USMB Coffee Shop IV

[gallantwarrior]

Greetings, All!
Another miserable day here. I can't recall two completely sunny days together since June, or sooner. Of course, our extended rainy season is nothing compared to what so many other people are enduring right now, so I will end my carping.
My shift supervisor threatened my 4/10 shifts. I made a mistake last week, partially my fault, but partially his, too. Of course, both of us were angry with ourselves for our respective mistakes. He shouted and threatened me. I blinked silently while he raged on. Unfortunately, remaining silent when vehement defensiveness is expected is like throwing gasoline on a fire. I'm thinking that the writing is on the wall and as soon as I get settled into the Willow place, I'll be looking for a job closer to home. I did the math and I could accept a lower paying job and still break even, considering the amount of money I'll be spending on fuel for the commute to my present job (80-mi, one-way).

It sucks when Bosses are retaliatory, power tripping, and micro-managing.

I agree. I can understand when you get angry at yourself for making a mistake. I was pretty pissed off, but I realized it was because I did make that mistake. So, I'm not going to rise to the bait and make a big stink. Blinking stupidly and silently is about the best I could do while taking my licks for my mistake. But the lead had made a mistake, too. He failed to do his job, if he had, I might not have made my mistake to begin with. He knew that, and I'm sure he was angry at himself. His error was that he continued to press the point and then to threaten my shift. I suggested later that if he made an effort to praise and thank people when they do something praiseworthy, he might find a lot better and more enthusiastic cooperation with the entire team than if every time someone was summoned to the office it meant they were going to get their tails chewed, or even be drawn into an argument.

I know what you mean. Office politics are so weird. I am learning new ones every day.

Where I work now isn't really that bad. One of the reasons I turned down a full professorship at the University was because I had no desire to become involved in the politics. The other reason was because I did not want to participate in rush hour traffic morning and evening, five days a week.

I hear that. Alaska has by far the largest land area of the 50 states, but roughly half the population is crammed into and around Anchorage. We have the same problem in New Mexico having the fifth largest land area but cramming half the state's population into the Albuquerque metro area. And that makes traffic here absolutely awful while getting around in most of the rest of the state--well, except in Santa Fe--pretty delightful. Santa Fe traffic is terrible because it is a major tourist destination, is the state capital, and there are thousands of Albuquerqueans there at any given time.

And as Anchorage fills up, the population is expanding into the Matanuska Valley. That's why a few years ago when the country went ballistic about the "bridges to nowhere", we knew that most inhabitants of the Lesser 48 hadn't a clue. We desperately need the bridge across Knik Arm, both to shorten the commute to Anchorage from the Upper Valley, and to relieve the traffic pressure on the only highway from there to here. It would be cool if they could see fit to provide rail service from the Valley into Anchorage, but the powers that be have deemed Alaskans to cheap to pay the same kind of money that tourists do for a choo-choo ride. Heck, not too many years ago, the Alaska RR still did whistle stops. You stood at the rail siding and they'd stop the train to pick you up. That's gone now, too. Tourists gotta get where they're going on schedule, and Princess Tours owns lots of Alaska.
For those who care, Anchorage actually inhabits a geographic feature referred to as the "Anchorage Bowl". It's a narrow strip of build-able land sandwiched between mountains and two bodies of ocean-linked water, Knick Arm and the Cook Inlet. As the population of Anchorage has expanded to pretty much fill up that strip of land, pricing housing too high for many low- to middle-income families, the population has exchanged the hour-long commute to Anchorage (jobs) for affordable housing. If I recall, Albuquerque also fills a bowl of real estate ringed by mountains, state and federal parks?

 

[gallantwarrior]

I agree. I can understand when you get angry at yourself for making a mistake. I was pretty pissed off, but I realized it was because I did make that mistake. So, I'm not going to rise to the bait and make a big stink. Blinking stupidly and silently is about the best I could do while taking my licks for my mistake. But the lead had made a mistake, too. He failed to do his job, if he had, I might not have made my mistake to begin with. He knew that, and I'm sure he was angry at himself. His error was that he continued to press the point and then to threaten my shift. I suggested later that if he made an effort to praise and thank people when they do something praiseworthy, he might find a lot better and more enthusiastic cooperation with the entire team than if every time someone was summoned to the office it meant they were going to get their tails chewed, or even be drawn into an argument.

I know what you mean. Office politics are so weird. I am learning new ones every day.

Where I work now isn't really that bad. One of the reasons I turned down a full professorship at the University was because I had no desire to become involved in the politics. The other reason was because I did not want to participate in rush hour traffic morning and evening, five days a week.

My job is new so I am still learning everyone's personalities.

Personalities make the job both challenging and fun. Politics, on the other hand, make working situations very unpleasant sometimes. If people were able to check their politics and religion at the door, like we do here, work would go much more smoothly.
Good luck with the new job. May you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed my jobs.

Also one thing I have learned from bitter experience is that we never know what life is going to deal us and we can't ever fully relax when times are good because some things almost never stay the same. Our favorite restaurant can change management or make other changes that we find quite unsatisfactory. Our favorite store can close or become something so different we no longer wish to shop there. Rental property that we love can be sold out from under us. And a job that we love can become something we dread when there is a new boss or introduction of difficult coworkers or clients or other elements are introduced so that it no longer is fun.

And, I am at the age that I feel I have paid my dues and I can choose whether I will deal with difficult situations or people instead of feeling that I am obligated to do that.

I understand. I am in the process of changing my address for the last time. Once I am settled in my Willow home, I have absolutely no plans to move on until I no longer care where I go. Off grid means more work, but it also means staying "young" in order to survive. I am looking forward to working for myself.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Doc is very pleased with Mr. P's skin wounds, they are healing nicely.
We see him again on Monday morning.
We also caught his repeats of low yeast infection, which was triggering his M. S. and has stopped since his taking of antibiotics. My bruised and scratched up leg loves it.
He went to the Docs office and the Eagles by himself today.

Yay for Mr.P...and for you, too, Peach!

 

[Michelle420]

I used to live in Sandia Heights.

 

[Foxfyre]

I have the worst allergies today. I've taken two Costco Kirkland all day allergy pills and still sneezing runny nose and teary eyes.

I hear that. This has been an unusual tough autumn allergy season for us in northern New Mexico.

 

[Ringel05]

I used to live in Sandia Heights.

Just up the road a piece.

 

[Ringel05]

I have the worst allergies today. I've taken two Costco Kirkland all day allergy pills and still sneezing runny nose and teary eyes.

I hear that. This has been an unusual tough autumn allergy season for us in northern New Mexico.

Then it's not just the wife and I...... That's good to know.

 

[Ringel05]

Well I finally decided a couple of days ago just after Microsoft updated Windows 8.1 on this laptop to entirely switch over to Linux on all but the wife's laptop and my Windows 7 gaming computer....... For now.......
The last update Microsucks planted their 'Store' on the laptop with no real way of uninstalling it so now I have one desktop and my personal laptop running Ubuntu. I'm happy.
Now if I could only load Ubuntu on the lenovo and make it all work properly without having to write script. Otherwise the lenovo is still for sale.........

 

[Montrovant]

Well I finally decided a couple of days ago just after Microsoft updated Windows 8.1 on this laptop to entirely switch over to Linux on all but the wife's laptop and my Windows 7 gaming computer....... For now.......
The last update Microsucks planted their 'Store' on the laptop with no real way of uninstalling it so now I have one desktop and my personal laptop running Ubuntu. I'm happy.
Now if I could only load Ubuntu on the lenovo and make it all work properly without having to write script. Otherwise the lenovo is still for sale.........

I just found out today that unetbootin doesn't work for making a bootable Linux Mint USB. Wasted a good deal of time with that, and I still don't have Mint 18 loaded.

 

[Ringel05]

Well I finally decided a couple of days ago just after Microsoft updated Windows 8.1 on this laptop to entirely switch over to Linux on all but the wife's laptop and my Windows 7 gaming computer....... For now.......
The last update Microsucks planted their 'Store' on the laptop with no real way of uninstalling it so now I have one desktop and my personal laptop running Ubuntu. I'm happy.
Now if I could only load Ubuntu on the lenovo and make it all work properly without having to write script. Otherwise the lenovo is still for sale.........

I just found out today that unetbootin doesn't work for making a bootable Linux Mint USB. Wasted a good deal of time with that, and I still don't have Mint 18 loaded.

I only made on bootable thumb drive and that was a while back, don't remember how I did it.

 

[Montrovant]

Well I finally decided a couple of days ago just after Microsoft updated Windows 8.1 on this laptop to entirely switch over to Linux on all but the wife's laptop and my Windows 7 gaming computer....... For now.......
The last update Microsucks planted their 'Store' on the laptop with no real way of uninstalling it so now I have one desktop and my personal laptop running Ubuntu. I'm happy.
Now if I could only load Ubuntu on the lenovo and make it all work properly without having to write script. Otherwise the lenovo is still for sale.........

I just found out today that unetbootin doesn't work for making a bootable Linux Mint USB. Wasted a good deal of time with that, and I still don't have Mint 18 loaded.

I only made on bootable thumb drive and that was a while back, don't remember how I did it.

I got it worked out. I just had to use a different program, I used one from Mint. I also downloaded a different program for Windows, but haven't tested that yet. It's just odd because I used unetbootin to make my bootable USBs for Mint 17.

Later tonight I may move the files I want to save to the external HD and try loading Mint 18 onto the laptop again. I also would like to try upgrading my Mint boot on this PC, but I'm worried about screwing something up if I do so. I really don't want to lose my Windows boot here.

 

[Ringel05]

Well I finally decided a couple of days ago just after Microsoft updated Windows 8.1 on this laptop to entirely switch over to Linux on all but the wife's laptop and my Windows 7 gaming computer....... For now.......
The last update Microsucks planted their 'Store' on the laptop with no real way of uninstalling it so now I have one desktop and my personal laptop running Ubuntu. I'm happy.
Now if I could only load Ubuntu on the lenovo and make it all work properly without having to write script. Otherwise the lenovo is still for sale.........

I just found out today that unetbootin doesn't work for making a bootable Linux Mint USB. Wasted a good deal of time with that, and I still don't have Mint 18 loaded.

I only made on bootable thumb drive and that was a while back, don't remember how I did it.

I got it worked out. I just had to use a different program, I used one from Mint. I also downloaded a different program for Windows, but haven't tested that yet. It's just odd because I used unetbootin to make my bootable USBs for Mint 17.

Later tonight I may move the files I want to save to the external HD and try loading Mint 18 onto the laptop again. I also would like to try upgrading my Mint boot on this PC, but I'm worried about screwing something up if I do so. I really don't want to lose my Windows boot here.

I realized the only real reason I was keeping Windows on this laptop was only because of the old Win 7 preinstalled games, my mindless distractors when I'm board or waiting for something. I'll just deal with the less polished Linux ones.

 

[Gracie]

Taking a break, Foxy and Friends.


Hugs

 

[Ringel05]

Well I finally decided a couple of days ago just after Microsoft updated Windows 8.1 on this laptop to entirely switch over to Linux on all but the wife's laptop and my Windows 7 gaming computer....... For now.......
The last update Microsucks planted their 'Store' on the laptop with no real way of uninstalling it so now I have one desktop and my personal laptop running Ubuntu. I'm happy.
Now if I could only load Ubuntu on the lenovo and make it all work properly without having to write script. Otherwise the lenovo is still for sale.........

I just found out today that unetbootin doesn't work for making a bootable Linux Mint USB. Wasted a good deal of time with that, and I still don't have Mint 18 loaded.

I only made on bootable thumb drive and that was a while back, don't remember how I did it.

I got it worked out. I just had to use a different program, I used one from Mint. I also downloaded a different program for Windows, but haven't tested that yet. It's just odd because I used unetbootin to make my bootable USBs for Mint 17.

Later tonight I may move the files I want to save to the external HD and try loading Mint 18 onto the laptop again. I also would like to try upgrading my Mint boot on this PC, but I'm worried about screwing something up if I do so. I really don't want to lose my Windows boot here.

I kept flip flopping between Windows and Linux ever since Win 8 can out, initially Win 10 appeared it would be what I wanted with a little tweaking but when Microsoft removed or blocked those tweaks my mind was made up. Oh I'll keep my Windows 7 gamer as long as I can, I know which updates to hide or block but eventually I'll have to make a decision about that one.

 

[Foxfyre]

It sucks when Bosses are retaliatory, power tripping, and micro-managing.

I agree. I can understand when you get angry at yourself for making a mistake. I was pretty pissed off, but I realized it was because I did make that mistake. So, I'm not going to rise to the bait and make a big stink. Blinking stupidly and silently is about the best I could do while taking my licks for my mistake. But the lead had made a mistake, too. He failed to do his job, if he had, I might not have made my mistake to begin with. He knew that, and I'm sure he was angry at himself. His error was that he continued to press the point and then to threaten my shift. I suggested later that if he made an effort to praise and thank people when they do something praiseworthy, he might find a lot better and more enthusiastic cooperation with the entire team than if every time someone was summoned to the office it meant they were going to get their tails chewed, or even be drawn into an argument.

I know what you mean. Office politics are so weird. I am learning new ones every day.

Where I work now isn't really that bad. One of the reasons I turned down a full professorship at the University was because I had no desire to become involved in the politics. The other reason was because I did not want to participate in rush hour traffic morning and evening, five days a week.

I hear that. Alaska has by far the largest land area of the 50 states, but roughly half the population is crammed into and around Anchorage. We have the same problem in New Mexico having the fifth largest land area but cramming half the state's population into the Albuquerque metro area. And that makes traffic here absolutely awful while getting around in most of the rest of the state--well, except in Santa Fe--pretty delightful. Santa Fe traffic is terrible because it is a major tourist destination, is the state capital, and there are thousands of Albuquerqueans there at any given time.

And as Anchorage fills up, the population is expanding into the Matanuska Valley. That's why a few years ago when the country went ballistic about the "bridges to nowhere", we knew that most inhabitants of the Lesser 48 hadn't a clue. We desperately need the bridge across Knik Arm, both to shorten the commute to Anchorage from the Upper Valley, and to relieve the traffic pressure on the only highway from there to here. It would be cool if they could see fit to provide rail service from the Valley into Anchorage, but the powers that be have deemed Alaskans to cheap to pay the same kind of money that tourists do for a choo-choo ride. Heck, not too many years ago, the Alaska RR still did whistle stops. You stood at the rail siding and they'd stop the train to pick you up. That's gone now, too. Tourists gotta get where they're going on schedule, and Princess Tours owns lots of Alaska.
For those who care, Anchorage actually inhabits a geographic feature referred to as the "Anchorage Bowl". It's a narrow strip of build-able land sandwiched between mountains and two bodies of ocean-linked water, Knick Arm and the Cook Inlet. As the population of Anchorage has expanded to pretty much fill up that strip of land, pricing housing too high for many low- to middle-income families, the population has exchanged the hour-long commute to Anchorage (jobs) for affordable housing. If I recall, Albuquerque also fills a bowl of real estate ringed by mountains, state and federal parks?

Yes, Albuquerque sits in a 'bowl'--you have to go up to get out of town in all four directions--but we aren't ringed by state and national parks as much as we are Indian reservations--Sandia to the north and Isleta to the south. And the city is crammed up against the Sandias east so the only way it can grow is to the west. But it is doing that in a major way.

 

[Nosmo King]

Oh it's a long, long while from May to December. But the days grow short when you reach September. Or so the song goes. But today we're in October and the days seem to be growing sweeter. The skies are a deeper blue as the season changes from our usual sultry, humid days to crisper, cooler, and yes, shorter days. The trees are changing from their verdant green to brilliant reds, russet nrowns, golds and oranges.

Football, even with its imposed political controversies, still dominates the weekends. The ELHS Potters still disappoint on the gridiron losing 49-18 to nearby Martins Ferry. Kids of all ages are having autumn pictures taken at Thompson Park among the colorful leaves and piles of pumpkins. I find myself taking Daisy for twice daily walks there. 9:00 in the morning to blow the sleep off her and again at 3:00 in the afternoon so she can stretch her furry white legs chasing squirrels.

By 7:00 in the evening dusk is falling and the air gets cooler yet. I have scrubbed the glass that shields the gas fireplace insert here in the Great Hall of the Luxurious Pimplebutt Estate and fire it up to take the chill off the room. Today we visit the garden center to shop for Mom's annual Fall chrysanthemum. I get her a mum in the autumn, a poinsettia at Christmas and a lily for Easter.

The days do grow short when we reach September. But life takes on its own rhythm once we reach October.

 

[Foxfyre]

Well I finally decided a couple of days ago just after Microsoft updated Windows 8.1 on this laptop to entirely switch over to Linux on all but the wife's laptop and my Windows 7 gaming computer....... For now.......
The last update Microsucks planted their 'Store' on the laptop with no real way of uninstalling it so now I have one desktop and my personal laptop running Ubuntu. I'm happy.
Now if I could only load Ubuntu on the lenovo and make it all work properly without having to write script. Otherwise the lenovo is still for sale.........

For what we use computers for we just use Windows 10 as it runs what we need and want to run on both our PCs and both our laptops and we don't have to think about it much. I don't really care if Microsoft loads their junk on which we just ignore. Win 10 has proved to be a reasonably user friendly and stable system and at this point in life, that works for us.

 

[Ringel05]

Well I finally decided a couple of days ago just after Microsoft updated Windows 8.1 on this laptop to entirely switch over to Linux on all but the wife's laptop and my Windows 7 gaming computer....... For now.......
The last update Microsucks planted their 'Store' on the laptop with no real way of uninstalling it so now I have one desktop and my personal laptop running Ubuntu. I'm happy.
Now if I could only load Ubuntu on the lenovo and make it all work properly without having to write script. Otherwise the lenovo is still for sale.........

For what we use computers for we just use Windows 10 as it runs what we need and want to run on both our PCs and both our laptops and we don't have to think about it much. I don't really care if Microsoft loads their junk on which we just ignore. Win 10 has proved to be a reasonably user friendly and stable system and at this point in life, that works for us.

The wife doesn't care either, I on the other hand want complete control over my computers, I will not hand that control over to Microsoft or anyone else so as long as you don't mind owning a Microsoft work station and not a personal computer then so be it........

 

[Foxfyre]

Oh, it's a long long while from May to December,. But the days grow short when you reach September. Or so the song goes. But today we're in October and the days seem to be growing sweeter. The skies are a deeper blue as the season changes from our usual sultry, humid days to crisper, cooler, and yes, shorter days. The trees are changing from their verdant green to brilliant reds, russet nrowns, golds and oranges.

Football, even with its imposed political controversies, still dominates the weekends. The ELHS Potters still disappoint on the gridiron losing 49-18 to nearby Martins Ferry. Kids of all ages are having autumn pictures taken at Thompson Park among the colorful leaves and piles of pumpkins. I find myself taking Daisy for twice daily walks there. 9:00 in the morning to blow the sleep off her and again at 3:00 in the afternoon so she can stretch her furry white legs chasing squirrels.

By 7:00 in the evening dusk is falling and the air gets cooler yet. I have scrubbed the glass that shields the gas fireplace insert here in the Great Hall of the Luxurious Pimplebutt Estate and fire it up to take the chill off the room. Today we visit the garden center to shop for Mom's annual Fall chrysanthemum. I get her a mum in the autumn, a poinsettia at Christmas and a lily for Easter.

The days do grow short when we reach September. But life takes on its own rhythm once we reach October.

October is by far my favorite month of the year. Best weather (for me because it is cooler without being really cold), most beautiful because of the fall colors and also a sky so blue it hurts to look at it, the tourists have mostly gone home at least after the balloon fiesta that is this coming weekend--we love them but it is nice not to have all the extra traffic and jammed restaurants etc. too--and just a laid back lovely time of year.

 

[Nosmo King]

Oh, it's a long long while from May to December,. But the days grow short when you reach September. Or so the song goes. But today we're in October and the days seem to be growing sweeter. The skies are a deeper blue as the season changes from our usual sultry, humid days to crisper, cooler, and yes, shorter days. The trees are changing from their verdant green to brilliant reds, russet nrowns, golds and oranges.

Football, even with its imposed political controversies, still dominates the weekends. The ELHS Potters still disappoint on the gridiron losing 49-18 to nearby Martins Ferry. Kids of all ages are having autumn pictures taken at Thompson Park among the colorful leaves and piles of pumpkins. I find myself taking Daisy for twice daily walks there. 9:00 in the morning to blow the sleep off her and again at 3:00 in the afternoon so she can stretch her furry white legs chasing squirrels.

By 7:00 in the evening dusk is falling and the air gets cooler yet. I have scrubbed the glass that shields the gas fireplace insert here in the Great Hall of the Luxurious Pimplebutt Estate and fire it up to take the chill off the room. Today we visit the garden center to shop for Mom's annual Fall chrysanthemum. I get her a mum in the autumn, a poinsettia at Christmas and a lily for Easter.

The days do grow short when we reach September. But life takes on its own rhythm once we reach October.

October is by far my favorite month of the year. Best weather (for me because it is cooler without being really cold), most beautiful because of the fall colors and also a sky so blue it hurts to look at it, the tourists have mostly gone home at least after the balloon fiesta that is this coming weekend--we love them but it is nice not to have all the extra traffic and jammed restaurants etc. too--and just a laid back lovely time of year.

Back in the mid 1980s I lived in sunny Sarasota, Florida. The summers are insufferable. The winters are crammed with snowbirds. But October...

The kids are back in school. The snowbirds don't show up until after Thanksgiving. The Gulf waters are still warm. The lines at the attractions are short and the prices at restaurants haven't yet been inflated to take advantage of the tourist crowds.

All that conspires to make October the best time to visit Florida.

But why visit Florida when the best weather, the best scenery and the best events happen right here?