Sunday, July 17, 2011

Sunday 7/17/2011

I started an entry a couple of hours ago, didn't have too much written and then the phone rings. It's my ex. A van full of people had come back from the Salvation Army camp where my son is working and she said he had sent some pics, she was going to bring them over to me. Send pics? Personally? I had some weird thoughts about it - who does THAT? You can just email them and if you want them printed, make a disc and take it to Walgreens - or your store of choice that does such.

Instead, something told me to take a shower - so, I jumped in the shower, got on some clean clothes and then waited for her to bring me the pics.

15 minutes later, she calls and says she's outside my house with the pics. Okay. I walk out there, go through the gate, start walking out to the car and, walaaaah!! CALEB jumps out of the car!!! Now, for once, I was SHOCKED!! I didn't believe my eyes. My mind goes into - how is he home? How is he here? I'm that kind of person: instant analyzation in the mind, but showing great joy on the outside (well it WAS on the inside, too, just a lot of mind junk that sometimes gets in the way of things) to see my son!!

Yes, I got my pictures: LIVE pictures, lol. Mom had him for an hour and she brought him to me for an hour as well. We sat here in my kitchen and talked and talked until it was time for him to leave. I had to take him to the mall down the road to meet up with the rest of the people to head back to the camp. Today was a day off and he decided to hitch a ride down and visit us. Way cool. We had a good conversation, I mostly listened to him telling the stories of his great adventure/journey. Isn't that what parents of adult children are supposed to do? I dunno, folks, I am in a learning curve here, my boy went from childhood to adulthood in one fell swoop and it is definitely an adjustment period.

And mind you, he isn't just an adult by fact of age, he has matured GREATLY in the last 6 to 8 months. I dunno, I was ecstatic to see my boy, it was QUITE the surprise and a good one at that. We got to the mall and he started walking. A very noticeable difference in his gait: he used to walk slow, now, by fact of having to walk all over the place at that large expanse of a camp, he is walking as fast as I do at a normal clip. I brought it up to him: you are walking a bit faster, I see. The light went on: I hadn't noticed until now!!

We traipsed around that mall - large place - until we found the exit where everyone was supposed to meet. I know that it isn't going to be long and I won't be seeing much of my son at all - life takes over, you grow up, you get busy. I'm good with that, but I hope he does what I do with my still-living parents: email them and call them regularly.

It was a great visit. When your kids are with you, perhaps it's easy to take it all for granted. When they leave, then you may begin to see the gift of God that they are to you. My boy has turned out well, that is the greatest gift of all.

ben

Saturday/Payday

Yesterday morning, I check my checking account to see if my paycheck had been deposited. "Pending". Someone flubbed up. That check should have been deposited and IN my account, not pending. I didn't want to sign up for direct deposit in the first place but management "recommended" doing it since I was one of only 2 holdouts in the entire group that didn't use it at the time.

And this is the reason I don't like direct deposit. I have very little experience in using it and the little experience that I do have? THIS is what happens! I didn't say anything, I wanted to see if corporate would acknowledge something had happened at the very least. I get back later from all the runs that took all day long to do and find that corporate had air mailed my pay stub.

Whatever. If this is a routine occurrence, I will stopping direct deposit unless my company says I have no choice in it.

I was asked to write up an article for the company's new newsletter about selling off stuff that is NQ - no value. I have been selling stuff for quite a while now on Craigslist, that versus throwing it away and the company taking a total loss/hit on it. I wrote up an article yesterday but didn't sent it in.

I didn't send it in because I am pissed. The Ops manager said I would get a spiff for the months and months of work I dumped into selling that drip irrigation stuff - spent a considerable amount of my own, personal/off-the-clock time doing it believing I was going to get some kind of recompense for it. I didn't even get a thank you, much less some sort of monetary compensation for it. I won't be selling anything else for them until this situation is rectified and I can say that I am not going to sit around stewing on it forever. It's time to voice my displeasure about this situation - but not in a crass or otherwise obnoxious way.

A simple, "I haven't seen the spiff I was promised for doing all that work to sell that drip irrigation system supplies" will get the ball rolling. If the ops manager somehow tries to deny it, I will take it up with the general manager, who has much different views of things about making promises and then not following through with it. I don't want to make enemies out of the ops manager, but for crying out loud, how do you make such a promise and then just totally blow it off? Still, prudence and calm are what's called for, not anger and stupidity.

My camping equipment quest is on. A gas, 2 burner camp stove is on it's way over here. Rebuilt for $45. I have been wanting to get another camp stove for some time now. Not just for camping. I don't have gas in my house, if for some reason the power to go out, I have no way of cooking. It isn't a fear thing, I just like to have certain items in my repertoire of things I own for the "just-in-case" department. I need a tent, a sleeping bag, a large cooler a 5 gallon water jug and a battery operated lamp at the very least besides the stove. I actually think I can do the rest of that stuff for $200 or so. I'm not interested in a used tent - people don't always take care of them and zippers get broken and such.

My camp stove is here and so is a teflon coated, Coleman cookset. Basically, I am pretty much set on doing some kind of camping during the week off I have coming up next month. Probably only an overnighter or maybe 2 nights - I haven't been camping in a while and I have to get back into the mode. If you want to have an enjoyable experience, there is a lot you have to lug out there - wherever you go - with you. I also sent back with the guy a gas fired lantern that needs repaired. He said $20 to fix it - great, let's do it.

Ummm, I got busy with junk and never finished this entry, posting it anyway.

ben

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