It Was a Busy Day and I Was an Idiot

Back to the shop today. Apparently DH pulled out a desk drawer from one of the desks and is unable to actually get the sucker back in, so that'll be a job for me. Also, I need to get the freezer defrosted on the ancient refrigerator that we have in the framing studio. It was in the place when we moved in, and it'll probably be here when we move out. I can't imagine someone wanting to purchase it, but ... if they want it, they can have it. It'll be up to them to get it up the stairs and out the door. The same with our huge safe on the main floor. I got that from the KTCA Public Television Auction at no charge - they were getting rid of it when they were moving to their downtown location and no longer going to hold the auctions. So, we've had it for a long time now. It's not super secure - a simple bike lock is what we've used for decades - but it also doesn't hold a lot of valuable items either - LOL. 

I use a simple combination lock at the gym. My 
valuables - car keys and cell phone are in their 
wall lockers which are keyed, but the rest of my 
stuff is in the gym locker inside the dressing room. 
I try to never carry valuables in any case. Not 
really needed at 5:00 am after all. 

So I guess I'll get dirty and dusty working at the shop today, and Chickie will mostly be on her own. I do have her holiday gift, however. I had hired my "nephew from a different sister" in Oregon to paint two Dungeons & Dragons minis for her characters. Of course, he packed them poorly, and one arrived broken. I glued it back together yesterday and sprayed a protective finish over both of them, so they should be good to go. I'll try to take a photo of both of them today, but right now they're in my backpack and I'm very short on time for the pool. So ... that will have to wait. 

My dear "nephew" apparently understands 
NOTHING about shipping because he didn't 
put any packing materials into the box at all! 
It's a wonder that only one of them broke, 
and lucky that I was able to repair it easily. 

And yesterday I was a complete idiot. It's a good thing that Target is relatively close to where I live. I needed a new set of jeans, so went to Target yesterday morning early. I tried on a couple, and ended up with two size 6 sets, but decided, after trying them on again in the comfort of home, that I'd rather upgrade to the size 8 instead. So while out on afternoon errands, I dropped back by Target and returned the incorrect size. I went to the display for jeans and decided which type I wanted, then picked one from the size 8 pile. It wasn't until I got home that I realized it actually was another size 6. *sigh* I'll try to return these later this week or maybe next Wednesday, and get the size 8 I really want. I don't need to be squeezed into my jeans, I like them to be comfortable,  not constraining. 

I totally messed up with this one. I'll be returning 
it later in the week or next week, and getting the 
right size this time. LOL

So, on that note, I'm off to the pool. I hope you have a great day, we'll see how mine goes. Lots of frayed tempers as we're under deadlines with Travis. Enjoy your Thursday! Slava Ukraini. 

GRRRR - And Once Again, A War

It's Wednesday, my "day off" and it's going to be busy, busy, busy! I awakened early - 2:30 am instead of my usual 3:00 am, and I decided "what the heck, I might as well get up now and be unrushed". So, I went ahead, watered the fountain and settled down for my morning meditation. Half-way through, DH awakened and suddenly my calm was disrupted, although he knows to not bother or interrupt me when I'm doing my "morning thing". But, he's the TV addict. When he's awake, the television is on. Let me tell you, there's nothing more of a downer than awakening, calming my body and mind, and then going down to collect the laundry when he's up. The TV was on, the news was all bad, the volume was high because he's hard of hearing, ... generally speaking, I'm not on rhythm this morning. 

*sigh* I really do hate listening to the news on the TV 
first thing in the morning. And, of course, DH is also 
hard of hearing, so the volume is up. GRRRRR

But, despite that, my first load of laundry is currently in the washing machine, my shopping list is almost ready for the day, I've got bills to pay, I've got food that I need to cook, and in general, it'll be a very busy day. Of course, the big news story is the war in the Middle East. I'm very much on the fence for this war. I don't disagree that Iran was rather like an infected wound - supporating and infectious. However, warfare these days takes the personal out of combat and puts the button pushers into it. Yes, we have actual people involved and have already had casualties, but the vast majority of casualties are innocent people. I have big problems with that. My personal preference is direct hand-to-hand combat, not missiles and rockets. I certainly understand modern warfare, but it really makes war rather impersonal, doesn't it? It doesn't seem that a person is killing hundreds of people if you're hundreds of feet in the air pushing a button. 

War is war from a distance now. Missiles are used instead of 
hand-to-hand combat (these particular missiles are from 
North Korea, but every nation has their own arsenal). The 
act of actually being responsible for the life or death of another 
person is less immediate if you're pushing a button instead 
of swinging a blade. 

Generally speaking, I've been a "peacenik" since I was young. I was protesting the Vietnam war in the 1960's and 1970's and have been sickened by the conflicts continuing in the world ever since those days. War is never a pretty thing. The USA has been lucky over the centuries. Our wars have been fought by people in our area against other people in our area. The battles were much more personal. The casualties have been horrific in some cases - just think of the death toll from the Civil War as an example. But the majority of wars the USA has been involved in have been overseas. Then again, we're also using air attacks - so not direct hand-to-hand combat (which probably has rarely been used since the Middle Ages to be honest). 

Peace doesn't seem to be in the genes of humanity. We 
automatically strike out at others. We're a contentious 
lifeform, inclined to strike out rather than work on ways 
to join together for a common goal. Just looking at 
conflicts the USA has been involved in since my birth, it's 
an impressive list - Vietnam, the Lebanon Crises, the Bay 
of Pigs Invasion, the Granada Invasion, the Panama Invasion, 
the Persian Gulf War, the Somalia Intervention, the 
interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo, the War in 
Afghanistan, the Iraq War, the Libya Intervention, the 
Syrian Civil War (ongoing), and Yemen (ongoing), 
and now we're involved in another conflict. Want a job? 
join the armed forces. There's always a battle somewhere for you. 

But, I'm a "Give Peace a Chance" person. I participated in many protests about the Vietnam War. (Since every war we've been involved with since then have been titled "conflicts" rather than "wars", I still think this is a matter of semantics.) In the middle of this war, we've still got a nation that's pulling apart from each other instead of bonding to one another. Welcome to the Second Trump White House. GRRRR Despite the news, I do hope you have a good day and look for the good in people and your environment today. We all need positivity to help balance the fear and hatred around us right now. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Tuesday - I'm Heading to the Pool

It's a Tuesday, and I'm back to the swimming pool today. I'm wearing the skin suit that's most stretched out and I really wanted to order a new replacement. But, there aren't any sales going on, and I simply can't afford the full-price of the suit. I don't know how much longer I can wear this one, however. Right now it would easily fit someone 20 pounds heavier than I am, which means it's VERY baggy. Baggy for a skin suit really doesn't work well. But, I'm tight on funds. 

I really like Slipins divesuits. I wear them 
for my pool days. The one I'm wearing right 
now, however, has stretched to the point where 
I'm not happy wearing it. I checked their website 
today, but just missed out on their latest sale. I 
might be down to two skinsuits. *sigh*

DH spent the day in the warehouse yesterday, assembling a shelving unit for photographs. We finally got the last screws into it after I had locked up and ended the day on the sales floor. It looks good, he did a good job. They're a total bear to put together with a single person, but he managed. 

DH got one of these assembled yesterday. It was 
a serious CHORE. It stands either 80" or 95" 
tall (I don't recall which), and the shelves are 
the heavier weight - the industrial instead of 
the commercial. It took him ALL day working 
solo to get this together. 

I've got a couple of household bills in front of me, I suppose I should get those paid this morning since I'm running slightly ahead of schedule. It'll be one less thing to have hanging over me, right? I also should try to get back to the lawyer I contacted last week. I might have a chance to give him a call later today. 

I have too many things on my "To Do" list. I suspect 
that many of you are in the same situation. LOL

Well, that's about all I'm inspired about this morning. Not all blogs at 3:45 am will be pithy and great fun, but that's also life itself. I hope you have an excellent day, I'm wrapping this up and heading for the swimming pool. Slava Ukraini. 

Shelves and Cellphones - A Double ARGH!

DH and I spent most of yesterday at the shop working on photos for Travis. At one time we had three full shelving units completely emptied for less-than-great photos (you can't really do a lot with photos in a four-foot wide aisle with 96" tall shelving"). We tried to assemble a new shelf downstairs to use for the photographs, but they're a total PITA to get together and it just wasn't working well. So we abandoned that idea and just emptied the shelves for poor photos. 

We have two different types of steel shelving - industrial 
and commercial. They're configured a bit differently, and 
each company who makes them makes them slightly 
differently. Some are as old as 50+ years - original to 
Jim's Dad's business way back when. It's a LOT of 
shelving. 

What a job, and what a mess! I'm quite certain things are out of their usual order now, and it will take some reshuffling of merchandise until I can find beads easily once again. We understand why Travis has us do the photography, but it would have been SO much easier to take a single good pic and say "Shelving like this in either 6, 7 or 8 shelves, 6-8 feet tall." But no, we're supposed to photograph EVERYTHING, and the deadline to submit all of these to Travis is Friday. We have a LOT of photos on DH's phone, and he still needs to send all of them to me so that I can send them to Travis. I'll be running that through with him today. 

I'm hoping that the photos are the last major hurdle that we'll need to go through. No guarantees, of course. But it's a dream - LOL. 

I forgot to recharge my cell phone overnight. It's next 
to me, plugged in now, and it's now up to 19% from 
a total 0%. *sigh* That was how exhausted I was last 
night. I was absolutely BEAT. 

And, just to make things even better ... I forgot to recharge my phone last night, so it died while I was on my final meditation (good thing that was a short one). I have it recharging now, and will plug it in to continue charging as soon as I get to the shop. It's very rare for me to forget to charge overnight, I must have been totally exhausted. So, have a great Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Screwdrivers, Computers and Sugar Ants

So, the missing screwdriver (and a pair of heavy-duty ridged pliers) were found - actually next to where he sits when he's working on the computer. *sigh* Of course that doesn't solve everything, but we're moving ahead - step by step, photo by photo. 

We own a lot of screwdrivers, but the one he was missing he was 
using to disassemble metal shelving to make them uniform in 
their type of shelves - either industrial or commercial. He was 
really upset that he couldn't find it (he obviously didn't look 
very well). 

Yesterday it was time to tackle my area of the back room - the credenza where we keep the printer and a back-up computer system, and the smaller credenza where we have old printers and/or copiers, and where Chickie sits. It was a job to get everything cleared off enough for the photos, but we got it done and everything is back in the appropriate place now. I'll probably toss the old printer, although keeping old printers is what saved us when our regular printer died a year or so ago. 

We're nowhere as bad as this. We only had three old printer, 
and one of those is our main printer right now. That leaves 
us with two old printers that possibly would work with our 
computer system. But, the printer only needs to work for 
another few months, so I'm hoping it hangs in there. 

I'm still fighting the good fight again sugar ants. We live in an old house, and there are cracks in the foundation that are plenty large enough for something smaller than 1/8" to crawl into. I saw a few in the downstairs bathroom about two weeks ago. Sprayed, and they were gone. But I also knew that when they were one place, they'd probably show up at another, so I've been watching. 

Sugar ants are TINY, and so they're able to get in through 
small cracks in the brickwork or the foundation. I keep my 
eyes peeled for the suckers. I'm on a mission to keep them 
out of my house! 

Sure enough, a few days ago they showed up in my bathroom (which is directly above the downstairs shower room), and my bathroom is directly next to the pantry. The last time we had these miserable little beasts, we ended up having to pull EVERYTHING out of the pantry. I decided to do a pantry check today, and did find a few of them, which I instantly sprayed with ant killer. I'll keep a sharp eye out. I might clean out the bottom levels next Wednesday on my "day off", but I really can't do anything until them. All our time is focused on the business, and I don't have any days off except Wednesday right now. 

So, on that note, I'm out of here. Have an excellent weekend and I'll be back Monday morning. Slava Ukraini. 

Argh ... Just Argh

Just a quick check-in today - so much that I need to do. DH is assembling and re-assembling the metal shelving that we keep all of our products on both on the main floor and the basement level. That's close to 75 individual 6 foot shelving units, each with anywhere from 6-12 shelves. The entire event rests on the fact that there are two different kinds of shelves - commercial and industrial. He's trying to match up the shelf type as much as possible. It's a JOB! 

All of our backstock is kept on industrial shelving very simlar 
to this, in bins very similar to those in the photo. That's 1000's 
of small items, collected together with others and organized 
so that we can pull the beads the customer wants easily and 
quickly. But now we're trying to get the shelving put 
together and matched into one of the two types we have - 
industrial and commercial. It all comes down to how much 
weight they'll hold. 

I'm trying to figure out when I have time to cut the mats for the newest art pieces I want to get onto our walls to sell. I've got the frames, but one of those will have to be recut - Wednesday's agenda. I've got the mats, what I don't "got" is the time. But I need to get it - so somehow I'll make this happen. 

We're all growling at each other, while banging on steel 
shelving and helping customers. We're under a hard 
deadline to have this done, and it's taking a LOT more time 
than we had thought it would. 

I heard from an attorney I've done business with before and he recommended a different attorney to help with my paperwork. I contacted Lawyer #2 and give him the quick scoop. It's a bit out of his normal range - he works with adoptions mostly - but he'll check things out on his end and get back to me. Baby steps. I'll get there yet. *sigh* 

All I want is a "Real ID' so that I can actually 
cross the border into Canada or Mexico if I'm 
so inclined. You would think I was asking for 
the damned moon! 

So, I'm off and running. If all of you could put your thoughts and mojo towards DH finding the very large orange-handled screwdriver that he put down somewhere yesterday and that has been MIA ever since, I'd appreciate it. Right now, it looks as if it has joined the single socks in their black hole. But it's a BIG thing - very hard to miss. We're missing it - LOL. ARGH. Have an excellent Friday and I'll wrap the week up tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

GRRRRRR - I HATE Small People in Large Jobs

I have no time today, just a quick post to let you know that yesterday's attempt at getting an updated Driver's Licenses was a complete and total disaster. I've sent an email off to my attorney, and might have to get him, or someone he recommends, involved in this. Meanwhile, I'll soon have an expired Driver's License which also won't be good. GRRRRR I'm off to swim off some frustration. 

- Erulisse (one L)