I was run ragged today. Another deployment starting so had to work today (and tomorrow and for the next 10 days straight). Dontcha know I overslept? Me, the keeper of keys, and my eyes didn't open until 6:30 am. I made it in by 8 am and was greeted by the team I'll be working with and 14 tractor trailers. We managed to empty 4 trucks when my forklifts died. Seems my employees never charged them like I asked them to, so the trucks had to be unloaded by hand. There are 32-36 pallets of equipment on each truck, depending upon how high the pallets are stacked. That was a lot of walking, pulling and pushing. A friend stopped by for a while to drop off a lawn mower and weed eater and that was a welcome break. I'm gonna miss this man terribly. It's funny how life plops the most oddest creature in the middle of your path at a time when you don't really want to deal with it. Diversionary tactics. I call him my curmudgeon, he was crusty and cynical when we first met, and I always felt like the real person was hiding behind some high castle wall. I was right, little by little over the past 10 months, I've managed to scratch my way through the vines and moss and get a glimpse at what lies on the other side while still respecting his privacy. He has deemed our relationship to be a symbiotic relationship, and I couldn't agree more. It's an odd friendship, but it works. And in 4 days, he'll be 700 and some miles away. But he'll always remain close to my heart. At noon, I had to run home and pick up DS so he could go on a "mini" hike in preparation for a hike along the Appalachian Trail next month. We had directions to get to the trail he was hiking, but they just didn't sound right to me, so I ran by work and asked some of the guys if going an alternate route would be better. That put us 15 minutes behind schedule. DS was worried I'd get lost...HA! Foolish child. But he convinced me to try to follow the directions he was given. Foolish Mom! The access gate the directions told us to take was closed for the weekend. That put us another 15 minutes behind, and we ended up driving the 50-some miles around the north perimeter of the installation to get to the meeting point. The group had just taken off about 5 minutes before we arrived, so we could see them. DS said he'd keep them in sight and he'd be fine. I was hesitant, but eventually a mother has to let go, right? I fretted the 50-some miles back to work but quickly put it out of my mind for a few hours while unloading trucks...by hand. By 5:30 pm, it was time to go retrieve him...another 50-some miles out to...OMG! I didn't know where to pick him up! And he didn't take his cell phone. Stupid Mom! I drove to the drop off point, not there. I reached for the map to see where the end point was...no map, I left it at work! So I drove 10 miles down the road and found a little dirt/sand road that went back into the woods in what seemed the right area of an end point. But, the sand looked soft and I was afraid to drive down it and get stuck. So I drove another 5 miles down the road to a point where I could turn around. It was as I pulled off the road that I noticed my gas gauge...I was almost on empty! How stupid could I get? I couldn't find my kid, I was almost out of gas, I was out in the middle of absolutely NO WHERE, I was hot and tired and fighting back tears of frustration. I reached for my cell to call the curmudgeon and admit that I was a damsel in distress and needed a knight in shining armor when it rang. It was DS. Thank goodness. He was back at the start point, so off I went, another 15 miles down the road, watching the gas gauge the whole time. When I got there, there was one adult left with the boys so I asked him which direction I should take to find a gas station, the only one I knew lay in a town another 30 miles away. This is how dense I really am...there was a gas station 7 miles down the road, which was only 10 miles from my house! Yep, I put over 150 miles on my car when I could have put 50 on had I stopped and really looked at a map. Good grief. I figured it was a good time to buy a lottery ticket with the $5 I had in my wallet. All gassed up, lottery ticket in hand, DS safely stowed in the passenger seat, the heavens opened up and it began to rain. A nice, soft, steady rain. I realized then just how drained I was, and there was no way I was going to cook dinner. So we found an ATM, got some cash, and had fried chicken for dinner. The curmudgeon refers to his new duty assignment as a "fresh start". I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I know I need to make a fresh start, but it's so hard. Can one really make a fresh start in the same place? Seems like an oxymoron. Same town, same job, same group of friends, nothing is really "fresh". Sure, I'd find a new house and move. There'd be new gardens to grow. But life in itself would be the same. So, over the past 2 months, I've submitted my resume for 2 different jobs. One is local, one would take us to Africa, both would be promotions. Getting feedback on resume submission is a long process with the govt, but tonight I got feedback on the job that is local. I've been rated as one of the top candidates and my resume has been sent to the hiring authority for consideration. This job is the supervisor position in an office where I was offered a job twice before but didn't accept, basically doing what I do now but as a staff member. This would be the end to the physical labor and long hours! I figured I didn't stand a chance for the supervisor position since they'd most likely just promote the guy they did end up hiring. So it was a pleasant surprise to see that they didn't do that. The job in Africa would be working as the assistant to the political advisor...definitely not something I'm strongly suited for, but I had to give it a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? I just need to remember to start reading a map if I end up in Africa! Something tells me I won't be able to send an SOS to the curmudgeon. And now it's time to close my eyes and dream...of fresh starts in life with the child I love dearly. And of winning the lottery....

I'm thinking of buying my third house so I can be in remodel hell for at least three or four more years...do you think that sounds like a slight sickness? Oh and those darned hotels...hospitals...friends homes...oh ya, I notice! I always look at tile patterns in showers and critique. I'm big on the trim pieces and how they meet in the corner. The suite hotel we stayed in during the hospital stay had such a stupid kitcen layout. It was small of course, but they left silly gaps in the cupboards that just didn't need to be there if they just moved x to y location...blah blah The hospital had just had flooring layed and painting done. TERRIBLE work. They obviously cut in on corners and edges and left it sit for a few days (oh way way too much paint on the brush as well...the marks were deep) and then went by with a roller. The shadowing made me shudder. The flooring looked like the hotel the OP brought up....one guy started at one end and one at the other and left the cuts in the middle of the floor. Goofy!!! Now for the really sad part....my DS is two. He found that odd cut line on day 3 of the hospitalization and for two months he insisted on using it as a sort of balance beam, runway thing everytime we went down the hall. He'd always make a beeline for it and start either crawling on it, tightrope walking, or zooming an airplane on it LOL Do you think he's caught the bug and just wanted to point out the error???

The insulation used on power cords often has a higher temperature rating than typical permanent wiring. This allows the use of smaller conductors, and for a heater does not even change the efficiency (any heat missing from the heating elements is radiated from the cord). A loose receptacle can cause excessive heating. There is ALWAYS some additional heating from a receptacle though. The resistance of the connection is not zero, and even a few tens of milli-ohms at 10-15 amps causes heating. If the entire cord is slightly warm it is probably fine. If the cord cap is slightly warmer it is also likely OK. If the cord cap is a lot warmer check the receptacle.

That is a hardy hibiscus. You are right, when the bloom is finished it is very unremarkable, but thankfully most bushes have dozens of buds ready to open the next day. Here's a white one and a red one planted side by side. The picture was taken last year. We've had such a hot, humid summer that I haven't been outside much to take many pictures this year.