Middle Aged Journeying

 The Just Over Broke finally got me off that stand that was giving me plantar fasciitis so bad and onto the floor to cut up chicken and make it pretty enough to cut up more for eating. This is fine. I've done it all week now, and everybody thinks I'm doing great. It only took me going last week to the old GPM, who is now the Assistant Plant Manager, and saying look, you have to step in and fix this because I'm in agony and feel like I was lied to and led on and I'm ready to go to HR and file a formal complaint. So I started on the floor Monday, and let me tell you, that is a whole new level of haul a$$. Time flies, thankfully enough, but I thought I was going to DIE when the day was over. Tuesday, I knew I would die from this. By Wednesday, it was starting to get more comfortable. Yesterday, it was going well enough that it didn't bother me so much. But this new range of motion pain is Oh My God What Have I Freaking Done To Myself level of pain. But at least it'...

 There's been not a lot going on, other than trying to decide if I should switch to a less expensive print partner for my shop. I've decided against it, after trying several other print on demand companies over the last couple of weeks, for designing and such, and they just don't do the job as well in certain aspects. So that ain't happening. The Just Over Broke has been insane and I'm about to go to the assistant plant manager and have a discussion over things, instead of taking it all to HR, because I really don't want to involve all the paperwork and headache that would be created from dragging HR in over the department head and a supervisor basically being ignorant putzes and trying to screw me over...better to have the APM, my former department head, get involved as he is a lot less likely to try to shove it under a rug. The poochie is in deep doodoo forever now. She darn near killed one of my cats about two weeks ago, for no reason at all. He's never d...

 I still have not forgotten, nor forgiven, nor do I think I ever can. On this day... 21 years ago 246 people went to sleep in preparation for their morning flights. 2,606 people went to sleep in preparation for work in the morning. 343 firefighters went to sleep in preparation for their morning shift. 60 police officers went to sleep in preparation for morning patrol. 8 paramedics went to sleep in preparation for the morning shift. None of them saw past 10:00am Sept 11, 2001. In one single moment life may never be the same. As you live and enjoy the breaths you take today and tonight before you go to sleep in preparation for your life tomorrow, kiss the ones you love, snuggle a little tighter, and never take one second of your life for granted. 

 In a tradition so old, its origins are lost to time, the Royal Beekeeper has gone to all the beehives of Buckhingham Palace and Clarence House, to deck them in black ribbon and perform the ritual of telling the bees. In this ritual, the beekeeper or some other person of note in the household goes to each hive, puts a bit of black cloth or ribbon on the hive, gently knocks a few times, and says, "Your master/mistress is dead, but don't you go. Your master/mistress will be a good master/mistress to you," using whichever title is appropriate for the gender of the deceased and the new. The belief is that if the bees are not told, they will leave and no longer produce honey.  Thus, tradition has been kept for the first time in seventy years. Thus may it ever be so, that the tradition carries on. My heart continues to break for the UK and her territories in the loss of their sovereign. So many more rituals must be carried out over the coming days. One that I found on YouTube t...

 While born and raised American as you can get, I'm mostly British extraction, and have been fascinated by Britain and the Royal Family for as long as I can remember. I have watched SO MUCH on BBC America, and picked up quite the lovely British accent from all that watching the telly. Thus, I have generally considered the leader of my country not to be the President of the USA, though he has been my whole life, one man or another, but my leader has been Her Majesty, Elizabeth Regina, Queen of England.  So it is with a sad heart now that I mention her passing the other day. Seventy years she was the Queen, and for so many, many people around the world, the only royal ruler they've ever known. It feels like losing a piece of myself, to lose my Queen.  Unfortunately, her rather less-than-stellar-intelligence oldest son, Charles, will now reign as King of England, and while my fealty will remain to Queen (or King, now) and country, I'm not certain he'll make a good monarch....

 Lord, I'm whipped tonight. Beat to all get out. My body is aching from the week, with 40.25 hours on the clock according to the kiosk at work. And I'm so tired of that place. So ready to be over it and just have the shop providing income. I wish so much that I could just quit, but there's bills to pay and no way to pay them if I am not working right now. It leaves me wanting to cry. I did have a bit of a chat with the GPM (department head) today before work and a bit during. He's going to see what can be done about getting me off the job I've done for 15 months now a bit sooner than "whenever we get someone in here we can train for it and stick on it." Thanks to the harassment and discrimination I told him all about, he's of the mind that we have to get someone into the department ASAP and get me off that spot to anywhere else in the department that I can physically handle. I think my saying that I was > <  <-- that close to filing a complain...