The week from Hades

I meant to take pictures this morning, and I forgot.

I got a pedicure this morning and meant to take a photo of my foozies soaking in the fabulous pedi chair. Forgot.

We went to the farmer's market down in the Park, forgot.

We went to lunch at Luxe, a new restaurant in town. It was fabulous by the way. Forgot.

The above photo is the veggies when we got them home. We also got some beautiful tomatoes and sweet corn. There is much bounty to be had from the farmer right now. All grown right here in Michigan. Pretty close too- because the big farmers go downtown to Eastern Market. I have not been there yet this year.

There is some serious shit going on at work. I am not even sure if they are sure what is happening. I now have to go to this daily morning meeting. They sit there and tell all the secrets to the building of the car. There are about 30 or so people in this meeting, all the customer employees and me-the lone supplier at the meeting. I keep thinking, are you all sure you want to be talking about this in front of me? Too weird.

The kids came out Wednesday for their goodbye dinner and I cried. They are packing up the U-Haul and towing the car behind them to Portland over the mountains. All I can think about is Desi and Lucy in "The Long Trailer". Gosh darn I hope it all goes well. I want Pics and the DIL is taking video of the move. She bought a calming collar for Noir, the cat, and some herbal downers-maybe for them all. They leave Monday and I will be on pins and needles til they get there.

Just a little smile

Sammy dog is not watching, he is listening.

Some young person in our little neighborhood is learning to play the trumpet.

And it was wonderful to listen.

Reminded me of New Orleans, would love to be planning a trip there right now.

He tried to kick me under the bus but all the tires were flat

My Cone flowers on the side are as pretty as ever.

My days are busier and busier and stranger and stranger.

Recently the people answering my questions seem to be spending most of their time in an opium den.

The Ginger Man returned from his vacation and he is so jolly I am certain he was actually in the looney bin and is now highly medicated.

Newton Newbie is fine as the Scrooge is on vacation this week and he feels confident no one else is so mean as to take what is left of his skin off.

Alas, we were not allowed to stretch the parts as no one had the balls to give the approval. Oh well, it is gonna be just as ugly on Monday.

Sammy has been moved from the kitchen prison to the bathroom prison and I think it is working out quite well. He does not agree, but I am bigger and smarter.

My next big move is a visit to the bookstore. I do not have enough time at work to check email much less see what is on Amazon. This has to slow down soon, I need some break time.

Oh yea, the title of the post-some yee haw tried to tell Materials that I messed up all the parts stretching them and he is now short half the build. What the asshat does not know is that I don't breathe without checking with Materials, and they all know I cannot replace any parts due to tooling changes. Mr. Asshat is in deep trouble right now. Will let you know who cries next.

I cannot make this shite up

Newton Newbie called me this morning. He has finally come to grips with the fact that he is not gonna get replacement parts of better quality. He has somewhat come over to the dark side and tomorrow we will be doing the stretching of the parts. This is not an exact science or even an engineering directive.

This is "look, this is the only shit that might fix your problem."

So we are going to make a ridiculous drawing on a piece of cardboard to kind of gage the stretching of the parts so we can kinda measure how this is gonna work out. This is called a raggedy ass template.

There are no guarantees with the stretching.

I love this job.

Next up, the cutting up of the metal part because they are too lazy to take it off the vehicle.

The Queen of the diplomatic email.

Yep, that is me.

Here is how it works, I get called at 6:30 from Newton Newbie whining about my short parts. I try to explain that they are not short and explain the engineering changes and then I remember Newton is a box of rocks. At this point I tell Newton I will be there in 12 minutes. He cannot comprehend the 12 minutes. I arrive, stow my stuff and go see Newton.

There are some launch guys staring at the car and Newton is in the conference room hard at work on his computer. I explain everything to them once again and half an hour later all everyone understands is that they used a part shipped in for the next build to fix this car and the fix did not work. Also they are now short a part. And then I explain why they are not going to get another part. I point to all the shit they hate on the part and say, remember how you wanted me to fix this? And they say yes. And I say, well we had to send the molds out to the toolmaker and they are cutting steel and this takes time. Days and Weeks, not a couple hours.

Then the mean prick, AKA Mr. Scrooge walks up and starts in, he is one of those that starts quietly and builds into a crescendo. "I am tired of hearing about this shit part and damn excuses . . ." then he finishes with "I cannot ship cars with this shit part and I do not want to hear anymore bullshit excuses." Then he turns on his heel and walks out. So I turn to Newton to tell him that I am serious he is not going to get better parts or any parts until August 29 and I notice he is quivering. I am serious. Quivering. I have never seen a person quiver in person. It is disconcerting.

That kinda ruined his day and he did not speak up at the daily meeting, probably scared shitless and now I have to wonder if he is going to have a nervous breakdown on me. It has been known to happen. People take this stuff way to seriously.

So once again I had to send out the email about how everything is a mess and what can you do about it or who is gonna tell the customer just how damn bad this is.

I forgot to mention the good thing about getting to work between 6 and 7 am is some days I am sitting on my porch enjoying the day at 2:30 to 3.

This has been a busy week

The kids honeymooned in Maine and brought us goodies as a thank you for helping with the wedding. Quite unnecessary but lovely to receive. Big Daddy can't wait to use the espresso rub. They also had a bar of salt soap in the bag and I cannot wait to savor that in the bath. It is not to be wasted in the early morning get out the door shower.

We are building pilots again this week and things have not been going well. I have got to say this is the sorriest launch I have ever seen. So far I have only worked 2 hours of OT this week and it is quite enough thank you. I am not a glutton and can do nicely on my 40 hours. This is going to change in the near future.

Funny of the day:

When I pulled into the lot and looked over at the pickum up truck parked next to me there was a guy inside brushing his teeth. I have never seen a person brush their teeth in public, much less a vehicle. Where the hell did he spit the toothpaste?

One of my plants was supposed to ship me a part because they shorted the releases. They could not tell me why but agreed to ship a part overnight to my house. This would have been for Saturday delivery. The box was delivered Monday morning and of course I was at work. I got home and tossed the box in my car. When I got to work Tuesday morning thank God I checked the box before handing it off to the customer. There was a lot of weird shit in that box, none of that shit being the missing part. We had to build shy on the line and overnight parts again. This is so embarrassing.

Today another plant did not ship to requirements and not only did they not tell me, they refused to call the customer back. And we wonder why people talk bad about us. Maybe because we are idiots.

Life goes on

The tacky fireplace in the tacky Hilton in tacky Niagara Falls. Yes, it is a picture.

Well, yesterday I got my hair done and let the apprentice cut my hair. I have never let anyone but the Pro cut my hair for over 15 years. But I decided, I want hair that I don't need to fuss with unless I feel like fussing. Some days I have to be at work at 6:30 in the morning and I do not feel like fussing on those days. So the apprentice cleaned up the horrible haircut and gave me some pointers. She said to comb out my hair when it is sopping wet, scrunch to get the curls and then put in the product. And do not touch it again. I can try this. It also looks great blown out if I do decide to fuss.

I bought new jeans for work. Technically we are not supposed to wear jeans, but these are brown and black and as the only woman in the group I can get away with more. Yep, in this day and age the only woman in the group. The Corporate QM is a woman so it is just me and her. Anyway I am now between sizes and the jeans can be thrown in the dryer so maybe they will shrink as I shrink.

Monday I have to go to work and build new pilots. And I do not think we have enough parts. And I am wondering just how I am supposed to deal with this little snag.

Punkin Head is so excited about his new job. He found out that he does not want to live in Felony Flats as one of the neighborhoods is known. That is good information. I gotta find out exactly when they are leaving, but right now it just makes me cry. My boy is moving across the country with his new bride and it is a monumental change. I will buck up and be fine, but I will miss him so very much.

The rest of the wedding story

When we finally arrived at the Inn the lovely staff got me a glass of Pinot Gres and I inspected the room the rehearsal dinner would be held in and everything was wonderful. Then we got into the ancient elevator, only staff is allowed to operate it, and we went up to our suite.

It was lovely, this is the same rooms the Dalai Lama stayed in when he visited Middlebury College in October.

The next morning I went with the Mother of the Bride to get out hair done. Yes, I got Snooki and yes it could have been traumatic if I was not a strong woman. First, the salon was not open when we arrived and no one showed up for 30 minutes. The MOB almost had a meltdown but I was able to calm her down as that is what I do for a living. I put BD on the job of finding a new hairdresser for the bride, and just in the nick of time the wayward Jersey girls showed up.  As the hairdressers were setting up their stations I was able to note that Snooki had curly hair and highlights. Only her highlights were kinda orangey. I got the too fussy and glued hairdo. I was able to make it look better later in the day.

These are the ugly wedding shoes. I never looked at them after Big Daddy picked them up, they were delivered from a different store as I needed a size 7. Well, I started getting this niggling feeling that maybe the were the wrong shoe or 2 different shoes, or some such nonsense. I looked and they were fine. Just as I was walking away I thought I should try these on and thank goodness I did because they were tight. The right size but on the tight side. And I tried on the 7 and 1/2 and knew what that felt like, and the black 7 fit. Anyway-I had to send BD out for pantyhose. Huge Queensize pantyhose in nude. Now this was a hard find back in the day when everyone wore pantyhose. He came through like a champ and I could wear my shoes.

The bride was beautiful, the wedding was fabulous and a good time was had by all.

Sync my ride, or chatting with a guy from Calcutta

Upon re-entering the US at the Rainbow Bridge, Niagara Falls, we promptly missed the turn-off for the by-pass to I-90 East. I-90 takes you clear across New York State. Things I learned on I-90 included how to tailgate, passing on the right is the law of the land, if 20 cars are bumper to bumper traveling at 75 miles an hour some asshat will pull up behind and flash his headlights for you to pull over so he can tailgate the person in front of you. And it works. I saw very agressive guys in huge trucks move 20 cars in minutes. It was truly amazing to watch.

 I-90 is a four lane divided toll road and got boring after a while. Punkin Head called to let us know that we were not required to attend the rehearsal so we decided to take a side trip. Big Mistake. It made the getting lost in Tonawanda look like child's play. Out first clue should have been the Sync my ride operator from Calcutta. I did ask myself why we were asking someone in India to route us through the Adirondacks, but Big Daddy wanted to use the technology. Then as a back-up he also figured out how to route us through my phone. The route was from Utica, New York to Middlebury Vermont.

We of course picked the most desolate route through the mountains. No tourist stuff here. Also no gas stations, restaurants, human beings, etc. Only snow plow turn-arounds and deer. Lots of deer. I only almost hit the deer once. Missing them was a vast relief. I did however pummel Peter Cottontail with the underbody of my Ford Fusion and I had to duke it out with Tom Turkey. Tom Turkey was the largest wild turkey BD had ever seen and he was sitting in the only lane open on a bridge in an abandoned construction zone. I did not swerve but I did hit the brakes to avoid hitting him. He was taller than my front end. BD said if I had hit him at speed he might have flipped up and broken the windshield.

Just when my blood sugar hit bottom and I was ready to cry we stumbled onto the Oxbow Inn. It was pretty scary but at this point I was beyond caring. I was reminded of those horror films where the innocent tourist goes inside and is never heard from again. After some fried clams, french fries and a glass of Pinot Grigio I was much better and we continued forth.

And we only got lost one more time. We made it with 45 minutes to spare before the rehearsal dinner. And a good time was had by all.

Niagara Falls fell flat

If I had made the falls a destination rather than a pass through my disappointment would have been HUGE. Those are the portion of the Canadian Falls I could see from our room.

That is because the view was mainly of the Casino, the Casino put on quite the light show all night long.

The view of the American Falls from our room. These were lit up for a couple hours after dark and were okay, but not worth the room. Thank goodness we used points for this room, the rate was 600 plus taxes a night and I would never have paid that for this room. Worst Hilton I have ever stayed in. Macaroni Grille was in the hotel and we were exhausted so went there for a bite. I have eaten at Macaroni Grille before and it is not horrible for a chain. I don't eat at many chains. This was the worst food ever. And we only got apps.

The town is a tourist trap full of people with children in tow, and after the Maid of the Mist I cannot imagine what else is left to do. I would advise to avoid this place at all cost, unless you are just passing through.

Just a quickie before the ceremony

For some reason I cannot upload photos without getting some weird data warning so I will wait until we are home for the photo show.

Niagara Falls failed to amuse me. I am so glad I did not go out of my way to see them. The only redeeming feature is that there is no charge to cross the border at the Rainbow bridge.

We got lost so many times in New York I never want to go to New York again. We went through North Tonawanda, the City of Tonawanda and South Tonawanda, the chick at Tim Horton's remarked we must have missed the by-pass. No Shit.

There are parts of the southern Adirondacks that might have been used to film Deliverance. And there are quite a few people who live in partially burned up or broken down trailer homes. That is where I almost hit the deer. Yes, we were lost there too.

I forgot to bring a jacket and found a black one in the car that I usually wore to work. Of course I promptly lost this jacket somewhere in Canada.

Snookie did my hair this morning and well, it is what it is, which is pretty much way too fussy for me. But she kinda glued it in place so it is staying and I will wear a hat home tomorrow.

That is the plan, get up and get out of Dodge early.

The journey begins

Big Daddy took Sammy Dog to the heartbreak hotel and Sammy made a fast friend of the kennel girl, he whined and laid his head on her shoulder. He does this sideways like he is laying his head down on a pillow. It is a scene stealer and I think he will be fine. And he has his prison bed and favorite toy to remind him of home. BD said Sammy glared at him before he left.

Soon we are off the great Canadian freeway know as the 401 which is so picturesque it makes Ohio down I-75 look like paradise. There will be no photo ops for awhile.

And Punkin Head got a verbal offer from one of the best colleges in the nation. Hurray for Punkin Head.