CLEAN SWEEP WEEK (Feb 27)

 CLEAN UP ON AISLE 6  Many years ago I decided to try out a house cleaning service.  In my first experience I could not restrain myself from cleaning before she showed up to clean.  Further after absconding with my stove burner covers, breaking every child-proof cupboard lock and destroying a glass bowl that was given to my daughter when she was born, I was done. Not as clean perhaps, but less stress. 

Thought we would give it another try. I was a little shell-shocked at how much prices have gone up-like everything else. Secondly it took 2 1/2 women about five hours to perform the overall first time deep clean. Should I be embarrassed? Suprisingly they did not find and vacuum up the errant popcorn kernal that was under the loveseat or clean off the large register in the living room. However one could eat off the shower room floor if one was so inclined.  That in itself was worth the price of admission as they say. My built-in shelves with their collection of objects (all highly breakable) were painstakingly dusted and restored - we're talking some major dust there.

One of the ladies seemed to be the bathroom virtuoso as I always found her on the floor when I popped back in occasionally. I am so glad I clean my bathrooms on a regular basis (except the afore mentioned shower stall) but she made me look like an amateur. They made a few design changes which are actually more efficient and the best compliment was "your house is not really cluttered". Good to know.

HAPPY 'PUTING I have mentioned my "ancient" laptop that I have been coddling, nursing and praying over that it not die on me. I did have to break down and buy a second cheapie to cover my podcasts as old reliable has not proven as reliable the last couple of years. I had loaded my HR Block program on for the 2022 tax year when, da da da...it decided to stop recognizing the internet. The neighbor's yes and the printer, but not the stinking modem sitting within spitting distance of it. Back to Best Buy where I am pretty much on a first name basis with the Geeks. After cleaning her up and reruning the hard drives she was purring like a kitten in the store picking up internet at lightning speed.  Then I took her home - arrrgghhh. Back to BB and bought a $39 adapter that once loaded on, picks up the internet and keeps it on while simultaneously thumbing it's figurative nose at me for not doing this ages ago. Gosh I miss an IT department. Oh wait I do have one as I pay the Total Tech subscription there each year. Was also able to recycle two ancient TVs for free as well. 

TREED AT LAST On another front we did not suvive the ice storm unscathed unfortunately. We got a frantic call from our lake house neighbor letting us know a massive branch had fallen and though it covered the width of the deck, just missed crashing into the sliding glass doors. (The neighbor hates that tree and remarks on its ominous creaking and general messiness constantly.) So to keep our neighbor and caretaker happy and protect our house from any other falling objects we are taking the old girl out next week. Though she offered a lot of shade, she was constantly dripping her leaves and branches while displaying a distinct and progressive lean towards the lake.  Willow trees are not "good" trees. I should probably give notice to the family of woodpeckers living in another hollow branch. But no doubt they will get the message at some point... like when the chainsaws start up. Actually many bird families have utilized that tree..Peace out...💚 💙💛

SOMEONE HAS TO BUY THE CANDLES (Feb 20)

 Watching Turkish nurses feverishly clinging to infant isolettes when the shaking starts to protect the vulnerable little creatures inside. Maybe that's why we're here to do the small "right" things and "save" another...and then...On the other spectrum our world torn apart again by a senseless act by an evil "slighted" disgruntled individual. 

To lose your child who you tremblingly agreed to send away to school taken from you in such a horrific manner. How do you take your hand from the face you kissed and comforted for so long? How do you bury your child under a blanket of cold dark earth? How does one live with a broken heart?

 It's here, right in our backyard and none of us are safe from this heartache; it seems to be a matter of "when" not "if" anymore. Yet those who can impact this insanity go merrily on blaming the person not the proliferation of, and our country's fascination with, guns, the fire power of automatic weapons and massive ammunition clips. The same group who say it's a mental health issue also veto or cut funding for facilities, training and insurance for mental issues. 

A friend's daughter I have known since her birth, was called in to the University that night as part of the Emergency Services Operations. Not knowing if the attack was organized, others were involved, what other operations or IT services could be compromised. I wonder how many realize that when the incident happens somebody has to buy the candles. 

Someone has to restore the power when a transformer falls off the pole and impales the worker. Someone has to go back and find the tools and clothing discarded during the electrocution. Someone has to dig out the records before the authorites arrive when all  you want to do is sit in the hospital and pray they live after collapsing in a manhole. Someone has to find the severed digit when the machine zigs instead of zags. Someone has to stay stoic and non-committal as the wife and "friend" in separate rooms are torn between begging for help and accusations of not protecting their loved ones.  Someone has to open the road when all you want to do is lay flowers at what has now become a concrete grave. Somebody has to buy the candles. 

Someone has to call the new widow and not tell her what you think accepting that anger and recriminations will follow. Someone has to remove the tragedy and clean up the mess. Someone has to finish the job that now has a cost in blood Someone has to seek the truth and hold others accountable on what could be the worst day of their life. 

Someone has to render aid as tears blind the onlooker and hands clasped across one's heart does not stop the bleeding. Someone has to write the press release, create the sermon, cue the band and somebody has to buy the candles.  Blessed are those who do when others cannot, though they will be misunderstood. 

Life goes on and people keep dying. We don't take enough time to mourn but some don't have the luxury of stopping the machine of life for even a moment because there is no peace when we accept a body count as business as usual, but somebody has to.....💚💔

                                                 

BACK TO THE BEGINNING (Feb 13)

TRASH TALK  Recycle is a "Dad" chore on Saturdays apparently.  Being under the weather this week my major outing was a trip to the Recycle center.  I am always a little embarrassed when the majority of my glass dump is usually in the colored glass section (wine bottles).  It's not like I go every week...but I digress.

Though fairly busy, it was generally the male contingency tooling up in their monster trucks and sports vehicles transporting their carefully separated plastics/papers/glass. As I carry small paper bags of goodies they heft sizable tubs of second-chance refuse. As 90% of what we recycle does not even get reused, seems pointless but getting into the habit is a virtue I suppose. Ahh the early days when the busy bods would tsk tsk when we would trash instead of treasure or screech if our ketchup bottle splotched into the wrong bin.  

Cleaning out someone's house certainly taught me that sorting becomes futile due to the sheer mass; there are not a lot of options for recyle in a small northern town; and basically at a certain point one does not give a crap, so useable/non-useable items ended in a place that will never see the light of day. I will probably have to take to the grave where some of it ended up.  (no I did not dump stuff in the lake) It was all legit, just wasteful...and costly. Think those guys with the bags and no questions asked- pay by the truckload. Who knows what happened after that, but I did feel bad as perfectly good personal items floated past me before ending up in their final resting place. Declutter people-you never know who will be pawing through your life at the end. Though you obviously won't care spare your friends and family having to separate your unmentionables, dubious photos and your general overall taste for ceramic clowns and other chachkies.

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE Then there was the whole worlds colliding thingee this week. Perusing my quarterly BWL newsletter this week I saw a picture showing a group of emps who graduated from a MIOSHA Training Institute (MTI) boot camp. I had enough years to become a retiree (small pension) from the BWL and I am a founding author of the MIOSHA MTI.

 I remember our coordination of the first boot camp when it occurred to us if we could get the proper co-sponsor support and corral enough instructors we could create a quick-path to providing a certificate in  a week or two. We were nervous that we could attract enough students to cover the costs, but the idea took off as there were those who wanted to get their certificates in a shorter period of time. I am especially proud that the MTI certificate of achievement started appearing in Michigan EHS job postings as a preferred document of education within the first year of operation. 

I started my safety career at the BWL. It was normally just two of us and a big reliance on educating and trusting committee members when I was flying solo. Now they have several layers of emps devoted to safety and health with a commitment to the programs which is the way it should be.  Nice to know I continued to be part of that effort with the MTI program.

Now time to clear the decks and get ready to watch the commercials er, er the Super Bowl .

Peace Out💚 💙💛

HAPPY NEW YEAR (CHINESE) (Feb 6)

SCHOOL DAZE Starting off with a Joe-ism. When dropping him off at school I waited a bit as they don't open the doors until 8:55 and it was COLD. But prior to that time a group of kids were lining up, kind of, near the door.  Joe immediately announced "those are my people" and bounced out of the car.  Sounds like a baptist preacher eager to spread the good news. 

That evening he told us the principal sat down with the 4th grade boys to have a talk about sexual harassment. These are 9 and 10 year olds! Apparently some unwanted comments and touching was happening.  At that age they don't even know why they want to-I blame social media with children being exposed to sophisticated ideas way before they are ready. Joe's take was it's disrespectful and he would not treat a girl like that.  Thank you Mama for paying attention and raising a decent young man.

BUT WHAT ABOUT...The OH gave me some welcome news about not having to clean the church this month and I responded-shoot, February is a short month (we volunteer every other month)! Unfortunately I tend to put a negative spin or find the cloud in the silver lining more often than not.  I blame being a "safety skate" for so many years.  Most of my conversations consisted of problems to be solved, incidents to explain or hazards to be recognized and mitigated. Hard to recognize the sunshine sometimes. 

 A few illustrations:  my insistence on performing required testing of the vehicle hoist and blowing the damn thing up; holding people accountable when they set fire to the propane tank trailer (calling the fire department & then leaving for the day); getting "bitched out" by the Manager when I pulled a worker off a 15 foot tall turbine with no fall protection; trying to figure out how to eliminate fresh varnish smells in a building that were causing the women to drop like flies not to mention the 911 operators who swore they had asthma attacks every time we cleaned, painted or moved furniture; reassuring Police Officers that they were not going to die of lead poisoning outside at the gun range on practice days (except for the guys who staffed it every day who actually did have higher levels-smoking is always helpful of course); the same folks who fought wearing flourescent vests when doing traffic duty, in the dark, in dark uniforms;  smoothing Parks folks' fears about a chlorine-like subject used to clean the pools or pointing out that even though the package says silica hazard, it is beach sand and I did not expect them to flop face-down in it and inhale. Just a few examples of my working life for 40 years. 

 Not to mention all the workers comp claims, unemployment and discipline cases I defended that made me look like an absolute uncaring beast as, I don't know, I did not think people should rip off the system. In my defense I approved 99% of claims, but when it was bogus, well that's when I got involved. One tends to get a certain rep with a certain group of people that way. 

Or I'm just a negative nellie and need to own it. 

IT'S RAINING FANG FANG The chinese balloon incident was pretty interesting this week.  I am guessing just a left-over party prop from the Chinese New Year celebrations...or not.  Love the repugs having conniptions over a) non-action; b) action taken; c) notice to the people, etc.  Rubio got schooled in a network interview after whining about secrecy when it was pointed out that at least three balloons danced across our skies under trumpersfield years. Anyone hear about those? Like the classified docs, not the same field, rules or game.

IN OTHER NEWS Went to see the "80s for Brady" film - hilarious and there were actually people in the theater!  I pick my seats ahead of time online so I can get the 1st row in the 2nd tier next to the railing where I plant my feet for the duration. I'm not sure how young people can afford to date these days: over $40 for tickets, popcorn and two drinks. I'll be sure to palm a fifty to Joe when he starts to entertain so he is not reduced to finding other activities that are not so costly, except they are lol. So now I understand why teenage babysitters are looking for $20 an hour to watch the sprouts. 

New poddie recording this week and after rehearsal, I am a little concerned. A person whose professional life is coaching and customized training should not be that hard to interview. Gushing I'm used to. Short succinct answers not so much. As it is a soft topic (leadership) elaboration is required. She is a lot of fun to talk to otherwise so I'll just have to push a few buttons... Peace Out  💛💙