JDoors

So-o-o-ooo ... They're trying to get blood out of a turnip at work, squeezing here and there, cutting there and here, closing this, opening that, etc. Things are slow and, my guess? Management is just as bored as we are and have nothing to do but pointlessly shuffle things around while making up one new rule after another (Hey, get a REAL job, will ya?). So, here's a new one: Hourly employees will now pick up their paycheck stubs from the Human Resources department. It's a casino so there are cashiers cages all over the place. One window was always dedicated to employee transactions, but the

I had NO idea what a "Myrmecophaga tridactyla" was so I was a bit leery of clicking the link. I do not need to be freaked out by another picture of something creepy. Now you know, I trust you. Back to the original bug bite: I told a co-worker what happened and she said that's how she's ALWAYS reacted to mosquito bites. She actually volunteered several symptoms I had that I hadn't yet told her about and they were identical to what I had gone through. So if I get bit again we'll see if I'm more reactive than I used to be (ie. "allergic," I hate to even use the word since I'm not "reac

Before this gets censored for being too political, let me say I am skeptical of the completeness and truthfullness of testimony from detainees.

This week's podcasts (I d/l them all on one day and listen to them as time permits).

<shudder> Never saw one that I recognized as such, though I think they're native to this area too (or am I thinking of Wolf Spiders?).

I know I like the name (the name of the hero in The Never Ending Story). Today; same CD, same boombox, but it's working perfectly so Paul Simon, Graceland.

No way! You live in New York or somethin'? Glad I filled up at $4.09. (Boy, never thought I'd be "glad" I bought gas at just over four dollars.)

Hope this deal comes through for you, it sounds just about perfect.

It's not cheap when you also need a new home stereo, a new TV, fix the cruise control, outside temperature monitor and radio in the Explorer, the cordless phone, the computer, my watch, well, anything electronic I get near (stereo, bass cuts out, TV, not digital, temp monitor, occasionally reads ~20 degrees off, cruise control, occasionally sticks on full throttle, radio, channels cut out at random, cordless phone, battery stopped working, computer, occasionally freezes, watch, stopped working, etc.). I'm so used to electronics acting up around me it never occurs to me to fix 'em all. -----

Spend ten thousand dollars to save a few hundred? Spend even more for a rack to carry my bike instead of just throwing it in the back? Risk getting stuck in blizzards and floods? Buy Japanese, like the lawnmower I absolutely loathe? I'm disappointed with my mileage, not crazy.

Kinda early for that, isn't it? Gonna be a hot one! Warm here, a brief respite from the rain but more's due tomorrow and the next. Everyone near the river has adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Still, not as bad as Cedar Rapids and vicinity. We're a couple feet at most above flood level. That's bad, but for the past several years they've been replacing old factories with public spaces along the river so there's little personal property damage so far.

I SO get those!

I was at work last night when a serious storm blew through, couldn't even open the door to watch without rain blowing straight in. Driving home my town must've gotten hit -- hard. Traffic lights were out, tree branches EVERYWHERE. My power didn't go out though (very odd), and I have just the one tree (though there were branches from two other trees in my yard). I pick up the pine cones from the neighbor's tree where it hangs over my property (they kill the grass). On a very windy day I might fill up the small bag I use. This morning? I filled up the bag FOUR times before I gave up and said th

I used Mobil1 exclusively in my pickup -- the timing chain wore out. It had well over 100,000 miles on it at the time, but I thought that wasn't supposed to happen. So I'm not really a big fan any more. I just change the oil more often than I used to instead. Paid $4.09 per today. Sadly, I got <16 mpg from the previous tank. Guess I'm just gonna hafta move over to the right lane and act my age.

Well, I tried to listen to Paul Simon's Graceland, but the boombox ain't cooperating (keeps jamming or something, the songs just stop and the laser motor goes: zzt-zzt, zzt-zzt, zzt-zzt until I turn the thing off). So I turned on the radio until the station I listen to unexpectantly went off air! So I switched to AM and am listening to the news. I have a SERIOUS problem with electronics.

Well, whatever bit me didn't mind that I take vitamins! I'd forgotten about the B1 thing. In my experience; I have nearly always taken a multi-vitamin and don't get eaten alive, so there's that, but on the other hand they DO manage to find me (likely by the CO2 I exhale), but they just buzz around me, usually over my head. One time while out fishing I had a cloud of them OVER my head, but I wasn't getting bit.

It's like you're determined to scare me. Just checked, nope, nothin' goin' on under the skin. Since we're getting floods all over the MidWest it's gonna be a nasty bug-bite season for sure.

Emmylou Harris & Mark Knopfler, All The Roadrunning

Yeah, there's nothing more vaporous than "consumer savings" when your electricity source changes hands. Essentially it's due to a company wanting better returns in the stock market: The old way doesn't lend itself to "spectacular" returns so they're all looking for ways to get a higher return. We wind up paying for it. Regarding Big Oil: But of course, Exxon/Mobil is evil, right? ----- From: Townhall column by Bill Steigerwald ----- Oh yeah, and like any "statistics" you have to pay close attention to EXACTLY what they're saying. For example, the Exxon/Mobil spokesman says they acco

I like how your previous post just says, "Perfect!" Ain't so perfect now, is it? Temps have been fine, higher than average but not unbearable (though it's humid, as always). The surrounding areas are getting flooded out pretty severely though. Up North a berm for a man-made lake failed, draining the lake. To the East there's been disaster-area citations for all the flooding. The river through my town is getting high, as it always does during the rainy season, but I imagine once the water from all that Northern flooding reaches us we'll have some interesting days ahead. I'm holing up i

I'd certainly express condolences and if possible spend time with him, but a made-up holiday doesn't "require" acknowledgment at all if all it might do is cause even more grief.

How much longer is tornado season? Keep safe.

I'll continue to keep an eye on it but it's going away on its own. If it did get worse rather then better at least I know just HOW bad it could get. Yikes.

Looks like they're pulling several varieties off the shelves and out of restaurants. No relief in site Joe!

OK, I'm REALLY gonna take global warming seriously if we wind up with, say, those horrific palmetto bugs up North. <shudder> Or scorpions, or ... Still healing fine. Told a buddy about it and he said his kid got something identical to what I have and they brought him to the doctor (they're, umm, more willing to visit the doctor than I am -- don't WANT to use the term hypochondriac, but ... ). They had no explanation for what it was and treated it, "like a staph infection," whatever that means, I didn't inquire further. Probably an antibiotic prescription (the answer for everythi