Drone Practice

Bob captured this short video on his new Kindle Fire HD 8 tablet computer.  It shows me trying to fly the small drone that he got for Christmas.

Learning to fly this little thing reliably and safely is going to take a lot of practice.  Once we master this little one we might get a much larger one that can fly a camera for us!

Cary, NC

Yesterday morning we picked up all of the paper and cardboard stuff up off of the carpet, and then I filled the clean water tank on the Hoover carpet shampooer with hot water and detergent.  I cleaned the living room carpet, the hallway, and the master bedroom.

Of course the dog was skeeved out about the noisy vacuum.

Later I put the Hoover away and brought in the Bissell Spot Bot.  I used this to clean stains off of the chaise lounge.  It did a good job.  Not 100%, but a good job.

In the afternoon I checked my email to discover a message from Cary Pines Apartments telling me that a package was delivered to the office.  It was from Amazon.  It was the long-lost Kindle Fire HD 8.  I called Amazon and had a return shipment label created for this box.  Sent it back without even opening it.

We drove to Durham and browsed books at The Regulator bookstore on Ninth Street.  Then we took our lunch at The Pie Hole.  We both had Turkey Apple Stuffing pies with a shared slice of two-crust blueberry pie and drinks. 

On the way home we stopped at Whole Foods Market to get vitamins for Bob, some sparkling mineral water, xylitol sweetener, and some fresh mushrooms.

Temps went way down last night.  It was 23°F when I got up this morning to walk Buddy.  We left a tap dripping last night and one door open on the cabinets beneath the sinks to keep everything from freezing.

We continued cleaning today.  I dusted the bedroom furniture with Feed and Wax.  It took a lot of dust up and made the wood nice and shiny.

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8

We stayed up until 9:30pm watching for the Kindle Fire HD 8 to be delivered.  Amazon.com website acknowledged that it was late and said it would deliver sometime on the 27th or 28th.  We went to bed disgusted about this.

In the morning the Amazon.com website said that our Kindle was delivered and left at the Front Door.  I took down the tracking number and went to the carrier site.  It said it was left at our front door at 10:18pm.  We opened the door and of course, there was nothing there.  I was very unhappy now.

I called Amazon.com Customer Service and explained what happened.  The lady offered to send another Kindle out or process a refund for me.  I told her that I was very frustrated that they were unable to deliver this item to me and that I would prefer a refund this time.  I told her I would shop for and purchase a Kindle from a local retailer.

We went out in the afternoon and drove to Best Buy.  At Best Buy we found that they had plenty of the Kindle Fire 7 at a lower price because these are about to be obsolete.  They also had the Kindle Fire HD 8 for children and they had the Kindle Fire HD 10.  The 10 is a little too big for what Bob was looking for.

A sales lady checked the inventory and told us that they did not have any more of them.  We asked her to check the other stores in the area because we could pay for the device right there in the Cary store and drive over to pick up the tablet computer at whichever store had one in stock.

She returned a few minutes later to report that the closest Best Buy with a Kindle Fire HD 8 in stock was in Wilson, NC.  We declined to purchase that item and said that we would keep looking.

Office Depot did not have any, but they had plenty of Samsung tablets.

Target had a display unit, the children's unit, and the 10, but no 8's.

On the way home we stopped at Staples.  It took forever to get some customer service.  I asked about the unit and the lady went to check on it.  I GOT THE LAST ONE!  I purchased the extended warranty, the cover, and scratch-resistant coating for the screen.  I also got an Epson black ink cartridge for our printer.

Bob was pleased.

After that we went to Food Lion and got a small grocery order.  I am planning on starting a diet and exercise program after the first of the year, so we bought foods accordingly.

I also hooked up the new headphones that Bob got for me for Christmas.  These are VERY GOOD headphones!  Noise-canceling technology.  Good stereo channel separation.  Bluetooth connection with a range of 30 feet.  I like them!

Christmas 2017

Bob finished knitting the Spiderman socks for Gavin, but he still had to embroider the black spider webs on the outside of them.  It was becoming clear that he wasn't going to have the socks finished in time for Christmas.  He had the ponytail cap for Gabby finished for over a week.

Now, we couldn't give a gift to one kid and not the other (even though the boy has been very naughty this year).  So I had to run out to Wal*Mart and make an emergency shopping trip.  I picked out a couple of nice dresses for the girl, and a couple of shirts and some brown jeans for the boy.

I went next door to the Learning Express store and browsed age-appropriate things for the kids in there and found these erasable writing/tracing trays that they could use to practice writing, tracing pictures from magazines, whatever, and because they are small, they can take them in the car too.  I had to get two because you cannot get one and expect them to share.  The store offered free gift wrap, but I declined because I needed to take them home and put their names on them with the Dymo labeler before wrapping them.

Now I came home and we had some stuff to wrap up.  I told Bob to keep working on the socks because the twins have their birthday coming up - February 20th.

Bob with his Instant Pot

Once we had it all wrapped up and taped up and ready to go, I asked Bob when he wanted to open his Christmas gifts.  We decided that since we had to get up early (4:30 am) to go to Wilmington, we should go ahead and open them.

Bob had a pile of 14 boxes to open!  Ha!

I asked him to start with the largest box and another one wrapped in red paper because I knew what was in them - some of the other boxes held accessories for these items.  Bob started with the largest box, it contained an Instant Pot. Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker, slow cooker, sauteer, steamer, warmer, I dunno - it does about 11 things and it was on his wish list.  If this thing is so versatile, we might leave it out on the counter all the time.

Bob with Anova sous vide cooker

The next box also contained something on his wish list.  This item is also used for cooking.  Where the Instant Pot cooks meals very very fast, this next item cooks items very very slowly - like over the course of DAYS with a controlled low-temperature water bath.  This was the Anova sous vide cooker.

He also received a yarn ball winder, some books, an Old Spice shave kit, a fruit flavor infusion water pitcher, a clear lid for the Instant Pot, and a quilted red cover for the Instant Pot.

Another gift that I think he was excited to unwrap was a small

Bob with his new drone

remote-controlled drone.  I told him that the small drone was for him to practice with.  When he becomes more skilled we will get a larger one with a camera on it too.

I received some noise-cancelling headphones, a welding jacket and cap, a t-shirt, and a nice book about graphs and presentations in MS Excel.

We went to bed early because we knew we had to get up early and drive to Wilmington.  The plan was to meet at Marissia and Kevin's house.  Mari was planning to bake croissant rolls with ham, egg, and cheese in them.

We got up at 4:30 am.  While I walked the dog, Bob washed his face and got dressed.  Then we loaded the car and got on the highway.

Traffic was very light early in the morning and on Christmas Day.  Once we were out of town I set the cruise control and 75 MPH and we rode I-40 down to Wilmington.  As we got close to Wilmington we turned onto I-140 and headed west.  I missed my exit at US 421 and had to drive all the way to Navassa to turn around.  We arrive around 7:00 am.

The kids had already opened a bunch of presents - there was a huge pile of paper on the floor!  We came in and I filled stockings with Burt's Bees products that I had received in the giveaways.  We also had gift bags already made up for Becky and Bill.

We watched the kids open their gifts.  They really were not thrilled to get clothes.  The writing trays held a little interest for them until they opened up the reconditioned juvenile Apple i-Pads their parents bought them.

Becky and Bill got an air fryer for us for Christmas.  Marissia and Kevin got one too!

Dawndee sent a holiday cookie package.  The package contained 9 decorated cookies and cost about $50!  Bob said, 'Send me the money - I will bake the cookies!'

Marissia baked the crescent rolls and told us how she had bought two bags of the rolls and she left them on the kitchen counter while they went out.  When she got home she found one of the bags completely empty, but the bag and cardboard tray were hardly disturbed!  Their dog, Rosco, ate a dozen of the rolls!

So I had a crescent roll and a glass of orange juice.  I was still hungry.

Becky and Bill left around 10 am.  Mom said that she was planning to bake a ham and make a big Christmas meal.  I told her that we were not planning to come over because we had left the dog at home.  I told her to freeze the ham and save it for Easter.

We visited with Marissia and Kevin for about another half an hour and then we got started on our return trip to Raleigh.  We stopped at the Shell station on Carolina Beach Road and filled up for $2.19 a gallon, and then drove across town, went up 133 to I-140 to I-40, and back to Raleigh.  There was a little more traffic on the return trip, but still not too heavy, and it did not back up when we got to the Garner/U-70 area.

At home we took all of the gifts out of their boxes and I carried all of the packaging to the dumpster.  The dumpsters were overflowing with gift boxes wrapping.

I started to think about those i-Pads the kids got for Christmas, and then I remembered that I had ordered a Kindle Fire HD 32GB for Bob and I never received it.  I checked the invoice, and sure enough, I was charged for it.  We called Amazon and customer service arranged to have a replacement sent out immediately for next-day delivery.  So, UPS should be dropping off Bob's new tablet computer today.

We tried out the air fryer by putting a couple of egg rolls from the freezer into it and setting the timer.  In 20 minutes they turned about the same as they would have if we had baked them in the oven, which, when you think about it, is what the air fryer is - a small convection oven with foods in a metal basket.

We also did the initial pressure test on the Instant Pot and Bob took some chicken breast out to thaw.  He is planning to make Yum Yum Chicken today.

I am off of work all this week.  We will do the laundry on the weekend.  I would like to vacuum and wash the car sometime, and I am planning to shampoo the carpets in the apartment this week.

Friday

After walking the dog this morning we headed over to Bob Evan's for our Friday breakfast.  Our server, Jo, had a special gift for us - a small loaf of banana nut bread!

With breakfast out of the way we headed over to Petsmart to get dog food.  I got 100 pounds of lamb meal and brown rice dry food and a tray of 12 cans of fish and sweet potato food for Buddy.

Then we took the car for a ride down through Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and down to Harnett County.  We turned west and then north to Apex.  We stopped at Shell on Lake Pine Road and filled the gas tank and then we came back home.

I spent the morning mucking around with VBA scripts trying to automate the process for setting up all of the meetings for a New Hire Orientation at work.  Bob did his exercises.

For dinner we had ham steaks and peas.

Vacation

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were quiet at work.  George, Sean, and Odi were on vacation Monday and Rebecca was out.  On Tuesday it grew more quiet.  Yesterday Ken took off on vacation and it was just Gigi and me at the Pillar Table.  Michelle, Jill, and Anthony were on the second floor from time to time, but it was mostly quiet.

I had a bunch of completed training records to scan and record in myLearning sitting over in the basket and I resolved to get those done before the end of the calendar year.  It took me 5 hours of non-stop working to scan the sheets, save the file attachments to my hard drive in the proper format, upload them to Training Scans on Sharepoint, and then record the learning events in myLearning.

I can't wait until George cracks the book open on myLearning.  He will see that it is a process.  I think Michelle understands how long it takes to get things done in myLearning.

Our company sponsored a low-income family for Christmas this year.  This family has a single mother and four children.  The two youngest children got bicycles and helmets.  All of the children got clothing.  The mother got a comforter and a vacuum cleaner.  The whole family got a laptop computer and a printer.  Michelle, Jill, Christy, Rebecca, and four or five people from the Hill Building took the wrapped gifts over to the house yesterday.  I can only imagine that the poor woman was embarassed to death.  You know she has a dirty house and then eight or nine people from Clorox have to come over with gifts and they want to take pictures with her.  I don't think they ever look at this from the recipient point of view.

16 hours of vacation were left on the books and was determined to burn them up.  So I took half a day off last Thursday, and I am taking all of this Thursday off.  I will return to work on January 2, 2018.

2018 is shaping up to be a very "interesting" year at work.  Especially if the new management goes forward with the plans and changes they have announced. 

Weekend

Temps dropped into the 20's on Friday night.  We watched Victoria and Abdul on our Roku TV.  This movie is about the unlikely, but factual friendship that developed between Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim, a clerk from India.

On Saturday morning we went to BJ's Warehouse, just like had planned.  We had planned to spend $200, and our total actually came to $217.  We brought this stuff home and put it away.  We still had a shorter list for the grocery store, but decided that we would buy that stuff on Sunday.

On the way home from BJ's we stopped at Great Clips.  Bob's favorite hair cutter, Julian, was there, so I dropped Bob off at the barber, and I came home to carry the grocery into the house and put it away.  When I got back to Great Clips, Bob was still waiting for his haircut.

Then we came home and just hung around in the house.

Today we went to Wal*Mart to get the rest of our grocery, some envelopes, some tissue paper, tape, and some small crochet hooks.  It is sunny day and just a little warmer than before.  We put the grocery into the car and then walked over to Pizza Hut where we had a pizza for lunch.

Here comes another work week, but it is going to be a mercifully short one.

Cary, NC

This week went by fairly quickly.  Our plant had a peer safety audit and I think it went well.  On Tuesday, Stanley Coleman, the Operations Manager, invited Griselle and me to the lunch because one of the guys, Rob Gore, is the TQ and DO Pillar at Atlanta Main (formerly Forest Park).  He just wanted us to meet him and extract information from him.

On Thursday I left early - I took half a day of vacation because I had 16 hours left on the books.  If you don't use it by the end of the calendar year, you will lose it.  So, there was six hours, and I will take next Thursday off too.

Last night we watched a copy of Dunkirk.  Bob downloaded this movie from the Internet.  Who knows how much longer we will be able to do this now that the FCC voted down Net Neutrality?

Today I made French omelets and sausage for breakfast.  We drove over to WakeMed because Bob had an appointment with Dr. O'Brien about the spasticity in his feet and legs.   We the doctor decided to do is reduce Bob's dantrium dose over the next few weeks, then have him come in and have botox injected into his leg muscles.  He has also written a prescription for aquatic therapy for Bob.  This means he will be doing some exercises in the therapy pool at the hospital.

Tomorrow we plant to go to BJ's Warehouse to get some grocery for the rest of the month.  Sunday I will do the laundry and vacuum the floors.

On Monday and Tuesday we are having New Hire Orientation at work.  We have one new hire person.  Because George is on vacation, I have to present all of the TQ information myself.  I also have to present the TQ information at the PLT Meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

So I work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then I am off until January 2!

Weekend

After that tough week at work, I decided that I did not want to go out and do very much this weekend.  I wanted to stay in and relax.

Temps began to fall on Thursday and continued to fall Friday.  Then it began to rain and sleet.  We still went out for breakfast on Friday morning at Bob Evan's.  Then we went to Walmart to pick up Bob's prescription.  We popped into Barnes & Noble books to get a 2018 calendar.  After that we went to the knitting store here in Cary, but they did not have the needles that Bob needed, so we drove over to Raleigh to Great Yarns on Wade Avenue.

After the knit shop we went to Piccola Italia in Cameron Village for a nice Italian lunch.  Finally we headed home in the cold rain.  Temps were still falling and we decided that it would not be safe to go out on Saturday.

On Saturday we stayed home all day.  It was wet and cold.  I only went outside to walk the dog and check the mail.  I got the last of my Christmas gifts wrapped up.

Today was sunny, but still cold.  I think the high temp was only in the high 30's today. 

We went to Food Lion today to get food for this week's breakfasts and my lunches.  For dinner we had baked blackened salmon with artichokes and asparagus.

I wonder what this week has in store for us.

Cary, NC

These past two weeks have been crazy.  We have been called from meeting to meeting at work and we aren't getting any work done.  These new managers are trying to change everything and they are piling more and more work on the pillars.  I am not happy anymore.

The Assistant Plant Manager wants to send George Pollard, the TQ Pillar Leader and me down to West Atlanta in January or February to visit the new sanitizing wipes plant there and visit with the TQ Department there in particular.  That could be good and helpful to us.

Today we had a Journey Map Review Meeting from 9:00 am to 1:30 pm.  The only good thing about that long and boring meeting was that the company bought us lunch from Jason's Deli.

I am very very tired.  The stress at work is keeping me from sleeping well.  It's tough with all the changes, and then there is the problem of my manager not knowing or understanding what I do all day.  Since he doesn't know what I do, he doesn't trust me or George to make decisions.  Ugghh.

The last of my purchased Christmas presents have been delivered from Amazon.  I just need to get them wrapped up this weekend.  Bob is knitting socks for our nephew Gavin and a ponytail cap for our neice, Gabriella.  I think he will have them finished in time.

I will try to relax this weekend.  I'd better - we have a Factory Peer Safety Audit on Monday that promises to be intense.  I have to support Safety on the first day as it is a records review and I may be called upon to locate missing records.