Wet Dog Wednesday

Sorry, no real post today. I have a bad migraine from lack of sleep. Tomorrow is Wet Dog Wednesday y'all.

My First Seven Jobs

About three weeks ago, Pickleope wrote about his first seven jobs. It got me to thinking about all the jobs I had before my forced retirement. His list was quite interesting. Giving insight into a different world than mine. So now I have thought about it and won the argument with my other personalities  and decided to unleash my first seven jobs on my blog.

Babysitter: When I first embarked into the tough world of  money-grubber, (by the way, if you Google the word "money-grubber", Trump's name comes up in the list of results. I shit you not!)my mom and dad were the ones that got me started in the business. We were stationed in Germany, I was twelve at the time and my mom got me a job through her friend who needed someone to watch her two kids when she went to the PX and Commissary. For all you non-military out there a PX is basically an on-post military small style Walmart, without the grocery section. A Commissary is a large grocery store for military personnel only.

Anywho, I was asked to watch her two kids for a couple of hours a month for 50 cents an hour. It wasn't a hard job. It was nice to read and play games for a while and get paid for it. After a while, word got out that there was a babysitter on -post for 50 cents an hour. I had more work than I could handle.

Wire-wrapper, Repair Operator:  I put in my application and was called three days later to show up for classes. The company was going to teach me to wire wrap and solder for a few days and then put me on the"floor" to work. I was so excited because this was my first real job. When I finally got on the work line, I was put in the first slot which started the assembly line. I was so fast at wire wrapping that the other girls were complaining so they moved me to the last step on the line which was to wire wrap a color coded wire harness to the board before it went off to testing. I was so fast at that, that I started repairing the failed wired boards. The supervisor saw this one day and decided they needed a repair operator to fix tested boards before they go on to another department.

So I was given the job of repair operator because I was fast and knowledgeable in electronics. The work was hard but rewarding.

Photograph Processor: I started working nights at a photo processing plant. You know, when you used to send in your negatives to have them enlarged or just wanted your film role developed and processed. I was one of the workers who cut your developed pictures from a spool with the negatives and stuffed them into your designated envelope and then into a basket to be taken to the various places around town for you to pick up and wonder why the top of your Uncle Joe's head got the top lopped off in all your bad pictures that you took over summer vacation at the lake.

I wasn't a hard job. It was just so fucking boring. Just match up the pictures with the negatives. Once in a while, we would have to wake up one of the girls who fell asleep at her machine and then stop your  cutting machine to go help get her envelopes straightened out. So many times that happened, even to me once and we somehow made it through the night. Sometimes we had to notify the FBI and the police if a role of child porn was developed and processed and we just happened to catch it.

Switch Manufacturing: I got a job at a switch manufacturing plant. Basically, I worked in a factory assembling flip, toggle, and three-way wall switches. The job was based on speed and you got paid according to how fast you could go. I was pretty good but as the months passed my arm was giving me trouble because it was a highly repetitive job. Thus it was a lot of wear and tear on my shoulder joints. It was also a nasty job because it required the use of a grease agent for the switch to move inside its housing. The grease was corrosive to the skin and my complaint about it lead to the girls wearing gloves. A very easy but boring job.

In between jobs I had to quit working in the manufacturing field due to injuries and surguries on my right shoulder. I decided to go to college to be able to work in the medical world. I had money that I saved so I took classes that would get me into either the nursing or laboratory tech field. it was two years of prep and then two years in the program. I found out through my school counselors that there was a five-year waiting list just to get into the nursing program. So when I got the letter from the MLT program in my second year of prep, I jumped at the chance and took it. The funny thing that happened after I was accepted, I got the letter from the nursing program.

Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT):  I was hired shortly after passing the national exam for MLT. I was given the job as a generalist MLT at the hospital where one of my professors just happened to work. Lucky me. Now a generalist means you are able to do any job as needed in the lab. In a hospital lab there are many jobs that I do and as a generalist, I had to be proficient in all of them. They are phlebotomy, hematology, blood bank, serology, urinalysis, chemistry, special chemistry, and microbiology. I had to learn all the machines inside and out, how to fix them, clean them and perform quality control, and calibrate when needed. In dealing with patients,I had to learn patient care. I had to remember JCAHO, OSHA, and HIPAA rules and regulations because we were tested yearly.

I started out working day shift for two weeks until I was familiar with everything in the lab and then moved to evening shift and occasionally weekend nights and holidays. I was on call at least one week out of each month.


Medical Lab Tech (MLT) - New Location: This was basically the same job as my last, only I changed cities because I got married. I was still a generalist but my work schedule was nights 10:30 pm 2:30 in the afternoon to 7:00 a.m. the next morning. Monday thru Friday. My partner and I didn't have to work weekends or be on call.

I worked hematology, serology, urinalysis, and blood bank while my partner for the night would work the chemistry side and microbiology. It was fun because we had no supervisor looking over our shoulder. We did our patient samples and then at midnight cleaned and performed quality controls and sometimes calibrations on all our machines. We were responsible for doing this every night and it lasted for two hours unless we had a machine break down, then it was both of us trying to fix it and get it running and passing QC before the morning run*. Sometimes we would be on a machine for hours.

 We were also part of the floor watch team. If someone abducted a baby we would have to leave the lab and be on the lookout for anyone coming from the stairs or elevators. My favorite time was spent in ER talking with the nurses and doctors when there was no work to do. Making friends in the hospital was a good thing especially if you didn't feel good during the night shift. It meant free care.

* Morning run - was when the phlebotomist went up onto the floors to collect blood samples from patients after the nurses put in the orders.

The orders would come to us through our computers and the phlebs (fleebs), usually two of them at 2:30 am, would put them in order according to room numbers and floors. Then divide them all up between themselves and at 3:30, grab their gear of tubes, tourniquets, alcohol pads, and needles and the patient labels to collect blood from designated patients. Sometimes if the phlebotomist had trouble collecting a blood sample from a patient, we would have to go and try our luck.

I eventually had to retire from my final job because of health issues with my back and knees. I only had six jobs in my life so far, unless you count housewife.

 Now if you want to shed some light on what kind of work you did in your first seven jobs, then please enlighten everyone. This was fun to do and it gave me something to blog about. I encourage you to do the same.

Friday Funny

I Know the Summer Olympics are over, but I thought you'd like to see some of the competitions that weren't covered during the Munich Olympic Games.

Quick Update About The Black Hole of Calcutta

David just left for work after having lunch with me and guess what??? He said before going out the door, and I quote:

I think I'll dig around that crushed pipe this weekend. If it goes to the septic tank, then I'll fill over the pipe with small stones and then cover it with concrete and then dirt.

I think there was a certain woman in this house that said something completely like that if I'm not mistaken.

This and That

I think y'all noticed the political shit that I've put up on the right side of my blog and what I've been posting now and then. I usually don't go crazy and talk politics and I'm trying not to, but I can't help it because most of this shit is just so funny. The guy is a loopy bigot and he goes off on tangents and repeats words and phrases like he's trying to remember them. The man is basically an idiot. He has no idea of the laws in this country. He makes shit up that sounds really great to all the dumbasses that follow him. Tony Schwartz, who wrote Trump's first book 'The Art of The Deal", said that:

Donald Trump does not have a deep wealth of knowledge, mostly due to his incredibly short attention span, which he compared to “a 9-year old with ADHD,” 

Trump is nothing but a sociopath who will lie to the people to get what he wants He just wants to be large and in charge. But isn't that true of all politicians? 

Lizzy. my spider friend, has been busy today. She's rebuilding her web again. It seems that one of her recent dinner victims guests got violent, flipped a table and tore a nasty hole in the web. I could hear the cursing, bottles and plates breaking, and then the screams.

She's a very fastidious spider. She keeps a tidy web. In about 2 months she will set up an egg sack in a safe spot on the ceiling of our front porch and then pass on to that great big spider web in the sky. I'll miss her, and the blood-curdling screams of her guests her singing. *sigh*

Follow up to the possible septic tank pipe sinkhole problem. David and I have talked it over and decided to wait on closing the Black Hole of Calcutta. We had a plumber come by yesterday and he said to dig around the pipe to find out where it goes. If it goes to a septic tank pour sand to cover the pipe and then put dirt over the sand. I'm hoping that it really is an old septic tank pipe that just needs to be taken out and the tank capped. David doesn't care about the money right now so I'm not gonna bug him about it. 

Wet Cat Wednesday

Tacky Tuesday

I think most of America is blind after seeing this last week. But just in case y'all didn't see it, I'm going to post it for you. It's ugly, it's tacky, it's Trump and of course, it belongs on Tacky Tuesday. So go and read and see it for yourselves. I am not responsible for your burned out retinas:

Read the story here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/18/anarchists-unveil-naked-donald-trump-statues-in-several-u-s-cities/?tid=sm_fb

A BIG Problem That's Getting Bigger

As I write this paragraph at 07:46 am, it's raining, and we have a butt load more rain moving up from the south as you can see from the picture above. Yeah, Seguin is about to have the snot knocked out of it. The ground is so saturated right now that when you walk on the grass is feels like you sink 4 inches. I've lived here 14 years and I've never encountered this. Hawaii was worse with their rainy seasons but DAYUM!!  It's like living in Panama with all the rain and humidity.

Okay, we have a big problem. I don't have a picture of it because the rain has been a problem and my camera isn't waterproof, but we have a BIG FUCKING GAPING HOLE in our yard 6 ft. from the side of our house. It's about 3 ft wide and 3 ft deep and it's perfectly round. David has no idea what it was caused from but I do because I looked into the hole and saw a busted or crushed 8 inches in diameter pipe. It's coming away from the house to the left instead of going to the street. So, the only thing I can think of is that this pipe was from the house to a septic tank long ago when the city didn't have sewer pipes yet. The saturated soil started emptying into the crushed open pipe and into the remaining septic tank thus forming the hole. So everytime it rains the tank is slowly filling. 

David wants to refill the hole with dirt and I say no. I think the pipe should be dug open, exposed from any soil. Then cover the whole pipe with rocks and then pour a layer of Quickcrete cement over the rocks to seal the hole in the pipe. The Quickcrete sets in 40 minutes. At which time, maybe the next day, we can cover the whole thing with soil. 

Now if anyone has a better idea please let us know ASAP. We have approximately 3 days of no rain coming starting tomorrow and we're burnin daylight baby. 

OMG! Trump You're a Fucktard!

Yesterday, Trump went to Baton Rouge, La. He was explicitly told by the Governor of Louisiana not to come if it was going to be a photo-op, but instead, he could make a nice donation to help out the flood victims. You guessed it. Trump being the fucktard that he is, went anyways. He spent exactly 49 seconds helping with Pence to unload a truck with Play Dough. YES!! You read it right. Seriously! P l a y D o u g h!

Okay, now, someone please explain this to me. What The Fuck will they do with Play Dough? Right, it's for the kids. But is it water? Medical supplies? Food? Personal hygienic supplies? NO to all that. If I were him, thank Gawd I'm not, I would have looked for something more substantial that would make me look good. Not a truck full of Play Dough. Shit! What a dumbass fucktard.

Check out the video and news feed here:

Wet Dog Wednesday

Hot, Painful Weekend and there's more where that came from, y'all

On a note from Friday's post, can you just imagine how hot it was for women in the Southwest in the summer back in the 1800's?  Now I'm talking Arizona, Southern Nevada, Oklahoma, Kansas, Southern New Mexico, and West and North Texas, all that arid desert land area. Hot enough to boil your bones in your own body, hot. I know how hot it can get because I've lived there. I know if I were living back then in the 1800's, I would have taken my husband's gun and shot myself repeatedly in the head, no, it's not possible, but I could have been the first woman to do it successfully. I mean wearing those heavy gowns in those days. No A/C!! DAYUM!! Now that's BOILIN HOT!

Okay, on to better stuff. Saturday and Sunday we got quite a bit of good cooling rain all day and into the night. The trees made a collective sigh as well as the grass. The weather dude is saying a 70 to 80% chance of rain for the whole week, which is absofuckinglutely awesome in my book. To make it even more lovely, for my back pain, there is a cool front heading down our way. Shit!

Now let me make myself perfectly clear, I don't mind the wet weather. Rain is something we need desperately here in Texas. I love the feel of it, the sound of it hitting the roof and the smell of it when it begins to rain on a hot day. It cools off everything in the area. It makes me feel energetic. I love working around the house or relaxing and listening to it. It's awesome. The only thing I hate about rainy weather is that sometimes it brings a front with it. I can usually feel a front for days before it comes within a hundred miles of me. Now there is a front heading my way from the north and it will be hanging around for a while this week. I've been feeling that bad-boy since Thursday morning. I haven't had a decent night's sleep since then. I finally had to dope myself Saturday night to get some sleep because David was calling me the Walking Dead.

 It's always hard on me pain-wise, especially when a weather front comes through Texas. I've been trying desperately to stay on top of it and not let it get to me but it's so hard when you're hurting 24/7 without relief in sight. No, my pain meds don't help worth a shit unless I take a double dose to fall asleep. I wish I had decent pain meds to take my pain away without using so many of them. Medical Marijuana is not an option here in Texas because we are being run by the stoopid religious right. It's the Devil's lettuce. What I wouldn't give for a pain killing MJ-brownie right now. It would help me sleep, that's for sure.

It's Fucking Hot

I was looking at computer models of the weather for next week. Not looking so good. I wonder if maybe I should check with NASA and see if something is coming our way, like maybe a solar flare or something in that neighborhood. It could be important

Y'all know it's hot in Texas when the dog melts

Or your minivan is puddling in the street

The blinds in your window suffer a complete meltdown

Even the birds look for shade

BUT CHEER UP ...

 in three or four months 

The Earth Breathes

This is just amazing:

Wet Cat Wednesday

Tacky Tuesday

The Donald is into massive regulation cuts for Titties y'all. YES!!! Yes he is! You've heard it right here:

What A Weekend

The past five days I've been busy cleaning house and spraying. Every 6 months I thoroughly clean house from top to bottom. When you have messy animals like the puppies and my husband then it has to be done every 6 months. I do one room per day. So I have the living and dining room today and then I'm done for another six months, which will be my Spring cleaning month in February. After I clean each room I spray with a really good insect spray and that keeps the bugs and scorpions at bay. I'll  close up the living room after I spray in there and I'll be done for the day. 

Pebbles (aka Gator Bait)

Yesterday the puppies were not too happy. While I was cleaning the kitchen and pantry, David took it upon himself to give the puppies a bath. Yes, he did. One at a time he picked them up and put them on the courtyard table and gave them a good washing and then drying. They were not happy at all. Pebbles always acts like she's being drowned, coughing, hacking and spitting water. Then she gives David mean looks for the rest of the day.

Lizzy our little spider gal has been busy too. She had to rebuild her web because a bird flew through it. She was probably pissed as hell. Thank the Goddess Lizzy was up in the corner at the time wrasslin with her dinner. She's been feeding quite regularly on wasps since I moved her away from the front door. She seems happy enough. David teases her everytime he goes out the door by blowing on her. It makes her skitter up into the corner. Sometimes when she sees him she starts swinging in her web. That type of behavior is supposed to scare animals from messing with her web. It works on me. 

Wet Dog Wednesday