"Monday Monday, Can't Trust That Day"

Truer words were never sung because this has been one heckuva day.

I noticed last night that it's a full or close to full moon, so maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe stress, worry and sleeplessness have something to do with it. Whatever. It's weird.

I walked into work, fired up my computer and my screens were halfway wonky again. I don't know why. Nothing except a weekend in between then and now changed. But the resolution was goofy. It wasn't the mouse this time - thank goodness!

However, I did learn, belying the old saw about old dogs and tricks. I signed in before doing anything about the wonky computer, so at least that wasn't messed up, too.

I don't even know what I did but, after about thirty minutes the left screen went black - 'no signal'. Jiggled and fiddled and voila! it came back - and the resolution was fixed, too. Weird.

Maybe the moon was passing through the House of Jupiter and touched the doorway of Mercury. I don't know, but it's fixed and working.

Opened Outlook and the world appears to have exploded. A collection of e-mails of the "I need this now!" variety. Great. Monday has barely started and it's like being surrounded by three-year olds in need of a cookie.

Unfortunately, none of the needs are minor. All are time consuming and require some variety of prioritization. Took care of a couple of easy ones first, delved into the most time consuming and got that done, went to my ten o'clock meeting, dove into the next group and so on. Now, at noon, I feel better about things.

Except for the dearth of sleep. Yep - insomnia struck again. Which, if I had motivation to get up and do something, and if there was a modicum of flexibility of schedule, it wouldn't be such a bad thing. There are, after all, twenty-four hours in a day, so if it were up to me, I would sleep when I'm sleepy and work / write / play when I'm not. Too bad convention demands a schedule.

In this case I'm functioning (or trying to pretend really hard) on four hours or so of sleep. Not ideal. Another hokey-pokey night - right foot in, left arm out, etc.

Oh well. C'est la... vie, guerre, take your pick, I'll leave it to you.

I am getting things done, and they're not going too sideways because I am taking my time to keep them from going sideways. On a day like this I really don't want to get the phone call from someone, "Hey, you screwed up!" Not a good thing when I'm half asleep. It disturbs my nap. So I'll take my time and pay attention.

Tonight, however, I will sleep. A lot. Probably during the snoozer of the Monday Football game because I don't care about the Cardinals and whoever it is that they're playing. I'll let hubby watch that, provide pillow services for Sam, who will no doubt take full advantage, and sleep.

What's weird / funny / ironic about hubby is that if I'm really tired and say I want to go to bed early, I get an argument - "Why can't you stay up until 9:30?". If I fall asleep on the sofa, that's okay. No comment. Gee - could it be a control thing? Hmmm. Let me think...

And I need to get well rested before the weekend. NaNo starts on Sunday and I have a huge goal, as mentioned previously. I don't know that I'll really need eighteen pages a day, I may cut that back to something more realistic. I guess I'll find out. Then I may regret not cheating.

We did more house clearing yesterday, even though I'd asked for the weekend off, but it was good and easy and you can't tell because we cleared out our collection of VHS tapes. We kept a good few - probably in the range of 100 or so, but tossed at least as many. Unfortunately, this is another case of not being able to see the result. Not unless you look in the garbage bin. But they're gone and it's that much less stuff to go through.

So - that's about it from here for now. I'm going to get back to work so I can get home at a decent hour, and get some much needed sleep!

Have a lovely day and a non-insomniac night!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Chicken, Criswell, All Sorts of Good Stuff

I am so glad the weekend is here. Even though it was a short, four-day week because of the Labor Day holiday, it felt long.

Too many days of temps around 100 or so, too many too warm nights that kept me from sleep. I like between six-and-a-half and seven hours. Four doesn't do it for me and I don't think I got more than three hours straight at any given time this past week. The other four were split between trying to get comfortable and thinking "I have got to get some sleep" and just lying there in defeat while I waited to get drowsy. On hot nights it's a whole lot like doing the hokey-pokey all night long.

Put your left foot out, put your left foot in
Put your right arm out, put your right arm in
Turn it all about
Put the blanket on, put the blanket off
Put the sheet and blanket on, put the... You get the picture.

All while tossing and turning, adjusting the covers - too many, too few, they slipped, they fell.  Annoying. Even with the ceiling fan and the table fan running.

I got so desperate this week that I Googled the best way to cool a room with a table fan. Not sure I believe the result. "They" (Gary Larson's guys in the basement) say that you're supposed to point the fan out - so it draws the hot air from the room and vents it outside.

Tried that for two nights. Didn't feel any cooler. If it does make a difference, it's probably no more than one or two degrees, and I can feel that much cooler with the air drawn in from outside wafting over me. I dunno. All I do know is that it's affecting me.

I put the missing coffee canister lid (which was found, by my hubby, on the counter - where I would stake my life I had looked about eighty-eight dozen times the other morning), the fact that I nearly slept through my alarm yesterday, the fact that I forgot my chicken in the microwave yesterday morning, etc. down to sleep deprivation.

Well, I am looking forward to October and the cooler weather. No doubt, as we usually do, we'll get more warm days and nights between now and then, but with shorter days already starting, the cooler nights are worth waiting for.

Oh, and about that chicken. Just in case you're worried about my dietary habits (probably not, but oh well), I don't microwave chicken except to reheat it. I'm not into eating rubber - even though it probably would provide weight loss benefits from the chewing and attempts at digestion.

No, what happened was that we had those steaks on Monday night. I had some chicken defrosting that afternoon and hubby suggested that he toss it on the grill after cooking the steaks. Great idea! Nothing I like better than BBQ chicken, so we did.

Unfortunately, even though the grill was still hot, the chicken didn't cook all the way through. The outside looked perfect but when I got a piece to work for lunch on Tuesday, it was just about raw inside. Thank goodness for my penchant for using knives and forks! If I had bit into it I probably would have had an unfortunate consequence.

So, I cut, it "bled" (not really, but it was really red inside). To make that edible, I nuked the heck out of it and thought I would shoot him an e-mail: 'please take the chicken out of the fridge, I have to recook it'.

Didn't. Tired, lazy, sleep deprived, whatever the reason, I didn't do it. Or on Wednesday, or Thursday. Just carefully nuked the next piece of chicken each day - probably more than needed, but safe / sorry, etc.

Finally, yesterday morning, I got off my lazy drowsy sleep deprived backside and nuked the four pieces that are left for three minutes. Then I promptly forgot the casserole dish in the microwave.

I had thought I'd let the heat work all the way through while I set up the coffee for hubby, and then move it to the fridge. Didn't. I forgot about it, ran around, left for work and it sat there until hubby came downstairs an hour later. He discovered it and nuked it for another three minutes. Then he sent me an e-mail about it.

Well, one thing's for sure, that chicken's dead. And somebody's responsible.

And that, my friends, is an almost blatant plagiarism from Plan 9 from Outer Space by Ed Wood, Jr. - one of the stupidest and unintentionally funniest movies ever made.

If you want to see the original (and I highly recommend you do) - I promise your jaw will drop in disbelief if you pay close attention, listen to and think about what's said in these clips from the movie. It's five minutes long so grab a favorite beverage, your bestest buddy, and spend a few minutes. You (probably) won't be disappointed. Just be prepared for mind-bendingly stupid...

My friends....

Oh! And one other bit of trivia about that opener: Criswell did exist - he's not a made up dude from an over-fevered imagination. He was real and even wrote a book called 'Criswell Predicts' (long story for another time).

Have a lovely weekend!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Modular Arms, the Lone Ranger and 'Stuff'

Do you ever do what I did last night? Climb into bed, ready to sleep and try to get comfortable but your arms are in the way? Or your shoulder points aren't cooperating and seem to stick up farther than they should, creating a crick in your neck against the pillow?

Sometimes I wish I could pop them out. Just like some modular thing I could drop on the floor or set on the night table because they get in my way.

Lay on my left side and my right arm drapes nicely, but the left arm sticks out at an awkward angle. Shift it and it isn't comfortable. Make it comfortable and it's at an awkward angle. I can't lie on top of it. I'd put it to sleep and then I'd move in my sleep, roll off of it or something and then it would wake me up with its complaining. Right side, ditto.

Lie on my back so my arms are 'happy' and my sinuses fill. Add an extra pillow and the sinuses drain but I get a crick in my neck. Turn on my side with that extra pillow and my neck gets wonky.

There are times when falling asleep is a lot of hard work. But I managed, and I slept pretty well once I got there.

Of course having a modular pop-off arm isn't such a great idea either.

Getting one off and putting it back would be okay. Most inconvenient for the other, though. And, on cold mornings, you'd wake up all nice and warm and cozy. You'd need that arm for something and it would be horrible! Like a block of ice. You'd have to thaw it under the covers, and it would roll against you and... there goes nice and warm and cozy.

If you left it on the floor because your night table is too small, you might step on it when you get out of bed. Then you'd have a bruise. Or, you might miss it on your way to the bathroom at two a.m., but kick it under the bed when you're coming back. Then, instead of going back to bed and sleeping, you'd be on your hands and knees digging around under the bed looking for it.

I guess modular arms aren't a great idea. And I did eventually get them under control. It was just one of those things because I was tired, I wanted to go to sleep, but the stupid things were in my way.

Oh well. On a happier note, I'm not entirely sure what happened yesterday, but I had a really good day.

It wasn't everything, or just one single thing. It was just a day on which I left work with a feeling of satisfaction for far more than it being the end of the day.

The MS Project files I've been beating into submission were received well. There were a couple of hiccups, but they were minor and no one got overly excited.

The director who was pushing back against the document control thing seems to be heading around the curve. We were talking about something that happened yesterday. Someone didn't follow procedures and went off in their own direction.

Whether it was ignorance or simple lack of attention, a combination or something else entirely I don't know and I don't care. It happened. It's over and done so we just have to do better next time.

However, it might have helped my cause because I was peripherally involved. I pointed out the problem to the initiator of it, and said 'you can't do this because it puts me in the line of fire. Here's what you need to do before you do the other thing.'

As such things do, it went around and hit a bunch of other people and there was a kerfuffle. In the end, I ended up laughing because it was all so stupid.

It's bad, but it is not Earth shattering. It's not the first time and, unless the world itself comes to an end, it won't be the last. What made me laugh is the fact that it is, at its root, silly.

The process is so damned easy to follow - just follow it.

Instead, one Lone Ranger took off and the cavalry followed, throwing up a cloud of dust and making a lot of noise. Instead of four or five people involved in logical stream, we ended up with probably a dozen - all running around, bouncing off one another, firing off e-mails and calling and...

We all of us learned something - about the process and ourselves and our colleagues, so while it isn't 'good' it's not bad, either. Not really.

The auditors will have knotted panties and wagging fingers when it comes out. There will be a review of the process because what we're supposed to be doing obviously isn't being followed, and what the Lone Ranger did obviously doesn't work.

The trouble needs to be caught at a much lower level and the people there have got to have the stones to stand up and say 'you can't do that - it's not within your' job description / purview / or whatever else they choose to say. That should be part of their job description and, as people doing their job per their job description, there should be no blow-back. They should be able to have confidence in that, and in their supervisors if someone does start shouting.

At the end of the day, literally, I was talking about it with the director whose heels have been dragging on Document Control. Because of this, it's apparent that more than just our documents are out of control. I suggested that what I'm going to be doing could help solve future problems - or at least raise the level of awareness of the procedures. Then, if people are aware of the process and are at least aware that the procedure is written down someplace, maybe they'll stop to think, 'I wonder...' and not do what shouldn't be done.

In any case, it's over and done. Live, learn, Luvs and get on with things (that Luvs thing was an advertising tag from a plastic diaper company - it fits, so I use it occasionally even though I am wayyyyy past wearing or changing diapers).

I have my second training group today. This is the big one - fourteen people participating but just one in the office. Everyone else will video conference which is good and bad. No embarrassing or uncomfortable bobbing and weaving - good. I can sit at the table and drive - good. No eye contact to sense how I'm doing - bad. No direct interaction - bad. So, I'll just have to play it safe and keep it straight .

Other than that, things are quiet around here.

I'm working hard on my re-write, and have chopped 'Shady' down to just about 118,300 - so 1,600 words from where it was. I know there's a lot more in these early chapters to cut. Thinking about it on my way to work yesterday, I've identified the next shrub to be cleared. Now I have to find the time to do it, which I will.

On the flash fiction thread on Authonomy we have a prompt of 'Flying High' this week which is intriguing. How do I approach that? I have ideas - some obvious, some not. I have until noon on Saturday to post something, so we'll see.


So there we are. My world on a Thursday morning. Quiet and hopeful, cheery and pleasant.

Hope you have a lovely day!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories