Category: job

Fit Bit in an Ant Farm 

I made a major error yesterday morning. I got up, threw clothes on,got the girls walked, and 65 minutes later, I realized I did not put my fit bit on. Quel Horror!  3500 steps flying into the air!

So I majored in taking the scenic route yesterday, in order to make up those 3500 steps. It is so infuriating to feel married to my fit bit, but the results are speaking for themselves. I just got my Great Barrier Reef  badge for walking 1600 miles.

I walk everywhere,everyday at my own pace. I am not a race walker, nor do I ever want to be. I have two knee replacements and my motto is you can’t hit s moving target. I admit there are times when I am bone tired and walking is the last thing I feel like doing.i walk enough during the week in the ant farm maze at work.

My 13 year old Zush and 6 year old Kasia love to walk. I don’t want to disappoint them either. We go out together for the entire pack benefit. I am not bad mouthing race walkers, because they are surely more fit then I will ever be.

As for me and my girls…we’ll catch up. 

 

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Cribbage

I often heard of the game, but never saw anyone play it…..until today.

When I walk my lunch half-hour, I walk the sky-walk.as it is the best way for me to rack up a couple thousand fit bit steps. Today, I came upon two older gentlemen in the area, a deck of cards, a container of wintergreen lifesavers, and a cribbage board. They were two of the sweetest guys, and the one reminded me of Dad a little.

I finished my walk with a spring in my step: it was nice to see guys having laughs and fun.

God bless ’em!

The picture below shows the skywalk to the left.

  

My little corner of the world

  
This is my daily corner of the world.

Computer with windows operating system.scrap paper to take notes while on the phone,and Kindle to read my books to maintain my sanity, and let’s not forget coffee!

The windows are the plus, allowing me a sliver of view of the Cape May canal and bay. I get to see folks getting on and off the ferry. You know it’s awesome to see the weather up front,especially when storms are rolling in.

It’s a nice spot.

  

Men@Work

  
No, I don’t mean the 80’s band.

There are two trucks and a chipper and four men out front ready to take a dead tree down.

It is sad, as up to four years ago it was healthy and blooming and shady. Now, when it is windy, I scurry a bit to get past it, lest a dead branch falls and gets me.

We are always sorry to see a tree go down: some folks replace them, some don’t. The whole experience makes you savor any shade you have in your summer day.

By the way, yes, I have hugged a tree today:did you? 

 

Figuring it out

So when you are on a new job and your weekend is mid-week, you figure your days out, right?

I had a hair appointment which I made before I got the job.Now, my free time has changed and I needed to make a new, different appointment. My weekends were Wednesday and Thursday, so I figured I’d make a Thursday appointment.No problem,they fit me in, I am good to go, right?

My weekend is Tuesday and Wednesday this week, wouldn’t you know? It goes without saying I have to make a new appointment.

I know how fortunate I am to have this job. I do realize that.What is difficult is that when you could plan your life for 30 years, you have to make yourself remember that was then and this is now.

It’s hard for this old dog to learn new tricks….lol

Christmas in July

I know it was a little early, but evidently Christmas in July came for all of my co-workers and myself yesterday on the job.

Evidently, anyone who takes a ferry ride has the opportunity to file a rating card when they are done their trip.Now, according to the folks at Trip Advisor, we evidently got the highest rating that you can get. The top management took the opportunity to write us a letter that we each got, thanking us for our great job we do.They also gave us a card for a free Mr.Softee ice cream cone from the truck they had at the job yesterday.That was a surprise.They also gave each of us a tee-shirt that said ” Keep Calm and Ferry On.”

Wow.I always considered myself fortunate to have a paying job, and now I have a little more better paying job.When they pull rabbits out of a hat like this, well, I can’t help but be thankful and wonder what’s next.”

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Changing of the Guard

Just putting it out there that I am out of my last job.

I gave notice on Friday and thanked them for “giving me a home” this past spring when I was looking for a job.

Tomorrow I start a new position, well,.. kind of.

My new employer will be the Cape May-Lewes ferry and I will be working customer service.When I was with the city, I worked the “citizens’ service unit”, so I will probably be back on the phones, but hopefully answering correctly.After all, working for thirty years in one spot, some habits are hard to break.

My ship has come in, as I have posted on Facebook, and if I have to work, I am glad it is with the ferry. I figured I’d give you a heads’ up, as if you call for reservations or information, you might be speaking with me!

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Three days…

of prison at work.

Oh well, they were kind enough to schedule me for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so the bright side is my weekend good, er, at least until Saturday.It’s hard because at the register, you literally are like a veal, stuck in the cage of a register. Me? I sneak out with the price gun to ring up people’s soda cases and spring water cases so I have an excuse to move 10 steps over and 10 steps back.Today during break, I walked back to the bakery to find no one there and then in the back of the store to find out the scheduling was done because a new bunch of “kids” hadn’t gotten their register training done yet.

I have a distant neighbor who comes to the job and acts as though she is my nearest and dearest, and she didn’t talk to me before I had this job. She runs an illegal day care here and I am just waiting for something to happen to ship her out.

This job has lost any entertainment value, especially when I am on the front end .Suffice it to say, I am looking for one to replace it.

Hahahaha…A day off.

Since I have resumed a part-time life in the work world,I was looking forward to today and tomorrow, as they were my days off.

I cashed out my till last night and was informed that I graduated cashier training.Great, I thought, since I was hired to work in the BAKERY, not register.The next question asked to me was if I was willing to work tomorrow from either 11-5 or 2-8…**sigh**…so I took what I perceived to be the lesser of the two evils, 11-5, and have resigned my self to sucking back my day off,aka, TODAY.

It’s a beautiful day here and the girls and I have been enjoying the cool breeze.Jim actually got a break from the computer and went out and did the lawn, since it is a nice day.We went down and saw our friend Georgine and the girls adored laying on the soft green grass in the shade.I only wish I could bottle this breeze for August.

Here are some shots of the girls enjoying the shade.Thanks for reading.

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No Fool like an Old Fool

I started my new job today.

I sat through training in my local Acme Markets with 4 19-22 years olds.One of them was the trainer.

I could feel the gray hair popping out, even though I just had my roots done yesterday.

I sat around the table with people who were born while I was still in the city, while I was single and they were younger than my nephews.It was really something.I normally don’t let my age bother me, but for those of you that know my,I actually kept my mouth shut, because I remember that age. No one likes to hear the words of an old head.

What was even more surreal for me was I retired from a full-time job with good pay and benefits and after three months, where am I? Back at work for minimum wage, part-time, paying union dues again, and no promise of continuity. My husband says to me why don’t I quit? I said I am not a quitter.

We’ll see what happens.

Up and Down

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This merry-go-round horse has gone up and down like emotions today.

We went to the physician’s office this morning and there was a really weird minute where I realized I was the youngest person on the patient side of the office.Multiply that by angst I felt when the physician, when talking to me,let me know that I am now” of that age” and I needed an EKG.

“Of that age”…? Oh, yeah, I am retired for now.

I went on a job interview this afternoon and for the first time in thirty years, I remembered the jitters of worrying if I’d get a job.Then I had the interview and it was, like,really? Do I need this at my age? They promised to get back to me either way by the end of this week.

I just want to pull on that comfortable sweater called “retirement” and keep it on for now.

Greetings from Undisclosed

It’s been a while since I wrote an Undisclosed update.

I think I wrote more about Undisclosed, I think, before I retired, but since I have been down here full-time, I haven’t really thought about it as” Undisclosed”, although it is still that.It’s weird,because it’s home to boot.

We are adjusting to full-time life here, and we are happy.The girls really are happy because, for now, I am here full-time, that is, not working, so they get a ton of attention.Jim likes to tease me about being a happy homemaker,but after 30 years of waiting on cold street corners and windy train platforms to go to town,there are plenty things to keep me happy.

We both are trying to figure out about working.It is weird,because it is something we know that can’t be full-time, because there basically NO full-time positions here.We’ll decide, somewhere along the way, if there is something we can do.As the weather gets warmer, it’s less of a thought because there are things to get done around here, and when it is nice out, who wants to be outside.

Life is good.

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Everyone is out of town…

…Seems like, I’m the only one around.Somehow these words came into my mind.I don’t remember what song they are from but it was one out in the 60’s when I was a kid.

My buddies Juls,Dottie and Kathy are on their vacations. Juls leaves tomorrow for Hawaii to see her daughter and her family. Kathy left yesterday and is with her husband down in Miami waiting to go on a Caribbean cruise.Dottie leaves Saturday for Arizona and the Grand Canyon.

That’s the funny thing about being retired.I am not working: why would I need a vacation? I am in a quiet spot, well, at least quiet for now.I used to have to get up early in the morning to get up and walk the girls and then get ready for work.Now, when I get up in the morning, I am shocked not to be awake at 4:45am.There is something to be said for having a new routine established in your life.I wonder when the newness of it wears off: probably when I end up getting a little job.Then I’ll be back to square one, and in dire of a vacation.

I guess I’ll be out-of-town, then.

Organization

One of the few things they neglect to tell you when you retire from a desk job is that, despite your best efforts, you still will probably need a desk at home.

I had one at the old house that we sold in Wissahickon, and suffered with a tv table until we moved down here to Undisclosed.Since the house has been up, I have had the tendency to throw my laptop on top of the breakfast bar and plug-in and get started. Well, now that, well, for now at least, I don’t have to report to a desk in the morning, I still need somewhere to plant stationary and pens and stamps and the like.

We went looking at desks tonight but nothing rang any bells.In the meanwhile I bought a large accordion file with dividers in it to serve as a stopgap until the desk makes an appearance.

I seriously didn’t think I’d missing a desk so soon.LOL

CNN-post #JeSuisCharlie

I have been watching the coverage of the incidents in France and I can only shake my head in sorrow.

I go back and think to watching, or being glued to the television post 9/11 and although this doesn’t hit me directly, I still get that sinking feeling in my gut.How sad life can be. How sad life has become.They just had the maintenance man on who was there when his buddy got shot,and it was the buddy’s first day on the job and he was killed. He got the co-worker and then proceeded to lock both of them in a toilet, and at least the gunmen didn’t come back for them.

No one is safe anywhere in this world, and all I can do is love all my loved ones with every breath in my body.No one is guaranteed tomorrow.

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End of the Summer Season

Yup, I know Fall doesn’t start until late September.

As I sit here and type this, I am looking out the window and looking at the late summer lawn and garden.Part of me is genuinely sad, as I am sitting in the room where both my parents passed away in 1998 and 2012.That thought and looking at the outside really makes me feel the passage of time.Part of me laments the fact that I used to go swimming in the summer with Zush, and the fact that we are both getting a little older, well, Zush goes in and I keep her company going up to my mid-calves.

I feel depressed.

The hope I have is for the future.

The hope to finish out my time here in the city and pray that the future is kind to us all.To actually live in a house with my husband that is ours and with our furniture and belongings and things that are ours is something that I am patiently waiting for. I hear Jim say about how is going to miss his job, and yet, I am leaving mine to move as is he, and this was the first time I heard him express that.Wow…something else to mull over in my mind,

I mull these things over in my head, and although I know I am more than ready to leave, I can only pray that we all survive the transition.

In the crispness of fall, hopefully, things will be comforting to us and we all will be alright.

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It Was Thirty Years Ago Today**

** with apologies to Lennon and Mc Cartney

It was thirty years ago today,
The city of Philly started giving me pay….

Nah, I can’t twist those lyrics that badly, especially since I like that song.

But…

On this day in 1911, a dispatcher in the New York Times office sends the first telegram around the world via commercial service.On this day in 1977, NASA sent the Voyager II, an unmanned 1,820 pound spacecraft into orbit.On this day in 1984, I became a full-time employee of the city of Philadelphia.

Thirty years.**shaking my head**

I can’t believe it.

I am truly blessed, especially in the day of companies relocating, folding, high unemployment….

My nephews Matthias and Gregory weren’t even born yet.My parents were both alive and I was living in the home I grew up in.I was probably**gulp** 80 pounds thinner and a lot more optimistic.I know I was scared. I left a small publishing house to work for the city.And now, thirty years later, I work a half city block away from the home of that first post college job.

Full circle? Yup, it certainly seems that way.

I thank my brother Bob for kicking my butt into getting this job.Without this job I’d probably not be here writing this blog.My medical plan from this job got me into a protocol for my first cancer.Without it, I might have died.When I started this job, my Mom asked me to call her in the morning when I got to my desk so she didn’t have to worry about me here in the city. Toward the waning years of her life, I called her every morning to make sure she was ok.The circle of life strikes again.

It’s funny.I appreciate being my age, but that melancholia can envelope you when you stop to think about back then.I’d like to think I have learned from my mistakes I have made, and with what I have learned, stare the future down and say ,”Here I come.”

Thank God!

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Totally indifferent

I will, God willing, be 55 in December.

I am making**knock wood** plans to retire.

It is really hard when you are in an office environment and you have people around you and you have to deal with folks on the phone and….I could go on and on.I have come to realize that I am, indeed, a dinosaur.I have been blessed with being 15 days away from being on my job thirty years.

Yup.

Thirty.

I remember when I first started this job and you are a little put back because you are the classic ” new kid on the block” and you know no one.You have what little experience you have acquired through college and summer jobs and now, all of a sudden, you are out of the minor leagues and into the majors.

In the meantime, I have become used to that comfortable bathrobe, aka my job. It has been there when I needed it. As in all things in life, sure, there are going to be things to get to you like long fingernails on a blackboard.The problem with that is as a kid, my Mom taught me to work and play well with others.What happens is you come in and do you job and try not to let it get to you.For the most part I have been somewhat successful in that.

Now that I am in the late autumn of my career,I have decided to come in and be totally indifferent to everything…..

I’ll keep you posted on how I make out on it….LOL

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Daily Public Transit-The Good,The Bad, The Ugly

I am climbing on my soapbox again to talk about my daily commute.

Back in my prior life, when we lived two blocks away from the train station, life was sunny. A nice morning train, a brisk walk to work;in short, no worries.

Then our house sold and we moved two miles further from the train.There lies the rub: the bus.

I honestly hate the commute. In order to get into the city I take the bus onto an expressway, where I lose forty-five minutes to an hour one way.It irks me because it is time I’ll never get back again in my life.Traffic usually sucks.If you aren’t entertained by someones’ blow by blow description of how their life is going, how their **fill in the blank here: sex life, date life,third marriage is going, well,I know, I know, read or something** Well, there’s only so much to read or listen to. I refuse to be chained to Verizon and use my hot spot to be on-line. Then, when the bus reaches center city, I get off the bus and wait for a second bus.

Did I mention I hate personal trivial conversations on a cell phone on public transportation?
**Sigh**

Fortunately, I hope to God I get through this last stretch before I retire taking public transit. Pretty sad when I get to “treat” myself, thanks to my Flip Fitness class and physical therapy,and walk to the train station to get on a train that spares me the expressway.The indignity is I have to get OFF the train to get back on a bus to get home.

I won’t miss this at all.

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A laugh riot

IlovemyjobIlovemyjobIlovemyjobIlovemyjobIlovemyjob…..

Especially when it is almost a full moon, and you are left trying to do the job for other agencies who find it easier to
pass the buck. People come up to me and ask for forms that my unit has absolutely nothing to do with, and then look at me
as though I have three noses when I tell them where they need to go or who they need to call regarding the form.

Last I looked there was no S for Superman on my chest.

It’s incredible how people think they can get through with one stop shopping when it comes to paperwork. It just isn’t
done in this day and age. In fact, if I was able to have it happen to me, I’d probably think I was dead-that’s how inconceivable
I’d find it.

All I have to hang my hat on are three little words.

Ten more months…………

Let it snow….

..again?

It was supposed to be a really bad storm, so much that Jim’s boss gave him off this morning because the bakeries weren’t going to make rolls due to weather. No rolls=no sandwiches=no deli=Jim off.

I had given up a day off and so we watched and waited…and waited…and the snow came to undisclosed around 5 am.I am sitting here at the kitchen counter, looking out the windows watching blowing snow here, while reading on Facebook the disappointment/relief of friends in the city who are looking at minimal snow.

Hopefully, but I know Jim, we are getting back to the city tonight because he thrives on extreme weather.

Stay tuned.

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Last Friday of 2013

If there ever was a time I am thankful for my job,it’s today.

As I look back over the year, I actually managed to be off 95% of the Fridays that were in it and, to me,that’s great!There is a benefit in being an old goat, like myself, and being able to go through a Thursday and say, “Thank God I can sleep in tomorrow.” I know my buddies who are teachers get more of a clip of time off, but, hey, these Fridays have been my life-preserver.

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

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This is my eight hundredth post.

I can’t believe I have been doing this long.

Today(12/19)is my nephew Gregory’s birthday-he is 24 years old today.
I lost two of my buddies to heaven.
Zush was younger and Kasia was a wee one when I started.
Mom was sick and still around and Bob and I were care-givers.
Jim and I lived in a different house.
I wasn’t this close to finishing out my first career.
Undisclosed location wasn’t even around.

It has been a while, and I need to thank you, my reader.I appreciate the fact you find this blog and open and read it.I am thankful for those of you who like the blog, leave comments, and even express your opinion on the blog.

Here’s to 800 more.

BTW, Happy birthday Gregory. We love you lots!

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From one spot to another

Jim keeps reminding me to enjoy what we are going through with Undisclosed Deux,
as we are only going through this once.To me it’s hectic, and of course,
if it isn’t the most busiest of times in the office, well, perhaps I could
appreciate what’s going on at Undisclosed.

I deal with taxpayers everyday. Most of them are unhappy, because my unit
is looking for, what eventually would be, more money out of their pockets.
Hell, I am not happy with my job, because it will cost us more money too!
People can be very nasty, as I am sure you know, but to deal with it all week,
and then go down full speed to putting a new home together, well, it
makes your head spin.

I am looking forward to when things can be done at my speed .I can think
about what I want and the key here is THINK- not slide by the seat of
my pants to a decision.

My head will do headstands that there will be some quiet time worked into
a daily basis.

Whoo hoo!

Ah, August….

For all its heat spikes and the like, I love August, as it gives promise to the fall.

In prior postings you know I had many life changing events in August..a couple of good Phillies seasons…started a job 28, almost 29 years ago which I still have…went on childhood vacations every year with my family during the end of August..God sent my Dad on his final vacation August 24,sixteen years ago,which was fitting as our vacation week he always took was the last week in August…and Jim and I were married on August 31st, almost 11 years ago.

I am thankful for all I have experienced in August, for they have matured me in a way that nothing else would. I have come out of it realistic, albeit slightly hopeful.I have a light heart when windows are actually opened and I hear the crickets outside, and when I am at Undisclosed I and II, I look up at a beautiful summer sky filled with stars like promises,just waiting to come to me.

Enjoy the month, faithful reader, and may it be kind to us all.

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Happy almost 4th

It’s the third of July, and I am ready for a stretch of time away from the city.

The fur girls are laying in front of the air- conditioning, and are waiting for Jim to get home.

There will be plenty of time for reading and relaxation, and just to be away from center city and the tourists . There’s a lot to be said for peace and quiet.

Here’s hoping that no matter how you enjoy the fourth, you are happy and safe!

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It is absolutely incredible….

..How an agency treats dinosaur workers.
I don’t mean Dinosaur in a bad way, but those of us who have been through the trenches and worked our asses off.

Well, this dinosaur has decided to start x-ing off the calendar blocks and keep my head low and wait.
Just wait….
Until the house is sold and new house is built.

Older office workers aren’t given credit for following the protocol when working a certain section
of the office. You give a genuflection and bow to someone whose brother-in-law got them a patronage job,
and stop the work YOU are doing and wait on the person who thinks they are “it”

HAH….that’s ALL I am going to say.

The day after

It was organized chaos in here yesterday.

For all 590,000 pieces of paper mailed, there for a few moments you would have found 590,000
at the front desk…or so it seemed.

But it’s over, for now, at least.

My friend Cyn had her surgery yesterday and apparently it was successful, in a manner of
speaking.**still working the beads for her as I type**

One of my BFF’s, Juls, started her new job yesterday and lived to tell about it.

We have one more meal of my leftover Easter ham and it was pretty good.

Maybe, just maybe, things are looking up?

**fingers crossed**

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