I'm off today. This is phone hell week on my job, so I take Wednesday off for my mental health. I don't love needing to take my paid days that way, but self-preservation and all that.
The area in front of my front porch has been a dilemma since I lived here. Till right before I moved here, there was a huge Pin Oak in front of the house which gave shade to the porch and all around it. For years previous, this area where the average person would have planted a few shrubs or had flowers, was covered with plastic and then white rock. When I first got here I tried to dig in it, hoping to put something better there, I found it was at LEAST two layers of that plastic and rock and right below them, the ground was full of leftover roots from the huge tree that was no longer there, so I gave up the thought of being able to actually plant something there. I've tried different things like purchasing several very large, bold colored ceramic flower pots to put in that space and filling them with colorful flowers, only to find that without the shade of the tree, the morning sun shown so hot on the area for hours, that nothing liked it there unless they were tropical and even THEY begged for a little sip of water frequently.
I eventually started putting non-plant things there, spinners and small sculptures. Originally there were wonderful giant clovers that took over the space, but they didn't like the midsummer heat either and eventually gave way to crabgrass. Crabgrass as you know, although you may call it something else, is a scourge to anyone else, but because it was too hot to weed whack, I let them grow. This is what they have done when left to their own devices and allowed to exist and live. I was surprised to find that I like it this way. Of course not my preference, but when nothing else worked, the crabgrass is now so tall that from the street it looks like I have shrubs in there. People fly by the house so fast, they don't even have time to wonder if I have landscaped my yard with weeds. It's green and pretty contained because the yard is mowed up next to them and with their height and weight on themselves, they kind of have a flowy, fountain kind of look. If only crabgrass flowered, I'd be set !
One more photo from the side. It's ok to roll your eyes and shake your head and I wouldn't blame you since I pointed this all out, but there it is all the same. I kind of like how it has grown up around and through the sculptures.
I recently bought a new washer and dryer. My dryer was 22 years old and sometimes high was low heat and low was high and sometimes it was beginning not to put out heat at all, so it was time. My washer was only somewhere around 10 years old, but it had a little damage from being squished into a small space in the last place I lived where it wasn't free to jiggle the inside basket like it wanted too when it spun, so a bracket was damaged and eventually failed. It still worked, but I was just holding my breath thinking one day another bracket would go that held the tub while it was full of water and wet clothes, so I finally gave in and bought new ones. I don't know how good the newer ones hold up with their electronic doodads and the such, but it's kind of hard to find them without it without buying something really cheap.
The washer does have a nice looking stainless basket and of course everything is pretty since it's new. Like anything else though, it will take some time to get used to it and start to accept it's quirks (I hope I eventually do) I did resist getting one with an impeller and stayed with an agitator, just my preference, but one thing I don't love so far is that I am supposed to put the clothes I want to wash in there first and let the washer decide how much water I need in there. I liked filling my washer first, putting in my detergent then adding my clothes. These new washers want to "weigh" what I put in first and then THEY decide how much water is needed. I am 66 and I have used washers and dryers since I was a teen and I am very confident in my own ability to decide what amount of water I want.... but no. It does have a soap dispenser that pulls out on the top back of the tub, but once my clothes and detergent are in, the lid locks and then the washer does a weird little dance as it turns here and turns there as it makes up it's mind what it wants to do. After a bit, the water begins to run in and it comes in through the soap dispenser to add the soap. At some point the water stops, it swishes around a few times and if it is not happy, it stops and puts more water. So far, it has done ok on some of the loads, but a time or two, the amount of water it decided was ok, didn't even cover the clothes that were in it. The clothes were real wet and you could see some water they were sloshing around in, but for this old girl, it wasn't enough water for me to accept it as enough, so I stop it, unlock it, close it back and a time or two it gave me more water, a time or two not, to which I open again and then chose "deep water wash"..... for real, to me, there is nothing better about the process of these things and my need to watch that it will work in a way that is satisfying to me that is better than the simplicity of the previous machines. Not only that, by the time it takes it to figure this and figure that, it takes longer for a load to finish than the old ones. Is that progress??? I never had to baby my others that you just pull out the button, turn to the wash you want, pick a water level, add detergent and walk away ! Anyway... it's pretty ! LOL !!!!
It also didn't handle the heavy load of a bed coverlet as good as the last one either. It somehow got air under the item and then it could not manipulate it to be evenly balanced for the spin, so when I thought it was done and came back, the tub still had water in it, the item had an air balloon under it and it was not even enough for it to spin ! That caused ME to have to adjust it, coverlet, very heavy now and full of water and it was NOT easy.
OMGoodness...... I ask again.... is this progress ! So far I'm thinking not, but I suppose like everything else, I will get used to it.... I hope.
One thing I do like about the dryer is that access door is taller and it is much easier to reach in and get all the clothes out without bending way over and contorting your arm and shoulder to reach things in the back. There is not as much not to love about the dryer and on this one, when it says the clothes are dry, they actually are !
On another front, I have learned recently that my job will be changing. In a nutshell, the position I have now deals with billing for medical facilities. There are two main parts to it, taking phone calls from clients and working paperless paperwork where clients send in requests for changes and also requests from our field personnel. There are a LOT of bits and parts to it within those two categories. For me, the hours I take calls have become grueling, with calls coming in back to back to back, lots of times with no space in between. It did not used to be that way, but it is now for various reasons, lack of employees and other things management has changed. I find this work stressful and quite frankly have grown to hate it. Working the paperwork though, I don't mind, I put on music of my choice, by request to my alexa, and fairly happily, do the work.
A couple of weeks ago they informed us that the paperwork was going to another department and in it's place, we will be expected to make calls to clients who have smaller accounts, but who have old open balances to try to resolve them. YUCK ! Now, I am damned good at trouble shooting these types of issues with my long time experience with our billing, but part of that would be to ask the client's to pay anything that is not resolvable another way. Ummmm.... no....that doesn't fly with me. If I wanted to be a collector, I would have moved to THAT department years ago as I really like the supervisor there.... anyway.... so now the position will turn into incoming phones calls, which I already detest and calling out to the smaller clients that haven't paid their bills nor called to give additional info to clear them up. Let me just say again....
YUCK !!!!!
They did inform us that there will be 5 positions opened in the other department where our paperwork will go and we were welcome to apply for those as if we were applying for any other position change. They also said it was in a lower paid department.
😶
So, they finally got those positions posted and while I was off today I applied for one. There is a lot I don't know about it and I'm sure it will have it's own hell parts as most jobs do. Applying for it and asking questions during interview will be the only way to get to know more about it and it can always be turned down if offered.
For myself, I would love to be off the incoming phone que (the part of the position I have now that makes it pay higher). I have thought previously that I could accept a bit less pay if I had too, if I didn't have to answer the phones. Of course, I have no idea how much less they may offer, a little or a lot. I'm going to find out though, because I am working past the age I really wanted too and a less stressful position would make that feel better.
Either way, my job will be changing for the better....or the worse of it and it is all up in the air right now. These aren't the times in life that are fun to go through.
So I will end my post with this pretty photo of one of my Mother's Knock Out Roses. It is bush like and flowers profusely, then the roses die back..... and flower out again, over and over ! So pretty ! Don't you think?
Ok... so I've rambled on and gave more detail than anyone would care to know, so I'll call it done for now.
I hope you are all doing well and that your life is mostly beautiful.
