February 13, 2020 - 153 - "Ferocious Beasts"

Carrying Ferocious Beasts Across International Borders

    I was feeling optimistic yesterday that I could get Ella to Mexico.  I was so happy thinking she wouldn't be left alone in the house.  (With her good friend, and our neighbor, checking in daily...but still.  She's accustomed to a lot of interaction when we're home.)

    So, this trip is long enough to make it worth the effort.  There are no huge home projects going on there, so she'll have time to settle in.  It's the perfect time.  We won't have to miss her.  She won't have to miss us.  We'll all be happy and it will go great.

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2nd Thoughts

    One look at her this morning and I thought:  This flight is gonna make the papers.  

    Considering the rules of media these days:  If it bleeds...it leads. 

    This could make news around the world.

    She doesn't like cars of any sort.  She doesn't like to leave home.  She's violent, by nature.

February 12, 2020 - 152 - "Playing Cat and Mouse"

     ...with my cat.

     So it's 7:42 a.m. and I'm sitting on the couch with my laptop pretending not to be trying to corner Ella.

    I made the mistake of brushing my teeth after I'd gotten out her cat carrier.  She heard the sound the plastic hardware against the metal dryer made, flew past the offending gear...and up the stairs.

     Now she won't let me come near her.  I don't even know where she is at the moment.

    She's no dummy.

    She knows that it's Vet. day.

    That's not Veteran's day... but Veterinarian Day:  two of Ella's least favorite days of the year.

---

     I'm supposed to drop her off at 7:45 a.m.,  The vet's office is only about 15 minutes from us, but she's been hiding in one of her 8973 places, and I can't find her.  She peeked out at the top of the stairs as I came up, but then tore off again to find another place to hide.

     I should have shut all of the bedroom doors before I got out the carrier.  I should have gotten the carrier while I was holding her.

     But that's all useless information now.

---

     So now I'm sitting here typing away.  Playing the waiting game.

     I put on the standard  'I'm-writing-music/....music-for-not-stalking a kitty' on the computer, along with the background music for writing (.../-and-definitely-not-for-taking-cats-to-the-vet.')

     Ella, of course, is not buying any of it.

February 11, 2020 - 151 - "Hablo-ing Español"

 

Upgrading my Habits.  (get it?  get it? lol)

Goal Setting Demon 

     I  need another goal like I need a hole in my head, but...somewhere along the line I seem to have become addicted to goal setting and goal pursuing.  

     It's a good thing...except when it isn't.

     I've improved my fitness level, and my writing discipline.  I meditate more, and watch less TV.  I eat more vegetables and fruit, and less sugar.  I check my calendar more, and social media less...

     These are good goals, right?  But, geez Louise...there's always room for improvement isn't there?  I think I like, enjoy, and accept myself more than I ever have.  I think I have more patience and compassion for myself than I ever used to...but it's sort of an 'all evidence to the contrary' thing.  

     I do seem to put a lot of pressure on myself.

More Room For New Stuff Again

     It's partly because habits that were once hard...just don't take that much effort after a while.  They just become part of what I do in a day.  Things that were once my all-consuming tasks for the day, get done as easily as I used to sit down and scroll through my phone for hours.  So, in a way, I have bought myself time.  And, in a way, these goals take up less bandwidth to maintain than they did to set up.

     I know when to put things on a back burner and just blow them off.  Yesterday, for instance, I took an un-planned exercise rest day, ate less-than-perfectly, and basically slept alllll dayyy looonnnggg.

    It was AMAZING.

    It followed four days in a row of flying and I enjoyed every minute of it...but I did make sure I got my new goal in, because new goals are the easiest ones to lose.

     There's also the fact that the hardest, most all-consuming parts of the house renovation are coming to an end.  We might actually get to live there and enjoy it.  

    So now I'm going to really get to enjoy the local community.

Viva Español!

     So...I'm back to learning Spanish!  

February 10, 2020 - 150 - "Sesquicentennial/Accidental Texts"

     

     




     My 150th post!  

              Yay.

---

     I saw this last night on Pinterest.  I thought of Michael because fitted sheets are the bane of his existence.  He believes they were invented solely to irritate him.  

     He doesn't believe there is a way to fold them.  He thinks they can only be wadded in a ball.  That was my method for many years so i don't really fault him on this...but there are enough YouTube videos out there so that I believe it's possible to fold them...even if mine don't turn out like Martha Stewart's perfect rectangles.

    So I texted this image to Michael last night...or so I thought.


      Just as I hit send, I saw I'd sent a text to someone one digit off of Michael's cell phone.

     This is the interaction that ensued: 

February 9, 2020 - 149 - "Frequent Flying Questions"

• 
  

  How Much Looonnnngeerrr??

  A frequently-asked question on planes is:
       How much longer 'til landing? 
  
  If the person seems to have a sense of humor I will usually first come back with: 
       "Oh...hours and hours."  (This is really only vaguely amusing on very short flights.)
  
       If there's any remote possibility that it's actually true...it's not funny;  not for them to hear.  Not for me to say. 
  
       NOT funny.
  
       Last night a passenger asked how long 'til we arrive.
  
      I showed him our nifty new app that updates constantly with a countdown to landing.
  
       It has the city code for where we left from on the left side, and the city code for the city we're going to on the right.  The time remaining counts down and a bar fills in very satisfyingly from white to blue as the time decreases to landing.
  

  

  How It Works

  Passenger:  "How does it know that?"
  

February 8, 2020 - 148 - "Heirloom USB Plug"

Interaction with a Passenger While Boarding our flight tonight:

Passenger:  Is there a way to charge my phone?

Me:  Yes.  There's a plug between the seats, just to the left.
   
(I indicate where it is.)

Passenger:  Great.  Thanks.
 
(He takes out his charger.  It's just a cord with a USB connector on it.)

Me:  It's like a wall plug, not a USB plug.  Do you have the wall adapter?

Passenger:  No.  Do you have one?

Me:  Yes, I do.  But it's my personal phone charger.  I'll have to get it back or I won't have a phone for my trip tomorrow.

February 7, 2020 - 147 - "Flight Attendant Super Powers"

   I stepped in from the aisle and caught my hose on a piece of metal on the seat. (I’m pretty sure they build them into the design.  There are probably all sorts of specs on the part:  Flight Attendant Snag-Makers.   It may be a no-go item.)

   I looked down and even though they're pretty thick and tough tights.   (Such as are intended to avoid just this scenario.)  But they didn't just have little snag...that had a full on hole in them...that was growing as I looked at it.  A man coming on sympathized with my predicament.  

    He was one of the first passengers on so I was able to get back to the back of the plane,  get into my bag, dig around a little, and retrieve another new pair.  I went in the bathroom and made like Clark Kent.  

    The old pair was off and tossed in the trash, and the new pair was on in no time.  The lav. measures about 2’ x 2’, but in under three minutes I was back in the aisle helping passengers.  

    That is a legit flight attendant super power.  

Here are some others:

February 6, 2020 - 146 - "Each Flight is Like a Box of Chocolates..."

...they can be dark and bad for you and sometimes involve melt-downs.

Today was a good day.  I worked three flights.  There were weather and air traffic control delays, but overall everyone was nice and it went well.  I really enjoyed my crew, which makes a huge difference in how things go.

    But among the overall goodness of the day, as usual, there were pockets of the unexpected.  (To put it mildly.) .

     There was one call light where a woman explained that she was having an anxiety attack and might have to leave the plane.  In the end she was able to maintain her composure.  She stood by the galley for a long time and I kept her talking while we were delayed getting de-iced. 

    There was a woman who didn't speak English, and I couldn't figure out what language she did speak.  All that was clear was that she wanted to sit in someone else's seat.  It was a better seat than hers,  so I can see why she'd prefer it, ...but the man who'd paid extra for it also wanted to sit there.  Much chaos ensued. 

    We had three armed guards on our first flight.  They were going to pick up a prisoner to escort him back to Dallas.  This piqued my curiosity.   I've never seen three guards.  It's always just two. 

   I'm sure (okay, I like to think) if it was Hannibal Lechter or something they wouldn't carry them on public transportation.  The prisoners usually seem fairly harmless.  When I asked the reason for the extra guard I was told:  "It's a very high profile case."

February 5, 2020 - 145 - "Change and Alteration"

Try It!  You Might Like It!    

There was a box sitting in my office for about a month and a half.  It loomed larger and larger every time I noticed it.  It contained my new uniform pieces.  We have to be ready to wear them to work starting March 2.  

     There was a major uproar about our last uniforms.  Lots of people had reactions to them.  I was lucky not to have that to deal with.  It led to a lot of issues for a lot of people, and also a work force wearing all sorts of random uniform pieces.  Our older blue ones, items kinda-sorta matching the current charcoal gray uniforms...and an array of items that really didn't resemble either one.  

     The new uniforms have been tested and retested, so hopefully that problem will be a thing of the past.  But the problem that's always been there is the question of how they fit.  The blue uniforms we wore for the first 20-ish years of my career, for the most part, didn't look great no matter what you did.  The jacket was boxy, the fabric looked like the polyester that it was.  Most of the pieces you could spend your whole paycheck altering and they'd still look terrible.  The only people who really looked good in them had taken them on trips to Asia and had tailors completely take them apart and put them back together.

    The charcoal uniforms did have the advantage of being more fitted to begin with, so you could have them tailored to fit pretty well. 

Love Me Some Uniform-ity

     Personally, I just love having a uniform.  I began my career in corporate life, where outfits were not provided...but were necessary for success.  I resented every penny I spent on all those 'I'd really rather not wear this' clothes.

     Now I just  love not spending my money on work clothes.  I love not thinking 'what am I going to wear today?'

Turn and Face the Strange Ch-Ch-Changes

    Still, I was dreading trying on the new ones because time is closing in and I was afraid I'd have to exchange half of the items, and have a huge job for the tailors for all of the pieces 

    We get reimbursed for tailoring...but nowhere near how much the market value actually costs.  A hemming allowance is something like $4, jacket fitting is $10...or something about like that.  Every single item I had changed cost more than double the allowances.  But, I figured, they do provide our uniforms to us, and it's worth it to feel good in them.

     I learned from an online fashion group I'm in that 'selfies don't lie'.  So I take pictures of most things I wear.   These pictures are without makeup, doing my hair, or panty hose...and I notice my face does weird things when I'm not thinking I'm taking a photo of me, but just focusing on he clothes.   Anyway...here's a sneak peak...

February 4, 2020 - 144 - "Winter Doldrums"

Looked for a copyright-free image for 'doldrums' and found this picture
of Doldrum Bay.  Wondering if it's a real place.  If yes...then where?
But need to get this done...better make a note and look it up later.
Wherever it is, it actually looks more awe-inducing than
doldrums-inducing.

  Defining Terms (Unnecessarily)

First of all I'd like to say what a great word 'doldrums' is.  It just sounds exactly like what it is. 

   And, okay, now I have to say...second of all; that first line forced me to look up 'that word for something that sounds like what it means'.  

    Onomatopoeia is the word I was looking for.  Onomatopoeia doesn't sound like it would mean what it means at all.  

     It sounds like it would mean urinating on a mountain top or something.  Well, really, to me it just sounds like a completely made-up word.  It may as well be: 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'. Which backwards, according to the song is:  Dociousalieexpisticfragicalirupus ...but really is:  suoicodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus.

     

     But I digress.  

     

     Which really should be the name of this blog...but isn't. 

One night in a blizzard on my work trip, and an overcast day at home...
annnnnd I'm done with winter.  Thanks very much.  (There is, of course,
 every chance that Mother Nature isn't done with me yet.)

Down in the Dumps

      What I intended to talk about was how the winter doldrums have set in over here. 

February 3, 2020 - 143 - "We Learn As We Go"

"Like the one armed alligator wrangler says:  We learn as we go." 

-Esther Hicks

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Stuff Michael Says

      I heard this little saying and thought it was funny.  I made a point to write it down and remember it because Michael has a series of 'one-armed' sayings he'll share occasionally.  

Stuff like:  

     -"Busier than a one-armed paper-hanger."  

     -"Busier than a New York taxi driver with crabs."  

     So I was planning on writing something about how we've learned home restoration through on-the-job-training.  

     But, as you might imagine...searching for information with that saying as a jumping-off point  led me down a major internet rabbit hole.  

     Or, I should probably say:  into an alligator-infested swamp...

     There are some things you really want to get up to speed with in a safe environment before trying them out in real time.

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February 2, 2020 - 142 - "Quality Control"

      Since about the 2nd post of writing daily, I've intended to make a list of everything I've posted.

Something like this:

September 14, 2019 - 1- "Our Daily Thread"
September 15, 2019 - 2 - "Surviving the Life: 
                                               Frenemies"
September 16, 2019 - 3- "Two Quotes"

       ....etc. etc.

   Then, each day after I wrote my post, I would spend a little time going back and editing an old one.

     
     Because they never really come out exactly as I intended, and I never seem to have the time, mental clarity, or perspective necessary to correct and edit posts until they actually convey what I'm intending.

     But each day seems as busy, jam-packed with activities and events.  There is barely time to post something to begin with...but time to edit?  Damn.  So far this goal has proven to be a bridge too far.  

February 1, 2020 - 141 - "It's a Sign"

   

     Ever have one of those days where everything seems funny?*

      The other day we went to Westside Cafe for some 'Country Cookin'.  It's a good place if you're in the market for biscuits and gravy or chicken fried steak.  It's interesting how you can pretty much translate "Country Cookin'" to mean:  full of carbs and fat. 

     

     I noticed in the same little shopping center there was a sign for an Unfinished Furniture store.  I've seen this sort of sign a thousand times but for some reason I couldn't picture items that needed painting...but tables with just two legs on them, lamps without wiring, or chairs without backs.