trees

The tree saga continues. You know that tree that got me, well we wanted them cut down..... There has been a beautiful palliated woodpecker creating havoc in the tops of them. They are rotted enough that there must be some grubs etc. living in the limbs and he is making some large grooves( 1 foot long x 2") to get at them. The resulting wood chips were everywhere and I am sure that it is weaking an already bad situation. Well the county, who has decided that the trees are theirs to deal with, hired a tree service to assist them in removing them. The tree service had a boom truck to reach the limbs and three guys with saws and the county had maybe seven others to watch traffic and pick up the mess. They did a good partial job. They left about seventeen feet of trunk still standing, which looks really weird. They assured Carole that they would be back to finish the job, we'll see, I hope soon. They did leave me some nice firewood for next year and some mulch. It was fun to watch, they private company guys no hard hats, the county guys all hard hated up. I think probably we will have to grind the stumps ourselves and then we have discussed putting up a nice post and rail fence where the trees were. We will see what kind of a mood moves us when the trees are completely gone. I'll try to put up a picture of our lovely trunks.

Don't blink

Life passes by or goes on whether your ready or not. I am on the rescue squad with the fire department and this morning was one of those days that's part of life. We went to a neighbors house for a difficulty breathing which turned into a full arrest when we arrived. We did CPR, myself and a couple of others, but there was never a shockable rhythm for the defibrillator is shock off of, so we continued. I got to drive the ambulance to the hospital while some others worked on him. I've driven before, but it's still an experience driving someone else's vehicle, especially an ambulance, when the owner and a crew are doing their thing in the back. We got to the emergency room, they continued were we left off and some time went by, then the doctor called the person dead.... It's the way it goes, you work on the person for an hour and then a doctor has to make the decision whether to keep going or not. All of this happened before 6:15 am. I don't want to dwell on the call for us, but the good things surrounding the person.
This guy was the best friend of my father when he was alive. He was the best man at my father and mothers wedding many years ago. George was the patriacrh of a large family that has lived up the street for as long as I can remember. The family had seven kids, four boys and three girls, and it was always a fun time. My two brothers and myself went there regularly and the best thing was you could always get a decent kickball game going with two equal teams. We usually spent New Years Eve at one house or another, as we both had dairies and our daily schedule was pretty similar. My parents played alot of cards there too over the years. Four of the remaining children have families that live close-by, a real tight knit family. They were there when my parents died and when I was in the hospital too and I'm glad I could be there when they needed it. I feel good about our actions, but you always wish you could have done more... So, I'm falling back to the old adage, you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring so savor today.

Baseball

Maybe anyone reading my blog doesn't always care about some of the stuff that I do, but that's what this is all about I guess. I'm going to physical therapy a couple of times a week, where they are working on the range of movement of my pinky and the rest of my fingers on my right hand. They're still alittle swelled, believe it or not, six months after the fact. They are not really sure why, but they are. It doesn't affect what I do everyday, but it's annoying. My son has been after me for a few days, now that's it a little warmer, to play catch. I didn't know what I could do accurately, I was a bit apprehensive, but it was time to give it a try. My arm responded just fine, to my satisfaction. Little things are important to mentally keep yourself positive about the whole process.
We got together as a team this Monday to pull the schedule together for April. It was crazy. You wouldn't think for six guys it would be that difficult, but it was. We have alot of things that are coming into play which are affecting it this month. A guy is out for two to three weeks for an outpatient surgury, we're sharing a guy with another group and we're getting some help from another partime person who can also work some days. Whe are a seven day a week company and we need different amounts of people on different days. Challenges I guess, but we got it done...

making a schedule that works

Well, the mountain is done for another year. Today was the last day of a good season. There is still plenty of snow on the mountain, but it is hard to interest people in going skiing at a smaller mountain when people have green/brown lawns in the city. I know for them is costs a bunch of money to turn everything on and its hard to have employees sporadically. They had 100 plus days which for them constitutes a good season. The owner has a vacation planned too, soon.
On the work stage, we are a trying to head off a crisis before it happens. As I mentioned in the last blog, our team is one employee shorter, and another is going to get his hernia operated on this week. He will be out on disability for 2-3 weeks. And we have to began sharing ??? with another team for a few months, another guy that we have been using. He, though, got hired a few months ago as a rover type person and the change will be good for him. We contacted a couple of part-time people, who would be happy to help out for the money and we're lucky that they're available. So, this week we're going to try to put a schedule together for next month. I hope that we can cover the service, have days off and still do sales. After last week, our team's overall morale is not great, the team cohesiveness is just not there. I think a good team get together and a schedule that works should help.... I'll let ya know.

Greif and death

That's kind of a morbid title I know, but it will work I guess. We had a team member of ours, a work mate, pass away on Wednesday evening this week. He was in his mid fifties. He had gone into the hospital on Monday, I think, and Wednesday evening he was no longer with us.... The doctors didn't even think that he was going to make it through Tues night, but they hoped he might become more stable to move to a bigger hospital. But that never happened. I worked with the guy and went to a meeting with him on Friday last week. I didn't sleep very good Wednesday night and I kept pondering how life can change in moment and how you don't know what tomorrow, tonight or a couple of minutes from now will bring. To me this situation just reinerate's this. I'm sure that on the weekend he wasn't thinking about spending time in the hospital. I know in the morning on September 25th I wasn't clued in at all to what the afternoon might bring or the weeks to follow. Ya just don't know....
Our manager said he was going to stop taking team pictures, no matter how good they were. After the last three, someone has gotten hurt, died or left the company. Those certainly are not very good odds, I guess. Our labor force is a bit better right now compared to in the fall, so I suppose we will make do. The jury is still out on that one.. For the mental well-being of the group we will keep our eyes and ears open to see if their might be somebody new out there.
This gentleman, I know, was concerned about me when my life status was unknown and I am doing my best to do the right things for him. So Dennis, we are going to keep going forward today and in the future. And its been a pleasure knowing and working with you. Later.................

meetings

It was a busy week.....but now it's over and it went fine. It's always a good thing when you tie up a bunch of unfinished business. Yes, I generated a few new work jobs, but yes I can handle them. I have enough contacts in the company, so in theory I don't need to go it alone and even if I do there's lots of support.
One of the important meetings I was in this week, I felt I made a good impression. That's sort of a self promoting statement I know, but. It was a meeting that I was invited to participate in with the movers and shakers of that farm including a couple of bankers and the nutritionist. I presented an evaluation of the numbers from their cow database and I was able to show numbers to support my position. It was a good feeling to do a good job. The people who where involved will be involved in projects in the future.
I did the sking thing today and it was good. Now that the season is winding down I am feeling better about being there. It still tires me out sooner than it used to, but that's just time. On to another week.

computers

Well, stuff changes. I've got really used to the laptop that our company gave me to use, but like me it had a few quirks. The battery didn't last very long, it had a key that was only sometimes connected to the keyboard and most important the hinge on the screen side of the computer broke. I don't know why, but it broke. It still opened, if I was careful, but it was time for them to change it out. Fortunately I live close enough to the service center, so on my day off I went there and they swapped them. They moved the files over and a few are in different places, but so far I haven't not found anything that's not there. That's kinda funny, I haven't found anything that's not there? This one's got a bigger screen and it doesn't seen to have any quirks! I asked my wife if that would work on me too. If she just brings me to a service center and they will switch me for a new model with no quirks. LOL Well, I am going to start some physical therapy on my pinkie this afternoon. The doctor is already happy about the movement I have in the last joint. He was not very confident after he pulled out the pin, because it had been out of joint for 3 months. I think I am going to get four visits. But everything takes time.