TRYING TO KEEP THIS STREAK GOING

Yep, haven’t missed a Monday this year. With my posting methods I don’t expect to miss a single Monday.

The other streak I want to keep going is not having to call out sick since the 7th of April. As of today that will be three and a half months. Any days I plan on taking off will not count and must be requested at least one week in advance, preferably two weeks.

When the interns first arrived and I had to work with them I was a little upset. They took up time that I did not have to train etc.. After the summer with them it is time for them to leave and a couple of them have actually been very good. One of them worked with me and the others worked for other people but did interact with me once in a while. We had one that will not be mentioned by name that went out of his way it seemed to try and steal the thunder from others. Sucking up to management etc..

One of them was here because we interviewed him at the job fair at Florida State, had him come as an intern then interviewed again. Offered him a job and he left early for Lockheed at a NASA facility. Funny thing here is I know he had all that planned because working at a NASA facility would require security clearances which take time. He more than likely had all that lined up before I started here as an intern but used the extra time after school to make some money and get some working experience. Good for him, he was one of the good ones.

Looks like Prosley, the Intern working for me wants to apply for a job here after he graduates. I think he would be a good fit and this would be an excellent first job out of college.

The last few weeks have been absolutely fantastic. I have been getting things done that need to be done. Very close to getting the model Justin wants me to work on complete. That has taken quite a bit of time because I had never worked with Siemens NX before and had to learn for myself both the modeling aspect, drawing creation and the assembly of components. It was a long hard bit of work but well worth it. Should allow me opportunities at other locations in the future.

GETTING CLOSE TO MY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Yes I have been here almost a year now. I won’t jinx it but my one year anniversary will be in one month. Yes it is true that Hans did have a conversation with me concerning my attendance but I think there were some misunderstandings there. But he did say some things that were not true like telling me it was not acceptable to tell him I would not be there with a text. This would be 100% BS because everyone else does it. He also stated I was out and did not call in a couple weeks before that which is complete bull crap. I have never not called in when I was not going to be there. I have to stop talking about that conversation because all it does is piss me off.

Karma… Hans called in sick the Tuesday after the fourth of July weekend and then again the following Monday and he told me it was hard for him to believe I was sick the day after weekends. Karma is a bitch. Edit: When Hans did come in he all of sudden like has about 12 stiches above he right eye. Sick Hans? I think not but I’m not going to ask.

With all that said. After my two years is up the likelihood that I will stay much longer is just about zero. By that time I will have been missing Carrie so much that the thought of not being with her will be too much for me to handle. By that time I should have started to get familiar with CNC machining and probably liking it but I’m not sure that will be enough to keep me here.

COVID-19 seems to be on the rise again. People here at work for the last couple of weeks have been dropping like flies or moths around a bug zapper.

There were a couple people on the floor that tested positive but came back to work after only a couple of days which I thought was a little strange.

Three weeks ago one of our engineering was out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and all of the next week. The following week he was in but then the next week he was out again. He came back last Monday but was told to leave because he still had a temperature. He also sounded like crap. He had a mask on but that really doesn’t matter when you are coughing like he was. I hope he did not spread too much around.

The week before last Daniel Oaks tested positive and was out for the remainder of the week and Monday as well. The rules are, if you test positive (you don’t need to show proof) you must stay home for five days and the five days start the day after you tested positive. After that you can come back to work as long as you are not presenting any symptoms or fever and not using medication to prevent from showing symptoms.

I purchased a thermometer for checking my temperature if I happen to fall to this persistent bug. I know when Carrie was sick a few weeks ago she was miserable for at least four days.

STRANGE BUT GREAT FOURTH OF JULY HOLIDAY

Why the title? We were given an extra day for the 4th of July holiday. Yes, we had a four day weekend last week. It was great!

We had the 20th of June off for Juneteenth. The next week was a four day week, nice, then had a two day weekend followed by another four day week because we had the first of July off, very nice. Then we had a four day weekend with the first and fourth of July off, even nicer and followed that up with a four day week. All in all, very sweet middle of the year here in Thomasville.

In Tulsa the fireworks started about the first with a few going off and by the fourth it was almost a war zone. Depending on the weather but usually a lot of fireworks were going off. They usually stopped by the evening of the fifth. Here in Thomasville there were hardly any going off before the fourth. I might have heard four of five pops go off. On the fourth the city put on a show right behind my apartment and it was freaking loud! The end of the show was the loudest fireworks I have heard going off in a long time. It started about 9:20pm when it was dark and ended about 45 minutes later. I might go watch it next year. I could walk there is less than 10 minutes five if I could cut through the green belt but there is a fence there.

All in all a great fourth of July weekend.

Oh, did I mention that Carrie and I announced our engagement? Yep on the 2nd of July we announced it to the world. We got one heck of a response.

Dad went in the hospital on Saturday the 9th. Chris sent a message out to Me, Diane and Tyra that said “Left dad at hospital, they did a scan didn’t have results yet but said he’d probably be spending the night so I am on my way home. Hospital said they’d call me with an update.” That is the exact message and said nothing about why he went to the hospital.

Between then and now, Monday morning there wasn’t any new information other than his tests were coming back negative. He called me Sunday evening and sounded good but tired and said he would probably be going home tomorrow (Monday, today)

Aunt Marion and her partner apparently had a fall the morning of June 29th and she is not doing well. They have both been in the hospital since then. She can’t take much water except by spoon or sponge and does not want to eat or do therapy. They have moved her to an assisted care facility including hospice her late stages of Alzheimer’s is making her confused with all new faces around. Jack her partner is also not doing well.

As I didn’t know this information regarding Marion, most of the posts about her and Jack are paraphrases from Kris on Facebook. As of today Kris’s posts said Marion doesn’t seem to remember Jack.

FOURTH OF JULY HERE IN THOMASVILLE

Today is the 4th of July here in Thomasville, GA. I’m pretty sure I won’t be watching too many fireworks. I haven’t done that is a few years.

Last Friday was first Friday here in Thomasville. There was plenty of fireworks downtown after the rain stopped.

The last few days have been pretty nice. We are back to rain in the afternoons which does a very good job of cooling it down here. It was over 95 degrees for 12 straight days.

Our place has been quite warm the during that time. The air conditioning has a hard time keeping up with the hot days. I purchased a small 8,000btu unit that should cool down a 250 – 350 square foot area. It seems to work fairly good but the living area still gets pretty warm so I also have a little evaporative cooling unit that I have sitting on the coffee table. That seems to work pretty good at keeping me cool.

Last week, Carrie and Rickey came down with COVID-19. Ally had it and she exposed Carrie and Rickey to it but Carrie and Rickey were both vaccinated. With them exposed she probably gave it to Bill who was very sick earlier in the week. With Bill now very sick it was not to likely that Carrie or Rickey would get away without coming down with it. To top it all off, I had some shots Friday night and said some really mean things to her even telling her to shut up at one point. She was laughing and said it was ok (since I had a couple of shots) but I wanted to let her know that was never ok for me to do that.

Here is a picture of Rickey’s COVID-19 test results.

Picture of Rickey's COVID Test Results
This is a Positive Result