Sunday, November 29, 2015

Appaloosas

I needed a change of subject. "You still have your horses?"

A little breath of air came out as he responded, "My uncle's horses, yes." Henry never claimed to the horses, even though they had been his for more than ten years. It was because they were Appaloosas. He felt about Appaloosas the way I felt about his truck; they were just here to piss him off. Henry figured that the reason the Cheyenne had always ridden Appaloosas into battle was because by the time the men got there, they were so angry with the horses they were ready to kill everything.

---Craig Johnson, The Cold Dish

I'm reading that right now.  It was a slow start, not because of the book, but because I don't seem to have any sort of attention span right now.  Hectic time of the year.  We go from Inventory to Halloween to Thanksgiving.  It'll be normal for a week or two, and then we go into the Christmas/New Year's rush.

Still, Cold Dish is a fine read.  Shyam lent it to me, as the Longmire novels are a series she enjoys very much.  I'm digging the first one...

Monday, November 23, 2015

Monday...3 Days before Thanksgiving....

I've spent most of my morning cleaning up.  Doing all the little things that I won't have the chance to do until Friday, that most likely being the earliest I could get to it again.  Picking up the living room.  Dishes.  Cleaning the bathroom.

Thanksgiving is Thursday.

Did you know that?

Thursday.

It's a busy week at ye olde grocery shoppe.  One of the two busiest.

Minor aside  I'll be putting four shifts in from 2 PM today until 3:30 PM Thursday.  That'll end up right around 39 or so hours on, with 25 or so hours off in between shifts.  Less than 22, if you count the commute.  Tonight, it's 2-11:30, same tomorrow.  Wednesday, 9am to 7p, and I volunteered for Thursday, so that's a 6:45-3:30 shift there. If you have a higher power you look to, might you put a word in for Tommy?  Off time, especially Tuesday night through Thursday, will be for sleeping, perhaps jamming a sandwich into my face and not much else.

Actually, it's not that bad.  The physical part of it, building displays and running trucks, is done, for the most part.  Upper management usually shows the good sense to leave all the little directives off for this week.  So, it's just the public.

And despite entreaties to the contrary, 90%, if not more, of the public are good folks with good heads on their shoulders.

It's the other 5-10% that can make this week a mental drain.

Here's the tiring thing about the week.  We have a lot of people cooking dinners that they don't really want to cook, eating with people they don't really want to be with, making trips they don't want (and some can't afford) to make.  And it wears on some.  And unfortunately, it comes out sometimes at the people who can't defend themselves.  Those people in my industry.

There are lots of memes that go around, about respecting retail workers, and I agree with the basic sentiment.  I even share some of them, some of the time.  Still, most people aren't jerks.  And the people who aren't jerks?  Generally don't think that they are jerks.

I'm rambling.

Whaddaya gonna do?  Still my blogamathing, despite all efforts by The Enemy.

Too much green tea this morning?

YES!!!!!

Saturday, November 21, 2015

More Media Bullshit


It would seem that those folks at Scholastic Press decided to throw a little shade.




What the fuck?

This just seems uncalled for.

Somebody isn't around to defend themselves, and suddenly you gotta start putting them in the category of Dumbest Damn Dinosaur.

Look.  I've been over this before.  Again and again.

Stegosaurus is a badass.

Total Badass.

The Baddest Badass.

Do you know many dinosaurs that:


  • co-starred in the TV program Cheers?
  • Hit for a career average of .307 in the Major Leagues?
  • Sing Baritone for their community choir?
  • Created the Bacon Cheeseburger?
  • Bodyslammed Andre the Giant nearly nine years before Hulk Hogan did it at Wrestlemania III?
None.  

Yet still we hate.

Weak sauce, Scholastic.

Weak Sauce.



Friday, November 13, 2015

XIII

Well, the old blogamathing turns 13 today.

It's not an everyday hobby, like it used to be.  The Facespace and the Twitter and the Letterboxd and the Flamdangled and the Bozzletwan and the Instagram and the Flordnorbit and all the other social media platforms have taken a lot of the steam out of it.

I mean, we're busy.  I'm not made of time, y'all.  All this professional wresting isn't going to watch itself.

So, now when I need to shout an inanity into the sky, like this:

I can use my smart telephone to hurl another witticism into the void!

I can also use my smart telephone to compose blog posts, I reckon, but I think the fight with autocorrect would drive me insane.

Once upon a time, I was attempting to text "I love you" to Shyam, and my fumblethumbs and Swype conspired to write "I love tit."

Which is true, but not the sentiment I was looking to convey at the time.

Anyway.  I still post here three or four times a month.  It doesn't mean I'm not trying to jam french fries into your mind.  I'm just pressed for time.

What I'm trying to say is that in 13 years, I've not learned much, and I'm working even  more like a botard, but I'm still here.  And, Dusty Rhodes willing, I will be for a good long time....


Monday, November 02, 2015

November and whatnot

Wandering back to work off of vacation today.

It's tough.  The second half of the year has been difficult, due to scheduling obligations.  I've been closing a lot more.  Days off usually come after a closing shift, and days off are generally followed by an opening shift.  Not a lot of weekends off.

And we're coming to the hard part of the year.  The next 8 weeks aren't my favorite.  So, head down, and move forward.

Joined another Hysterics at Eric's this  weekend.  Got to see a goodly number of folks.  Made the promise not to be such an anti-social asshole, and go visit a few of these folks.

Realizing that in 11 days, this blogamathing turns 13.  It's really been just limping along the last three or four years (if not longer).  Thinking of piecing a few bits together, and putting something up in the Kindle store.  See what sticks.....