that would be put in a kennel to put under her.

Today's joy was going to the County Courthouse for jury duty. It ended for me an hour later when the Judge learned that I'm nearly deaf, just having no documentation to prove that. I'm working well out of town so that sort of shot the whole day down. I'll find something to do here at home and get back on track tomorrow!

Phil

Since my last post, my dog has had some ups and downs (literally). She's fallen a few times and scraped her leg and got an infection. So now I have to change bandages as well as diapers. I decided to move her on to my bed to make her more comfortable. She's on a waterproof mattress pad and I have my desk fan rotating so it blows on her and on me. She's go her head toward the fan and seems to be relaxed. Princess isn't thrilled about having another dog on the bed (she's fine with cats) but she can deal. She gets along with Fippy OK, but Brenda is larger and Princess is afraid of her or something. I just need to remember to flip the old girl over from time to time so she doesn't get bed sores.

I got in some bonding time with my cat who has leukemia last night. She kept running in to the living room, trying to climb on things, and kept falling. The vet thinks she might have a brain tumor but said if she does, there's nothing that can be done for her other than keeping her comfortable and treating her seizures with medication. I held her on my chest while watching TV. There was a new episode of "New Tricks" on PBS. The kitty was absolutely ecstatic. I've been so busy with the dogs that I wasn't paying enough attention to her.

My bro and I went over to visit our friend (the one with the bad luck) at work and keep him company because he was the only employee there for several hours. There were no customers or calls for a long time and then starting like 8 minutes before closing, there was an influx. Fortunately, there were no more customers within the last 2 minutes so my friend was able to close up on time.

I've only been called to Jury Duty twice but both times I was eliminated during voir dire. Those defense attorneys do not like me. LOL.

My dog seems to be doing better today. She decided she wanted to sleep on her dog bed on the floor and spent several hours there. She barely budged when I changed her diapers but she ate well. Her leg wounds seem to be closed up and she got up and walked around for awhile. She's currently sleeping against my brother's door.

Speaking of my brother, he just let me enjoy a bit of schadenfreude by telling me that one of the new employees has been reporting his former boss for all of his violations- most notably the going in to the computer and changing the hours employees worked to screw them out of pay. He made the mistake of doing it to her and she's a shift lead and was able to document it. The district manager came in and informed two employees that the boss is probably getting fired soon and asked if they would be willing to take over. My brother didn't want the guy to lose his job, but he really deserves to be fired. Plus, he further slandered my brother to cover for more of his screw-ups. Apparently he didn't want to do some mandatory paperwork in the manager's book so he tore the pages out and started telling everyone that my brother did it. None of the employees believed him because they knew my brother wouldn't have done that and furthermore couldn't have because he wasn't there when it happened. That probably won't stop the jerk from spreading that lie to corporate.

My brother has an eye doctor appointment tomorrow so I will have to drive him. And Friday he has a job interview. They wanted him to bring his high school diploma. He pointed out that he graduated 20 years ago in Guam and that getting his diploma from the high school before Friday was not possible- but he got his transcripts from the college we went to.

I finished up a backdrop for Superman. I made this Metropolis background for a drive inn display along route 66 not far from us.

That is super cool, Gary! I used to be big in to comic books. The backdrop looks great!

My brother went for his job interview and there were quite a few people there for the job. There were 3 interviewers (2 men in hard hats and a cranky woman who was snapping at everyone). Unfortunately, my brother was interviewed by crankypants who hadn't even read his resume & was asking questions that were already answered but not even listening to the answers and getting the details wrong. She claimed he had never worked anywhere longer than 6 months (even after he told her multiple times his last employment was 3 years) so he didn't get the job. Every single person she interviewed before him got rejected. Meanwhile, guys who interviewed with the hard hat men got hired with zero prior job experience. But, there is still another opening on the other end of the place (he was applying for the "wet" end of the lumbermill) and he knows someone who works on the "dry" end who might be able to put in a good word for him.

Those are so super cool .

Thanks Zannej & Tuffy. I'm getting anxious to get it installed.

Today my only goal was to go collect money people owed me, no one was home of course so I mowed 4 lawns, pick up two more new customer (last thing I need) interviewed a new employee, and measured for the material need to rebuild a deck. another job I did not need) and two of my regular customers called and had long list of things they needed done.
This year I by far more work than I've ever had, now if I can just find some employee's worth a darn. So far this year I've through 3 and the forth one most likely will be fired tomorrow.

Joe, the collecting the $ part is not always easy. When people owe $ they suddenly become scarce. My late elderly friend used to go door to door to collect people insurance premiums so the people wouldn't have to go in or mail them. There was a lady that had a reputation as having killed her husband and most of the collectors were afraid to go to her house, but my friend would go and she was a bit sweet on him. Kept inviting him to attend some of her wild parties, but he always declined.

Sad to hear about the employees. Too bad you're not in my area. I know quite a few hard workers who are looking for jobs. I just found out that people can't even get construction jobs around here unless they go to Lake Charles (2 hours away) and pay $120 for a TWIC (at least that's how it sounds-- not sure on the actual acronym) card. All they have to do is fill out paperwork, show proof of citizenship (either birth cert + ID or a passport) and pay the fee. Then wait a few weeks to get the card. No physical, no background checks... Just show up and get the card. Pay to play (or work in this case) type thing. Yesterday I drove my brother & some friends to get the TWIC cards. Only one of my bro's friends didn't have the $ so my brother spotted him. Somehow I don't think he'll ever get the $ back. His friend has a problem with not listening to people and not being able to follow simple instructions/directions. He also likes to argue when he has no clue what he's talking about. He's never had a job for more than a couple months bc he keeps getting fired for either mouthing off or for incompetence. He's a nice enough kid, but he's a bit dense and I highly suspect he's on the autism spectrum. My mother hates him.

My elderly dog is doing better. I only had to help her get up once in the past week-- she had no traction on the floor again. For the most part, if she struggles enough she can get up, but it's not always easy. She actually came to me the other day to ask for a diaper change (the diapers keep her from peeing on the floor & then slipping in the pee). If the weather was cooler I could let her outside. I've been giving her a little bit of time without diapers on so she doesn't get skin irritation. This morning my back was so sore that my brother had to put a diaper on her for me. I took something for the pain so I was able to change the diaper later.

It sucks when they get old like that.
Today I had 6 jobs line up.
I stop to pick up the first helper, never came out, would not pick up the phone.
Go to the next one and the same thing happened.
Time for plan C and I went to work by myself.
Second helper called and text all day begging me to give him a second chance, second chance, this happens every week!

Man, Joe, that really sucks about the helpers not coming out or answering the phone. Don't blame you for firing any of them if they do that. I can understand if it happens once and there is a good reason for it-- like an emergency where they were at the hospital or something-- but even then, they should have at least texted with an explanation ahead of time. People being unreliable is one of my pet peeves. It's why I always hated group projects in school because I always ended up doing the entire thing by myself because nobody else would do their part.

I went to the store to pick up some prescriptions but turns out the pharmacy was out-of-stock. Dollar Tree was out of the coconut water my mother wanted, so I came home with some rotisserie chicken (not from Dollar Tree) for her instead. Walked in and the old dog was next to the cat food bowls with one of the bowls pulled out into the middle of the floor and she was asleep with her face in the bowl. Now I know why the cat food is going so fast. I might need to relocate their food somewhere else so the dogs don't keep eating it. I already feed my cat who has cancer up on top of the cat tree instead of down on the floor. She eats and eats but won't gain weight, and she's become super clingy-- literally. She will latch on to me and cling-- just wraps herself around my neck and won't let go.

Since I drove off and left him he now stands at the end of the driveway waiting for me and worked his butt off all day.
I just hope it's not just a flash in the pan.
Today we ground about 10 stumps at 4 different houses and he was trying to carry the stump grinder, gas can, and rake in one trip instead of three, it was funny to watch.
We also mowed and wacked 4 yards and I saw him making sure the trimmer was full of gas and checking the string before he started.
He did so good I even bought him lunch

Wasn't feeling good today so all I did was went to PT which all that did was made me sore. Got all of my tools gathered up for the week end,Going to tear the wavy ceiling down in my sons room. And put a new one up and hopefully even get it painted, If every body shows up that is suppose to.

Joe, that sounds like a lot of work! Those stump grinders are heavy. We used to have one but we sold it after my father died. Kinda wish we'd kept it because we could have used it recently-- but, it would have been sitting unused for years and might not have run. I'm glad the employee is working hard now. I guess the thought of losing his job lit a fire under him and I, too, hope that it isn't just a flash in the pan.

Tuffy, I hope you get feeling better soon. I still need to get my tools back from my friend. They are at his house but he's been staying at his grandfather's house to take care of him. Last time I looked around at his house, I didn't see stuff, but I didn't look too hard. Not sure where he put my stuff and I really hope it didn't get stolen. He's got a guy staying there who isn't all that reliable and who stole some stuff off my brother's truck so I'm a bit concerned.

My brother's truck is running better now that he got silicone put in the cracked tail light housing. it had filled with water and caused a short. But, someone vandalized his truck prior to him being let go from Pizza Hut. They ripped some trim off of the top, cracked his windshield, managed to steal his inspection sticker (bc he sometimes forgets to lock his truck), and removed some screws to his sun roof. He's got things patched with duck tape for now. With the electrical fixed the tail light works again, his VTM-3 is working again, and his cruise control is functioning (all 3 had stopped working). He got a new inspection sticker (despite the crack-- guy said he wasn't supposed to give it bc of the size of the crack but that bc it didn't interfere with visibility, it was ok).

I'm supposed to go back and get my mother's prescriptions-- she said they called and said they were ready. Just feeling like a slug today. I went to bed before midnight and slept all night but i'm still tired.

Did the backdrop for Superman get put up yet?
My chronic fatigue has been kicking in again so I've been sleeping more.
My dog is doing much better-- she hasn't needed help getting up in the past week and has been walking around and standing without wobbling. I gave the vet an update and she was very surprised.
My brother got his TWIC card to apply for more jobs. Medicaid gave him an extension for another year after the contacted them. He got a note back from Unemployment saying he was ineligible because he was fired for insubordination. They didn't even give him a hearing or give him a chance to give his side, so he sent them a long e-mail detailing what happened and how he wasn't properly fired. Meanwhile, his boss got off with a warning/reprimand for the stuff he was reported to (because according to their rules, there has to be a warning before he can be fired-- something my brother never got). He also figured out which employee reported him and retaliated against her by cutting her hours way back so she loses money. My brother then called the district manager and told him what happened and the guy told him "I wish you'd told me this when you still worked there". He said now it will look like retaliation, but he did believe him. He also let him know that the boss accused him of all sorts of things that he knew he hadn't done, but that it would be hard to make corporate accept that. My brother has several friends who will testify on his behalf if it goes to court, but right now he's trying to find a free/cheap unemployment lawyer.

free/cheap unemployment lawyer? I've never seen this.

Better Call Saul.....you'd have to be familiar with Breaking Bad to understand.