Vacating Andy's Place...

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Yep, I'm iz!  


At 1430 HRS this very day, I began what will be my first "vacation" as an employee of my employer.  Can you believe it?  It's hard to believe that I've already worked long enough to earn two weeks of "vacation" time.


Time flies when you're having fun...and, man, am I ever!  I love my job.  I wish I'd have been at this since I was a young man.  But, you can't un-ring a bell, so I'm glad I caught on to this work to enjoy it real good, before I croaked! 


Actually, I've worked much longer than required to take "vacation," but I'm just now doing it.  I ain't taking the whole two weeks right now.  I'm only taking a week now, and I'll figure out what to do with the other one at a later time.  But, that's still 9 days straight off (including my regular two days off on each side of the five vacation days), and I guess I really could use one.  And, I know The Mrs. can, too.


So, The Mrs., and I are/am/whichever hitting the bricks on Friday a.m.  I'm not really exactly sure where we're going, but it's gonna be somewhere that's not here.  Actually, I know our ultimate destination will be the old fambly farm near Ozark, stinkin' Arkansas.  We plan to get there on Sunday, and spend the day with her brother.  But...what we will do between now and then is anybody's guess.  We're just "going."  No plan...no reservations...no nothing, except us, some well earned spare time, and The Black Beauty.


I always get a little bit nervous when I head north to stinkin' Arkansas.  But, I'll make The Mrs. wear some short shorts and a halter top to charm the border guards at the State line, so they'll let us in without checking our trunk, and confiscating our toothpaste & deodorant. 


That's what we usually do.

I plan to get back home on Monday before #4 son gets in from school, and then start the "working part" of my vacation.  I swear...my place looks like crap, and I've been putting off getting it back in shape for a couple of years now.  Imma get it did!  I'm iz!

So...I might be out of pocket a good bit.  I'm hoping to be able to blog from the road.  I'm taking my netbook, my pHancy new iPhone, and charged up batteries.  But, communications are a bit spotty in The Natural State.  The latest gubmit statistics show that they're still working on stringing wires for land lines in 72.4% of The State.  So, I'm not sure how good my junk is gonna work in a foreign country.  Good thing is that they are on 120 volts now...no need to take my transformer like in years past.


Well, I'll get back with y'all as soon as I can get a hook-up, and show y'all what we're up to.  I love y'all!  I hope y'all have a good vacation.  Oh wait...that's ME that's having the vacation.  Well, wish us luck! 

Andy got a raise!

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And, his boss is working on getting him on the shift he really wants, permanently.


Fingers crossed...

Nyuk! I've had a blast with this at the hospital...

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Hey y'all.  Nyuk...


As most of y'all know, last Fall I took a job working in Security at a local hospital.  And, if you've been visiting for long, you know that I LOVE MY JOB!  Seriously, I look forward to going to work, and often wish I had known about this kind of work ages ago.  Anyway...


A couple of weeks ago, our good friend, and regular contributor Dr. Jill, and her husband were visiting from Tennessee to see their daughter graduate from LSU-S.  Since they were in town, we all decided to get together and eat dinner.  We went to a great Cajun restaurant, Ralph & Kacoo's.


They had swung by the house and picked us up in their car, and we had a great visit.  They're great folks.


Well, a couple of days ago I got a very nice note in the mail (snail mail), saying what a good time they'd had, yada yada yada.  And, Dr. Jill said, "but Andy, you left your drivers license in the back seat of our car."

So, I had to get my third Hepatitis-B shot yesterday...

Hey y'all!  Can y'all believe it's already been 6 months since I started this job which they required suggested that I get vaccinated for Hepatitis-B?  Wow!  Time really flies, when you're doing something you LOVE, and were most likely born to do.

So, my 3rd (and final) in the series was due, and I left home early yesterday to stop by the clinic, and take care of it.  I didn't have to wait long, and they called me back, and I sat down in a chair.  The nurse rolled up my sleeve...

Nurse:  Wow, look at that skinny arm!


Me:  (Flexing my bicep) Yeah, but look at that huge bicep!


Nurse:  Ummm...yeah, look at that...


Me:  Do you talk to all your patients like this?


Nurse:  No, just the ones with really skinny arms.  The only reason I mentioned it is because this shot has a tendency to really hurt people with no fat on their arms.  Like you.


Me:  (Chuckling)  Well darlin', don't you worry about it.  Hypodermic injections do not hurt me.


Nurse:  (Injecting me)  Okay...


Me:  (As she's putting a band-aid on my shoulder)  I'm just curious...(now I'm flashing a toothy grin) Do you always put a band-aid on BEFORE you give the shot?


Nurse:  (Grinning) HA!  You're done.  Have a nice day, Mr. Reeves.


Me:  Thanks, you too.  Hey, which way is the bathroom?


Nurse:  What?  You gonna be sick?


Me:  Nyuk!  Good one...

Gross!

Hey y'all! Hugs, kisses, yada yada yada...

Posting has been real light, and I know that's a great disappointment to the entirety of the planet.  Honestly, I've got a whole bunch of stuff to tell y'all about, and show y'all.

Actually, I've got so much that when I have the time to do it, I don't know where to start.  It's kinda like that "Hoarder" program that The Mrs. watches.  I mean, those weirdos have plenty of time, but all their junk is so precious to them that they don't want to divest themselves of anything.

Well, I guess it's not really like that.  I mean, I'd like to unload a bunch of my garbage on y'all, but I can't pick which pile to start with.  I've got to get my thoughts lined up, I guess.

Anyway, there has been a lot of linky stuff lately.  And, this post is no different.

I saw a couple of gross things today.  I mean, Paul Mitchell had some dude searching for a picture of Brett Favre's junk.  And, our beloved regular contributor, Dr. Jill, sent me this picture.

But, I think Pseudo wins the gross-out crown for today.  What's gross about this is that it hits close to home.  As y'all know, I am a vegetarian, and haven't eaten meat in about 22 or so years (I haven't been to the doctor since then either, and only got 3 skeeter bites in that time, too.  Just sayin'...).

So, I do not eat McDonald's food.  But, my 14 year old son is a very picky eater.  He really doesn't like "fast food" much at all.  He despises hamburgers, but he loves Chicken McNuggets and fries.  I was thinking about showing him Pseudo's post, but he's got enough struggles to deal with.  I'd hate to give him nightmares on top of everything else.

Well anyway, I have switched up jobs.  I got fired from the first one.  I got fired by God.  There is a good story there that I will tell y'all about when I can find it under some of this other junk.  When I got fired by God, I went ahead on and started looking for another job the same day.  He gave me a good recommendation on the way out the door, so it was all good.

Got one on the first try.  I'll swear, people that say they can't find work are just lazy.  Actually, I had two "yeps" on the first day, but took the one closest to home.  I told the man that hired me that I had several applications in, and there was one I really wanted, and if I got it, I'd be moving on.  He was cool with that.  Well, I worked for him for about two weeks, and guess what?  I got the one I really wanted on Monday.  So, I felt bad, and found him a very competent replacement for myself (a relative of mine).  He was one happy camper, as he tells me that he can't find anybody that really wants to work, or has any sense, or anything.

I told him that I'd stay on another week, and train the guy I found for him on my own time.  He was extremely happy, and we're parting ways on very good terms.  I really like the guy, and know he's in a tough spot with personnel.  I figured that out the first day.  He told me that if this other deal doesn't work out that I can come right back, and to please bring somebody with a good attitude with me.

I'll tell y'all...people that say they can't find work are just lazy.  Jobs are everywhere.

Anyway, I got this job I really wanted...just the right number of hours, and pay to supplement my income...a regular schedule (no getting called in on weekends, so I can plan my work on my own biniss, and maybe finally get to watch some college football this season), etc.

I had to go to fill out all the paperwork, and get a "physical" today.  It was a real physical, too.  I mean, it weren't just tinklin' in a cup!  It was the whole banana...blood pressure, vision, range of motion junk, strength, heart rate under stress, drop your drawers for a hernia check, etc.  Plus, they gave me a TB test, a tetanus booster, and started me on the Hepatitis B deal.

I understand the shots (the job is working at a hospital), but I didn't really understand the "strength" deal.  The guy that did the strength test told me that everybody has to do it, even if their job does not involve heavy lifting.  I guess maybe folks fall down at hospitals, and everybody needs to be able to assist, or something.  Oh well, I guess I'll find out.  Anyway, when I got finished with the "physical"...took about half an hour...the last guy told me, "You're in pretty good shape for an old guy that obviously hasn't taken very good care of himself."

I laughed.

That man just don't know how right he is...

So, I went to this meeting...

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There I was at work this afternoon, minding my own business, and I receive a notice that I must attend a meeting, seeing as I am a new employee at my company, and all new employees must attend this meeting.  I was deep in the well of accomplishing junk that I really wanted to accomplish today when I got this notice.  I had many more feet of deep to dive today if I was gonna get everything done that I had set out to do when I showed up this morning.

After reading the subject that the meeting would cover, I had three thoughts.

#1)  I already know all of this.

#2)  It should take about 20 minutes, because that should be about 20 minutes of information.

#3)  It might be somewhat interesting.  Even though I already know all of this, my new employer may have some particular corporate quirks/policies/other junk in their system that I might need to know, and possibly make use of in the future.

I was right 1/3 right. 

I was right on thought #1.  I did already know all of this.  But, evidently NO ONE ELSE that has been recently hired did.

See, what had happened was that obviously my new employer had purchased their own Short Bus, driven it around Northwest Louisiana...picked up all the "special folk" they could find, and brought them there to be educated on this particular subject.  Maybe they got a gubmit grant or something...

20 minutes of subject matter in an informational meeting turned in to TWO AND ONE HALF HOURS of pure intellectual hell!  

Really!

Look, I know that it is not kind to lump retards in with folks that are just stupid by choice, but I listened to about four million retarded questions from folks with the wherewithal to actually put on clothes, tie their shoes, drive (or get a ride) to work, and find the room where the meeting was held.  

All the while I could only think about that long list of junk that I had hoped to get done today that was waiting for me...and praying to God that maybe somebody would like have a stroke or something so that we would be ordered to leave the room and go back to where we came from.  No such luck.  So, I am now backed WAY UP on the junk I need to get done to feel good about my work, and my progress in it.

So, when I checked out this evening I can say that I was truly frustrated.  But, there are a couple of good things in all of this.  I found out that I CAN drop my frustrations when I hit the "EXIT" door.  I haven't told y'all about this, but I've been quite the bear when I arrive at Andy's Place in the evening.  I realized it myself, and recognized that I do not have that good partitioning skill honed and at the ready.

But, I did today.  When I hit the EXIT door, I dropped it right there.  I only made a vague mention of it to The Mrs., and then only jokingly.  I'm is proud.

And the other good thing is the affirmation that if I end up liking what I am doing, I will NEVER get fired.  The company certainly may fold and force me to look for another job.  But, after getting an up close and personal look at the employee pool out there...well...

Then again, there comes a true think piece.  My employer hired all the Short Bus folks they could round up...

...and me.

Hmmmmm....