Father's Day

For those of you who rushed out Thursday to get a Father’s Day card to get it in the mail even though you knew it wouldn’t get to Alabama before Sunday, I hope you have found out that Father’s Day is June 21 and not June 14. Be glad you didn’t call early Sunday morning to be the first child to call and wish your father Happy Father’s Day too.

At least you can rest in the fact that your card will be the first your father receives—at least hopefully!

Shipshewana

Went to Shipshewana yesterday. It was a great day to go—sun was in and out with temps from high 60s in the morning to high 70s in the afternoon.

We were walking down an aisle and Renae tapped a lady on the shoulder. It was her next door neighbor! Neither knew the other was going to Shipshewana yesterday.

My list of items bought isn’t very exciting but perfect for me:

A lumbar support for any chair (even better than the Dr. Scholl’s pillow I bought almost five years ago.)
A set of 800 count sheets with 4 !!! pillowcases
4 pairs of garden gloves so I should be set for the year and into next year
grill brush
shower brush
whisk
strainer

I looked for socks but couldn’t find any—a joke you would understand only if you’ve been to the Shipshewana flea market.

And my favorite line from the day: On the drive back I pointed out several deer. One lady said, “Oh yes, I saw a deer this morning on the side of the road.”
Me: “But these are live deer.”
Her: “Oh that was a live deer that was dead.”

New Tool at Work

I rarely used a calculator at work until I started this last job almost 5 years ago. (That’s an entirely different post!) Now I use a printing calculator daily. When I started I inherited the calculator that was on my desk. Over the last few weeks I was getting wrong results—numbers were entered the same and correctly but I’d get different results. Typically I total checks and other things twice to confirm the total but I’ve been getting the same result twice only to find out it was the wrong result twice.

Last week I ordered a new calculator. It sounded as if I was using a machine gun whenever I punched in a number so that one had to go back. I ordered a replacement that is the same model as several others in the department got when they needed new printing calculators.

So now the power button is on the top left of the keyboard rather than on the right side of the machine.
The total button is where the CE button was on the old one.
The old one had a function that automatically placed a decimal two places into the right of the number. If this one has that function I haven’t found it so I must type the decimal.
The old one had the tape a bit elevated so I could see the final number on the tape as well as the display. Now I have to pull the calculator all the way to the edge of my desk and bend over it to see the last number on the tape.

These are all changes that I’m having to get used to. It’s funny that I don’t really mind getting used to changes in a new car but not so much a printing calculator.

I think there is a spiritual application to this, but right now I’ve got nothing.

Was there a new thing you used that took you a long time to get used to the changes?

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Off To Other Work I Go???

Yesterday I received an e-mail from Career Builders—don’t know why but I found it interesting that I was a minimal match for these job openings for which I was thankful:

HVAC Service Branch Manager
Executive Assistant Manager Retail
Sr. Food Scientist
Bartender

But I was a fair match for these:
Purchasing Agent/Planner
Customer Service Delivery Teammate for an auto parts store
Retail Store Assistant Manager (diamonds/jewelry)
Manager of Employee Benefits, Health & Disabilities (and HR position???)
And my favorite—Branch Stockbroker.

However the best match was drum roll please Franchise Owner/Sales for a tax service.

Thankful Thursday One Day Late

Yesterday I thought about Thankful Thursday but nothing really "good" came to mind, but by the time I crawled into bed that had changed:

1. I bought my flowers for flower pots on the way home from work.
2. Madelynn called to take a bike ride--we rode 9-10 throughout Hudsonville.
3. My neighbor came over to tell me she lost her job last week. Linda has known more grief in her life but keeps pointing to how God provides for her. I had debated about doing flowers this year with the work and therefore budget reduction; however, I'm glad I got them so I could give her the leftovers so she can have flowers this year.

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, It's Off to Work I Go

I am working today. This should be my Friday off, but since it is fiscal year end Finance is working. It will be a regular day for me so I'm not sure why we have to be here. The consolation is we get off the next two Fridays.

To celebrate I wore tennis shoes to work today--only the second time since I've worked at Herman Miller.

First Summer Garden Report

This is the garden in its current state. In front you can see the tomatoes, to the left are the peppers which aren't as green as I'd like them to be. To the left of the peppers is a row of potatoes which are looking really good above the ground, to the left a row of onions, a first year attempt for us, and then you really can't see but the beans are coming up and in the middle left you can barely see the squash. And then you can see the mass of raspberry bushes. On the other side of the raspberry bushes, the corn is just popping up.

We are starting to get strawberries, the asparagus is over, and like other years we have some rhubarb to supplement what we buy at a roadside stand.



This is our new project this year after two evenings of working on it; there is more work to do. Any ideas on what it is?