Anybody out there with snakeskin

I want to share something with you.  A few days ago I got to demo a nice lotion product that used to be by prescription only.  Some of the usual eaters passed me by, but I was able to let the shoppers who did stop try the new product.  Most were impressed.

I learned from a customer that this lotion used to be “by prescription only.”  Now that line on my paperwork made more sense.  The line read “available without a prescription.”  I found that very odd at the time and wondered why anyone needed a prescription for lotion.

The lotion contains 12% alpha hydroxy acid and will exfoliate your skin as it nourishes it. 

This is great stuff!

This was a great demo because I could let my hair down and also didn’t have to wear a hairnet, gloves, apron and hat.  Yes sir, it was my lucky day!  And I certainly had fun with it.  I came home feeling great because all the customers gave me nice comments all day long.

By the end of the day, I bought a bottle of this myself even though it’s pricey for hand and body lotion, but it’s on sale for $13.87 so I decided to take the plunge.  That evening I used the lotion on my legs and feet, which are in terrible condition due to the dry weather we have here.  I was astonished when I got up the following morning and found my legs and feet so soft with no snakeskin.  My heels were even smoother.  That was after one treatment.

I’m really glad I splurged and got this.  I may have to get another bottle while it’s still on sale.

Action out back and other things

We knew this was likely to happen eventually.  Yet, we were shocked to see a drilling unit out back doing soil test samples.  I think I probably told everyone about the ATV and the guys back there a couple of weeks ago.  Hubby talked to them and they said they may purchase the property and were looking around.  They had permission, they said.  However, no motorized vehicles are allowed back there in the desert.  There are people who do disregard the signs and end up back there a time or two every summer.

A drilling rig taking soil samples and stirring up dust

The drilling rig has moved to the bluff behind the house

But then a few days ago a drilling rig showed up back there to take soil samples for testing.  We found out the property was sold to Entrata, which is home to the very ritzy developments around here.  This wouldn’t be a real bad thing as long as they don’t build up behind our house.  It’s way too damp back there and I think it would be pricey to bring it up to code for housing.  But sometimes that kind of stuff is ignored.  There’s an underground river that runs through this area.  The water table is very high.  There have been issues with some homes here due to water.  But we’re on the edge of that river, so our lot isn’t affected by this.  I think they must have filled in the exposed parts of the river years ago and then built there.  The team taking the samples said it was very wet and soft. 

We’re hoping the developer is smart and will give this property to the city so that it can stay nice like it is now.  There are wildlife living there and many walking trails that have been there for years.  I hate to see the landscape torn up and the critters disrupted from their homes.  The old lava beds can never be replaced.  It’s very sad that the big shots think we need more homes.  Time will tell what happens.  Otherwise, we’ll move I guess.  Where, I don’t know.

The drillers are still back there drilling holes and taking samples today, even though it was snowing earlier.  I hate that.  It’s so freakin’ cold.  I’m glad it didn’t last long and didn’t stick because it’s too wet from the ice rain we had earlier.  It’s about twenty degrees cooler than normal here.  Where are you spring?

On the work front, the last couple of weeks the new boss has been out for some major, unexpected surgery.  It’s such a nice stress-free zone and happy place right now.  We have that old vibe back.  She’s planning on coming back on the first, which is way too soon in my opinion.  But I guess she’ll find out for herself.  I’m going to try my best to work with this woman, but it’s difficult.  I really need a different job where I can dress the way I want and wear my jewelry and let my hair down.  I got to do a rare demo where I could do that yesterday (not the jewelry part, but the rest) and I got so many compliments.  I felt more normal and wasn’t the lunch lady.  Oh well…well see. 

Me in break room at work

Rules, rules and more new rules at work are all enough to handle.  Now the newest thing is removing our hats when on breaks and lunches.  Everyone is beside themselves because the store has operated just fine for the last seventeen years without us removing our hats.  So we’ve all got new hats to put on over our hairnets because who wants to walk around in a hairnet?  We all wonder what’s next.  How do you like my hat?  I may as well make a statement about how silly this is.

My Rolling Stones visor for breaks and lunches at work

Oh, drat, it’s snowing again!  Winter doesn’t want to go away this year.  If this keeps up, we’ll have snow on the ground tomorrow.  Yuck!

Snowing

Snowing

Snow in backyard

Happy Valentine’s Day 2018

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day! 

It’s a rainy day in the desert and about 55, but the gray clouds are breaking away and I can see bits of blue.  I’m not sure if this is just a temporary break in the weather because we had rain forecast for three days in a row.

Here's my skirt

Hubby gave me a beautiful, long blue skirt with pink flowers meandering in a flowy pattern.  I can’t wait for warm weather so I can wear it.

What to do on a rainy day

Dark skies in the desert behind my house

Naturally, I would like to curl up in my favorite reading chair, wearing my sweats, and grab the nearest book.  What a great   luxury this would be as I listen to raindrops hitting the window.  I’m off today, so no work to get ready for and customers to deal with.

Raven helping me with the litter boxes

But there’s always housework and laundry staring me in the eye.  And my two cats scolding me, as if to say, “mama, when are you going to change our litter box?”  So I changed the cat boxes, did four loads of laundry and changed the sheets, etc.  Now there’s just all the dusting and vacuuming to do, which will have to wait for another day.

I ran to the store for a few items just as it was beginning to drizzle.  It’s windy and chilly here today at 44 degrees.  I’m counting the days until spring.  I’m very tired of being cold, although I know there are many places in the country that are colder than this, but I don’t live there either by choice.

I hadn’t done any Valentines shopping either, so I got that finished before the last minute.

I’m also filling out job applications to see where that goes.  I love the people I work with, but wearing four layers of clothes to stay warm is really getting old, along with cooking from a stainless cart and serving the hundreds that come by daily for free food.

McLean Falls New Zealand courtesy of Joshua Scripps Photography

On another note, my neighbor has gone to New Zealand for a month.  I’m glad she found another friend to house sit and take care of her cat.  I have my hands full at work and with trying to heal myself from the flu and pneumonia.  I feel so sorry for her cat who is alone a lot of the time.  At least this time around she has someone in the house with her.  I know my neighbor has wanted to go to New Zealand for the longest time, so I’m happy she’s able to cross this off her bucket list.  I look forward to seeing her pictures when she returns.

Until next time, stay warm and well everyone.

We’ve probably only seen the tip of the iceberg

Things at work are in a major decline.  Just when you think that things can’t get any worse they do.  I’m really not sure where all this is going yet, but all of us are hoping the new boss gets her act together soon.  I think right now she’s very overwhelmed.  Many of us wonder how she ended up in the position to start with.  Her lack of training shows every day.

Tip of the iceberg.  We've probably not seen near as much as what's coming.

There are way too many new rules and we hear the ones we now know about are the better of the lot that’s coming.  Oh my!  I really don’t want to say too much more about this at the present time because I do still work there.  Several people have already left, some after they were given ultimatums and told they couldn’t have two or more jobs, so they had to make choices.  We’ve lost a few very good people.  I suspect others are actively pursuing other employment in their days off, however we’re all being worked ragged at the present time.

One thing that really drives me crazy is the secretiveness of everything now.  We can find little, if anything, out ahead of time.  This is nuts.  Why is everything a big, dark secret?  All the information that falls into that category now used to be open to all of us.  Life in the work department is very tiring and I find my own enthusiasm for the job waning.  I used to look forward to going there, but not anymore.  I am trying to be open to the changes and to give everyone a chance because that’s really what one should do.  But I have to tell you that I’m worn out.  On my days off I can sleep ten hours and still not get caught up on my rest.  The break schedule is really screwed up too and has been for a while now.  I don’t know if, or when, it’ll ever be straightened out.  Standing for four-plus hours with no break is almost impossible at my age.  Everyone is finding that hard.  There are many days when people get forgotten altogether. 

Yet we employees go in there every day never knowing what is going to happen to any of us before the day is over.  There’s a strange vibe going on.  Stay tuned for more on this situation.

Well this is not a very good pic, but it's me on the morning before my eye surgery.  If you look closely, you can see my eyelids lie on my eyelashes

This is me after eye surgery.  Beware this is an ordeal, but worth it in the end.

This is me in my sunglasses after I went back to work, minus our uniform of course.

This is me with no makeup and a few bruises left about a week ago.  I'm slowly getting back to normal, but I have eyelids again now and no more runny eyes.

My eye surgery is coming along well.  I do still have about another six weeks to go to be completely healed.  My eyelids are numb, but I’m told that takes months to correct itself.  The important thing is that it was a success.  I have no more drippy eyes.  I got so tired of customers asking me why I was crying all day long.  I do have to say the new boss did work with me too on this situation and I was allowed the time off I needed and was also able to wear sunglasses to work for a month until most of the bruising was gone.  I can now cover what’s left with makeup.

On a lighter note, we’re enjoying the warming days and all the critters that are coming to visit.  They forage for food in our yard and of course we always put water out for them.  This is such a bright note after a hard day at work.  I love watching them.  They seem so carefree, but I’m sure they do each have to worry about staying alive in the harsh desert environment.

Birds of Prey

Roadrunners

Squirrels and rabbits

Quail

Pigeons

Splashing in the birdbath is fun

The squirrel enjoying a peanut

We’ve also had many beautiful sunrises and sunsets lately.  I love taking pictures of them, even though I have hundreds already.  Here are a few to enjoy.  

Sunrise in the desert is a great way to face the day

This is another sunrise

Be thankful for all your blessings because you never know what each new day will bring.

Work and more work

This is from the Pinterest boards.  I could go on and on so this is quite appropriate for me.

That’s what my life consists of these days.  I get a day off about every five days or so.  I’m simply too tired to get on this computer much so I’m on here about every two weeks at the present time.  At least I’ll be able to pay the bill for my eye surgery quicker, or at least I hope so.

We finally have hit the sixties during the day.  I’m longing for the eighties so I can bake a while in the sun.  By this time of year, I’m chilled to the bone.  I know I’m going to be one of those old ladies who is wearing a sweater in the middle of July when it’s in the nineties outside.  But that’s a few years down the road, I hope.

Meanwhile, I’m over the flu and the pneumonia and trying to catch up on some sleep.  And also weeding out lots of email and enjoying a few laughs on the Pinterest boards.  I can waste a lot of time on there if I’m not careful.

All of us are still trying to get used to the new boss at work.  Things are moving in the right direction, I think.  I have to say she’s been pretty nice to me with all my issues lately.

I’ll be on here sooner next time, I hope.  Let’s all do a dance for spring.  I’m so ready for my tank tops and flip flops.  But I suppose I’ll be working more than I think and that means the penguin suit and closed-in non-slip shoes that give me athlete’s foot.  I guess there are worse things, but the only good thing about winter is that I can wear black to work instead of the dreaded white shirt, which isn’t my color at all.

Hope everyone is staying warm and well.

Better late than never

Oh my, it’s been such a long time since I posted anything.  It’s been a month since I’ve been on this computer.  I finally was able to get on here today and clear out some of the 5500+ emails.  It’s definitely time for an update.  I hope you’re well and doing great.

I’ve had my share of trials lately.  It’s far too much for one post, but let me say I had some eye surgery so was down quite a while from that.  I took a total of twelve days off work when I was intending to take four.  Things ended up being a much bigger ordeal than I was anticipating.  I’ve spent hours and hours icing my face.  For the first two weeks all I did was ice twelve hours a day.  You can only imagine how old that can get.  Now its been a month and I still have swelling and some bruises remaining, so I got permission to wear sunglasses to work until that subsides.  At least the original goal of fixing my runny eyes was accomplished.  I don’t know when things will really be back to normal in that whole eye department.  My eyes are so sore and somewhat numb in places.  I’ll fill you in with more details in a separate post later.

My hubby caught the worst cold at work, or so we thought.  He brought it home to me.  I wasn’t at work two days when I was home again, this time with the flu and pneumonia.  After another week off I’m finally back at work again.  Hopefully, this is the last pitfall for a while.  I’m so tired of being sick.  But so many people are out with this and some have ended up in the hospital, so thankfully that didn’t happen to me.

I’m thankful that our new boss is working with me and all my problems.  Yes, we got a new boss while I was out having my eye surgery.  Everything at work has changed and not necessarily for the better. But as we all know, change is difficult when things have been done certain ways for years.  Apparently, the old way was the wrong way to do it.  Everyone is going through a learning curve.  Plus, we have to get to know the new boss and she has to get to know us.

It’s so good to be back at work, even with all the changes and things we must learn a new way.  At least I’ve been able to stay out of the coolers and deli area at work, which I’m very thankful for.  I always strive to do the best job I can do with whatever my demo happens to be for the day, but I was totally beside myself with the one I had yesterday.  I had never done it before, but that’s okay because it’s fun to do something new once in a while.  However, I was having anything but fun with this one.  Number one, I’m not a very good pancake maker but it’s a real challenge to make them in a dry pan with no oil.  Several of our workers tried to help me out, but the pancakes also stuck for them.  I found out it wasn’t just me.  I almost made myself sick over this ordeal because presentation means a lot to me.

I finally closed down my demo and put everything under my cart and turned it to the display rack because I needed to go back to the office to see if I could please get some oil for my pan.  Of course the answer was no.  “It’s a non-stick pan so you don’t need any oil,” I was told.  So I was left with two choices – bring my cart to the back and check out and go home – or figure out how to make it work with no oil.  To say I was angry wouldn’t even express my feelings.  Why didn’t she just throw me in the dungeon and beat me with chains?

But this is one of the instances when my stubbornness pays off because I rarely let anything get the best of me, no matter how difficult and “hair pulling” the situation is.  I could have had a good blood-curdling scream, though that wasn’t an option.  I took some deep breaths, boiled out my pan, which had pancake goo all over it.  These things didn’t look like pancakes, but by the time I cut them up and put them in sample cups and put on some syrup people seemed to like it.  And they didn’t look nearly as bad as the heaps in the pan.  I was afraid I would pull the handle right off that skillet before the day was out.  I had to scrape it hard to get those pancakes turned over.  Eventually, I calmed down when I realized I just had to stop giving a damn about how they looked and keep on cooking and scraping the pan until the torture of that day was behind me.

I needed today off to cool off and be ready for whatever bombshell awaits me tomorrow.  I really hope my name is way down the list for those pancakes.  I’m going in full of optimism like I try to do every day, but I long for the old days when we could find out what our demo for the next day was.  You know sometimes it’s helpful if I find it’s something new and I want to google some ideas, or history on the product ahead of time.  But that probably won’t be happening much, if any, in the future.  I think the new boss likes to surprise us.