Whatever

Derek Jeter Is In Palm City

Yankeemobile

Maybe he retired here, or maybe he is in town visiting friends, because I saw his car in the local Publix parking lot earlier tonight.

Like A Virgin, Touched For The Very First Time

Every Thursday for the last few months Donna’s sister Sandy, her husband Paul and Paul’s mother Dottie have had a masseuse come to their house to give each one of them a massage. Because Sandy & Paul are in Miami right now leaving Donna and I to “babysit” 99-year old Dottie, Donna took Sandy’s place and I got Paul’s spot.

Back in the day when I was cycling a lot, a few of the guys in the bicycle club swore that after doing a long ride a massage was just the ticket to work out the kinks. After every Aiken Bicycle Club’s yearly century rides and at most other 100 mile fund raiser rides offered by other cycling clubs there was a masseuse available. I was only mildly curious as to what a massage would accomplish, plus I’m kinda cheap, so I never took advantage of the offer.

As payment for our “babysitting”, Dottie offered to pay, so I was finally getting that massage and I wouldn’t have to ride a bicycle 100 miles to get it. This was nothing like the 20 minute long concentrate on the legs post century massage though, but a full 1-hour deep tissue massage. Well, what did I think? It was not unpleasant. It was not the be all to end all in muscle relaxation either.

It is eight hours later and I still feel a little beat up in a few places. Maybe it is because Kelly used the same amount of pressure on me, a classic ectomorph that she uses on Paul, who is more of a mesomorph and 30 pounds heavier. Or maybe I am just like Mac from that old Charles Atlas body building ad that was on the inside back cover of the comic books of my youth.

DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA Batman

Egghead

Most of this week the big bosses of the Valve Store(tm) have been/will be off-site attempting to dazzle the even bigger bosses from Valve HQ by recounting the tales of past triumphs from FY2014 and presenting ideas for a more profitable FY2015. On Tuesday when I noticed that our manager wasn’t in his office at his usual time, I questioned over the cubicle wall to Mark and Tom, “Is Boy Wonder going to be out too?” (A reference to our new supervisor who is all of 30ish.) This led to maybe we should make up signs for their empty offices, one for “Robin” and another for the manager with Batman on it.

This sounded like just the thing for the then unsupervised Arts & Crafts Engineer to do after lunch. So I went to the web and downloaded some photos of the Dynamic Duo for the manager and our supervisor. I then did the same for 5 of the villains from the 60’s TV for us peons. I measured our cubicle nameplates, 2 x 10 for us and 3 x 12 for the big guys and made up some new themed ones. I then used some of my low tack spray adhesive and covered up everyone’s existing signs with the new ones.

They stayed up for all of an hour and a half. Batman called and told The Penguin to tell the second shift supervisor to make sure they folks in the shop weren’t playing poker or anything later because the President of the company was going to want to take a tour of the plant after they all had dinner. We may put them up tomorrow afternoon, because the big guns will have gone back to Jersey by then and leave them up until Batman and Robin get back to work on Friday.

Friday Is Hawaiian Shirt Day II

Hawiian Shirt Friday
August 2006 – from the left, Greg Morgan, Fabrication Engineer, me, Chris Green, Industrial Engineer

About 8 years ago I started to wear Hawaiian Shirts to work on Fridays, Probably right after I saw Office Space for the first time. I probably badgered all my co-workers to do the same, but could only get a couple others to do with any regularity. One day the 3 of us came in with similar hues shirts so I got someone to take our photo.

Greg stuck with it up until a few years ago when he left for a job in Quality at the Bomb Plant making a lot more money. I doubt he is is still wearing the Hawaiian shirts on Fridays. Chris quit them wearing about 2 years later when he moved over to a supervisory position in Assembly, then PIC. For the last month or so he has threatened to start back up again, today he did, wearing the very same shirt that he is wearing in the photo.

My collection of Hawaiian shirts started with two (now up to five), the one I’m wearing in the photo and an identical print in a salmon color, which I wore today. When I moved to the back of the plant a couple years ago I got the CNC Programmer (Hi Mark!) to join in the fun and he really got into it. I bet he’s got 10 or 12 Hawaiian shirts that he scours the thrift stores and flea markets for, rarely paying more than $5 bucks for one.

Back

Back home.
Back where regular gas is $3.35, not $4.05 a gallon.
Back where the high temperatures are in the 90s, not the 70s.
Back where there are a couple DD in town, not an espresso hut every 100 yards.
Back where I can watch the FRS lose in prime time, not the middle of the afternoon.
Back to work.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1387

Workplace Restroom Etiquette Question

You enter the restroom and a coworker is washing their hands. They have obviously finished their business. You enter your favorite stall to do yours. When you sit down you realize that this was the stall your coworker has just finish using. Is it OK to call over the door, “Thanks for warming the seat for me.” What about if it is winter?

The Emperor got a bath last night in preparation for tomorrow’s Ridge Peach Festival Parade. The Purple Whale got his bath the day before. I’ll be taking my weekly bath tonight.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1381