The Latest

 Sometimes days and weeks go by and I feel as if I'm so busy that I don't have time for anything else.  My days off are spent doing household chores and resting.  There's so much that keeps my mind going that I don't feel like there's any space left for anything else at the end of every day.  

Life is changing within my family.  My nephew and his family have bought a home in Arizona, and are leaving Cali at the end of the month.  This is my mom's one grandson who is the favorite.  It keeps me wondering if Mom will change her mind and move to AZ.  I'm guessing not at this point, but I also wonder if this will begin a decline for her.  Only time will tell. 

I spent my day getting the spare bed and bath cleaned up and ready for company in case they need a place to stay while they begin to get their house ready to live in.  I don't know the status of what they will move in to, what shape their house will be in when they arrive.  But I'm ready. 

Two weeks ago I visited my daughter at her new home, it was fun to see her! And gift her with things that I'd been "collecting" for her and my granddaughter.   I'l be back there again after the heat of summer. 

Training my new "boys" is slow.  I want them to absorb everything I throw at them but it isn't easy for folks who are new because we have our own slang in retail and it can be confusing!  They'll get there but it will take time.  I worry about all this training time being invested and not paying off because they want to leave for some other position.  I'm sad about this being one of the lower paid positions and yet one of the hardest to learn!  

I've been painting rocks during my down time when the mood strikes, and taking photos here and there when the mood strikes.  I'm trying to get back to more of the photography because I enjoy it ... just not in the summer heat! 

We had our first large monsoon last night, thunder so close and so loud that it shook my house and my bed.  Wish there had been more rain, but it's still early in the season.  Here is a sunset from last week, it was raining on my patio as I took the photo, Arizona sunsets are beautiful!

Bright Blessings!

Training A Refugee

 At my BigBox store, we have several new employees - and four of them are refugees from Afghanistan.  One of them is under my direct supervision, and I'm trying to train him.  But it amazes me how much has to be explained, how much of a difference there is in language and culture.  

It's amazing how much we assume because we have lived in America for most if not all of our lives.  Take for instance a bottle of Gatorade.  Here we can purchase it as a single unit, or a multipack.  How do you explain which is which to someone who doesn't know??  It takes time to explain that you can read the description - which often says "8pk" or you can do the math and think it all through.  One bottle might be 90cents to 1.50.  Then the 8pk is closer to $5.  But you have to be able to think that process through and know our monetary values as well!!     

Another example is explaining the difference between products we sell in the store vs the items we buy that enables us to do our jobs, like wheel weights for the Auto Center.  We don't sell them individually to customers, but we need them to balance a tire they may have purchased. 

Having to learn all the intricacies of a BigBox store in America while at the same time trying to understand the language, learn a new job and then learn all the slang that those of us in retail use as well must be difficult for these folks.  At the same time, it's no picnic for the rest of us trying to teach something that we grew up knowing (like those Gatorade bottles) !  

I guess the important thing this is teaching me is patience.  I dislike having to explain things that seem obvious to me, but that's my current status:   teach and train.   Every day I remind myself that this will be a good thing in the Big Picture.  Until then ..... .Lawd, give me patience!!!