Random observations of this week

Work pressure has been rather persistent this week; two departments are counting on me to cover their short staff dilemmas & my boss has been riding my back- with spurs- to finish close by 6:00 tonight, so she can go on vacation next week. I am soooo out of time & I told her as much. To give credit where it is due, she has finally grasped to enormity of the demands being made on me & has decreed that the girl who has been off this week in our department will just have to be the one to cover the staff shortage, because I just can’t be spared.

Chris has been sick this week. Like most men, he is a big baby when he’s sick- groaning, sighing & whining that he wants some ice cream (Yes, I realize this statement is sexist generalization- its true, though, so sue me) But I cut him a lot of slack because the company he works for doesn’t give sick time, so he is sick & still working! This means that I don’t make him sleep on the sofa, patiently pass him boxes of tissues & don’t comment when he alternately turns up either the a/c or the furnace, depending on whether he sweating or has the chills, regardless of the comfort of other members of the household (he had it so warm in the house last night that the cat was panting!) Of course, I now have a fairly good chance of coming down with this in the very near future. I’ve been downing Airborne every couple of hours & added a ¼ cup of alcohol to my bed linen spray I use every morning to hopefully kill lurking cooties!

Wednesday night was the monthly Garden Club meeting- the next to last for the year. Since we alternate between day & evening meetings, I haven’t been able to go since June. The program was about the “Evolution of the Corn Field Maze” which I found quite interesting. The hostess’ husband is very involved with the Dell’Osso Farms maze, which is about 15 miles from here, & showed a video he made about the project 2 years ago, from planning, to planting, to tear-down. We haven’t been going to this maze for a couple of years because it has become so popular & crowded, attracting too many troublemakers for my liking. We go to G & M Farms in Livermore; it is smaller & less frenetic to me, & they have hint boards throughout the maze to help you find your way out! Anyway, we started discussing this year’s last meeting in November, which is a potluck/gift exchange, where we hammer out the schedule & programs for the following year. I think I’m going to knit a couple of small felted purses, one for the hostess & one for the gift exchange- they only take a week to finish & are very popular. I might even present a program next year- Pets & Plants- but I’ll have to do it at someone else’s home, since mine is a little, well, humble. Every house I've been at that has hosted a meeting has been rather grand, with huge yards, gourmet kitchens & large living/family rooms with room for 12 people to sit comfortably.