The sweet sound of rain

It's 6:00 in the morning, I am dressed and ready to leave for work at 7:00. The reason I am so up and at 'em is because it's actually seriously raining, and the sound woke me up at 4:00. We in southern California haven't heard this sweet sound for about 2 years. We have had some rain but nothing like we have today, where the sound is strong.

Naturally, as desperately as we need the rain, it could bring problems for the areas so recently destroyed by those horrible fires. The ground has absolutely no cover to protect the earth and too much hard rain will cause floods down the hills, and on to the roads, so what we really need is something gentle but continuous. It's only going to last today and the weather people predict no more for at least 7 days.

So, I will leave this blog and go to my front window and just watch the drops hit the pavement. I will savor this picture for as long as it lasts, then get in my SUV, and thank God for the free car wash. Hopefully, this precious liquid will allow ground cover to grow on the fire damaged hills and bring some green to an otherwise brown and beige landscape. We have absolutely lived with these two colors for far too long.

My Dream Village

Every year after Thanksgiving, I assemble my Christmas Village. It's not one of those name brand villages, it's just a jumble of ceramic and plastic things I have purchased over the years, and somehow it manages to become a perfect turn of the last century village. I start with my large coffee table (used to be big enough, but this year I had to add an extension table) which I place in front of my living room window, and put white stryofoam on the bottom, then add assorted white boxes and hard foam around the outside edge to create different levels for the Victorian houses (I think I have 8 or 9 at least). On the right hand side I place the skating pond (mirror with people on it) in front and carosel (musical 10 songs - lighted and the horses turn) behind the park. In the middle, I have the train station with the train in front, city hall with clock tower behind the train station then people and lights all around. I have a horse pulled carriage, a coffee vendor, benches, trees etc. On the left hand side (where you can't see in the picture) I have a band playing and above that a horse pulled sleigh with people. All the houses light up. The first picture was taken behind the table, the 2nd one from the left hand side.

It's very relaxing for me to put it together, moving pieces around to fit, making what I would consider the perfect place to live. When I get home at night, I turn on the lights so that people passing by can see it.

I was thinking this year that maybe after the holidays, I may leave it up all winter. It's so pretty and calming, I just like to stand there and imagine what it would be live to live in such a place. Pretty darn good I think.

WHAT A SWELL PARTY IT WAS

What a super Thanksgiving we had yesterday at our Moose Family Center. We advertised on our local Government Channel and in our County Newspaper that our lodge would be open from 2:00 to 5:00 for a free Thanksgiving dinner to anyone who didn't have a place to go. Our lodge and social quarters were closed and no alcohol was served. We were lucky enough to have food donated by local stores. We had 12 turkeys, 5 hams, 16 pies, potatoes, stuffing, green beans, rolls and another of our district Moose family centers cooked and donated enough yams for 250 people. Boy did we luck out.

We had decided that rather than having people stand in line to be fed, we would personally serve each person, not only bringing their food to them,but also providing soda, coffee or tea which someone would deliver. We had about 20 of our members sacrificing their family Thanksgiving to show up and volunteer, so two were assigned to each table of 10, to provide the service then clean up and reset their table for the next people who showed up. The other volunteers would be the ones who keep the food coming.

First, Ventura County, where we are is under another fire alert this weekend so 30 Fire Fighters from around the state are camped out at one of our local parks, and of course, were invited to join and boy did they ever. Men and women showed up in full uniform, ate their fill along with the first batch of people. Then they did something spectacular. They took over serving, giving our members a chance to eat. It was the best of the Thanksgiving spirit.

The newspaper sent a photographer (we had seen him before when we donated stuffed Moose to our local search and rescue folks) plus a reporter who walked around talking to the firefighters and diners. Our local CountySupervisor also showed up to mingle with everyone.

There was no way to count how many people showed up to eat because we weren't giving out tickets, but there were a few families who filled an entire table. The folks ate and then the kids noticed our back yard playground and basket ball court and once they were done, they rushed outside to play. We also had quite of few senior members of our community who had no other place to eat show up. They kept shaking our hands, thanking us. We figured we serve at least 150 to 200 meals by the end of the day.

Needless to say, everyone decided this would be an annual event. The outpouring of gratitude towards us, completely filled our lodge. We have more than enough love to carry us through the next few months and the memories for those of us who participated will be something we will not soon forget. It was absolutely worth every minute spent, preparing and serving all those wonderful folks who showed up.

Oh, one more thing. In case you are wondering if I blew my diet - well actually, no I didn't. All I had were a few pieces of celery, a few olives and a lot of coffee. Nothing really appealed to me even though as you can see while I was dishing out the food. I am very grateful that the surgery I had a year ago really does work to keep the hunger away. Besides helping me, it saved at least one dinner for the people who were really worthy to share this wonderful feast.

Sometimes I envy Joan

this will be quick because I am swamped here at the office.

I have been reading Joan's blog every day, and I really envy her the time to do one every single day besides having something to say every single day.

We are busy here at the office trying to get everything bought to ramp for year end shipments and I am not sure how long it will last. Besides, we only have 3 working days this week.

Until then, please know blogging friends I haven't forgotten that I promised to do a blog about my stomach bariatric surgery.

Tonight I promised to work our football mini-meal at the Moose.

Hope everyone is well and if I don't get back this week you all have a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

Patti, I am praying your mom is handling her fire crisis. I can't imagine how tough it can be.

Sometimes the timing is wrong......

I went on the interview yesterday. The company is very small, and their procurement department is somewhat still in the dark ages, and not a very good fit for someone with my experience.

I didn't think that any company was still entering purchase orders in DOS but this company still is. Not only that but their bill of materials system (lists all the part numbers required to complete a project) is manually entered on Excel. Very primitive and slow. They are in the process of updating their systems, but this could take 2 or 3 years, and at this time in my purchasing career, I am downsizing, and not looking to help a company begin their growing.

Most important though, they cannot afford to hire someone at this time with my salary requirement. Even though the company is a mile from my house, and there would be gasoline cost savings, the salary they are offering is not nearly enough to compensate.

If I am meant to stay with my present employer, so be it. The company is great, and the compensations are greater. I will just have to buck up and accept the situation I have with my co-buyer. It's been 4 and a half years. Another 2 years won't hurt me. After all, I do have something great in the future to look forward to....RETIREMENT!!!

Sometimes the timing might be right...

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that our the Vice President of my company left here to go work for the management of our previous company, and how concerned I was what life would be like here after he was gone. So far, there has been no trauma and I am very grateful.

Last Friday, late in the afternoon, I went into Monster.com the job search web, which I do sometimes just to see what is out there. Something popped up a quarter of a mile from my house and although the job description fit, it seemed to me that the company was searching for someone less qualified than I am. After giving it 15 minutes of thought, mostly about the fact that it was so close to home, I decided it wouldn't do any harm to E-mail my resume over to them. In the E-mail I explained that I have been with this company 4 and a half years, but it's 25 miles from my house and with gasoline prices exceeding $3.50 for regular around here, it was time to consider changing to a company closer to home.

That was Friday afternoon at 4:30. Yesterday at 8:05 in the morning, the director of operations of the company was on the phone to me. He asked how soon I could come in for an interview. I explained to him that it might be tough but that I had an appointment scheduled in town on Wednesday and if he could wait the couple of days, I could be at his doorstop around 4:00. He said he would check with the others who would have also have to meet me. Within 15 minutes I received an E-mail from him confirming the 4:00 time as well as listing the names and positions of the people I would be meeting.

So there you have it. I don't know if a job change will happen. I don't know if they will accept my salary requirements, however, they should be aware approximately how much a senior buyer with my experience is worth, and if they weren't interested, I figure they wouldn't have contacted me. Stay tuned for another blog on Thursday after the interview and please start crossing those fingers and toes. Lighting a few candles wouldn't hurt either.

Charlotte's Birthday continued...

As I wrote in my last blog, Charlotte turned 89 on Saturday. I drove up to her town and met one of the co-workers from her Chapter, and she and I drove up the mountain (when I say up the mountain, I mean that literally. Charlotte and her late first husband bought their house in 1958 and to get to it, one must drive past one of the very very old California Missions and up three miles of winding roads). This neighborhood as well as most of the town can now only be afforded by the very wealthy so Charlotte and her present husband of over 35 years are very lucky to live there.

At the house, we met Charlotte and her daughter and all four of us went back down the mountain to a local Chinese restaurant. The food was some of the best Chinese food I have eaten and the company I was with was pretty wonderful too. We had a marvelous time talking about the Moose Organization and, of course, Charlotte shared some very old memories with us. We spoke of members who have passed on and just shared some funny stories of the way things used to be. After lunch, we stopped at the local ice cream store and picked up a birthday cake which we took back up the mountain to share with Charlotte's husband, son-in-law and old friend who stayed up at the house while we had lunch. Charlotte opened her presents (what does one give to an 87 year old woman who has everything - her daughter gave her a brand new state of the art waffle machine, and I brought a dozen yellow roses which are her favorite).

It was an absolutely super day with a very super lady. I never get tired of listening to her stories or being around her. She is someone so very special, not only to the Moose members but to everyone who meets her. We Moose are just lucky that she belongs to us, and we all know it.

Lynn asked what keeps her so young. I will tell you, it's her joy of life and always being optomistic which keeps her young. It's also what keeps her so beautiful. This is a picture I took Saturday.

Happy Birthday Special Lady

The reason I joined the Moose Family Center 20 years ago was because a friend needed two women to join so that she could receive her higher honors in the Moose Organization. My intention was to pay my dues and not go into the lodge because along with most people, I just figured it was a bar and all people did there was drink. I didn't drink because if my diabetes so why bother.

Well, needless to say, what happened isn't even close to my original intentions. Like most fraternal organizations, the Moose Family Centers do have social quarters where alcohol is served, but that's just a very small part of the whole Moose program. There are so many other things including dinners, kids activities, parties, sports functions - well something for everyone!

When I joined, someone convinced me to attend a session to learn about the Women of the Moose program (from here on known as WOTM). The session leader was someone special by the name of Charlotte. Her title is Past Grand Regent (in the entire WOTM program, out of all the members, one woman is chosen each year to be Grand Regent. She travels all over the United States and Canada meeting and greeting WOTM members and building up the Moose program. When her year is over, her permanent title is Past Grand Regent). Boy could this woman's enthusiasm for the WOTM convince one to do anything and by the time I left the meeting, I was not only committed to the Moose program but also to doing whatever I could to help my local Chapter build it's membership. I also promised to accept a Chapter higher office. That was in 1990. Charlotte and I just clicked that first day.

By 1998 with this special lady's help, I achieved all the local honors offered a WOTM co-worker by taking the offices necessary to achieve them (I wrote a blog in August about having my Moose College Regalia shortened because of my weight loss). While the rest of us wear black and red Regalia, you can see Charlotte wears the white of a Past Grand Regent. During the 17 years, along with a few other co-workers, I have helped my Chapter become one of the most successful in California. Everything I do is based on the golden rule "do unto others" which Charlotte continues to instill in all of us. If the members are treated with respect, they will want to help this wonderful organization. I have lived this rule for a very long time.

Over the past 17 years, Charlotte and I have maintened an adopted mother/daughter relationship. Her joy of life continues to amaze me each time I see her. She continues to have a memory as sharp as a tack and remembers what happened in a specific Chapter 25, 30 or 40 years ago. When the rest of us are wearing comfortable tennis shoes or clumsy clogs, Charlotte is still wearing heels and dresses most of the time. In short, she is a very classy lady with a great sense of humor, still teaching all of us the lessons of a great life.

Tomorrow is Charlotte's birthday and I want to take this time to let everyone know how much I apprecial all this special woman has taught me about human nature. We will be having lunch, sharing Women of the Moose memories and just enjoying the company.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention her age. Charlotte will be 89 tomorrow. The picture of her was taken this past September. Don't you think she looks pretty darn good???

So Far So Good Here at Work

Well it's been almost a week since my work mentor left and so far it's been a pretty good week. We had our first staff meeting Tuesday. Turns out my company is going "green" and our manager presented all the things management is going to do to change our way of thinking. The first thing we are giving up is the bottled water which has been provided and the styro cups we have been using for our hot drinks. The company has purchased special green water bottles and ceramic cups for each employee. Our tap water will be filtered so we will be reusing the new cups and bottles. We have also been given "recycle trash cans" to toss all paper into along with ones for cans. Together with those items, our company will be offering the chance to win gifts to those who carpool and names will be drawn every month. This company gives out pretty good gifts like I-Pods and other goodies so I for one am very happy that I car pool with one of our other buyers. There are other incentives to save the planet which will be announced in the future. It was a fun calm meeting with no work discussion.

As far as my co-buyer goes, so far so calm. Maybe she was intimidated by our V.P. but she seems a little less hostile, and I even got her to chuckle (very small one) this morning so maybe just maybe...... I can hope it will be better, but I can only wait and see what happens.

A very sad day

Today is a very sad day for me. Our executive Vice-President left our company.

I have a couple of reasons for being sad. First, this is the 2nd company I have worked for this wonderful man. Before I came here, I worked for him 8 years at our last company which was acquired by a major corporation and closed. When he came here, he offered me a job which I immediately accepted.

Unfortunately, my co-buyer had someone else in mind for the job and over the past 4 and a half years has never gotten over my getting the job. I have written about her on this blog before. She has never been nice to me and the only time she has ever spoken to me since I started all those years ago has been to be sarcastic and critical. This past year it got worse and this wonderful man went to bat for me to our relatively new boss and the sarcasm and critical attitude disappeared.

Now he has gone to work with the management of our former company who have started a new company and I am alone with no protection here. What will happen, I have no idea. I know for sure that the new company will not have a place for me because it's a start up company with very little money for an experienced senior buyer. I must remain here and hope for the best. I love this company, except for my co-buyer, and I really plan on finishing out my purchasing career here. Whether or not I remain the next two years is to be seen.

In the meantime, I mourn the departure of my wonderful mentor and hope everything works out for the best for both of us.