farm - stress relief.

 

Well one of the reasons that I do the part time farming is that it gets your mind off of work and gets you involved in menial tasks.  So working on fences, working on equipment helps get you mind off of things, plus gives your body a work out. This past week I got too much of both.  Cut some firewood, but got the truck stuck leaving the field.  So got the tractor out and got it stuck too. So all I could focus on Sunday afternoon was how to get the blankety blank tractor out of the blankety blank mud. 

 The top part of the ground had thawed, but under that top layer, the ground was still frozen hard.  So the bucket on tractor couldn't dig down under that layer of frozen dirt. And the ruts had thawed enough that the mud made it hard to get traction.  Vanessa came down and gave Joe and I a hand getting it out. We dropped bricks and stuff down in the mud so that the tires could get traction.  What a way to spend an otherwise pleasant afternoon.

Did get to meet Eric's friend, Matt Apple, over the weekend.  A pleasant guy, he is a graduate assistant football coach over at Findlay. Played some computer games and hung out. 

Joe = 16
Mood:  celebratory

Well the youngest has finally turned 16.  And to boot it was a snow day, so he got to stay home and play world of warcraft all day.  He still has to do drivers school, then he can get his license. Not sure if he will use Chad's car afterall or not.  He may have a lead on a camero from his friend Cody.  He did get in a fight the other day.  The other kid started it and Joe finished.  Still has to do a Saturday school. 

 

tractor owie
Joe got the tractor stuck on ice.  There are some ruts going into the field by the schoolhouse. They filled with water and it froze.  Joe got down in the ruts and couldn't get out. Vanessa tried to help out and ended up taking a tumble when she stepped down from the tractor. I guess her foot snagged on something when she dismounted. She took a tumble and now has a nasty bruise on her elbow.  They finally got it loose and put away.

hay

We have a standup water faucet out by the barn.  Joe was feeding the cows last night and  accidently dropped a round bale off of the bucket loader of the tractor.  It rolled and hit it, breaking it under ground.  When I installed it years ago from the house, I fed it straight off the house plumbing with no cut off.  So this morning I hooked up a cut off valve and left it turned off. This spring I will have him dig it up so that I can make a permanent repair. 

work woes
Mood:  down

Here at work it is like being on death row.  Everyone in our department is expecting to get the axe sometime in 2008, we just don't know when.  So morale is as low as I have seen it. I describe it as being in charge of the crew shovelling coal in the number 4 boiler on the Titanic. It's hard to tell folks to keep shovelling harder when the water is around your ankles. 

 Management gave that dismal announcement in the first week of the year, but no further news is forth coming. So rumors are flying left and right. It's hard to keep track of them all. I wish they would give out some information, a time table, numbers, something.  A lot of folks are feeling like mushrooms...

 Attitudes seem to differ. One person stated that they want to be like the orchestra on the Titanic - playing until the deck slips under the water. Another said, it doesn't matter I am getting let go anyway so I'll do the minimum until they lay me off. I am with the orchestra folks - I'll be able to keep my head held high if I am among those let loose.

I look for things to start happening soon. They are deciding on an offshore vendor to do our jobs.  Then there will be a training/ramp up time. Then we will no longer be needed....

Chelsea is back at school at Sinclair. She is still working/studying and staying on her own.  We generally see her on the weekends. She did stop in last night for Vanessa's 25th birthday.  Vanessa is doing well as is Elaina.  Joe is doing OK, he is going to be a student aid for chemistry. So he must have some aptitude for that. His studies are going much better right now. Maybe he is getting more mature.  Chad is fine too, he and Sarah are working out plans for the wedding.

customer service
Mood:  irritated
I am fed up with customer service. Wouldn't it be nice to call for help and actually have the phone answered by a real person instead of silicone sam the automated answer man or his wife - silicone sally? How about if the first person you spoke with could actually help you with your problem? A person feels like they are on a telephone merry go round as they are transferred from department to department.

And don't get me started on the nationality of the person answering the phone, most often Peter is actually Pierre and Ralph is actually Raul. I guess they think that Americanizing their names will fool you into thinking that you are actually speaking to someone down the street, not from the other side of the world who could care less if the stupid American gets their problem fixed or not. They dutifully follow their answer trees and when the tree says to transfer you get transferred to Department X, and now you are talking to David (actually Darhan) who is probably in the next cube over and just has a different set of answers on his tree, and guess what - his answers won't help with your question either.

It boils down to a battle of wills. They hope to grind you down until finally you realize the futility of ever getting help and give up. Phone rates and foreign labor are cheap. So they can flip you around from person to person for pennies a day. The only thing you have on your side is persistance. The hope that thru some random process you will be connected with the right person at the right time and they can answer your question.

I am posting this after spending 35 minutes with a cellular company - Sprint. I was transferred 5 times and finally the person knew what to do and it took like a minute to tell me what to do. But I recently did similiar stints with a Aetna - a health insurance company and Skyway - a satellite company. It's an epidemic.

becky surgery
Mood:  irritated

Becky finally had her back surgery.  Too early to tell the long term success. Definitely a lot of pain in the short term - but the doctor said that this was expected. Her roommate is doing very well. She was able to walk around the floor while Becky was only able to make it to the nurses station and back.

She has a lot of pain in the right leg.  The doctor said that operation was a success, but that things were worse than expected.  A pinched nerve turned out to be smooshed flat and also the vertebrae had a fracture. So we are taking things one day at time. Rough start to the new year, but we are hopefull that in the long term this is positive.

 

catching up

A followup to the below outsourcing story.  One of the guys laid off was only with our group for 9 months.  Our parent company is Reed Elsevier and the lease building space in building 5.  Well he interviewed with them and got a better position than what he had with us - and more pay!  Lay me off, please. 

 Coaching basketball this winter. We play a lot of bigger schools and so it is a tough league. We got our first win last night over Dixie, one of the other small schools in the league. The girls had a great time on the bus ride home.  To the tune of 'bingo' they sang, "there was a team that we beat and Dixie was it's name-oh, D-I-X-I-E...."  It was great to see their hard work rewarded.

Chad did some work on Chelsea's car.  So he earned some extra $$ for Christmas, plus he worked over last weekend doing snow removal. Joe is weight lifting for the football team.  Chelsea is off on winter break from Sinclair. She has helped me coach the team a little in her spare time.

Becky has back surgery in another couple of weeks, so she is understandably nervous about getting it done. I only hope that it lessens her pain and that she feels better. 

Cambridge hunting trip

Joe and I went hunting at Grandma Susan's.  We did see deer, but for the most part, only after they saw us.  On the second day, Joe did get off some shots, but we couldn't pick up any trails. We sat down after about an hour of trying to pick up the trail. We talked about hunting out West someday.  Joe heard some leaves rustling. I told him that it must be some cows that were out in the pasture and were nearby.  A few seconds later a buck comes walking by about a 100 feet away. Next time I will let joe trust his instincts.

He couldn't get a good shot because it turned and walked away. So the deer hunting didn't go all that well. But Joe did get to go horseback riding. I didn't realize it, but he had never rode before. He enjoyed riding a mare of grandma Susan's. So now he is a regular cowboy. 

Back to reality
Mood:  sad

The first weekend back from India was nice - I got to see all 4 of the offspring.  Gave them all the goodies that I brought back.  I didn't spend as much as what I did the last go round.  Still was able to buy Becky a nice perl necklace.  Joe must have had a growth spurt while I was gone.  He is beginning to approach my height.  He looks to be around 6 feet tall or close to it. 

It was a somber day at work last Thursday, a black Thursday for us.  We still aren't outsourced enough.  They let loose some folks in other departments earlier that week, and we got it on Thursday. In our immediate group we lost 3 people.  Our sister group lost 2.  It was quiet as a funeral Thursday afternoon.  Then to add insult to injury, the Senior VP sends out an email stating that the company is sending out an employee satisfaction survey! Gee, I wonder what our groups response to that one is going to be?  Talk about rubbing salt in our wounds.

 The Deeters are doing fine at our house.  It is different to have a little one running about the house again.  Oh how they learn by watching. I was logging in from home to do some work over the weekend. I left the window up when I had to leave.  Vanessa found her tapping on the keyboard. She was worried what mischief she may have caused.  I had ended the internet session, I think...   She also likes the remote controls, you don't dare leave one laying about. 

Joe got all passing grades on his first report card. Chelsea seems to be doing well at Sinclair.  Vanessa is going to come to ball practice on Tuesday for an hour.  Just to help work with the girls.  I asked both Vanessa and Chelsea to come for a day or two in the preseason.