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Just put four individual keema curry pies in the oven. Why can't recipes be realistic about prep times? !5 minutes, pfft! Took me that long to find the right spices and then the mortar and pestle.

This is why I don't do "proper" cooking very much. It had better be worth it.

Keithy:

I am not sure, but...I think "keema" is an ancient Indian word meaning "longer than 5 minutes".

But I could be wrong about that...

RLGreenleaf said:

froglivers:

Give us a hint as to what your book is about. I would be very interested in knowing what lurks inside your "baggy monster of a book". The fact that you are stuffing and hiding it in a drawer implies that you are hiding some very precious, or dangerous secrets there!

Give us a hint as to its contents...but only if you dare!

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Yeah, it's no big secret. I like boarding school fiction, and I like the nine-tailed fox myth, so I threw them together to write YA of Magician's Apprentice. (You know, where magic is great until your magic mops are out to get you, if the demon fox doesn't eat your heart out first.)



Holland is nice. Quiet, very mellow, and we get to live a pretty green life. The dog is currently mad about eating plums in the next neighborhood.

Brightdreamer said:

froglivers - Sometimes a story needs to sit in time out for a while... and sometimes it's really a collection of parts to be cannibalized for future works. Best of luck finding a new story! (In my experience, it rarely works to set out deliberately to find a story. Cast a wide net, but don't hunker over the water with laser eyes determined to see The Big One swimming below. Bits and shiny pieces accumulate in their own time. Although sometimes it helps speed them up to shuffle a Tarot deck and do some random draws. Makes a decent writing exercise, at least.)

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Yeah, I like to imagine asking myself the always annoying question, "so, where do you get your ideas?" Because nothing really sticks when you put it that way, you know?

But it's all good. I don't know where I got this one because I went back and scoured #MSWL for it, and IT'S NOT THERE (FTW?), but brain has latched onto new shiny toy and has run away to play with it all day. Or maybe I'm just relieved it's not obsessing over the old one.



Yikes. that finger! Wish there was fake-skin dermaplast that just blends into your own skin to heal it while covering it up in the thinnest of layers, and I can't remember if this really exists or I made it up in a story.

RLGreenleaf said:

Keithy:

I am not sure, but...I think "keema" is an ancient Indian word meaning "longer than 5 minutes".

But I could be wrong about that...

Click to expand...

That was a typo on my part. I meant 15 minutes.

Now the utensils are all yellow too :-(

Keithy:

I was not sure if you meant 15 or !5 -- in Spanish, they use upside-down question marks and exclamation points at the beginning of a sentence, in order to warn the user of what is coming at the end...

Whether it was 5 or 15 or !5, good to see that you finished your hearty meal.

Now you have the energy to go clean them!

And it's later the same Wednesday.

I survived work, even though we were down two people. (One on vacation, one out sick.) Then I survived a trip to the store on the way home. Got stuff for my relative's b-day, though I couldn't find a card that didn't suck. Maybe I'll find one tomorrow; have to go out and get a cake and spaghetti stuff, 'cause that's what she usually wants. Now I can take bets on how long before I'm yelled at about everything...

Why do I bother? Oh, yeah... family's forever and all that crud.

Dang it.

We're doing nuke-your-own-dinner night tonight, on account of all of us being lazy (and there being a snerkload of leftover leftover stew in the fridge.)

I cannot believe it's Thursday already, this week is just flying by.

So we had our dispatch meeting yesterday, where it was announced the rx project manager position is open. And no one wants it, lol. Well, that's not entirely true. I know someone who does want it. The other rx dispatcher. But they'll never give it to him because he can't handle stress at all. He freaks out and gets mad over every little thing. I don't, which is probably a big reason why they wanted to give it to me. 13 years of being screamed at by customers in retail hell, you stop taking things personally or you quit after 6 months.

I'm just gonna keep on keepin' on man. My desk has been turning into quite the hub for drivers lately and I intend to keep it that way. We're even getting a bit of a snack exchange going lol. It's amazing how diverse these guys are with their skillsets. One of them used to be a stock trader. One owned a restaurant. One is experienced with HVAC. Seriously, almost anything you might need you could ask these guys and chances are someone can do it. For the right price, of course.

I'll tell ya, my writer brain is having a field day at this job lol. I love listening to all their stories and there is no shortage of those.

Hey, where did my coffee go? The cup is empty already...

Thursday, and there's a rumor of possible showers today. Not holdin' my breath, but we could use it to clean the air a bit, or so say my sinuses and eyes.

Work looms, and shopping after that. Yes, again. It's always shopping.

Dang it.

Trying to gear myself up for a writing project in August, but since I haven't managed to finish a flippin' short in July, I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Away I drift.

Right now I'm at the library, wondering if I should go to the bathroom or hold it until I write some more.

This is an important decision, because I can't leave my stuff unattended. I brought a lot of study/writing stuff.

Again, wrestling with the bureaucracies of two countries (UK and Ireland)

And it's Thursday afternoon.

Work was... work. We were informed that the staff "picnic" next month is mandatory. So, I can go to a hideous outdated park with a bunch of people I barely know to kayak, learn to play the ukulele, tie dye, and weave a bag from plastic grocery store sacks (ETA - apparently, it's called "plarn" - link to page about it), then have to sit through a pep rally and fight my way home through rush hour... or I could take it as a vacation day. Gee, what a decision to make...

Really, what is with this "we're all buddies/Join the Collective, it's fun to be a cog in the machine!" push at work lately? Especially forcing us to coexist with the service center - we're not even in the same freakin' town, let alone building!

I so wish I qualified for another job... somewhere... anywhere...

Anyway, work was endured, as was shopping. Took too long to find a birthday card that didn't suck. (I saw one that touted how it played "musical farts." Seriously. Someone in a factory somewhere is inserting sound devices into greeting cards so they play musical farts when opened. Or someone designed a machine to insert said chips. I think our civilization's officially jumped the shark...)

Now I'm munching on trail mix in lieu of lunch. It's spaghetti night, and I don't like spaghetti, so I'll probably be having leftover stew instead. (Relative's birthday... she loves spaghetti. So I make spaghetti. I expect I'll do it wrong.)

It is a testament to how long this week is been that I actually sat down and wondered if I had time for a coffee. The answer will always be yes. That's brewing now and I'm inhaling steak n salad cause I am hungry.

"Only" 20 minutes late leaving today. V broke down and actually had to have another driver pick up his stuff and bring it back to the depot for him, and of course that driver got stuck in traffic. On an unrelated note V's too funny, he's absolutely terrible at texting but it's kind of endearing. These guys take care of us.

Speaking of being taken care of, he's not even on the same continent and R's presence is still being felt here. V's van is down, so he'll use one of R's vans (he actually has two) for his route tomorrow. How friggin amazing is that? These guys are all ICs, they don't work together under a master or anything, but they're so willing to work with each other to get stuff done. And that R had the foresight to make his vehicle available in case it was needed...tbh I'm seriously considering talking to him about maybe being a master contractor, he'd be so good at it. This man is criminally underappreciated around here, and I'm not just saying that because I like him.

Both the ops manager and the DM spoke to me about this PM position again today. Ops manager talked a little more in-depth about what I would be doing, I think he's trying to prime me for this even though I haven't even said if I'm taking it or not. I also accidentally uncovered an upcoming demotion that might be tangentially related to a potential upcoming open rx dispatch position...oops. Sometimes I pay a little too much attention.

The DM interviewed me. I'm not the only candidate of course, but he says that he trusts me and he thinks I would do a good job, better than the last project manager because he knows I would take my responsibility very seriously. Of course I would, it's these guys' livelihoods on the line, not just my air conditioned office butt. I did bring up my concerns about my inexperience, that we all know I'm soft on the drivers, etc. He seems to think I would toughen up.

But he also understands that I may not want to take it right now, and I don't have to decide immediately either. I've got a few weeks to think about it while the DM interviews other candidates and whatnot. So that's a relief, I have some time.

There's still a very high chance I won't take it, but my HR friend who helped me get this job points out how much of a difference I could be making for these guys. I want to work with and for them, and having someone on "their" side could dramatically improve, well, everything. I really feel like we're wasting good drivers because of failure to train, not because the drivers themselves are bad. I also hate how suspending a driver and/or threatening their route is the default disciplinary action, instead of going deeper to find and correct the root cause. It's the drivers' responsibility to do their jobs, but it's ours to make sure they have the tools and training they need to be successful as independent contractors. We absolve ourselves too much of these issues by simply blaming the driver for everything.

But we still come back to the issue of integrity, and how hard it is to be objective.

I don't have enough coffee for this level of contemplation right now.

DH - What's the company's upper level like? As in, would there be a chance you could actually influence things for the better, or would you just be creating more stress butting heads with higher-ups who wouldn't listen to your suggestion for a hose if their heads were on fire?

Friday, finally, and we wrapped up the work week with a light day - got out almost an hour early - and pizza at break. The people who buy our deleted books sent pizza. It was weird pizza, but I grabbed a slice anyway because I was that hungry. (Not bad if you removed the stuff that wasn't cheese, sausage, and pepperoni. Don't mind the odd olive or pepper, but this thing had all sorts of shredded onion or something and way too much pepper - there should never be more pepper than pepperoni, if there must be pepper on a pizza.) Oh, and somehow I ended up with vacation on that Staff Day picnic, so no drum circle or yoga demonstration for me. (Yes, actual activity options. I wish I was kidding... They also suggested reading as an activity. Why the heck would I go all the way down to an ugly little park to sit in the middle of a crowd and read, when I can sit at home alone and read and not have to fight rush hour?) Gee, shucky darn...

Still had to shop my way home, though, because someone ran out of milk yesterday and hadn't told anyone (anyone being me, 'cause I do 90% of the shopping around here) they were low to begin with. Meh.

Plans are simple. Gotta get through my Overdrive library book; it's interesting, but occasionally heavy going, and picking at it a few pages a night isn't getting me through it before it has to go home. (Fool Me Twice, by Shawn Lawrence Otto, about how America's turned on science and what can be done about it.)

Away I drift...

Well, that's the thing. While some things would of course still go through the ops manager, I would be managing the drivers much more directly. But that is admittedly one of my concerns, that the current management environment is not one that encourages conflict resolution, but rather uses punishment as a means of control. I do not agree with it, I think there is zero reason for it, and I would absolutely not use that on my drivers even to my own detriment.

For example, one of the drivers was having some serious issues with his delivery app. He was constantly getting yelled at for not scanning his deliveries, and it was at the point where they were going to threaten to take away his route. We would have lost a good driver whose only problem was a technical issue he couldn't fix and we weren't helping him with. So I took it upon myself to do a little research, figure out the root cause and run a fix for him based on my knowledge of his phone OS. It worked and while he doesn't scan 100% all of the time, he is scanning consistently now. Problem solved, we keep a good driver, and the driver is happy that he's not getting yelled at for something he couldn't resolve on his own.

I was talking to one of the other drivers today and he just straight up told me he's never at the dock on time in the mornings and explained why. This guy is also a good driver who has very few issues and is pretty much never late making his deliveries. So officially I'm supposed to yell at him for being late and probably inconveniencing the regular delivery drivers who load after him. Unofficially I don't see why I should care since the deliveries aren't late and I have nothing to do with the other side who shouldn't be using our doors anyway.

In a nutshell, I guess my 'style' is probably too cavalier for this place. I've spent the past 4+ months getting to know every one of my drivers. I'm willing to be flexible (within reason) with good drivers and spend the time working with the drivers who are having problems. As far as I'm concerned my primary role is supporting these guys, which the management seems to think is babysitting. Because they're independent contractors. Ok, but they're required to use our app, go where we tell them, do what we tell them, and follow our protocols. That's why I have no problem calling them "my" drivers.

Pretty much everyone says I should take the promotion because I'm really good at handling the drivers. I feel like as a project manager that would be my downfall. My secret is I'm not handling them at all. I don't yell at or berate them for making mistakes and I help with anything I can, and then when I ask them to do something later they just do it.

V for example once did a special pickup for me even though he wasn't happy about it because he hadn't been paid for the last one he did. I absolutely made sure he got paid for it, and the previously unpaid one too. Personal things aside, R will do pretty much anything I ask because I had his back and did whatever it took to make sure he got his new contract. He was turned away by the interim fleet manager multiple times solely because of how late he returns to the depot compared to most other drivers. I ended up doing it with him myself instead.

If I'm being honest, I also don't like the idea of someone else being their dispatcher. I kinda feel like this is what being a bartender is like lol. These guys come in and talk to me about their problems, general goings on in life, and sometimes if they're in the mood they'll share stories. Sometimes I'll ask them what's going on if I know they're having a specific issue and we'll talk shop. This is the part of the job I really, truly enjoy and the main reason I'm happy to show up every day, cause I love talking to my guys. I can't imagine they would be nearly so open with me in a manager role no matter how at ease they are with me now.

I think that's enough musings for one coffee. I'm pretty tired. Today was actually a good day, not a lot going on so it was pretty relaxed. Traffic sucked on the way home though, and now I have a drunk friend rambling at me on Steam chat lol.

DH, I've been following these even though I haven't commented.

I recall you saying you'd spoken with HR and someone else. Have you pointed out what your management style is/would be? It sounds like you'd be a good thing for the company. If you're on the fence about taking the job, I'd at least point out what your style would be, and see what their response is.

Best of luck to you on this, however it goes.

Well, this evening took a turn... Sitting at the local ER with Mom. She's had gut pain since yesterday afternoon. Finally called uncle... Fingers crossed they figure out what's going on.

Fruitbat said:

I hope it all works out well, BD. Hugs.

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So far, it looks like a possible gallstone. The last ultrasound apparently showed it, but her regular doc didn't tell her, or didn't see it.

And it's a gallstone. Waiting now to talk to the doctor (or "hospitalist," whatever that is) to find out when they're dealing with it so someone can be here. Right now it's almost 3 AM and we're all tired... nobody more that poor Mom. She got no sleep last night and is really about to drop now that meds have taken the edge off the pain.

My mum has been ill (recovering, I hope) with vomiting and stomach pains all week. The doctor says "somethings going around". She's over 90 and one of those people who insist on not bothering the doctor. So, we had to ask my niece (she's a nurse) to "advise" her to see the doctor if she's still not well in a few days - alas, we are in Ireland and my mother is the other side of England. My mum hadn't told my brothers about her illness - they still both live in England. I expect more episodes like this in future, and I wonder if my brothers really are up for dealing with them.

Brightdreamer - hope your mum is OK. I share your scepticism over the "hospitalist" tag. Is that an odd title for a doctor, or someone who's not really a doctor?

My HR friend (who works at corp. headquarters and not my branch) knows what I do for my drivers and seems to be very in support of my methods. The newly promoted fleet manager and I do share the same maxim, "keep the drivers happy", but I feel the rest of management and by extension the company itself is very shortsighted when it comes to driver treatment. Even my own ops manager can be extremely condescending toward the drivers and has no problem calling them idiots or worse regardless of who it is. When problems come up instead of immediately resolving the issue he will try to make them wait as a punishment for making a mistake, regardless of whether it's their fault or not. Not that it should make a difference, you should not be treating drivers like children and then wonder why they won't work with you.

And then he's surprised when the drivers listen and talk to me instead, and cautions me not to get too friendly with them. If he only knew...On an unrelated note, my HR friend does know about the whole R thing and helpfully informed me there is no official policy against it, so there's that.

On a semi-related note, the new-ish warehouse kid kinda-not really tried to ask me out yesterday. Nice kid, really ambitious, way too young for me. I look much younger than I am, which gets awkward...felt weird turning him down as nicely as possible. I wonder if that's how R felt when I asked him, although if that were true I feel like he would have immediately distanced himself from me and he didn't, well not intentionally anyway.

Actually, I had to map his afternoon route the other day when V broke down and we had to scramble for an emergency cover driver, and I now know exactly why R was doing it the way he did. To do that last stop and then come back, he literally drives right by the depot, so then he has to make his delivery and backtrack just to drop off the paperwork, empties and returns for both routes. Without a compelling reason, no driver would ever do that. Waste of time and gas. Him changing his route to do exactly that is significant.

We'll see what happens come Monday, I guess.

For now I've got an apartment to clean up.

Keithy - Near as I can figure, the "hospitalist" is the doctor who talks to patients when they check into a room but before the other doctors, the surgeons and whatnot - get around to dropping by. Maybe not. I'll be honest in saying I was rather drained by that time of the night/morning.
Best of healing wishes to your mother! (As for relatives stepping up to the plate... fingers crossed for you on that front. Though in their defense some people, particularly aging parents, have a way of not telling their offspring Very Important Things about their health - like, say, the near-crippling sensation of a hot poker being pressed into their back/side for months and months before they finally consider asking for medical help... y'know, as a random for-instance...)

Meh. Way too early on Saturday morning, but not so early as last time. Got a couple hours' sleep, I believe. So that's something. Meant to sleep a little more. But the phone rang - not once, not twice, but three times - and I took the hint to get up. Still tired, frankly, but not quite as exhausted. Will probably grab a nap this afternoon.

As I type, my mother should be on her way to a gallbladder-less existence. (I told her she'd taken rock collecting too far, to keep one in her gallbladder... and, no, it isn't an agate or a geode, so why'd she pick it up to begin with? Probably just as well she was too out of it from pain/meds to properly respond, or I might've wound up in the ER myself.) She was actually quite happy with the diagnosis, because it meant they could Stop The Pain. (This has been building for months, the pain that her doctor tried to pawn off as "fatty liver" earlier this month. Fatty liver shouldn't cause a constant pain point like that.) We'll see how soon I can rally the home troops to head back up the hill to see her. Shortly I'll take a peek in the beast's lair to see if the denizen has gotten any rest; lack of sleep gives her an even finer hair trigger on her Moods.

And off I roll.