1997 East Coast Trip (part 9)

Salem, Massachusetts, this is the side of the Pirate Museum building.  How I would have enjoyed wandering around in there!

But when you're traveling with someone else,
you tend to ... compromise on what you're
going to see.

Here I am in Salem,
a store has a
standing advertisement!

This was a fun section of town to explore!

and of course, the infamous Plymouth Rock
where Pilgrims from the Mayflower rowed
out and set foot on land in 1621.

In Boston, we trekked the Freedom Trail and saw some of the old buildings along the way, like the Paul Revere house, I seem to remember something about Betsy Ross.  There are markers implanted in the sidewalks to denote the trail.  As I look back, I'm shocked at how I wasn't taking pictures as it is something I have always done.   I think that speaks to the relationship stresses I was feeling, perhaps subconsciously not wanting to remember this trip.

This is the Minute Man statue 

in Massachusetts.

"British regulars clashed with colonial militia and minute men on April 19, 1775 

at Lexington, Concord's North Bridge and on the long, bloody road back to Boston. 

The fighting that began that day soon grew into a war for independence 

that lasted more than eight years. Many years later, Ralph Waldo Emerson 

used the phrase "the shot heard round the world" to describe the significance of this event."

1997 East Coast Trip (part 8)

We ventured up into Maine, and spent some time looking at the beach and Atlantic Ocean.  Being raised in California, I only knew the Pacific, and this one is quite different.  Less energetic on a normal day (I am sure a storm makes it different!) and quite clear as well.  It was cold water, even in July! I think I could have spent an entire week in this part of the country!

I think I must have been most comfortable on this day, 

as I took more pictures here than in any other place!

Or maybe its feeling a kinship with nature

here - a place where I'm happy to be!

We had dinner in some fancy place that served lobster - or was it crab? 

The details are long gone, it seems.

Veterans Oasis Park

Sadie and I set out to explore Veterans Oasis Park in Chandler AZ to day .. nice place for a stroll, good place for photos.  We wandered for about an hour, was a cool, overcast early morning, perfect time to be out and doing things!

1997 East Coast Trip (part 7)

Through Rhode Island and into New Hampshire where things were at a less frenetic speed, we shopped a couple of antique shops, then found a covered bridge.  Amazingly, by comparing pix online, I found the technical name/location of this bridge!

Hancock-Greenfield Bridge, 

Spanning Contoocook River, Forest Road 

(formerly Old County Road), 

Hancock, Hillsborough County, NH

Inventory. Ugh.

1, 2, 3, 4, ...... 87, 88, 89, .....


I am beyond exhausted ...
it has been Inventory Week
in my BigBox store,
and prepping for that can be a nightmare!

And while I am pretty easy going when it comes to the processes I do at work, when it comes to Inventory Week, I'm ... quite the opposite!  When I tell fellow co-workers that bringing defective merchandise needs to end at 8PM, or that items need a sku on them so they can be processed -- well, I don't think they listen or hear me.  There is a place for everything brought to my area, all the co-worker needs to do is find the appropriately labelled tote and drop it in.  For some reason, however, they seem to think that because I am there, I want to have a discussion with all of them (there are 400 in my store!).  I have several time constraints thrust upon me the last five days, and there is little to no comprehension ... eh, I'm just ranting a bit, but what it comes down to is having respect for me and my position, to trust that I know what I'm doing and to get it done on time.  I just wish management would convey that with authority to my co-workers.  If they did, I would be in heaven!




Because of the way my "inner bitch" was out in the open
for the past 48+ hours, I hereby am happy to announce
that despite all the setbacks and inane conversations,
I didn't 'murder' anyone --- unless dirty looks count!  hahaha  

Here's to another year behind me..... yippee!  !  !

1997 East Coast Trip (part 6)

I started wanting to record this trip because I realized that I had a picture of NY that included the Twin Towers.  Back in 1997 we referred to it as the World Trade Center, I remember we drove along that street as saw them along with the Wall Street building.  How fun would it have been to take a tour of that building???  The World Trade Center had been damaged by a truck which exploded in the parking garage on Feb 26, 1993, 4 years prior to our visit.  We never entertained thoughts that it would happen again.  (Sept 11 2001)

New York is a fascinating city, much different from California!
While it was fun to visit, it was too much to handle for me -
all the noise, the smells (I called it odors on my postcard!)
Everything seemed frantic to me, like they were all trying to
shove 30 hours of daytime into the 24 allotment!!

Defending Jacob

In one of my last posts, I told you I was reading a story about a 14 year old boy accused of murdering a classmate who had been teasing him.  The boy's father is the town's prosecution DA, and even though he's removed from the case, still pursues to find out the facts.  In the process he learns some ugly truths about teenagers in general, and some hard lessons about how people's view of others changes when something happens.

At this point in the story, they have gone to trial, this boy being treated as an adult, with premeditated murder hanging over his head.   As a parent, none of us want to believe our kid could ever be capable of any type of violence.  But when they're teenagers, the attitude copped by most of them can keep us wondering.

Now that my own two are grown up, I often marvel at the fact that we all survived all that teen-aged angst!

However, I couldn't stop reading this story, and yet it was very disturbing.  *spoiler alert*

One of the things the book brings up is current DNA finding a "violence gene" meaning you're pre-disposed to violent acts or outbursts if this is part of your DNA.  I didn't google to see how much of that is true, I'm not sure I really want to know!  But it was one of the theories of the story, given the boy's grandfather, great grandfather, and great great grandfather had all committed some kind of murder.  His grandfather is currently serving life without parole for murder.  The boy's father hasn't seen this man since he was a small child and worked very hard not to have this "murder gene" thrust upon him. He went so far as to keep this information from his wife.

As the trial moves along, the attorney decides he needs to have something in up his sleeve, just in case, and contacts the grandfather, asking for a DNA test.  Because there's contact, the grandfather insists that his son come and speak with him.  Yes, all three men exhibit this "murder gene" but ... that doesn't necessarily prove anything.  But the trial isn't going well.  And the family begins to notice a man lurking around.   The father is insistent that a sex offender known for walking and lurking in the park probably committed the murder, and goes about trying to find facts to support his theory.  As it all comes full circle, just before the trial goes to the jury, the sex offender was found dead, suicide with a confession that he did the murder.  The boy is released, and all is well.

Or so it seems.

Turns out the grandfather had a "friend" (the stalker they noticed) ""help"" the sex offender along to his demise.  The family takes a long vacation, and the boy hits it off with a girl, they're inseparable.  A few days before vacation is over, the girl disappears, never to be heard from again.  Days after the family has arrived home, her dead body washes up on the beach.  The mom has not been a central character through most of the book, but in the end, she has decided that her son Jacob must have had something to do with the girl's murder.  Taking into account that he has the "murder gene", she is taking her son to the mall when she suddenly speeds up the minivan and hits an overpass full speed.  Because he's not wearing a seat belt, Jacob is thrown and dies.  The mom has severe injuries but is alive.

That was the end of the book.

This was written by a man, and while it was a good story overall, I didn't like the writing style, and found myself skipping things that didn't seem relative.  But I was pulled in all the same, wondering where the story was going to go.  The ending was a shocker for me.  

No Work Fridays

No Work Friday... always an awesome thing!  

If only it were connected to a "no work weekend" !!

I started the day with a walk in the park with Sadie.  73, windy and cloudy with a 30% chance of rain.  The morning was beautiful, but we got our rain in the afternoon - thunder included at no extra charge!  haha 

There were plenty of birds to watch and observe.  Sadie has no patience, however, and her antics keep the birds from venturing too close.

After, I came home to do some transplants of my cactus - the first one done was putting these Yucca Lily plants into the new pots.  They turned out great, and will look awesome ....... when I decide where they need to be :) 

The rest of the afternoon was spent in rest and relaxation.  I am currently reading a story about a 14 year old boy accused of murdering a classmate who had been teasing him.  The boy's father is the town's prosecution DA, and even though he's removed from the case, still pursues to find out the facts.  In the process he learns some ugly truths about teenagers in general, and some hard lessons about how people's view of others changes when something happens.  

At this point in the story, they have gone to trial, this boy being treated as an adult, with premeditated murder hanging over his head.   As a parent, none of us want to believe our kid could ever be capable of any type of violence.  But when they're teenagers, the attitude copped by most of them can keep us wondering.  Now that my own two are grown up, I often marvel at the fact that we all survived all that teen-aged angst!  

1997 East Coast Trip (part 5)

One of the things I wanted in New York was an infamous crazy taxi driver ride.   We hopped in a cab after Liberty Island to get to the Empire State Building and told our driver what we wanted, and he was happy to oblige!  We went careening and zooming through lights, horn honking a few times, swerving in and around traffic.  It was a whole lot of fun!  We wandered through the streets of New York because buying our ESB tickets there was a wait time.  We watched as peddlers sold watches and assorted items along the street; lots of little vendors selling food items such as "hot dogs with the worx".













Another silly little thing that people don't know about me ... I definitely wanted to go into some place "adult", just so I could say that I did!  And down the side street I noticed a purple sign.  I walked on down to the door, nervous as all get out, and opened it, never knowing what to expect!  There was a front desk, and I grabbed one of these purple advertisements.  Glancing around, I notice scantily clothed women dancing on tables.

Needless to say, I didn't hang around long - just long enough to say I'd "been there, done that!!!"

















When it was time, we got in line to take the elevator
up to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building.
It was a high speed elevator and took no time at all!
Whoosh and we're there, the doors open and you can
walk all around, looking out over the city.  It's a long
way up -- too high for my liking!  Looking to the
south, you can see Wall Street, the World Trade Center
Buildings (The Twin Towers) the Verrazano Bridge
and the Statue of Liberty!   There was also a snack
bar and souvenir counters.  This building has been
called "the cathedral of the skies" soaring more than
a quarter mile into the atmosphere above Manhattan.
From the ground, looking up, you can't see that much :P

It's My Friday

It's ThrowBack Thursday, and I usually try and post something related to family, but lately... eh.

It was a work day, a short one for me, but I made up for it earlier in the week with shorter lunch breaks, and longer days.  But it was looking well prepared for our inventory this week.  Always such a hassle preparing things, making them ready, scanning everything in the store, lots of prep work.  Of course, it would be MUCH simpler if the store would close ... but nope!  Gotta make those sales $$$!

I went to the dentist for my semi-annual cleaning.  Usually a hygienist does it, but today, I got the real top doc doing my teeth.  It was nice, he polished them real well :)  All's good until November!

I stopped in at Home Depot tonight  - mostly because I had a 10% off coupon! - and they were having a sale as well.  Got me some dirt, some mulch, a new yucca lily (HMD to me!) and a few small cacti to plant, as I plan on doing a whole series of re-potting the ones I have as they won't grow any larger if I don't put them in larger pots!

Last Tuesday, and again this Tuesday, we've had really strong winds - or maybe they're coming from the right direction - as they've blown many many palm fronds from my tree.  My backyard was littered last Weds, and again this Weds, my garbage can will be full for 3-4 more weeks!  Even though I have to clean up, etc, this nice part of this is that I don't have to hire a palm tree climber to go up and cut the fronds down :)  So it should be OK now for another year! Poor birdies who made nests up there - I think I picked up 6 or 7 complete nests already.

With any luck our "30% chance of rain" will drop some on us tomorrow.  Cloudy skies always make for good pictures, and if I get into gear, I'll get some picture taking done.  Being a work day for most, the parks will be relatively empty :)

Off to find a snack and turn on some Blue Bloods reruns on ION television -- good stuff :)
Happy weekend to you!

1997 East Coast Trip (part 4)

Assuming the lines for the Statue of Liberty would be the longest, we headed there first, taking a boat out to Liberty Island.  From a distance, Lady Liberty is very very impressive and beautiful, appearing larger than life.  Being a West Coast-er and only seeing it on TV, I assumed she was bigger than she really is... but that doesn't change the significance of this statue.



















It was 355 steps up into the statue: 162 regular, the rest circular.  It took hours to take a few steps then stand and wait with the lines.  All the way up and able to look out the crown.  Amazing to see the City of New York from this view!  After coming back down the 355 steps on the other side of the statue, my legs felt like rubber!


The Statue of Liberty stands
151 feet (46 metres) in height,
and 305 feet (93 metres) from the ground to the torch.
It was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

Is it Guilt?

I have this co-worker.  (echnically, I'm the supervisor) and in the job that needs to be performed, a lot of attention to detail needs to happen.  The items that are processed through the dept has hazardous waste among the normal things.  Our BigBoxStore is anal about policies and procedures being followed.  And for the longest time, there have been errors and mistakes made by my coworker.  I've addressed them, and corrected as needed, or teach/train how to properly follow procedure.  But after three years, nearly every situation has presented itself, and I would expect that an acceptable learning curve.

But at what point do you start to realize that someone else in management needs to know the realities of the situation and step in?

I haven't logged every single infraction - sometimes they're just minor and there's not an issue.  But if the error is found by OSHA or some other regulatory committee (or even our own Regional Compliance Team), there could be fines to our store, up to $50k.

I spoke with management on several different occasions, with detailed information, and they had yet to do anything.  But in my own mind, I couldn't see letting the infractions go, because what if they escalated?  With hazardous product, what if someone got hurt?   If I didn't say anything, would I be held accountable because I didn't say something?  Would the bottom line be my job or theirs?  So I opted to start making notes, and copying management in on them.  They spoke with me yesterday, and had their meeting with my coworker today.

I have to work closely with this individual.
It's pretty clear the detailed info came from me.
It's a safe bet my coworker is not a happy camper.
Thankfully, today was their Friday, so I will have two days working alone.

But now, do I feel guilt because I was doing my job?
I feel nervous about having to work side by side with this person.
I can certainly understand how my coworker feels,
as I've been in those shoes several times before.
We've never been friends, I've never encouraged that aspect of a working relationship.

So how come I feel bad?
*sigh*

Mother's Day 2015

Sunday.  Mother's Day.  And I'm wishing all the moms out there a Happy Day!

I had to work today.

I lost my step tracker today.  It attaches to my shoe, counts my steps, uploads to my computer.  It was great, I never had to think about it, just check the numbers at the end of the day... but I suppose it doesn't matter.   I know I walk a lot of steps at work ... it just isn't enough in the exercise dept to offset the calories I eat to have the results I would like.

It was seven years ago today that my stepson Dougie died.  He always had a smile for everyone, always willing to help in any way he could.  He will always be remembered in our hearts.

I was his "mom" for six years.  I remember one year, probably 6th grade, and he was suspended from school for doing something - the transgression isn't remembered, but his punishment was to spend the day with me, doing what I do.  It was a household of 6 kids, 2 adults, 2 dogs ... I'm sure you get the picture, it was a lot of work keeping up with things!  It was a day in March, the sun was shining, still patches of snow along the edges of the driveway; there we were, out there getting the car washed.  And even though we spent the day working, we were able to share moments, to talk the entire time, to get close, even bond a bit more.  Looking back on that day makes me smile :)  He was a joy to have around!

When it was time for me to move on with my life, Dougie came and spent weekends with me and Brian.  He sure could put away a few bowls of home made stew!    More good times !!

Dougie, you touched many lives, left your imprint on our hearts.  Thank you for all you did in your short time with us.  I feel so lucky to have known you, and even more lucky that about a month prior, you called me, we got caught up again, and you told me you loved me!  So many times we don't get the chance to say that to someone important to us -- we should say it more often, because we never know when it will be our last days with those we care about.

If you love someone,
make sure you tell them ... TODAY!
It may be your last opportunity.

1997 East Coast Trip (part 3)

July 6th:  lots of driving, passing through Connecticut, we stopped in a quite a few antique shops - If we bought anything, it had to be small, we were traveling light!











Somewhere in a town a McDonald's building is painted with a jungle theme.  I made no notes as to where this was, and couldn't find anything on line.  Of course, back in 1997, the internet wasn't the fount of information is is today!

The next day was our
New York City day -
and promised to be exciting!

After stopping for the night,
we headed into the city in
the early morning hours.

Driving in the city was
horrendous, I recall circling
the same blocks several times
searching for parking.





Conclusion?
Just park in a lot,
and do the rest walking!

1997 East Coast Trip (part 2)

We ended up in Pennsylvania, got to see Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and Ben Franklin's Grave.


The note I wrote to myself on the postcard:  "Love the brick here- buildings, walkways, roads."


 







I remember thinking that with all the
green table cloths, it seemed more
like a dining room than anything else!





"The Liberty Bell originally hung in the tower
of Independence Hall in 1753.  Today, the
Liberty Bell's universal appeal is demonstrated
by the more than a million people from all
over the world who visit it annually."
(blurbs on postcards make it easy to have
short notes re: the subjects)

Wed.Nes.Day

At work, Wednesday is my fav day!  It's the day I get to see my truck driver, Jim.  He comes in and picks up all the things I have prepped all week to take it to the center where its sorted and distributed to various vendors, etc.  Anyways.  It's such a nice feeling to have all that has accumulated out of my way, a fresh start, so to speak.



It's been a rough week.  I try to take it all in stride, but when you get back to back to back long days, it sure takes your psyche for a beating.  In the meantime, I got a lot of errands run this week.  Only one left is the grocery store tomorrow.  And I'll put that off until Saturday if I can!




I didn't make it to the gym this week, however I made good food choices on Tuesday and today.  All in all, not bad.  My step tracker said I did over 11k steps, and I've now reached a milestone of 1300 miles!  That's a heck of a lot of miles!  All the way to my mom's and back again! (but... I'd rather fly than walk!)