katesthoughts

I was on FB earlier this week (at Breaktime).  I saw my coworkers KC’s Memorial to our former Coworker who committed suicide 2 years ago Tuesday.  It was Memorial Day weekend.  We were working that Friday.  Linda was working and seemed semi normal.  She left late that day and headed up to her family’s vacation spot and the next day jumped from the side of the MT Pisgah mountain near Lake Willoughby.

We learned on Tuesday after the holiday.   The Administration eventually sent the email.  The services were on June 5 at St Michael’s in New Haven.  I remember attending the wake, but I’m unsure about the funeral. During that time those who were in the office wondered how and why she could do this.  We knew she had problems and was troubled.

Since that time, the Local 34 Committee for the Office of YM has prioritized reaching out to individuals who may be experiencing difficulties.  That’s one of the reasons we started focusing on JT this passed year.  We have been doing it longer than that.

The rest of this week has been busy with the daily stuff.  Some days felt longer due to annoying traffic.  On Thursday, I learned new work procedures successfully. I planned to stay longer today, but I started feeling sick at lunch.

The Annual University Spirit Week will commence next Tuesday.  I believe there is a Employee Appreciation lunch.  It should be fun.  Several of us from the office will be attending.  I am not sure if those working remotely will be attending.

I experienced a stomach bug on two occasions this week.  The first was during Wednesday’s Meetup.  The second event I mentioned earlier happened today.  I had to come home after two.  Since two thirty been taking it easy.  I had to miss Steph’s Birthday party.

I attended the first part of my dentist’s appointment last night.  I got there a little late but the whole procedure was to prepare for a temporary cap for my tooth.  It included a mold of the area so that the permanent one goes in.  The appointment is scheduled for next Thursday at 6:45 PM. I will not require any additional time.

I am going to the lab tomorrow to get blood work done for Dr.Y (Metabolism Assoc).  Our next appointment is in a couple of months.  I must review the appointments. I must also check my Cholesterol level for the Cardiologist.

I have an appointment with the eye doctor early next Friday morning, and I will take the entire day off for it.  I wasn’t sure if I will have eyes dilated or not.  I didn't want to go back to work with dilated eyes.   Next week, my schedule is quite full with appointments at the end of the week.  The following week I will look at later.

My nephew John, Angel Brother's older son, recently completed his EMT course and is now a certified EMT.  I don’t know if he has a job or not.  I am so proud of him.  Tiffany is proud.

His sister has been busy with theater activities.  Merman seems to have been vomiting under the bed.    Merman is their cat.

I am starting to get tired so I think I will finish this for now.

I am not sure what I was originally going to call this because it’s on the hard drive at home.  I think it was something close to this title.  So yes today is the last day of work for the next ten days.  SR sent out a cute Holiday message and many other admins and departments across the campus followed suit.  Everyone from the team responded

DG and I discussed what we should do when we return as there will be a huge backlog of mail.  So we plan on working together as a double team and focus getting out as much as we can without overwhelming ourselves.

There were a small number of people in the office today.  Many took today off in preparation for the holiday.  It was pretty quiet for most of the day.  Supervisor left after 2:30.  When I left there were only three left in the office.

I did scanning for the entire day.  I straightened up my desk a little but not by much before I left and ran for the door.  The sun was in setting mode and it wasn’t too cold.

I was planning on going grocery shopping but decided against it.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect (pandemonium probably).  Besides that the drive was a little slow at times.  I must say I still haven’t made the mistake of heading to the old house even once since I moved.

I stopped at the mailbox before coming into the house/condo.  It was empty.  That’s okay I can catch up on card writing.  I came in and the cats were coming out of the bedroom.  It was nearly quarter of 5 so I fed them, got some hot chocolate, and watched tv for a while.

I made some dinner of steak and nearly made a mess.  Too much oil to begin with and it spattered everywhere and on me.  There was still an oily smell in the kitchen so I went to put the ceiling fan on and I am use to turning it on at the source and it wouldn’t go on.  I had forgotten there was a switch for it.  I finally found it and turned it on.  I will have to check the chain to make sure it can go faster when necessary.

I spoke to Liz today.  She had a really hard day for herself.  She was recently diagnosed with diabetes (its in our family) and she also has Barrett’s disease.  The doctor told her she is really sick and it needs to do it.  There is a lot of factors involved here but Liz also knows it was the food she was eating.  She has to cut a lot of things out and she says it will be hard but she will do it.

The one highlight that probably made her day better was facetime with her newest grandbaby Aiden.  She sent me pictures of him wrapped up like an elf.  He made funny faces at her too.  He is beautiful.  I believe he will be going home tomorrow.

I have to make sure I get an email off to Dr. T.  I have been having problems trying to get the pictures I took of the condo to her.  I hope it works this time. 

Tomorrow I need to make calls and clean the condo.  I can’t believe I have been here a week already.

Well I didn’t get too far with the quotes yesterday.  I am not surprised.  I looked online at one and tried to call them but 1) this particular place out of East Haven is closed weekends.  2) They tell you to give some details of what you need but don’t give you a quote until you call.  Well I am not sure what to say yet.  I am also guessing most of the others are close for the weekend now too.  I did go over the Optimum packages so I don’t have to keep paying $223 and change. 

My goal today is to get the house cleaning done, and get to the closet.  Not really accomplishing that at the moment.  I will.  My reasoning for that is we are supposed to get a rainy Sunday afternoon.  My hope is it will spur me to do it

Today is my Niece Diane’s Birthday.  My memories of her over the years are mixed emotions.  She was a funny little child when she first came to us and she was on her second and final return from Taiwan and she became a real American girl.  There were times she irritated me (usually when she was smart ass teenager) and then when she went through the drama queen stage (to my siblings she is still there).  I still love her despite that.  I actually feel the same way with all of them.

I contacted my coworker who said she was going to get tested and she contacted the Manager and Supervisor.  It looks like we will have to sign a paper tomorrow.  I am waiting for the two emails that chew me out for it.  I didn’t tell I knew it was NW.  I called Liz and gave her the update. 

WE talked about the movers we have to contact, and you have to go through a hundred things to just get  a quote.  We decided that we would do that together sometime soon.  We also took a look at the optimum last bill…we will be working on that one too.

We also talked about the closet that I have very little outfits I put aside for spring as most I wear all year long.  Including some of the dresses but I can still put them away until I get to the condo.

I heard from Jim today he says read the travel policy for PA and he said I was right (yeah no shit) that it is getting bad.  NO Shit.

The weather is changing quickly.  The sun was out until about noon time.  The clouds moved in and the wind started picking up and about an hour ago we got a “severe weather alert” in patch.  The wind is supposed to be heavy and thunderstorms until midnight.

The TV remained on and managed to get rid of a lot of clothes hangers.  One whole bag of it and still have lots more to throw out.  I still need to do the clothes things.  I will do it slowly. Then again,  I think I am done for today.

Hey sorry for the Absentee posts.  It’s been a busy week again and I haven’t found time to write. 

        Things around here are fine.  Family is good.  Sis had bronchitis but seems to be better.  Bro is good.  Angel bro’s family seems well and on vacation again.  I do need to make decisions about the niece’s wedding shower next week.  Sis isn’t going because of what else?   The kitties had a birthday this week.  WE have a family zoom this weekend again.   It will be great to see them again.

        The city is trying to make plans for the school year in September.  There was a webinar with the BOE this past week.  I don’t know the end results of it.  I am sure it will be in the papers soon or I missed it.

        There was a developer who wants to build on the old Smith Funeral home property and make it mixed residential and business and it was not approved by the P&Z this week.  The crux of it is the Smith funeral home is considered a historical home and so was the surrounding buildings.  That’s all I know about it.

Late this afternoon I learned that an Iconic bar in town called Beachcomber’s is permanently closed and up for sale.  I have driven by probably a gazillion times but never went in it.  It’s a dive.  Its not something I do often anyway.

Work is getting into a better routine for me.  Shadow and I had some roads to work on and I think it’s better but I could be kidding myself.  I had a demo session this morning for scanning and indexing all the different correspondence we get (from patients, attorney, and other sources) but it will be the next task that SR told me about the first week I was back.

The area Committee meeting was an epic fail this week.  Someone forgot to tell us there was a password and no one was able to get into the zoom meeting.  However the push to attend the caravan event next week is being pushed and the level of activities is now ramping because issues are not being resolved in negotiations.

Health wise this week had a few days of not strict dieting (with national ice cream day I had to go for ice cream), I have been tracking the food better.  I missed exercise class on Monday showed up an hour late (and they don’t have classes at 6:30 for now).

  I have been walking at lunchtime.  The only time I made 10K was yesterday the other two or three days not so much.  I do have to say I might get to the 10K goal sometime this evening. 

   I cracked my wisdom tooth at dinner last night called the Dentist.  I called again and within the hour I had an appointment for tonight at 6:15.  I have been leery about eating or chewing anything hard.  He was able to get the broken piece out but he wants me to see an oral surgeon for the rest and decide if I need an implant (I don’t).  I didn’t get out of there until 8.  I stopped at Panera for soup.  Saw some beautiful Cloud formations..

 I have my infusion and an eye appointment next Wednesday at 3.  I believe it will be the eye test to check for plaquenil…They call it something Vision test (don’t be wise asses). 

I went to the Rose’s Orchard Meetup last night and we had a great time.  Met a new person who is really great to talk to and is a pet sitter, she had some really great views on pets and pet sitting.  I did share the news about Neighbors K&S with her (she knows K through the dentist).

I left there sometime after 8 as it was supposed to start storming and I still had to put the garbage out.  I am planning on going next week if my eyes are settled in by then.

I am not sure if I am attending the sip and soak meet up yet (the shower is the same time).

I will be going on the solo hike at McLean’s Nature preserve on Saturday.  I really wish I wasn’t going alone but I am not really sure if I will or not. 

I managed to get up a little after 5 and do a few things before feeding the team.  I was surprised I was in such good spirits considering I went to bed fairly late.  I put the coffee on as I was getting ready for the day, took my daily meds.  The normal start  to the day in our house.

I was able to leave a little after 7 and made it to the gas station like I should have yesterday but luckily it was okay.  I got to the office by 7:30 and chatted with SR.  I found out some stuff “is coming down the pike as for as additional tasks.  I also admitted my regret about not working more.   She admitted it was her first day back to the office too. 

I set up for the day and chatted with some more of my coworkers who came in for the first time.  I found out MC’s mom has been quite ill.    I hope she will be okay, but unfortunately it will be a long road.  I made phone calls to IT and as of now they are working on it I believe.

I have the area committee meeting at 12 pm and I will have to find a place to sit and participate.  We have an Ally meeting with other unions tomorrow I think.  I don’t know…I just wrote up the notes in my Union file on the computer. 

It doesn’t look like I am going to the meetup tomorrow night.  I want to attend that Ally meeting tomorrow night.  I would have found out about it if I could get connected.  I tried even with the suggestions.  They even said use the zoom connection for the phone.  I got so aggravated that I just gave up and went back to work with out even having lunch.

There were some issues about the mail.  We are trying to find out if they were here or not yesterday.  Kilby station was not picked up.  The other stuff in cash bags were the only thing we got.  I sometimes wonder if we all mean the same thing when we say “the courier service” was here this many times.

The rest of my day went into the crapper.  I realized I was scanning documents the wrong way and ended up losing the said files.  I was able to redo some of them that I touched today.  Luckily AC helped out and was able to rescue at least one day.  We were able to get a document access so that I can make the refund scanning  batch sheet.  IT was helpful in getting Java updated and epic reset and now I can access my time card from every place except from the laptop at home.  I took a picture of it and sent it to the guy who helped me today. I gave him the information and will check the email again tomorrow.

I came home by 4:30.  I had my lunch food as snack.  I had relaxed until it was time to get to the gym.  I missed Paiges class but after my session with Alex I stayed until 7:15.  I did thirty minutes on the treadmill and made it to 9k (not exactly the 10K as promised) and became 10Kplus by the time I got to the car.

When I got home the cats were roaming but there was a mess on the floor of my old phone and pictures and pins.  It was the second time today it was on the floor.  I am not sure what was going on.  Either I am being visited by spirits or these two where have a grand old time.

I made dinner, watched a little tv and then started the taxes.  I just finished a little before ten.  To say it was stressful would be an understatement.  Everything I worked on was zooming.  I used Turbotax and it cost me just over $150.  I was getting aggravated every time an email alert, or page alert would show up. There were so many questions they went through I couldn’t answer (like paying stuff from another state) I mean I used chewy or amazon or Newegg but I think they charged state taxes. 

I had FMLA so I think that was correct.  I just don’t know.  There were all the questions about owning the house.  I just don’t know and I didn’t want to call “HIM” or my sister because it was getting late.  I am getting alerts that they have been submitted.    I was really obnoxious and I was cussing and I never know if I am so loud that the neighbors can hear me.    Well one won’t they don’t look like they are around.     Well the kitties seem fine (they spent the last two hours downstairs)

I don’t think I will be going to bed anytime soon.