It Only Hurts When I Blog

Buenos Dias, Bloggers and Blogesses.

How the HECK are ya?

We've had coffee, newspaper, and breakfast. I had a 'Thomas's Light' english muffin with fat free bologna, egg and cheese. Charlie had 4 slices of bacon, 2 eggs over medium with cheese on top, 2 biscuits with butter, and 4-6 ounces of strawberry jam and apple butter that he loaded on the biscuits. (He just emptied whatever was in both jars on his biscuit plate.)

Charlie has gone outside to play in the yard and do 'man stuff' like mow grass. ;-) The entire time we have lived in Tennessee I have never mowed the grass, and don't intend to start.

I have a couple 'mowing' related stories though, while I'm thinking of it...

A couple years ago, Charlie's wallet (yes, like in St. John) fell out of his pocket while he was mowing, and he ran over it with the lawn mower. He brought the shredded remains in and spread them all out on the dining room table. He put a bunch of items back together like puzzle pieces before going to get replacements for his cards and even replace some money.

He went to the bank and put the shredded bits of bills on the bank teller counter. He related to the teller that he had run over his wallet with the lawn mower. The cashier (who was blond beyond a doubt) asked him in a concerned voice 'Are you HURT?'. Charlie replied 'It wasn't in my POCKET at the TIME!'. (Take a moment or two to imagine HOW you could run over yourself with your mower).

Years ago I asked my daughter to tell the neighborhood boys she went to school with that I was looking for someone to come mow the lawn once a week. I told HER that I would pay up to $15 a week. When a boy came to take the job, Heather asked him 'How much do you want?' He answered 'Oh, I'll do it for $10'. Heather said 'No, my mom will give you $15'. Thanks, Heather. Way to save money. ;-)

I have the heat and air conditioning service guy coming between one and three o'clock today to do the summer air conditioning tuneup. What that entails (for those of you who don't have central heat and air) is to clean the unit, check the filter, check the coolant, ask if there's any trouble, etc. I need to remember that I have a coupon! Maybe I'll tape it to the door.

Here's some updates from Unemployment-Land that I didn't mention during the week.

As you recall from earlier blogs, my e-learning training package from the Career Center has had an implementation delay. COMPUTER issues, go figure.

(I put in just a random picture of a computer system at the top of the blog, it isn't our desk. I prefer my blog entries to have SOME kind of picture.)

As they don't know when the new system is going to get it's kinks worked out, they have now decided to set me up on the OLD system, then I'll have to transition to the NEW system.

Kind of a pain, but totally typical when it comes to changing over to a new computer system. I'm surprised when anything that you can call 'the old system' EVER gets unplugged, you usually end up using and supporting both systems ad infinitum. Big mistake.

So anyway - I've had to install some software, and I have 2 pages of instructions (oh joy) to make my account and get started. I may tackle some of that after I write my blog entry.

I may not, after all, it's SATURDAY which isn't a BUSINESS DAY.

You'd think that 61 days is a long time - but look at what the 'Speed of Business' has been, taking care of the TRIVIAL administrative issues from my employment demise.

Realization - I've discovered that Business isn't any faster than NOT being in business.

Success: I finally got my key for the training system THIS WEEK (yesterday, actually).
Success: My COBRA is getting billed correctly. I got the right bill for the right amount on time THIS WEEK for the first time.
Success: My car insurance is getting billed correctly. It took until THIS WEEK.
Success: My long term care insurance is getting billed correctly. It took until THIS WEEK.

Still in transition - 401k related stuff.
Already straightened out: Dept. of Labor

Isn't it amazing that it has taken all this time to set those things up and get them running smoothly?

By the way - during the time I have been unemployed, my former department has lost or is in the process of losing (involuntarily) at least 6 people, maybe more. Talk about a downhill slide.

I also need to stop at the grocery store for a few items. Charlie is running dangerously low on trail mix. He switched a long time ago from eating potato chips for munchie food to eating trail mix. He likes the big green bags of tropical trail mix that Wal-mart food centers carry.

I'm going to defrost some of the trout (4 I think) he caught while I was away and cook them on the grill for supper. YUM-O!

Have a nice day, whatever you are doing! TTFN!